Tories declare war on 'stealth' taxes

Michael Howard shelters from the rain in Bournemouth

The Tories put tax cuts at the heart of their election campaign today as they opened the party conference with a pledge to tackle the "scandal" of ordinary Londoners paying death duties intended for the rich.

However, shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin went on the offensive. An incoming Conservative government would end the unfairness of inheritance tax as well as a raft of other levies such as stamp duty and council tax, he said.

He stopped short of offering specific tax pledges but aides made clear that several "options" for deep cuts would be outlined between now and Christmas.

In a direct pitch for London votes, he lambasted the fact that soaring house prices in the capital now meant that millions of middle-income families were being hit by inheritance taxes.

The price of the average home

hit ?280,000 in August, pushing huge numbers of people over the death duty threshold of ?263,000 for the first time, Mr Letwin said.

"It's a scandal that a family inheriting an average-priced London house now has to pay death duties, a tax that was meant to be designed for the rich," he said.

Outlining a "moral case" for lower taxes overall, Mr Letwin said his current review of Whitehall spending had already found ?16billion worth of savings and was on course to earmark much more.

He identified five areas where the tax system was "manifestly unfair" - council tax, stamp duty, income tax thresholds and taxes on savings and pensions.

A further three areas - capital gains tax, small business levies and green taxes - were also "over-complicated".

In his speech, Mr Letwin said: "There have been too many broken promises on tax from too many politicians. When we were in office we made promises on tax we could not keep.

"And everybody knows what happened when Tony Blair promised that he had no plans to increase taxes at all - and then

raised taxes 66 times by stealth. So no more broken promises on tax."

On the first day of a Conservative government, the party will freeze civil service recruitment and sweep away controls on local government, he said.

Meanwhile, the opinion polls showed the party under Mr Howard had slipped backwards.

A Daily Mirror poll claimed that less than half the voters in Mr Howard's own Folkestone and Hythe constituency think he is doing a good job.

But as Conservative activists gathered in Bournemouth for Mr Howard's first conference as leader he insisted the party was "in good shape" and that 20,000 new members had joined since he became leader and 14 new councils had been won in elections.

But a Populus poll put the Conservatives seven points behind Labour at 28 per cent to 35, with the Liberal Democrats at their heels on 25 per cent.

In a rallying cry, party chairman Liam Fox is expected to accuse the Prime Minister of "moral vanity", declaring: "Mr Blair, you're no Margaret Thatcher."

Among the keynote policies being showcased in Bournemouth was the plan for a clampdown on immigration, with annual quotas for overall numbers, a points system for migrant workers and quitting the UN Convention on Refugees.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in