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Saturday, May 31, 2025

Tories signal tax-cutting Budget if elected

Boris Johnson says he will take the UK out of the EU, present a "tax-cutting" Budget, and deliver on manifesto pledges on crime and health within the first 100 days if he wins the election.

As the campaign enters its final week, the PM said only a Tory victory would end the Brexit uncertainty and get MPs "working on the people's priorities".

If re-elected, he said schools and the NHS would get immediate extra cash.

But Labour said their opponents only offered "more of the same failure".

The Lib Dems said the Conservative plans were "pure fantasy", while the SNP warned there were seven days left to "lock" Mr Johnson out of Downing Street.

Voters will go to the polls on 12 December for the third election in just over five years.

Mr Johnson has said the snap poll is the only way to end months of Brexit paralysis in Parliament. He has guaranteed that the UK will leave the EU by the 31 January deadline if the Conservatives get a working Commons majority.

He has promised to bring his EU withdrawal agreement back for initial approval by MPs before Christmas. He also said he will set out his wider legislative agenda in a Queen's Speech pencilled in for 19 December.

Outlining his plans for the first 100 days, Mr Johnson said his government would take "urgent action" on the cost of living in a Budget in February, which he said would also "take advantage of the opportunities of leaving the EU with a deal".

He pledged to:

"Enshrine in law" the £39.9bn a year in extra funding promised for the NHS in England by 2023
Carry out a review of the UK's defence and security capabilities while legislation will be passed to end the automatic early release of serious violent offenders half way through their sentences, the subject of a bitter political row in the wake of last week's London Bridge terror attack
Start recruiting 20,000 police officers, boosting nursing numbers in England by 50,000 and starting cross-party discussions on social care funding
Mr Johnson has shelved a planned cut in corporation tax to free up £6bn for more public spending, but will see £2.5bn less from a rise in the National Insurance threshold.

He has promised to increase the threshold to £9,500 in the first budget of a Conservative government, which the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies says will save workers about £85 per year.

Plans to raise the threshold further, to £12,500, will be announced in the first budget, Mr Johnson has said.

Mr Johnson said his Queen's Speech would build on the programme that was approved by Parliament as recently as October but which was then effectively mothballed after MPs voted to back an early election.

Other policies would include legislation to protect rail passengers during industrial action, amendments to the Human Rights Act to protect British troops on military operations from vexatious legal claims and legislation to introduce a mandatory minimum term of 14 years for adult offenders convicted of serious terrorist offences.

The BBC's Iain Watson said the Conservative blueprint was also very much a plan for the next seven days, as between now and polling day they want to convince waverers that the party will not only deliver Brexit in government but that it has wider priorities too.

Labour, which is set to make an announcement of its own on schools funding on Thursday, said the Conservatives' record in office over the past nine and a half years was one of total failure.

"In those days we've seen child poverty soar, rising homelessness, rising food bank use, and violent crime is up too while the NHS has more people waiting for operations, and record staff vacancies," said shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne.

"As the Conservatives approach 3,500 days of failure, it's clear that more of the same failed austerity, privatisation and tax giveaways for the few is not the answer."

And as she prepares to embark on a week-long election bus tour, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said her party was the only one in Scotland capable of thwarting Mr Johnson's "extreme Brexit".

"If Boris Johnson wins a majority in seven days' time, Scotland will be dragged out of Europe within just eight weeks," she said.

"We have seven days to escape Brexit, lock Boris Johnson out of office and put Scotland's future in Scotland's hands."

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