Summary
Corporation tax, “woke” culture, policing and ethics were recurring themes in tonight’s Conservative party hustings at the NEC in Birmingham. Below is a summary of each candidate’s key messages in their campaign to become Conservative party leader and the next prime minister:
Liz Truss
Truss says she wants to “push back” against “identity politics of the left” and will legislate for single sex spaces such as domestic violence shelters. “I know that a woman is a woman,” she added.
Truss says she will raise defence spending by 3% of GDP by end of the decade.
In policing, Truss will put more police on the streets to tackle knife and gun crime and wants to introduce league tables to ensure the public can see how their local police forces are performing.
On taxes, Truss says she will reduce taxes as she doesn’t believe in “taking money in taxes and giving it back in benefits” in what she calls “Gordon Brown economics”.
Truss says she will “unleash opportunities of Brexit” into towns and cities across the country while cutting tax and reversing national insurance increase.
Under a Truss leadership, schools opening for longer hours and youth clubs will help young people by “offering alternative places to be”, making them less likely to “fall prey to gangs or go off in the wrong direction.
The extra £13bn the NHS has received has not helped those working on the front line, according to Truss, who says “the lack of local decision making and the layers that must be tackled to get things done is the real problem, rather than a lack of funding”.
Truss says children across the country should have the opportunity to attend grammar schools: “We must allow the good schools to expand and set up more branches.”
Rishi Sunak
Sunak says he has made a U-turn on cutting VAT as there “aren’t that many levers that you can pull to offer support that will actually work”, adding that “it’s not perfect” but that he will deal with the “practical reality of the situation in a way that will make a difference to people in a few weeks’ time”.
Thatcher was the “greatest post-war prime minister” according to Sunak who says that her leadership is the standard he holds himself to.
An increase in stop and search will be introduced if Sunak becomes PM as he vows that he will “never let political correctness stand in the way of keeping the country safe”.
On the NHS, Sunak says patients will pay penalties if they miss medical appointments if he becomes prime minister. Fines will encourage people to cancel appointments in advance and free up time for those in need.
Sunak will “turbo charge” energy security and efficiency creating “an innovative economy to create small modular reactors to power homes in a cleaner, cheaper way”.
HS2 will continue under a Sunak government but the company behind HS2 will be held to account to minimise disruption.
“China represents the biggest threat to UK’s economic and national security,” according to Sunak, but UK policy on Taiwan will remain intact as it is the “best way to prevent aggression against Taiwan from China is by showing Russia that they will not be successful in Ukraine”.
When it comes to unionism, Sunak will carry on with current government policy on Northern Ireland but wants to fix Northern Ireland’s economy from being “dragged out of the orbit of the UK”. In Scotland, Sunak wants to highlight the benefit of the union as he believes in “genuine devolution”. Calling nationalism “very seductive”, Sunak says that he will fight the idea of nationalism by “speaking to people’s hearts as prime minister”.
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Sunak will raise corporation tax if prime minister as it’s “not right to have excessive borrowing”. After the increase, the UK would still havethe lowest corporation tax rate in the G7 and only 70% of companies in the UK will pay higher rate, as the rise only applies to largest companies. For business that are investing, Sunak will offer large tax cuts on Research and Development.
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