Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to scrap stamp duty on all homes as part of a conference speech in which she said only the Tories could deliver a stronger economy and “stronger borders”.
To much applause, she said: “At the heart of a Conservative Britain is a country where people who wish to own their first home, can. But our housing market is not working as it should. The next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty.”
The surprise announcement was one of many tax cuts Ms Badenoch promised if the Tories win the next general election, and that includes reversing Labour’s inheritance tax on farm estates worth £3m or more – the “tractor tax”.
Outlining her “blueprint for Britain”, she received a huge round of applause when she said that farmers were the “backbone of our country” and “we fought for them before – we will fight for them again”.
In another major policy announcement, she promised to ban doctors from striking, stating that industrial action has kept waiting lists high for far too long. “Enough is enough,” she said.
Watch: Kemi Badenoch pledges to abolish stamp duty on all home sales
Government could crack down on chants at pro-Palestine protests
The Government could launch a crackdown on some of the chants used at pro-Palestine protests, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Prime Minister’s intervention came after pro-Gaza marchers went ahead with demonstrations on Tuesday, the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
The anniversary came less than a week after knife-wielding terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, killed two men at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester.
During a trade mission to India, Sir Keir was asked what action he would take after the protesters defied his calls to step down their demonstration on the anniversary of October 7.
He pointed to work being carried out by Shabana Mahmood to review protest laws, adding: “I’ve asked the Home Secretary to look more broadly at what other powers are available, how they’re being used, and whether they should be changed in any way.
“I think we need to go further than that in relation to some of the chants that are going on at some of these protests.”
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Labour slates ‘same old’ Tory policies
Labour accused Mrs Badenoch of being in “complete denial” after her speech to the Conservative party conference.
Anna Turley, Labour’s chairwoman, said: “Kemi Badenoch is in complete denial. The public saw the Tories’ disastrous blueprint for Britain across their 14 years of failure in government – and the Conservatives still won’t apologise for the mess they left.
“Kemi Badenoch set herself a new ‘golden economic rule’ today and broke it immediately. It’s the same old Tories, with the same old policies without a plan. They didn’t work then and you can’t trust them now.”
Data error gives Reeves extra £3bn for Budget
… but she still has to find up to £40bn:
Greens say Tory leader ‘painfully out of touch’
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said Mrs Badenoch had been “speaking to the room, not listening to the nation”.
He said: “While she got rounds of applause from men in suits sitting in front of her, she still sounds painfully out of touch with those dressed and ready to work for this country.”
He said blaming immigrants was a distraction.
Scrapping taxes would cost £21bn, against £47bn of planned savings, say Tories
The Conservatives estimate that scrapping VAT on private schools, reversing changes to inheritance tax for farms and scrapping the carbon tax as well as other conference promises would cost a total of £21.1 billion.
But they say shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride had identified £47 billion of savings in his own conference speech on Monday.
Scrapping stamp duty will cost £4.5bn, experts say – but Tories estimate twice as much
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that abolishing stamp duty on primary residences will cost around £4.5 billion.
But, claiming that chancellor Rachel Reeves was planning a significant increase in stamp duty, the Conservatives said they had “cautiously” estimated that the policy would cost £9 billion.
Earlier this year, an expert from the Tony Blair Institute argued that stamp duty needed reforming:
