Tories pledge to scrap Scotland's equivalent of stamp duty to 'help Scots get on property ladder'

The Tories have pledged to scrap Scotland’s equivalent of stamp duty if the party is re-elected.

Kemi Badenoch laid out her plans for the nation during her closing address to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Wednesday.

If the Tories are returned to power, she promised to abolish stamp duty in England and Wales.

Known as Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) in Scotland, the Scottish Tories have also pledged to scrap the fee to help Scots get on the property ladder.

“Stamp duty is a bad tax,” Badenoch told the party conference on Wednesday.

“We must free up our housing market, because a society where no one can afford to buy or move is a society where social mobility is dead.”

Currently, people buying a home worth £145,000 or less do not pay anything, while buyers whose new home is worth £750,000 or more have to pay 12% of the value of the property.

Badenoch also announced the party would roll back Labour’s VAT on private school fees and undo the family farm tax.

If they are returned to power, the Tories would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights and seek to deport 150,000 illegal immigrants.

Badenoch also said that half the cash from any cuts will be used to reduce the deficit, which she described as a “golden economic rule”.

In her speech, she said the UK is “addicted to migration”, and accused the current Labour Government of making “one hell of a mess” since taking office last year.

“All they have delivered is a doom loop of higher taxes, weaker borders, and month after month of chaos,” Badenoch said.

Labour later accused Badenoch of being in “complete denial”.

Anna Turley, Labour’s chairwoman, said: “The public saw the Tories’ disastrous blueprint for Britain across their 14 years of failure in government – and the Conservatives still won’t apologise for the mess they left.

“Kemi Badenoch set herself a new ‘golden economic rule’ today and broke it immediately. It’s the same old Tories, with the same old policies without a plan. They didn’t work then and you can’t trust them now.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski criticised Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech as “painfully out of touch” with most of the country.