UK PM promises tax cuts, reduced immigration in election manifesto

London, June 11: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday promised to cut taxes and reduce immigration as he launched the Conservative Party's general election manifesto. 

"We Conservatives have a plan to give you financial security," said Sunak, unveiling the Tories' blueprint for a fifth consecutive term in office at Silverstone in central England.

The Conservatives promised to cut the amount of national insurance paid by employees by a further 2 percentage points if the party is re-elected, reported Xinhua News Agency.

"We will cut employee National Insurance to 6 per cent by April 2027 - meaning that we will have halved it from 12 per cent from the beginning of this year, a total tax cut of 1,300 pounds ($1,657) for the average worker on 35,000 pounds," read the manifesto.

The manifesto said the party would work to abolish National Insurance completely when it is "affordable to do so".

The party also pledged to abolish stamp duty entirely for first-time buyers on properties up to the value of 425,000 British pounds.

The UK will hold its general election on July 4. After staying in power for over 14 years, the Conservative Party is now consistently lagging behind its main rival, the Labour Party, by around 20 points in polls.

Sunak and his party also sought to woo voters by pledging to lower immigration.

"Our plan is this: we will halve migration as we have halved inflation, and then reduce it every single year," the prime minister said.

"We need border security too," he said, vowing to cut illegal migration through the controversial Rwanda Scheme.

Reacting to Sunak's election manifesto, Labour leader Keir Starmer called it a "recipe for five more years of chaos".