I always find it odd that, when we have had hundreds of Lib Dems discussing policy for days, we then have the leader announcing a major new policy in his speech, just as everyone’s about to go out the door.

In Spring it was a new British nuke, which we’ve mercifully not heard much about since. However the tax cut policy announced yesterday might have more longevity.

Basically we are going back to one of the really popular ideas from the coalition years, and raising the threshold at which you pay tax to £15,000. This is the idea initially brought forward by my Lib Dem Women colleague Lizzie Jewkes and which was talked about in a New Statesman podcast just last week. Lizzie was described as an “ordinary woman” and anyone who knows this very lovable force of nature will know she is as far from ordinary as you can get.

When we were in coalition, the Tories constantly claimed credit for this policy because it was so popular without mentioning that it was our idea, of course.

Anyway, the other proposal is that we would raise the threshold at which you pay the 40% tax rate to £56,000.

This would all be paid for by the benefits of rejoining the single market and customs union, proposals which we can probably all get behind.

The detail is set out n this article on the party website.

The Liberal Democrats will take 2.5 million people out of paying income tax altogether by raising the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000.

Our bold plan would put £680 back in people’s pockets, and also take 750,000 ordinary people out of paying the higher 40p tax rate.

People are struggling in a cost-of-living crisis. The Conservatives put their taxes up by stealth, and Labour have made it worse – the equivalent of a 3p rise in income tax.

There’s no way to end the cost-of-living crisis without cutting income tax. Liberal Democrats have done it before – cutting taxes by hundreds of pounds and taking 3.4 million people out of paying income tax altogether.

We’ll do it again now, taking 2.5 million people out of paying income tax and giving most people a £680 tax cut, by raising the tax-free personal allowance (and the national insurance threshold) to £15,000.

We’ll also raise the point at which the higher 40p rate of tax kicks in, taking more than 750,000 people out of paying it. Millions of ordinary people – including nurses and teachers – should not be paying a rate designed for stockbrokers and merchant bankers.

Unlike Reform, who claim they’d cut taxes by slashing £22 billion of support for disabled people, we’d pay for these tax cuts through the proceeds of growth when we tear down the damaging Brexit trade barriers.

Our plan for a new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU is forecast to secure a growth dividend worth £27 billion a year. And we will give £17 billion of it straight back to the British people in the form of our tax cuts.

There is no doubt that most people could use an extra £700 ish per year as fuel costs rise and inflation looks set to bite again.

But is that the best use of the European dividend? Could it be better invested in improving this country’s infrastructure or public services?

Or is it a good idea to give something to a fairly large group of voters to build the range of votes we need across the country to advance?

What do you think?

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social