Cameron urged to cut taxes
Conservative right-wingers challenged David Cameron today, insisting he must promise to cut taxes at the next election.
Former cabinet minister John Redwood has launched a pamphlet urging the “moral” reasons for tax cuts and insisting they are vital for economic growth, while former Tory chairman Norman Tebbit has also argued that “tax cuts work”.
At a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth, two thirds of delegates also voted in favour of tax cuts.
Both Mr Cameron and his shadow chancellor, George Osborne, have rejected promising tax cuts so early in the parliament, saying it is “highly unlikely” they will be part of the next general election manifesto.
The Tory leader has only promised to “share the proceeds of growth” between public services and tax cuts – something that is causing anger among many in his party.
There is a moral and economic case for cutting taxes, Mr Redwood argues in his pamphlet. “A low tax economy allows the rest of us to make more moral choices, because we are left with more of our own money to spend,” it says.
It also states: “It makes sense that lower tax rates create faster growth. More businesses locate in a country which is friendly to enterprise. More rich people move to countries that tax them sensibly.”
The document is published by the No Turning Back group, whose members include 50 Tory MPs, including shadow home secretary David Davis and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Theresa Villiers.
However, Mr Redwood today stressed that the frontbench members of the group did not endorse the pamphlet because it “goes beyond” the party leadership line and took pains to insist that his ideas were not at odds with Mr Cameron.
“It’s quite right that the Conservative chancellor will not take any risks with economic stability – if there was a choice between tax cuts and interests rates then obviously you have to have stability,” Mr Redwood said.
And he argued that Mr Cameron’s pledge to share the proceeds of growth were consistent with his ideas, saying: “Labour spends all the proceeds of growth on public services, but we will share it.”
He added: “We are not having a row. We used to be very good at rows, but if you want one now you should go to the Labour party.”
However, elsewhere in Bournemouth, Lord Tebbit was more outspoken, telling a fringe meeting: “We know that tax cutting works, we have done it and it works. We know that raising taxes does not work.”
He added: “At the next budget delivered by Gordon Brown what are we going to say when he sits down? Are we going to say huzzah Gordon, you’ve got it right again?”
But at the same meeting, Ms Villiers – a member of the No Turning Back – defended the leadership’s policies, saying: “A strong economy needs stability. We need to move towards low taxation but we have to get to that in a way that entrenches that stability.”
A former shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, John Bercow, told another fringe meeting that although he would not want to rule out low taxes in the future, “now is absolutely not the right time”.
“The public don’t want US-style levels of taxation in this country. They are prepared to accept the benefits of trade union reform and the merits of privatisation but they sincerely believe in a significant and generous welfare state,” he said.
“We would be barking if we went down the route of massive tax cuts, slash and burns – that would be calamitous.”
