Rishi Sunak, the Conservative Party’s leader in the General Election campaign, will announce on Tuesday a £2.4bn (£2 billion) tax cut for retirees. The move is intended to bolster the “grey vote”, a key Conservative constituency.
The UK Prime Minister will announce plans to defrost the personal allowance for retirees, in an attempt to prevent millions of people receiving the basic state pension being forced into the tax system.
Sunak stated that the pensioners would receive £100 next year. This will rise to approximately £300 per year at the end of next parliament. Sunak said that the bold move shows we are on pensioners’ side.
Many Conservative MPs are likely to welcome the £2.4bn in tax cuts. According to a YouGov polll, the over-70s is the only group of age more likely to vote Tory.
Sunak’s campaign is facing criticism on many fronts. One of them includes his plan to spend £2.5bn to revive the national service scheme. Under this scheme, 18-year olds are asked to serve in the military for one year or to perform 25 days of “voluntary”, unpaid, work.
Steve Baker, the Tory Northern Ireland Minister, stated in a Monday post on X that “the idea of national service was sprung on candidates. Some are relevant ministers”. The idea that teenagers from Northern Ireland would serve in the British Army has a high political significance.
Lucy Allan was suspended by the Conservative Party after she backed Reform UK’s candidate in her constituency. This is a sign of the disarray within the Conservative party.
Conservative Campaign Headquarters and Tory candidates are increasingly at odds. Some claim that a CCHQ toolkit for designing election material crashed. The Tory official claimed that the issue was only temporary and caused by “a supplier”.
Tory HQ admitted that it “in error” sent Conservative politicians an email accusing them of failing to “get behind the campaign” and revealing personal information.
Former Tory minister: “Calling elections on July 4, was intended to misdirect our opponents. But it seems to us that it has wrongfooted.”
One minister claimed that the campaign was “written all over it” in reference to John Major’s heavy defeat to Tony Blair.
Sunak hopes that voters will welcome his new initiative to assist pensioners and make Labour look bad.
According to his plan, the personal pension allowance for retirees would rise in future in accordance with the “triple lock” pension system, which guarantees an increase in the state pension of the highest of the earnings, wages, or 2.5 percent.
The Conservatives have frozen tax thresholds, allowances, and exemptions until April 2028. The basic state pension, which is £11,540, could surpass the personal tax allowance, £12,570, by April 2027.
The increase in the pensioner’s personal allowance will eliminate the need for millions of pensioners to file tax returns or pay income taxes on their pensions.
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (a think tank), said that he did not believe it was justified to give pensioners a larger personal allowance. However, he added, “I can see the case for an allowance tied to the state pension, and then moving up with it.”
Sunak will challenge Labour now to say whether they would match this policy. He said it would cost £2.4bn per year by 2029-30, and that the funding would come from a crackdown against tax avoidance and fraud — a popular revenue source for both parties.
There is still a gloomy atmosphere in the Tory party. Lord Zac, a Tory peers, told X that the party is heading for defeat. He added: “The hope, however, is that after Sunak leaves to California in a couple of weeks, at least a few decent MPs will be left to rebuild around.”
Sunak, who was interviewed by ITV, stated that Goldsmith’s statement is “just simply not true.”
The prime minister replied, “Yes,” when asked if he planned to remain in Britain for many years despite the results of the poll on July 4.
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