Ministers’ austerity rift deepens as MORE demand extra cash even as Chancellor warns of tax rises
With the PM’s authority at an all time low Michael Gove clashed with Theresa May's right-hand-man Damian Green
A RAGING Tory row over austerity deepened yesterday as a fresh Cabinet spat broke out over tax rises.
Theresa May’s top table ministers also openly clashed over whether to look again at students having to pay their own tuition fees.
The general election disaster has sparked a major debate among ministers on the need for the Chancellor to open the spending taps to fight Jeremy Corbyn’s onslaught against deficit reduction cuts.
Philip Hammond signalled tax rises would have to be enforced to pay for moves such as a pay hike for public sector workers.
But grilled on if taxes should go up yesterday, Environment Secretary Michael Gove openly contradicted him to say: “I don’t see any reason why they need to”.
With the PM’s authority over her Cabinet at an all time low, Gove also clashed with First Secretary of State and effective Deputy PM Damian Green.
Green said cutting university bills that now stand at £9,250 a year “may well be a national debate that we need to have”.
The hard left Labour’s £11billion pledge to scrap tuition fees was one of his main election offers.
But newly promoted Gove tried to slam the door on the idea, telling BBC1’s Andrew Marr show: “If people who get university degrees go on to earn well, which is good, they should pay something back.
“It’s wrong if people who don’t go to university find that they have to pay more in taxation to support those who do.”
It has also emerged that the Education Secretary has become the latest senior minister to demand more cash, asking the PM for £1.2bn to protect school funding.
Justine Greening wants the Tories to abandon plans to cut per pupil funding over the coming years.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is also leading demands for more cash for nurses to stop them abandoning the NHS.
As The Sun revealed last week, May’s chief of staff privately told a delegation of angry senior Tory MPs last week that the 1% cap on state salaries will be quietly dropped in the Autumn.
No10 sources have blamed the Chancellor himself for firing the starting gun on the austerity revolt when he declared the country is “weary of the long slog” two weeks ago.
Hammond also said: “We have never said we will never raise some taxes”.