The Conservative Party will unveil its manifesto today, Retail Week looks at the key points affecting the retail industry.

The Conservative manifesto launched today

The Conservative Party pledges to:

  • Link minimum wage to personal income tax – it believes people on the minimum wage should not pay income tax
  • Not increase VAT, national insurance contributions or income tax
  • Raise the personal income tax allowance to £12,500 and introduce a £50,000 threshold for the 40p tax rate by 2020
  • Introduce tax-free childcare to support parents back into work, and give working parents of three and four-year-olds 30 hours of free childcare a week
  • Make sure businesses have the most competitive taxes of any major economy
  • Crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance by making it a crime for companies to fail to put in place measures to stop tax evasion and by implementing penalties
  • Create 2 million jobs by 2020 and 3 million apprenticeships
  • Connect the North and the South with modern transport links to pool the strengths of cities across the country
  • Hold a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union by the end of 2017

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Britain is now one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. We are getting our national finances back under control. We have halved our deficit as a share of our economy. More people are in work than ever before. Britain is back on its feet, strong and growing stronger every day.”