Labour will recruit 10,000 more police officers to work on community beats, equivalent to at least one more for every neighbourhood in the country.
We will ensure appropriate support is provided to victims of crime
and introduce legislation for mínimum standard entitlements to service from criminal justice agencies.
The level of violence against women and girls is not acceptable.
Labour will emphasise the safety of women and girls by appointing a commissioner to set new standards for tackling domestic and sexual violence.
We will establish a National Refuge Fund and ensure stability for rape crisis centres.
We will make age-appropriate sex and relationship education a compulsory part of the curriculum so young people can learn about respectful relationships.
We will strengthen the law, banning the use of community resolutions as a response to domestic violence.
Labour will continue to enforce effective measures to prevent all forms of abuse, including female genital mutilation.
Security and counter-terrorism
Labour will maintain the cross-border security co-operation agreements with our intelligence partners in Europe and beyond.
We will always provide our security agencies with the resources and the powers they need to protect our country and keep us all safe.
We will also ensure that such powers do not weaken our individual rights or civil liberties.
When – as they sometimes will – these aims collide, the exercise of investigatory powers must always be both proportionate and necessary.
We will reintroduce effective judicial oversight over how and when they are used, when the circumstances demand that our collective security outweighs an individual freedom.
Labour will review the Prevent programme with a view to assessing both its effectiveness and its potential to alienate minority communities.
In doing so, we will address the government’s failure to take any effective new measures againsta growing problem of extreme or violent radicalisation.
BORDER SECURITY
Border security is vital in preventing serious crimes including child abduction, people trafficking, smuggling of drugs and guns, terrorism and modern day slavery.
Contrary to the Conservative government’s rhetoric, they have not taken control of our borders or strengthened our national security.
Instead, they have suppressed the independent inspector’s reports highlighting weaknesses in our borders
and cut the Border Force by thousands of personnel.
They want to turn private sector landlords, teachers, medical staff and other public sector workers into unpaid immigration officers, forcing them to provide information to the authorities.
The Conservatives promised and failed to deliver 100 per cent exit checks at the borders.
Labour will recruit 500 more border guards to add to our safeguards and controls.
FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES
Labour will halt cuts to the Fire Service.
The Conservatives have cut 10,000 firefighter Jobs and closed dozens of fire stations.
As a result, response times have got slower and lives have been put at risk.
Labour will recruit 3,000 new firefighters,
review staffing levels,
and consult on national minimum standards for the service.
We will reinstate separate governance arrangements for Fire and Police Services.
We will give the Fire and Rescue Services a statutory duty to coordinate and respond to floods.
JUSTICE
We all need access to the justice system to protect us from those who would deny us our rights.
Labour will set out to make Britain a fair society with liberties for all,
governed by the rule of law,
and in which the law is enforced equally.
The Conservatives threaten our Human Rights Act and may withdraw us from the European Convention of Human Rights.
Labour will retain the Human Rights Act.
Justice is all too often denied.
Too many ordinary people know this.
There are football fans, trade unionists, environmental activists and people living with disabilities whose personal experiences provide first-hand testimony.
Labour will hold public inquiries into historic injustices.
We will open inquiries into Orgreave and blacklisting.
We will release all papers relating to the Shrewsbury 24 trials and the 37 Cammell Laird shipyard workers.
Justice today has become the preserve of the rich.
Budget cuts mean that thousands are deprived of fair resolutions.
Justice is eroded by the poor decisions of privatised assessments,
by the withdrawal of legal aid,
by the removal of appeal rights,
by the delays arising from overcrowded courts and
by the costs of fees.
Eligibility for legal aid has been withdrawn across a whole range of areas.
This has had disturbing consequences for the delivery of justice.
Democracy is founded upon the rule of law and judicial independence.
We will also review the judicial appointments process, to ensure a judiciary that is more representative of our society.
Labour will immediately re-establish early advice entitlements in the Family Courts.
The shameful consequences of withdrawal have included a requirement for victims of domestic abuse to pay doctors for certification of their injuries.
Labour’s plans will remove that requirement.
At the same time, we will legislate to prohibit the cross examination of victims of domestic violence by their abuser in certain circumstances.
We will reintroduce funding for the preparation of judicial review cases.
Judicial review is an important way of holding government to account.
There are sufficient safeguards to discourage unmeritorious cases.
We will review the legal aid means tests, including the capital test for those on income-related benefits.
Labour will consider the reinstatement of other legal aid entitlements after receiving the final recommendations of the Access to justice Commission led by Lord Bach.
The justice system can be bewildering and intimidating.
There are many improvements that can be made both to the law
and to the court processes.
Labour will introduce a no-fault divorce procedure.
A Labour government will consult on establishing an environmental tribunal with simplified procedures to hear challenges to unlawful government decisions, like those made on the air quality strategy, without engaging in prohibitively expensive processes.
Labour will not prohibit the courts from raising monies to provide services, but we will introduce a ratio to establish the maximum difference between actual costs and charges levied.
Labour will continue to extend the use of technology in our court service where it enhances access to justice, timely dispute resolution and efficient administration.
PRISONS AND PROBATION SERVICE
Labour is tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime,
but we won’t make the lives of workers in the criminal justice system tougher.
Prison officers, probation officers and other workers need the resources to do their jobs safely, effectively and successfully.
Our prisons are overcrowded.
Staffing levels are too low.
The situation is dangerous and violence against prison officers is rising.
Riots and disturbances in our prisons are increasing.
Prison escapes cause distress to people living near prisons.
A Labour government will publish annual reports on prisoner-staff ratios, with a view to maintaining safety and ending overcrowding.
We will recruit 3,000 more prison officers and review the training and professional development available.
We will publish prison officer to prisoner ratios for all prisons.
Our proposal to lift the public sector pay cap will help to increase the recruitment and retention of both prison officers and probation officers.
Re-offending rates are too high.
The Conservatives talked of arehabilitation revolution, and then just gave up.
Their proposal now is to lock up more and more individuals, ignoring the evidence that our prisons are too often dumping grounds for people who need treatment more than they need punishment.
Labour will insist on personal rehabilitation plans for all prisoners.
Prison should always be a last resort – the state’s most severe sanction for serious offences.
It should never be a substitute for failing mental health services, or the withdrawal of funding from drug treatment centres.
We will review the provision of mental health services in prisons.
Under a Labour government, there will be no new private prisons and no public sector prisons will be privatised.
Labour’s innovative models ofyouth justice successfully turned round the lives of many young people, steering them away from crime and towards more constructive ways.
In government, we will again continue to innovate and incentivise local authorities, police forces and probation services to engage effectively with young people at risk of drifting into antisocial or criminal behaviours.
We will embed restorative justice practices across all youth offending institutions.
The part-privatisation of probation services has already failed.
Labour will review the role of Community Rehabilitation Companies.
The Conservatives bulldozed changes to the probation service through despite warnings that they had not been tested and were founded on a weak evidence base.
LEADING RICHER LIVES
LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Councils deliver vital local services to our communities, but their budgets have been slashed by Conservative cuts.
This has led to a deterioration of local services, from bin collection to road repair,
and the loss of important community assets such as libraries, youth centres and women’s refuges.
Labour believes in devolving power to local communities but that requires the necessary funding follows.
You cannot empower local government if you impoverish it.
A Labour government will give local government extra funding next year.
We will initiate a review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term.
Labour is the party of devolution and we believe in handing back power to communities.
We will devolve powers over economic development, complete with the necessary funding.
It is through the planning system that communities can shape the kinds of high streets, homes and amenities that they want.
But under the Conservatives, planning has been under-resourced and disempowered, with democratic planning authorities unable to stand up to big developers.
As a result, planning decisions have become too influenced by narrow economic considerations, with developers’ profit taking precedence over community priorities.
A Labour government will properly resource and bolster planning authorities with fuller powers to put people and communities at the heart of planning.
We will update compulsory purchase powers to make them more effective as a tool to drive regeneration and unlock planned development.
Under the Conservatives, nearly £400 million has been cut from youth services and over 600 youth centres have closed.
Labour will end the cuts to youth services.
We will continue to support all training routes for social workers, including initial social work training provided within or accredited by a higher education institution.
We will also prevent the private sector and subsidiaries of private companies from running child protection services.
We will deliver earlier protection to victims of abuse by strengthening mandatory reporting, and guaranteeing allegations will be reported and action taken to make children safe.
And we will refocus social care to work with families in local communities to prevent children becoming at risk of going into care.
The government is currently failing to develop a strategy for the wholesale improvement of the care system that delivers for all, not just those children being considered for adoption.
We will promote the care and educational achievement of our most vulnerable children and increase support for children in kinship and foster care, and their families.
It is important that other forms of care, such as kinship care and fostering, are not marginalised, as this will not result in the step-change we need to see in outcomes for looked after children.
Labour will support further regulation of commercial fostering agencies,
as well as commissioning a review on establishing a national fostering service.
We will extend Staying Put arrangements to support all children and young people in residential and other forms of care until they are 21.
We will enshrine the European Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law.
Labour will fund child burial fees for bereaved parents, ensuring that they are scrapped in all council areas.
We recognise that some councils have already made this humane move.
Libraries are vital social assets, valued by communities across the country.
We will ensure libraries are preserved for future generations
and updated with wi-fi and computers to meet modern needs.
We will reintroduce library standards so that government can assess and guide councils in delivering the best possible service.
Labour will end the closure of Crown Post Office branches, which play a major role in serving their communities.
We will also set up a commission to establish a Post Bank, owned by the Post Office and providing a full range of banking services in every community.
Labour will give communities more power to shape their town centres, by strengthening powers to protect post offices, community pharmacies, high street banks, sports clubs, pubs and independent shops,
and promote measures to decrease high-street vaca ncies.
We will set up a national review of local pubs to examine the causes for their large-scale demise,
as well as establishing a joint taskforce that will consider future sustainability.
We will reduce the maximum stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals from £100 to £2.
Labour will also legislate to increase the delay between spins to reduce the addictive nature of the games.
We will give members of the Local Government Pension Scheme full trustee status to help control investments,
and reduce fees and charges.
This Conservative government has taken rural communities for granted, with chronic underinvestment in transport, broadband and public services, including the closure of local schools, post offices and libraries.
Rural infrastructure and industry has been neglected.
Labour will invest in broadband, housing and transport
to create jobs
and ensure that the nation’s prosperity is felt beyond our large towns and cities.
Labour’s national investment plans include coastal protections,
better flood management
and the broadband and 4G extensions that will underpin the future success of rural small businesses.
Rural councils deliver public services differently, and this needs to be reflected in funding allocation mechanisms.
We will consider these differences in our re-evaluation of the business rate schemes.
We will introduce a 'rural-proofing’ process so that all our laws, policies and programmes consider their impact on rural communities.
Labour will support tourism at the heart of government.
The tourism industry represents 9.6 per cent of UK employment, 4.9 per cent of export and 9 per cent of GDP, but its importance is too often forgotten.
Labour will ensure that tourism becomes a national priority again.
We will reinstate the cross-Whitehall ministerial group on tourism,
and ensure that government ministers across departments understand how their roles fit into the national tourism agenda.
The Conservatives have failed to provide a clear, ambitious or sustainable vision for the future of the farming, food and fishing industries.
We will expand the role of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to ensure suppliers and consumers get a fair deal.
We will reconfigure funds for farming and fishing to support smaller traders,
local economies,
community benefits
and sustainable practices.
We will allow EU workers employed across farming, fishing and food manufacturing to remain in the UK,
and reinstate the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme.
We will reinstate the Agricultural Wages Board to underpin employment standards and wages.
We will make utility companies return roads to a condition no worse than when they started digging.
TRANSPORT
Labour will invest in a modern, integrated, accessible and sustainable transport system that is reliable and affordable.
Our transport systems illustrate the abject failure of Tory policies:
relentless deregulation,
privatisation
and fragmentation.
They say we get choice and efficiency but the reality of their transport privatisations has been that services are less reliable,
safety is compromised,
fares have risen,
ticketing has become complicated
and air quality has worsened.
On our railways, we pay some of the highest fares in Europe for increasingly unreliable and overcrowded services.
The beneficiaries of public funding siphoned off through transport privatisations have been the earnings of directors, dividends for shareholders and the coffers of overseas governments.
Labour will prioritise public service over private profit.
And we will start by bringing our railways back into public ownership, as franchises expire or, in other cases, with franchise reviews or break clauses.
We will introduce a Public Ownership of the Railways Bill to repeal the Railways Act 1993 under which the Conservatives privatised our railways.
In public ownership, we will deliver real improvements for passengers by capping fares,
introducing free wi-fi across the network,
ensuring safe staffing levels,
ending the expansion of driver only operations,
and introducing legal duties to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.
Across the country we will enable councils to provide first-class bus services by extending the powers to re-regulate local bus services to all areas that want them,
and we will support the creation of municipal bus companies that are publicly run for passengers not profit.
Under the Conservatives, bus fares have risen
and services have been cut.
Labour will introduce regulations to designate and protect routes of critical community value, including those that serve local schools, hospitals and isolated settlements in rural areas.
A publicly owned railway system can be the backbone of our plans for integrated transport.
It will be built on the platform of Network Rail, which we will retain whole, working with the devolved administrations.
We will ensure new rolling stock is publicly owned
and will encourage expansion of public freight services in a publicly owned railway that will leave our roads freer of traffic and our air cleaner.
We will facilitate British procurements, including steel, whenever possible.
A Labour government will invest to regenerate the local and regional economies across the whole country, so that every area gets its fair share of transport investment.
A Labour government will complete the HS2 high-speed rail line from London through Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester and then into Scotland, consulting with communities affected about the optimal route.
We will link HS2 with other rail investments, such as Crossrail of the North (tying together our great Northern cities) and on to the Durham Freight Centre.
We will build a new Brighton Main Line for the South East.
In London, to ensure our capital continues to prosper, we will build Crossrail 2.
To harness the economic potential of new technologies and science, we will complete the Science Vale transport arc that runs from Oxford to Cambridge through Milton Keynes.
And we will deliver rail electrification and expansion across the whole country, including in Wales and the South West.
We will also consult with local communities to re-open branch lines.
To prepare for global new trade arrangements, we will study the feasibility of port development across the UK.
We will invest in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland too, working with devolved administrations through the UK National Infrastructure Commission and its devolved counterparts.
Our plans will encourage and enable people to get out of their cars, for better health and a cleaner environment.
Labour will position the UK at the forefront of the development, manufacture and use of ultra low emission vehicles, supporting the creation of clean modes of transport through investment in low emission vehicles.
We will retrofit thousands of diesel buses in areas with the most severe air quality problems to Euro 6 standards.
We will reform the legislation governing taxi and private hire services, introducing national standards to gua rantee safety
and accessibility,
updating regulations to keep pace with technological change
and ensuring a level playing field between operators.
We will invite the National Infrastructure Commission to recommend the next stages for developing and upgrading the National Cycle Network.
We reaffirm the commitments in the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
We will continue to upgrade our highways and improve roadworks at known bottlenecks.
The A1 North, the Severn Bridge and the A30 provide essential connections and require our urgent consideration.
We will work with the Welsh Government to scrap the tolls on the Severn Bridge.
After seven years of stalled progress, Labour will reset the UK’s road safety vision and ambitiously strive for a transport network with zero deaths, reintroducing road-safety targets, setting out bold measures that will continuously improve safety standards.
We will refocus the roads building and maintenance programmes, connecting our communities,
feeding public transport hubs
and realising untapped economic potential.
Labour recognises the need for additional airport capacity in the South East.
We welcome the work done by the Airports Commission,
and we will guarantee that any airport expansion adheres to our tests that require noise issues to be addressed,
air quality to be protected,
the UK’s climate change obligations met
and growth across the country supported.
We will continue working with our neighbours through the European Union’s Highways of the Sea programme and by negotiating to retain membership of the Common Aviation Area and Open Skies arrangem ents.
ENVIRONMENT
Investing in our environment is investing in our future.
We will defend and extend existing environmental protections.
We will champion sustainable farming, food and fishing by investing in and promoting skills, technology, market access and innovation.
The Conservatives broke their promise to be the greenest government ever.
They have allowed fracking in national parks,
evaded their responsibilities on air quality
and cut the funding for flood defences.
The future of our farming, food and fishing industries hangs in the balance, to be used as leverage in Brexit negotiations.
Only a Labour government will prioritise a sustainable, long-term future for our farming, fishing and food industries,
fund robust flood resilience,
invest in rural and coastal communities,
and guarantee the protection and advancement of environmental quality standards.
The Conservatives’ threatened 'bonfire of red tape’ is a threat to our environmental protections and to the quality of our lives.
Their record on combating climate change and environmental damage has been one of inaction and broken promises.
The balance needs resetting: our air is killing us,
our farms face an uncertain future,
our fish stocks are collapsing,
our oceans are used as dumping grounds,
and our forests, green belt, national parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest are all under threat.
Labour will introduce a new Clean Air Act to deal with the Conservative legacy of illegal air quality.
We will safeguard habitats and species in the ‘blue belts’ of the seas and oceans surrounding our island.
We will set guiding targets for plastic bottle deposit schemes, working with food manufacturers and retailers to reduce waste.
We will protect our bees by prohibiting neonicotinoids as soon as our EU relationship allows us to do so.
We will work with farmers and foresters to plant a million trees of native species to promote biodiversity and better flood management.
Unlike the Conservatives who attempted to privatise our forests, Labour will keep them in public hands.
Our stewardship of the environment needs to be founded on sound principles and based on scientific assessments.
We will establish a science innovation fund, working with farmers and fisheries, that will include support for our small scale fishing fleet.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Animals in our food chain need welfare standards.
Domestic animals require stronger protection from cruelty.
Wild animals need a sustainable ecosystem.
Labour’s vision is for the UK to lead the world with high animal welfare standards in the wild, in farming and for domestic animals.
Labour will increase the maximum sentence for those convicted of committing animal cruelty.
We will promote cruelty-free animal husbandry
and consult on ways to ensure better enforcement of agreed standards.
We will prohibit the third-party sale of puppies,
introduce and enforce a total ban on ivory trading,
and support the ban on wild animals in circuses.
We will cease the badger cull, which spreads bovine TB.
Labour ended fox hunting, deer hunting and hare coursing.
Only a Labour government will maintain the bans.
CULTURE FOR ALL
Britain’s creative industries are the envy of the world,
a source of national pride,
a driver of inward investment and tourism,
and a symbol of the kind of country we are now and aspire to be in the future.
As Britain leaves the EU, we will put our world-class creative sector at the heart of our negotiations and future industrial strategy.
We need to do more to open up the arts and creative industries to everyone.
We will introduce a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to upgrade our existing cultural and creative infrastructure to be ready for the digital age
and invest in creative clusters across the country, based on a similar model to enterprise zones.
Administered by the Arts Council, the fund will be available over a five-year period.
It will be among the biggest arts infrastructure funds ever, transforming the country’s cultural landscape.
Labour will maintain free entry to museums and invest in our museums and heritage sector.
Conservative cuts to the Arts Council and local authorities have created a very tough financial climate for museums, with some closing or reducing their services, and others starting to charge entry fees.
The Cultural Capital Fund will have a particular focus on projects that could increase museums’ and galleries’ income and viability.
Labour will end cuts to local authority budgets to support the provision of libraries, museums and galleries.
We will take steps to widen the reach of the Government Art Collection so that more people can enjoy it.
We will continue to mark the ongoing centenary of the First World War, and the sacrifice of all those who died during it.
Labour remains committed to honouring the role of all who have served our country,
including the Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish soldiers who fought for Britain.
Our thriving creative sector, from the games industry to fashion, needs a strong pipeline of skilled talent to sustain its growth.
Labour will introduce an arts pupil premium to every primary school in England – a £160 million annual per year boost for schools to invest in projects that will support cultural activities for schools over the longer term.
We will put creativity back at the heart of the curriculum, reviewing the EBacc performance measure to make sure arts are not sidelined from secondary education.
Labour will launch a creative careers advice campaign in schools to demonstrate the range of careers and opportunities available, and the skills required in the creative industries, from the tech sector to theatre production.
Being a performer is a great career.
But too often the cu ltu re of low or no pay means it isn’t an option for those without well-off families to support them.
We will work with trade unions and employers to agree sector-specific advice and guidelines on pay and employment standards that will make the sector more accessible to all.
We will improve diversity on and offscreen, working with the film industry and public service and commercial broadcasters to find rapid solutions to improve diversity.
We recognise the serious concern about the ‘value gap’ between producers of creative content and the digital services that profit from its use, and we will work with all sides to review the way that innovators and artists are rewarded for their work in the digital age.
Music venues play a vital role in supporting the music industry’s infrastructure and ensuring a healthy music industry continues in Britain.
Labour will review extending the £1,000 pub relief business rates scheme to small music venues.
And we will introduce an ‘agent of change’ principle in planning law, to ensure that new housing developments can coexist with existing music venues.
We all need to work harder to keep children safe online.
Labour will ensure that tech companies are obliged to take measures that further protect children and tackle online abuse.
We will ensure that young people understand and are able to easily remove any content they shared on the internet before they turned 18.
MEDIA
The BBC is a national asset which we should all be proud of.
Unlike the Conservatives, Labour will always support it and uphold its independence.
We will ensure the BBC and public service broadcasting has a healthy future.
Labour is committed to keeping Channel 4 in public ownership
and will guarantee the future of Welsh-language broadcaster S4C.
Victims of phone hacking have been let down by a Conservative government that promised them justice, but failed to follow through.
We will implement the recommendations of part one of the Leveson Inquiry and commence part two which will look into the corporate governance failures that allowed the hacking scandal to occur.
Local newspapers and broadcasting in Britain are an important part of our democracy and culture.
We are concerned about closures of local media outlets and the reductions in number of local journalists.
Labour will hold a national review local media and into the ownership of national media to ensure plurality.
To protect democracy and media freedom, we will take steps to ensure that Ofcom is better able to safeguard a healthy plurality of media ownership
and to put in place clearer rules on who is fit and proper to own or run TV and radio stations.
SPORT
Sport must be run in the interests of those who participate in it and love it, not just for a privileged few.
We will give football supporters the opportunity to have a greater say in how their clubs are run.
We will legislate for accredited supporters trusts to be able to appoint and remove at least two club directors and to purchase shares when clubs change hands.
We will review fan participation in sports governance more widely.
Sporting events must be open and accessible to all.
We will push sports authorities to make rapid improvements on access provision for fans with disabilities.
Labour will ensure the Premier League delivers on its promise to invest 5 per cent of its television rights income into the grassroots game to help the next generation of players and coaches,
and to improve facilities and pitches.
The Premier League has so far failed to do so, despite lucrative new domestic and international TV deals.
The broken ticketing market in the UK means tickets sell out instantly and are put up at vastly inflated prices on ticket-tout websites.
Labour will enforce anti-bot legislation and implement the recommendations of the Waterson Review to ensure fair opportunities for fans to buy tickets.
CHAPTER 10  EXTENDING DEMOCRACY
EXTENDING DEMOCRACY
As we change our constitutional relationship with Europe, we must also adjust our own arrangements.
Just as many felt that power was too centralised and unaccountable in Brussels, so many feel that about Westminster.
A Labour government will establish a Constitutional Convention to examine and advise on reforming of the way Britain works at a fundamental level.
We will consult on its form and terms of reference and invite recommendations on extending democracy.
This is about where power and sovereignty lies – in politics, the economy, the justice system, and in our communities.
The Convention will look at extending democracy locally, regionally and nationally, considering the option of a more federalised country.
Our fundamental belief is that the Second Chamber should be democratically elected.
In the interim period, we will seek to end the hereditary principle and reduce the size of the current House of Lords as part of a wider package of constitutional reform to address the growing democratic deficit across Britain.
We will extend the Freedom of Information Act to private companies that run public services.
We will reduce the voting age to 16.
At 16, you are eligible to pay tax, get married or even join the army.
You deserve a vote.
We will safeguard our democracy by repealing the Lobbying Act, which has gagged charities,
and introduce a tougher statutory register of lobbyists.
ENGLAND
We need a relationship of equals with devolved administrations.
