Cameron Courts English Voters with Tax, Lawmaking Plans

(Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron will court English voters on Friday ahead of a tight UK-wide election, promising to create a separate rate of income tax for England and to give English lawmakers greater powers if re-elected.

Attempting to tap into a sense of English resentment about the growing degree of devolution Scotland enjoys, Cameron will pledge to enact reforms within a year of the May 7 election.

England is by far the most populous part of the four-nation United Kingdom and southern England in particular has long been a stronghold for Cameron’s centre-right party.

Cameron, whose party had only one of 59 seats in Scotland before parliament was dissolved, is championing reforms to the way the British parliament makes laws to counterbalance extra lawmaking powers promised to Scotland last year to persuade voters there to reject independence.

The September independence referendum brought decades-old grievances to the fore about the current constitutional arrangements which allow lawmakers based in Scotland to vote on laws that do not affect their country.

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