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David Cameron announces £1,000 transferable marriage tax allowance Tories woo married couples with tax break
(about 2 hours later)
A £1,000 transferable marriage tax allowance for lower rate taxpayers will be introduced by the government in April 2015 – one month before the general election – David Cameron has announced. A £1,000 transferable marriage tax allowance for lower rate taxpayers will be introduced by the government from April 2015 – one month before the general election – David Cameron announced on Friday night.
In a Daily Mail article on the eve of the opening of the Tory conference, the prime minister said that the government would offer a more generous tax break than the £750 proposed in the Tory manifesto for the last election. On the eve of the Tory conference in Manchester, the prime minister said the government would recognise the "special" status of marriage by offering a tax break which goes further than the £750 proposed in the Tory manifesto in 2010.
The scheme will mean that 4 million couples who are lower rate taxpayers will be able to transfer £1,000 of their personal tax allowance to their spouse or their civil partner. The scheme will be worth up to £200 a year. The scheme will mean four million married couples and those in civil partnerships who are lower rate taxpayers will be able to transfer £1,000 of their personal tax allowance to their spouse or civil partner. The scheme will be worth up to £200 a year.
In his Daily Mail article the prime minister wrote: "I believe in marriage. Alongside the birth of my children, my wedding was the happiest day of my life. Since then, Samantha and I have been a team. Nothing I've done since – becoming a member of Parliament, leader of my party or prime minister – would have been possible without her. In a Daily Mail article, Cameron wrote of the importance of marriage when he said nothing he has achieved since his marriage in 1996 would have been possible without the support of his wife, Samantha.
"There is something special about marriage: it's a declaration of commitment, responsibility and stability that helps to bind families. The values of marriage are give and take, support and sacrifice – values that we need more of in this country. He wrote: "There is something special about marriage: it's a declaration of commitment, responsibility and stability that helps to bind families. The values of marriage are give and take, support and sacrifice – values we need more of in this country. Of course this will be true if you're gay or straight – and in a civil partnership or a marriage. This summer I was proud to make equal marriage the law. Love is love, commitment is commitment."
"When I ran for the leadership of my party back in 2005, I said that I wanted to do more for marriage in the tax system: a personal pledge that I made right at the start of my campaign – and I then backed that up with a pledge in our manifesto at the last election. So this week at the Conservative party's conference in Manchester, I'm going to deliver on the promise I made. The announcement came as the father of the Tory modernisation project threw his weight behind Cameron's plan, describing marriage as a glue in society that should be recognised in the tax system. In a Guardian interview ahead of the conference, which opens on Sunday in Manchester, the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: "We want a strong society. Marriage is one of the institutions that creates glue in society and it makes sense to recognise that."
"From April 2015, if neither of you are higher rate taxpayers, you will be able to transfer £1,000 of your tax free allowance to your spouse. But Julianne Marriott of Don't Judge My Family said: "It's about promoting a fantasy 1950s family and won't go to many of the families who need support the most. In these tough times government should be helping families, not judging them."
"In effect, if you pay the basic rate of tax and your partner doesn't use all of their personal allowance, you'll be able to have some of it. Most couples who benefit will be £200 a year better off as a result. The announcement by the PM has been the subject of intense negotiations within the coalition after the Liberal Democrats demanded the introduction of universal free school lunches for infants in return for agreeing to the timing of the marriage tax allowance proposal.
"And of course this will be true if you're gay or straight – and in a civil partnership or a marriage. This summer I was proud to make equal marriage the law. Love is love, commitment is commitment." Nick Clegg infuriated No 10 when he contrasted the £600m-a-year cost of his scheme with the similar price tag for recognising marriage in the tax system.
The father of the Tory modernisation project, Francis Maude, earlier said that marriage acts as a glue in society, as social liberals in the party threw their weight behind Cameron's plans. Labour dismissed the Tory plan. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "David Cameron's so-called marriage tax break won't even help two-thirds of married couples, let alone millions of people who are separated, widowed or divorced. He's so out of touch he thinks people will get married for £3.85 a week."
As George Osborne finally announces that he will introduce the allowance, dubbed unfair by Nick Clegg, Maude insisted that the move would help create a strong society and would not be seen as a retrograde step. But in a taste of the looming battle, the campaign group Don't Judge My Family accused the Tories of "promoting a fantasy 1950s family". The Tories will meet for their penultimate conference before the 2015 general election cheered by the return of economic growth and signs that their party is closing Labour's poll lead.
The chancellor, one of the most socially liberal MPs of any party, who has privately shared some of the reservations about the proposal, will give details of how marriage will be recognised in the tax system in his speech to the Tory conference in Manchester on Monday. The prime minister said in the summer that Tory ministers would introduce proposals in the autumn. Clegg has criticised him for seeking to "hand-pick" couples who conform to a Tory view of how people should lead their lives, though the Liberal Democrats are bound under the coalition agreement to abstain in any parliamentary vote on the measure. But there was some irritation on Friday night when Matthew d'Ancona, a journalist with strong links to the Cameron camp, reported in a new book serialised in the Daily Telegraph that Cameron has held informal discussions with Clegg about forming a second coalition in 2015.
