David Cameron calls in for a burger - but doesn't leave a tip

After promising tax cuts at the Conservative Party conference yesterday, David Cameron stopped off for a burger - but didn't leave a tip.

After pledging to raise the 40p income tax threshold from £41,900 to £50,000, he stopped for a bite at the Five Guys American Diner in Solihull.
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Mentioning that the US restaurant chain had been recommended by Barack Obama, he ordered a £26.45 meal of burgers and Budweiser beer for himself and his wife Samantha.

The Five Guys doesn't usually offer table service. But, restaurant manager Joshua Coelho told Metro: "I thought I would make an exception for the prime minister." However, Cameron didn't appear to appreciate the gesture - and failed to leave a tip. Coelho said "We didn't really care".

Cameron's final conference speech did have something for lower earners, with the promise of plans to increase the tax-free personal allowance to £12,500.

However, figures produced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)earlier this year show that just 15% of the gains from increasing the personal allowance actually go to the poorest 50% of Britons.

£8.4 billion would go to working families in the top half of the income distribution, with only £1.9 billion for the other half.

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"Because 17% of workers already pay no income tax, those with the lowest earnings benefit little from a further increase to the personal allowance," the authors say.

"The workers who would gain most in percentage terms from this further increase are those in the lower-middle of the individual earnings distribution. Further increases to the income tax personal allowance would not be particularly effective in helping the low paid."

According to the IFS, the family income of the 2.2 million families paying income tax and on universal credit or council tax support will go up by just 0.8% as a result of the changes. Meanwhile, many more people will lose out thanks to cuts to benefits.

Yesterday's visit to Five Guys isn't the first time that a taste for burgers has got a top Tory into hot water. Last summer, in an attempt to show himself as a hard-working man of the people, chancellor George Osborne tweeted a picture of himself enjoying a burger at his desk. "Putting final touches to the speech," he wrote.

Unfortunately, eagle-eyed Twitter users noticed that the burger wasn't a 99p McDonalds burger - but a designer version from Byron's costing at least £6.75.

Read more about Conservative plans on AOL Money:
What Cameron's tax pledge means for you
Pension inheritance tax to finally be axed
IDS backs prepaid cards to keep benefits 'for essentials'