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Liam Fox Demands Tax Cuts Again After Seven Previous Tax Cut Calls

Liam Fox Makes Eighth Demand For Tax Cuts
Asa Bennett
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Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox looks through the sights of a machine gun aboard a Chinook helicopter at RAF Odiham.
Chris Ison/PA Archive

Liam Fox tried to rock the boat today urging George Osborne to offer "totemic" tax cuts in a fiercer form of austerity that would not even spare the NHS from the axe.

Fox's call to start cutting the NHS, which he also made last March, may fall on deaf ears as David Cameron has insisted NHS spending will remain protected.

However, the former defence secretary's intervention may seem familiar as he has already called for tax cuts. Quite a few times. So much so you'd think it was his solution to every economic woe.

Here are the last seven times he has demanded tax cuts since leaving Cabinet.

Liam Fox Loves Tax Cuts
February 2012(01 of07)
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Fox said: "Although the coalition agreement may require the chancellor to raise personal tax allowances (which should be paid for with spending restraint not new taxes) he should use the proceeds of spending reductions to cut employers' national insurance contributions across the board. If that is deemed impossible, he should consider targeting such tax cuts on the employment of 16 to 24-year-olds, making them more attractive to employers."
September 2012(02 of07)
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Fox wanted capital gains tax to be suspended for three years, adding: "If we don't take some risks we'll not get growth and if we don't get growth, we'll not get re-election."
February 2013 (03 of07)
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Fox told Sky News: "Cutting taxes on business I think is key to get more people into work, I personally would like to see capital gains tax taken down to get more activity into the economy."
March 2013(04 of07)
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Fox said: "I believe that in leaving money in people's pockets, economic activity will follow. People will buy houses, invest for their future or just go shopping.
April 2013 (05 of07)
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"We must end the iniquitous multi-taxing of the same money," he said. "It is not right to tax people's income and then their savings on that income; to tax the movement of assets through capital gains tax and stamp duty, and then tax them again through inheritance tax if they have the audacity to die."
September 2013 (06 of07)
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Writing on ConservativeHome, he said: "We also believe that these trailblazers should not be held back by punitive taxation, and that people who work hard, who have ambition, who are driven to succeed should be free to spend their money however they please. It is not for politicians to tell them that they are wrong to do this."
December 2013(07 of07)
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Liam Fox calls for tax cuts in George Osborne's Autumn Statement to "help us compete globally".
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