Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is leading the race to become Britain's next prime minister, with opinion polls putting her well ahead of former finance minister Rishi Sunak before the Sept. 5 result is announced.
Below are details of the policies has Truss proposed during the leadership contest.
TAX
- No new taxes
- Hold an emergency budget and review of government spending
- Reverse a 1.25 percentage point rise in payroll tax known as National Insurance. The rise was introduced by Sunak in April to help pay for the health and social care system
- Cancel a planned increase in corporation tax. The tax is due to rise from 19% to 25% from 2023 under plans announced by Sunak in March 2021
- Apply a temporary moratorium on environmental and social levies added to consumers' electricity bills
- Provide "immediate support" for households facing high energy bills. No specific details have been set out.
- Not impose any new levies on unhealthy food and ditch plans to restrict multi-buy deals on food and drink high in fat, salt, or sugar
- Review the way families are treated by tax authorities, with a view to easing the tax burden when family members are not working in order to care for children or relatives
ECONOMY AND DOMESTIC
- Review the Bank of England's mandate without compromising its independence
- No energy rationing
- Support fracking in areas where people back it
- Create low regulation "investment zones"
- Introduce minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure and raise ballot thresholds to limit strike action
- Reform mortgage assessments to help those renting gain access to the housing market
- Scrap home-building targets, incentivise local authorities to build more houses and speed up the planning system
- Review how Britain will reach its 2050 net zero target to see how it can be done in a more "market-friendly" way
- No new Scottish independence referendum
- A six point education reform package, including measures to cut childcare costs
- Temporarily expand seasonal workers scheme to ensure farmers have access to labour
- Tackle violence against women and girls including criminalising street harassment
- Increase frontline border force by 20% and double the border force maritime staffing levels
- Review energy and water regulators, Ofgem and Ofwat, respectively, to ensure they are "much more effective"
INTERNATIONAL
- Increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 from 2.3% of GDP projected this year
- Make Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelenskiy the first foreign leader she calls as prime minister, and work with G7 allies to provide more military and humanitarian aid for Kyiv
- Commit Britain to a lead role in a “new Marshall Plan” for Ukraine
- Update Britain's foreign policy to include a new focus on China and Russia
- Seek a trade deal among Commonwealth members to act as a bulwark against China
- Scrap all remaining European Union laws that still apply in Britain by 2023, including Solvency II regulation and seek regulatory divergence from the EU
- Pursue more third country immigration processing partnership schemes, similar to the existing agreement to send some migrants to Rwanda
- Reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) "so it works better for Britain"
- Avoid setting an "arbitrary target" on immigration
(Reporting by William James and Kylie MacLellan, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
