Cutting tax to boost the economy ‘needs to happen’ says Boris

His clear message to Tories in Nadine’s debut TV chat show

BORIS Johnson last night urged Rishi Sunak to cut taxes to get Britain’s economy growing in his first major intervention since leaving office.

The former prime minister added his voice to a clamour of calls for the Government to reduce the tax burden, saying it ‘needs to happen’.

In a wide-ranging interview with former Cabinet colleague Nadine Dorries, aired on TalkTV last night, Mr Johnson also accused Vladimir Putin of acts of terrorism.

And he took aim at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – branding him a ‘human bollard’ – while insisting the Tories can ‘absolutely’ win the next general election, despite polls putting them well behind.

Mr Johnson predicted the economy will improve before voters cast their ballots next year, and said people will ‘reward’ the Tories for cutting their taxes.

He insisted the public finances were ‘pretty robust’ when he was ousted from No 10 last year and ‘we had scope to do all sorts of things and we were going to do them’.

‘I have no doubt that when the time comes, the Government will make sure that they start to reduce the tax burden and get the economy growing again and that is what needs to happen,’ he said.

But Mr Johnson, who spoke candidly in the interview about his post-Downing Street life – including reading to his children more, doing DIY and a new love of painting pictures of cows – said taxes would be higher under Labour.

He said voters would be left with a ‘clear choice’ between ‘Old Sir Crasheroonie Snoozefest’, as he refers to Sir Keir, or the Conservatives, ‘who are going to manage the economy, not put taxes up any further’.

‘Let me be very clear... the fact is that the Conservative Party can certainly win the next election. Yes, absolutely,’ he said.

This week the Bank of England indicated that efforts to emerge from the economic crisis were being held back by tax rises.

But despite pressure from business groups and Tory MPs worried about plans to lift the tax burden to the highest level since the Second World War, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is refusing to budge.

Since leaving office, Mr Johnson has kept a relatively low profile, though has been a vocal champion for Ukraine and visited Kyiv last month. As PM, he played a leading role in galvanising Western support for the war-torn country at a time when key players including Germany, France and Italy were wobbling.

Last night Mr Johnson said he wanted to highlight the suffering Ukrainians were still experiencing, and to emphasise ‘how vital it is that we accelerate the military support that we are giving’.

And he took aim at the Russian leader, branding him ‘merciless’ and his indiscriminate bombing an ‘act of terrorism’. ‘I went to Ukraine a few days ago and I saw the continuing barbarism of what Putin is doing. I went out, like so many others have done – it was incredible to see it for myself.

‘I saw blocks of flats that had been obliterated by 500kg bombs, of no conceivable military value to Putin. He does it purely as an act of terrorism. This is still going on, you know, across the front line.

‘He’s continuing to wipe out towns. He’s absolutely merciless. He has no respect for the laws of war, or human life. So we have to give them the kit

they need to fight him and to send Putin back whence he came.’

Mr Johnson said there needed to be a ‘ big international effort’ to send tanks to Ukraine, adding: ‘it wouldn’t be a bad thing if we gave some more tanks ourselves.’ Yesterday Berlin authorised Leopard 1 tanks to be sent to Ukraine, making good on an announcement to send the weapons that came after months of deliberations. Britain last month said it would send a squadron of 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to help counter russia’s expected offensive in the spring.

Mr Johnson dismissed claims that Putin could engage in nuclear warfare in retaliation as ‘vanishingly unlikely’.

‘it would be a disaster for him, so he’s not going to do that.

‘But fundamentally, here’s what i would say, it’s not our job to worry about what happens to Putin.

‘We have to stop focusing on Putin and focus on the Ukrainians. They are heroic people.

‘They’ve been fighting, like, absolutely, all the heart and courage of a lion, they’ve been fighting like lions and they are going to win. We should focus on supporting them and that is how to do this.’

On his relationship with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said: i think it’s very simple... i was lucky to meet Volodymyr Zelensky very early on in his time, he came to London, we got on very well.

‘But the fundamental thing is that the UK just saw it very clearly and very early, and we saw that it was absolutely black and white. it was good and evil. it was right and wrong.’