Osborne pledges to reverse Labour’s “pension tax raid”
Shadow chancellor sets out post-election financial stall at Tory party conference
Shadow cancellor George Osborne has pledged a future Tory government to ”
reverse the effects of Gordon Brown’s pensions tax raid” of ten years ago.
He described the proposal as “an ambition we will only be able to fulfil when
we have got on top of the deficit” and one “that may well take more than one
parliament to achieve”.
But he made clear his view the “disastrous” abolition of advance corporation
tax relief at the start of Labour’s reign “heralded the start of the age of
irresponsibility”.
He stated his aim to “get our country saving again” and claimed the move
would fund investment.
The proposal was at the end of a list of policies punctuated by the mantra:
“We are all in this together” and dominated by his proposed freeze in public
sector pay above £18,000 a year – except for service personnel on active duty in
Afghanistan – and cap the highest public sector pensions.
He said he would keep the Labour government’s top rate of 50% tax on the
highest earners at least until the pay freeze ends, plans to scrap family tax
credits for those earning over £50,000 and gave “fair warning” to use the tax
system to hit bankers who ignore curbs on bonuses and a continued crackdown on
avoidance and tax havens.
He also promised to keep his pledge to axe inheritance tax on estates under
£1m – but not as a priority in his first Budget.