Boris Johnson offers to cut taxes in post-Brexit budget

Boris Johnson has pledged he would hold a budget within weeks of Britain leaving the EU as he sought to revitalise his election campaign.

Boris Johnson campaigning at Red Bull’s Formula One team headquarters north of London. Picture: AFP

Boris Johnson has pledged that he would hold a tax-cutting budget within weeks of Britain leaving the EU as part of an attempt to revitalise his election campaign.

The British Prime Minister has said he would hold a “Brexit budget” in late February as he unveiled plans for the first 100 days of a new administration.

The spending plan meets his commitment to increase the threshold at which Britons start paying national insurance to £9500 ($18,200) from April, saving an average of £85 a year.

It is understood the budget could include 15 hours of free childcare a week for two-year-olds, a policy that was considered for the manifesto last month but did not appear.

Mr Johnson is trying to galvanise his party amid evidence its lead is narrowing a week before voters go to the polls. Isaac Levido, who is running the Conservatives’ election campaign, has told staff that the final seven days of the election is like a “closing statement” in a trial and the party must hammer home its message.

There have been concerns among Conservative officials that the NATO meeting paused the campaign at a critical time as undecided voters were making up their minds.

Labour tried on Wednesday to move the focus back to its policies to cut the cost of living by claiming that the average family would save £7000 a year if it won the election. The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said the chances of any family benefiting in full were remote. Critics added that some of the figures would be much smaller if inflation were taken into account.

Mr Johnson said on Thursday (AEDT) his plans would “kick-start a decade of investment in people’s priorities”.

“This is the most important election in a generation — important because it will define if we go forward as a country or remain stuck, stalled, repeating the same arguments of the last three years with yet more damaging uncertainty,’’ he said.

“In just seven days’ time, the British people will have to choose between a working majority government or yet another gridlocked hung parliament. If there is a Conservative majority next week, we will get Brexit done by the end of January. 2020 will then be the year we finally put behind us the arguments and uncertainty over Brexit.

“We will get parliament working on the people’s priorities — delivering 50,000 more nurses and 20,000 more police, creating millions more GP appointments and taking ­urgent action on the cost of living.”

The legislation tabled would ­include a symbolic pledge to ­enshrine in law a guarantee to ­increase National Health Service funding by £20.5bn a year. There would also be a new law intended to end all-out rail strikes by compelling train companies and ­unions to sign “minimum service agreements”.

The Human Rights Act would be amended in an attempt to protect troops from vexatious claims, and a sentencing bill would introduce a mandatory minimum term of 14 years for terrorists convicted of serious offences. A review of ­defence, security and foreign policy would be held.

The Times