Tory hawk wants Cable’s Ministry scrapped

David Ruffley, a self-proclaimed “public spending hawk”, says deeper cuts in public expenditure would allow Ministers to make targeted tax cuts to fuel growth.

The Treasury select committee member suggested axing the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) would be a “metaphor” for stamping out waste in Whitehall.

At the launch of a joint pre-Budget Plan for Growth by the Free Enterprise Group and Institute of Economic Affairs yesterday, Mr Ruffley said: “We should, as a metaphor for getting rid of bits of Government activity that don’t need to be done, abolish the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

“We should redistribute the elements of HE and science back to the Department for Education, where Michael Gove wishes it to be. We can close down BIS securing around a minimum of £1bn a year.”

He added: “Cut BIS, cut more spending and use them for targeted tax breaks.”

Mr Ruffley urged the Government to listen to former Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s calls for tax cuts.

On Sunday Dr Fox used his first television appearance since leaving Government over his working relationship with lobbyist Adam Werritty to call for help for employers, insisting it was “top priority”.

Treasury select committee chairman Andrew Tyrie was more cautious, urging Chancellor George Osborne to “tread carefully” over cutting tax next month, warning him not to use “little lollipops” for a day of good headlines.

He said: “It’s a very high risk strategy. You never know in advance what the behavioural effect will be of a tax cut.”

But it was time for Ministers to end the approach giving the impression Government did not want to make cuts and should argue the reductions are the “right thing to do for the country”.

The Free Enterprise Group is mainly formed of new-intake MPs on the Right of the party.