UK 'won't cut taxes post-Brexit', Chancellor states

01 Aug 2017

Chancellor Philip Hammond has suggested that the UK won’t cut taxes and fiscal regulations after Brexit.

The Chancellor stated that the UK will remain within the ‘EU average’ in terms of tax rates, and will not seek to reduce taxes in a bid to become more competitive.

He commented: ‘I often hear it said that the UK is considering participating in unfair competition in regulation and tax.

‘That is neither our plan nor our vision for the future.

‘I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European.’

In January, Mr Hammond stated that the government may have to ‘change its economic model’ if the UK was unable to remain in the EU single market.

He commented: ‘We will change our model, and we will come back, and we will be competitively engaged.

‘I personally hope we will be able to remain in the mainstream of European economic and social thinking. But if we are forced to be something different, then we will have to become something different.’

The Chancellor’s recent statements come amid ongoing Brexit negotiations, with government officials debating the free movement of EU citizens in the UK.