‘We’ll bring down taxes’ if re-elected – finance minister
British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said Friday his Conservative government would cut taxes should it win reelection this year, and warned voters off expected victors Labour.
“I can’t today tell you what will be in the Conservative manifesto for the next parliament,” the chancellor of the exchequer said in a speech.
“But what I can do is make a very clear argument that we will bring down taxes, and I can do so with credibility because that is already what we have been doing,” Hunt added as he also claimed that the main opposition Labour Party would hike taxation.
While the Conservatives, headed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, have reduced taxes for workers in recent budgets, the UK still has the highest tax levels in 70 years.
And Hunt on Friday offset the promise of more tax cuts by saying he could not give voters “a cast-iron guarantee” of when the Tories would “be able to reduce the tax burden and to what level”, claiming it “would be irresponsible to do so”.
Although the UK economy has turned a corner — recent data showed it had exited a short recession amid cooling inflation and with interest-rate cuts on the horizon — opinion polls indicate a change of leadership could be on the horizon after 14 years of Tory rule.
Labour on Thursday set out its stall for the upcoming election with six key pledges to voters in a de facto campaign launch.
Its leader Keir Starmer promised economic stability, shorter health service waiting times and a new border security command to tackle irregular immigration.
He also vowed to establish a publicly-owned clean energy company, crack down on anti-social behaviour with more neighbourhood police and recruit 6,500 new teachers.
AFP