Rishi Sunak will be launching the Conservative Party manifesto today as he desperately tries to take the pressure off following his disastrous D-Day blunder.
The Prime Minister is expected to make a series of pledges to cut taxes and woo first-time buyers when he launches the manifesto this morning.
In a combative interview on BBC Panorama, Mr Sunak claimed the Tories would “continue to cut people’s taxes” if they win the election. But interviewer Nick Robinson challenged him over the fact the Government has set the tax burden on course to hit the highest level since the Second World War.
Conservative manifesto – what to expect
The policies trailed overnight include: a 100% relief on capital gains tax liability for landlords who sell to their existing tenants; abolishing stamp duty up to the value of £425,000 for first-time buyers; a “new and improved” Help to Buy scheme; and reports of a 2p cut to national insurance.
These build on previous pledges of no increases to income tax, national insurance or VAT, an expansion of levelling up funding with a pledge to give 30 towns £20 million, and mandatory national service for 18-year-olds. All eyes will be on pledges linked to immigration, including UK involvement with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as Mr Sunak seeks to persuade voters against backing Reform UK – now led by Nigel Farage.
‘No tax rises’
Times Radio asked The Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride to confirm there would be no tax rises in the Conservative manifesto and he replied: “Correct. So, what the manifesto will set out very clearly are areas where we will be cutting tax further and I have explained very clearly where that money will come from in order to do that, but we will not be raising taxes.”
But this ignores the fact the Tories will keep the freezes on tax thresholds – a policy which drags more Brits into paying higher rates of tax – until 2028 if they win the General Election.
Rishi Sunak under fire
Rishi Sunak clashed repeatedly with the BBC’s Nick Robinson last night as he doubled down on his dodgy tax claims. The Prime Minister has come under fire for repeatedly suggesting that Treasury officials have found that Labour would hike taxes by £2,000 – something Keir Starmer’s has branded a “lie”. It was dubbed “misleading” by the UK statistics watchdog and even the top official at the Treasury warned that it “includes costs beyond those provided by the Civil Service”, as the sums are based on assumptions by Tory aides.
What time will the manifesto launch?
The Conservative manifesto is expected to be launched at 11:30am. We have Mikey Smith from the Mirror Politics team on board the Tory bus for all the breaking announcements and reaction going into our live blog where will also have a live stream. Follow our live blog for all the latest updates.
Labour on energy drinks
Labour will continue to press its “child health action plan”, which now includes a commitment to stop children under the age of 16 from buying highly caffeinated energy drinks. The sale of drinks containing more than 150mg of caffeine per litre to under-16s is “not justifiable or acceptable”, according to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
The party said it expects soft drinks such as Coca-Cola to fall below the caffeine per litre limit, but a 500ml can of Monster Energy would exceed it. National trading standards would be tasked with enforcing the policy. Labour has also vowed to “put a smile back on kids’ faces” by providing an extra 100,000 urgent dental appointments for children and supervised toothbrushing for three-to-five year olds.