Badenoch Pushes Stamp Duty on Primary Homes Cut at Tory Conference

Kemi Badenoch used her keynote address at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester to set out an ambitious policy agenda centred on tax cuts, spending cuts and a new fiscal doctrine, while defending her leadership amid defections to Reform UK and mixed support from party members.

Badenoch pledged to abolish stamp duty on primary homes if the Conservatives win the next general election, saying, "The next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty on your home. It will be gone." She said the move and a wider set of promises would be funded from about 47 billion pounds of savings the party says it has identified over a five year parliament. Under a new "golden rule" she outlined, half of any savings would be used for tax cuts and the other half to reduce the deficit.

Other headline pledges included reversing recent tax rises such as VAT on private school fees and inheritance tax changes affecting farms, cutting student numbers to free 3 billion for apprenticeships, undoing a package of worker protections introduced by the current government, and banning doctors from striking. The party has estimated the longer term cost of abolishing stamp duty could rise to around 9...