Recession-bound UK fights inflation with tax cuts

The UK's new government on Friday unveiled a multi-billion-pound package to support households and businesses hit by the highest inflation in decades, cutting taxes as the nation heads for recession. Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng, fresh from being appointed by new Prime Minister Liz Truss, said caps on soaring energy bills would cost about £60 billion (€68 billion) in the first six months.  "The PM has acted with great speed to announce one of the most significant interventions the British state has ever made," Kwarteng told parliament in a so-called mini budget. "People need to know that help is coming." In a controversial move as millions of Britons face a cost-of-living crisis, Kwarteng axed an EU-inherited cap on bankers' bonuses following Brexit to bolster the financial services sector. He brought forward a plan to cut the lowest rate of income tax and reduced the highest to 40 per cent from 45. The chancellor of the exchequer also reversed a planned increase in tax on company profits signed off by Truss's predecessor Boris Johnson. Kwarteng already on Thursday said he would scrap a tax on salaries, reversing a 1.25-percentage-point rise in National Insurance implemented...