THE Liberal Democrats will seek to pitch themselves as the “party of business” today with a plan to give a £2,600 start-up allowance to help budding entrepreneurs across the UK get started if they won power.

The allowance would begin from 2018 and help with living costs for the first six months ie £100 a week. It would cost £36 million in 2018/19 and by 2021/22 would cost £146m in total.

The proposal will be launched at the party’s Entrepreneurs Network event this evening.

“While the Conservatives focus on giving tax cuts to giant corporations, our focus is on small businesses seeking to grow and unlike Labour and the Conservatives, we would stay in the single market,” declared Tim Farron, the party leader.

His colleague, Baroness Kramer, the Lib Dems’ business spokeswoman, said: “Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of a thriving economy but I know from my own time in business, the early months can be really tough. This will really help get small businesses off the ground and let the economy grow. It takes courage to set up a business, and we are on the side of entrepreneurs."

Other key policies include reviewing controversial business rates and expanding the state-owned British Business Bank to make it easier for firms to borrow.

Mr Farron said: “Many firms are struggling to borrow to invest and that is suffocating an economy being propped up on consumer spending. The Conservatives have lost the right to call themselves the party of business. The Liberal Democrats are now that party.

“A Conservative landslide will be bad for you and your family. Bad for your job. Bad for your bills. Bad for the NHS. Bad for our schools. But have hope. A better future is available,” he added.

Meantime, the Lib Dems would also introduce a 5p charge on disposable coffee cups if Mr Farron succeeded in getting into Downing Street.

At present, 2.5 billion disposable cups are thrown away every year in the UK; around seven million every day. However, less than one in 400 is recycled.

The policy would build on the success of the 5p charge on plastic bags introduced by the Lib-Con Coalition Government, which has seen an 85 per cent reduction in plastic bag use since it was brought in and raised at least £29.2 million in England alone during the first six months of the policy being introduced.

The plastic bag charge was first introduced in the UK in Wales in 2011. Northern Ireland followed suit in 2013, Scotland in 2014 and England in 2015.

The Lib Dems say the money raised from the 5p coffee cup charge south of the border would go to charitable causes chosen locally, as is the case with the plastic bag charge, with the encouragement to support environmental charities.

Alongside the proposal, the Liberal Democrats said they would increase recycling and have already promised to pass a Zero Waste Act, which would include a legally-binding recycling target of 70 per cent south of the border.