Carlaw tax cut pledge in bid for leadership

●Tory frontrunner says middleearners face an ‘unfair burden’

Tory leadership favourite Jackson Carlaw has unveiled plans to cut taxes for Scots middle-earners who face an “unfair burden.”

The Eastwood MSP also set out plans for a sweeping review of all party policies in Scotland as he launched his leadership campaign in Edinburgh yesterday.

And he told supporters: “Our ambition is to remove Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP from power.”

The interim party leader also said he would restore the 2,000 teachers numbers who have been lost from Scotland’s classrooms since the SNP came to power in 2007.

Mr Carlaw clearly had one eye on next year’s Holyrood election and will seek to place the tax issue at the heart of the campaign if he defeats South of Scotland MSP Michelle Ballantyne in the contest.

The Scottish Government overhauled the system of income tax bands north of the Border two years ago.

Now Scots earning £27,000 and above will pay more than workers elsewhere in the UK on the same salary.

“That is just unfair,” Mr Carlaw said yesterday.

“Scottish Conservatives will argue for a rebalancing of taxation in Scotland, focussing not on those at the top of the earnings scale, but on those on lower incomes for whom the burden of extra tax has become so evidently unfair.”

Mr Carlaw said Scots who earn £26,000 to £45,000 were not the “affluent elite” and would be targeted by him for a tax break if he wins

power. “They work hard, they shouldn’t be paying more for doing the job they do to advance their lives and the lives of their families,” he added.

And forthcoming reductions in national insurance planned for Scotland in the UK Budget must be honoured in full by the government without an “SNP clawback”.

He told the crowd he stands for “a decent, generous-spirited, aspirational conservatism that promotes the values and ambitions of middle Scotland”.

And he added: “I have a clear plan to take it forward.”

The controversial workplace parking tax would also be scrapped under any future Tory administration headed up by Mr Carlaw.

“It is unjust and plain wrong and we will oppose it or abolish it at every opportunity,” he added.

Mr Carlaw only rival is Mrs Ballantyne for the role of Scottish party leader with the winner to be announced next month.

An “urgent review” of all Scottish Tory policies will be undertaken if Mr Carlaw wins the leadership contest. It could see the party’s opposition to free tuition axed and will also look at the controversial “rape clause” aspect of welfare reforms.

The Eastwood MSP said the review would put current policy positions through two “tests”.

The first would be looking at the context of when the policy was first adopted and if it is still relevant to the present day.

The second would look to see whether each policy “advances opportunity, encourages success and inspires effort”.

“If this review leads to us leaving some policy positions behind, some even long-held positions, then so be it,” Mr Carlaw added.

“Once we get this leadership contest over, we need to hit the ground running, because time is very short.”

Mr Carlaw was reluctant to proclaim himself as a candidate to be First Minister at yesterday’s launch.

He did but concede under questioning that he wanted the role, but said the immediate focus would be to remove the SNP from office in next year’s Holyrood election, then enter the Parliamentary machinations of seeking to form a government.

“I have spent the last 18 months taking on Nicola Sturgeon – I am asking you now to let me spent the next 18 months taking her down.”

But the First Minister dismissed the comment on Twitter, branding it “tough man talk”.

She added: “Didn’t he just ‘take me on’ in the general election and lose half his seats?

“On the strength of that performance, he’s certainly my favoured candidate for Tory leader!”

Mr Carlaw headed up the election campaign north of the border after Ms Davidson’s shock departure and had stood in for her during her maternity leave throughout much of 2018 and the latter half of 2019.

Although he was widely seen to have performed strongly against Ms Sturgeon during the election, the party still lost seven of their 13 seats to the SNP on the night. Mr Carlaw insisted that the party came out of it in “better shape” than many were expecting.

The interim leader is currently seen as the front-runner, having secured support from a majority of MSPS, all of the Conservative Party’s local council leaders in Scotland and some MPS. But he insisted yesterday that he is “taking nothing for granted”.

“As I said in my remarks, I’ve done all these things, I have all this experience, but it counts for absolutely nothing,” he said.

“It’s for the members, finally, to decide who they think the right person is to lead the party forward, but I believe that person is me. I’ve been doing the job for the last period of time, I’ve come to understand what’s required, I have a plan and I’m ready to deliver.”