Ukip promises tax cuts across the board

Nigel Farage wants lowest paid workers to pay no tax. Picture: PA

Mr Farage confirmed that the party’s previous commitment to abolish national insurance and have a flat 31 per cent tax rate was being “rethought” – but said he believed the top band should fall from 45 per cent to 40 per cent. He also insisted no-one on the minimum wage should have to pay tax.

The comments came in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show after Ukip achieved major gains in European and English local elections.

Mr Farage said his party was now “building up a really good representation” on councils in target constituencies for the general election.

He predicted they would focus resources on “two dozen, three dozen” seats next year, and win a “clutch” of them. Mr Farage has already disowned the Ukip manifesto from the last general election, and said he would set out a new platform at its annual conference in Ed Miliband’s Doncaster constituency in September.

He denied it would be “Thatcherite”, saying the Tory doyenne’s approach belonged to another era.

Deploying the “cost of living” catchphrase used by the Labour leader, Mr Farage said: “I want us to give millions of ordinary families and people in this country the opportunity to live a better life and do better. At the moment we are seeing the gap between those who are wealthy and the rest getting wider.”