In a speech to mark the final week of the campaign, the prime minister said the pledge to legislate so that no-one working 30 hours on the minimum wage will ever pay income tax would be extended.
A Conservative government would also place in law a guarantee of no increase in income tax, National Insurance or VAT to 2020 in what he called a five-year tax lock. This would also include a pledge that VAT would not be extended to more products.
Announcing the plan today, Cameron said the election represented the clearest choice on the economy for a generation.
‘We know it’s your money, not government money. You’ve worked for it, you’ve earned it, you should be able to keep it. It’s a fundamental difference of approach between the Conservatives and Labour; me and Ed Miliband.’
Also today, senior Labour figures set out their analysis of Conservative spending plans.
Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves said that in order to meet their spending pledges, including a £12bn reduction in welfare spending, the Conservatives would need to cut £3.8bn from the tax credits working families rely on, and roll Child Benefit into Universal Credit, which could mean a cut of more than £1,100 a year for 4.3 million families.
Miliband said cuts to tax credits and Child Benefit would represent a threat to family finances across Britain, with 7.5 million families potentially losing an average of £760 a year.
‘Today their desperate last-minute gimmick merely highlights what they have left out: no protection for family benefits,’ he added.
‘They broke their promises last time and made people worse off, and this time, they don’t deny cuts to tax credits, cuts to Child Benefit, which will devastate the finances of Britain’s families.
‘No government led by me as Prime Minister will cut the tax credits that working people rely on. Instead, we will raise them at least in line with inflation in every Budget.’
