Michael Howard has suggested the Conservatives could offer tax relief to low paid workers.

The Tory chief said on Friday that his party could move to lift the threshold at which employees start paying tax.

He said the move was a "high candidate" when the party details how it will spend the cash it has set aside for tax reductions.

Of the £4 billion the Conservatives have budgeted for tax cuts, some £1.3 billion has already been pledged towards helping pensioners with council tax payments.

Hinting at the next stage of the party's plan, Howard said it was "extraordinary" that workers earning the minimum wage have to pay income tax.

The current 10 per cent starting rate of the tax is payable as soon as a worker earns £4,745 a year.

"I don't think it really makes sense at all for someone who works 20 hours a week on the minimum wage to be paying income tax," he told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

"That's an extraordinary state of affairs and I really do think that we need to look at that very carefully indeed.

"We need to look at the level at which people begin to pay income tax, because there are people on very low salaries, very low incomes indeed who really shouldn't be paying income tax."

No firm plans

However, Howard cautioned that the move was not yet official party policy.

"It is certainly one of the things that we have been consulting about and asking people their views about," he added.

"We will be putting forward our final view on the tax cuts we will be able to make before the election, and that is a high candidate."

The Conservative leader also backed more flexibility in maternity pay.

"All the evidence shows that the time after a baby is born is the time which imposes greatest stress on relationships," he said.

"If people want to concentrate the money over a shorter period of time to help them during those early months, when the strains and stresses are at their greatest, they will be able to choose that option."