In a Guardian interview before the conference, which opens on Sunday, Maude offered strong support for the proposal. The Cabinet Office minister, the main driving force behind the modernisation of the Tory party in the early part of the past decade, said: "We want a strong society. Marriage is one of the institutions that creates glue in society and it makes sense to recognise that." A No 10 spokesman said: "There are not, nor have there been any plans or talks to form a new coalition post 2015. The prime minister is entirely focused on running the country."
Maude said the proposal should be seen as a progressive measure because it will be open to same-sex married couples and those in civil partnerships. He said: "When David Cameron announced this commitment to recognising marriage in the tax system he said of course that must apply – and got a round of applause at the Conservative party conference – whether it is a marriage between a woman and a man, a man and a man or a woman and a woman. That was not regarded as a backward-looking thing to commit to." Some Tories have been unnerved by the Labour conference after Ed Miliband appeared to tap into popular discontent with the "big six" energy companies by pledging to freeze household fuel bills for his first 20 months in office.
The imminent announcement by Osborne has been the subject of intense negotiations within the coalition after the Lib Dems demanded the introduction of universal free school lunches for infants in return for agreeing to the timing of the marriage tax allowance proposal. Maude was highly critical of Miliband's announcement, which he claimed had quickly unravelled. He said: "It could have been a speech written by Len McCluskey [the Unite general secretary]."
Clegg infuriated Downing Street when he contrasted the £600m-a-year cost of his scheme with the similar cost of recognising marriage in the tax system. The Tory leadership is bracing itself for the "blond moment" on Monday when Boris Johnson, who has fuelled speculation about his leadership ambitions by saying how he is missing parliament, arrives in Manchester. In an FT interview, the mayor of London compared himself to the founder of the Roman empire and said he wished he had been in parliament for the vote on Syria.
Julianne Marriott, of Don't Judge My Family, said: "It's about promoting a fantasy 1950s family and won't go to many of the families who need support the most. In these tough times government should be helping families, not judging them." Cameron unveiled the first conference announcement when he said the government would provide £400m for the Cancer Drugs Fund. The move will give thousands more patients access to drugs and boost the fund's project to sequence 100,000 genomes (individual DNA codes).
The Tories will meet for their penultimate conference before the 2015 general election cheered by the return of economic growth and signs that they are closing Labour's poll lead.
But some Tories have been unnerved by the Labour conference after Ed Miliband appeared to tap into popular discontent with the Big Six energy companies by pledging to freeze household fuel bills for his first 20 months in office.
Maude was highly critical of Miliband's announcement, which he claimed had quickly unravelled. He said: "It could have been a speech written by Len McCluskey [the Unite general secretary]. I think the issue for Labour is: is Ed Miliband a strong enough leader to stand up to the unions?"
But Michael Gove, the education secretary, who is close to Cameron, struck a more conciliatory note. He told Question Time on BBC: "Ed Miliband is absolutely right to draw attention to one of the worst examples of the way in which people's cost of living is under attack. He is also right to draw attention to the fact that the behaviour of the six major power companies hasn't been entirely admirable ever since they have had a chance to play the market in the way they have. But I do worry that the proposal that he has put forward to address the problem that he has correctly identified isn't as well thought through as it should be … One of the dangers of this proposal is the very next day, when Ed Miliband was on BBC radio, he had to acknowledge that if there was a huge spike in oil prices like we had in the 1970s then he might not be able to deliver his promise."
Maude had a strong message for Tories on the right of the party who are opposed to the leadership's attempts to modernise. He said: "The Conservative party has been around for longer than any other party and it has been more successful over the centuries than any other party and it's done that because it has made itself relevant to Britain as it is. We fail when we become backward-looking and don't seem to be in tune with particularly how younger people see their lives and see the country they want to live in, so if we cease to be a party in tune with contemporary Britain, that's a problem."
The leadership is bracing itself for the "blond moment" on Tuesday when Boris Johnson, who has fuelled speculation about his leadership ambitions by saying how he is missing parliament, addresses conference.
In an FT interview, the mayor of London compared himself to the founder of the Roman empire and said he wished he had been in parliament for the vote on Syria.
He said: "During the whole Syria thing, for the first time in years I wished I was in parliament. I have to admit that I watched that and I thought … I wished. I wished."
Asked which Roman emperor he would associate himself with, Johnson named Augustus. "I know it's ridiculous but he was the first. He was programmatic of our civilisation and there would be no attempt to build a single currency in Europe if it wasn't for the memory of that system he established that kept the continent united for 500 years."
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