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On The Case
Tories vow to rein in regulators and cut business taxes
Date of publication - 21 May 2001
Promises to scrap a range of corporate taxes and curb the power of regulators form the backbone of the Conservative attempt to win the support of the business community.
The Conservatives' business manifesto endorsed by close to 100 businessmen including Sir Clive Thompson, former president of the Confederation of British Industry, Lord Hanson and Sir Frank Williams, head of the Williams Formula One team.
The party said its business backers would far exceed the 58 names Labour mustered last week. Other known Conservative supporters include Sir Stanley Kalms, Lord Younger, and Stuart Wheeler, head of the IG Index who gave £5m to the party's election fund.
Alongside pledges to abolish the climate change levy, IR35, and the aggregates tax, the manifesto promises a £200m reduction in business rates for small companies.
It also pledges to reduce the power of regulators, especially the energy regulator, restricting them to policing competition and removing their social and environmental remits.
A review of the telecommunications market designed to ensure the demerger of British Telecommunications, speed up local loop unbundling and promote broadband technology is also promised.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Michael Portillo, shadow chancellor, said the manifesto showed the party "reconnecting with the business community" through its "re-established reputation for economic competence".
Conservative opposition to the euro has cost the support of some leading business figures, including Chris Gent of Vodafone. But Mr Portillo said the party had "a duty to make policy for the good of the nation as a whole".
Although, officially, opposition to the euro is limited to the lifetime of the next parliament, Mr Portillo showed the party's intense ideological hostility to scrapping the pound by citing "maintaining control of Britain's own economy, currency and interest rates" as the first item in his definition of modern Conservatism.
Mr Portillo also accused Labour of planning to increase national insurance contributions for those on middle incomes. His comment came after Gordon Brown, the chancellor, refused to rule out increases in NI contributions - which, the Tories said, could cost someone on £35,000 up to £510 a year more.
The shadow chancellor rejected the suggestion of his deputy Oliver Letwin, who told the Financial Times of the party's long-term aspiration to offer £20bn in tax cuts. "I do not accept it, I do not recognise it", he said. Earlier he had slapped down his deputy, saying: "William Hague and I make economic policy".
Labour's business manifesto, due this week, will promise a renewed drive to improve productivity, remove planning obstacles to business expansion and curb restrictive practices in the professions.
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