Tories pledge tax breaks worth £250m

CONSERVATIVES yesterday announced tax breaks worth £250 million (€272m) to new businesses, as the party’s leadership sought to put a lid on internal discontent over Europe at their annual conference in Manchester.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said that waiving the 12.8% employers’ National Insurance contribution for the first 10 employees taken on by a newly-established firm could create 60,000 jobs in the first two years of a Tory government.

The measure formed a centrepiece of a jobs package which leader David Cameron described as “the biggest, boldest programme to get Britain working that this country has ever seen”.