CONSERVATIVE PARTY leader David Cameron, faced with dropping poll figures, has launched an effort to woo elderly voters with a pledge to increase the basic state pension, scrap means testing of pensioners and cut inheritance taxes.
“I think this government has got a lot of things wrong. But when I think of how they have treated the elderly, I think they should be ashamed of themselves. Those are strong words I know, but that’s how strongly I feel about this,” he said on a visit to Birmingham.
In his budget chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling announced a 2.5 per cent increase in the basic pension, which was £95.25 a week for a single person, and £152.30 for a couple – though this will not keep up with the 3.5 per cent inflation expected in the UK over the coming year.
“We have more pensioners living in poverty than anywhere else in western Europe,” said Mr Cameron, who accused prime minister Gordon Brown of having made a £100 billion tax raid on private pensions during his time as chancellor.
Labour, Mr Cameron claimed, is attempting to scare elderly voters on the doorsteps. He pledged that the Conservatives, if elected, would guarantee winter fuel payments, safeguard pension tax credits, and keep free bus travel and TV licences for those aged over 75. “You have my word,” he said.
The Conservatives are likely to focus strongly on inheritance taxes in the coming election campaign, following Mr Darling’s declaration this week that he intends to freeze the £325,000 tax threshold for four years. Everything over the threshold in an estate is taxed at 40 per cent, raising £1.5 billion a year in tax.
Under the Conservatives, the inheritance tax threshold would rise to £1 million. The party is also debating whether it would reverse the chancellor’s decision to increase national insurance rates by half a percentage point from next month on all incomes over £20,000. The increase has been strongly attacked by employers and unions.
The prospects for such a significant move have heightened following the latest BBC/ComRes poll, taken after this week’s budget, which shows that one-third of British voters now trust Mr Brown and Labour more than the Conservatives to run the economy, while just 27 per cent trust the Conservatives.
Meanwhile, former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine, who believes a hung parliament is now an inevitability, urged Mr Cameron to take a strong line with the Liberal Democrats in post-election talks to form a government.
“If you, Liberal Democrats, want to bring the government down and have an early election, that is your constitutional right to do.
“The people will not forgive you – but it’s entirely a matter for you. If the Lib Dems think that, as a minority party, they can dictate to the prime minister of this country, they would have a shock coming.”