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David Cameron promises tax cuts and new 'British bill of rights' at Conservative Party conference Conservative Party conference: David Cameron promises tax cuts and new 'British bill of rights'
(35 minutes later)
David Cameron has promised new tax cuts and the introduction of a British "bill of rights" in his keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference. David Cameron put the promise of tax cuts at the heart of the Conservatives bid to win the next General Election today as he pledged to “build a Britain that everyone is proud to call home”.
The threshold at which workers pay the higher 40p rate of income tax will rise to £50,000 if the Conservatives win next year's general election, David Cameron announced. Mr Cameron said if the Tories are re-elected they would raise the threshold at which people pay tax at 40 per cent from £41,900 to £50,000.
And the Prime Minister promised he will raise the level at which tax begins to be levied to £12,500, so someone working 30 hours a week at the minimum wage would pay "nothing, zero, zilch" in income tax. At the same time the party would also raise the amount people can earn before paying tax at all to £12,500 – the current full time minimum wage.
The dramatic announcement came in Mr Cameron's speech concluding the final Conservative conference before the May election, at which he told activists he wanted to make Britain "a country everyone can be proud to live in". Mr Cameron said raising the £10,000 current tax threshold to £12,500 would take one million of the lowest paid workers out of tax altogether and give an effective tax cut for 30 million more.
The PM also promised that a Conservative government would ensure that over the period of the next Parliament, the UK has the most competitive corporate tax rates in the G20 group of advanced nations - "lower than Germany, lower than Japan, lower than the US". Mr Cameron did not say when the tax cuts would take effect and insisted his priority was still to cut the deficit. But the move was clear attempt to appeal to the so-called ‘squeezed middle’ who have seen real terms income fall significantly over the last five years.
Raising the higher rate threshold for income tax from its current £41,900 would take huge numbers of middle-income earners out of the 40p band, reversing the trend of "fiscal drag" which has seen ever more people paying a rate that was previously reserved only for the better-off. Combined with George Osborne’s announcement on Monday that the Conservatives would freeze tax credits for two years the Tory strategy is an attempt to make a clear ideological divide with Labour – between cutting taxes or providing top up support for low paid workers through benefits.
And Mr Cameron said that raising the lower threshold to £12,500 - already a goal of the Liberal Democrats - "will take one million more of the lowest-paid workers out of income tax and it will give a tax cut to 30 million more". Mr Cameron slammed Labour for “pontificating about poverty” while leaving a “generation to rot on welfare” when they were in Government.
Mr Cameron added: "With us, if you work 30 hours a week on minimum wage you will pay no income tax at all. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. “With us, if you work 30 hours a week on minimum wage you will pay no income tax at all. Nothing. Zero. Zilch,” he said.
"Lower taxes for hard-working people, that is what I call a Britain that everyone is proud to call home." “Lower taxes for hard-working people, that is what I call a Britain that everyone is proud to call home.”
And he said: "The 40p rate was only supposed to be paid by the most well-off people in our country but in the past decade far too many people have been dragged in to it - teachers, police officers. Mr Cameron also announced that if the Conservatives are re-elected they would scrap Labour’s Human Rights Act and introduce a new British Bill of Rights.
"So let me tell you this today, I want to take action that's long overdue and bring back some fairness to tax. Mr Cameron also directly took on the Tories Achilles heel of the NHS attacking Labour for “scaremongering and lies” over its claims that the Government is privatising the health service and cutting its funding.
"With a Conservative government we will raise the threshold at which people pay 40p rate. It is currently £41,900. In the next Parliament we will raise it to £50,000. “From Labour last week, we heard the same old rubbish about the Conservatives and the NHS,” he said. 
"Here is our commitment to the British people. No income tax if you are on the minimum wage, a £12,500 tax free personal allowance for millions of hard working people and you only pay 40p tax when you earn £50,000. "I just think how dare you. The Labour Party which gave us the scandal of Mid Staffs, elderly people begging for water and dying of neglect.
"Let the message go out that with the Conservatives if you work hard, do the right thing, we say you should keep more of your own money to spend as you choose. That is what our long term economic plan means for you." "For me, this is personal: I am someone who has relied on the NHS and whose family knows more than most just how important it is. Who knows what it is like when you go to hospital night after night with a sick child in your arms knowing that when you get there, there are people who will love that child and care for that child just as if it was their own.
Additional reporting by PA "How dare they suggest I would ever put that at risk for other people's children. How dare they frighten those who rely on our National Health Service."
His wife Samantha looked visibly moved as he spoke about his personal experience of the NHS and pledged the Conservatives would continue to protect the NHS budget from spending cuts, ring fencing it through the next Parliament. His
Mr Cameron did not spend long talking about the threat of Ukip following  a string of recent defections but made clear he believed that her believed a vote for Ukip could deny the Tories an outright majority at the next election.
“Next May you can go to bed with Nigel Farage and wake up with Ed Milband,” he said to laughs from the conference audience.
Mr Cameron also touched on the threat of Isis at the start of his speech and issued a stark message to young British jihadists who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq for Isis saying  they could not expect to return to a normal life in Britain.
“You are an enemy of the UK,” he said. “And should expect to be treated such.”