My dad was a white van man – and I’ll cut taxes for small businesses if I become Tory leader

Labour promised change and they certainly are delivering it. 

They’ve created their own black hole in the public finances by forking out billions of pounds in pay rises for their union masters.

And another £8.3 billion to fund Ed Miliband’s fantasy new energy company that won’t produce any energy. 

Now they’re rolling the pitch for big tax rises in the budget to fund their spending splurge. 

The truth is we need stronger public services. The NHS needs more funding to cope with the pressures of an ageing population, but it also requires radical reform.

We must shift from obsessing about inputs and instead focus on outputs. 

Starmer’s dour vision of ever higher spending and taxes isn’t inevitable. 

We could save billions of pounds, and cut taxes, by cutting the fat off the British state.

By reforming the welfare system, Mel Stride and Rishi Sunak cut national insurance for millions of people. 

And we could create further room for tax cuts. For starters, by releasing the additional 100,000 civil servants we took on because of Brexit and the pandemic. 

My mission is to reclaim the low-tax, pro-business agenda and restore the Conservative’s reputation for sound money that we have lost in recent years. 

My politics is shaped by my upbringing. Not from what my parents said, but what they did. 

My mum was a secretary. My dad was an apprentice who set up his own small business out of his white van. 

I saw every day how hard they worked. 

At times it was tough. But they made it work and provided me with opportunities for which I’ll be forever grateful. 

There are millions of small business owners like them around the country. They are the engine room of our economy which power our country. 

But we don’t always make it easy for them. And I am in politics to change that. 

Just as Margaret Thatcher created a culture of entrepreneurship in the 1980s that my parents benefited from, I want to drive forward a revolution in this country to make it the best place to start and scale up a business. 

In Government, I always made sure I was on the side of small business. I froze fuel duty and cut duties on our great exports like whisky. 

During the pandemic I slashed red tape so that restaurants and bars could provide outdoor seatings and takeaways, and more easily convert empty high street shops.

Shamefully, those changes have ended and our hospitality industry is once again in trouble.  

But to unlock Britain’s immense potential we need an altogether more radical approach. 

We need to free British workers from the reams of bureaucracy that get in the way.

There is no reason for small businesses or sole traders to be saddled with the same regulation as big corporations with huge back-office teams. 

We need a tax system that rewards risk-takers, not punishes them. We should take advantage of our Brexit freedoms and change the VAT thresholds so that small businesses can keep and invest more of the money they make. 

We should increase the thresholds to £100,000, as recommended by the Federation of Small Businesses, which would allow tens of thousands of businesses to have an additional untaxed turnover of £10,000.

That would allow them to hire more staff and invest in equipment that boosts our productivity. 

The state does have an important role to play in all of this. But we need a small state that works, not a big state that fails. 

So instead of the taxpayer subsidising low-value degrees, we should be funding the real skills of the future. 

That’s why I am calling to redirect funding away from the worst performing 10 per cent of universities towards the biggest expansion in technical colleges and apprenticeships in a generation. 

We should never again be in the position where we are reliant on foreign labour for brickies, plumbers and welders that help make this country what it is.

These are important and well-paid jobs that Brits should be doing.  

And we need an energy policy that prioritises reliably cheap energy. Since 2000 our electricity prices have trebled. That has crippled British industry and tipped many businesses over the edge. 

It means a fundamentally different energy policy where we are pragmatic about reaching net zero. There are no prizes for reaching net zero first.

I refuse to pursue net zero off the backs of working people. Instead of throwing more money at expensive renewables, we need a baseload of reliable energy from nuclear and gas that keeps bills lower for businesses and consumers. 

This Labour Government seems intent on making things harder for working people at the upcoming budget. 

I support shortening the contest so the new leader can hold this Labour Government to account for their broken promises when the eyes of the nation are watching. 

If I am lucky enough to be elected leader, I will change the Conservative party, unite it around the serious answers to the big challenges facing the country, and put this dismal Labour Government out of its misery.