Cut welfare to fund 2p income tax decrease, says Tory leadership hopeful Jenrick
Robert Jenrick argued for a small-state, free-market economy with Margaret Thatcher as his example during a Tory leadership campaign event.
Returning the benefits bill to pre-pandemic levels would free up enough money for a 2p income tax cut, Robert Jenrick said as he laid out his vision for Britain’s economy.
In a wide-ranging speech on Wednesday, the Conservative leadership hopeful argued for a small-state, lower-regulation Britain, taking the Margaret Thatcher government has his example.
He told an audience in the upstairs room of a restaurant on Old Queen’s Street, Westminster: “It’s a simple agenda, rather than a big state that fails we need a small state that works.”
Along with sacking 100,000 civil servants, replacing “failed” universities with “apprenticeship hubs” and reforming the planning system to build more houses, Mr Jenrick argued for “responsible” tax cuts funded by getting more people back into work.
He said: “I am setting a simple target: we will bring the inactivity rate back down to its pre-pandemic level, bringing almost 500,000 people back into the workforce.”
This, he said, would cut the welfare bill by £12 billion, enough to fund a 2p income tax cut.
But asked whether he was committing to proposing such a tax cut if he became leader, he rowed back, saying: “We are not in government and I’m not going to write the manifesto for four or five years’ time.
“But I have set out what the choice is. That’s within our grasp if the Labour Government make the right decisions.”
Mr Jenrick also stressed the need to cut taxes “responsibly”, arguing the Liz Truss mini-budget had been a “damaging episode” as it had paired tax cuts with “massive spending” on support for energy bills – something he described as “the largest single welfare bailout, I think, in our country’s modern history”.
His speech came as voting began in the membership round of the Conservative leadership contest, which sees Mr Jenrick face off with former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch, who is widely seen as the frontrunner.
But Mr Jenrick insisted his campaign had “momentum” as he argued the Conservative Party faced “an existential challenge”.
Ms Badenoch is expected to hold a virtual rally of her own on Wednesday evening.
Conservative members have until October 31 to vote for their preferred leader, with the result announced on November 2.
