UK's Sunak offers more tax cuts as election polls refuse to budge

World

Published On: Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:51:52 PKT

SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to cut billions of pounds of taxes and provide help for first-time homebuyers if he wins the July 4 election, launching one of the last throws of the dice for a leader badly lagging in the polls.

With surveys showing the Conservatives consistently about 20 points behind Keir Starmer's Labour Party, Sunak has stepped up his argument that the opposition would derail the economic recovery and cannot be trusted in government.

Launching the party's manifesto, containing the policies it will pursue if it forms the next government, Sunak said he would lower payroll taxes and abolish the main rate for self-employed people by the end of the next parliament.

"We will enable working people to keep more of the money that you earn because you have earned it and have the right to choose what you spend it on," Sunak said at the Formula One racetrack Silverstone in central England.

"We will ensure that we have lower welfare so that we can deliver lower taxes."

Under the Conservatives' plans, taxes would be cut by 17.2 billion pounds a year by 2029/30, while welfare spending would be reduced by 12 billion pounds a year, and 6 billion pounds raised each year through tackling tax avoidance and evasion.

In the past, promises to cut the welfare bill by similar amounts - notably by former finance minister George Osborne in 2015 - failed to materialise.

Sunak also promised to halve migration numbers, build more houses and provide financial support for first-time homebuyers.

LABOUR LEADS

But so far, Sunak's message has failed to dent the Labour lead, with many voters asking why the party had not done more during its 14 years in power.

The Conservatives also now face a challenge from the right-wing Reform UK party, which, under the leadership of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, has vowed to lead a "revolt" against the Conservatives.