38m ago
08.00 BST
Badenoch
expected to propose inheritance tax cut in speech to Tories saying UK faces
'battle of ideas' over spending
Good
morning. Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce cuts to inheritance tax (IHT)
this morning in a keynote conference speech that will claim the next election
will be a “battle of ideas” between a government spending ever more money, and
a Conservative party determined to make the state live within its means.
The
Tories have not confirmed that inheritance tax cuts will be proposed. Equally,
they have done nothing at all to quash speculation that Badenoch will make an
announcement along these lines, to the point where it is now hard to see how
she can deliver a speech that does not mention IHT without causing huge
disappointment to her supporters. IHT is set to raise £15bn a year for the
Treasury by the end of the decade, and Badenoch is expected to propose cutting
it rather than getting rid of it completely.
While any
tax announcement is likely to dominate the headline, the Tories are also set to
publish a “savings plan” today that will explain where they will find the money
for tax cuts, including for the £2.3bn cut to employer national insurance for
young people announced by the party last night. At their conference last year,
the Conservatives said they had identified cuts to government spending worth
£47bn, with £23bn coming from welfare. Yesterday Helen Whately, the shadow work
and pensions secretary, said she had found “billions more” in cuts, in addition
to those on the table last year.
The
Conservatives have released some extracts from Badenoch’s speech in advance,
and she will focus on an assertion that there is now a firm dividing line
between Labour and the Tories on public spending. She will say:
There is
a fight coming in British politics.
A fight
that we have not seen in this country for more than half a century.
It will
be a battle for the soul of this nation.
A battle
of ideas.
A battle
that goes to the very core of who we are and what kind of country we want to
be.
On one
side we have a government that wants to wind back the clock to failed ideas of
the past.
They
believe economic growth is created by politicians.
They
think government knows best.
They
think that your income, your pension and your savings are theirs to take and
then hand out as they see fit.
They
claim that what they are doing is compassionate but we know that these ideas
will make every single person in this country poorer.
Your
taxes will be higher. Your bills will go up. You will find it harder and harder
to make ends meet.
Just
because these ideas are delivered on TikTok doesn’t make them any less
dangerous than they have always been.
On the
other side of the battle is us.
A renewed
Conservative party fighting again for the belief that what people earn belongs
to them, not government.
That the
collective wisdom of people in our country is greater than the central planning
of bureaucrats and politicians.
That
spending money we don’t have on things we can’t afford is not kind, it is
reckless.
Here is
the agenda for the day.
10am:
Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, opens the session. There are also speeches
from Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, and Nick Timothy, the shadow
justice secretary.
Around
11.15am: Kemi Badenoch delivers her keynote speech.
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