Jeremy Hunt urged to dish out big tax cuts in Budget but insiders dub his giveaway the ‘Tesco Value Budget’

TORY MPs want Jeremy Hunt to dish out big tax cuts this week — but insiders are dubbing his giveaway the “Tesco Value Budget”.

The Chancellor and Rishi Sunak were last night locked in intense discussions to thrash out the final details of what could be a make or break fiscal blueprint.

They are planning to slap taxes on a bunch of smaller luxuries — including business flights, cigarettes and vapes — to raise desperately needed cash.

They will plough the money into cutting income tax or National Insurance Contributions — or both by 1p each – if there is enough.

A government source said: “The idea is to raise lots of little pots of money to pay for the tax cuts.

“Every penny counts. Every little helps — as the Tesco saying goes.

The Chancellor is also launching a crackdown on government red tape and waste to raise £1.8billion over the next five years.

He will also order cops back to the frontline by using AI to catch criminals, and will spend cash on increasing the number of MRI scanners in a bid to help clear the NHS backlog to reduce costs.

Hot spot policing programmes will be rolled out to prevent violent offenders — again cutting hospital admissions.

Mr Hunt said of his thinking: “We shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking more spending buys us better public services. There is too much waste in the system and we want public servants to get back to doing what matters most: teaching our children, keeping us safe and treating us when we’re sick.

“That’s why our plan is about reaping the rewards of productivity, from faster access to MRIs for patients to hundreds of thousands of police hours freed up to attend burglaries or incidents of domestic abuse.”

Treasury insiders have been scrambling to downplay the scale of the tax cuts available in this Wednesday’s Budget.

They say they have only £13billion of cash — known as fiscal headroom — but need to keep some cash in reserves.

But Tory MPs are demanding that big tax cuts come from Mr Hunt.

One senior Tory rebel MP said: “They can afford to knock 2p off income tax.

“To stand a chance of having a bump in the polls we need decent tax cuts.”

Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “If he delivers a budget that could have been delivered by Labour’s Rachel Reeves voters will say what’s the point?”

Fellow Tory big gun Iain Duncan Smith also called for tax cuts, saying: “Get the economy right first and the rest will follow.”