VALUE-ADDED TAX

now stands at 20 per cent.

“We won’t be increasing VAT,” she told ITV’s Peston in an interview on Sunday.

“If you look across what we want to do on taxes, we’ve no plans to increase the level of tax, as I say it’s the Conservative Party, we’re a party that believes in lower taxation.”

But, she refused to recommit to a 2015 election promise made by her predecessor David Cameron not to increase VAT, income tax, or National Insurance — an employment tax — until 2020.

The leftist opposition Labour Party, which has also ruled out raising VAT, said May could not be trusted to honour her VAT pledge. Election spokesman Andrew Gwynne said May posed “a threat to working people, pensioners and our public services”. Current value-added

tax in the UK

Polls show May is on course for victory in the election, although three published late on Saturday showed her lead had shrunk.

May’s finance minister Philip Hammond has argued that the 2015 tax pledge had limited his ability to manage the economy.

Britain’s deficit is expected to rise in the 2017/2018 financial year, as one-off factors that helped the government last year — such as changes in the timing of payments to the EU’s budget and the impact of changes on dividend taxation — unwind. Reuters