I'LL AXE STAMP DUTY TO HELP MILLIONS BUY A HOUSE

Kemi vows to unleash 'dream of home ownership' in barnstorming speech

- Steph Spyro

RESURGENT Tory leader Kemi Badenoch vowed to unleash the "dream of home ownership" for millions - by scrapping stamp duty.

Hundreds of Tory members cheered and gave a standing ovation as she revealed the surprise move at the party conference in Manchester yesterday.

Her barnstorming speech which was packed with humour and personal sentiment looks to have silenced any Tory leadership rivals.

A beaming Mrs Badenoch declared: "Stamp duty is a bad tax.

It is an un-Conservative tax. The last Conservative government cut stamp duty for thousands of homebuyers. But now we must go further, 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.

She said if the Tories win the next General Election, scrapping the levy on primary properties would "help achieve the dream of home ownership for millions".

Mrs Badenoch, echoing Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy policy, added: "Home ownership should be a dream that's open to everyone. Abolishing stamp duty on your home is a key to unlock a fairer and more aspirational society."

TV's Location Location Location homes show host Kirstie Allsopp called the idea "brilliant and bold".

Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, heaped praise on the Tory leader for promising to scrap "Britain's worst tax".

His view was echoed by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns at the TaxPayers' Alliance, who claimed voters will be relieved to "finally" hear a major political party pledge the full abolition of stamp duty.

Mrs Badenoch told the gathered Tories that she had looked at options for changing the thresholds for paying stamp duty but had decided that that was not enough.

Stamp duty land tax brought in an estimated £13.9billion in the last financial year but a large proportion of this is from additional homes and other buildings.