May refuses to rule out rise in tax if she returns

Theresa May has refused to rule out a rise in income tax if she is returned to power in the General Election.Campaigning in West Yorkshire, the prime minister stopped short of repeating a promise by Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon that there would be no rise in income tax for high earners.May said it was her “firm intention” to reduce taxes for ordinary working families and reiterated her assurance that the Conservatives remained a “low-tax party”.But when asked by a journalist if she would rule out raising income tax altogether, she said: “Our position on tax hasn’t changed. We have set it out in the manifesto.“What people will know when they go to vote on Thursday is that it is the Conservative Party that always has been, is and always will be a low-tax party.“It is our firm intention to reduce taxes for ordinary working families.”May was visiting key battleground constituencies in Yorkshire yesterday and paid a visit to Horsfield Nursery in Penistone and Thornhill Cricket Club in Dewswbury.The Conservative manifesto, published last month, said there would be no increase in VAT but dropped David Cameron’s pledge in the 2015 general election not to raise income tax or national insurance contributions.However, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Sir Michael said voting Conservative was “the only way” people could be sure income tax would not be hiked.Asked if high earners could confidently vote Conservative next week, safe in the knowledge that their income tax would not go up, Sir Michael said: “Yes. “You’ve seen our record. We’re not in the business of punishing people for getting on, on the contrary we want people to keep more of their earnings.“The only way they can be sure their taxes won’t rise is to vote Conservative. We already know your tax will go up if you vote Labour on Thursday.”The manifesto commits the Tories to increasing the personal allowance to £12,500 and the threshold for the 40p higher rate to £50,000 by 2020.Labour’s plans would see the 45p rate of income tax kick in for people earning £80,000 instead of the current £150,000, with a new 50p rate for people earning more than £123,000.Sir Michael said: “You can be sure your tax will go up if you’re a higher-rate taxpayer if you stay at home on Thursday.“We need every single vote, not simply to show Brussels we’re serious about the Brexit negotiations but to underpin the strong economy we’ve created.”The Defence Secretary said Labour had announced a further £9.5bn of unfunded spending on top of the £48.6bn of policy pledges contained in its manifesto.The extra plans include £6bn for writing off student debt, £3.3bn on unfreezing benefits and £134mn on capping regulated rail fares, he said.For Labour, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Sir Michael’s comments showed the Tories were the party for “the few, not the many”.“The mask has finally slipped,” he said.“The only guarantee the Tories are prepared to give at this election is to big business and high earners while low and middle income earners have seen no guarantee from Theresa May that their taxes won’t be raised and pensioners are left to worry about whether they will be able to heat their homes or even keep their homes, with no clarity on cuts to winter fuel payments or the dementia tax.”May called the snap election in April when opinion polls were showing she had a lead of more than 20 points over Labour under the leadership of left-winger Jeremy Corbyn.But since then May’s lead has been eaten away, meaning she might no longer score the thumping victory she had hoped for ahead of this month’s launch of Brexit negotiations.A poll showed on Friday that the Conservatives were ahead of Labour by five percentage points, down sharply from 15 a little more than two weeks earlier.Another poll this week said the lead was down to three points.The decline in support for the Conservatives coincided with a surprise announcement by May last month that she would make elderly people pay more for their social care, despite concerns that it could undermine support among ageing, wealthy homeowners — a core source of Conservative vote.May later softened the proposal by saying there would be a limit on the amount that people would have to pay.The latest confusion over income tax underscores the challenge facing the next government to meet the growing costs of public services at a time when Britain’s budget deficit remains large, and with Brexit-related uncertainty likely to weigh on the economy.When May unveiled her election policies last month, she left open the possibility of higher income taxes by only promising no rises in value-added tax and dropping a Conservative pledge under predecessor David Cameron — made in the 2015 election campaign — not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT.The constraints of that pledge became clear earlier this year when May’s government tried to increase national insurance contributions on self-employed workers.