Conservatives plan cuts in business red tape

In this file photo Conservative Party's Shadow Secretary of State for Deregulation John Redwood addresses their annual conference in Bournemouth, October 4, 2004.

LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservative Party, trailing Labour in the polls, has drawn up plans to slash red tape and regulation in a bid to save businesses 14 billion pounds.

John Redwood, the senior Conservative right-winger who drew up the proposals, said he believed they had the backing of party leader David Cameron.

The plans, to be presented publicly on Friday, are not official party policy but Cameron may pick from them to draw up his party's election manifesto.

"This would be the biggest attempt at tackling deregulation ever made by a British government. British business would get a saving of 14 billion pounds a year," Redwood told The Sunday Telegraph.

Under the proposals, regulations on the length of the working week, set by Brussels, would be repealed, along with data protection laws, and health and safety regimes would be reviewed or abolished.

Redwood proposed many regulations on the financial services industry should either be abolished or watered down and companies should have more freedom to make employees redundant.

He also suggested opting out of other European Union directives, including on food supplements.

Redwood told The Sunday Telegraph the proposals would be "a tax cut by any other name" and that they would be in addition to any tax reductions a Conservative government would make.

Despite pressure from inside the party, Cameron has been careful to avoid promising tax cuts after previous gaffes by senior Tories on taxes before he became leader cost his party votes.

Labour immediately attacked the plans, accusing the Tories of lurching to the right in a knee-jerk reaction to poor opinion polls and of showing their euro-sceptic colours.

John Hutton, minister for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, said Redwood's proposals, if adopted, would banish the Tories from the political centre ground.

"They are giving up any claim to be a credible party of the centre ground," he told BBC Television.

"What you see today from the Conservatives is a move from the traditional right wing to try and seize control again, now apparently with the blessing of Mr Cameron," he added.

The proposals came as an opinion poll in The Sunday Times by YouGov gave Labour a 10-point lead over the Conservatives, its highest in a YouGov survey since before the Iraq war.