Jeremy Hunt has been confronted over plans to slash inheritance tax for some of the richest families while the lower paid struggle with day-to-day bills.
The Tory Chancellor was grilled on the issue as he appeared on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show ahead of Wednesday's Autumn Statement.
He was shown a question from a member of the public asking: "Why change inheritance tax when you have the lower paid struggling to pay their bills?" In response Mr Hunt declined to say whether the Tories are considering a cut to the 40% levy ahead of the Autumn Statement
"I'm sorry to say I'm not going to be drawn on any individual taxes," he said. "I think you can read the papers this morning and you can see that I'm going to abolish every single tax. In fact if you believe the papers there won't be any taxes left after Wednesday. I'm very sorry I can confirm that won't be the case."
He added: "Last year with the pressures we faced I put in place support for families going through difficult times - for example paying for around half people's electricity bills."
Inheritance tax is only paid by the richest 4% with couples are able to hand up to £1million to their children without paying the duty. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has previously said the cost of abolishing inheritance tax completely - a possible Tory election manifesto policy - would cost £7billion.
Around half (47%) of the tax cut would go to those with estates worth £2.1million or more after their death, the IFS concluded.
It also comes as the Chancellor also considers cutting working-age welfare payments for millions of people at the same time. Typically ministers use the September figure for inflation when uprating working-age benefits, which would mean a 6.7% hike. But Mr Hunt has not ruled out using October's far lower figure of 4.6%, which economists say would cut spending by billions.
Pressed about the threat of "retoxifying" the Conservative brand if he cuts inheritance tax for some of the richest families while squeezing benefits, Mr Hunt replied: "You can see from my actions and those of Rishi Sunak that we will take difficult decisions that can help people through tough times and we are absolutely committed to doing that".
Andy Street - the Tory Mayor of the West Midlands - also told the BBC it would not be his "personal choice" to slash inheritance tax at this moment in time. The Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: "Cutting inheritance tax in the middle of a massive cost-of-living crisis and when public services are on their knees is not the priority."