Tories urge Chancellor not to raise tax in five Budget ‘tests’

Christopher McKeon and Ellie Crabbe, Press Association

The Conservatives have urged John Healey not to raise tax when he delivers his first Budget at the end of the month.

Mr Healey’s Conservative opposite number, Andrew Griffith, said the Chancellor should commit to introducing no new taxes on October 28, urging him to “stop the tax ratchet”.

Mr Griffith said: “Labour’s first two budgets put taxes on course for the highest level ever recorded, and families and businesses are continuing to pay the price.

“John Healey must deliver a ‘get a grip’ Budget, instead of kicking the can down the road.”

The call is one of five “tests” Mr Griffith said the Chancellor should meet – including cutting the budget deficit, slashing welfare, increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 and increasing youth employment.

He added: “These tests are simple, and Labour have already set one themselves.

“When he resigned as defence secretary, John Healey said that 3% of GDP on defence spending is ‘what Britain must set’.”

Mr Griffith told Sky News: “One of the weaknesses in our armoury is the lack of funding for the Government’s own independent defence plan.”

Asked if the Conservatives need to “own their own record” after cutting defence spending during their 14 years in government, he said: “This country is facing unprecedented threats on multiple fronts. The thing that we should all be talking about right now is how you make those choices today.

“I don’t have a time machine. I can’t go back in the past.”

He said policies the Tories have announced, including tackling youth unemployment, will “help people across the country”.

The shadow chancellor told the BBC: “We announced plans to tackle the youth jobs emergency by making it easier for employers to hire them by reducing the national insurance cost of doing that and a lot of other other reforms that will help people across the country.”

Mr Griffith’s “tests” come as the bosses of Britain’s biggest City groups intensified calls for the Chancellor not to raise taxes on banks.

In a letter to Mr Healey, senior City figures including the chief executives of UK Finance and the CBI said Britain’s financial services industry “already faces a higher tax burden than our key international competitors”.

The group argued that banking businesses are more likely to move their offices outside of the UK and to other financial hubs if taxes increase.

A Treasury spokesman said: “The Chancellor has been clear that fiscal discipline underwrites every promise this Government makes, which is why he and the Prime Minister are in lockstep on meeting the fiscal rules.

“His focus is on backing British jobs, giving families and businesses breathing space and driving growth in every postcode, and he will set out decisions on October 28.”

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