Labour will create a role for a Minister for England, who will sit under the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and will work with the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
We will restore regional offices to increase contact between central and local government on the ground.
Labour will be guided by public opinion when determining whether to include directly elected mayors in future devolution deals.
SCOTLAND
Labour opposes a second Scottish independence referendum.
It is unwanted and unnecessary, and we will campaign tirelessly to ensure Scotland remains part of the UK.
Independence would lead to turbo-charged austerity for Scottish families.
The Scottish Parliament will receive a huge funding increase from our policies,
and massive numbers of Scots will benefit from our plans in areas reserved to Westminster.
We will establish a Scottish Investment Bank, with £20 billion of funds available to local projects and Scotland’s small businesses, creating work and stimulating the economy.
We will set up an inquiry into blacklisting
and will urge the Scottish Government to hold an inquiry into the actions of Scottish police during the miners’ strike.
WALES
We are proud of the achievements of the Welsh Labour government and its record of delivery.
In government, we will work in partnership to stand up for the people of Wales
and protect public services.
We need long-term reform of how the UK allocates public expenditure to ensure that it reflects the needs of different parts of our country and that no nation or region of the UK is unfairly disadvantaged.
We will build on the Development Bank of Wales using more than £10 billion from Labour’s new National Investment Bank.
We will bring forward legislation to make the devolution settlement more sustainable as set out by the Welsh Labour government in its Alternative Wales Bill, including the devolution of policing.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The peace we have today in Northern Ireland is due to the courageous endeavours of those on all sides who have been brave enough to build it.
The Good Friday Agreement, which Labour helped to negotiate, is one of the greatest achievements of Labour in office.
We will continue to fully support the principles and structures inherent within the Good Friday Agreement
and we remain committed to working with all sides to deliver real peace and greater prosperity to Northern Ireland.
CHAPTER 11   A MORE EQUAL SOCIETY
The Labour Party is the party of equality and seeks to build a society and world free from all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Labour has a strong record on progressing women’s rights and freedoms that we can be proud of.
Labour brought in the Equal Pay Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, the Equality Act, the Minimum Wage and introduced Sure Start.
Every progressive piece of equality legislation has been delivered by Labour.
Under the Conservatives, progress is being rolled back for women, people with disabilities, LGBT people and BAME communities.
Cuts to public services and social security are landing disproportionately on women and ethnic minorities, with 86 per cent of the money raised from the Tories’ tax and social security changes coming from women’s pockets.
It was a Labour government that enshrined the rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, marking the birth of the Human Rights Act.
Devastating cuts to the Equality and Human Rights Commission by the Conservatives reveal their real attitude, beyond the rhetoric, to issues of equality and discrimination.
These cuts have been made amid the rise in hate crime recorded by the police in the last year.
A Labour government will enhance the powers and functions of this commission, making it truly independent, to ensure it can support ordinary working people to effectively challenge any discrimination they may face.
A Labour government will reinstate the public sector equality duties and seek to extend them to the private sector, ensuring all citizens benefit from this Labour legislation.
WOMEN
The advances for women in Britain and around the world have been fought and won by determined women working together for real change, often in the face of resistance and even abuse.
Labour has a proud record on progressing women’s rights and freedoms.
We brought in the Equal Pay Act,
the Sex Discrimination Act,
the Equality Act,
the Minimum Wage
and introduced Sure Start.
Ours will be a government for women, with a cabinet of at least 50 per cent women, which fights inequality and misogyny in every part of society.
A Labour government will gender audit all policy and legislation for its impact on women before impl mentation.
Labour will continue to ensure a woman’s right to choose a safe, legal abortion – and we will work with the Assembly to extend that right to women in Northern Ireland.
Violence against women and girls continues to be a global epidemic, affecting an estimated one in three women worldwide.
In the UK, on average two women are killed by their current or a former partner every week.
Under the Conservatives, over a third of all local authority funding to domestic and sexual violence services was already cut by 2012.
Labour will appoint a new commissioner to enforce minimum standards in tackling domestic and sexual violence.
A Violence Against Women Commissioner would also provide stable central funding for women’s refuges and rape crisis centres and encourage sharing of best practice between local authorities.
Maternity discrimination under the Conservatives is out of control, almost doubling in the past ten years.
Many mothers are reluctant to raise complaints about discrimination and unfair treatment.
Unlawful maternity and pregnancy discrimination is now more common in Britain’s workplaces than ever before, with 54,000 pregnant women and new mothers forced out of their jobs in 2015.
Labour will reverse the unfair employment tribunal fees which literally price people out of justice.
Labour will also extend the time period for applying for maternity discrimination to the employment tribunal from three to six months.
Labour will work with the Health and Safety Executive to make mandatory a workplace risk assessment for pregnant women so necessary adaptions can be made,
and review support for women who have miscarriages.
LGBT EQUALITY
Labour has a proud record of championing the fight for LGBT equality.
We abolished Section 28,
equalised the age of consent,
created civil partnerships,
and it was only through Labour votes that equal marriage became law.
However, there is still a long way to go on issues such as education,
equal access to public services,
levels of LGBT hate crime,
and mental and physical wellbeing.
A Labour government will reform the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act 2010 to ensure they protect Trans people by changing the protected characteristic of ‘gender assignment’ to ‘gender identity’
and remove other outdated language such as ‘transsexual’.
Labour will bring the law on LGBT hate crimes into line with hate crimes based on race and faith, by making them aggravated offences.
To tackle bullying of LGBT young people, Labour will ensure that all teachers receive initial and ongoing training on the issues students face and how to address them.
And we will ensure that the new guidance for relationships and sex education is LGBT inclusive.
Likewise, we will ensure all frontline health and social care professionals receive ongoing training to understand and meet the needs of LGBT patients and service users.
Labour will ensure that NHS England completes the trial programme to provide PrEP as quickly as possible, and fully roll out the treatment to high-risk groups to help reduce HIV infection.
DIVERSE COMMUNITIES
Now more than ever, we need to celebrate the profound and enriching transformation brought by the diversity of people in this country, with all their different experiences, ta ents and contributions.
Today Black and Asian-owned businesses are an important and growing feature of our economy and society.
These businesses are important not just because of their financial contribution; they have also helped transform particular sectors of the economy.
The Labour Party is the party of equality.
We seek to build a society free from all forms of racism, antiSemitism and Islamophobia.
We should all be deeply troubled by the rise in racially aggravated attacks and race hate crime in the past year.
Anti-Semitic incidents are also on the rise once more and we are committed to combatting this trend with adequate resources and firm political will.
Commissioning a report on our own party was an unprecedented step in British politics, demonstrating a commitment to tackling prejudice wherever it is found.
Labour is already acting on recommendations, including reform of internal disciplinary procedures to make them firmer and fairer,
and expansion of training to tackle anti-Semitism.
On a matter of such importance, Labour urges all democratic political parties to do the same.
We will end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities,
and protect the right to lead a nomadic way of life.
Black and Asian workers still suffer a massive pay gap.
By introducing equal pay audit requirements on large employers, Labour will close this pay gap.
By making the Minimum Wage a real Living Wage, we will benefit ethnic minority workers who are more likely to be on low pay.
We will implement the Parker Review recommendations to increase ethnic diversity on the boards of Britain’s largest companies.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Over the last seven years people with disabilities have been failed by the Conservative government.
People with disabilities have been vilified with divisive rhetoric like ‘scroungers’ and ‘shirkers’.
In this climate, recorded disability hate crime has increased.
Last year the UN published a report concluding that the Conservative government had committed “grave, systematic violations of the rights of persons with disabilities”.
Currently 4.2 million People with disabilities live in poverty in Britain,
and the disability employment gap remains stubbornly high.
Labour believes in the social model of disability – that it is society which disables people, and it is our job to remove those barriers.
The previous Labour government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
The next Labour government will sign the UNCRPD into UK law.
Labour will act to tackle discrimination,
remove barriers
and ensure social security delivers dignity and empowerment, not isolation and stigma.
Labour will legislate to make terminal illness a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
Autism covers a wide range of conditions that reflect neurological differences among people.
We will work with employers, trade unions and public services to improve awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace and in society.
Labour will give British Sign Language full recognition as a recognised language.
CHAPTER 12 A GLOBAL BRITAIN
Labour will take all necessary measures to protect the security of our citizens and country.
We will put conflict resolution
and human rights at the heart of foreign policy,
commit to working through the UN,
end support for unilateral aggressive wars of intervention
and back effective action to alleviate the refugee crisis.
Unlike the Conservatives, Labour believes Britain’s foreign policy should be guided by the values of peace,
universal rights
and international law.
Today, these values are being tested.
As we leave the European Union, keeping Britain global is one of our country’s most urgent tasks.
We face the most complex, interwoven security and development challenges of our time;
ongoing wars across the Middle East,
unprecedented numbers of refugees,
global terrorism,
climate change,
the threat of nuclear conflict,
a devastating food crisis across East Africa and beyond,
an erratic US administration
and a more combative government in Russia.
The lessons of the past, including those from the Chilcot Inquiry, show why our response to these challenges must be different.
We cannot seek to solve the world’s problems on our own, but instead must exhaust diplomatic solutions alongside international, regional and local partners within the framework of international law.
This will require a modern and inclusive strategy, uniting the interwoven foreign policy instruments of diplomacy, defence and development.
DIPLOMACY
Labour recognises that, in leaving the EU, Britain will face both challenges and opportunities.
We are deeply ambitious for our country’s future and will draw on our international networks to make Britain a champion of multilateral engagement.
We will invest in the UK’s diplomatic services, rebuilding some of the key capabilities lost as a result of Tory cuts.
Since the Second World War, Britain’s most important diplomatic relationship has been with the US.
But that special relationship is based on shared values.
When the current Trump administration chooses to ignore them, whether by discriminating on the basis of religion or breaking its climate change commitments, we will not be afraid to disagree.
From the Middle East to Africa, in recent years millions of people have been killed, injured or displaced through wars, terrorism and military intervention.
In Syria alone, more than 400,000 people have been killed.
Labour will work tirelessly to end the conflict and get the diplomatic process back on track,
while fully supporting international efforts to investigate, prosecute and convict the perpetrators of war crimes.
Labour is strongly committed to reducing human suffering caused by war.
We will publish a strategy for protecting civilians in conflict, setting out detailed plans for work on conflict prevention and resolution,
postconflict peacebuilding,
And justice for the victims of war crimes.
Labour has created a Minister for Peace and Disarmament to lead this work.
Labour is committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution – a secure Israel alongside a secure and viable state of Palestine.
There can be no military solution to this conflict and all sides must avoid taking action that would make peace harder to achieve.
That means both an end to the blockade, occupation and settlements, and an end to rocket and terror attacks.
Labour will continue to press for an immediate return to meaningful negotiations leading to a diplomatic resolution.
A Labour government will immediately recognise the state of Palestine.
We will also urge negotiations towards a political resolution in all other regions currently experiencing conflict, including Kashmir, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen,
and give our strong support to those countries already working to end decades of division, including Colombia, Cyprus and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In other regions, including the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea, rising tensions threaten global peace.
Under a Labour government, Britain will work to reduce those tensions through an insistence on multilateral political dialogue.
From Afghanistan and Iraq to the streets of European cities, Daesh continues to commit acts of indiscriminate barbarism.
We will take all lawful action necessary to counter and confront this evil,
and we will advocate a long-term multinational political strategy, led by regional actors, to tackle the spread of extremism.
In our discussions with different governments, including China, Egypt, the Gulf States, Myanmar, the Philippines, Russia and Turkey, we will urge respect for human rights
and the rule of law.
We will review all training and equipment contracts with repressive regimes, to ensure that Britain never colludes in the mistreatment of civilians.
We will always stand up for the rights, interests and self-determination of Britain’s overseas territories and their citizens, whether protecting the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands against anyone who would seek to challenge it, or supporting the right of the Chagos isla nders to return to their homelands.
We will reclaim Britain’s leading role in tackling climate change, working hard to preserve the Paris Agreement and deliver on international commitments to reduce emissions while mitigating the impacts of climate change on developing countries.
While strengthening our commitment to the UN, we also acknowledge its shortcomings, particularly in light of repeated abuses of the veto power by some permanent members of the UN Security Council.
We will work with our international partners to build support for UN reform and make its institutions more effective and responsive.
We will appoint dedicated global ambassadors for women’s rights, LGBT rights and religious freedom to fight discrimination and promote equality globally.
Exports, trade and investment play a vital role in creating jobs and growth in Britain,
and Labour supports the considerable contribution that a responsible, world-leading defence and security industry makes to the UK economy.
However, we also believe that strong export controls have a vital role to play in sustaining a legitimate trade in arms, while protecting UKjobs and R&D.
Labour will therefore implement the Arms Trade Treaty to a consistently high standard, including ceasing arms exports to countries where there is concern that they will be used to violate international humanitarian law (IHL).
In particular, Labour will demand a comprehensive, independent, UN-led investigation into alleged violations of IHL in Yemen, including air strikes on civilians by the Saudi-led coalition.
We will immediately suspend any further arms sales for use in the conflict until that investigation is concluded.
Labour remains committed to an independent inquiry into Britain’s military role in the 1984 raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
DEFENCE
The primary duty of any government is to protect and defend its citizens.
We live in a period of growing international tensions.
A strong, viable and sustainable defence and security policy must be strategic and evidence led.
As previous incoming governments have done, a Labour government will order a complete strategic defence and security review when it comes into office, to assess the emerging threats facing Britain, including hybrid and cyber warfare.
Cyber security will form an integral part of our defence and security strategy and we will introduce a cyber-security charter for companies working with the Ministry of Defence.
We will ensure that our armed forces are properly equipped and resourced to respond to wide-ranging security challenges.
Labour will commit to effective UN peacekeeping, including support for a UN Emergency Peace Service.
As the security threats and challenges we face are not bound by geographic borders, it is vital that as Britain leaves the EU, we maintain our close relationship with our European partners.
Alongside our commitment to NATO, we will continue to work with the EU on a range of operational missions to promote and support global and regional security.
The last Labour government consistently spent above the NATO benchmark of 2 per cent of GDP.
Conservative spending cuts have put Britain’s security at risk, shrinking the army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars.
The scrapping of Nimrod, HMS Ark Royal and the Harrier jump jets have weakened our defences and cost British taxpayers millions.
Labour’s commitment to spending at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence will guarantee that our Armed Forces have the necessary capabilities to fulfil the full range of obligations,
and ensure our conventional forces are versatile and able to deploy in a range of roles.
Labour supports the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent.
As a nuclear-armed power, our country has a responsibility to fulfil our obligations under the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty.
Labour will lead multilateral efforts with international partners and the UN to create a nuclear-free world.
The UK defence industry is worldleading, and Labour will continue to support development and innovation in this sector and to ensure that it can continue to rely on a highly skilled workforce.
We are committed to a procurement process that supports the British steel industry and defence manufacturing industry,
which in turn provide good jobs throughout the supply chain.
Labour will publish a Defence Industrial Strategy White Paper, including a National Shipbuilding Strategy to secure a long-term future for the industry, workers and UK defence.
We have a duty to properly reward and remunerate our Armed Forces.
Under the Conservatives, our Armed Forces have been hit by rent rises, pay restraint, and changes to tax and benefits, putting real pressure on service personnel and their families.
We will ensure they get the pay and living conditions that their service merits.
Dedicated service personnel are at the heart of our defence policy.
Labour will immediately examine recruitment and retention policies in order to stem the exodus seen under the Conservatives.
We will publish new strategic equality objectives to ensure our personnel reflect our diverse society.
We will drive up standards in Service Accommodation, and take action where private companies have failed to deliver.
We will consult with service personnel, giving them greater autonomy over their housing choices,
and review and improve the Forces Help to Buy scheme.
Personnel who are injured while serving should have prompt access to support and compensation.
We will resist any Conservative proposals to abolish the right to seek legal redress against the MoD where compensation claims cannot be otherwise settled.
We are fully committed to supporting our veterans.
We will promote greater awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant,
seek greater consistency in its implementation by public authorities,
and promote increased participation in the Corporate Covenant.
We will also roll out a Homes Fit for Heroes programme that will insulate the homes of disabled veterans for free.
DEVELOPMENT
Labour has a proud record on international development.
We will continue to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on ofFcial development assistance,
and develop a targeted development agenda based on the principles of redistribution,
social justice,
women’s rights
and poverty reduction.
Labour will take robust action to end the self-regulation of Department for International Development private contractors, establishing and enforcing new rules to ensure aid is used to reduce poverty for the many, not to increase profits for the few.
We fully support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed globally to eradicate poverty
and protect the environment.
Labour will develop a cross-government strategy for ensuring the SDGs are implemented, and report annually to Parliament on our performance.
In the wake of Brexit, to fulfil our national obligations under the SDGs, Labour will guarantee the least developed countries continued access to the UK market to protect vital export revenues.
There are more refugees and displaced people around the world than at any time since the Second World War.
This is a failure of diplomacy,
conflict resolution
and of human rights, which is why they will be at the heart of Labour’s foreign policy.
The Conservatives have completely failed to show any leadership on this issue.
In the first 100 days of government, we will produce a cross-departmental strategy to meet our international obligations on the refugee crisis.
The current global tax system is deeply unjust.
Africa’s economies alone lose more than £46 billion annually through corruption and tax evasion – more than 10 times what they receive in aid.
Labour will act decisively on tax havens, introducing strict standards of transparency for crown dependencies and overseas territories, including a public register of owners, directors, major shareholders and beneficial owners for all companies and trusts.
We will work in partnership with communities in the Global South to develop long-term strategies for strengthening economies and societies.
We would reinstate the Civil Society Challenge Fund to support trade unions, women’s associations and other civil society organisations which are the most effective forces in winning human rights and workers’ rights.
Jobs in global supply chains can be of enormous importance to working people across the Global South, but human rights abuses and exploitation of lower environmental standards and workers’ rights are too common.
Labour is committed to ensuring respect for human rights,
workers’ rights
and environmental sustainability in the operations of British businesses around the world,
and we will work to tighten the rules governing corporate accountability for abuses in global supply chains.
Labour will work with business to ensure the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act are fully respected, including reporting on due diligence in supply chains.
We will extend the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator beyond direct suppliers to ensure fair treatment for all those producing goods for the UK’s largest supermarkets.
At least a billion people around the world cannot currently obtain the health services they need, and another 100 million are pushed below the poverty line as a result of paying for their services.
We will establish a Centre for Universal Health Coverage, providing global partnerships, support and encouragement to countries that want UHC, helping them to generate the funding and systems required for its delivery.
We will invest in new public-health driven research and development to find effective and affordable treatments for diseases in the developing world, including fighting TB, malaria, HIV/AIDS and neglected tropical diseases.
9548_17 Promoted by Iain McNicol, General Secretary, the Labour Party, on behalf of the Labour Party, both at Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London, SW1 E 6QT. Printed by Potts Print, Nelson Park, 6 Moorland Way, Cramlington, Northumberland, NE23 1 WG.
1 Protect Britain’s Place in Europe
1.1 Giving the people the final say
Liberal Democrats are open and outward-looking.
We passionately believe that Britain’s relationship with its neighbours is stronger as part of the European Union.
Whatever its imperfections, the EU remains the best framework for working effectively and co-operating in the pursuit of our shared aims.
It has led directly to greater prosperity,
increased trade,
investment and jobs,
better security
and a greener environment.
Britain is better off in the EU.
Liberal Democrats campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU.
However, we acknowledge the result of the 2016 referendum, which gave the government a mandate to start negotiations to leave.
The decision Britain took, though, was simply whether to remain in or to leave the European Union.
There was no option on the ballot paper to choose the shape of our future relationship with the EU on vital issues including trade, travel or security.
While much remains uncertain about Theresa May’s approach, it is now clear that the Conservatives are campaigning for a hard Brexit.
This means leaving the single market, ending freedom of movement and abandoning the customs union – even though these choices will make the UK poorer and disappoint many leave voters who wanted a different outcome.
The effects of Brexit are already being felt.
The value of the pound has plummeted.
Inflation has risen.
Growth in the economy has slowed
and the government is already borrowing billions more to fill the gap in lost tax revenue.
Young people, who voted overwhelmingly to remain, are being told their voices do not matter.
Urgent problems, such as the future of the NHS, are being neglected because of the sheer scale of the challenge posed by Brexit.
A hard Brexit will make all these problems worse.
It is the wrong choice for the country.
Liberal Democrats will fight to prevent a hard Brexit.
At the end of negotiations there will be a decision on the deal.
The Conservatives want the decision to be taken by politicians.
Liberal Democrats believe the British people should have the final say.
That’s why, when the terms of our future relationship with the EU have been negotiated (over the next two years on the Government’s timetable), we will put that deal to a vote of the British people in a referendum,
with the alternative option of staying in the EU on the ballot paper.
We continue to believe that there is no deal as good for the UK outside the EU as the one it already has^as a member.
Every vote for the Liberal Democrats in this election is a vote to give the final say to the British people.
1.2 Fighting a hard Brexit
During negotiations, we commit ourselves to use our strength in parliament to press for keeping Britain as close as possible to Europe.
Our priorities will include: Protection of rights for EU citizens and UK citizens:
We will press for the UK to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU nationals in the UK, ending their ongoing uncertainty.
We will call for the overhaul and simplification of the registration process and the requirements for EU nationals to obtain permanent residence and UK citizenship, as the current system is not fit for purpose.
We will urge the government, and use our influence with Liberal leaders in European countries, to secure the same rights for UK citizens living in European Union countries.
Membership of the single market and customs union: We believe that any deal negotiated for the UK outside the EU must ensure that trade can continue without customs controls at the border,
and must maintain membership of the single market, which smooths trade between the UK and the continent by providing a common ‘rule book’ for businesses and a common mechanism to ensure that everyone abides by the rules.
Freedom of movement: We support the principle of freedom of movement – to abandon it would threaten Britain’s prosperity
and reputation as an open, tolerant society.
Any deal negotiated for the U K outside the EU must protect the right to work, travel, study and retire across the EU.
Any restrictions sought by the government must take account of the vital importance of EU workers to the British economy, including public services.
Opportunities for young people:In an increasingly globalised and complex world, it is vital that our young people are afforded the same opportunities their parents enjoyed to work, study and travel abroad.
To that end we will do everything we can to protect Erasmus+ and other EU-funded schemes which increase opportunities for young people.
Defending social rights and equalities:
Many important protections such as the right to 52 weeks’ maternity leave and rights to annual leave are currently based on EU law,
and many of these rights have been upheld at the European Court of Justice.
Liberal Democrats will fight to ensure that these entitlements are not undermined.
Maintaining environmental standards:
The European Union has created the highest environmental standards in the world.
We have a duty to future generations to protect our environment and tackle climate change.
Liberal Democrats will ensure that everything is done to maintain those high standards in UK law, including the closest possible co-operation on climate and energy policy.
Law enforcement and judicial co-operation:  Europol, the European Arrest Warrant and shared access to police databases have helped make Britain’s streets safer.
We will fight to maintain maximum co-operation to ensure criminals are pursued quickly and effectively, and police are not frustrated by huge amounts of red tape.
British business and jobs: We must protect support for domestic industries such as farming, tourism and the creative industries,
as well as regional support for deprived areas.
The City of London is Europe’s financial capital
and must retain its full rights in EU financial markets.
Science and research funding: Research is vital for our long-term prosperity, security and wellbeing –
but the Leave vote has already started to affect existing and proposed research programmes.
We will campaign against any reduction in investment in UK universities
and for their right to apply for EU funds on equal terms.
Travel and tourism: Britain is an outward-looking country with commercial and leisure interests around the world, particularly in Europe.
We will strive to retain traveller and tourist benefits such as the European Health Insurance Card, reduced roaming charges and pet passports, all of which are at risk by leaving the European Union.
Respect for the interests of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: We will fight to ensure that the priorities and long-term interests of the nations of the UK are fully taken into account during negotiations.
We will oppose any moves that threaten the political stability of Northern Ireland.
We will also campaign to protect the rights of the people of Gibraltar.
