Prime minister vows ‘sensible’ tax cuts and spending plans

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing a December 12 election, promised £23.5bn of “sensible” tax cuts and extra day-to-day spending which he sought to contrast with the opposition Labour Party’s much more radical plans.The most expensive tax cut planned by the Conservative Party was a raising of the threshold for paying social security contributions — which was announced by Johnson last week — while much of the extra spending was on the health service.“We won’t gamble with taxpayers’ money or this country’s economic future. That is why we have set out clear rules that will keep borrowing and debt under control,” Finance Minister Sajid Javid said in a document accompanying the launch.Labour was proposing “reckless plans and ideological experiments” which would hit investment in Britain, he said.Under the Conservatives’ plans, day-to-day spending would rise by £2.9bn a year by the 2023-24 financial year, dwarfed by Labour’s £83bn planned rise as it promises to reverse a decade of tight spending controls on many services.Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank, said the spending proposals represented a move towards more funding for public services as a whole, but many areas would not feel much relief.“Outside of schools and hospitals, there is not going to be much to go around,” he told BBC television. “A lot of the austerity...that we have seen over the last decade in things like justice, in things like local government, are pretty much baked in, if you take this manifesto at face value.” The Conservatives said the impact of their tax and spending plans on the government’s day-to-day current budget would be close to zero in the period between 2020 and 2024.The election manifesto also reiterated a proposal to increase investment — which is separate from day-to-day spending — by around £20bn a year.With less than three weeks before Britain heads to the polls, the governing Conservatives and opposition Labour Party are trying to tempt voters with different visions of the country’s future, but both pledging to spend more.Johnson is the runaway favourite to win the election, according to the polls.“Get Brexit done and we shall see a pent up tidal wave of investment into this country,” Johnson said. “Get Brexit done and we can focus our hearts and our minds on the priorities of the British people.”Labour spokesman Andrew Gwynne said Johnson’s plans were “pathetic”. “This is a no hope manifesto, from a party that has nothing to offer the country, after spending 10 years cutting our public services,” Gwynne said.Held after three years of negotiations to leave the European Union, the December election for the first time will show how far Brexit has torn traditional political allegiances apart and will test an electorate increasingly tired of voting.In a heated campaign where the Conservatives have been criticised for disseminating misleading social media posts, Johnson, 55, said “the Twittersphere” was not really his province, again turning his comments towards to Labour’s Brexit position, which he described as meaning more delay.Labour has said it will negotiate a better Brexit deal with the EU within six months that it will put to the people in a new referendum — one which will also offer the choice of remaining in the bloc.