Reform hits back at Tory plan to ‘abolish inheritance tax’
The Conservatives and Reform UK have clashed over plans to abolish inheritance tax as Kemi Badenoch prepares to put tax cuts at the heart of her pitch to voters.
Badenoch is considering pledging to scrap inheritance tax if the Tories win the next general election, with the policy potentially forming the centrepiece of her party conference speech next month, according toThe Sun.
The move would mark one of the Tory leader’s biggest tax-cutting pledges yet and follows her commitment last year to abolish stamp duty on homes.
But Reform shadow chancellor Robert Jenrick dismissed the proposal as a “desperate play”, arguing the Conservatives had previously promised to cut inheritance tax but failed to deliver.
“The Tories said they’d cut inheritance tax before, only to seize £84bn from grieving families in death taxes,” Jenrick said. “We’ve heard this desperate play, and people won’t be fooled again.:
Instead, Reform is pitching a broader income tax cut by raising the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000, which it claims would save 40m people £500 a year and prevent some pensioners from paying income tax on the state pension.
Jenrick pledged to resign if he failed to introduce the measure in his first Budget as chancellor.
“Unlike career politicians in the Tory party, I’m willing to put my job on the line and resign if I don’t deliver this in my first budget,” he said.
Badenoch puts tax cuts on election footing
Inheritance tax is charged at 40 per cent on the portion of an estate above the £325,000 tax-free threshold, although allowances can mean married couples or civil partners passing a family home to descendants can leave considerably more before the levy applies.
Fewer than five per cent of estates currently pay the tax, making its abolition a relatively targeted giveaway compared with Reform’s proposed personal allowance increase.
A Conservative source told The Sun that Badenoch’s team believed Labour was “weak on the economy”, and planned to “go hard on tax ahead of the election”/
However, the party has yet to formally sign off the proposal.
“We have not decided our policy platform for the conference,” a Conservative spokesperson said. “Kemi has made no secret of her desire to cut taxes, singling out inheritance tax as one of those taxes she wants to cut in a speech last week.”
The potential pledge comes as inheritance tax has moved higher up the political agenda following changes to bring unused pension wealth into its scope from April 2027.
Research from Rathbones last month found more than two-thirds of grandparents surveyed said inheritance tax considerations had influenced their decision to help fund their grandchildren’s university education.