Ukip economic policy: Patrick O’Flynn takes aim at “onesie state” and promises tax cuts
Ukip's economic spokesman Patrick O'Flynn has unveiled the economic policies the party will carry into the General Election.
The headline pledges included upping defence spending by £3bn per year, hitting the Nato target of two per cent of GDP being spent on the military.
"It is astonishing to think that UKIP goes into this election as the only party offering the British people a policy of meeting the NATO requirement of two per cent of GDP being spent on defence," O'Flynn said.
The plans are based on assumptions defence spending won't be subjected to another "huge" round of cuts beyond 2015-16.
On the tax side, Ukip wants to raise the personal allowance to £13,000 and raise the threshold for the 40 per cent higher rate of tax to £55,000. Inheritance tax would be abolished altogether under Ukip's plans.
O'Flynn said the party wanted to move Britain away from an "infantilising onesie state" created by the last Labour government's welfare policies. Child benefit under Ukip would, in the future, be restricted to families with two children.
However, he added the party was committed to "the collective provision of key public services". To this end, Ukip promised an increase in NHS spending of £3bn a year.
Ukip's tax cutting and higher spending promises are to be paid for by slashing the foreign aid budget by £9bn; scrapping HS2, saving £3bn between now and 2020; and leaving the EU, which it is hoped would save £10bn a year. O'Flynn slammed "post-gap year politicians" who were more concerned with troubles abroad than issues of deprivation at home. Ukip's savings total £25bn, according to O'Flynn.
Britain's substantial deficit was not forgotten. O'Flynn told an audience in the Labour heartlands of Middleton, which Ukip almost snatched in a by-election last year, that "deficit elimination is not some dry exercise in accountancy, but a vital task in the battle to bring financial stability to millions of British families".
There was also a stinging criticism of the mainstream parties' approach to immigration, arguing mass immigration was to blame for wage compression among low-skilled workers. Ukip used this morning's event to reiterate their policy for immigration control based on the Australian style points based system.