UK Chancellor Defends Decision to Raise Taxes for UK’s ‘Squeezed Middle’

The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has defended his decision to raise £25 billion ($30 billion) by raising taxes amid claims by some economists that it would hurt middle-income earners, the so-called “squeezed middle.”
Hunt was criticised by former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said he had taken the “easy option” and should have reduced public spending more, rather than raise taxes.
But Hunt said on Friday there was “nothing Conservative about ducking difficult decisions.”
Rees-Mogg said the country needed lower taxes—something Hunt’s predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, tried to do in his mini-statement last month—to drive up growth during a recession….