Tyneside councillor says Tories need to become 'low tax' party to appeal to younger voters

A North Tyneside Conservative councillor called for his party to return to the next election as a party of "low tax", despite his local party having proposed council tax rises previously.

A North Tyneside Tory councillor told his party conference this week it needs to be "low tax", despite his local party previously proposing council tax hikes.

Councillor and junior doctor Olly Scargill took the stage of the Tory party conference on Tuesday as part of "The Future Generation" panel discussion. Coun Scargill told the conference the party needs to appeal to younger "aspirational" voters as a low-tax party.

Coun Scargill said: "I think most people I speak to have got conservative values, especially young people, aspirational, just coming out of university. Those people should be really excited they don't want to be paying high taxes they want to own a home, those are conservative values."

Coun Scargill continued: "When people leave [school] we need to be saying we are the party of low tax, home ownership, that is what people want when they leave. We need to have a better offer when it comes to that."

However, on February 16, 2023, North Tyneside councillors gathered the local authority's Cobalt HQ to sign off and debate new council tax levels. The Conservative Group motioned to increase council tax across all housing bands by only slightly lesser margins than the ruling Labour administration.

The Conservative motion would have only saved around 12p a week for a family living in a Band D property in North Tyneside. The largest saving would have amounted to nearly £13 a year for Band H properties.

In addition, the Conservative Group's proposed council tax arrangement was also an increase on their alternative budget from February 2022.

Leader of the North Tyneside Conservative Federation, coun Liam Bones said: "Our last alternatives budget did offer residents a lower council tax level. Olly this week was talking about national levels. We are relieved to hear the chancellor has effectively ruled out changes to the single-person discount for council tax.

"Overall, we want to see lower council tax, residents are paying a huge amount of council tax every month and they are getting less for more. Even with the basics, like a new charge on brown bin collections."

A Labour spokesperson said: "Yet again, North Tyneside Tories are in disarray. Coun Scargill says that he doesn't want people paying higher taxes yet proposed a budget which increased council tax and nationally the last Conservative Government provided the highest tax burden since the Second World War.

"Only Labour in North Tyneside takes our public finances seriously, despite £470m of Tory cuts to our budgets we have a credible, thought-through plan to deliver services for residents."

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