LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will promise voters “financial security” and tax cuts when he unveils his Conservative party manifesto on Tuesday, following a disastrous week that even led to rumors he might quit.
“We Conservatives have a plan to give you financial security,” he will say, according to extracts of his speech released in advance.
“We will enable working people to keep more of the money you earn because you have earned it and have the right to choose what to spend it on,” the speech added.
Polls have predicted for many months that Sunak will lead the Conservatives to a shuddering defeat to the main opposition Labour party in the July 4 general election.
His uphill battle was last week made even harder after right-wing populist firebrand Nigel Farage announced he was running to become an MP, and the prime minister drew universal criticism for leaving D-Day commemoration events early.
When asked by journalists if rumors of him resigning were true, Sunak told broadcasters: “No, of course not. I’m energised about the vision that we’re putting forward for the country.”
He is now trying to get his campaign back on track by focusing on tax cuts.
“We know what Socialists always do — take more of your money,” Sunak was due to say on Tuesday.
Sunak has accused Labour, led by Keir Starmer, of wanting to increase the tax burden on households although the figures are in dispute.
The Tories are expected to pledge to abolish stamp duty up to the value of £425,000 ($540,000) for first-time home buyers, with reports suggesting they will also promise another two-pence cut to national insurance paid by employees and employers for state health, unemployment and pensions.
“Owning a home makes people more financially secure, gives them a stake in society and, as (former prime minister) Mrs.Thatcher said, is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom,” Sunak wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“People should have the chance to buy their own home. It goes to the foundations of what we believe as Conservatives: we are the party of the property-owning democracy.”
Critics, however, point to record low levels of house building and high mortgage rates under the Tories, blamed on Sunak’s short-lived predecessor Liz Truss’s promise of unfunded tax cuts.
A shortage in supply has increased prices, including for renters already hit by cost-of-living pressures.
One of Sunak’s ministers, Mel Stride, told Sky News there would be a “very clear choice” between the Tory manifesto and Labour’s, which will be revealed on Thursday.
“You’re going to see two very different manifestos. Ours, at its heart, is going to be cutting people’s tax and making sure that they have a secure financial future,” he told the broadcaster.
But Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator, predicted the manifesto would be the “most expensive panic attack in history.”
With fewer than three weeks to go before the election, the polls still give Labour a lead of around 20 points over the Conservatives, with the anti-immigration Reform UK party, led by Farage, in third place.
The Conservatives, who have been in power for 14 years, are bearing the brunt of the difficulties caused by Brexit, the scandals of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government and a cost-of-living crisis that has affected British people since 2022.
UK’s Sunak to unveil tax-cutting manifesto
https://arab.news/cpthz
UK’s Sunak to unveil tax-cutting manifesto
France’s Le Pen insists party acted in ‘good faith’ at EU fraud appeal
- Le Pen said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional
- She also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen told an appeals trial on Wednesday that her party acted in “good faith,” denying an effort to embezzle European Parliament funds as she fights to keep her 2027 presidential bid alive.
A French court last year barred Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate from the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a fake jobs scam at the European institution.
It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a “system” from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ party staff in France.
Le Pen — who on Tuesday rejected the idea of an organized scheme — said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional.
“We were acting in complete good faith,” she said in the dock on Wednesday.
“We can undoubtedly be criticized,” the 57-year-old said, shifting instead the blame to the legislature’s alleged lack of information and oversight.
“The European Parliament’s administration was much more lenient than it is today,” she said.
Le Pen also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence.
“I don’t know how to prove to you what I can’t prove to you, what I have to prove to you,” she told the court.
Eleven others and the party are also appealing in a trial to last until mid-February, with a decision expected this summer.
- Rules were ‘clear’ -
Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, and fined 100,000 euros ($116,000) in the initial trial.
She now again risks the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a one-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine if the appeal fails.
Le Pen is hoping to be acquitted — or at least for a shorter election ban and no time under house arrest.
On Tuesday, Le Pen pushed back against the argument that there was an organized operation to funnel EU funds to the far-right party.
“The term ‘system’ bothers me because it gives the impression of manipulation,” she said.
EU Parliament official Didier Klethi last week said the legislature’s rules were “clear.”
EU lawmakers could employ assistants, who were allowed to engage in political activism, but this was forbidden “during working hours,” he said.
If the court upholds the first ruling, Le Pen will be prevented from running in the 2027 election, widely seen as her best chance to win the country’s top job.
She made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, before losing to Emmanuel Macron. But he cannot run this time after two consecutive terms in office.
