by our parliamentary reporter @TrinderMatt

FAMILIES facing hardship “must be thinking what planet Rishi Sunak is on,” Labour’s left charged today after the Chancellor refused to rule out further tax hikes despite the cost of living crisis.

In his keynote speech to the Tory Party conference in Manchester, Mr Sunak defended his move to increase National Insurance contributions to fund the NHS and social care by claiming it would be “immoral” to borrow the funds required.

Ignoring progressive calls for a wealth tax as an alternative to hitting poorer, working-class people harder, the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire said: “Unfunded pledges, reckless borrowing and soaring debt” would be “un-Conservative.”

There is growing Tory unease at the increasing tax burden, with Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg warning on Sunday that taxation has hit the limit as it soars to levels not seen in peacetime. 

At a time of rising energy bills, cuts to universal credit (UC) and public-sector pay freezes, the Chancellor refused to rule out a hike in council tax to help local authorities fund social care, by saying he could “never comment about future tax policy.”

In a pitch to Tory grassroots members, Mr Sunak, who is rumoured to want the top job in Downing Street, suggested he wanted to cut taxes, but only when public finances are on a “sustainable footing.”

Chronic supply chain issues, which had seen supermarket shelves left bare and up to a third of petrol station forecourts run dry, were simply part of post-Brexit “challenges,” he claimed.

Evoking his time spent studying at Stanford University in the US “sunshine state” of California, Mr Sunak said a new “culture of enterprise” meant the future was bright for the country.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: “Sunak claims his Hotel California fantasies will make our country ‘the most exciting place on the planet.’

“For the families facing real hardship struggling to feed their children after the cut in universal credit, they must be thinking what planet he’s on.”

In response to a tweet from ITV’s political editor Robert Peston which said the Chancellor had “massively matured” as a speaker, People’s Assembly national secretary Laura Pidcock tweeted: “Blah blah blah. 

“There are multiple crises facing working-class people. They are cutting over £1,000 a year from the poorest. Children will go hungry.”

Labour MP Jon Trickett slammed Mr Sunak’s claim that delegates should be grateful for “sound Conservative management” of the economy since 2010 by highlighting a list of essential services crippled by more than a decade of austerity. 

“A thousand fewer Sure Starts, 125 fewer A&Es, 600 police stations cut, 773 libraries cut, 763 youth centres cut, 471 schools cut, 10,000 firefighters cut, 350 HMRC offices cut, 100 job centres, 300 courts cut, 22,000 NHS beds cut,” he tweeted. 

Aside from a commitment to double the number of Turing research fellows investigating artificial intelligence and £500m to renew job support programmes after the furlough scheme ended, there was very little in terms of actual fresh policy announced. 

Reacting to the speech, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Bridget Phillipson said Mr Sunak was “in denial about the scale of the economic crisis he has overseen” and had no plan or will to tackle it.

She said: “Instead of putting forward a plan to boost our economy and invest in the skills we need and the challenges we need to face, he’s pretending there’s no work to be done.

“Labour will tax fairly, spend wisely and grow our economy.”

The SNP’s shadow chancellor Alison Thewliss MP said the address was “loaded with soundbites but empty on substance to tackle the Tory-made cost-of-living crisis.”