This is the Tories’ chance to show they are the party of low taxes

Theresa May’s promise of “strong and stable leadership” is far too vague for me. I have a much better mantra for her: lower, simpler, taxes.

The Conservatives like to bill themselves as the party of low taxes and a small state, yet recent events suggest they have forgotten their raison d’être. Under George Osborne’s watch, they introduced the regressive sugar tax, hitting the poorest families the hardest.

Their instincts don’t seem to have improved under Philip Hammond, whose attempt to hike National Insurance contributions for the self-employed in his first Budget ended in an embarrassing U-turn. The insurance premium tax has also been hiked, which punishes people for doing the right thing. And now there are deeply worrying reports that the long-standing exemption for capital gains tax on family homes could be scrapped. Didn’t the Chancellor say that neither he nor the Prime Minister came into politics to raise taxes? If so, then now is the time to deliver.

Our hugely complex tax system simply isn’t fit for the 21st century. The nature of work is changing. We no longer have the clear distinction of blue-collar workers in factories, white collar in offices, all in fixed bricks-andmortar locations. People have multiple jobs through different platforms. The traditional tax base is shrinking, so our tax policy needs to evolve too, doing away with some of the taxes that discourage economic activities. Corporation tax is a good example.

Successive governments have wasted time tweaking at the edges of this outdated tax, trying to make it relevant to this century’s entrepreneurs. But the only thing the tweaks have achieved is to complicate the tax code to such an extent that the only people who can make any sense of it are highly trained lawyers and accountants whose services only the very rich can afford. What’s more, politicians often say “corporations” should pay more, but in the same way your TV doesn’t pay the TV licence, companies don’t pay taxes – people do. It should be swiftly replaced with a tax on distributed profits.

If politicians courting our vote are serious about sending the world the message that Britain is open for business post Brexit, then now is the time to bring in these reforms. The time is also ripe for fundamental changes to personal income tax.

All earning-related taxes should be replaced by a single income tax, fixed at one proportionate rate. This will make the tax system much more transparent, removing the loopholes that so often result in HMRC chasing its own tail in a bid to establish how much tax people actually owe.

A civilised society needs a level of taxes to pay for essential services, including roads, the NHS and schools. In turn, those entrusted with running a civilised country need to keep in mind that someone will have put in the work to earn every penny that ends up in the Treasury’s coffers. Our politicians have too often forgotten this. Perhaps the lure of legacy building is so strong that they are far too keen on committing billions in taxpayers’ money on grand projects such as HS2 before establishing whether they would actually deliver value for taxpayers’ money.

And that is precisely where things start to go wrong, resulting in a vicious circle of unnecessary spending commitments funded by higher or new taxes. A panicked government tries to increase tax revenue with Laffer Curve-busting policies, risking the long-term health of the economy.

So here’s what I want from those asking for my vote: a pledge to cap the overall tax burden at 35 per cent of GDP. This would signal an intention to reduce the burden, but allow flexibility on the profile of the tax take. The tax mix would be up for discussion, but not the basic principle that taxes should be cut. If the polls are even remotely correct, we are looking at a Conservative government in June, with an increased majority. If that is indeed the case, the government will have no excuse to dodge the issue of tax reform, hiding behind the excuse of a slim majority.

The Conservatives would have us believe that they are in the business of cutting taxes, not raising them. Mrs May can use her victory as a chance to finally embrace her party’s purported core agenda. To me, that would be delivering strong and stable leadership.