2 Save our NHS and Social Care Services
Good health is a prerequisite to taking full advantage of life’s opportunities, and we must do all we can to help people stay healthy as well as provide high-quality care when they are ill.
Mental health is just as important as physical health and we have made it a priority to deliver equality between the two.
The N HS has been the envy of the world, but it is now facing the greatest crisis in its history and we urgently need to increase its funding.
As a country, we are living longer – but that means more people are living with conditions like diabetes and dementia and they need help to live with dignity and the maximum degree of independence.
We must set the highest standards in care, abolishing the artificial boundaries that prevent health and social care services working together.
Health and wellbeing are affected by far more than just the quality of health and social care services, so we will work to improve the wider factors that affect people’s health such as warm homes, clean air and access to exercise and healthy food so that everyone can have the best chance to lead a healthy life.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Saving the NHS by putting a penny in the pound on Income Tax to give the NHS and social care services the cash injection they need.
Transforming mental health care with waiting time standards to match those in physical health care.
Home not hospital: better integration of health and social care
and limiting the amount elderly people have to pay for social care.
2.1 Saving the NHS and social care
The N HS and social care services are in a state of crisis.
The Conservatives have left them chronically underfunded, while need continues to grow and patient care suffers.
Social care is facing a funding black hole of £2 billion this year alone
and more than a million older people are missing out on the care they need.
People are routinely left stranded in hospital after they finish their treatment because the follow-up care and support they need is not available.
Nearly two-thirds of N HS trusts ended the last financial year in deficit.
Yet Labour and Conservative politicians refuse to be honest with the public about the scale of the crisis or the tough decisions which are needed to protect these vital services.
Liberal Democrats recognise that Britain’s health and social care services are our most treasured national institutions.
Any party seeking to lead the country after this election should be prepared to take bold action to safeguard them.
This isn’t about doing the easiest thing, it is about doing what is right and what is essential.
Liberal Democrats will take five key steps to put our health and social care system back on a sustainable financial footing:
1 . An immediate 1 p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax to raise £6 billion additional revenue, which would be ringfenced to be spent only on N HS and social care services.
Direct this additional investment to the following priority areas in the health and care system: social care, primary care (and other out-of-hospital care), mental health and public health.
This represents the most efficient and effective way of spending these extra resources – ensuring they will have the greatest impact on the quality of care patients receive.
In the longer term and as a replacement for the 1 p Income Tax rise, commission the development of a dedicated health and care tax on the basis of wide consultation, possibly based on a reform of National Insurance contributions, which will bring together spending on both services into a collective budget and set out transparently, on people’s payslips, what we spend on them.
Establish a cross-party health and social care convention, bringing together stakeholders from all political parties, patients groups, the public and professionals from within the health and social care system to carry out a comprehensive review of the longer-term sustainability of the health and social care finances and workforce, and the practicalities of greater integration.
We would invite the devolved administrations to be a part of this work.
Introduce a statutory independent budget monitoring agency for health and care, similar to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
This would report every three years on how much money the system needs to deliver safe and sustainable treatment and care, and how much is needed to meet the costs of projected increases in demand and any new initiatives – to ensure any changes in services are properly costed and affordable.
Our longer-term objective will be to bring together NHS and social care into one seamless service – pooling budgets in every area by 2020 and developing integrated care organisations.
2.2 Valuing the NHS and social care workforce
Our health and social care services’ greatest resource is their staff, working tirelessly under immense pressure.
This Government has left them feeling embattled and undervalued.
To support the N HS and social care workforce we will: Guarantee the rights of all N HS and social care service staff who are EU nationals to stay in the UK.
End the public sector pay freeze for NHS workers.
Reinstate student nurse bursaries.
Support innovation in how organisations can empower staff and patients, including learning from innovative social enterprises delivering community and mental health services.
Protect N HS whistle-blowers.
GPs in particular have been put under considerable strain due to severe underfunding and neglect from the Conservatives, leaving many people waiting weeks to get appointments.
GPs are the core of what the NHS is and they need su pport to ensure that the N HS is able to su rvive and thrive.
We will:
Produce a national workforce strategy, ensuring that we never again experience a shortage in the numbers of GPs, hospital doctors, nurses and other professionals that the N HS needs.
2.3 Equal care for mental health
In government, we fought tirelessly to reduce the historic inequality between the way physical and mental health are treated in the NHS and are proud of the strides forward we made.
We legislated to give mental and physical health equality under the law.
We introduced the first waiting time standards for access to treatment for mental health.
We introduced the crisis care concordat which dramatically reduced the number of people who end up in police cells when they experience a mental health crisis;
and we secured more money for children and young people’s mental health services.
But we know that not enough resources reach front-line services and that in the fight for parity of esteem there is still a very long way to go.
We will:
Ringfence funding from within the one penny Income Tax rise, to provide additional investment in mental health.
Continue to roll out access and waiting time standards for children, young people and adults.
This will include a guarantee that people will not wait more than six weeks for therapy for depression or anxiety
and no young person will wait more than two weeks for treatment when they experience a first episode of psychosis.
Increase access to clinically- and cost-effective talking therapies so that hundreds of thousands more people can receive this support.
Examine the case for introducing a dedicated service for children and Young people based on the Australian ‘headspace’ model and building on many excellent youth information, advice and counselling services.
Transform mental health support for pregnant women, new mothers and those who have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth, and help them get early care when needed.
Continue to promote and invest in the Frontline programme to fast-track exceptional graduates into children’s social work, as well as the Think Ahead scheme aimed at encouraging high-achieving graduates to pursue a career in mental health social work.
Ensure that no one in crisis is turned away, with new waiting time standards and better crisis care in accident and emergency departments, in the community and via phone lines.
This will enable us to end the use of police cells for people facing a mental health crisis.
End out-of-area placements, ensuring those admitted to hospital for mental ill-health are able to be treated close to home.
Ensure that all front-line public service professionals, including in schools and universities, receive better training in mental health.
Roll out the Liaison and Diversion programme nationally, helping to identify people who have mental health problems, learning disabilities, substance misuse or other vulnerabilities when they first come into contact with the criminal justice system.
Tackle stigma against mental ill-health, including by building on the good work done by organisations such as Heads Together
and changing the standard of proof in suicide conclusions in the Coroner’s Court.
Ensure that LGBT+ inclusive mental health services receive funding and support.
Medical research is vital for developing new and better treatments.
We will fight the threat Brexit poses to medical research funding.
We support the principle that all medical trials using public facilities or resources should comply with the Open Trials standards
and that a fair proportion of all public funding for medical research should be focused on research into mental ill-health.
We also favour the further development of open access academic journals.
2.4 Home not hospital: joining up health and social care
We need services that fit around people’s lives, not ones that force them to fit their lives around the care they need.
This will become increasingly important as our population ages and the number of people living with long-term conditions grows.
It is also more cost-effective to support people to be able to live at home rather than endure lengthy stays in hospital.
We must move away from a fragmented system to an integrated service with more joined-up care and more personal budgets so that people can design services for their own individual needs.
We believe this should happen from the bottom up, suiting the needs of local communities.
The number of family carers is rising, including in the ‘sandwich generation’ who find themselves trying to care for their children and their parents at the same time.
Carers are unsung heroes; we need to do more to help them.
We will: Finish the job of implementing a cap on the cost of social care, which the Conservatives have effectively abandoned.
Move towards single place-based budgets for health and social care by 2020, allowing local areas to decide how best to provide the full spectrum of care for their community.
Remodel the health care funding system to eliminate perverse incentives, by moving away from payments for activity and introducing tariffs that encourage joined-up services and promote improved outcomes for patients and better preventive care.
Ensure those who work in the social care sector are properly trained, with accessible career pathways,
and are suitable to practice by introducing a statutory code of conduct backed up by a care workers’ suitability register.
Raise the amount people can earn before losing Carer’s Allowance from £1 10 to £1 50 a week,
and reduce the number of hours’ care per week required to qualify.
Give the NHS a legal duty to identify carers and develop a Carer’s Passport scheme to inform carers of their NHS rights, such as flexible visiting hours and access to support.
Provide more choice at the end of life and move towards free end-of-life social care, whether people spend their last days at home or in a hospice.
Evaluate the valuable work of hospices with a view to putting them on a more sustainable financial footing and allowing them to expand their services.
2.5 Better access to community services
Most people’s experience of the NHS is their local GP or the nurses and support staff who visit them at home or work in community clinics.
Access to care in GP surgeries and closer to home is better for patients and will also help reduce pressure on hospitals, accident and emergency departments and ambulances.
We will: Promote easier access to GPs, expanding evening and weekend opening to meet the needs of local patients, encouraging online, phone and Skype appointments, encouraging GPs to work together in federations and allowing people more choice.
Provide national support to struggling GP practices, preventing mass practice closures.
Support GPs to come together to collectively provide services such as out-of-norma l-open i ng-hours appointments.
Use innovation funding to promote GP-led multidisciplinary health and care hubs, including mobile services to keep people out of hospital.
Encourage GPs and other community clinicians to work in disadvantaged areas through our Patient Premium – which would give incentive payments to clinicians.
Ensure that any changes to the way pharmacies are funded do not leave local areas without reasonable access to a community pharmacist.
Review the rules for exemption from prescription charges to ensure they are fair to those with long-term conditions and disabilities.
2.6 Helping people stay healthy
It is better for patients and for the NHS if we keep people healthy in the first place, rather than just waiting until people develop illnesses and come for treatment, but 40% of NHS spending is on diseases that are preventable.
We need to do more to promote healthy eating and exercise, making people aware of the dangers of smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol and other drugs, and helping to improve mental health and wellbeing.
We will: Move towards a health and social care system that empowers and encourages people to better manage their own health and conditions and to live healthier lives.
Publish a National Wellbeing Strategy, which puts better health and wellbeing for all at the heart of government policy.
Implement the recommendations of the O’Neill report on antimicrobial resistance to ensure responsible prescribing
and investment in diagnostics and innovation.
Make Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention available on the NHS.
Support effective public awareness campaigns such as Be Clear on Cancer and learn from what works when designing new health promotion campaigns to change behaviour.
Keep public health within local government, where it is effectively joined up with preventive community services,
and reinstate the funding cut from public health budgets by the Conservatives.
Develop a strategy to tackle childhood obesity, including restricting the marketing of junk food to children, restricting TV advertising before the 9pm watershed and closing loopholes in the sugary drinks tax.
Encourage the traffic-light labelling system for food products and publication of information on calorie, fat, sugar and salt content in restaurants and takeaways.
Introduce mandatory targets on sugar reduction for food and drink producers.
Reduce smoking rates, introducing a levy on tobacco companies so they fairly contribute to the costs of health care and smoking cessation services.
Implement the recommendations of the Keogh review to regulate cosmetic surgery
and ensure that the NHS is not picking up the tab for private malpractice.
Introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol, subject to the final outcome of the legal challenge in Scotland.
Develop a public health campaign promoting the steps people can take to improve their own mental resilience – the wellbeing equivalent of the ‘Five a Day’ ca m pa ign .
Support good practice among employers in promoting wellbeing
and ensure people with mental health problems get the help they need to stay in or find work,
with a ‘wellbeing premium’ to reward employers who take clear action to measurably improve the health of their employees.
We will develop a just settlement for haemophiliacs who were given contaminated blood, and for their families.
3 Put Children First
Liberal Democrats have always put education at the heart of our agenda.
Education opens the mind,
it fosters understanding and tolerance,
and it empowers our children
and our communities.
We believe every child deserves a great start in life so they are equipped to shape their own future, and are determined to make sure that the education system finds and unleashes the best in everyone.
This is essential in order to break down the unfair divisions in our society,
to ensure a productive, competitive economy
and to overcome intolerance.
Too many people have their chances in life determined by who their parents are rather than by their own efforts and abilities.
With our Pupil Premium, investing in children who might otherwise fall behind, we are finally beginning to tackle the scandalous gap in attainment between rich and poor.
But now the Conservatives want to take us back 50 years, to an outdated system of grammar schools and secondary moderns, ignoring all the research and expert advice that show it will damage the life chances of so many children.
Liberal Democrats recognise the dual role of education in giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to be part of a productive, competitive economy, and helping them grow into happy, healthy and engaged members of their community.
Children’s education is too often distorted by schools’ need to focus on the next set of league tables and the next inspection.
Teachers deserve to be treated as professionals and given the flexibility and support to apply their expertise.
Schools should be free to encourage children to participate in a truly rounded curriculum including the arts, sport and culture that broaden children’s learning and develop their passion for education.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be:
Investing nearly £7 billion extra in our children’s education – increasing school budgets and the Pupil Premium to protect against rising costs and pupil numbers,
and introducing a fairer national funding formula.
Investing in high-quality early years education, tripling the Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000.
Opposing any new selective schools
and giving local authorities proper democratic control over admissions and new schools.
3.1 Stop the education cuts – fair funding for every school
Schools in England are facing an unprecedented funding crisis, with rising pupil numbers and an inadequate financial settlement meaning that real-terms per-pupil funding is being squeezed.
At the same time the Conservatives’ flawed approach to the National Fair Funding Formula means some schools will lose out even more.
Liberal Democrats believe every child deserves a high-quality education, wherever they live.
We will: Reverse all cuts to front-line school and college budgets, protecting per-pupil funding in real terms.
Introduce a fairer national funding system with a protection for all schools, so that no school loses money.
Protect the Pupil Premium which targets extra help at disadvantaged children.
Over the parliament, this means nearly £7 billion more for school and college budgets.
3.2 Quality really counts in early years
Investing in high-quality early years education has a huge impact on children’s attainment as they enter school.
Our most vulnerable children have the most to gain from excellent early years settings, with partnerships with parents a key component.
We will: Increase our Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000 per pupil per year.
Raise the quality of early years provision and aim for every formal early years setting to employ at least one person who holds an early years teacher qualification by 2022.
3.3 Teachers – our biggest asset in education
Too many good teachers are leaving the profession – in many cases because of the excessive pressure they are under from heavy workloads and funding cuts.
We want to empower teachers and make sure they feel valued for the essential work they do.
We want to improve the status of the teaching profession, and support and nurture teachers in their work – helping to drive up standards in every school.
We will: End the 1 % cap on teachers’ pay rises.
Guarantee that all teachers in state-funded schools will be fully qualified or working towards qualified teacher status (QTS) from January 2019.
Introduce a clear and properly funded entitlement to genuinely high-quality professional development for all teachers – 25 hours per year by 2020, rising to the OECD average of 50 hours by 2025.
Support proper long-term planning of initial teacher training places, prioritising close partnerships with higher education and specialist routes such as Teach First in order to recruit the highest-quality teachers in shortage areas such as science, technology, engineering, the arts and maths.
Tackle unnecessary teacher workloads, including by:Establishing an independent Education Standards Authority to pilot, phase in and resource future policy changes in consultation with professionals and experts.
Reforming Ofsted inspections so that they include a focus on longer-term outcomes and sustainable improvement as well as teacher workload, sickness and retention.
Supporting the establishment of a new, independent Foundation for Leadership in Education, working under the umbrella of the Chartered College of Teaching, to promote high-quality, evidence-based leadership and help the best leaders into the most challenging schools.
Continue to work with the Education Endowment Foundation to establish a comprehensive evidence base on what works in teaching.
3.4 Driving up school standards
Far too many children are still failing to get the opportunities they need.
We cannot fail our children – especially when we know it is the children who need the most help who are the most likely to be let down.
The Conservatives’ obsession with more grammar schools is not the answer.
Liberal Democrats want to give every child the chance of attending an excellent local school.
We will: Give democratically accountable local authorities clear responsibility for local school places planning
and repeal the rule that all new state-funded schools must be free schools or academies.
We will encourage local head teachers with a strong record to play a key role in school improvement, working with schools and local authorities.
Scrap the planned expansion of grammar schools
and devolve all capital monies for new school spaces to local authorities.
Allow Ofsted to inspect both local authorities and academy chains.
Rule out state-funded profit-making schools
and ensure that new schools are built in areas where there is a need for new school places, instead of wasting money on oversupply.
Ensure that identification and support for special educational needs and disabilities takes place as early as possible.
All new policies should have an assessment of how they affect pupils who have special educational needs, and ensure they adhere to duties under the Equality Act.
3.5 Curriculum and qualifications
We want schools to have flexibility, but we also believe that parents and children need to know that the curriculum in every school will cover the essentials, and that teachers will be skilled educators who know how to inspire a love of learning.
Education should equip children with rich knowledge for life, nurturing creativity and problem-solving, and instilling a passion for lifelong learning.
Children should be helped to develop the life skills they will need as adults, and every pupil should be given advice and guidance about their future.
We will: Introduce a curriculum entitlement – a slimmed down core national curriculum, which will be taught in all state-funded schools.
This will include Personal, Social and Health Education: a ‘curriculum for life’ including financial literacy, first aid and emergency lifesaving skills, mental health education, citizenship and age-appropriate Sex and Relationship Education (SRE).
Include in SRE teaching about sexual consent, LGBT+ relationships, and issues surrounding explicit images and content.
Make the curriculum the responsibility of an Educational Standards Authority to pilot, phase in and resource future changes in consultation with professionals and experts
while retaining legitimate democratic accountability.
Prioritise primary progress measures instead of floor thresholds
and work with the profession to reform tests at 11, preventing curriculum narrowing in upper Key Stage 2.
Protect the availability of arts and creative subjects in the curriculum and act to remove barriers to pupils studying these subjects.
Improve the quality of vocational education, including skills for entrepreneurship and self-employment,
and improve careers advice in schools and colleges.
Improve links between employers and schools, encouraging all schools to participate in employment and enterprise schemes that promote regular experiences in business.
In particular, we will seek to inspire more children and young people to follow technical and scientific careers through partnership with relevant businesses.
Challenge gender stereotyping
and early sexualisation,
working with schools to promote positive body image
and break down outdated perceptions of gender appropriateness of particular academic subjects.
3.6 Getting children and families ready to learn
England’s young people are some of the unhappiest and most anxious in the world.
Schools are on the front line in dealing with children and young adults with mental health issues.
We also know that children cannot learn properly if they are undernourished.
Parents are under huge pressure and receive little support even though home is the biggest influence on children’s learning.
Liberal Democrats believe that parents need to be properly empowered and supported with the tools they need to raise the next generation,
and involved in the running of their children’s schools.
We will: Ensure that all teaching staff have the training to identify mental health issues and that schools provide immediate access for pupil support and counselling.
Include promoting wellbeing as a statutory duty of a school, to be part of the Ofsted inspection framework.
Extend free school meals to all children in primary education and promote school breakfast clubs.
Establish a new online Family University, supported by leading organisations such as the BBC and Open University, to provide every family with advice and guidance for learning and parenting at home, as well as inspiring trips out and local opportunities.
Ensure collaboration between leading education and family organisations to improve the flow of helpful information between home and school without increasing teacher workload.
Tackle bullying in schools, including bullying on the basis of gender, sexuality, gender identity or gender expression.
3.7 A world-class university sector, open to all
The ability of universities to attract funding to maintain top-quality research activity and deliver the best teaching depends on being open and outward looking.
The ability to attract and retain the best staff and students in our world-class universities is vital.
Brexit undermines these at every turn.
In government, Liberal Democrats established a fairer system such that no undergraduate student in England had to pay a penny of their tuition fees up front or pay anything afterwards until they earn more than £21,000 per year.
This meant that only high-earning graduates would pay their tuition fees in full, and eliminated systematic discrimination against part-time students.
We now have the highest university application rates ever, including from disadvantaged students.
But the Conservatives are threatening to undermine opportunity by ending student bursaries, freezing the repayment threshold and raising the level of fees.
We will: Reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students, ensuring that living costs are not a barrier to disadvantaged young people studying at university.
Establish a review of higher education finance in the next parliament to consider any necessary reforms, in the light of the latest evidence of the impact of the existing financing system on access, participation and quality, and make sure there is no more retrospective raising of rates, or selling-off of loans to private companies.
Ensure that all universities work to widen participation across the sector, prioritising their work with students in schools and colleges,
and require every university to be transparent about selection criteria.
Reverse the damage to universities and academics by changing the country’s course away from a hard Brexit.
Recognise the value of international staff to universities and promote international collaboration.
Fight to retain access to Horizon 2020 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions funding.
Reinstate quality assurance for universities applying for degree-awarding powers.
3.8 Lifelong opportunities to learn
We need to grow the country’s skills base, especially in the technologies and industries that are most important to Britain’s economic future.
We want it to become the norm for businesses to take on and train up young people as apprentices in every sector of our economy, and for higher-level apprenticeships to be understood as a respected alternative to university education.
As our economy rapidly changes the need for people to retrain and reskill has never been more important.
It is no longer the case that the skills learned at 18 or 21 will last throughout a career.
The ability to learn new skills or change careers is also vital in creating the opportunity for people to succeed no matter their stage in life.
That’s why Liberal Democrats support the need for lifelong learning.
We will: Aim to double the number of businesses which hire apprentices, including by extending apprenticeships to new sectors of our economy such as creative and digital industries.
Develop national colleges as national centres of expertise for key sectors, such as renewable energy, to deliver the high-level vocational skills that businesses need.
Work with the Apprenticeship Advisory Group to increase the number of apprentices from BAME backgrounds,
ensure gender balance across industry sectors
and encourage under-represented groups to apply.
Identify and seek to solve skills gaps – for example the lack of advanced technicians – by expanding higher vocational training such as foundation degrees, Higher National Diplomas, Higher National Certificates and Higher Apprenticeships.
Ensure that all the receipts from the Apprenticeship Levy in England are spent on training, aiming to fund a wider range of types of training.
Aim to meet all basic skills needs including literacy, numeracy and digital skills by 2030.
Create individual accounts for funding mature adult and part-time learning and training,
and provide for all adults individual access to all necessary career information, advice and guidance.
Facilitate across the U K an effective and comprehensive system for credit transfer and recognition of prior learning and qualifications.
4 Build an Economy that Works for You
Britain’s economy is unbalanced.
There are stark contrasts between regions,
between old and young,
and between the successful and those left behind.
New technologies are beginning to transform the economy.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation are affecting the type and the scale of employment.
New global markets are opening up for low-carbon and resource-efficient goods, services and infrastructure.
The scope and speed of these changes will be profound and rapid.
Britain needs a sustainable and balanced economy not just to help fund public services
but because growth and enterprise create jobs and opportunities for all.
Liberal Democrats believe that there is much to be done to create an economy that ensures that the whole population benefits from the technological advances ahead.
We will work to support growth now and put in place a sustainable economy that will create growth for the future
– an economy that works for the long term:
prosperous,
green,
open
and fair.
The actions of the Conservatives have undermined the Coalition’s work in fixing the economy.
They have chosen to risk the long-term future of our economy by limiting vital spending on infrastructure
and creating an over-reliance on consumer spending fuelled by debt to prop up growth.
They have consistently put their own short-term ambition above long-term economic prosperity.
Above all, their disastrous determination to pursue a hard Brexit casts a shadow over our economic future.
As a result, our economy is at its most fragile since the 2008 crash.
We need a radical programme of investment to boost growth,
develop new infrastructure fit for the future
and get our economy back on track.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Boosting the economy with a major programme of capital investment aimed at stimulating growth across all areas of the UK.
Eliminating the deficit on day-to-day spending by 2020 to control the national debt, and then borrowing only to invest.
Ensuring strong public services by investing the proceeds of a 1 p rise in Income Tax in the NHS and social care,
and commiting to protecting the schools budget in real terms.
4.1 Responsible finances: investing in Britain’s future
Liberal Democrats reject the Conservative Government’s damaging and irrational commitment to run budget surpluses on both capital and revenue,
which imposes completely unnecessary deep cuts in spending
and limits the scope for much-needed capital investment.
But we have no intention of just throwing away our hard-fought efforts to control the deficit during the Coalition years.
Liberal Democrats will therefore commit to eliminating the deficit in day-to-day spending by 2020.
This means we will be able to keep debt as a share of national wealth falling through the parliament, unless there is a recession.
Once we have brought current expenditure into balance we will ensure that overall public spending grows roughly in line with the economy.
