Rishi Sunak faces fresh Tory revolt as 40 MPs hit out at PM over tax burden

Rishi Sunak is under pressure from his own MPs to slash taxes in a sign of future trouble for the Prime Minister.

A group of 40 Conservatives has written to the Chancellor to slate his plans, arguing that the tax burden is at the highest level since the Second World War and public spending is higher than the mid 1970s.

Senior Tories including ex-Cabinet Ministers David Davis and Esther McVey penned the letter which said that constituents must be reassured that “every penny of taxpayers’ money spent on their behalf provides value for money and is not wasted”.

The group of right-wingers claimed that £7billion was being spent on “woke” projects – such as diversity initiatives across Government and arms-length bodies.

Their complaint underlines a wider issue for Mr Sunak who is grappling to control his restive backbenchers, who have already forced him into several U-turns.

Mr Sunak has already made several big climbdowns, with commitments on fracking, wind farms and housing targets scrapped in the face of Tory opposition.

But he must grapple with the legacy of Liz Truss’s disastrous tax-slashing plans, which trashed the economy but still retain support among some Tories.

Ms Truss is said to be considering her next steps after her chaos-ridden stint in No10, which saw her become the shortest serving Prime Minister in history.

The ex-PM has told friends that “I lost a battle, I haven’t lost the war,” according to the Sunday Times.

She recently jetted out to Washington DC to appear at a conference with a string of right-wing Trump supporters

It comes as Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted that they “blew it” with their disastrous mini Budget.

The former Chancellor said their economic agenda was “very exciting” but admitted they got “carried away.

“My biggest regret is we weren’t tactically astute and we were too impatient,” he told the FT this week.

“There was a brief moment and the people in charge, myself included, blew it.

In a further headache for the PM, billionaire Tory donor Lord Cruddas, who campaigned for Boris Johnson to return as leader, backed a new grassroots push to challenge the system that elected Mr Sunak.