Rishi Sunak launches 2024 Tory manifesto with pledge to cut national insurance

11 June 2024 , 11:05

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Rishi Sunak launched the Tory manifesto which vows to cut national insurance

Rishi Sunak has pledged to cut taxes and extend help for first-time buyers as he unveiled the Tories' 2024 General Election manifesto.

It comes as the PM desperately attempts to avert a wipeout at the polls - with just over three weeks to go until the country heads to the polls. Launching the manifesto after a chaotic start to his election campaign, the Tory leader vowed to cut national insurance again by 2027.

The Tories reduced employees' national insurance from 10% to 8% at the March Budget - following a similar cut in autumn 2023 - at an annual cost of almost £10billion by 2028/29. The manifesto commits to a third 2p reduction as part of a drive to eliminate national insurance altogether - a commitment Labour says will cost £46billion-a-year.

The 76-page document also promises to abolish the main rate of self-employed national insurance entirely by the end of the Parliament.

In an attempt to help first-time buyers, Mr Sunak said an increase to the threshold at which they pay stamp duty will be made permanent. From 2022 first-time buyers have paid no duty on the value of a property up to £425,000.

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And it also pledges to abolish no-fault evictions for renters - a promise the Tories last made in 2019 and failed to deliver on.

Mr Sunak said the Tories would also halve migration as he launched his manifesto in Silverstone, saying: "Last year we announced changes which means 300,000 people who were previously eligible to come here now can't and we will introduce a migration cap that means parliament, your elected representatives, will vote on how many people should be able to come here every year.

"Our plan is this: we will halve migration as we have halved inflation, and then reduce it every single year."

Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty ahead of the Tory manifesto launch (Getty Images)

The Tory blueprint for government also commits to raising the high-income child benefit tax charge to £120,000.Under the current rules, parents start to lose the allowance if they earn more than the £60,000 threshold, and it is taken away entirely when someone's income exceeds £80,000.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill - designed to ban young people from ever being able to legally smoke - will be revived if the Tories win the election, the document adds. The proposal had only been through its initial stages in the Commons before it was abandoned last month when Mr Sunak called the snap election.

But Keir Starmer said today "the money's not there" for the Tories' flagship manifesto pledge to cut national insurance by a further 2p.

The Labour leader claimed: "The money's not there for the Tories' desperation. And what they're producing is a recipe for five more years of chaos. I think that's why it's so important that we see this election as a choice, because we can't go on like this."

Lib Dem Deputy leader Daisy Cooper added: "Rishi Sunak got one thing right in this speech: people are frustrated with him and the Conservative Party. This manifesto isn't worth the paper it's printed on. No one will believe anything they're promising today.

"From his D-day disservice to a Formula One flop, Rishi Sunak's Conservatives have packed their campaign with desperation and lies. After years of taking people for granted, the Conservatives have overseen crumbling hospitals, sewage scandals and a cost of living crisis like no other. It's time for a change.

"Frankly, it's astonishing that they managed to sit politely in a room and agree with each other for long enough to publish something."

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Launching the Conservative Party manifesto at Silverstone, Northamptonshire, home of the British Grand Prix, Mr Sunak said there is "nowhere better in fact to mark the fact that our economy has truly turned a corner".

He added: "F1 isn't the only thing they do here at Silverstone. As nice as it would be for Brad Pitt to turn up at our manifesto launch, he's currently filming just outside with a brilliant British crew, one of the many UK-based productions taking place thanks to our support and tax cuts to the creative sector."

Ashley Cowburn