Tory corporation tax plans become clearer

During the Tory party conference, I wrote about how the Tories were developing plans to radically cut corporation tax. In recent weeks, the Tories have been dropping plenty of hints about this agenda but giving little detail on it. After reiterating the Tories’ existing plans to lower the rates of corporation tax at the CBI conference last week, David Cameron said: “and we want to go further.”

Today, in an interview with the FT, the Tory treasurer Michael Spencer reveals that he is “hopeful that, over the next parliament…we will get corporation tax down towards the 20 per cent level.”

Spencer is close enough to the leadership to know what he is talking about, and his comments track with what is being said in private. My understanding is that the Tory aim is to have the lowest corporation tax level of any major economy. George Osborne believes that cutting corporation tax is the best way to announce that Britain is open for business again.