Tories hint at tax cuts
A Conservative government would cut taxes within a month of being elected, Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin has pledged.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Letwin promised to resign if the party failed to meet its pre-election pledges on tax while in office.
Mr Letwin told the paper that the Conservatives would give voters a “cast iron” guarantee to reduce the tax burden.
The Shadow Chancellor did not make any specific commitments during the interview, but stressed that details of the Conservative’s plans to cut tax would be unveiled before next year’s expected General Election.
“We will make commitments about tax before the next election,” Mr Letwin told The Telegraph.
“They will be cast iron because they will be about what we do a month after the election in our first Budget and I will resign if we do not do them”, he added.
Mr Lewtin told the paper that raising income tax thresholds, reducing the burden of inheritance tax and raising the threshold for stamp duty would be priorities for a Conservative government.
The Conservatives say that they would pay for tax cuts through the £30 billion worth of savings they have identified as part of a strategy to reduce government waste and bureaucracy, which they claim has increased under Labour.
Mr Letwin told The Telegraph that his party sees the delivery of tax reductions for lower and middle-income earners as a key part of its plans.
Welcoming his colleague’s pledge, former shadow cabinet member, Damian Green MP said Mr Letwin’s plans would help “struggling groups.”
“I think we do need to remake the case for tax cuts because they should be seen as a sign of the Conservatives’ desire to give people back control of their lives rather than a fetish in themselves”, he told The Telegraph.
