British chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne plan
s to cut the UK's corporation tax to less than 15 per cent in an effort to woo business deterred from investing in a post-Brexit Britain .
Announcing a target of less than 15 per cent, down from 20 per cent now, he said Britain should “get on with it” to prove to investors that the country was still “open for business”.
Such a cut in business taxes would take Britain close to the 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate in Ireland.
Irish employers’ lobby group Ibec said the proposal reinforced the need to significantly reform the Irish offering in the upcoming budget to make Ireland more attractive for foreign investment.
Mr Osborne said he wanted a leading role in shaping Britain’s economic destiny and plans to build a “super competitive economy” with low business taxes and a global focus.
Separately, Ireland’s European Commissioner Phil Hogan has firmly ruled out any negotiations about the future relationship between the UK and the EU until the British government triggers the exit mechanism. Taking a noticeably tougher line than the Irish Government, Mr Hogan said the convulsions in the British political system were hampering the emergence of any clarity about what might happen when negotiations begin.
He was adamant there could be no negotiations in advance of a British decision to invoke article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which will set the leave process in train.
"The Commission and the European Council will not be negotiating until article 50 has been triggered. Let there be no doubt about that," Mr Hogan told The Irish Times.
“Clearly political decisions around the leadership of both major parties in the UK have to be resolved before any serious decisions are made and that could delay things,” he added.
Conservative leadership
The agriculture commissioner will travel to the UK next weekend to attend the Kent County Show, which is one of the showcase events in the British farming calendar.
Mr Hogan’s visit to Kent will be the first engagement between the European Commission and a section of British public opinion. He had decided to accept the invitation to attend as a bridge-building exercise to engage with the concerns of the rural community in the UK.
In London, meanwhile, the leading contenders for the Conservative leadership have disagreed on how soon Britain should invoke article 50.
Frontrunner Theresa May said yesterday she did not envisage invoking it until next year but energy minister Andrea Leadsom, who campaigned for Brexit, said she would do so immediately.
“We need to get on with it and seize the opportunity”, Ms Leadsom told the BBC’s Andrew Marr.
The five Tory leadership candidates will make their case before Conservative MPs this evening ahead of the first in a series of knockout ballots tomorrow, which will produce a shortlist of two.
Open for business
Meanwhile in Dublin today, Taoiseach Enda Kenny is expected to launch an initiative to help the two parts of Ireland cope with the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU.
Two Ministers suggested yesterday that he would use a meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in Dublin Castle to outline plans for closer co-operation to try to minimise the impact of Brexit.
