Rishi Sunak’s unfunded tax cut for pensioners is a desperate attempt to neutralise the threat of Reform UK

James Carville, Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, once said: “Whenever I hear a campaign talk about a need to energise its base, that’s a campaign that’s going down the toilet.” If he ever wanted an example of a campaign focused on energising its base, the Conservatives’ election strategy of 2024 is it.

Through the drizzle of mistakes and mishaps, it is possible to discern a clear strategy – one of trying to shore up the core Tory vote and to see off the challenge from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Today’s promise of a tax cut for pensioners is the latest policy aimed squarely at the over-65s. It is a small tax cut, worth possibly £300 a year by the end of the next parliament, and it is complicated – a pledge to raise the income-tax personal allowance for pensioners so that anyone relying on a state pension alone won’t be dragged into paying tax.