LONDON: British finance minister Philip Hammond said candidates to replace Theresa May as prime minister should not make unaffordable spending or tax promises, a few days after front-runner Boris Johnson said he would make big tax cuts.

"I would caution any of the leadership contenders in going beyond the headroom that we know we will have and starting to move into the realms of unfunded spending or tax-cutting commitment: it is simply not the case, as some people like to assert, that tax cuts pay for themselves," Hammond said.

Johnson said on Sunday he wanted to cut business taxes and relieve the income tax burden on some workers.

Hammond stressed on Wednesday that it was not the case that tax cuts always pay for themselves by raising more revenue.

"I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding about that among some of my colleagues," he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

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