Hunt’s pitch for the premiership stressed that, as an entrepreneur who made his fortune before politics, he was uniquely placed to get the British economy moving.
Not only did he pledge to reverse the planned rise in corporation tax, but cut it to 15pc, the lowest of any major economy. “We need to start up Britain now,” he declared. “To send a signal the UK is the most pro-business economy in the world”.
All that is still true now, only more so. The public finances, while still weak from lockdown, are far stronger than last September, when the mini-Budget sparked turmoil on the gilts market.
Ongoing growth and falling wholesale energy prices mean the Government has spent far less than expected on energy subsidies and debt interest, with tax-revenues outperforming.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research points to £166bn in fiscal headroom, predicting a budget surplus next year. And keeping corporation tax at 19pc is more likely to boost rather than cost the Treasury revenue, given the positive impact on investment and growth.
Lawson agrees that corporation tax “should stay where it is – we shall see”. He urges today’s Tories to learn from his generation of conviction politicians.
“I don’t want to sound boastful in any way, but I think there’s little doubt our policies were, not faultless, but successful”.
He says the combination of excessive money-printing and inflation complacency means the leadership of the Bank of England “has been going wrong slowly, for a long time”.
Lawson describes Mervyn King, who left the Bank in 2013, as “a particularly good governor”, but adds: “I don’t think since his time the Bank’s performance has been particularly great.”
It is at the top of the Tory party, though, where the words of this much-admired political legend will resonate most.
“Thatcher was the best leader that the country has had and the Conservative Party has had since Churchill,” he told me last weekend.
“And I hope to be remembered as a leading member of a government which changed everything in this country, not just economically, but embracing that and going further”.
