‘First job bonus’ worth £5k planned for young people, Stride tells Tory conference – UK politics live | Politics

Stride says Tories would introduce £5,000 ‘first job bonus’ tax cut for young people, for housing or savings

Stride sets out the plans to cut spending announced overnight. (See 7.59am.)

And he says the Tories will use the savings to fund “tax cuts that are laser focused on aspiring young people”. He goes on:

So we will introduce something called the first job bonus.

When someone takes their first job, the first £5,000 pounds they pay in national insurance won’t go to the taxman.

It will go towards a deposit on their first home, or it will go towards savings for their later life.

For a working couple, that means £10,000 pounds, helping them buy a home, build a family, save for the future.

That is the Conservative dream, a dream that built my life.

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Shadow minister Katie Lam suggests settled status EU nationals should be included in proposed Tory benefit ban for foreigners

Katie Lam, a shadow Home Office minister, has said that she thinks the welfare cuts announced by the party (see 8.09am and 12.36pm) do not go far enough. Although Mel Stride has said EU nationals with settled status would not be covered by the proposed rule saying non-Britons should no longer be eligible for benefits, Lam told a fringe meeting organised by Politico that her personal view was that they should be. “My view is that all state support should only be for citizens,” she said.

She also suggested that a Tory government should reopen talks with the EU to address this. This would be necessary because settled status was part of the Brexit treaty. As Politico reports, she said:

The whole point of having a status like EU SS [Settled Status] or indefinite leave to remain is that that is still a live conversation … If somebody is entitled to everything that comes with being a British citizen, then they should make the choice to become a British citizen.

A source said that Lam’s view was not party policy, and they weren’t looking to start “some big fight with the EU” over this,.

Lam is seen as a rising star in the party. Peter Walker explains why in this profile.

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Tories say most of money from plans to cut spending by £47bn will be used for deficit reduction

Here are the main points from the briefing by Tory officials at the conference about the fiscal plans announced today.

Overall saving and spending plans

The Tories say they would cut spending by £47bn a year by the end of the next parliament (ie, by 2034-35).

They would use some of that money (£9bn) for tax cuts:

-£4bn cutting business rates for high street shops and pubs

-£2.8bn for the first jobs bonus

-£2.2bn on tax cuts already announced – reversing the imposition of VAT on school fees (£1.7bn), and reversing the extension of inheritance tax to cover fams (about £500m)

The rest of the money – around £38bn a year – would be used for deficit reduction

Where the savings would come from

The Tories released figures in their overnight press release. (See 7.59am.) At the briefing, they went into slightly more detail, and offered these figures. These are savings from 2029-30.

-£23bn saved by welfare cuts

-£8bn by cuts to civil service

-£6.9bn by cuts to the aid budget

-£3.9bn by cuts to social housing

-£3.5bn by cuts to spending on asylum

-£1.6bn by cuts to net zero

Spending cuts – details

Aid

-The Tories see the reduction of aid spending to 0.1% of national income as permanent.

Civil service

-The Tories expect cuts across all departments. They think getting the civil service down to the size it was before Brexit is reasonable.

Welfare cuts

-Around £7bn of the £23bn cuts will come from people who are not British being denied access to benefits. People with indefinite leave to remain or limited leave to remain will not qualify.

-The Tories also plan to tighten access to health-related benefits. Where people do receive benefits like Pip (the personal independence payment), they want them to be based on the extra costs people incur, they want payments to be related more to medical diagnosis, and they want all assessements to be done face to face

-EU nationals with settled status will still qualify for benefits.

Social housing

-The Tories expect to save money here as a consequence of their plans to cut immigration.

Tax cuts – detail

Business rates

Councils would be fully compensated by central government for the loss of revenue, Tories say.

First jobs bonus

See 12.06pm for more detail on this

Other points

-The Tories indicated that they are keeping the triple lock, described as Conservative policy, and will commit to that at the next election.

-The officials did not say anything critical of the Office for Budget Responsibility, saying it is Labour criticising the OBR now, not them.

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Updated at 13.57 CEST

How Tories says their jobs bonus plan will work

Conservative officials have given a briefing at the conference that about the main proposals announced today for spending cuts (see 7.59am), and the tax cuts the party would implement with some of the savings (see 10.25am and 11.27am).

This is what they said about the first jobs bonus.

It will cost £2.8bn.

Everyone can claim it, and people will start getting the “payments” (what they would have paid in national insurance) when they have a job that means they would liable for national insurance. The money will go into a nominated savings account, like an ISA, or a stocks and shares accounts.

People will be able to use the discount to accumulate up to £5,000 from the national insurance exemption and, if they give up work for a period before they have hit the £5,000 limit, the money saved accumulates interest.

People can draw down the money at any time to spend on a home. After five years people will be free to take the money to spend on something else if they are not buying a home. The Tories argue that, for people not buying property, this will encourage savings.

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Updated at 13.11 CEST

Tories unveil plan to cut energy bills by £165 per year on average by cutting carbon tax and renewables obligation subsidy

Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, used her speech to the Tory conference to propose what she called a “cheap energy plan” that she said would save £165 a yaer from the average household energy bill. They would fund this by getting rid of the renewables obligation subsidy and the carbon tax.

In a new release, the Conservative party says:

The carbon tax currently makes up around a third of wholesale electricity prices, artificially inflating the price of electricity and forcing up everyone’s energy bills in the process.

The carbon tax also increases the price paid to other non-gas electricity sources like wind and solar, pushing up profits of wind and solar generators at the expense of consumers.

