LONDON (Reuters) – Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is leading the race to become Britain’s next prime minister, with opinion polls putting her well ahead of former finance minister Rishi Sunak before the Sept. 5 result is announced.
Below are details of the policies has Truss proposed during the leadership contest.
TAX
– No new taxes
– Hold an emergency budget and review of government spending
– Reverse a 1.25 percentage point rise in payroll tax known as National Insurance. The rise was introduced by Sunak in April to help pay for the health and social care system
– Cancel a planned increase in corporation tax. The tax is due to rise from 19% to 25% from 2023 under plans announced by Sunak in March 2021
– Apply a temporary moratorium on environmental and social levies added to consumers’ electricity bills
– Provide “immediate support” for households facing high energy bills. No specific details have been set out.
– Not impose any new levies on unhealthy food and ditch plans to restrict multi-buy deals on food and drink high in fat, salt, or sugar
– Review the way families are treated by tax authorities, with a view to easing the tax burden when family members are not working in order to care for children or relatives
ECONOMY AND DOMESTIC
– Review the Bank of England’s mandate without compromising its independence
– No energy rationing
– Support fracking in areas where people back it
– Create low regulation “investment zones”
– Introduce minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure and raise ballot thresholds to limit strike action
– Reform mortgage assessments to help those renting gain access to the housing market
– Scrap home-building targets, incentivise local authorities to build more houses and speed up the planning system
– Review how Britain will reach its 2050 net zero target to see how it can be done in a more “market-friendly” way
– No new Scottish independence referendum
– A six point education reform package, including measures to cut childcare costs
– Temporarily expand seasonal workers scheme to ensure farmers have access to labour
– Tackle violence against women and girls including criminalising street harassment
– Increase frontline border force by 20% and double the border force maritime staffing levels
– Review energy and water regulators, Ofgem and Ofwat, respectively, to ensure they are “much more effective”
INTERNATIONAL
– Increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 from 2.3% of GDP projected this year
– Make Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelenskiy the first foreign leader she calls as prime minister, and work with G7 allies to provide more military and humanitarian aid for Kyiv
– Commit Britain to a lead role in a “new Marshall Plan” for Ukraine
– Update Britain’s foreign policy to include a new focus on China and Russia
– Seek a trade deal among Commonwealth members to act as a bulwark against China
– Scrap all remaining European Union laws that still apply in Britain by 2023, including Solvency II regulation and seek regulatory divergence from the EU
– Pursue more third country immigration processing partnership schemes, similar to the existing agreement to send some migrants to Rwanda
– Reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) “so it works better for Britain”
– Avoid setting an “arbitrary target” on immigration
(Reporting by William James and Kylie MacLellan, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