This means that we can improve key public services and provide them with the investment they need.
A long-term stable economy requires more than just discipline over spending.
It requires us to invest in people, innovation and infrastructure in order to give our economy the opportunity to remain competitive for the future.
The Conservatives have failed to take advantage of historically low interest rates to borrow for the investment that would create jobs now
and prepare us and our economy for the future.
Liberal Democrats will therefore commit to a responsible and realistic £1 00 billion package of additional infrastructure investment.
This will prioritise: New direct spending on housebuilding to help build 300,000 homes a year by 2022.
A programme of installing hyperfast, fibre-optic broadband across the U K.
Capital investment in schools and hospitals to support capacity increases and modernisation.
Significant investment in road and rail infrastructure, including a continued commitment to HS2, Crossrail 2 and rail electrification.
Additional funding to bring more private investment into renewable energy.
£5 billion of initial capital for a new British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank, using public money to attract private investment for these priorities.
We will ensure that the National Infrastructure Commission takes fully into account the environmental implications of all national infrastructure decisions.
We will also devolve significant infrastructure spending to local areas.
Our investment in new infrastructure is matched by our commitment to protecting vital public services, including the NHS
and education.
We will make the difficult decisions needed to ensure our NHS is protected for the long term
and that children are given the opportunities they need to succeed.
We will therefore commit to: Increase spending on the N HS and social care, using the proceeds of a 1 p rise in Income Tax.
This will be paid by taxpayers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the revenue will be ringfenced for spending on NHS and social care services in England, with the appropriate share also being transferred to Wales and Northern Ireland.
This taxation will be neither levied nor spent in Scotland.
There will be a commensurate 1 p increase in dividend taxation which is a U K-wide tax.
The receipts of this will be similarly earmarked, with Scotland also receiving its share.
Protect the education budget in real terms per pupil from early years to age 19.
End the 1 % cap on pay rises in the public sector,
and uprate wages in line with inflation.
The Conservative pursuit of hard Brexit will have serious impacts on the UK’s national finances – impacts which current government plans may not fully take into account.
Liberal Democrats would choose to pursue a very different European policy, and therefore would expect a better financial situation.
We will initiate a spending review after the general election focusing on delivering efficiency,
funding proven spend-to-save initiatives,
pursuing local and community integration to drive efficiency,
and investing in technology to get public services and front-line staff online.
Traditional indicators of economic activity such as GDP are poor guides to genuine prosperity and wellbeing.
We will therefore introduce a National Wellbeing Strategy covering all aspects of government policy, including health, housing and the environment.
4.2 Fair taxes
In order to balance the books and build a sustainable economy for the future we must ensure that everyone pays their fair share.
Liberal Democrats have a long-standing commitment to fairer taxation, and in government we raised the personal allowance for Income Tax.
It remains our ambition to make taxes fairer
and simpler,
to help those on low and middle incomes,
and to ensure that those on the highest incomes, and large international companies, make a fair contribution.
We will: Aim in the long term, and as resources allow, to raise the employee national insurance threshold to the Income Tax threshold,
while protecting low earners’ ability to accrue pension and benefit entitlements.
Ensure those with the highest incomes and wealth are making a fair contribution.
We have identified a series of distortions, loopholes and excessive reliefs that should be removed.
These include reforms to Capital Gains Tax and dividend tax relief, and refocusing entrepreneurs’ relief.
We would reverse a number of the Conservatives’ unfair and unjustified tax cuts, including: The cutting of Corporation Tax from 20% to 17%.
Capital Gains Tax cuts.
Capital Gains Tax extended relief.
The Marriage Allowance.
The raising of the Inheritance Tax threshold.
Take tough action against corporate tax evasion and avoidance,
including by: Introducing a General Anti-Avoidance Rule,
setting a target for HM Revenue and Customs to reduce the tax gap,
and continuing to invest in staff to enable them to meet it.
Reforming Corporation Tax to develop a system that benefits the smallest companies while ensuring the biggest multinationals cannot avoid paying sums comparable to nationally based competitors.
We will consult on shifting away from a profits-based tax to one that takes account of a wider range of economic activity indicators, such as sales and turnover.
Reviewing the Business Rates system, prioritising reforms that recognise the development of the digital economy,
lessening the burden on smaller businesses,
and ensuring high streets remain competitive.
We will also consider the implementation of Land Value Taxation.
Conduct a full-scale review into the burden of taxation and spending between generations to ensure that government policy promotes fairness between generations.
4.3 Supporting entrepreneurs and small business
As well as the need for public infrastructure investment, the role of entrepreneurs and small businesses in delivering a thriving economy is fundamental.
Liberal Democrats believe there is a vital need for access to finance for new businesses, and those wishing to scale up.
Creating true competition means allowing new businesses to rise and challenge established companies.
There are also many well-established small businesses and traders which form the backbone of local economies.
Our priority in supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses is to ensure that they have access to the funding they need, and in particular long-term (and patient) capital.
We will: Expand the activities of the state-owned British Business Bank, enabling it to perform a more central role in the economy by tackling the shortage of equity capital for growing firms and providing long-term capital for medium-sized businesses.
Create a new ‘start-up allowance’ to help those starting a new business with their living costs in the crucial first weeks of their business.
Support fast-growing businesses seeking to scale up, through the provision of mentoring support.
Review Business Rates to reduce burdens on small firms, and make them the priority for any future business tax cuts.
Reform the Regulatory Policy Committee to remove unnecessary regulation,
reduce regulatory uncertainty,
and support new markets and investment, particularly in low-carbon and resource-efficient innovation.
4.4 Innovation, science and new technology
In the knowledge-based economy of the future, scientific research, innovation and skills will be crucial to prosperity.
The advent of robotics and increasing artificial intelligence will also change the nature of work for many people.
The government needs to act now to ensure this technological march can benefit everyone and that no areas are left in technology’s wake.
We will: Protect the science budget, including the recent £2 billion increase, by continuing to raise it at least in line with inflation.
Our long-term goal is to double innovation and research spending across the economy.
We would guarantee to underwrite funding for British partners in EU-funded projects such as Horizon 2020 who would suffer from cancellation of income on Brexit.
Build on the Coalition’s industrial strategy, working with sectors which are critical to Britain’s ability to trade internationally,
creating more ‘catapult’ innovation and technology centres
and backing private investment in particular in green innovation.
Develop the skilled workforce needed to support this growth with a major expansion of high-quality apprenticeships, including advanced apprenticeships, backed up with new sector-led national colleges.
We will develop a national skills strategy for key sectors, including low-carbon technologies, to help match skills and people.
Invest to ensure that broadband connections and services to be provided before 2020 have a speed of 2 Gbps or more, with fibre to the premises (FTTP) as standard and unlimited usage by 2020 across the whole of the UK.
SMEs should be prioritised in the roll-out of hyperfast broadband.
Aim to double the number of SMEs participating in the digital economy by supporting ICT capital expenditure by businesses in non-digital sectors.
Build on the success of Tech City, Tech North and the Cambridge tech cluster with a network across the UK acting as incubators for technology companies.
Create a new retail and business strategy to look at the impact of new technology on jobs in key sectors.
Commit to build digital skills in the UK
and retain coding on the national curriculum in England.
Support growth in the creative industries, including video gaming, by continuing to support the Creative Industries Council and tailored industry-specific tax support, promoting creative skills, supporting modern and flexible patent, copyright and licensing rules, and addressing the barriers to finance faced by small creative businesses.
Invest in the future – supporting innovative technologies including the space industry.
4.5 Helping everyone earn a decent living
Most businesses recognise the long-term value in treating their employers decently and developing their skills.
However, there are still too many examples of unscrupulous employers who perpetuate bad practice, which not only exploits workers
but can also undermine the competitive position of good employers.
This has to change if we are to give everyone a decent chance of earning a living
and move towards a more productive economy.
We will:
Encourage the creation and widespread adoption of a ‘good employer’ kitemark covering areas such as paying a living wage, avoiding unpaid internships and using name-blind recruitment to make it easier for customers and investors to exercise choice and influence.
Establish an independent review to consult on how to set a genuine living wage across all sectors
. We will pay this living wage in all central government departments and their agencies, and encourage other public-sector employers to do likewise.
Extend transparency requirements on larger employers to include publishing the number of people paid less than the living wage
and the ratio between top and median pay.
Modernise employment rights to make them fit for the age of the ‘gig’ economy, looking to build on the forthcoming Taylor report.
Stamp out abuse of zero-hours contracts.
We will create a formal right to request a fixed contract and consult on introducing a right to make regular patterns of work contractual after a period of time.
Strengthen enforcement of employment rights, including by bringing together relevant enforcement agencies and scrapping employment tribunal fees.
4.6 Helping everyone to share in prosperity
Too many people justifiably feel left behind.
Liberal Democrats believe that it is vital that everyone is given a stake in our economy,
that we can only be united and competitive as a country if the rewards are reaped by all.
A well-functioning economy which works for everyone cannot be based solely on companies owned by and operated on behalf of small groups of shareholders.
It should seek to foster a diversity of types of business, including encouraging alternative models such as mutuals, social enterprises or community-interest companies.
In all cases, it is vital to ensure the engagement and involvement of employees; successful businesses work for all stakeholders.
That is why we will: Encourage employers to promote employee ownership by giving staff in listed companies with more than 250 employees a right to request shares, to be held in trust for the benefit of employees.
Strengthen worker participation in decision-making, including staff representation on remuneration committees, and the right for employees of a listed company to be represented on the board.
We will change company law to permit a German-style two-tier board structure to include employees.
Reform fiduciary duty and company purpose rules to ensure that other considerations, such as employee welfare,
environmental standards,
community benefit
and ethical practice, can be fully included in decisions made by directors and fund managers
.
Reduce the reporting requirement for disclosure of shareholdings to 1 % in order to increase transparency over who owns stakes in the biggest companies.
Require binding and public votes of board members on executive pay policies.
It is a scandal that in Britain today there are 1 .7 million people without a bank account, eight million experiencing problem debt and 40% of the working-age population who have less than £1 00 in savings.
To tackle the problem of financial exclusion Liberal Democrats will: Take forward the recommendations of the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion, in particular by expanding the Financial Conduct Authority’s remit to include a statutory duty to promote financial inclusion as one of its key objectives.
4.7 Spreading opportunities to every part of the country
Prosperity is very unevenly spread across the nations and regions of the UK.
The prospect of Brexit, including the loss of £8.9 billion of European Structural and Investment Funds, is only likely to make the problems faced by disadvantaged areas worse.
Local autonomy with real financial muscle is the only sustainable answer to the regional divide.
We will: Continue to champion the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine initiatives and invest significant capital resources in infrastructure projects across the north of England and the Midlands.
Devolve further revenue-raising powers away from Westminster, to regions from Cornwall to the north-east.
We will ensure that any powers devolved are matched by the funding to deliver on the needs of local people.
Devolve more decision-making power over key levers of economic development including transport, housing and skills.
Provide assistance to areas heavily dependent on fossil fuel industries, such as the north-east of Scotland, to diversify away from these industries.
Give the immediate go-ahead to the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project.
Encourage local authorities and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to work in partnership with existing business, universities and other business hubs to develop plans for building on already established success in a particular area, including the ability to raise money to incentivise clustering by businesses with particular specialisations.
Use central government public procurement policy as a tool of local growth and community development by, for example, purchasing from diverse sources and using local labour, goods and services, and encouraging local government to do the same.
Require the major banks to fund the creation of a local banking sector dedicated to meeting the needs of local SMEs.
5 Keep our Country Green
Eighteen months ago, it seemed that the world had come to a consensus on the need to take the perils of climate change seriously.
Countries across the globe had recognised that rising temperatures and pollution were not just an environmental issue, but an economic and security issue.
But with the election of Donald Trump in the US and Britain’s vote to leave the EU, the tides of isolationism and populism could halt or even reverse the progress that has been made.
The Conservatives seem determined to take Britain back to the 1 980s, when the UK was the ‘dirty man of Europe’.
They have cut support for renewable energy and home insulation,
sold off the Green Investment Bank
and failed to control air pollution.
Their actions put not just Britain’s environment at risk
but the health of its citizens
and its economy,
undermining the increasingly successful green industries which already employ more than half a million workers.
Liberal Democrats are determined that we live up to our environmental obligations.
That’s why we will pass five green laws: a Green Transport Act,
a Zero-Carbon Britain Act,
a Nature Act,
a Green Buildings Act,
and a Zero-Waste Act to incorporate existing EU environmental protections,
maintain product standards such as for energy efficiency,
and establish a framework for continual improvement.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Ensuring that four million properties receive insulation retrofits by 2022, prioritising fuel-poor households.
Preventing 40,000 deaths a year with our Air Quality Plan to reduce air pollution.
Ensuring British farming remains competitive and doesn’t lose out
– refocusing support towards producing healthy food and public benefits.
5.1 Clean air and green transport
Air pollution in the UK is a killer.
It contributes to 40,000 premature deaths a year and costs the NHS £1 5 billion.
This year, London exceeded its annual air pollution target in just five days.
The government has failed time and again to comply with EU limits on pollution.
That’s why the Liberal Democrats will pass a Green Transport Act,
introduce an Air Quality Plan to reduce air pollution and protect U K citizens,
and support the manufacture of low-emission and electric vehicles,
generating jobs
and exports.
This plan will include: A diesel scrappage scheme,
and a ban on the sale of diesel cars and small vans in the UK by 2025.
Extending ultra-low-emission zones to 10 more towns and cities.
All private hire vehicles and diesel buses licensed to operate in urban areas to run on ultra-low-emission or zero-emission fuels within five years.
We will also reform vehicle taxation to encourage sales of electric and low-emission vehicles
and develop electric vehicle infrastructure including universal charging points.
5.2 Low-carbon energy and green jobs
In government, we championed green energy, and oversaw the trebling of renewable electricity generation.
But the Conservatives have repeatedly cut support for green energy producers – damaging the environment
and costing British jobs.
Liberal Democrats will expand renewable energy,
reducing carbon emissions,
cutting dependence on fossil fuel imports
and generating more jobs
and prosperity.
We will: Pass a Zero-Carbon Britain Act to set new legally binding targets to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2040 and to zero by 2050.
Set up a British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank to mobilise investment into the low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure the U K needs to remain competitive.
Support the Paris agreement by ensuring the UK meets its own climate commitments and plays a leadership role in international efforts to combat climate change.
Expand renewable energy, aiming to generate 60% of electricity from renewables by 2030,
restoring government support for solar PV and onshore wind in appropriate locations (helping meet climate targets at least cost)
and building more electricity interconnectors to underpin this higher reliance on renewables.
Support investment in cutting-edge technologies including energy storage, smart grid technology, hydrogen technologies, offshore wind, and tidal power (including giving the go-ahead for the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon),
and investing heavily in research and development.
Support an ambitious carbon capture and storage programme, which is essential for delivering clean industrial growth.
Oppose ‘fracking’ because of its adverse impact on climate change, the energy mix, and the local environment.
Accept that new nuclear power stations can play a role in electricity supply provided concerns about safety, disposal of waste and cost are adequately addressed, new technology is incorporated, and there is no public subsidy for new build.
Maintain membership of Euratom, ensuring continued nuclear co-operation,
research funding,
and access to nuclear fuels.
5.3 Greener homes, lower energy bills
At more than £1,200 a year, the cost of heating and lighting an average home in the UK is too high – and with a falling exchange rate, costs will rise further.
More than two million families – one in 10 households in England – cannot afford to heat their home properly.
Liberal Democrats will reduce energy bills permanently by improving home insulation
and encouraging small-scale, community and local-authority renewable schemes.
We will make saving energy a top infrastructure priority,
slashing energy bills
and carbon emissions,
creating thousands of jobs
and helping end the fuel poverty crisis once and for all.
We will: Pass a new Green Buildings Act to set new energy-efficiency targets, including a long-term ambition for every home in England to reach at least an energy rating of Band C by 2035.
Ensure that at least four million homes are made highly energy efficient (Band C) by 2022, with priority given to fuel-poor households.
Restore the zero-carbon standard for new homes which was set by Liberal Democrats in government and since abandoned by the Conservatives, increasing the standard steadily and extending it to non-domestic buildings by 2022.
Expand community energy schemes,
encourage councils to develop community energy-saving projects and local electricity generation,
and promote city-scale demonstration projects in electric vehicles and clean energy.
Continue to back new entrants to the energy market, aiming for at least 30% of the household market to be supplied by competitors to the ‘Big 6’ by 2022.
5.4 Protecting nature
Britain’s natural environment is precious.
The countryside, wildlife and urban green spaces are critical to health,
wellbeing
and a sense of community.
The quality of the environment also underpins key industries such as agriculture
and tourism.
We will:
Establish a £2 billion flood-prevention fund focused on providing support for small community and council-led schemes to reduce upstream flooding, and the knock-on effects in downstream and coastal areas,
in addition to improving flood defences,
and introducing high standards for flood resilience for buildings and infrastructure in flood-risk areas.
Pass a Nature Act to put the Natural Capital Committee (NCC) on a statutory footing,
set legally binding natural capital targets, including on biodiversity, clean air and water,
and empower the NCC to recommend actions to meet these targets.
Significantly increase the amount of accessible green space, including completion of the coastal path,
and create a new designation of national nature parks to protect up to one million acres of accessible green space valued by local communities.
Protect and restore England’s lakes, rivers and wetlands, including through reform of water management and higher water-efficiency standards,
and establish a ‘blue belt’ of protected marine areas.
Reverse the current sharp decline in the rate of woodland creation by aiming to plant a tree for every UK citizen over the next 10 years,
and protect remaining ancient woodlands.
Suspend the use of neonicotinoids until proven that their use in agriculture does not harm bees or other pollinators.
Introduce stronger penalties for animal cruelty offences, increasing the maximum sentencing from six months to five years,
and bring in a ban on caged hens.
Clamp down on illegal pet imports through legal identification requirements for online sales,
and minimise the use of animals in scientific experimentation, including by funding research into alternatives.
5.5 Farming, food and agriculture
The vote to leave the EU puts farming and agricultural businesses in huge danger, threatening both cuts to the support which underpin farmers’ livelihoods and ability to manage the countryside,
and also tariffs on exports.
For agricultural products outside the EU, tariffs average 22.3% – putting Britain’s £1 8 billion of food exports in danger.
Our system must support farmers,
ensure food production
and protect the environment.
That’s why we will:
Continue our long campaign to reform agricultural subsidies – making sure British farming remains competitive and doesn’t lose out in the event of Britain leaving the EU, rebalancing away from direct subsidy and refocusing support towards the public benefits that come from effective land management including countryside protection, flood prevention, food production and climate-change mitigation.
This would ensure that smaller farms are protected and move support away from large landowners,
while delivering a more localised agricultural policy.
Encourage new and younger entrants to farming by championing different forms of ownership including longer tenancies, share farming and community ownership.
Introduce a national food strategy to promote the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable and affordable food.
Increase the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and extend its remit to include businesses further up the supply chain, helping to ensure that farmers receive a fair price.
Continue to improve standards of animal health and welfare in agriculture by updating farm animal welfare codes and promoting the responsible stewardship of antibiotic drugs.
Ensure that future trade deals require high safety, environmental and animal welfare standards for food imports, including clear and unambiguous country-of-origin labelling for meat and dairy products.
Develop safe, effective, humane and evidence-based ways of controlling bovine TB, including by investing to produce workable vaccines.
Despite reform, the Common Fisheries Policy has failed to deliver the economic or environmental objectives necessary
and has suffered from being remote, overly centralised and bureaucratic.
Hard Brexit and the loss of export markets threatens to further damage the industry, which has long suffered from being used as a bargaining chip by U K governments.
Liberal Democrats would defend and maintain our fishing industry by not allowing fishing rights to be traded away against other policy areas,
and work with the industry and other stakeholders to develop a national plan for sustainable fisheries.
5.6 Cutting waste, using resources wisely
Britain’s economy fails to make the most efficient use of natural resources.
We aim to cut waste,
increase recovery, reuse and recycling
and move towards the so-called ‘circular economy’ in which resource use, waste and pollution are minimised and product lifetimes are extended.
This will cut costs for consumers and businesses, and create new jobs and enterprises, helping to grow Britain’s economy.
We will: Pass a Zero-Waste Act, including legally binding targets for reducing net consumption of key natural resources,
and introducing incentives for businesses to improve resource efficiency.
Benefit consumers by promoting better product design to improve repairability, reuse and recycling.
Establish a statutory waste recycling target of 70% in England
and extend separate food waste collections to at least 90% of homes by 2022.
Building on the success of our plastic bag charge, introduce a 5p charge on disposable coffee cups to reduce waste.
Establish a coherent tax and regulatory framework for landfill, incineration and waste collection, including reinstating the landfill tax escalator and extending it to the lower rate, and consulting on the introduction of an incineration tax.
Work with local government to ensure these commitments are fully funded.
To ensure the policies set out in this chapter are implemented, and to put the protection of the environment at the heart of policies across all areas of government, we will establish a Cabinet Committee on Sustainability, chaired by a cabinet minister,
establish an Office for Environmental Responsibility to scrutinise the government’s efforts to meet its environmental targets,
and place a responsibility on every government agency to account for its contribution towards meeting climate targets in everything it does.
6 Support Families and Communities
A fair society is one in which everyone has the means to get by and the chance to get on.
It means being able to provide for your family,
afford somewhere to live
and work within your community.
That’s why we will increase the availability of childcare to help parents who want to work
and why we will ensure that the benefits system is fair – focusing on helping people and not just saving money.
It’s why we will work to build more houses and make them affordable.
And it’s why we will empower local councils and communities to run their own services – free from the interference of central government.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Extending free childcare to all two-year-olds and to the children of working families from the end of paid parental leave,
and encouraging new fathers to take time off with an additional month’s paid paternity leave.
Reaching a housebuilding target of 300,000 homes a year by 2022, including half a million affordable and energy-efficient homes, with direct government commissioning where the market fails to deliver.
Introducing a new Young Person’s Bus Discount Card for young people aged 16–21, giving a two-thirds discount on bus travel.
6.1 Help with childcare costs
Parents often want to take time out from paid work to ca re for young chi ldren but in many families both parents want, or have, to work.
The costs of childcare can be prohibitive and opportunities for flexible working are scarce.
In government, we were proud to introduce Shared Parental Leave and increases in free childcare but there are still gaps in the system.
We will: Expand Shared Parental Leave with an additional ‘use it or lose it’ month to encourage fathers to take time off with young children.
We would make Paternity and Shared Parental Leave a ‘day one’ right.
Encourage employers to provide more flexible working, making this a ‘day one’ right, so that there is a presumption that work is flexible unless there is a clear business reason it cannot be.
Provide 15 hours a week of free childcare to the parents of all two-year-olds in England.
We will then prioritise 15 hours’ free childcare for all working parents in England with children aged between nine months and two years.
Commit to an ambitious long-term goal of 30 hours’ free childcare a week for all parents in England with children aged from two to four years, and all working parents from the end of paid parental leave to two years.
This will not only help parents afford to work, but will also help all children start school confident, happy and ready to learn.
Ensure that this provision is fully funded at sustainable levels,
provides flexibility for parents who work unsocial hours
and enables parents to use free hours during school holidays.
6.2 Helping people find work
Having a paid job is for many people the key opportunity they need to be able to achieve their life goals.
Unemployment isn’t just an economic challenge – it’s a personal problem and government must do everything it can to help those who can work find a job and provide for themselves and their family
. To that end, we will: Separate employment support from benefits administration – making Jobcentres places of training and support into work.
Take 13,000 children out of poverty by letting both parents earn before their Universal Credit is cut
and also reverse cuts to the Family Element.
Encourage people into work by reversing the cuts to Work Allowances in Universal Credit, enabling people to work for longer before their benefits are cut.
Raise awareness of, and seek to expand, Access to Work, which supports people with disabilities in work.
Improve links between Jobcentres and Work Programme providers and the local NHS to ensure all those in receipt of health-related benefits are getting the care and support to which they are entitled.
