Jeremy Hunt on Monday firmly kept ajar the door to pre-election tax cuts but told an increasingly fractious Tory party that there would be “no short cuts” and landmark reforms would be needed.In his keynote speech to the Conservative annual rally in Manchester, the Chancellor was set to “chart a path to a lower tax economy”. But he earlier rebuffed growing calls from senior Tories for tax cuts to be announced now. Ahead of unveiling a series of major public policy changes, he stressed: “If we are prepared to walk this difficult path it is possible to bring down taxes, and we won’t hesitate to do that. But we can’t say when it will be possible.”