Tory tax pledge to high earners
We won’t punish people for getting on, says Fallon in pitch to voters paying higher rate
HIGH EARNERS will not face any increase in income tax under a new Conservative government, one of Theresa May’s most senior ministers has promised.
Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said voting Tory was “the only way” workers across the wage spectrum could be sure their tax would not go up, ending weeks of uncertainty for middle-class professionals.
It puts clear water between the Tories and Labour on personal tax, with Jeremy Corbyn promising to increase income tax for those earning more than £80,000 to help pay for a £50billion giveaway.
It comes amid concern among senior Tories about the party’s vanishing lead over Labour in the opinion polls, which was once as high as 24 percentage points but is now as low as three per cent according to some pollsters.
Election modelling published yesterday by Lord Ashcroft, the former Conservative treasurer, suggests the Tories are still on course for a majority of 60, though it could be “considerably better or worse” depending on turnout.
Last night Mr Corbyn felt the wrath of Northern voters over his stance on nuclear weapons on the BBC’S Question Time: Leaders Special from York. The Labour leader was jeered and heckled as he repeatedly refused to say whether he would use the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Members of the audience tried to shout him down as he suggested he would tackle the problem of North Korea through negotiation rather than the threat of a nuclear deterrent.
Mr Corbyn was cheered on to the stage by the BBC audience but the voters quickly turned hostile as he explained some of his policies.
One voter asked Mr Corbyn whether his manifesto was “a realistic wish list or just a letter to Santa Claus”. He was also taken to task over Labour’s record on anti-semitism, while another audience member asked: “Why have you never regarded the IRA as terrorists?”
The Prime Minister preceded Mr Corbyn on to the BBC stage and she made it clear she was fired up for the final lap of the campaign.
Accused by one voter of calling the election for self-serving reasons, she retorted that she had the “balls” to call a vote.
She said: “It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me having become Prime Minister after the referendum, when David Cameron resigned, to say ‘the next election is not until 2020’.
“In this job I do what I believe is the best for Britain. I could have stayed on doing that job for another couple of years and not called an election.
“I had the balls to call an election.” Mrs May was confronted by a mental health sufferer over the “absolute shambles” of provision in the NHS.
The audience member was close to tears as she told Mrs May she was partially sighted and was made to undertake a work capability assessment and came out crying from an appointment because of the way she was treated. “The NHS is an absolute shambles at the moment. I applied for NHS counselling at the end of 2015 and my first appointment is next Tuesday. I have had to wait a year and a half and have suffered so much because of that and, in part, the work capability assessment,” she said.
Mrs May said the Government is looking at how to improve the work capability assessments system.
“I’m not going to make any excuses for the experience you had. That’s why I think it’s so important that we do deal with mental health,” Mrs May replied.
She said she wanted to take action to improve support in schools to enhance the treatment of those with mental health problems.
But the Prime Minister was stumped
THERESA MAY said she called the general election because she had “the balls” to do so, as voters challenged her on whether she now regrets it after her lead in the polls reduced.
The Prime Minister last night came under sustained pressure from voters on a BBC Question Time: Leaders Special in York and was challenged by a teacher, a nurse and benefits claimants about her policies. However, she was deemed to have performed better than in previous televised election events.
A Tory supporter in the audience asked if she felt “remorse” about the decision to call an election because of the shrinking poll gap, which has fallen from a lead of 24 points to as little as five points over the past five weeks.
Mrs May replied: “It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me having become Prime Minister after the referendum, when David Cameron resigned, to say ‘the next election is not until 2020’. In this job I do what I believe is the best for Britain. I had the balls to call an election.”
One audience member challenged her on why she had avoided debating her opponents head-to-head. Mrs May shot back: “I am not refusing to take part in debate, because I am here. I think election campaigns should be about getting out and about.
“I don’t think seven politicians arguing amongst themselves is that interesting or that appealing,” she added, referring to Tuesday’s BBC debate.
Mrs May admitted she did not know
‘It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to say “the next election is not until 2020”’
the UK gives foreign aid to North Korea when told by an audience member. In February, it was reported that North Korea has received more than £4million in foreign aid from the UK in the past six years despite the country’s status as an international pariah.
Mrs May said: “It’s certainly not somewhere that I would suggest is somewhere that someone holds up as a paragon of virtue.”
On health, Mrs May was passionately challenged about austerity cuts by two audience members who had lost their benefits. A woman who appeared close to tears spoke of her difficulty receiving state help. The Prime Minister said: “I’m not going to make any excuses for the experience that you’ve had – that’s why I do think it’s so important that we deal with mental health.
“We do look at improving how that assessment has taken place. I know the issue of mental health is a particularly difficult one to address in terms of those work-capability assessments.”
On the NHS, she said: “We’re not cutting NHS spending, we’re putting, in fact, record levels of funding overall into the NHS and we will continue to increase the funding for the NHS in Government.”
Challenged over the party’s social care plans, the Prime Minister declined to state the cap “on the absolute level of care costs that people have to pay”.
She said it was “crucial that it is fair across the generations”, adding: “You can protect £100,000 and we will consult on what will be the absolute cap on what people have to pay.”
Mrs May was asked why voters should trust her, given the absence of figures setting out how the party will raise money in the party’s manifesto.
On leaving the European Union, Mrs May said she was best placed to deliver a successful Brexit if she is given the chance to form the next government “that gets on with it”. She said she would help to “build a more prosperous, stronger and fairer Britain”.
“I believe we can do that because I believe in the British people.” One audience member was booed for suggesting there should be a second referendum. Mrs May declined to put a figure on the Brexit “divorce bill”, saying that giving a number would not “be a very good negotiating stance”. She said Britain needed a good deal because it would benefit businesses both in the UK and in the EU.
Mrs May defended her plans for new grammar schools, saying: “We want a diversity of education because education is so important. I want every youngster getting the education that is right for them.”
Defending her record as home secretary, Mrs May said: “I made sure we kept the records of criminal and terrorists on the DNA database, whereas Diane Abbott [the shadow home secretary] wants to wipe them clean.”