BIRMINGHAM: British finance minister George Osborne promised yesterday to further squeeze the welfare budget if his Conservative Party wins re-election next year, insisting that balancing the books remained his priority.
In a speech to the annual Tory conference, Osborne stayed on message despite a sexting scandal and the defection of a lawmaker which overshadowed the start of the gathering in England’s second city Birmingham.
He said Prime Minister David Cameron’s Tory-led government had slashed the deficit by almost half since taking office in 2010, but added that “difficult decisions... are still required to fix the economy”.
Osborne vowed to freeze state benefits for the working-age population for two years from 2016, a measure that would save £3.0bn (¤3.8bn, $4.9bn).
“The fairest way to reduce welfare bills is to make sure that benefits are not rising faster than the wages of the taxpayers who are paying for them,” he said.
Osborne also said he would reduce the maximum level of benefits a household can claim to £23,000 a year from £26,000 in order to fund youth training schemes.
The opposition Labour Party last week promised to raise the minimum wage to counter a decline in living standards caused by stagnant wage growth after the recession. But Osborne insisted: “The best way to support peoples’ incomes is to make sure those out of work get a job and those in work pay less tax.”
He announced plans to cut the 55-percent tax rate on pension pots handed down from parents to children. And in another voter-friendly measures, he vowed to clamp down on tax avoidance by international technology firms.
Multinational digital giants such as Apple and Google have been accused by campaigners of using tax strategies that minimise their payments around the world.
“Some technology companies go to extraordinary lengths to pay little or no tax here,” Osborne told delegates.
“And my message to those companies is clear: we will put a stop to it. Low taxes, but low taxes that are paid.” Osborne’s announcements helped the party leadership regain some control after the defection of MP Mark Reckless to the anti-immigration, anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP).
He was the second Tory MP to defect in as many months — UKIP already looks set to win its first seat in the House of Commons next month when Douglas Carswell, a former Tory, stands for the party in Clacton in southeast England.
A second shock came after junior minister Brooks Newmark resigned on Saturday after the Sunday Mirror tabloid said he had sent an explicit photo to an undercover reporter.
One of Newmark’s colleagues, MP Mark Pritchard, said he would complain to the new press regulator about the sting — but that only kept the story in the headlines. Cameron, who will make his keynote speech to the party conference tomorrow, admitted it had “not been an ideal start” to the annual gathering.
Opinion polls have consistently put Labour several points ahead, but they have also shown the Conservatives are more trusted to deliver economic growth.
However, a ComRes survey released Monday indicated the Tories faced an uphill struggle to win outright victory, giving Labour a convincing lead in crucial marginal seats.
AFP
