Knife curbs and pay rises for teachers in Raab’s 40 pledges
DOMINIC RAAB will unveil a manifesto for the Tory leadership with more than 40 pledges including tougher action on knife crime and higher pay for teachers in failing schools and wideranging tax cuts.
The pledges, which will form the heart of the former Brexit secretary’s agenda, were published briefly on his campaign website last week before being taken down.
They represent one of the most advanced manifestos of any of the candidates, with a series of policies predominantly targeted at helping increase opportunity. On schools, Mr Raab will pledge to pay teachers more for working in “the toughest schools” as part of a bid to “give children from the hardest backgrounds exposure to our very best teachers”.
He will revive Young Apprenticeships and expand degree apprenticeships, which he says would offer “the opportunity of university without the debt the average student incurs after a normal degree”. He will also pledge new measures to encourage young entrepreneurs while expanding an initiative to give children from poorer backgrounds the chance to attend private school with “means-tested fee support”.
On crime, Mr Raab says that police need “more flexibility” to use stop and search powers. He suggests police should be able to more easily conduct searches even when there is not “reasonable suspicion” about an individual.
He also wants to promote initiatives to “divert at risk young people away from gangs and into training and work”.
As part of his plan to “give workers a pay rise”, Mr Raab has pledged to cut the basic rate of income tax by 5p over a five-year period. He says that in the first year, this would save people £180.
However, critics have said the policy would cost £25billion and questioned how the money could be raised.
Mr Raab also wants to overhaul stamp duty by abolishing the tax for the first £500,000 of all purchases “as the public finances allow”.
He says: “Everyone should have the chance to own their own home. Successive governments haven’t been radical enough in taking on vested interests to get enough homes built to keep them affordable for those on low or middling incomes.” Other schemes include exempting landlords from paying capital gains tax if they sell their properties to existing tenants and releasing more public sector land for building homes.
He says he would “transform” planning permissions into “contracts for delivery”, committing developers to building a specified number of homes each year and investing in infrastructure. “This would prevent developers reneging on their commitments and help tackle land-banking,” he says.
Other policies include a new “permitted development” right to enable people to “build upwards” to the same level as other properties in their area.
Mr Raab will also commit to reviewing the “cost-effectiveness” of HS2 in the Spending Review, with a view to reducing the costs of the project.
On Brexit, Mr Raab says that Britain must leave – with or without a deal – on Oct 31. “We must calmly demonstrate unflinching resolve in order to leave when the extension to negotiations ends in October – at the latest,” he says.
While his preference is to renegotiate the backstop, he says that Britain must be prepared to leave on World Trade Organisation terms.