CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO

LABOUR MANIFESTO

BREXIT AND THE EU

• Core mantra of “Get Brexit done” runs through the manifesto
• Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal to be put to the UK parliament before Christmas, ratified by January 31
• Transition period to end in December 2020
• Tailor-made trade deals for the UK
• 80% of UK trade to be covered by free-trade agreements within the next three years starting with USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan
• Aim to strengthen Commonwealth ties and retake seat at WTO

• Main slogan of “It’s time for a real change”
• Within three months of coming to power, will secure a “sensible” deal
• Within six months, have a second referendum offering the choice of remaining in the EU or leaving with a sensible deal
• A more comprehensive UK customs union; closer alignment with EU single market and EU agencies; prioritise worker, consumer and environmental rights, clarity on security commitments; access to EU databases

BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY

• No increases in income tax, national insurance or VAT over the next five years
• Raise the National Insurance threshold to £9,500 next year – representing a tax cut for 31 million workers
• To keep costs down for small businesses – rather than hiking their taxes
• Public sector net investment to not average more than 3% of GDP. If debt interest reaches 6% of revenue, will reassess plans to keep debt under control.
• Increase in the National Living Wage to two thirds of average earnings, currently forecast at £10.50 an hour
• Continue roll out of Universal Credit

• Nationalise railway system, water, mail, broadband internet and part of the energy system
• Increase the main rate of corporation tax from 19% to 26%, and the small profits rate to 21%
• Increase income tax for anyone earning over £80,000 per annum
• Freeze income tax, National Insurance and VAT for anyone earning under that amount
• Force big multinationals such as Google and Amazon to declare their profits in the country where their economic activity occurs
• Launch a £400 billion National Transformation Fund and a Local Transformation Fund in each English region to support infrastructure projects
• Free full-fibre broadband by 2030

CLIMATE

• Prioritise environment in the next Budget
• Target to reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
• A new £500 million Blue Planet Fund to help protect our oceans from plastic pollution, warming sea temperatures and overfishing
• Will work with the market to deliver two million new high-quality jobs in clean growth
• Invest £800 million to build the first fully deployed carbon capture storage cluster by the mid-2020s
• Invest £500 million to help energy-intensive industries move to low-carbon techniques
• Introduce a new levy on proportion of recyclable plastics in packaging
• Support clean transport to ensure clean air, as well as setting strict new laws on air quality – will phase out the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars
• Will keep our existing energy cap and introduce new measures to lower bills

• Kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution to boost job creation
• Create a Sustainable Investment Board
• Deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle climate change by 2030
• Introduce a Climate and Environment Emergency Bill setting out in law new targets for decarbonisation as well as environment and habitat restoration
• Set up Green Transformation Fund – budget of £250 billion for 10 years dedicated to expanding renewable and low-carbon activities
• Loans to help people buy electric cars
• Create one million “green” jobs
• Permanent ban on fracking
• Windfall tax on oil companies
• Invest in a new plastics remanufacturing industry

HEALTH

• Confirmed £34 billion per year in additional funding for the NHS
• Propose fully funded long-term NHS plan
• Introduction of special “NHS visa” to train more NHS professionals
• Have begun work on building 40 new hospitals across the country
• Investing in hospital upgrades and new machines to boost early cancer diagnosis across 78 hospital trusts
• 50,000 more nurses, 6,000 more doctors, 6,000 more primary care professionals
• Additional funding to deliver 50 million extra GP appointments per year
• Clamp down on health tourism – new immigrants to contribute to NHS funding before using services
• “The services the NHS provides will not be on the table” when the government negotiates trade deals

• End NHS privatisation
• Increase spending on health by 4.3% a year on average
• Additional £1.6 billion for mental health services
• Enable 27 million more doctors’ appointments per year
• Free annual dental check ups
• Abolish prescription charges in England
• Make the NHS a net-zero-carbon service by improving heating and insulation and increasing reliance on renewable energy and electric vehicles
• Plant an NHS forest of one million trees
• Introduce model of joined up care between health services and community care
• Extend paid maternity leave to 12 months

DEFENSE

• Will continue to exceed the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence and increase the budget by at least 0.5% above inflation every year
• Invest in training and equipment for Armed Forces and intelligence agencies
• Will maintain Trident nuclear deterrent programme
• Invest more in cybersecurity and set up the UK’s first Space Command
• Will support defence industry by investing in global programmes

• Meet the NATO target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence
• Increase funding for UN peacekeeping operations to £100 million
• Create a Climate Change Sustainability Committee to examine how to make defence more environmentally sustainable
• Renew the Trident nuclear weapons program

IMMIGRATION

• Australian style points-based system
• “Fewer lower-skilled migrants” and reduced immigration
• EU nationals living in the UK before Brexit – rights guaranteed
• Asylum to refugees fleeing persecution
• EU nationals after Brexit and non-EU nationals – treated equally when it comes to visas and non-contributory benefits. Will only be able to access unemployment, housing, and child benefit after five years, same as non-EEA migrants at the moment

• EU citizen rights to be maintained, irrespective of Brexit outcome
• Grant all EU nationals in the UK the automatic right to continue living and working in the country
• Extend family reunion rights to non-EU citizens
• Close two major immigration removal centres
• Replace the UK government’s EU Settlement Scheme with a voluntary declaratory system

EDUCATION

• Extra £14 billion funding for schools
• Raise teachers’ starting salaries to £30,000
• Government contributions into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme also up
• £3 billion for a new National Skills Fund for businesses and workers
• £1 billion for childcare for before and after school and during holidays

• Schools guaranteed long-term spending
• Guarantee free education for everyone throughout their lives
• Abolish tuition fees
• Expand free childcare and increased funding for schools

HOUSING

• Build “at least” one million new homes over the next five years
• New First Home scheme under which properties would be sold at 30% discounts to first-time buyers
• Simplified shared ownership products
• New stamp duty surcharge on non-UK residents buying property to help pay for schemes to tackle homelessness
• Better Deal for Renters – abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions and only requiring one ‘lifetime’ deposit, which moves with the tenant

• Create a new Department for Housing
• One million social houses within a decade, reform Help to Buy
• Introduce a levy to give local people given “first dibs” on new houses built in their area
• Introduce a tax to punish developers for stalled housing developments
• Claim to end rough sleeping in first five years of coming into power
• Set up a new English Sovereign Land Trust with powers to buy land cheaply for low-cost housing in England