Tories hold off from tax cut pledges

Britain's Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin today announced plans to “set Britain on the path to a lower tax economy” - but refused to give specific pledges on tax cuts.

In his keynote Conservative conference speech, Mr Letwin said: “I will deliver a budget which will implement the James reforms, begin the thinning down of those fat bureaucracies and set Britain on the path to a lower tax economy.”

This was a reference to the audit of UK government being carried out by David James, which has already identified £15bn (€21bn) worth of savings.

Mr Letwin said commentators suggested it would be courageous to promise to cut taxes by “so much on such and such a day”.

“The sad truth is that when we were in office we made promises on tax we couldn’t keep and everybody knows Tony Blair said he had no plans to increase tax at all and then raised them 66 times by stealth.

“So no more broken promises on tax. Instead of promises, actions. Instead of words, deeds.”