Letwin pledges low-tax economy
Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin has promised to slim down government and make Britain’s tax system simpler and fairer – but stopped short of actually calling for tax cuts.
A Conservative government would slim down Britain’s “fat and bloated” bureaucracy and set Britain “on a path to a lower tax economy”, he said.
However, he told the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth that promising to cut taxes would not be “courageous” but “all too easy” – and no-one would believe him.
“There have been too many broken promises on tax from too many politicians. When we were in office we made promises on tax we could not keep. And everybody knows what happened when Tony Blair promised that he had no plans to increase taxes at all – and then raised taxes 66 times by stealth.
“So no more broken promises on tax.”
Mr Letwin accused Mr Blair of breaking his promise of “social justice for all”. He said he knew of pensioners having to spend one-third of their income on council tax, people paying death duties on ex-council houses, and first-time house buyers looking to purchase a £60,000 home being hit with £600 in stamp duty.
None of this was “social justice”, he said. Nor was it value for money – something he pledged to deliver.
“By thinning down fat government and getting money to the front line where it belongs, we will give taxpayers something they have not had for the last seven years: we will give taxpayers value for money.”
Public services would be protected, he vowed, as long as the government was slimmed down and the party stuck to his tight spending controls.
“Those tight spending controls will enable us to prevent Labour’s third term tax rises,” he said.
“They should be enough to enable us to do more. They should be enough to enable us to do something serious to make Britain’s tax system simpler and fairer.”
A Conservative government would freeze civil service recruitment, abolish the Best Value and Performance Assessment regimes, and deliver a budget that implemented the James Review.
This would “slim down Britain’s fat and bloated bureaucracy” and “set Britain on a path to a lower tax economy”, he said.
On Chancellor Gordon Brown’s own vow to cut waste and slim down the civil service, he said: “It’s a sham, it’s a pretence, and it means just one thing: it means Labour’s third term tax rises.”
Mr Letwin called on the Conservatives to remember they were the party of action, and pledged: “Instead of promises, actions. Instead of words, deeds.”
