When all else fails, a Conservative candidate can always draw on the spirit of Margaret Thatcher. After three turbulent weeks in which nothing has gone well for Rishi Sunak, the prime minister presented his political manifesto program this Tuesday—one of the key moments of the election campaign in the United Kingdom—and the message had the seal of the Iron Lady: lower taxes, aid to buy housing, cuts in social aid, and relentless attacks on the “socialist” proposals of her rivals.
“We are the party of Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson [el ministro de Economía que la acompañó]. A party that, unlike Labor, believes in healthy money management. All the plans we present today, as it could not be otherwise, have financial support,” Sunak assured his ministers, guests at the event and the press. “We will be able to sustain this permanent tax reduction thanks to limiting unsustainable increases in social aid to those of working age. Because we believe that the morally right thing is for those who can work to do so. And that those who work hard can keep their money. That is, less welfare aid so that there are fewer taxes,” said the prime minister to applause that was more automatic than enthusiastic from those present.
Sunak has the discipline and tenacity of a technocrat, but lacks the gift of timing that other politicians display in campaigns. The Conservative Party had prepared a setting for the presentation of the manifesto that in the hands, for example, of Boris Johnson, would have been a riot of witticisms and metaphors: the Silverstone circuit. The oldest in Formula 1, in a country that is home to seven of the 10 teams that participate in the competition today and that has produced the greatest number of Grand Prix champions in the history of motorsport. “It’s a good time to turn the corner,” he simply pointed out, hoping to leave behind the blunders accumulated during the campaign.
Forced tax reduction
The barely two years of Sunak’s mandate as prime minister have been a constant struggle between conservative deputies, who demanded lower taxes to survive politically, and the budgetary and fiscal rigor that Downing Street has been forced to impose to get out of the crisis. economic and reputational debacle that his predecessor, Liz Truss, caused in just 45 days in office.
With inflation that has finally fallen to levels comparable to those of the EU, and slight economic growth in the first quarter of the year (0.6%), Sunak and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, have looked below the fiscal gift stones with which to bring joy to the campaign of the tories.
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There are close to 20,000 million euros in tax cuts, and the conservative candidate assures that the accounts balance. For now, the new program announces another cut of two percentage points in the National Insurance (something like the Social Security contribution) paid by the worker. Since Sunak has been Prime Minister, he has reduced this levy from 12% to 8%, and now promises to reduce it to 6%.
The surprise has come, above all, for the self-employed, to whom he has promised that they will practically stop paying that contribution.
The program also includes the commitment to eliminate the income tax for pensioners, and to improve the tax conditions of all those citizens who receive child benefits.
A nation of owners
The housing crisis suffered by the United Kingdom, not very different from that suffered by other European countries, has forced Conservatives and Labor to launch into competition on their proposals. Sunak promises to build 1.6 million more residences (100,000 more than the Conservatives promised in 2019 and failed to deliver); delete the stamp duty(home purchase tax) on houses of up to half a million euros, and up to 1,200 million in aid to first buyers.
The prime minister aims to revive Thatcher’s achievement – as the Conservatives recall – of building a “nation of landlords”, by allowing millions of Britons to buy the social housing they were renting.
“We want to create a new generation that joins the ladder of owners; a society in which more and more people have the security and pride that comes with owning your own home. Since the Thatcher era, we Conservatives have been the party of a property-owning democracy,” Sunak proclaimed.
Social cuts
During his mandate, the prime minister began to apply cuts to many of the public aid and subsidies that the pandemic inflated. Sunak has now rescued that speech, with neoliberal echoes that seek to please the most Thatcherite sector of his party. The proposed measures aim to ensure that many of the citizens who have so far alleged mobility or mental health problems should re-enter the labor market. They will drastically withdraw aid from all those who spend more than a year without accepting job offers, and they will reform the law that regulates sick leave, to take away the ability to grant sick leave to family doctors.
Sunak hopes to save, with these social cuts, up to 14 billion euros that would help finance the promised tax cuts. “So far, what they promise are gifts that will be financed by uncertain savings, not very specific and that only in appearance will not produce victims. Forgive me for a certain degree of skepticism,” said Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank, upon learning of the conservative proposals.
With the presentation of the manifesto, Sunak no longer has any more rabbits in his hat. And that helps explain why part of his speech focuses on trying to spark fear among Conservative voters in the face of the expectation that his rival, Labor’s Keir Starmer, will be the new prime minister: “He is asking you to hand him a check.” blank, without saying what he wants to buy or how much it will cost,” said this Tuesday at the Silverstone circuit a conservative candidate who many of his people are beginning to suspect has a blinded engine.
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