Tories pledge to end stamp duty

KEMI Badenoch promised to abolish stamp duty if the Conservatives win the next general election, as she closed the party conference in Manchester.

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Having focused on borders in her opening address last Sunday, Mrs Badenoch used her leader's speech yesterday to set out her vision of a country where the state “does less but does it better” and “profit is not a dirty word”.

She pledged to impose a “golden rule” on her budget plans, spending only half of any savings made through spending cuts, with the rest going to reduce the deficit.

She said she would cut student numbers, saving £3 billion that would then be spent on doubling the apprenticeship budget but, in the final passages of her speech, she went further, committing to free up the housing market by abolishing stamp duty on people's primary homes. She said: “Stamp duty is a bad tax. We must free up our housing market, because a society where no one can afford to buy or move is a society where social mobility is dead.”