Accelerate the roll-out of Individual Placement and Support, a proven approach to getting people with mental ill-health back into work.
6.3 Treating people fairly
The Liberal Democrats are clear – balancing the books on the backs of the poor and disabled, and demonising people who claim benefits, is neither acceptable nor responsible.
Although all government budgets must be scrutinised to minimise waste and ensure value for money, this must not be used as an excuse to attack the poor and vulnerable.
In any case it is more effective to tackle the causes of the benefits bill – low pay,
high rents,
unemployment
and ill-health.
That’s why we will reverse unfair Conservative policies such as reducing support for younger people
and cutting the benefits of people not fit for work.
We will reinstate the legally binding poverty targets of the Child Poverty Act.
We will: Uprate working-age benefits at least in line with inflation.
Abandon the two-child policy on family benefits
and abolish the Conservatives’ ‘rape clause’ where a woman has to declare children that are born as a result of rape in order to access benefits.
Help young people in need by reversing cuts to housing benefit for 18-21-year-olds
and increase the rates of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit for those aged 18-24 at the same rate as minimum wages.
Reverse cuts to Employment Support Allowance to those in the work-related activity group.
Increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) in line with average rents in an area, ensuring that LHA is enough for a family to pay their housing costs no matter where they live.
Scrap the ‘bedroom tax’,
while seeking to achieve the aim of making best use of the housing supply through incentivising local authorities to help tenants ‘downsize’.
Scrap the discredited Work Capability Assessment and replace it with a new system, run by local authorities according to national rules, including a ‘real world’ test that is based on the local labour market.
Withdraw eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment from pensioners who pay tax at the higher rate (40%).
We will retain the free bus pass for all pensioners.
Ensure that those using food banks are aware of their rights and how they can access hardship payments where relevant.
6.4 Saving for and enjoying your retirement
Life expectancy is increasing.
This is good news, but it brings challenges; older people may need a pension income that will last for 20, 30 or even 40 years.
We want Britain to be the best place in the world to save for, and enjoy, your retirement.
We will: Maintain the ‘triple lock’ of increasing the state pension each year by the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or 2.5% for the next parliament.
Establish a review to consider the case for, and practical implications of, introducing a single rate of tax relief for pensions, which would be designed to be simpler and fairer and would be set more generously than the current 20% basic rate relief.
6.5 Building more and better homes
The housing crisis in Britain has become an emergency.
For far too long Britain has built many fewer homes than we need; unless we build enough to meet demand, year after year, we will find that housing costs rise further out of reach.
That is why we have set an ambitious target of increasing the rate of housebuilding to 300,000 a year – almost double the current level.
These new houses must be sustainably planned to ensure that excessive pressure is not placed on existing infrastructure.
We will: Directly build homes to fill the gap left by the market, to reach our housebuilding target of 300,000 homes a year, through a government commissioning programme to build homes for sale and rent.
We will ensure that half a million affordable, energy-efficient homes are built by the end of the parliament.
Create at least 10 new garden cities in England, providing tens of thousands of high-quality, zero-carbon homes, with gardens and shared green space, jobs, schools and public transport.
Set up a new government-backed British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank with a remit including providing long-term capital for major new settlements and helping attract finance for major housebuilding projects.
End the Voluntary Right to Buy pilots that sell off housing association homes and the associated high value asset levy.
Lift the borrowing cap on local authorities and increase the borrowing capacity of housing associations so that they can build council and social housing.
Scrap exemptions on smaller housing development schemes from their obligation to provide affordable homes,
and strengthen the hand of local government to prevent large developers reneging on their commitments.
Require local plans to take into account at least 15 years of future housing need – focusing on long-term development and community needs.
Create a community right of appeal in cases where planning decisions go against the approved local plan.
Enable local authorities to: Levy up to 200% council tax on second homes and ‘buy to leave empty’ investments from overseas.
Enforce housebuilding on unwanted public sector land.
Penalise excessive land-banking when builders with planning permission have failed to build after three years.
End the Right to Buy if they choose.
6.6 Buying and renting
House prices are high across the country – even where houses are available to buy, they are often unaffordable for first-time buyers.
In many areas, the rental market has also become unaffordable.
Young people, in particular, need support from the government to help them find and keep a home of their own.
We will: Help people who cannot afford a deposit by introducing a new Rent to Own model where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years.
Improve renting by banning lettings fees for tenants, capping upfront deposits and increasing minimum standards in rented homes.
Help young people into the rental market by establishing a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30.
Give British buyers a fair chance by stopping developers advertising homes abroad before they have been advertised in the UK.
Give tenants first refusal to buy the home they are renting from a landlord who decides to sell during the tenancy at the market rate according to an independent valuation.
Promote longer tenancies of three years or more with an inflation-linked annual rent increase built in, to give tenants security and limit rent hikes.
Improve protections against rogue landlords through mandatory licensing and allow access for tenants to the database of rogue landlords and property agents.
End the scandal of rough sleeping by increasing support for homelessness prevention and adequately funding age-appropriate emergency accommodation and supported housing,
while ensuring that all local authorities have at least one provider of the Housing First model of provision for long-term, entrenched homeless people.
6.7 Investing in the transport we need
High-quality public transport is essential to building sustainable communities and the local and national economy.
Britain needs better transport infrastructure,
a modern railway system run for the benefit of its customers,
and less congestion and pollution on the roads.
We also need to ensure that local communities, particularly rural communities, remain connected with local rail and bus services, and that stations serve the needs of their local community.
To build a transport system fit for the 21 st century, we will: Ensure that new rail franchises include a stronger focus on customers, including a programme of investment in new stations, lines and modern trains.
We will allow public sector bodies and mutual groups involving staff and passengers to bid for franchises.
We will continue the Access for All programme, improving disabled access to public transport as a key priority.
As a result of severe failings that rise to the level of breach of contract, establish government-run companies to take over the running of Southern Rail and Govia Thameslink,
with a long-term plan to find more effective and sustainable ways of managing these franchises involving greater powers for local government.
Pursue the electrification of the rail network,
improve stations,
reopen smaller stations,
restore twin-track lines to major routes
and proceed with HS2, HS3 and Crossrail 2, including development of a high-speed network stretching to Scotland.
Invest capital in major transport improvements and infrastructure.
We will: Shift more freight from road to rail.
Deliver the Transport for the North strategy to promote growth, innovation and prosperity across northern England.
Develop more modern, resilient links to and within the south-west peninsula to help develop and diversify the regional economy.
Complete East West Rail, connecting Oxford and Cambridge and catalysing major new housing development.
Ensure London’s transport infrastructure is improved to withstand the pressure of population and economic growth.
Support the takeover of metro services in London by London Overground.
Encourage the swift take-up of electric and driverless vehicles.
Develop a strategic airports policy for the whole of the UK, taking full account of the impacts on climate change and local pollution.
We remain opposed to any expansion of Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick and any new airport in the Thames Estuary and will focus instead on improving existing regional airports such as Birmingham and Manchester.
We will ensure no net increase in runways across the UK.
To protect and extend local public transport, we will: Introduce a rail ombudsman to enforce passenger rights and improve the provision of compensation, with the power to sanction rail companies as appropriate.
Introduce a new Young Person’s Bus Discount Card, for young people aged 16–21, giving a two-thirds discount on bus travel – allowing young people to access education, apprenticeships and work.
Halt the decline in bus services and carry out a review of bus funding and bus policies.
We will give principal local authorities the power to run, commission and regulate the bus network in their area.
Provide local authorities and communities with the powers to improve transport and ticketing with the ability to introduce network-wide and smart ticketing systems.
Design towns and cities as safe and attractive walking spaces
and implement the recommendations of the Get Britain Cycling report.
6.8 Local communities working together
Liberal Democrats believe in community politics – in the power of local people to come together to solve their own problems and make a better life for their neighbourhoods.
This means rejuvenating democratic local government in England and also supporting other forms of community organisation and empowerment.
We will:
Drastically reduce the powers of central government ministers to interfere in democratically elected local government.
Remove the requirement to hold local referenda for council tax changes, ensuring that councillors are properly accountable for their decisions by introducing fair votes.
Aim to increase the number of neighbourhood, community and parish councils
and promote tenant management in social housing.
Establish a government process to deliver greater devolution of financial responsibility to English local authorities and any new devolved bodies in England, building on the work of the Independent Commission on Local Government Finance.
Any changes must balance the objectives of more local autonomy and fair equalisation between communities.
Support social investment, ensuring charities and social enterprises can access the support and finance they need to strengthen their governance and deliver innovative, sustainable solutions to challenges in their communities.
Enable central and local government to prioritise employee-owned and community-benefit companies in awarding procurement contracts by strengthening the Social Value Act.
Grant new powers to local authorities to protect high streets and consumers by reducing the proliferation of betting shops and capping the maximum amount able to be bet on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) at one time to £ 2.
6.9 Sustainable rural communities
A thriving rural community needs local services and community facilities such as schools, public transport, local shops, cultural venues and pubs.
It needs enough homes, affordable for local families, to ensure those services are viable.
Liberal Democrats understand the changes needed to support a living, working countryside.
We will: Ensure that every property in the UK is provided, by 2022, with a superfast broadband connection with a download speed of 30Mbps, an upload speed of 6Mbps, and an unlimited usage cap.
Invest £2 billion in innovative solutions to ensure the provision of high- speed broadband across the rural UK,
working with local authorities and providing grants to help areas replicate the success of existing community- led projects.
Set up a £2 billion Rural Services Fund of capital investment to enable communities to establish a local base from which to co-locate services such as council offices, post offices, children’s centres, libraries and visiting healthcare professionals.
Work with Ofcom to ensure that mobile phone companies provide fast and reliable coverage in rural areas.
Commit to preventing Post Office closures
and protect Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation to deliver across the UK for the same price.
Work with local authorities to deliver a significant increase in social and affordable housing in rural areas.
6.10 Access to culture and sport
Arts, media and sports are essential for personal fulfilment and quality of life – they are part of what turns a group of people into a community.
Funding for these organisations is put at risk with Brexit and the Liberal Democrats will ensure that we continue to invest in our cultural capital.
We will: Maintain free access to national museums and galleries.
Move towards introducing ‘safe standing’ at football clubs, requiring the Sports Grounds Safety Authority to prepare guidance for implementing this change.
Protect the independence of the BBC and set up a BBC Licence Fee Commission,
maintain Channel 4 in public ownership
and protect the funding and editorial independence of Welsh language broadcasters.
Protect sports and arts funding via the National Lottery.
Maintain current standards of intellectual property (IP) protection with continuing co-operation on enforcement of IP generated in the UK
and working within the EU to ensure the continuation of territorial licensing of rights.
Create creative enterprise zones to grow and regenerate the cultural output of areas across the UK.
Examine the available funding and planning rules for live music venues and the grassroots music sector, protecting venues from further closures.
7 Defend Rights, Promote Justice and Equalities
Liberal Democrats believe that every person is entitled to the same opportunity to succeed in life.
That means breaking down the barriers that hold people back – reducing inequality,
fighting discrimination
and defending individuals against an overreaching government.
It means promoting universal liberal values such as openness, tolerance and unity.
It also means opposing the extreme and divisive forces that now blight our politics and public life.
The rise in hate crime,
the abuse of refugees,
and the toxic rhetoric on immigration
and about immigrants themselves is not the future Liberal Democrats want for Britain.
We will not let campaigners for a hard Brexit pretend that racism and discrimination are a kind of patriotism.
We will fight to make sure that what you do and where you get to in life are not affected by your gender, the colour of your skin or who you love.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Making the positive case for immigration
and reducing hate crimes by targeting the people who commit them and making all hate crimes aggravated offences, allowing for harsher sentencing of perpetrators.
Defending human rights: we will vote against any attempts to scrap the Human Rights Act or withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and we will strengthen the UK’s commitment to international human rights law.
Offering safe and legal routes to the UK for refugees,
expanding the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme to offer sanctuary to 50,000 people over the lifetime of the next parliament
and reopening the Dubs scheme to take 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children from Europe.
7.1 Rights and equalities
Whether by righting past wrongs, protecting citizens or increasing freedom, the Liberal Democrats believe that legislation defending rights and liberties protects individuals
and drives opportunity for many underrepresented groups.
Liberal Democrats oppose all discrimination and believe that government should take an active role both in punishing discrimination and in ensuring it does not happen in the first place.
Our society is only strong once it includes everybody – regardless of their background.
To extend diversity in public life and business, we will: Fund more extensive childcare, and provide better back-to-work support to reach an ambitious goal of one million more women in work by 2025.
Continue the drive for diversity in business leadership, pushing for at least 40% of board members being women in FTSE 350 companies
and implementing the recommendations of the Parker review to increase ethnic minority representation.
Extend the Equality Act to all large companies with more than 250 employees, requiring them to monitor and publish data on gender, BAME, and LGBT+ employment levels and pay gaps.
Extend the use of name-blind recruitment processes in the public sector and encourage their use in the private sector.
Require diversity in public appointments.
We will introduce a presumption that every shortlist should include at least one BAME candidate.
Extend requirements on companies to strengthen responsibility for supply chains.
Focus on good practice in tackling modern slavery, including training for police and prosecutors in identifying and supporting victims, and implement the Ewins report recommendations on domestic workers.
To safeguard rights
and promote equalities,
we will:  Campaign to reduce intolerance, including anti-Semitism, and hate crimes alongside organisations such as Show Racism the Red Card, the Anne Frank Trust UK, and Kick It Out.
Ask the Advisory Committee on Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs periodically to review rules around men who have sex with men and other related groups donating blood to consider what restrictions remain necessary.
Guarantee the freedom of people to wear religious or cultural dress,
and tackle the growing incidence of Islamophobic hate crime.
Introduce an ‘X’ option on passports, identity documents, and official forms for those who do not wish to identify as either male or female, and campaign for their introduction in the provision of other services, for example utilities.
Decriminalise the sale and purchase of sex, and the management of sex work – reducing harm,
defending sex workers’ human rights,
and focusing police time and resources on those groomed, forced or trafficked into the sex industry.
We would provide additional support for those wishing to leave sex work.
Strengthen legal rights and obligations for couples by introducing mixed-sex civil partnerships and extending rights to cohabiting couples.
Extend protection of gender reassignment in equality law to explicitly cover gender identity and expression,
and streamline and simplify the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to allow individuals to change their legal gender without unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, for example the intrusive medical tests currently required.
Remove the spousal veto,
and abolish remaining marriage inequalities in areas such as pensions, hospital visitation rights and custody of children in the event of bereavement.
Develop a government-wide plan to tackle BAME inequalities,
and review the Equality and Human Rights Commission to determine whether it is effectively fulfilling its role and whether its funding is adequate.
Increase accessibility to public places and transport by making more stations wheelchair accessible, improving the legislative framework governing blue badges, setting up a benchmarking standard for accessible cities, and bringing into effect the provisions of the 2010 Equality Act on discrimination by private hire vehicles and taxis.
Address period poverty by providing free sanitary products to girls at school.
Outlaw caste discrimination.
Enshrine the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in UK law.
7.2 Liberty
Liberal Democrats believe that we should all be free from an overreaching state
and that the individual freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Human Rights Act are central to a free and democratic society.
For that reason, the Liberal Democrats will: Oppose any attempt to withdraw from the ECHR or abolish or water down the Human Rights Act.
Introduce a digital bill of rights that protects people’s powers over their own information,
supports individuals over large corporations,
and preserves the neutrality of the internet.
In light of the press’s failure to engage in effective self-regulation, seek to ensure delivery of independent self-regulation,
and commence part two of the Leveson inquiry as soon as practicable.
End the ministerial veto on release of information under the Freedom of Information Act,
and take steps to reduce the proportion of FOI requests where information is withheld by government departments.
Order Ofcom to launch an immediate full assessment of media plurality in the UK, including a review of the ‘fit and proper persons test’ and whether the communications regulator, and the Competition and Markets Authority, have appropriate powers to deal with concentrations of power in the digital economy.
7.3 Crime and policing
After years of reduction in traditional crime we have seen an increase, particularly in violent crime, since 2015.
At the same time police forces are under pressure from reduced funding, with less money available for the community policing we all value.
For these reasons Liberal Democrats will: Increase community policing in England and Wales by giving an additional £300 million a year to local police forces to reverse the increase in violent crime,
boost community confidence
and increase the flow of community intelligence.
Maintain, as part of our fight against hard Brexit, cross-border co-operation in combatting serious organised crime, including international fraud and child sexual exploitation, by retaining the European Arrest Warrant, membership of Europol and access to EU information databases.
End the 1 % cap on police pay rises.
Require all front-line officers to wear body cameras on duty, protecting the public from abuse of power and police officers from malicious accusations.
Resource BAME staff associations such as the National Black Police Association to increase ethnic diversity and BAME participation in the police.
Provide government funding for a national rape crisis helpline with increased opening hours and advertisement.
End the anomaly that forces Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to pay VAT on their purchases.
Replace Police and Crime Commissioners, elected at great expense in elections with very low turnout, with accountable police boards made up of local councillors.
Build on the success of crime maps to use data more effectively to reduce crime and improve policing, including exploring the feasibility of mandatory reporting of fraud losses by individual credit and debit-card providers.
7.4 Criminal justice
The criminal courts need modernising.
There are too many people in prison.
Our reoffending rates are terrible
and our prisons, many old and squalid, are in crisis – overcrowded and woefully understaffed, with drug abuse, violence, suicide and self-harm endemic.
That’s why Liberal Democrats will: Introduce a Victims’ Bill of Rights that will create a single point of contact for victims in the criminal justice system,
increase victims’ access to information about their cases,
and give victims the right to request restorative justice rather than a prison sentence.
Introduce a presumption against short prison sentences and increase the use of tough, non-custodial punishments including weekend and evening custody, curfews, community service and GPS tagging.
Promote community justice panels and restorative justice that brings victims and wrongdoers together to resolve conflict, reduce harm and encourage rehabilitation.
Extend the responsibility of the Youth Justice Board to all offenders under 21, giving it the power to commission mental-health services.
Establish a Women’s Justice Board with a remit to meet the special needs of women offenders.
Transform prisons into places of rehabilitation, recovery, learning and work, with suitable treatment, education or work available to all prisoners;
adopt a holistic approach to prisoners with multiple problems,
and ensure that courses started in custody can be completed on release.
Review the investigation, prosecution, procedures and rules of evidence in cases of sexual and domestic violence.
Ensure that trans prisoners are placed in prisons that reflect their gender identity, rather than their birth gender.
Reduce the overrepresentation of individuals from a BAME background at every stage of the criminal justice system, taking into account the upcoming recommendations of the Lammy review.
Secure further funding for criminal legal aid from sources other than the taxpayer, including insurance for company directors, and changes to restraint orders.
7.5 Civil and family justice
The justice system is under pressure.
Brexit threatens international co-operation,
the Conservatives have failed to defend the rule of law which is the cornerstone of our democracy,
and cuts to legal aid have denied effective access to justice to many.
For these reasons Liberal Democrats will: Ensure that the UK retains international arrangements for jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of judgments and for family cases currently enjoyed under the EU Brussels I and Brussels II regulation and the Hague child abduction convention.
Conduct an urgent and comprehensive review of the effects of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act on access to justice, particularly funding for social welfare appeals, and domestic violence and exceptional cases.
Reverse the massive increases in court and tribunal fees, which prevent many from pursuing good cases.
Continue to modernise and simplify court procedures.
Protect our system of judicial review from further attack, retaining government accountability for unlawful action,
and offer a staunch defence of our judiciary and the rule of law.
7.6 Terrorism and violent extremism
As recent events across Europe – and at the heart of our own democracy – have shown, terrorism and violent extremism threaten us all.
As liberals, we must have an effective security policy
which is also accountable, community and evidencebased,
and does not unduly restrict personal liberty.
That’s why the Liberal Democrats will: Continue cross-border co-operation between security forces across Europe.
Permit intercepts where justified
and permit surveillance of those suspected of serious crime and terrorism with proper judicial oversight.
Scrap the flawed Prevent strategy and replace it with a scheme that prioritises community engagement and supports communities in developing their own approach to tackling the dangers of violent extremism.
Roll back state surveillance powers by ending the indiscriminate bulk collection of communications data, bulk hacking, and the collection of internet connection records.
Oppose Conservative attempts to undermine encryption.
Notify innocent people who have been placed under targeted surveillance where this can be done without jeopardising ongoing investigations.
7.7 Combatting the harm done by drugs
The war on drugs has been a catastrophic failure.
Every year, billions flow to organised crime while we needlessly prosecute and imprison thousands of people, blighting their employment and life chances, and doing nothing to address the impact of drugs on their health.
Our current approach to drugs helps nobody except criminal gangs.
For that reason Liberal Democrats will: End imprisonment for possession of illegal drugs for personal use, diverting those arrested for possession of drugs for personal use into treatment and education (adopting a health-based approach), or imposing civil penalties.
Break the grip of the criminal gangs and protect young people by introducing a legal, regulated market for cannabis.
We would introduce limits on potency and permit cannabis to be sold through licensed outlets to adults over the age of 18.
Concentrate on catching and prosecuting those who manufacture, import or deal in illegal drugs.
Repeal the Psychoactive Substances Act which has driven the sale of formerly legal highs underground.
Move the departmental lead on drugs policy to the Department of Health.
7.8 Immigration and asylum
Immigration and asylum are under attack.
Immigration is essential to our economy and a benefit to our society.
We depend on immigration to ensure we have the people we need contributing to the UK’s economy and society, including doctors, agricultural workers, entrepreneurs, scientists and so many others.
Immigration broadens our horizons and encourages us to be more open, more tolerant.
Refugees are human beings fleeing from war zones and persecution, and we have a legal and moral obligation to offer them sanctuary.
The Liberal Democrats are proud of the UK’s historic commitments to assisting those seeking refuge from war, persecution and degradation, and believe that we should continue to uphold our responsibilities.
The immigration and asylum systems have suffered from inefficiency and severe backlogs and delays over many years, harming their credibility and ability to operate effectively.
We recognise that large-scale immigration has placed strains on some local communities and services.
Major improvements are urgently needed.
For that reason, when it comes to immigration the Liberal Democrats will: Ensure that the immigration system is operated fairly and efficiently, with strict control of borders, including entry and exit checks,
and adequately funded Border Force policing of entry by irregular routes.
Hold an annual debate in parliament on skill and labour market shortfalls and surpluses to identify the migration necessary to meet the UK’s needs.
Continue to allow high-skilled immigration to support key sectors of our economy,
and ensure work, tourist and family visas are processed quickly and efficiently.
Recognising their largely temporary status, remove students from the official migration statistics.
Ensure the UK is an attractive destination for overseas students.
We will reinstate post-study work visas for graduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects who find suitable employment within six months of graduating.
Give the devolved administrations the right to sponsor additional post-study work visas.
Work with u niversities to ensure a fair and transparent student visa process
and find ways to measure accurately the number of students leaving at the end of their course.
Establish a centrally funded Migration Impact Fund to help local communities to adjust to new migration and meet unexpected pressures on public services and housing.
Provide additional government funding for English as an additional language classes to help migrants and residents gain independence and integrate with their local communities.
And for asylum, the Liberal Democrats will: Apply the asylum system fairly, efficiently and humanely, including the process for those who have no right to be here.
Offer safe and legal routes to the UK for refugees to prevent them from making dangerous journeys, which too often result in the loss of life, for example via reform of family reunion rules to make it easier for refugees to join relatives already living in safety in the UK.
Expand the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme to offer sanctuary to 50,000 people over the lifetime of the next parliament.
Re-open the Dubs unaccompanied child refugee scheme, ensuring Britain meets its responsibilities by taking in 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children.
Liberal Democrats would offer these children indefinite leave to remain, meaning they will not be deported once they turn 18.
End indefinite immigration detention by introducing a 28-day limit.
Speed up the processing of asylum claims, reducing the time genuine refugees must wait before they can settle into life in the UK.
Expect working-age asylum seekers who have waited more than six months for their claim to be processed to seek work like other benefit claimants, and only to receive benefits if they are unable to do so.
