Reform UK and the Conservatives have clashed sharply over plans to abolish inheritance tax as Kemi Badenoch prepares to put tax cuts at the centre of her election strategy.
Badenoch is considering pledging to scrap inheritance tax entirely if the Conservatives win the next general election, with the policy potentially forming the centrepiece of her party conference speech next month.
The proposal would represent one of the Tory leader’s most significant tax-cutting commitments yet, following her earlier pledge to abolish stamp duty on homes.
Reform shadow chancellor Robert Jenrick moved quickly to dismiss the plan, calling it a “desperate play” and pointing to what he described as broken Conservative promises on tax.
“The Tories said they’d cut inheritance tax before, only to seize £84bn from grieving families in death taxes,” Jenrick said. “We’ve heard this desperate play, and people won’t be fooled again.”
Reform is instead putting forward a broader income tax proposal, centred on raising the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000, which the party claims would save 40 million people £500 a year.
The party says the measure would also help prevent some pensioners from paying income tax on the state pension, positioning it as a policy with wider appeal than abolishing inheritance tax.
Jenrick went further by staking his job on the commitment, pledging to resign if he failed to deliver the policy in his first Budget as chancellor.
“Unlike career politicians in the Tory party, I’m willing to put my job on the line and resign if I don’t deliver this in my first budget,” he said.
Inheritance tax is currently charged at 40 per cent on the portion of an estate above the £325,000 tax-free threshold, though married couples and civil partners passing a family home to descendants can leave considerably more before the levy applies.
Fewer than five per cent of estates currently pay the tax, making its abolition a relatively targeted giveaway compared with Reform’s proposed personal allowance increase.
A Conservative source told The Sun that Badenoch’s team believed Labour was “weak on the economy” and planned to “go hard on tax ahead of the election.”
The party has yet to formally approve the proposal, with a spokesperson stressing that conference policy had not been finalised.
“We have not decided our policy platform for the conference,” the spokesperson said. “Kemi has made no secret of her desire to cut taxes, singling out inheritance tax as one of those taxes she wants to cut in a speech last week.”
The debate arrives as inheritance tax has climbed higher up the political agenda, following changes set to bring unused pension wealth into its scope from April 2027.
Research from Rathbones found more than two-thirds of grandparents surveyed said inheritance tax considerations had influenced their decision to help fund their grandchildren’s university education.