The TaxPayers' Alliance publishes its manifesto

The TaxPayers' Alliance has published its manifesto this morning. Many of its pledges will cause the Tory party no headache but some are in direct conflict with the ambitions of a Conservative government.

SOME TPA PLEDGES CONSISTENT WITH TORY POLICY

• Cut middle class welfare;
• Cut corporation tax to 15% or lower (I expect George Osborne to make big steps towards this if he becomes Chancellor);
• Abolish inheritance tax (more sensibly the party is pledged to do this but only for non-millionaires);
• Introduce elected police chiefs (this is already Chris Grayling's flagship policy);
• Publish full data on spending (the Tories have promised disclosure of all Whitehall contracts over £25,000 - Stephan Shakespeare of the Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age has already warned that this will lead to lots of budgeting things at £24,995!);
• Recall and citizens' initiatives;
• Payment-by-results rehabilition regime in prisons;
• School choice.

SOME TPA PLEDGES THAT WILL PUSH THE TORIES TO GO FASTER THAN THEY MIGHT NATURALLY TRAVEL

• Abolish the 50p tax rate;
• Abolish a range of quangos;
• Reform the NHS to make it less centralised.

SOME TPA PLEDGES THAT WILL CAUSE ANY TORY GOVERNMENT A HEADACHE

• The TPA want abolition of taxpayer subsidy of the trade unions. We learnt today that David Cameron intends to continue with the union modernisation fund.
• Abandon the 2020 renewables target and the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme.
• Drop the 0.7% target for foreign aid spending.
• Hold a referendum on fundamental renegotiation of the UK-EU relationship. No chance of this happening (sadly).

Read a PDF of the full manifesto.

Tim Montgomerie