Offer asylum to people fleeing countries where their sexual orientation or gender identification means that they risk imprisonment, torture or execution,
and stop deporting people at risk to such countries.
8 Make a Better World
Liberal Democrats are internationalists – we understand that by working together, people and countries can achieve so much more than they can alone.
It is a difficult time for people who believe in international co-operation
. Liberals have been challenged by the vote to leave the EU,
the election of increasingly nationalist and isolationist leaders across the globe,
and a Conservative government seeking new trade deals with countries who are fundamentally opposed to our liberal values.
With the election of Donald Trump and an increasingly assertive Russia, we must work to defend the international liberal order.
The Liberal Democrat approach to Britain’s place in the world is patriotic, optimistic and progressive.
We will work with our European and other international partners to promote the ideals that bring us together and make us more secure
– championing human rights,
helping the poorest people in the world
and protecting our country and our allies.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Defending international co-operation against the rising tides of nationalism and isolationism,
supporting multilateral organisations like the UN and NATO which are increasingly under threat.
Spending 0.7% of gross national income on aid:
reducing poverty
, defending human rights,
protecting the environment
and preventing violent conflict worldwide.
Controlling arms exports to countries listed as human rights priority countries in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s annual human rights report and suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
8.1 Working for peace and security across the world
This is a challenging time for peace
and security across the world.
Terrorist organisations prosper,
the conflict in Syria continues to present a significant problem to the region and the world,
and rising tensions between Russia and the USA threaten a long-standing balance of power.
The UK has a proud record of playing a leading role in the European Union
and in international institutions like the UN, NATO and the Commonwealth
and should continue to do so, promoting wherever possible the liberal values of freedom and opportunity for all.
We will: Champion the rules-based international order, which provides a strong basis for multilateral action to address the world’s most pernicious problems,
including poverty,
armed conflict,
disease,
climate change
and the abuse of human rights, including forced marriage, so-called ‘honour’ killings, and female genital mutilation.
Use all aspects of government policy – trade, aid and diplomacy as well as military co-operation – to strengthen UK efforts to prevent violent conflict.
Work with our international partners to address the ongoing refugee crisis, which has seen more people displaced across the world than ever before.
Support the UN principle of Responsibility to Protect, focusing on conflict prevention
and only resorting to military intervention to prevent mass civilian atrocities if all other means of resolution have been fully exhausted.
Improve control of arms exports by: Implementing a policy of ‘presumption of denial’ for arms exports to countries listed as human rights priority countries in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s annual human rights report.
Enforcing end-user certification on all future arms export licences with an annual report to parliament on this certification.
Creating a public register of arms brokers.
Liberal Democrats believe that despite efforts to prevent violent conflict, sometimes military intervention is necessary.
The UK should only intervene militarily when there is a clear legal and/or humanitarian case,
endorsed by a vote in parliament,
working through international institutions whenever possible.
We will encourage dialogue and mediation to reduce conflict between and within countries, working through the UN and other agencies.
In response to current major conflicts worldwide, we will: Work with international partners to tackle violent extremism manifested by organisations like Daesh and Boko Haram,
paying special attention to UK citizens who have fought overseas for terrorist organisations and may become significant sources of terrorist activity if and when they return to Britain.
Seek new ways to bring an end to the conflict in Syria, working within the UN to break the deadlock in the Security Council.
We will work to deter the use of chemical and conventional attacks on civilians
and demand humanitarian access
and the release of political prisoners and their families.
Remain committed to a negotiated peace settlement to the Israel i-Palestinian conflict, which includes a two-state solution.
We condemn disproportionate force used by all sides.
We condemn Hamas’ rocket attacks and other targeting of Israeli civilians.
We condemn Israel’s continued illegal policy of settlement expansion, which undermines the possibility of a two-state solution.
We support recognition of the independent State of Palestine as and when it will help the prospect of a two-state solution.
Suspend UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to their consistent targeting of civilians, in breach of international humanitarian law, in Yemen.
We will work with international partners to recommence the peace process in Yemen.
Promote democracy and stability in Ukraine and neighbouring countries against an increasingly aggressive Russia.
We will work closely with European and other international partners to exert maximum economic and political pressure on Russia to stop interfering in the affairs of sovereign Eastern European nations,
and will stand by our obligations under the NATO treaty in the event of threats to NATO member states.
8.2 Our armed forces and security services
The UK must be able to defend itself and the territories for which it has responsibility,
support its neighbours and allies,
and engage in humanitarian intervention.
The security challenges the UK faces are shared by our partners and allies in the EU and NATO and the UK is more effective and more resilient when we work closely with those partners.
We will: Commit to spending 2% of GDP on defence.
Strengthen our armed services and address critical skills shortages by recruiting STEM graduates to be armed forces engineers, providing ‘golden handshakes’ of up to £10,000.
Recognise the expansion of warfare into the cybersphere, by investing in our security and intelligence services and acting to counter cyberattacks.
Work to lead international nuclear disarmament efforts.
Maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent.
We propose continuing with the Dreadnought programme, the submarine-based replacement for Vanguard, but procuring three boats instead of four and moving to a medium-readiness responsive posture.
This would mean replacing continuous at-sea deterrence – instead maintaining the deterrent through measures such as unpredictable and irregular patrolling patterns.
Build on the framework for defence co-operation that is already wellestablished with France, the Netherlands, Germany and other European partners,
and promote European defence integration where appropriate by enhancing European defence industry co-operation.
Liberal Democrats recognise the vital role the UK’s armed forces play in the defence of the nation and believe that it is the role of government to safeguard the interests of service personnel and veterans.
We will:
Support the Armed Forces Covenant
and ongoing work to support veterans’ mental health.
Review the current Career Transition Partnership with a view to extending its remit to provide free further or higher education for anyone who has served in the armed forces for 12 years or more.
Improve the quality of service housing by bringing the Ministry of Defence into line with other landlords, giving tenants the same legal rights to repair and maintenance as private tenants.
8.3 International development
Liberal Democrats have always been – and remain – strongly committed to ensuring justice and equity for poor people around the world.
We believe that the UK must continue to play a leading role in ending poverty and promoting environmentally sustainable development, through implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We will: Maintain our commitment to spend 0.7% of UK gross national income on overseas development assistance, in line with the OECD definition, which we legislated for in the last parliament.
Invest to eliminate within a generation preventable diseases like TB, HIV and malaria
and explore new ways to support research and development into vaccinations and treatment to combat these and other deadly diseases and infections.
Develop a global education strategy to address the urgent funding crisis causing 263 million children to miss out on schooling.
Lead international action to ensure global companies pay fair taxes in the developing countries in which they operate, including tightening anti-tax haven rules and requiring large companies to publish their tax payments and profits for each country in which they operate.
Continue building the resilience of poorer countries to resist future disasters, investing in healthcare and infrastructure and training emergency response volunteers,
and respond generously to humanitarian crises wherever they may occur.
Provide greater resources for international environmental co-operation,
particularly on climate change
and on actions to tackle illegal and unsustainable trade in timber, wildlife, ivory and fish.
In light of the US government’s dangerous and anti-science attacks on international programmes of vaccination and family planning, which impact disproportionately on the health of women and children, seek to protect global spending on these essential provisions.
8.4 Standing up for liberal values
Liberal Democrats believe that British foreign policy and international aid should seek to promote the liberal values of human rights and democracy throughout the world.
We will: Support free media and a free and open internet around the world, championing the free flow of information.
Support the current UN initiative to protect journalists and to combat the impunity with which many countries treat those who attack reporters on the front line.
To this end, we will provide ad hoc funding to UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication.
Campaign strongly for the abolition of the death penalty around the world.
Champion global anti-corruption initiatives to safeguard global security and economic development and maintain a strong voice in international platforms on ending corruption.
We will implement outstanding commitments made by the British government at the 2016 Global Anti-Corruption Summit.
Publish a government anti-corruption strategy.
Introduce Sustainable Development Goals audits of new trade, investment and development deals, reviewing the impact of the deal on people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.
Maintain funding for the BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring and the British Council.
Develop a comprehensive strategy for promoting the decriminalisation of homosexuality around the world and advancing the cause of LGBT+ rights.
Prioritise support, protection and equal rights for women and girls, which is both right and essential for effective, sustainable economic development.
We will aim to end female genital mutilation worldwide within a generation.
Appoint an ambassador-level champion for freedom of belief to drive British diplomatic efforts in this field,
and campaign for the abolition of blasphemy, sedition, apostasy and criminal libel laws worldwide, having already been responsible for ending them in this country.
9 Fix a Broken System
Britain suffers from an overcentralised political system
with a lack of openness and accountability.
Parliament is unrepresentative of the electorate and weak in restraining the power of the government,
we still have an unelected House of Lords,
local government is hobbled by central control,
and people feel they have no effective means of making known their concerns and priorities.
It’s no wonder people feel frustrated and angry at the system.
This anger found its most recent expression in the result of the EU referendum, but ironically this was as much a verdict on the performance of British political institutions as European ones.
The Conservatives’ pro posed Great Repeal Bill threatens to centralise power even more, handing to central government powers to alter vast swathes of the statute book without proper parliamentary scrutiny.
We believe in a United Kingdom where people have power over their own lives and how their country is run.
To make this happen we need to revitalise our political system – strengthen devolution,
make the argument that we are stronger together than we are apart,
and increase trust in our institutions.
Our priorities in the next parliament will be: Creating a better democracy with a fair voting system in local government and Westminster, with votes at 16 and preventing evasion of constituency election spending limits.
Delivering on our promises to Scotland in full,
devolving more powers to Wales
and securing the political stability of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Meeting the needs of England with ‘devolution on demand’, letting local areas take control of the services that matter most to them.
9.1 Better politics
Unfair votes, overcentralisation of decision-making, the power of patronage and the influence of powerful corporate lobbies mean ordinary citizens and local communities are too often excluded and left alienated by politics today.
We need to reform British politics to make it more representative and more empowering of our citizens so it earns greater public confidence.
We will: Introduce votes at 16 for all elections and referendums across the UK.
Ensure that every reasonable effort is made to ensure that those people legally entitled to vote are included on the electoral registers, with far greater efforts in particular to register under-represented groups such as young people qualifying for the first time and students moving to universities.
Introduce the Single Transferable Vote for local government elections in England and for electing MPs across the UK.
Enable all UK citizens living abroad to vote for MPs in separate overseas constituencies, and to participate in UK referendums.
Reform the House of Lords with a proper democratic mandate.
Take big money out of politics by capping donations to political parties at £10,000 per person each year, and introducing wider reforms to party funding along the lines of the 2011 report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
Strengthen trade union members’ political freedoms by letting them choose which political party they wish to support through the political levy.
Cancel the boundary review due to report in 2018.
While new constituencies would need to be established for a new voting system, we believe constituency boundary reviews should respect natural geographical communities, with greater flexibility for the Boundary Commission to deviate from exact equality to take account of community ties and continuity of representation, and should take place every 10 years.
Mandate the provision of televised leaders’ debates in general elections based on rules produced by Ofcom relating to structure and balance, and allowing for the empty-chairing of party leaders who refuse to attend.
Strengthen and expand the lobbying register
and prohibit MPs from accepting paid lobbying work.
Introduce trials of weekend voting to help raise turnouts in elections.
Introduce legislation to allow for all-BAME and all-LGBT+ parliamentary shortlists.
Make parliament more family friendly, and establish a review to pave the way for MP job-sharing arrangements.
The recent media, police and Electoral Commission investigations into possible breaches of spending limits by candidates in the 2015 general election show that the current system is not fit for purpose.
The clear objective must be to ensure that all expenditure on campaign material targeted at an identifiable constituency, and in particular at voters within that constituency, is included in its expense return, rather than it being possible to count against a national party limit.
We do not believe that political parties themselves have an incentive to change the existing system.
We will therefore task the Electoral Commission with producing a framework for an up-to-date expenses system that adequately governs the running of a modern campaign,
and put these proposals to a vote in parliament.
9.2 A decentralised United Kingdom
Liberal Democrats have a proud record of leading the way on giving greater powers to the nations of the UK.
Now we must deliver on the promises made to the people of Scotland and the rest of the UK to further decentralise power.
We will deliver home rule to each of the nations of a strong, federal and united United Kingdom.
Change has been taking place rapidly.
We now need to make sure all the new arrangements work together coherently and we will therefore establish a UK constitutional convention, made up of representatives of the political parties, academia, civic society and members of the public, tasked with producing a full, codified constitution for the UK, to report within two years.
We will work with devolved parliaments and assemblies to allocate to them any powers repatriated as a result of Brexit in their areas of responsibility,
and ensure that the devolution of any repatriated powers or responsibilities does not disadvantage the nations of the UK.
9.3 Scotland
After the 2014 independence referendum, Liberal Democrats in the UK government established the Smith Commission to bring together Scotland’s five biggest parties to agree what further powers should be assigned to the Scottish Parliament.
Liberal Democrats ensured the package of powers agreed reflects Scotland’s priorities.
The Scottish Parliament will raise in tax half of what it spends in its budget.
A Scottish welfare system will allow the Scottish Parliament to change the benefits regime where there is specific Scottish need or priority, with a starting budget of around £3 billion.
These powers and more will deliver for people in Scotland an empowered and accountable Scottish Parliament in a strong and secure United Kingdom.
Our plans for a written, federal constitution will include a permanent Scottish Parliament that could only be abolished by the sovereign will of the Scottish people.
We will work hard to ensure that Scotland remains a part of the United Kingdom.
We will oppose a second independence referendum and oppose independence.
Scotland benefits from being inside the UK and EU single markets.
Each is worth billions of pounds and supports tens of thousands of Scottish jobs.
Under the Liberal Democrats inclusion in those single markets will continue.
Keeping the UK in the EU will remove the basis for the SNP’s divisive proposed referendum on independence.
9.4 Wales
We welcome the new Wales Act, which is intended to implement the St David’s Day agreement secured by Liberal Democrats in government – but it does not go far enough.
Liberal Democrats will deliver proper home rule for Wales and a Welsh Parliament by implementing the remaining Silk part 1 proposals on financial powers and the Silk part 2 proposals to devolve powers over transport, youth justice, policing and other justice powers.
We will raise the status of the National Assembly to become a Welsh Parliament, strengthening its capacity to scrutinise legislation and to hold the Welsh Government to account.
We will drastically reduce the number of reserved subjects and prevent Westminster from being able to override Wales on devolved matters.
We will recognise Wales as a distinct legal jurisdiction.
Among other powers which we would devolve are funding of Network Rail in relation to the Wales network, allowing the Welsh Government to set its own bank holidays and giving the Children’s Commissioner for Wales the power to examine issues that affect children in Wales but are not within the control of the Welsh Government.
To help create jobs
and boost growth in Wales we will abolish the economically distorting tolls on the Severn Bridge, after the costs have been recouped in 2018.
9.5 Northern Ireland
Liberal Democrats wish to see a permanently peaceful,
stable,
non-sectarian
and truly democratic society in Northern Ireland.
We will work constructively with the political parties in Northern Ireland and with the Irish government to secure the political stability of the Northern Ireland Assembly and other institutions of the Belfast agreement
and the implementation of all the recommendations of the report on disbanding paramilitary groups.
In particular we are determined to: Maintain the common travel area and freedom of movement.
Support local businesses by ensuring participation within the single market and customs union.
Ensure that the international human rights protections hard wired into the Good Friday Agreement are not compromised.
Protect the rights of Northern Ireland citizens living and working in the EU, and EU citizens living and working in Northern Ireland.
Protect the current financial settlement and the funding of programmes supporting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
To grow the economy,
tackle social exclusion,
overcome inequality
and deliver efficiencies in public services,
Liberal Democrats will support policies and initiatives, such as integrated education, that promote sharing over separation and counter the cost of division.
9.6 England
Devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has implications for the UK parliament and its dual role in legislating for England as well as the federal UK.
It is possible that a future UK government could use the support of MPs representing Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland to secure the passage of legislation that only affects England, even if the majority in England were opposed.
This would be a key issue for our proposed constitutional convention to address.
Liberal Democrats support an English-only stage in legislation affecting England, so English MPs can have a separate say on laws that only affect England.
However, this should be on a proportional basis, genuinely reflecting the balance of opinion in England.
In some areas of England there is a greater appetite for powers, but not every part of the country wants to move at the same speed and there cannot be a one-sizefits-all approach.
All areas should however have access to the same opportunities and mayoral authorities should not be ranked higher in terms of the powers with which they can be granted.
We will therefore introduce ‘devolution on demand’, enabling even greater devolution of powers from Westminster to councils or groups of councils working together – for example to a Cornish Assembly or a Yorkshire Parliament.
9.7 Funding
The nations of the United Kingdom have long had different needs with regard to funding.
The Barnett formula is the mechanism used to adjust spending allocations across the UK.
The Liberal Democrats have already delivered a substantial extension of financial powers to the nations of the UK and we will devolve further fiscal powers to the devolved governments.
In order to ensure reliable funding we will retain the Barnett formula and the agreed fiscal framework as the basis for future spending allocations for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This will protect the individual nations’ budgets from external shocks.
We recognise the findings of the Holtham commission that the current formula underfunds Wales, and will commission work to update this analysis.
We will address the imbalance by immediately ensuring that the Barnett floor is set at a level that reflects the need for Wales to be funded fairly, and seek over a parliament to increase the Welsh block grant to an equitable level.
FIVE GIANT CHALLENGES
Strong and stable leadership
Like generations before us, we are living through a time of profound national change.
At such moments, our country requires strong and stable leadership that is capable of taking the right long-term decisions for the United Kingdom’s future security and prosperity.
Since the referendum result last summer, that is what the government has delivered.
Despite predictions of immediate financial and economic danger, we have seen confidence remain high,
record numbers of jobs
and economic growth that has exceeded all expectations.
A new Conservative government will stick to the plan that has delivered stability and certainty.
Over and above this plan, we know that we need to take the right long-term decisions for our future security
and prosperity.
In doing so, we will make sure that Britain not only meets the challenges of the future but grasps the opportunities these challenges present.
Five giant challenges
This manifesto offers our vision for Britain not just for the next five years but for the years and decades beyond.
It is a programme for government but it is also a declaration that we intend to achieve what few governments even attempt: we will take the big, sometimes difficult, long-term decisions that are right for our future and for future generations.
For at this moment of national change, we believe that Britain faces five giant challenges, each of which requires strong leadership, concerted effort and intelligent policy to address.
The need for a strong economy.
We need to make the most of our existing strengths,
invest in infrastructure and people,
and ensure that the whole of our economy across the whole of our country can grow.
Without a strong economy, we cannot guarantee our security,
our personal prosperity,
our public services,
or contented and sustainable communities.
Brexit and a changing world.
We need to deliver a smooth and orderly departure from the European Union
and forge a deep and special partnership with our friends and allies across Europe.
As there is increasingly little distinction between domestic and international affairs in matters of migration, national security and the economy, Britain must stay strong and united
– and take a lead in the world to defend our interests.
Enduring social divisions.
For too many people, where you end up in life is still determined by where you were born and to whom.
We need to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to make the most of their talents and hard work, whoever you are and wherever you are from.
An ageing society.
We need to respond to the reality of an ageing society, giving people security in old age and caring for those with long-term health conditions,
whilst making sure we are fair to younger generations.
Fast- changing technology.
For the sake of our economy and our society, we need to harness the power of fast-changing technology,
while ensuring that our security and personal privacy – and the welfare of children and younger people – are protected.
Governing from the mainstream
If we do not take decisions now to address these challenges, our country risks becoming weaker, poorer and less stable;
but if we show leadership and grasp the opportunities that these giant challenges present, Britain can emerge from Brexit, look beyond it and launch into the future with confidence.
To do that, we will need to govern in the manner established by Theresa May since she became prime minister last year.
We must reject the ideological templates provided by the socialist left and the libertarian right and instead embrace the mainstream view that recognises the good that government can do.
Rather than pursue an agenda based on a supposed centre ground defined and established by elites in Westminster, we will govern in the interests of the mainstream of the British public.
We will get on with the job and take Britain out of the European Union.
We will restore the public finances and maintain economic stability.
We will reduce and control immigration.
We will be resolute in defending the country from terrorism and other security threats.
We will also stand up to those in positions of power who abuse that privilege.
We will run public services in accordance with their values as important local and national institutions.
We will not only guarantee but enhance workers’ rights and protections.
And we will develop our ambitious modern industrial strategy to get the economy working for everyone, across the whole of our nation.
Under the strong and stable leadership of Theresa May, there will be no ideological crusades.
The government’s agenda will not be allowed to drift to the right.
Our starting point is that we should take decisions on the basis of what works.
And we will always be guided by what matters to the ordinary, working families of this nation.
We will govern in the interests of ordinary, working families
As Theresa May said when she first became prime minister, the work of the government under her leadership will be driven not for the benefit of a privileged few but by the interests of ordinary, working families:
people who have a job but do not always have job security;
people who own their own home but worry about paying the mortgage;
people who can just about manage but worry about the cost of living and geting their children into a good school.
These families have been ignored by politicians, and by others in positions of power, for too long.
Yet they do not ask for much: they want to get on with their lives, to do their best for their children, to have a fair chance.
Under Theresa May’s leadership, they will no longer be ignored.
They are the people to whom this manifesto is dedicated.
They are the people who work hard every day and make this country what it is.
And they are the people who deserve strong and stable leadership from a government that is determined to address the five giant challenges we face – and make the right long-term decisions for the future of the United Kingdom.
We believe in the good that government can do
To do that, we will need a state that is strong and strategic, nimble and responsive to the needs of people.
While it is never true that government has all the answers, government can and should be a force for good
– and its power should be put squarely at the service of this country’s working people.
If we are going to keep our economy strong as the world changes, we will need government to play an active role, leading a modern industrial strategy to make the most of Britain’s strengths and take advantage of new opportunities
– bringing secure, well-paid jobs to the whole of the country.
If we are going to make sure Britain emerges from Brexit as a strong and united nation, we will need strong leadership and good government:
to get the right deal for Britain in Europe,
to strike new trade deals around the world
and to make sure our economy is strong for the years ahead.
If we want to overcome Britain’s enduring social divisions, we will need to give people real opportunity and make Britain the world’s Great Meritocracy.
That will require government to take on long-ignored problems like Britain’s lack of training and technical education,
as well as long-lasting injustices, such as the lack of care for people with mental health problems,
and the inequality of opportunity that endures on the basis of race, gender and class.
If we are going to cope with our ageing society and if we want to give security to people in old age while being fair to younger generations, we are going to need positive, active government that will deal with increased demand for social care,
fund and improve our National Health Service
and build more houses across the country.
We will need to take sometimes difficult decisions that ask more of one generation in order to help another.
If we are going to respond to rapid changes in technology, we need government to make Britain the best place in the world to set up and run modern businesses,
bringing the jobs of the future to our country;
but we also need government to create the right regulatory frameworks that will protect our security and personal privacy
, and ensure the welfare of children and younger people in an age when so much of life is conducted online.
Government alone cannot solve every challenge our country faces.
Without business and enterprise, there would be no prosperity and no public services.
Without the obligations and duties of citizenship, society would not function.
Without individual responsibility, nothing can be achieved.
But for a country to remain stable, an economy to be strong, a society to stay healthy, we need a partnership between the individual and the wider nation,
between private sector and public service,
and the strong leadership only government can provide.
Our principles
We believe these things not despite the fact that we are Conservatives but because we are Conservatives.
Because Conservatism is not and never has been the philosophy described by caricaturists.
We do not believe in untrammelled free markets.
We reject the cult of selfish individualism.
We abhor social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality.
We see rigid dogma and ideology not just as needless but dangerous.
True Conservatism means a commitment to country and community;
a belief not just in society but in the good that government can do;
a respect for the local and national institutions that bind us together;
an insight that change is inevitable and change can be good, but that change should be shaped, through strong leadership and clear principles, for the common good.
We know that our responsibility to one another is greater than the rights we hold as individuals.
We know that we all have obligations to one another, because that is what community and nation demands.
We understand that nobody, however powerful, has succeeded alone and that we all therefore have a debt to others.
