Rishi Sunak dismissed reports he had told a group of Conservative MPs that raising taxes in the 2021 budget would allow him to cut them ahead of the 2024 election. Asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr whether he had made the comments, the UK chancellor said: ‘No, I don’t recognise that.’ Rumours have been circulating that he could increase corporation tax to claw back money spent during the pandemic, despite heavy lobbying from Tory backbenchers to spare businesses more pain