Cameron: let’s talk tax cuts not Ukip and EU migrants

David Cameron has taken Ken Clarke’s advice and is now focusing on the traditional Tory heartland issue of tax cuts in an attempt to beat off the challenge by Ukip in the opinion polls.

In an article for The Times today, Cameron unashamedly makes his pitch for the core Tory vote by claiming it is a “moral duty” to give the voters tax cuts. This is exactly what the old Tory bruiser Ken Clarke advised Cameron to do in a private meeting of the Tory backbench 1922 committee a few days ago.

Clarke’s advice was simple – get off immigration and Europe because that is playing to Ukip’s strengths and get back onto the economy, stupid.

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In today's article, Cameron says it is easy to claim a moral victory for higher public spending “but on the other side of the coin are those who work hard, many on low incomes, who would desperately like to spend more money on their family. The government has a moral duty to think of these people in any decisions made on tax and spending.”

He reminds Times readers of his promise – made at last month’s party conference - to increase the tax-free personal allowance from £10,000 to £12,500 by the end of the next parliament, as well as to raise the threshold for the 40p tax rate to £50,000 by 2020.

He still won’t say how he plans to pay for it - only that it will be “hard but doable”.

Cameron’s anti-Ukip strategy was also a factor in his decision to shoot Ed Miliband’s fox at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday by announcing that he is bringing forward a Commons vote on opting back into the European arrest warrant before the Rochester and Strood by-election on 20 November.

Miliband taunted Cameron that he was delaying the vote until after the by-election because it would trigger a damaging Tory rebellion by eurosceptic Tory MPs who regard anything with the word "Europe” in it as toxic as a deadly virus.

Cameron told him in a “ya-boo” exchange that he was going to have the vote before the by-election. Miliband was left more deflated than ever.

The Daily Telegraph reports an insider conceding that Cameron wants to "tear off the plaster as quickly as possible" before the by-election by getting the arrest warrant rebellion – possibly the biggest of this parliament - over with fast.

Also, Cameron reckons he has public support for signing up to the EU arrest warrant regime – especially after the death of London schoolgirl Alice Gross, apparently murdered by Arnis Zalkans, a Latvian who came to Britain after serving a jail sentence for killing his wife.

However, Cameron will have to depend on Labour and Lib Dem support to get it through.

Getting Ukip off his back is not going to be an easy task. Tomorrow the headlines are very likely to say that Ukip has won today’s election of a new police commissioner in South Yorkshire, following the resignation of Shaun Wright in the wake of the Rotherham sex grooming scandal.

As Don Brind wrote for The Week yesterday, a victory for Ukip would be another mark against Ed Miliband, given that the region has always been a solid Labour stronghold.

But it will be painful for Cameron, too – only adding to the Ukip momentum as Farage awaits the election of a second Ukip MP in the Rochester and Strood by-election on 20 November.

EDITOR'S NOTE posted at 2.45 pm, Friday 31 October: Since this article was posted, Labour has won the South Yorkshire PCC by-election, gaining a fraction over 50 per cent of the vote. Turnout was just under 15 per cent. A Labour spokesman said: "We took on Ukip and won. Let's see if Cameron can do the same in Rochester and Strood."