Reform would raise 40p income tax threshold to £70,000

Draft manifesto unveiled by party leader Richard Tice piles pressure on Chancellor to go further with tax cuts in spring Budget

Source - Daily Telegraph 23/02/24

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The Reform Party would raise the 40p income tax threshold to £70,000, The Telegraph can reveal.

In a draft election manifesto due to be unveiled on Saturday, Reform proposes changes to ensure seven million people pay no income tax at all.

Richard Tice today unveils his party’s election promises to reverse Rishi Sunak’s stealth tax, piling pressure on the Chancellor to go further and faster in next month’s Budget.

The document also calls for marked reductions in stamp duty, inheritance tax and corporation tax, as well as tax relief to incentivise going private for education and health care.

The proposals together go far beyond the tax cuts being looked at by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, and Mr Sunak for the March 6 Budget, possibly the last before the general election.

Tory MPs are clamouring for major tax cuts but economic forecasts have left the Treasury with less money to play with than they hoped, limiting their ability to act while still reducing debt.

The proposals together go far beyond the tax cuts being looked at by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, and Mr Sunak for the March 6 Budget, possibly the last before the general election.

Tory MPs are clamouring for major tax cuts but economic forecasts have left the Treasury with less money to play with than they hoped, limiting their ability to act while still reducing debt.

Mr Tice writes in The Telegraph: “The Tories have betrayed us all by raising taxes, wasting money. We must reward the workers and the strivers, not the shirkers and skivers.”

Reform, which was called the Brexit Party until 2020, has become a major political headache for the Tories as Mr Sunak seeks to pull off a surprise re-election later this year.

Doubling in support

Support for Reform, which politically is to the Right of the Conservatives, has soared in the polls in the past year, roughly doubling support, with one in 10 voters now saying they will back them.

That still means the party is unlikely to win seats at the election, given Britain’s first past the post system, but by attracting ex-Tory voters it could help deny dozens of Tory MPs re-election.

At a spring rally in Doncaster on Saturday, Mr Tice will unveil what has been dubbed a “draft manifesto”, with feedback deliberately encouraged before final policies are locked in.

Mr Tice writes: “Sadly, the UK is in a dire situation and major reforms are urgently needed to save ourselves. I am today setting these out as we launch Our Contract with You at our Spring conference in Doncaster.

“Britain has so much potential. Our country is full of talent and energy. Brexit is the opportunity of a lifetime. Yet weak leadership and failed management has led us to the edge of the precipice.”

He adds: “The Tories have broken Britain. Labour will bankrupt Britain. Starmergeddon awaits. Neither of them recognises how bad things are or has a credible plan to grow us out of this mess.”

‘Slash tax’ campaign

Some of the most eye-catching policies are likely to be the tax cuts, given Tory splits over how far to go this spring. Reform has dubbed the promises a “slash tax” campaign.

On income tax, the party proposes raising the threshold at which people start paying the basic rate of income tax each year to £20,000, up from £12,570.

The party says that would mean seven million people paying no income tax at all. They would also raise the higher rate threshold to £70,000, up from around £50,000.

On stamp duty, Reform proposes to triple the property price on which nothing would be paid. Currently that is £250,000. Under its proposals, it would rise to £750,000.

Inheritance tax should be abolished for all estates worth less than £2 million, a threshold roughly six times the current amount, Reform argues. They also want to scrap the so-called VAT “tourist tax”.

Call to ditch net zero

There are other eye-catching proposals in different policy areas.

Mr Tice wants 20 per cent tax relief for private school education and private healthcare, a proposal which, he argues, would decrease pressure on state provision.

There is also a repeat of the party’s call to ditch the legally binding target of making the UK net zero by 2050, which all the biggest UK political parties have signed up to.

The draft manifesto is sure to be criticised by political opponents as an unaffordable wish list, with the costs pencilled into the document put under the microscope in the months ahead.

Some policies are only loosely sketched out in the document.

But the proposals could have a political impact if they convince more wavering Tory supporters to back Reform rather than the Conservatives at the next general election.

The Prime Minister earlier this month warned Tory voters of switching to Reform, telling a GB News audience that such an approach could help Labour win back power.

Mr Sunak said: “The next election is a straightforward choice. At the end of it, either Keir Starmer or I are going to be prime minister and a vote for anyone who is not a Conservative candidate is simply a vote to put Keir Starmer into Number 10.”