Howard: Tax cuts not the answer
Conservative leader Michael Howard is warning his party that deep tax cuts will not be the “silver bullet” to restore its electoral fortunes.
Any tax-cutting pledges would have to be carefully considered and not come at the expense of a broader programme to address the many challenges facing the Conservatives in modern Britain, he said.
In the first of a series of reflections on May’s election, Mr Howard said he took responsibility for the Conservatives’ election defeat.
He admitted that he may have made mistakes during the campaign and that Labour’s caricature of the Conservatives promising higher spending, lower borrowing and tax cuts at the same time had been effective.
However, he denied suggestions that a failure to offer bolder tax cuts had cost them at the ballot box, noting that only 16 per cent of Conservative voters had felt that was the case.
Looking to the future, he said it was “not impossible” for the Conservatives to win an election on a platform of deep tax cuts, especially if taxation increased and competitiveness continued to fall under Labour.
However, the party would have to be “honest” about the implications of such a strategy. It would have to face up to the budgetary implications – whether spending would be cut or borrowing increased.
The sustained drive that would be needed to change public attitudes to tax would take most of the next parliament and siphon off vital energy from other policy areas. Tax cuts would also have to fit into the party’s broader narrative, and committing to them four years ahead of an election might not be prudent, Mr Howard warned.
“None of this is to say that such an approach would not succeed. It might be a brilliant success. But then again, it might not. So if we choose to embark on it, it would be wise to do so having thought through all the implications,” he said.
Tax cuts could not be all that defined Conservatives, he added. The party needed a broad appeal based around core values such as pride in nationhood, the fundamental importance of personal responsibility, a sense of duty to others, and a belief in free enterprise as the engine of progress.
“I do not believe that tax cuts are the silver bullet – the panacea to the party’s problems. They cannot be all that we stand for – all that defines us,” he said.
