Boris Johnson, 54, is a frontrunner for the role of Prime Minister now Theresa May has stepped down as Tory leader. Tory MPs have until 5pm on Monday to declare their intention to run, but the race is already well underway. And Mr Johnson has kicked off the week with a tax announcement that is proving very controversial.

What has Boris Johnson said?

The former foreign secretary told the Telegraph he planned to cut income tax bills for people earning more than £50,000 a year if he becomes Prime Minister.

He said he would use money currently set aside for a no-deal Brexit and increase employee National Insurance payments.

The move would cut the tax bills of three million people, raising the 40 percent tax rate threshold to £80,000.

Mr Johnson gets paid £79,468 a year as an MP and £275,000 a year for his weekly Telegraph column.

He has been accused of being “out of touch” with the general public over the proposal.

The Telegraph estimates the move announced by Mr Johnson, who is not doing any media interviews, would cost £9.6bn a year.

Paul Johnson, from think tank the Institute For Fiscal Studies, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme higher rate taxpayers would receive a “quite significant tax cut” under Mr Johnson’s plans.

The biggest beneficiaries would include wealthy pensioners, and people living solely off investments, as neither pay National Insurance.

Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the proposal showed “how out of touch the Tories are”.

He 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, one million elderly in severe poverty, the schools’ budgets and our police service stretched to breaking point, this [is] the Tory priority.”

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said: “Tax cuts for the better off: nothing for those earning less. Very ‘one nation’ – not.”

On social media, people have begun expressing their concerns at a potential tax hike for lower paid workers to compensate for the proposed cuts for higher earners.

Jane Merrick, political commentator for Time, tweeted: “Boris Johnson’s tax cut for higher earners is truly regressive – funding it in part by an increase of National Insurance contributions for everyone, so lower income earners will end up paying more.

“Not to mention splurging the no deal contingency money.”

Other leadership candidates have also promised tax cuts as they try to appeal to the 160,000 Conservative members who will vote for the prime minister from a shortlist of two picked by MPs.

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has pledged to use the no-deal “fiscal headroom” to slash corporation tax from 19 percent to just 12.5 percent – the same level as Ireland.

Dominic Raab, another leadership contender, was the first to promise lower income tax, saying the basic rate should fall from 20p to 15p over five years if he becomes Prime Minister.

He has previously set out his view that the top rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000 should be scrapped altogether and that the higher rate should be cut to 35p.

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