Sajid Javid pledges to cut taxes at every single budget as he warns that Jeremy Corbyn will unleash 12 hikes by Christmas if he gets into power
- Chancellor said he was ‘confident’ working people would pay less under Tories
- He then claimed Corbyn’s plans would cost workers an extra £2,400 a year
- Added that there was a £385billion ‘spending black hole’ in Labour’s manifesto
Sajid Javid pledged to cut taxes at every Budget yesterday – as he warned Labour would introduce 12 tax hikes by Christmas.
The Chancellor said he was ‘confident’ working people would pay less under the Tories and claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s plans would cost workers an extra £2,400 a year.
He said there was a £385billion ‘spending black hole’ in Labour’s manifesto costings that would need to be filled by tax rises. Setting out the ‘cost of Corbyn’ at a speech in Bolton, he warned there would be a ‘crisis by Christmas’ if Labour won the election.
He said that, while Mr Corbyn was promising a ‘Santa bag of goodies’, voters would be left with a ‘big bag of coal’.
The Chancellor (pictured at a ‘cost of Corbyn’ speech in Bolton today) said he was ‘confident’ working people would pay less under the Tories and claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s plans would cost workers an extra £2,400 a year
Mr Javid claimed Labour would need to introduce six new taxes and impose rises on six existing taxes to pay for the shortfall.
Asked when he would increase the threshold at which workers start to pay National Insurance from the current pledge of £9,500 to Boris Johnson’s ambition of £12,500, Mr Javid told the Mail: ‘We want to cut taxes, we’re a tax-cutting party.
‘We want to make sure hard-working people keep more of their own cash. In my first Budget we will increase the threshold to £9,500, a saving of just under £100 per person for around 30 million people.
‘I can’t say to you it will definitely be done in X years of the next parliament because we want to be prudent with the nation’s finances, but we will do it when we can afford it.
Javid said there was a £385billion ‘spending black hole’ in Labour’s manifesto (pictured is Corbyn at the launch of the manifesto) costings that would need to be filled by tax rises
‘I’m confident that we can keep making progress towards that goal at each budget.’
Labour has costed its policies at £83billion, although the Tories claim the commitment will cost £1.2trillion. Referring to the day after the election, Mr Javid said: ‘Imagine the nightmare on Downing Street on Friday the 13th.
‘The pound crashing in the early hours of the morning as Corbyn inches toward a majority, foreign investors rushing their money out of the country … and the cost of our debt spiralling out of control as confidence in the British government collapses. It won’t take months and years for an economic crisis, it’ll happen in days and weeks. A crisis by Christmas.’
Mr Javid said ordinary workers would pay the price for the shortfall and set out the 12 taxes he said Labour would need to introduce.
Six are pledges Labour has already made, including scrapping the marriage allowance, higher fuel duty, a tax on heating due to higher oil duties and a financial transaction tax on pensions. Other measures may include scrapping capital gains exemption on main homes, introducing a tax on gifts over £125,000 and raising air passenger duty.
Labour disputed the ‘smears and errors’ and said they had rejected taxes on heating, pensions, homes, movers and gifts.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: ‘Labour is offering a cast-iron guarantee of no rises in income tax or National Insurance rates for 95 per cent of earners, despite Sajid Javid continuing to trot out more debunked fake news from Conservative Party HQ.’