Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has confirmed that a Tory government would slash inheritance tax, ensuring there is none on family homes passed to children or grandchildren. Speaking at her party conference in Birmingham, she announced that people who work hard all their lives will be allowed to pass on more of their wealth without having it seized by the Treasury.
She went further by announcing that the total inheritance tax threshold will be increased by £1 million for a couple, so the total number of families forced to pay it is cut in half. The announcement was greeted with rapturous applause by activists in the conference hall.
Pledge to abolish inheritance tax
Mrs Badenoch said: "The Labour Party think it is selfish to pass on what you have earned to your children. We don't." The Conservative leader said: "Inheritance tax was supposed to be a tax on the super wealthy ... it is not a tax on ordinary middle-class families in every part of the country."
She said the Conservatives "have always been the party of home ownership" and that a Conservative government "will legislate so nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home". She said "every inheritance tax bill will be cut and the number of families paying inheritance tax will fall by more than half".
Mrs Badenoch said her ambition was "to abolish inheritance tax altogether as soon as we can afford it".
Economic and other pledges
She said growing the economy would be the top mission of a Conservative government, and vowed to "scrap every job-killing measure in Labour's Employment Rights Act". The Tory leader also vowed to create 50,000 extra prison places to ensure criminals were punished. A Conservative government would take politics out of classrooms and ensure schools focus on teaching, she said.
She slammed Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham for wanting "to reopen the Brexit debate". She said: "Can you imagine going through all that again?" And she boldly stated: "He's not going to be Prime Minister after the next election. Not if I have anything to do with it."
In her speech, she said there was "a fight coming in British politics. A fight that we have not seen in this country for more than half a century. It will be a battle for the soul of this nation". She said that "a renewed Conservative Party" was fighting against a Left-wing Labour Party, in an attempt to place the Tories, rather than Reform, as the credible opposition to Andy Burnham.
Mrs Badenoch said: "We are the only party with the team and the plan to get Britain working again."
National Insurance and defence plans
In other conference announcements, the Conservative Party pledged to halve employer National Insurance contributions on jobs held by young people if it wins the next election. The flat rate for businesses would be slashed from 15% to 7.5% for workers aged 21-24 at an estimated cost of £2.3 billion.
It is hoped the move would put tens of thousands of young people in jobs, meaning that many claiming out-of-work benefits would instead contribute taxes to the Exchequer. Under party proposals for a "tough love" approach to unemployed under-25s announced last week, young people would be barred from going straight from school on to benefits if the Tories returned to power. People aged 16-24 who have not worked continuously for six months would be unable to claim universal credit, the Conservatives said.
Mrs Badenoch also pledged to create a £10 billion British "Iron Dome" air defence system to guard against missile and drone attacks if she becomes Prime Minister. The so-called "Britannia Shield", modelled on the virtually impenetrable Israeli system, would be one of the UK's most significant military programmes since the Cold War.