We respect the fact that society is a contract between the generations: a partnership between those who are living, those who have lived before us, and those who are yet to be born.
A vision of a stronger Britain and a prosperous future
If we allow ourselves to be directed by these principles,
if we have strong and stable leadership,
and if we address the five giant challenges faced by Britain,
we believe that the future of our country is a bright one.
We are already the fifth largest economy in the world,
the biggest recipient of foreign investment in Europe
and the fastest growing economy in the G7.
We have three of the world’s top ten universities
and, despite forming less than one per cent of the global population, we boast more Nobel Laureates than any country other than America.
We have the finest intelligence services and hugely respected armed forces that can project power around the globe.
We have the greatest soft power of any nation,
we sit in exactly the right time zone for global trade,
our capital city is the global capital of finance and culture,
and our language is the language of the world.
So there is no doubt that a country as great as ours can – with strong and stable leadership – rise to the giant challenges we face:
to make sure our economy stays strong
and to bring prosperity to the whole of our country;
to emerge from Brexit a strong and united nation,
able to take a lead in the world to defend Britain’s interests;
to overcome social divisions by giving people real opportunity and making Britain the world’s Great Meritocracy;
to restore the contract between the generations that provides security for older people while being fair to the young; and
to seize the opportunities of changing technology,
while ensuring that our security
and personal privacy
– and the welfare of children and younger people – are still protected.
Britain is a great nation.
We have a glorious history but we believe that our best days lie ahead of us.
With this plan to tackle the five giant challenges we face, with our proposals to establish a stronger Britain and a prosperous future, we will, as a nation, go forward, together.
1. A STRONG ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE
Theresa May’s Conservatives will deliver A strong economy built on sound public finances,
low taxes,
better regulation
and free trade deals with markets around the world.
A new deal for ordinary, working people giving them a decent living wage
and new rights and protections in the workplace.
Fairer corporate governance, built on new rules for takeovers, executive pay and worker representation on company boards.
Growth across the country through our modern industrial strategy
and major investment in infrastructure, skills and research and development.
Competitive and affordable energy costs following a new independent review into the cost of energy.
Prosperous towns and cities,
underpinned by strong local institutions,
the relocation of government functions,
and shared cultural assets across the country.
A strong economy is the basis for everything we want to achieve as a nation.
If we are to have the prosperity, security and quality of life that Britain desires, we need to have an economy that is vibrant and robust.
But our economy also needs to be equitable.
For in Britain today, there is a division between those people and places that have benefited from a changed global market, where opportunity is displayed in affluence and a good quality of life; and those people and places that have experienced a struggling economy, where opportunity has receded and people worry about their children’s futures.
This is not right.
So we will forge an economy that works for everyone in every part of this country.
We will found our plans on the principles of sound public finances,
low taxes,
free trade
and effective regulation.
We will set rules for businesses that inspire the confidence of workers and investors alike.
That is only the foundation, however.
With our modern industrial strategy, we will build an economy that invests for the long term and supports growth across the whole country – not just in those places that have done well in the past few decades but also where prosperity has waned.
Governments cannot use public money to prop up failing businesses,
but they also cannot allow people and their communities to be cast aside.
It is our duty to bring opportunity to every part of our nation and to ensure that we all prosper together.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF A STRONG ECONOMY
Sound money and responsible public finances are the essential foundations of national economic success.
A government that cannot manage its money properly cannot command confidence at home or with international investors.
Firms and households cannot plan ahead if the government’s thirst for their cash threatens higher taxes and cuts to vital services and investment;
and when things spiral out of control, it is ordinary, working people who are hit hardest.
The Conservatives have laid these essential foundations.
Ten years after the banking crisis, the deficit is back to where it was.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the national debt is finally about to start falling.
There is still work to do on deficit reduction, so we will continue to restore the public finances over the course of the next parliament.
We will continue with the fiscal rules announced by the chancellor in the autumn statement last year, which will guide us to a balanced budget by the middle of the next decade.
This is our foundation.
The time has now come to focus on Britain’s next big economic challenge: to foster growth that works for everyone, right across our country.
Keeping taxes as low as possible
Paying your fair share of tax is the price of living in a civilised democracy but politicians should never forget that taxes are levied on businesses that employ people, and individuals who work hard and face tough decisions about how they spend their money.
The Conservatives will always be the party that keeps tax as low as possible and spends the proceeds responsibly.
It is our firm intention to reduce taxes on Britain’s businesses
and working families.
By 2020, we will, as promised, increase the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate to £50,000.
We will continue to ensure that local residents can veto high increases in Council Tax via a referendum.
And we will not increase the level of Value Added Tax.
Corporation Tax is due to fall to seventeen per cent by 2020 – the lowest rate of any developed economy – and we will stick to that plan, because it will help to bring huge investment and many thousands of jobs to the UK.
We know that the business rates system presents considerable challenges to some smaller companies.
That is why we have supported those businesses most affected by the recent revaluation of business rates.
That is not all we will do.
We will make longerterm reforms to the system to address concerns about the way it currently works.
We will make sure that revaluations are conducted more frequently to avoid large changes to the bills that businesses face,
and explore the introduction of self-assessments in the valuation process.
To ensure the system is sustainable for the future we will also conduct a full review of the business rates system to make sure it is up to date for a world in which people increasingly shop online.
A good tax system is not just about the headline rates of tax, however, but about its simplicity.
Our system remains too complicated, making it hard for people – especially self-employed people and small businesses – to assess their taxes.
We will therefore simplify the tax system.
Increasing trade
Britain has always been a great trading nation.
Trade will continue to be crucial to our future growth and prosperity.
As we leave the European Union, we want to negotiate a new deep and special partnership with the EU, which will allow free trade between the UK and the EU’s member states.
As part of the agreement we strike, we want to make sure that there are as few barriers to trade and investment as possible.
Leaving the European Union also means we will be free to strike our own trade agreements with countries outside the EU.
We will ensure immediate stability by lodging new UK schedules with the World Trade Organization, in alignment with EU schedules to which we are bound whilst still a member of the European Union.
We will seek to replicate all existing EU free trade agreements and support the ratification of trade agreements entered into during our EU membership.
We will continue to support the global multilateral rules-based trade system.
We will introduce a Trade Bill in the next parliament.
We will create a network of Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioners to head nine new regional overseas posts.
These commissioners will lead export promotion, investment and trade policy overseas.
We will reconvene the Board of Trade with a membership specifically charged with ensuring that we increase exports from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England,
and that trade policy is directly influenced by every part of our United Kingdom.
We will work to forge a new culture of exporting among UK businesses, equipping them with the tools and opportunities they need to succeed in the global marketplace,
and take advantage of new high-growth markets around the world.
We will take a more active role in supporting British consortia to win the largest and most innovative contracts around the world.
We will ensure that small and mediumsized businesses are able to identify the right markets and sectors to win vital contracts abroad.
We will put UK Export Finance, which ensures that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, at the heart of the UK’s trade promotion proposition.
And we will encourage the world to visit, study and do business in the UK through the GREAT Britain campaign and Visit Britain.
Effective regulation
Regulation is necessary for the proper ordering of any economy and to ensure that people – and their investments – are protected.
However, poor and excessive government regulation limits growth for no good reason.
So we will continue to regulate more efficiently, saving £9 billion through the Red Tape Challenge and the One-In-Two-Out Rule.
Reducing the cost of regulation is not just about reducing its volume.
The wrong regulatory frameworks can over-reward investors for the risk they are taking in backing a particular project, meaning households and businesses can become systematically overcharged.
We will therefore examine ways in which the regulation of utilities and transport infrastructure can be improved to deliver a better deal for customers
and sharper incentives for investment efficiency.
NEW RULES FOR A CHANGING ECONOMY
Conservatives believe that if you value something, you must be prepared to reform it in order to conserve it.
So it is today with our economy.
Capitalism and free markets remain the best way to deliver prosperity and economic security, lifting millions of people out of poverty around the world.
Markets need rules and these rules need to be updated to reflect our changing economy.
Guaranteeing a decent wage
We must first ensure that everyone is paid fairly for their work.
It was a Conservative government that introduced the National Living Wage and as a result, people across the United Kingdom now receive a minimum of £7.50 an hour.
A new Conservative government will continue to increase the National Living Wage to 60 per cent of median earnings by 2020 and then by the rate of median earnings, so that people who are on the lowest pay benefit from the same improvements in earnings as higher paid workers.
Rights and protections in the ‘gig’ economy
In the modern economy many people choose jobs like driving, delivering and coding, that are highly flexible and can be mixed with other employment.
This brings considerable advantages to millions of people but we should not ignore the challenges this kind of employment creates.
These workers are officially classed as self-employed and therefore have fewer pension entitlements, reduced access to benefits, and no qualification for sick pay and holiday pay.
Yet the nature of their work is different from the traditional selfemployed worker who might be a sole trader, a freelancer or running their own business.
We will make sure that people working in the ‘gig’ economy are properly protected.
Last October, the government commissioned Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, to review the changing labour market.
We await his final report but a new Conservative government will act to ensure that the interests of employees on traditional contracts, the selfemployed and those people working in the ‘gig’ economy are all properly protected.
Stopping tax evasion
We have taken vigorous action against tax avoidance and evasion, closing the tax gap – the difference between the amount of tax due and the amount collected – to one of the lowest in the world.
We will now go further.
We will legislate for tougher regulation of tax advisory firms.
We will take a more proactive approach to transparency and misuse of trusts.
We will improve HMRC’s capabilities to stamp down on smuggling, including by improving our policing of the border as we leave the European Union.
We will also take further measures to reduce online fraud in Value Added Tax.
Protecting private pensions
Millions of people in this country look forward to a more secure retirement because of their private pension.
These pensions exist because employees have saved diligently through their life, often foregoing luxuries and holidays abroad.
Those people did the right thing.
Business owners who abuse pension funds and put them at risk, sometimes for their own lavish enrichment, are entirely in the wrong.
The current powers of regulators and the Pension Protection Fund are insufficient to ensure that pension savers, pensioners and prudent company directors are protected from unscrupulous business owners.
A Conservative government will act to tighten the rules against such abuse,
and increase the punishment for those caught mismanaging pension schemes.
We will build on existing powers to give pension schemes and the Pensions Regulator the right to scrutinise, clear with conditions or in extreme cases stop mergers, takeovers or large financial commitments that threaten the solvency of the scheme.
We will also give the Pensions Regulator new powers to issue punitive fines for those found to have wilfully left a pension scheme under-resourced and, if necessary, powers similar to those already held by the Insolvency Service to disqualify the company directors in question.
We will consider introducing a new criminal offence for company directors who deliberately or recklessly put at risk the ability of a pension scheme to meet its obligations.
Reforming rules on takeovers and mergers
Conservatives believe in the rights of business owners.
We want to be a global nation that is competitive, outward-looking and open for business
– the best country in Europe for doing business.
We welcome overseas investment and want investors to succeed here
but not when success is driven by aggressive asset- stripping or tax avoidance.
We will update the rules that govern mergers and takeovers.
This will require careful deliberation but we can state now that we will require bidders to be clear about their intentions from the outset of the bid process;
that all promises and undertakings made in the course of takeover bids can be legally enforced afterwards;
and that the government can require a bid to be paused to allow greater scrutiny.
We shall also take action to protect our critical national infrastructure.
We will ensure that foreign ownership of companies controlling important infrastructure does not undermine British security or essential services.
We have already strengthened ministerial scrutiny and control in respect of civil nuclear power
and will take a similarly robust approach across a limited range of other sectors, such as telecoms, defence and energy.
Fair corporate pay
We believe people should be rewarded for their talents and efforts
but the public is rightly affronted by the remuneration of some corporate leaders.
Senior corporate pay has risen far faster than corporate performance, and the gap between those paid most and those paid least has grown from 47:1 in 1998 to 128:1 in 2015.
The next Conservative government will legislate to make executive pay packages subject to strict annual votes by shareholders
and listed companies will have to publish the ratio of executive pay to broader UK workforce pay.
Companies will have to explain their pay policies, particularly complex incentive schemes, better.
We will commission an examination of the use of share buybacks, with a view to ensuring these cannot be used artificially to hit performance targets and inflate executive pay.
Better corporate governance
The modern joint stock company is a British invention.
It works because it is rules-based, but the rules need to change as the world changes.
Boards should take account of the interests not just of shareholders but employees, suppliers and the wider community.
To ensure employees’ interests are represented at board level, we will change the law to ensure that listed companies will be required either to nominate a director from the workforce, create a formal employee advisory council or assign specific responsibility for employee representation to a designated non-executive director.
Subject to sensible safeguards, we will introduce, for employees, a right to request information relating to the future direction of the company.
These strengthened arrangements will apply to publicly-listed companies.
We will consult on how we might strengthen the corporate governance of privately-owned businesses.
A MODERN INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Our modern industrial strategy is designed to deliver a stronger economy that works for everyone – where wealth and opportunity are spread across every community in the United Kingdom, not just the most prosperous places in London and the south east.
It will help young people to develop the skills they need to do the high-paid, high-skilled jobs of the future.
And it will back Britain for the long term: creating the conditions where successful businesses can emerge and grow, and helping them to invest in the future of our nation.
The strategy is not about picking winners, propping up failing industries, or bringing back old companies from the dead.
It is about identifying the industries that are of strategic value to our economy and supporting and promoting them through policies on trade, tax, infrastructure, skills, training, and research and development – just the same as in every other major and growing economy in the world.
It is about identifying the places that have the potential to contribute towards economic growth
and become homes to millions of new jobs.
And, because this is about meeting our economy’s long term challenges, the industrial strategy will focus on creating the right institutional framework to make the strategy last for decades to come.
We will spend more on research and development, to turn brilliant discoveries into practical products and transform the world’s industries – such as the batteries that will power a new generation of clean, efficient, electric vehicles.
We will establish funding streams to ensure investment for the long term,
and make a modern technical education available to everyone, throughout their lives, to provide the skills they need.
We will remove the barriers that hold backsmallfirms withbigpotential–andletthemcompetewhengovernmentitselfisthebuyer.
We will build on the success of world-beating sectors such as car and aero manufacturing, financial services, life sciences, digital technology and our creative industries, and help other sectors develop the conditions which they need to thrive.
We will ensure industry and businesses have access to reliable, cheap and clean power.
We will deliver the infrastructure – the road, rail, airports and broadband – that businesses need.
Increasing innovation
Our long-term prosperity depends upon science, technology and innovation.
The UK has an outstanding science base and many world-leading tech companies.
We now need to go further.
Our ambition is that the UK should be the most innovative country in the world.
At the last autumn statement, we announced a significant increase in government investment in research and development.
We will deliver this and ensure further growth so that overall, as a nation, we meet the current OECD average for investment in R&D – that is, 2.4 per cent of GDP – within ten years, with a longer-term goal of three per cent.
We will increase the number of scientists working in the UK and enable leading scientists from around the world to work here.
We will work hard to ensure we have a regulatory environment that encourages innovation.
University investment funds
Our world-beating universities will lead the expansion of our R&D capacity.
We must help them make a success of their discoveries – while they have a number of growing investment funds specialising in spin-outs, we have more to do to replicate the success of similar university funds in the United States.
To fix that, we will work to build up the investment funds of our universities across the UK.
We want larger, aggregated funds to increase significantly the amounts invested in and by universities.
We want universities to enjoy the commercial fruits of their research, through funds that are large enough to list, thereby giving British investors a chance to share in their success.
National Productivity Investment Fund
If our modern industrial strategy is to succeed, it must address the UK’s slow productivity growth and it must be funded properly from the start.
So we have launched a new £23 billion National Productivity Investment Fund.
The government will target this spending at areas that are critical for productivity: housing, research and development, economic infrastructure and skills.
This will include £740 million of digital infrastructure investment, the largestinvestmentinrailways since Victoriantimes,
£1.1billionto improve local transport
and £250 million in skills by the end of 2020.
The National Productivity Investment Fund will take total spending on housing, economic infrastructure and R&D to £170 billion during the next parliament.
Future Britain funds
People have long talked about the need to create UK sovereign wealth funds.
We will now make this a central part of our long-term plan for Britain.
We will create a number of such funds, known as Future Britain funds, which will hold in trust the investments of the British people, backing British infrastructure and the British economy.
We anticipate early funds being created out of revenues from shale gas extraction, dormant assets, and the receipts of sale of some public assets.
We will encourage pension funds with an interest in joining Future Britain funds to do so.
The skills we need
As we set out in chapter three, the next Conservative government will give Britain the technical education it has lacked for decades.
This will take time but we must also address the immediate needs of those sectors of the economy suffering shortages in skills.
We will make the immigration system work for these sectors,
whilst ensuring that we develop the skills we need for the future.
We will therefore ask the independent Migration Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the government about how the visa system can become better aligned with our modern industrial strategy.
We envisage that the committee’s advice will allow us to set aside significant numbers of visas for workers in strategically-important sectors, such as digital technology, without adding to net migration as a whole.
However, skilled immigration should not be a way for government or business to avoid their obligations to improve the skills of the British workforce.
So we will double the Immigration Skills Charge levied on companies employing migrant workers, to £2,000 a year by the end of the parliament,
using the revenue generated to invest in higher level skills training for workers in the UK.
Backing small businesses
The Conservative Party is the party of enterprise and of the entrepreneur.
We understand that small businesses are the wellspring of growth.
They form a key part of British life, valued for their contribution to every community across the country.
We will continue to support small businesses through business rate relief and low taxation,
and by reducing the bureaucracy and regulation that prevents small businesses from flourishing.
As part of broader reforms to the business energy market, we will consult on how to extend our safeguard tariff cap to micro-businesses.
Central government must play a role in supporting SMEs: across all government departments, we will ensure that per cent of central government purchasing will come from SMEs by the end of the parliament.
As part of our modern industrial strategy, we will explore how government can do even more to support innovation by small and start-up firms.
We also recognise that government can improve the general business environment for SMEs, so we will use our buying power to ensure that big contractors comply with the Prompt Payment Code both on government contracts and in their work with others.
If they do not do so, they will lose the right to bid for government contracts.
Supporting industries to succeed
Our modern industrial strategy is not about ‘planning’ the economy.
It is about helping old industries find prosperous new life and unlock future opportunities, and new industries to grow.
Some industries have a great history.
We believe they can have a great future too.
We have already demonstrated that in advanced manufacturing, such as aero and automotive engineering, we can lead the world.
We will continue to support these key industries so that they can grow further.
We want to replicate that success in other sectors – like shipbuilding where, for the first time in decades, there is the prospect of a renaissance.
We will take forward Sir John Parker’s review of shipbuilding, helping our shipyards modernise and collaborate.
We want to see shipbuilding growing on the Clyde and on the Forth, in Belfast and in Barrow, and in the north-east and south of England.
Other industries, like the oil and gas sector, are transforming.
The North Sea has provided more than £300 billion in tax revenue to the UK economy and supports thousands of highly-skilled jobs across Britain.
We will ensure that the sector continues to play a critical role in our economy and domestic energy supply, supporting further investment in the UK’s natural resources.
We will continue to support the industry and build on the unprecedented support already provided to the oil and gas sector.
While there are very significant reserves still in the North Sea, it is expected to be the first major oil and gas basin in the world to decommission fully, and we will take advantage of that to support the development of a world-leading decommissioning industry.
We will work with the industry to create a multi-use yard and the UK’s first ultra-deep water port to support this industry.
Other industries are already highly successful.
Life sciences, for example, employs 175,000 people and many of the world’s top medicines have been developed in the UK.
We will continue to support research into the diagnosis and treatment of rare cancers and other diseases, including Genomics England’s work in decoding 100,000 genomes.
This, together with the development of stronger research links with the NHS, can help scientists and doctors design more effective and personalised treatments, and help maintain our position as the European hub for life sciences.
Competitive and affordable energy costs
A successful industrial strategy requires competitive and affordable energy costs.
We want to make sure that the cost of energy in Britain is internationally competitive, both for businesses and households.
We will therefore commission an independent review into the Cost of Energy, which will be asked to make recommendations as to how we can ensure UK energy costs are as low as possible,
while ensuring a reliable supply and allowing us to meet our 2050 carbon reduction objective.
Our ambition is that the UK should have the lowest energy costs in Europe, both for households and businesses.
So as we upgrade our energy infrastructure, we will do it in an affordable way, consistent with that ambition.
And because for British companies, an energy-efficient business is a more competitive business, we will establish an industrial energy efficiency scheme to help large companies install measures to cut their energy use and their bills.
A diverse energy mix
We want to see a diverse range of sources for Britain’s energy production, because a diverse energy economy is the best way to stimulate innovation,
and also to ensure that we are getting the right generation in the right place.
For instance, while we do not believe that more large-scale onshore wind power is right for England, we will maintain our position as a global leader in offshore wind and support the development of wind projects in the remote islands of Scotland, where they will directly benefit local communities.
Above all, we believe that energy policy should be focused on outcomes rather than the means by which we reach our objectives.
So, after we have left the European Union, we will form our energy policy based not on the way energy is generated but on the ends we desire – reliable and affordable energy,
seizing the industrial opportunity that new technology presents
and meeting our global commitments on climate change.
Natural gas from shale
The discovery and extraction of shale gas in the United States has been a revolution.
Gas prices have fallen, driving growth in the American economy and pushing down prices for consumers.
The US has become less reliant on imported foreign energy and is more secure as a result.
And because shale is cleaner than coal, it can also help reduce carbon emissions.
We believe that shale energy has the potential to do the same thing in Britain, and could play a crucial role in rebalancing our economy.
We will therefore develop the shale industry in Britain.
We will only be able to do so if we maintain public confidence in the process,
if we uphold our rigorous environmental protections,
and if we ensure the proceeds of the wealth generated by shale energy are shared with the communities affected.
We will legislate to change planning law for shale applications.
Non-fracking drilling will be treated as permitted development,
expert planning functions will be established to support local councils,
and, when necessary, major shale planning decisions will be made the responsibility of the National Planning Regime.
We will set up a new Shale Environmental Regulator, which will assume the relevant functions of the Health and Safety Executive, the Environment Agency and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
This will provide clear governance and accountability,
become a source of expertise,
and allow decisions to be made fairly but swiftly.
Finally, we will change the proposed Shale Wealth Fund so a greater percentage of the tax revenues from shale gas directly benefit the communities that host the extraction sites.
Where communities decide that it is right for them, we will allow payments to be made directly to local people themselves.
A significant share of the remaining tax revenues will be invested for the benefit of the country at large.
Investing in transport
We are working through one of the largest-ever investment programmes in our roads and railways, putting some £40 billion into transport improvements across the United Kingdom over the rest of this decade.
We are investing to reduce travel time and cost, increase capacity and attract investment here in the UK.
We will continue our programme of strategic national investments, including High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow Airport
– and we will ensure that these great projects do as much as possible to develop the skills and careers of British workers.
We will continue to develop the strategic road network, providing extra lanes on our motorways and improving key routes
whilst also paying attention to parts of the country left behind because of poor transport connections.
We will continue to invest in roads to fix pinch points
and open up opportunities for new housing and local growth.
Our ambition is for Britain to lead the world in electric vehicle technology and use.
We want almost every car and van to be zero-emission by 2050 – and will invest £600 million by 2020 to help achieve it.
We will invest in more low-emission buses,
as well as supporting audio-visual displays for bus passengers and community minibuses for rural areas poorly served by public transport.
We will focus on creating extra capacity on the railways, which will ease overcrowding, bring new lines and stations, and improve existing routes – including for freight.
We will increase services on our main lines and commuter routes,
and launch new services to places which are poorly served or host major new housing projects.
We will continue to support local authorities to expand cycle networks and upgrade facilities for cyclists at railway stations.
STRONGER COMMUNITIES FROM A STRONGER ECONOMY
Prosperous towns and cities across Britain
We have seen welcome growth and civic renewal in some major cities.
There remains, however, a far greater gap between the capital and other cities in the UK than in any other major developed country.
We see the opportunity to close this gap as the biggest prize in Britain today.
It will be a great endeavour by government, business and civic society over many years.
We are determined to lead the way in the next parliament.
First, we recognise the value of institutions to the vitality of towns and cities.