This is all added to people’s bills and that leaves everyone worse off. Especially when compounded with the fact that Labour’s decision to align with the EU carbon tax has increased the UK’s carbon tax by 70% since January 2025.

Our plan to axe the carbon tax, which does nothing to help improve our environment or reduce emissions, will save the average household £75 on their electricity bills.

The Conservatives will also scrap Ed Miliband’s rip off renewable subsidies, the renewable obligation certificate scheme (ROC).

Launched by Labour in 2002, and doubled by Ed Miliband in 2008, the subsidies mean renewable energy producers receive significantly above market payments for their electricity – up to three times more than the market price of electricity.

Consumers are then forced to pay for these extortionate prices through their energy bills.

That is why the next Conservative government will use primary legislation to repeal this subsidy scheme, which will reduce the average household’s electricity bills by £90.

Together, axing the carbon tax and scrapping Ed Miliband’s old wind subsidies will cut the average household electricity bill – currently just over £850 – by £165, and also help to reduce emissions by maximising consumer choice. Decarbonisation will progress by innovation driving electrification (for instance in transport), but those products need to be cheaper to run to encourage people to adopt them – so it makes no sense to keep the price of electricity artificially high.

Claire Coutinho giving her speech to Tory conference. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPAShare

Updated at 12.29 CEST

Andrew Mitchell was international development secretary when David Cameron was raising aid spending, not cutting it. At a fringe meeting at the Tory conference this morning, he did not explicitly criticise the aid cuts proposed by his party. (See 8.49am.) But he made the case for aid spending.

Peter Walker has posted this about the fringe on Bluesky.

Mitchell’s opening pitch is… mixed. He doesn’t criticise the plan to cut aid, but calls for a ‘Marshall Plan’ to help African nations create jobs and skills (which would cost money), and laments the fact the UK is no longer an aid superpower.

And Peter has posted this quote from Mitchell.

Andrew Mitchell quote Photograph: Peter WalkerShare

And this is how Stride concluded his speech. By the time he got to the end, he was shouting.

Where Labour choose debt, we choose discipline.

Where they choose welfare, we choose work.

Where they choose stagnation, we choose aspiration.

All they have to offer is pessimism, higher taxes, fewer jobs, lower growth and a mountain of debt for the next generation.

What we stand for is something far bigger and far greater than that – Conservative values, opportunity, aspiration, optimism.

We are the party of hope. We are the party of the future. We can and we will.

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Stride says Tories would abolish business rates for shops and pubs on high streets

Stride says the high streets are being “hollowed out”, partly because of Labour’s taxes. He goes on:

We need to get business rates down. In fact, we need to go further, much, much further.

So today, I can announce that as a direct result of getting public spending under control, a future Conservative government will completely abolish business rates for shops and pubs on our high streets. End of.

Mel Stride speaking at the Tory conference. Photograph: Phil Noble/ReutersShare

Stride says Tories would introduce £5,000 ‘first job bonus’ tax cut for young people, for housing or savings

Stride sets out the plans to cut spending announced overnight. (See 7.59am.)

And he says the Tories will use the savings to fund “tax cuts that are laser focused on aspiring young people”. He goes on:

So we will introduce something called the first job bonus.

When someone takes their first job, the first £5,000 pounds they pay in national insurance won’t go to the taxman.

It will go towards a deposit on their first home, or it will go towards savings for their later life.

For a working couple, that means £10,000 pounds, helping them buy a home, build a family, save for the future.

That is the Conservative dream, a dream that built my life.

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Stride claims Reform UK are ‘party of more spending and more debt’

Stride turns to Reform UK, and claims they are “just as bad” as Labour.

Reform’s manifesto promised tens of billions in unfunded commitments. They want to scrap the two-child benefit cap, spending billions more on welfare, and they want you to pay for it.

We say that if you want to fund a large family, then that’s great, but you should look to yourself to pay, not the state.

Reform want to get back to the days of nationalisation and state control. They are marching to the left. Be in no doubt. They are the party of more spending and more debt.

(Reform claim they want to cut welfare spending. The Tories say they won’t, because Nigel Farage said Reform would get rid of the two-child benefit cap that the Tories want to keep. But subsequently Farage claimed his party was committed to other welfare cuts – a pledge that was important in persuading Danny Kruger, a Tory worried about high welfare spending, to defect.)

Mel Stride speaking at the Tory conference. Photograph: Phil Noble/ReutersShare

Stride describes going into business after university, and recalls buying his first home.

He says his story was an example of the “Conservative vision of opportunity, aspiration and achievement, and that is what we are going to bring back”.

And he attacks Labour for its record – raising taxes in the budget last year by £40bn.

We left inflation bang on target under Labour, it’s doubled and growth has tanked.

You remember how Labour claimed they were pro-business? Well, just last week, the Institute of Directors said the business confidence was at its lowest level ever.

The result? Thousands of wealth creators have left the country. Labour have no clue about how to build the economy of the future.

Mel Stride addressing the Tory conference. Photograph: Phil Noble/ReutersShare

Stride claims Tory party will never give up supporting business

At the Tory conference Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, is delivering his speech.

He starts by saying he has recently been on a trip to Silicon Valley, where you could “almost reach out and touch the future”.

He says it did not make him depressed, returning to future. Instead it raised his spirits, because it showed him what could be achieved in the UK.

He says the UK needs wealth creation. It should be a country “that once again understands that wealth is created not by government, striking unions and a bloated public sector, but by entrepreneurs, businesses and the hard-working millions”.

He goes on:

To business today, I say loud and clear – Labour may have given up on you, but this Conservative party never, ever will.

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