Today marks the start of the new National Living Wage. This will mean that those on the lowest incomes aged 25 and over will earn the new National Living Wage of £7.20 an hour, by law. That means 1.3 million lower-paid workers will get a direct pay rise – the biggest jump in a minimum wage in any advanced economy since the financial crisis. The National Living Wage will increase each year, and by 2020 it is forecast to be £9 an hour

I believe that people deserve to keep more of the money they earn and it is right that since 2010 nearly 4 million of the lowest paid have been taken out of income tax. As well as this, from April next year the amount you can earn before paying any income tax will increase to £11,500. A typical basic rate taxpayer will be paying more than £1,000 a year less to the taxman than they were five years ago

With these changes, Britain is becoming a higher wage, lower welfare, lower tax country that finally lives within its means.