The Conservatives have sought to put tax cuts at the centre of their offer to voters, after the overall tax burden rose to a post-war high in recent years, largely as a result of a previous decision to freeze tax thresholds until 2028.

Over the last year it has announced two cuts to NI, a payroll tax paid by employees and employers, in a bid to reposition themselves as a tax-cutting party.

Launching the Tory manifesto at Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire, Mr Sunak said he was not “blind to the fact that people are frustrated with our party and frustrated with me”, admitting “we have not got everything right”.

But he vowed that if re-elected, his party would “keep cutting taxes in the coming years”, including by reducing employee NI by 1p next April, and 2p by April 2027.

The manifesto presented the cuts as a “further downpayment” on the Tories’ long-term ambition to abolish NI altogether at an unspecified point in the future.

“As Conservatives, we believe that hard work shouldn’t be taxed twice. That’s unfair,” the prime added.

He added that Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer “takes a very different view”.

“He says he’s a socialist and we all know what socialists do, don’t we? They take more of your money because they think it belongs to them,” Mr Sunak added.

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