Kemi Badenoch needed a rabbit to pull out of her hat if she was to get voters to switch on and start listening to the Tories again, and boy did she deliver a thumper. Ms Badenoch revealed that the next Conservative government would not just fiddle with Stamp Duty thresholds, but abolish the pernicious and anti-aspiration tax altogether.
Right-wingers and potential home-buyers have always, rightfully, loathed Stamp Duty. It is anti-aspiration and money-grabbing in the grubbiest way. Not only does it steal thousands from hard-working Britons trying to get on and do the right thing, it gums up the entire housing market. Everyone accepts Britain has a housing crisis, and one of the contributing factors is the issue of elderly people enjoying houses with spare rooms that their children have long moved out of and now lie empty.
Many would happily downsize, freeing up their three or four bedroom homes for young families desperate to move out of cramped flats, but at entirely logically put off from doing this because they would lose thousands in tax thanks to Stamp Duty.
Abolishing the tax would free up the market, liberating people to make decisions without the threat of Rachel Reeves picking their pockets. It’s just one example of many that proves why abolishing Stamp Duty is a no-brainer.
It’s on a par with George Osborne’s infamous 2007 pledge to abolish inheritance tax. But hopefully the Tories actually follow through with this pledge.
I have many complaints about the Tories, and am an eternal pessimist for their political fortunes, but make no mistake it was a good speech and a great policy.
The Institute for Economic Affairs think tank branded the pledge to abolish stamp duty “the single best reform any government could make to Britain’s tax system”.
Even Labour will struggle to argue against it both practically and morally. They know it’s a terrible tax, and what’s more, Kemi’s diligent, thoughtful approach to leadership means it’s fully funded.
In order for Labour to oppose the policy, they’d have to argue against cutting welfare for scroungers, against cutting the size of the civil service, and against green regulations hiking Britons’ energy bills.
Ms Badenoch has had a rough time trying to get voters to listen to the Tories. But this pledge gives her the single best hope of reconnecting with the country, and she alone should be praised for rightly picking a strategy of focusing on the economy while other parties flounder with promises of ever more spending.
A large sigh of relief will be coming from Tory HQ this evening.