UK election 2024: PM Sunak pledges tax cuts as Conservatives try to trim Labour’s lead in polls

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to cut 17 billion pounds (US$21.7 billion) of taxes for working people if re-elected, launching a final throw of the dice to overturn polls that put him on course for a heavy defeat in Britain’s July 4 election.

With surveys showing the Conservatives consistently about 20 points behind Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, Sunak sought to win over workers and pensioners with tax cuts in his party’s manifesto which he said would be funded by lower welfare spending, a clamp down on tax avoidance and greater public service efficiencies.

The 44-year-old former investment banker acknowledged that people were frustrated with him, and his previous pledges have been met by scepticism as to why the party failed to do more to tackle deep-seated problems during its 14 years in power.

Britain’s tax burden has risen to its highest as a share of the economy since just after World War II due to the twin shocks of the Covid pandemic and energy price spikes, and failing public services have created a sense of malaise.

But Sunak argued that the economy was finally recovering and if re-elected he would cut payroll taxes for workers to reignite economic growth further. He accuses the centre-left Labour Party of planning to increase taxes to fund its promises, a charge it denies.

“I’m not blind to the fact that people are frustrated with our party and frustrated with me,” Sunak said at the launch of the Conservatives’ manifesto, setting out its future policy pledges.