David Cameron
THE CONSERVATIVES promised billions in tax cuts to 30 million voters in a grand finale to their party conference.
In his final speech to party members before next year’s election, David Cameron said a future majority Tory government would raise the personal allowance below which no tax is payable to £12,500, while increasing the threshold at which workers pay the higher 40p rate of income tax to £50,000.
The prime minister also warned voters not to flirt with the right-wing UK Independence Party and its leader, Nigel Farage.
Voters who back the party “could go to bed with Nigel Farage and wake up with Ed
Miliband”, he said, pointing to the possibility of divided Conservative votes helping the Labour Party.
Britain was now “regaining its purpose, its pride and its confidence”, he said, adding: “We’re at a moment where all the hard work is finally paying off and the light is coming up after some long dark days.
“Go back now and we’ll lose all we’ve done, falling back into the shadows when we could be striding into the sun.
“That’s the question next May – Do you want to go back to square one or finish what we’ve begun?”
In a fierce turn of fire on Labour, the prime minister accused the opposition party of “spreading complete and utter lies” about Tory plans for the NHS and of presiding over the hospital scandal of Mid-Staffordshire while in power.
In angry tones, he reminded activists of his own experiences as a father who relied on NHS care for his profoundly disabled son Ivan, who died aged six in 2009, and asked: “How dare they suggest I would ever put that at risk for other people’s children? How dare they frighten those who are relying on the NHS right now?”
But shadow chancellor Ed Balls accused the PM of “trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes”, adding: “Nobody will be fooled by pie in the sky promises of tax cuts in six years’ time when David Cameron cannot tell us where the money is coming from.
“Even the Tories admit this is an unfunded commitment of over £7 billion, so how will they pay for it? Will they raise VAT on families and pensioners again?”
