Badenoch plans inheritance tax cuts

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is preparing to announce cuts to inheritance tax at her party conference speech on Wednesday, marking a shift toward tax-cutting policies.

Shadow chancellor pledges annual tax scraps

Andrew Griffith, the new shadow chancellor, has pledged to slash regulations and taxes, saying the Conservatives would aim to scrap at least one tax every budget.

“Like Nigel Lawson, it's my ambition to scrap at least one tax every budget.”

Tories trailing in polls by 20 points

The Conservatives remain in third place in the polls, about twenty percent behind both Labour and Reform UK, as the party attempts a political comeback.

Badenoch calls tax twice morally wrong

Badenoch suggested on Sunday that reducing inheritance tax would be morally right, saying it is wrong that people get taxed twice on money they leave to children.

“It is morally right that people don't get taxed twice.”

Current inheritance tax rate and thresholds

A forty percent inheritance tax is currently charged on most estates valued over three hundred twenty-five thousand pounds, or five hundred thousand pounds on homes left to children.

Tories see space after Burnham's speech

Senior Conservative figures believe Andy Burnham's speech to Labour conference in Liverpool last week has given them space to push a tax-cutting and deregulating agenda more aggressively.

“When we are faced with a return to the nineteen seventies and a command economy for socialists it really allows us to push a tax cutting deregulating agenda more than if we were facing someone like Tony Blair.”

Griffith vows fiscal responsibility on cuts

Griffith said he came to lower taxes but only when affordable, adding that no country has ever taxed its way to prosperity and cuts must be funded within a golden economic rule.

“I didn't come here to raise taxes, I came to lower them.”

Labour accuses Badenoch of targeting poor

Labour chair Bridget Phillipson accused Badenoch of going after the poorest and wanting to scrap the minimum wage, citing comments in Badenoch's conference document The Right Way.

“Kemi Badenoch needs to explain why she is so unhappy that workers were paid a minimum of three pounds sixty per hour.”

Griffith says full abolition needs funding first

Griffith confirmed both he and Badenoch ultimately want to remove inheritance tax entirely, but said the party must first ensure the move is funded and cannot do everything on day one.

“There's lots of things that we would like to do, but the job of chancellor is to make sure that those can be paid for.”