Jeremy Hunt has reminded Tory grassroots that the party will always “cut taxes when we can”.
The Chancellor also warned that Labour will never do the same because they want to squander taxpayers money on “ludicrous” pledges.
His rallying cry to party members came as he set out the dividing line between the Conservatives and Labour.
Mr Hunt, who compared himself to tax-cutting former chancellor Nigel Lawson over the weekend, said “the choice at the next election will be about taxes”.
Writing on the influential Conservative Home website, the Chancellor said: “Election year is the time when the choice between the two parties crystalises into its sharpest form.
“If I were forced now to predict where that will end up, I would submit this: Conservatives proposing a path to lower taxes, and Labour pretending they wouldn’t raise them.”
The Chancellor and Rishi Sunak have repeatedly dangled the prospect of tax giveaways in the Budget on March 6.
Mr Hunt is expecting forecasts from fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility in the coming days, at which point he is likely to sit down with the PM to enable them to plan tax cuts.
He is expected to have at least £10 billion “headroom” for cuts.
The Chancellor warned that Labour’s plan to spend an extra £28 billion every year in the next parliament would wreck public finances..
“£28 billion is £4 billion more than the annual Home Office budget. Imagine the state adding a new UK wide police force each year in the next parliament (and then some).
“There is simply no way to do that without hiking taxes, or leaving debt interest to be the single biggest thing the state spends money on, and being forced to hike taxes. To pretend otherwise is dishonesty in the extreme.”
