BIRMINGHAM England (Reuters) – Chancellor George Osborne will promise on Monday to scrap a tax on inherited pension savings as he lays out the Conservative Party’s economic pitch for next year’s election.
Speaking to media before his speech, Osborne also sought to tackle the electoral threat posed by the UKIP whose stance on immigration and Europe could draw votes from the Conservatives and benefit Labour at the election. Two Conservative MPs have defected to UKIP in recent weeks.
Asked about polls on Sunday showing UKIP have siphoned significant support from the Conservatives, Osborne said: “What people are going to realise as they approach the election is that a vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour… I don’t think that’s what people want in this country.”
Ahead of what is expected to be a close-run ballot in May, Osborne will use a key speech on Monday to try to persuade voters that only Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives can be trusted to keep Britain’s economic recovery on track.
The Conservatives, who have ruled in coalition with the more left-wing Lib Dems since 2010, are rated by voters much more highly than the opposition Labour party on the economy. But they lag narrowly behind Labour in opinion polls less than eight months before the election.
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