Boris Johnson’s tax pledges won’t ‘unleash potential’ – but they will lead to more public spending cuts

The Tories are already open to the charge of going round in circles. Now their unnecessarily cautious and risk-averse programme could fuel the problems it proposes to solve

Tax is a big issue at every general election and this one is no exception. Boris Johnson had intended to make a splash at the launch of the Conservatives’ manifesto by announcing a plan to take the lowest paid out of tax by raising the salary at which national insurance starts to bite to the same level as income tax. But he managed to steal his own thunder by blurting out his headline-grabbing announcement on the campaign trail last week.

After some scrabbling around before Sunday’s manifesto launch, the Tories cooked up a less dramatic pledge: a “triple tax lock” under which they would not raise the rates of income tax, national insurance and VAT in the next five-year parliament.

During the Tory leadership election, Mr Johnson promised to increase the threshold for the 40p rate from £50,000 to £80,000 at a cost of £9bn. But it does not appear in the Tory manifesto. The prime minister insisted he had lost none of his “tax-cutting zeal” but argued it was “right to focus our tax cuts on those who need them most”.