Key personal tax allowance £20,000 update as party leader 'will do it'

Nigel Farage has said his Reform party would “reindustrialise” Britain and wants to lift the tax-free allowance on earnings to £20,000. It comes after a petition to raise the threshold from the current £12,750 passed 245,000 signatures. Launched by Alan David Frost on the Parliament website, the campaign has gained considerable backing.

The petition urges the Government to hike the threshold for taxable income from the present £12,750 to £20,000 per annum. The House of Commons will now debate the petition on May 12. On Tuesday, Mr Farage said: “Reform will reindustrialise Britain and we’ll have a proper, sound industrial policy, but it only works if we start producing enough of our own gas and oil and coal, and all of those things.



" The party leader said the level at which workers start paying tax should not be “frozen the way it is year after year after year”. He added: “We believe the most dramatic tax change that is needed is to lift the level at which people start paying tax to £20,000 a year. “That will mean people on low pay genuinely will be a bit better off.

But equally important, it would incentivise those on benefits, who know that if they work for more than 16 hours a week, all their benefits will be taken away. It would incentivise them to get back to work. So I firmly believe that we are the party of working people.

” The text of the petition states: "Raise the income tax personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000. We think this would help low earners to get off benefits and allow pensioners a decent income. We think it is abhorrent to tax pensioners on their state pension when it is over the personal allowance.

We also think raising the personal allowance would lift many low earners out of benefits and inject more cash into the economy, creating growth." The Government issued a response on February 20. Petitions on the site remain active for six months, with this particular one set to expire on June 20, 2025.

The Government's response said: "The Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility. The Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility and so, at our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds. "The Government has no plans to increase the Personal Allowance to £20,000.

Increasing the Personal Allowance to £20,000 would come at a significant fiscal cost of many billions of pounds per annum. "This would reduce tax receipts substantially, decreasing funds available for the UK's hospitals, schools, and other essential public services that we all rely on. It would also undermine the work the Chancellor has done to restore fiscal responsibility and economic stability, which are critical to getting our economy growing and keeping taxes, inflation, and mortgages as low as possible.

"The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process. The Chancellor will announce any changes to the tax system at fiscal events in the usual way." The petition and the Government's full response can be accessed online .

.