Dear supporter,

Parliament is now dissolved and the general election campaign is well underway.

As you may have seen, all of the major parties have been promising to spend more money. We’ve heard a little less about tax cuts and reform, though.

So we’ve been out there making the case.

Yesterday, I had a full page op-ed in The Sun, slap bang next to the editorial. We were pleased to secure the coverage – it is considered to be the holy grail of political media!

More important was the content. Over the summer, we conducted a landmark piece of research – an in-depth study of the views of typical taxpayers. We carried out a poll and several focus groups of voters in the so-called ‘C2DE’ bracket – working class voters, more colloquially. Our political director, James Roberts, designed the poll to find out exactly what policies these key swing voters wanted ahead of a general election.

Despite what politicians tell you, this group of voters want to see taxes cut. They want a fair system that rewards hard work, so people can keep more of the money they earn. They know that businesses create jobs and can help improve the towns they live in.

This is all common sense. But too many people in Westminster think they know better and come up with patronising policies that mollycoddle people.

As always, we’ll be making the case for simplicity in this election – for freedom, for prosperity and for lower, simpler taxes.

What about all that extra spending? Well, if the next government wants to spend more on the police, say, then that needn’t mean punishing tax hikes. Why not match a spending pledge with a reduction elsewhere?

As I said in a piece for ConservativeHome – if a politician wants to spend more on frontline services then they should promise to cull a quango, scrap a subsidy, ditch a diktat.

Some findings from our polling of C2DE (working class) and ABC1 (middle class) voters:

• 60% of C2DE voters strongly favour cutting the basic rate of income tax down to 15p in the pound, from 20p now.
• 68% of C2DE voters want tax thresholds linked to inflation or wage growth, so people don’t move into higher rate bands accidentally.
• More than 75% of those polled supported a cap on council tax rises.
• C2DE voters are more than twice as likely as ABC1 voters to back cutting corporation tax to 12.5%
• 68% of C2DE voters backed abolishing the BBC licence fee, compared to 40% amongst ABC1 voters, one of the biggest disparities found between the two groups.

And over last weekend, we secured a double page spread in Saturday's Express which covered a new research note written by our research director Duncan Simpson. In it, he proposes increasing the Inheritance Tax threshold to £1 million.

Our polling showed that almost half of respondents, from both groups, believed we should reform stamp duty so only those moving to homes worth more than £1 million have to pay.

Duncan also made the case directly with an op-ed accompanying the story.

While politicians, lobby groups and other campaign groups join the calls for more spending, someone has to fight for the ordinary taxpayer. 

We need your help to fight for responsible spending and lower, simpler taxes.

If you can, please donate today. As I said, most other groups in Westminster – better funded than us – will be shouting loudly for more taxpayers’ cash for their pet interests.

We are the voice of reason. Please support us if you can.

Best wishes,

John O'Connell
Chief Executive

TaxPayers' Alliance is a trading name of The TaxPayers' Alliance Limited, a company incorporated in England & Wales under company registration no. 04873888 and whose registered office is at 55 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL.

Click here to read our privacy notice.

To unsubscribe, please click here.