Tory leader contender Boris Johnson pledged to cut income tax bills for those earning more than £50,000 a year, if he wins the race to succeed Theresa May as Prime Minister.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Johnson said he would use the money currently set aside for a no-deal Brexit to raise the 40 per cent tax rate threshold to £80,000, cutting taxes for around 3 million higher earners. As an MP, the former foreign secretary earns £79,468.

“We should be raising thresholds of income tax so that we help the huge numbers that have been captured in the higher rate by fiscal drag,” he said.

While some of the costs would be offset by the no-deal Brexit fund, if Johnson is named Prime Minister, the Telegraph calculated that the move would cost approximately £9.6bn per year.

Commenting, Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the proposal highlighted “how out of touch the Tories are”, the BBC reported.

According to The Guardian, McDonnell added: “Exactly as predicted, the Tory leadership race is degenerating into a race to the bottom in tax cuts. When there are 4.5 million children in poverty, 1 million elderly in severe poverty, the schools’ budgets and our police service stretched to breaking point, this [is] the Tory priority.”

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