Senior Tory criticised party’s tax burden on young people in leaked recording

A senior Tory described the tax burden on young people as a “scandal” just weeks before becoming a Treasury minister, i can reveal.

Bim Afolami questioned how the Conservatives could be described as “the party of lower tax if younger people are paying higher tax”, according to leaked recordings.

The revelation comes in the final days of the election campaign as Rishi Sunak pushes home his core message that a Labour victory would see taxes soar for ordinary people.

Mr Afolami made the comments in October 2023 when he was a backbench MP, a month before being appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has cut national insurance by 2p twice since that appointment. But the Conservatives have faced continuing criticism that the tax burden is still the highest for 70 years, in part due to high inflation pushing up wages and taking more people into higher income tax brackets.

Both Labour and the Conservatives will keep income tax thresholds frozen until 2028 if they win the general election. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has accused both parties of a “conspiracy of silence” over their tax and spending plans, saying voters have been kept in the dark.

According to one leaked recording, Mr Afolami told Tory activists at an event at the Adam Smith institute on 10 October last year: “How can we be the party of lower tax if younger people are paying high tax?”

He added: “It is a scandal that the marginal tax rate that many people in this room will pay is about 40 per cent after student debt.”

The Conservatives needed to “explicitly set out, and make a foundation of our policy, to grow the economic opportunities for people in this room and people across the country”, he said, adding: “That means lower taxes, for our small businesses, that means lower taxes for working people.”

At a second event a week earlier, hosted by the Conservative Home website on 3 October, Mr Afolami criticised the Tory record on economic growth, saying his colleagues needed to “wake up”.

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He added: “For your average person, I’ll leave you with this stat, the median weekly earnings […] have barely moved in 15 years […] and think of all the costs that have gone up in that time, not just housing but all sorts of other costs. So, like we have got to, as a party, focus on average earnings for average people”.

Mr Afolami said the Conservatives were overly reliant on people becoming “more conservative” as they get older, adding that “for millennial generations, this is not happening”.

The event was titled “Low on income, low on trust: how can the Conservatives retain voters hit by the cost of living crisis”.

Mr Afolami said that “economic growth” and “opportunity” are “the biggest thing[s] that [are] driving our politics right now and unless we can get that up it’s really going to be difficult next year [in the election]”.

The then MP for Hitchin, who is seeking re-election this Thursday, also criticised his party’s housing policy, saying: “People really need to wake up to the fact that housing is one of the key, it’s not the only thing, but it is one of the key things that we can do to offer to younger people a chance to build their economic future and build their families. Because unless we do that, we are not a Conservative Party worthy of the name.”

A Conservative spokesperson said: “As Conservatives, we believe in lower taxes. Now inflation is back under control, we have started the process of cutting taxes so that working people have the financial security they deserve.

“By contrast, raising tax is in Labour’s DNA. The plans set out in Labour’s manifesto would take taxes to the highest level in our country’s history – and that’s before you add in the £38.5bn black hole in their promises.

“That’s the choice at this election – lower taxes with the Conservatives or a £2,094 tax hike under Labour that would hammer working families hardest.”