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The Tories have set out their vision for the UK economy, pledging to slash taxes and red tape to “back innovation, entrepreneurship and growth”.
Kemi Badenoch’s party has said it would slash welfare spending, scrap business rates for high street business and repeal Labour’s workers’ rights reforms.
The Conservatives have published their “alternative King’s Speech,” which they say offers a “direction of travel” for the opposition party but is not an exhaustive manifesto.
As part of its welfare reform bill, the Conservatives say they would reinstate the two-child benefit cap in full and restrict PIP disability payments to those with “lower-level” mental health conditions.
The Tories claim Labour has let disability benefit spending “spiral out of control” and failed to stem rising unemployment, as the number of young people out of education, employment or training nears one million.
‘Get people off welfare and into work’
Badenoch’s party also said it would repeal all “job killing” elements of Labour’s workers’ rights act, including the guaranteed hours requirement which hospitality firms have urged the government to rethink.
“The Conservatives will get Britain working again by getting people off welfare and into work, making substantial savings and transforming lives across the country,” the policy package says.
The Tories have also pledged to scrap business rates for high street businesses by imposing a 100 per cent tax relief for retail, hospitality and leisure firms, capped at £110,000 per business.
This would support 250,000 businesses by cutting costs and allowing them to reinvest in staff and premises, the party claims.
Changes to the business rates system made at last year’s budget sent bills soaring for thousands of firms, and restaurants and hotels were excluded from a £300m relief package offered only to pubs.
The Tories also pledged to slash red tape on City firms, including mandatory reporting and net zero requirements.
“Businessss success should be based on competitive offering the best good or service to customers, not compliance with ideological frameworks – we shouldn’t hold business back or burden them with political expectations,” the Conservatives said.
‘We should not hold business back’
Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said: “Labour’s tax rises, red tape and reckless borrowing have intensified pressures across our economy.
“We should not hold business back or burden them with needless red tape. Only the Conservatives have the plan and the leadership needed to get Britain working again.”
The Tories’ pledges to slash tax and red tape come as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces intense pressure from within his own party to regain the confidence of the electorate or resign, after Labour took a battering at the local elections.
The Conservatives also suffered significant losses, but Badenoch hailed resurgences in councils like Westminster and Wandsworth as “signs of renewal” for her party.
The “alternative King’s speech” also included pledges to unwind the ECHR and Human Rights Act, slash migration and use more policing and facial recognition to crack down on shoplifting.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “If you want a country with strong borders, a country that is properly defended, a country that is a great place to start and run a business, and a country in which the law is upheld, this alternative Kings Speech delivers just that.”
