Taxes could be cut as economy makes recovery, says Cameron

The Prime Minister’s desire to “give people back some of their hard-earned money” follows Chancellor George Osborne’s commitment that the Government’s deficit reduction plans can be achieved without further tax rises following the 2015 poll.

But Mr Cameron appeared to go further, saying: “I think your economy does better if you say to people, ‘You’ve worked hard, you’ve done the right thing, here is some of your own money back in a tax reduction.’”

Mr Osborne said earlier this month that “tax increases are not required” to achieve his economic plans beyond 2015/16, as he intended to bring the nation’s books into balance by imposing more spending cuts.

Mr Cameron said: “What George said, and what he’s absolutely right about, is that our plans as set out and announced, that show (a) further need for spending reductions in order to meet our deficit targets, they don’t include any plans for tax rises.”

Asked on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show if that was a pledge to voters, the Prime Minister said: “I’m a low-tax Conservative. I think as we start to see the economy healing – and it is healing; as we start to see the economy grow stronger – and it is growing stronger; as we start to see the country improve, actually I want to give people back some of their hard earned money and try to reduce their taxes.

“That is what drives me as a Conservative. I think your economy does better if you say to people ‘you’ve worked hard, you’ve done the right thing, here is some of your own money back in a tax reduction’.”

But he added that “no government can ever give a blanket assurance about every single thing under the sun”.

The Prime Minister said he believed securing an outright Conservative majority in 2015 was an achievable goal.

“I’m aiming for victory and I’m going to fight all out for victory, and I think victory is achievable if we really roll up our sleeves and deliver,” he said.

Mr Cameron, who has attempted to placate Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers with a promise of a referendum on membership of the European Union by the end of 2017 if he was returned to Number 10 as leader of a Conservative government, said he would be “more liberated” without Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. The Europhile Deputy Prime Minister’s party has refused to commit to a referendum unless it was triggered by a change in the rules governing the EU.

Mr Cameron said: “I’ve set a decent timeframe for the referendum, at the end of 2017. Obviously I’ll be more liberated in a Conservative-only government that I hope to form after the next election.”

The Prime Minister hopes to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with Brussels and then put the new settlement to a public vote.

He insisted he was building a consensus for reform with other European leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel.

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