Low-tax promises

One of the strongest arguments for Brexit has been lost amid all the political noise. It is the opportunity for the UK to break with the high tax, dirigiste European approach to economic management. In January last year, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, told a German newspaper that a post-brexit UK would become a low-tax competitor to the EU. We would consider abandoning a European-style social model with European-style taxation and regulation systems, and “become something different”.

Yet it turned out that this was not meant as a threat so much as an attempt to secure greater access to the EU single market than was on offer. Mr Hammond later clarified his remarks by telling a French newspaper that “I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European”.

Today, Theresa May appears to be returning to option one. In a speech in New York, the Prime Minister will envisage a future for the UK as a low-tax economy, reviving hopes among Brexiteers that the Government will aim to create a Singapore-style powerhouse on the EU’S doorstep. This would be a perfectly legitimate, competitive position for an independent country to adopt.

A Conservative government should be aiming to lower taxes irrespective of Brexit. Yet in recent months there have been signs that the Tories have been trying to spike Labour’s guns by emulating Jeremy Corbyn’s language and copying his policies – like price caps – rather than championing an unabashed, low-tax, free-market alternative.

Mrs May’s speech is welcome; but is she any more serious than Mr Hammond was, or is this another attempt to call the EU’S bluff?