As we explain in chapter two, it is why we are determined to move many of the functions of central government out to cities around Britain where possible
and to see our vast cultural assets reach people around our country too.
It is also why we will support local growth through combined authorities, mayoralties and local enterprise partnerships.
We will make each partnership and combined authority responsible for co-ordinating their own local industrial strategy in alignment with our national industrial strategy, bringing together local businesses, political and public sector leaders to drive growth and economic regeneration.
We will wherever possible deliver growth funding through these organisations.
We will give local enterprise partnerships greater weight by backing them in law.
Our institutions of education, old and new, will be critical to spreading success.
It is why we will back new scientific and technical institutions.
It is why we want to see universities make their full contribution to their local community and economy, sponsoring local schools and being creative about how they can open up opportunities for local people, especially those from ordinary working backgrounds.
Our towns and cities excel when they have vibrant cultural life.
Britain’s arts and culture are world-beating and are at the heart of the regeneration of much of modern Britain.
We will continue our strong support for the arts,
and ensure more of that support is based outside London.
We will maintain free entry to the permanent collections of our major national museums and galleries.
We will introduce a new cultural development fund to use cultural investment to turn around communities.
We will hold a Great Exhibition of the North in 2018, to celebrate amazing achievements in innovation, the arts and engineering.
We will support a UK city in making a bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
And in this 70th Anniversary Year of the Edinburgh Festival we will support the development of the new Edinburgh Concert Hall, reaffirming Edinburgh as the UK’s leading festival city and a cultural beacon around the globe.
Our towns and cities should be healthy, well-designed and well-tended places.
We will take action against poor air quality in urban areas.
In addition to the 11 million trees we are planting across our nation, we will ensure that 1 million more are planted in our towns and cities,
and place new duties on councils to consult when they wish to cut down street trees.
We will encourage the very best practice in the design of buildings and public spaces, including a review of the design of government buildings, to ensure that when the state builds, it makes a positive contribution to a local area.
We will do more to reduce litter, including by supporting comprehensive rubbish collection and recycling, supporting better packaging, taking new powers to force councils to remove roadside litter and prosecuting offenders.
We will do more to improve the quality of road surfaces, filling potholes – especially in residential areas
– and reducing road noise.
Our countryside communities
We will bring sustainable growth to the rural economy and boost our rural areas, so that people who live in the countryside have the same opportunities as those who live in our towns and cities.
We have huge ambitions for our farming industry:
we are determined to grow more, sell more and export more great British food.
We want to provide stability to farmers as we leave the EU and set up new frameworks for supporting food production and stewardship of the countryside.
So we will continue to commit the same cash total in funds for farm support until the end of the parliament.
We will work with farmers, food producers and environmental experts across Britain and with the devolved administrations to devise a new agri-environment system, to be introduced in the following parliament.
Our countryside and rural communities have been moulded by generations of farmers.
We will help Natural England to expand their provision of technical expertise to farmers to deliver environmental improvements on a landscape scale, from enriching soil fertility to planting hedgerows and building dry stone walls.
We will deliver on our commitment to improve natural flood management, such as improving the quality of water courses to protect against soil erosion and damage to vulnerable habitats and communities.
We will continue to ensure that public forests and woodland are kept in trust for the nation,
and provide stronger protections for our ancient woodland.
We will continue to take action to improve animal welfare.
We will implement our proposed reforms on pet sales and licensing
and will make CCTV recording in slaughterhouses mandatory.
As we leave the European Union, we can take early steps to control the export of live farm animals for slaughter.
We will also take steps to enhance the provision of public services in rural areas.
We will safeguard the post office network, to protect existing rural services
and work with the Post Office to extend the availability of business and banking services to families and small businesses in rural areas.
A third of all SMEs in rural areas use their post office weekly and our ambition is that all routine small business and consumer banking services should be available in rural post offices.
We will support pharmacies and village schools in rural areas.
We will grant a free vote, on a government bill in government time, to give parliament the opportunity to decide the future of the Hunting Act.
Finally, we pledge to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it.
That is why we shall produce a comprehensive 25 Year Environment Plan that will chart how we will improve our environment as we leave the European Union and take control of our environmental legislation again.
Our coastal communities
Decades of profound economic change have left their mark on coastal communities around Britain.
We will continue to work to ensure these communities enjoy the vitality and opportunity they deserve.
In England, we will extend our successful Coastal Communities Fund to 2022, helping our seaside towns thrive.
When we leave the European Union and its Common Fisheries Policy, we will be fully responsible for the access and management of the waters where we have historically exercised sovereign control.
A new Conservative government will work with the fishing industry and with our world-class marine scientists, as well as the devolved administrations, to introduce a new regime for commercial fishing that will preserve and increase fish stocks
and help to ensure prosperity for a new generation of fishermen.
To provide complete legal certainty to our neighbours and clarity during our negotiations with the European Union, we will withdraw from the London Fisheries Convention.
We will continue our work to conserve the marine environment off the coast of the United Kingdom.
2. A STRONG AND UNITED NATION IN A CHANGING WORLD
Theresa May’s Conservatives will deliver the best possible deal for Britain as we leave the European Union delivered by a smooth, orderly Brexit.
A strong and stable Union, with no divisive Scottish referendum at this time.
A United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund, taken from money coming back to the UK as we leave the EU, to reduce inequalities between communities across our four nations.
Global leadership on development, backed by spending 0.7 per cent of our national income with new rules to spend it more effectively.
Strong defence, meeting our NATO target of at least 2 per cent of GDP
and increasing spending by at least half a per cent more than inflation every year.
Security from crime and terrorism, backed by a new national infrastructure police force, a stronger response to white collar crime and our world-leading counter-terrorism strategy.
The United Kingdom is embarking upon another era in our centuries-old story.
We are leaving the European Union.
W e want to ensure our departure is smooth and orderly and to agree a deep and special partnership with the 27 remaining member states.
In leaving the European Union, we have chosen a truly global role for Britain.
To strike trade deals with old friends and new partners and take a leading position in the world to defend British interests, we must be strong and united.
This begins with our determination to defend the integrity of the United Kingdom and to strengthen the Union, bringing the peoples of the United Kingdom together.
OUR PRECIOUS UNION
We are a United Kingdom, one nation made of four – the most successful political union in modern history.
Its very existence recognises the value of unity – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales achieve less as two, three, or four, than as the United Kingdom together.
This unity between our nations and peoples gives us the strength to change things for the better, for everyone, with a scale of ambition we simply could not possess alone.
The settlement governing these islands has changed profoundly in the last twenty years.
Significant decision-making have been devolved to the parliament in Scotland and assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast exercise greater powers than equivalent governments elsewhere in the democratic world.
In England, we have given considerable powers to city mayors and combined authorities,
while local councils now have greater control of the taxes they collect.
This positive evolution of our constitution has given a voice to people who felt distant from the centre of power, and responsibility to people for their own part of our great country.
We will continue to work in partnership with the Scottish and Welsh governments and the Northern Ireland Executive, in a relationship underpinned by pooling and sharing resources through the Barnett Formula.
We will respect the devolution settlements: no decision-making that has been devolved will be taken back to Westminster.
Indeed, we envisage that the powers of the devolved administrations will increase as we leave the EU.
However, we can still do more for the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom Government has in the past tended to ‘devolve and forget’.
This Conservative government will put that right.
We want the UK Government to be a force for good across the whole country.
So we will be an active government, in every part of the UK.
We will work closely with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish and Welsh governments, and the new devolved authorities in England, for the benefit of all our people – but that will not be the limit of our actions in the four nations.
We are ambitious for everyone in Britain and will leave no-one behind in our efforts to spread opportunity and prosperity throughout the United Kingdom.
England
This Conservative government has devolved more power to English local authorities, closer to local people, than any previous government in over a century:
across England, newly elected mayors, combined authorities, local councils and local enterprise partnerships are being empowered to improve local growth and public services.
We will continue to give local government greater control over the money they raise and address concerns about the fairness of current funding distributions.
With devolution now established in London and other parts of England, we will consolidate our approach, providing clarity across England on what devolution means for different administrations so all authorities operate in a common framework.
We will support those authorities that wish to combine to serve their communities better.
For combined authorities that are based around our great cities, we will continue to support the adoption of elected mayors,
but we will not support them for the rural counties.
Scotland
The Scottish Parliament has become the most powerful parliament of its kind in the world, with extensive powers over taxation and welfare.
It was the Conservative and Unionist Party that delivered the 2012 and 2016 Scotland Acts,
and only the Conservative and Unionist Party can deliver further powers and the best possible deal for Scotland as we leave the European Union.
The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union but some would disrupt our attempts to get the best deal for Scotland and the United Kingdom with calls for a divisive referendum that the people of Scotland do not want.
We have been very clear that now is not the time for another referendum on independence.
In order for a referendum to be fair, legal and decisive, it cannot take place until the Brexit process has played out
and it should not take place unless there is public consent for it to happen.
This is a time to pull together, not apart.
Scotland’s economic growth has lagged behind the rest of the United Kingdom in recent years.
The Scottish Government has the tools to drive economic growth in Scotland but we take seriously our duty to secure prosperity for the whole of the United Kingdom.
We will, therefore, take concerted action to help secure the long-term sustainability of the Scottish economy.
Scotland and Scottish industries will be central to our industrial strategy.
We will continue our investment in capital and infrastructure projects in Scotland.
Building on the City and Growth deals we have signed across Scotland, we will bring forward a Borderlands Growth Deal, including all councils on both sides of the border, to help secure prosperity in southern Scotland.
We will protect the interests of Scottish farmers and fishermen as we design our new UK farming and fisheries policy.
And as we develop our new trade policies, we will pay particular attention to using the United Kingdom’s muscle to promote Scottish exports around the world.
Wales
The Conservative Party has a proud record of promoting Welsh culture,
helping economic growth
and supporting devolution in Wales.
The 2017 Wales Act, passed by a Conservative government, transfers significant new powers to the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Government.
Wales plays a crucial role in our modern industrial strategy,
in the promotion of growing industries in Wales
and in the additional powers handed to Welsh local authorities and businesses to promote local growth.
Welsh businesses will be central to our new trade and export policies,
and our investment in improved infrastructure will help Welsh companies benefit even more from the UK single market than they do now.
We will modernise the railway infrastructure across Wales, including new and improved stations,
and explore ways to harness Welsh natural resources for the generation of power.
We will build on the Cardiff Capital region and Swansea Bay City region deals,
and bring forward a North Wales Growth Deal, connecting north Wales with northern England.
We will work with the Welsh Government to encourage further cross-border working, ensuring that the border between England and Wales does not become a barrier to business, education or communities.
We will foster opportunities between cities in Wales and the rest of the UK, such as linking economic development between Cardiff, Newport and Bristol.
We will protect the interest of Welsh farmers as we design our new UK farming policy
and work with the devolved administrations to ensure the strength of the Welsh brand is maintained.
We will continue to support S4C as a part of a UK broadcasting structure and in its key role promoting the Welsh language, which a Conservative government first protected.
Northern Ireland
Our steadfast belief remains that Northern Ireland’s future is best served within a stronger United Kingdom.
Our commitment to the 1998 Belfast Agreement and its successors, together with the institutions they establish, is undiminished.
The next Conservative government will therefore work to re-establish a strong, stable and inclusive executive at the earliest opportunity.
We will uphold the essential principle that Northern Ireland’s future should only ever be determined by democracy and consent.
A Conservative government will work closely with an incoming executive to strengthen the economy even further,
to improve productivity,
reduce public sector dependency
and promote Northern Ireland as a location for inward investment.
We remain committed to the devolution of Corporation Tax powers subject to the executive demonstrating fiscal stability.
As we leave the European Union we recognise Northern Ireland’s unique circumstances and will seek to ensure that Northern Ireland’s interests are protected.
While the number of terror attacks from dissident republican terrorists has fallen from forty in 2010 to four in 2016, the threat they pose remains severe and the need for vigilance paramount.
We will continue to confront and combat those who use violence, threats and intimidation, providing the fullest possible support to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other agencies in their work to keep the public safe and secure.
A Conservative government will continue to work for the full implementation of the 2014 Stormont House and 2015 Fresh Start Agreements.
This includes new bodies for addressing the legacy of the past in fair, balanced and proportionate ways which do not unfairly focus on former members of the Armed Forces and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
The immense contribution of the security forces during the troubles should never be forgotten.
We will reject any attempts to rewrite history which seek to justify or legitimise terrorism.
Shared institutions of Union
For too long, power in Britain has been centred in London.
This means opportunity has centred in London too.
It is time major cities around Britain shared in the government of the United Kingdom.
For our civil service and major cultural bodies to claim to be UK institutions, they need to represent and be present across our whole United Kingdom.
It is also wrong that while some of our major cultural institutions have made efforts to gain a presence across the UK, others have not.
We will put this right.
Starting with the UK Government’s arm’s-length bodies, we will start moving significant numbers of UK Government civil servants and other public servants out of London and the south-east to cities around the UK.
We will ensure that senior posts move too, so that operational headquarters as well as administrative functions are centred not in London but around Britain.
And we will do so in a way that encourages the development of new clusters of public services, private businesses and, where appropriate, universities.
We will proceed on the same basis with the arts and cultural organisations that give our United Kingdom such strength.
Channel will remain publicly owned and will be relocated out of London,
and we will work with the nation’s most eminent museums and galleries to ensure their works and expertise are shared across the country.
United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund
We believe in one nation – in helping every part of our country share in the prosperity and opportunity of our great United Kingdom.
Yet there is much to do.
Current EU-wide structural funding was designed to tackle disparities but it is expensive to administer and poorly targeted.
As we leave the European Union, we must look at how we can better reduce and eliminate these inequalities.
We will use the structural fund money that comes back to the UK following Brexit to create a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund, specifically designed to reduce inequalities between communities across our four nations.
The money that is spent will help deliver sustainable, inclusive growth based on our modern industrial strategy.
We will consult widely on the design of the fund, including with the devolved administrations, local authorities, businesses and public bodies.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be cheap to administer,
low in bureaucracy
and targeted where it is needed most.
LEAVING THE EUROPEAN UNION
Following the historic referendum on 23rd June 2016, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union.
Only the Conservative Party, under Theresa May’s strong and stable leadership, can negotiate the best possible deal for our country.
In her Lancaster House Speech, the prime minister laid out the twelve principles she intends to follow in seeking a new deep and special partnership with the European Union.
We have explained our approach in the White Paper on the United Kingdom’s Exit from, and a new relationship with, the European Union, during the passage of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act, in the prime minister’s letter to the president of the European Council invoking Article 50, and in the Great Repeal Bill White Paper.
We want to agree a deep and special partnership with the European Union.
This partnership will benefit both the European Union and the United Kingdom:
while we are leaving the European Union, we are not leaving Europe, and we want to remain committed partners and allies to our friends across the continent.
The negotiations will undoubtedly be tough, and there will be give and take on both sides, but we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal for the UK.
But we will enter the negotiations in a spirit of sincere cooperation and committed to getting the best deal for Britain.
We will make sure we have certainty and clarity over our future,
control of our own laws,
and a more unified, strengthened United Kingdom.
We will control immigration
and secure the entitlements of EU nationals in Britain and British nationals in the EU.
We will maintain the Common Travel Area
and maintain as frictionless a border as possible for people, goods and services between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Workers’ rights conferred on British citizens from our membership of the EU will remain.
We will pursue free trade with European markets,
and secure new trade agreements with other countries.
We want to work together in the fight against crime and terrorism,
collaborate in science and innovation
– and secure a smooth, orderly Brexit.
And we will protect the democratic freedom of the people of Gibraltar and our overseas territories to remain British, for as long as that is their wish.
The final agreement will be subject to a vote in both houses of parliament.
As we leave the European Union, we will no longer be members of the single market or customs union but we will seek a deep and special partnership including a comprehensive free trade and customs agreement.
There may be specific European programmes in which we might want to participate and if so, it will be reasonable that we make a contribution.
We will determine a fair settlement of the UK’s rights and obligations as a departing member state, in accordance with the law and in the spirit of the UK’s continuing partnership with the EU.
The principle, however, is clear: the days of Britain making vast annual contributions to the European Union will end.
We want fair, orderly negotiations, minimising disruption and giving as much certainty as possible – so both sides benefit.
We believe it is necessary to agree the terms of our future partnership alongside our withdrawal, reaching agreement on both within the two years allowed by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union.
Repatriating EU law to the United Kingdom
We will enact a Great Repeal Bill.
Our laws will be made in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, and interpreted by judges across the United Kingdom, not in Luxembourg.
The bill will convert EU law into UK law, allowing businesses and individuals to go about life knowing that the rules have not changed overnight.
This approach means that the rights of workers and protections given to consumers and the environment by EU law will continue to be available in UK law at the point at which we leave the EU.
The bill will also create the necessary powers to correct the laws that do not operate appropriately once we have left the EU, so our legal system can continue to function correctly outside the EU.
Once EU law has been converted into domestic law, parliament will be able to pass legislation to amend, repeal or improve any piece of EU law it chooses, as will the devolved legislatures, where they have the power to do so.
As powers return from the EU, we will be able to determine the level best placed to take decisions on these issues, ensuring that power sits closer to the people of the United Kingdom than ever before.
We expect that the outcome will be a significant increase in the decision-making power of each devolved administration
but we must also ensure that as we leave the EU no new barriers to living
and doing business within our own union are created.
In some areas, this will require common UK frameworks.
We will work closely with the devolved administrations to deliver an approach that works for the whole of the United Kingdom and reflects the needs and individual circumstances of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As well as the Great Repeal Bill, we will bring forward a number of additional bills to ensure that when we have left the EU there is a clear statutory basis for United Kingdom authorities to exercise powers that are currently exercised through EU law and institutions.
We will not bring the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK law.
We will not repeal or replace the Human Rights Act while the process of Brexit is underway but we will consider our human rights legal framework when the process of leaving the EU concludes.
We will remain signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights for the duration of the next parliament.
GLOBAL BRITAIN
The United Kingdom is a global nation.
Our history is a global history; our future must be global too.
We believe Britain should play an active, leading role in the world.
Not because it is our right or inheritance, but because our leadership in the world is the surest way to defend and advance the interests of the British people, and to extend around the world those values that we believe to be right.
The United Kingdom is already a global power.
We have a leading diplomatic service
and one of the largest overseas development budgets in the world.
Our armed forces are respected around the world and enable us to project power globally.
Our global businesses and London’s position as the global centre of finance make us more interconnected with the global economy than any other comparable nation.
Britain is already a significant influence for good around the world.
Our aid is giving millions an education and an opportunity to rise out of poverty.
Our naval vessels are stopping the vile trade in people and in drugs.
We are at the forefront of action against global climate change.
We can and should do more, not just because acting as a force for good is an important end in itself but because the result will be greater peace and prosperity for the British people.
We will continue to champion British values around the globe: freedom,
democracy,
tolerance
and the rule of law.
We will be the world’s foremost champion of free trade.
We will expand our global efforts to combat extremism,
terror,
and the perpetration of violence against people because of their faith, gender or sexuality.
We will continue to lead international action against climate change,
and the degradation of habitat and loss of species.
We will continue to lead a global campaign for the education of women and girls, which is the key to progress in so many countries.
We will lead the fight against modern slavery, just as we overcame the trade in slaves two hundred years ago.
We will lead a global effort to close down online spaces for those who abuse children, incite violence or propagate hate speech.
We shall lead the world in the hard work to end extreme child poverty
and co-ordinate efforts against microbial resistance and emerging tropical diseases.
And we will take up leadership in a new arena, where concern is shared around the world: we will be the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet.
British leadership in international institutions
The security andprosperityofthe UnitedKingdomisbuiltonthe internationalinstitutions that we helped to found and will continue to help maintain: the United Nations and the UN Security Council, NATO – the cornerstone of our defence, the Commonwealth, the G20, G7 and the World Trade Organization.
We will continue to give strong support to an international order in which rules govern state conduct;
in our own behaviour we will support this system and apply it in a principled way.
We shall continue to seek to reform multilateral institutions, especially in the way they distribute development funds, so that money is used to greatest effect to protect and help the world’s most vulnerable people.
Global partnerships and alliances
Alongside our proposed deep and special partnership with the European Union, we will maintain the historical, cultural and economic ties that link us to our old friends and allies around the globe.
We will build upon our existing special relationship with the United States,
and forge new economic and security partnerships that make us more prosperous at home and more secure abroad.
We will strengthen our close links with our Commonwealth allies,
continuing our mission together to promote democratic values around the world
and build on our existing economic relationships to further our common trading interests.
We will develop alliances and co-operate more with old friends and new partners.
A global champion of free trade
The United Kingdom will be a global champion for an open economy, free trade, and the free flow of investment, ideas and information.
Open and free trade is key to international prosperity, stability and security –
it is an essential component of an economy that Works for everyone.
We believe the UK must seize the unique opportunities it has to forge a new set of trade and investment relationships around the world, building a global, outwardlooking Britain.
Promoting British culture around the world
The United Kingdom is home to some of the finest cultural institutions in the world.
We will continue to promote those institutions and ensure they have the resources they need to amplify Britain’s voice on the world stage and as a global force for good.
We will continue to promote democracy,
the rule of law,
property entitlements,
a free and open media,
and accountable institutions in countries and societies across the world.
We will place the BBC World Service and the British Council on a secure footing so they are able to promote the best of British values around the globe
and build strong ties between our local communities and other countries.
Leading the world in development
British aid helps millions and is a powerful statement of Global Britain’s place in the world.
It protects our interests: by building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world, we can protect our own people from disease, conflict and instability.
This is the right ambition for a country with a global outlook, so we will maintain the commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on assistance to developing nations and international emergencies.
We will continue to use our aid budget in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, to end extreme poverty, save children’s lives, and provide an education for girls.
We will work to end the subjugation and mutilation of women,
to combat the brutal slave trade in fellow human beings
and to prevent catastrophic environmental degradation.
And we will continue to lead global efforts to tackle sexual violence in conflict.
British scientists and inventors have helped to address some of the greatest challenges facing the world’s poorest people.
A global Britain should aspire to do even more:
we will significantly increase our funding of UK-led medical and technical research into the biggest threats to global health and prosperity.
There are still ways that we can improve the way that taxpayers’ money is used to help the world’s most vulnerable people.
We do not believe that international definitions of development assistance always help in determining how money should be spent, on whom and for what purpose.
So we will work with like-minded countries to change the rules so that they are updated and better reflect the breadth of our assistance around the world.
If that does not work, we will change the law to allow us to use a better definition of development spending, while continuing to meet our 0.7 per cent target.
Reforming asylum
We will ensure Britain remains a place of sanctuary for refugees and asylum seekers.
The existing system, however, is geared towards people who are young enough, fit enough, and have the resources to get to Britain, rather than those who are most in need of our help.
Wherever possible, the government will offer asylum and refuge to people in parts of the world affected by conflict and oppression, rather than to those who have made it to Britain.
We will work to reduce asylum claims made in Britain
and, as we do so, increase the number of people we help in the most troubled regions.
We will continue to work with other countries in Europe, and the United Nations, to review the international legal definitions of asylum and refugee status.
We will make sure our councils get the help they need to deal with people as they arrive,
and establish schemes to help individuals, charities, faith groups, churches and businesses to provide housing and other support for refugees.
Protecting the global environment
The United Kingdom will lead the world in environmental protection.
As Conservatives, we are committed to leaving the environment in better condition than we inherited it.
That is why we will continue to take a lead in global action against climate change, as the government demonstrated by ratifying the Paris Agreement.
We were the first country to introduce a Climate Change Act, which Conservatives helped to frame,
and we are halfway towards meeting our 2050 goal of reducing emissions by eighty per cent from 1990 levels.
We will champion greater conservation co-operation within international bodies, protecting rare species, the polar regions and international waters.
We will work with our Overseas Territory governments to create a Blue Belt of marine protection in their precious waters, establishing the largest marine sanctuaries anywhere in the world.
Modern slavery
The UK is a global leader in fighting the evil trade in human beings – both around the world and in our own country – for sex and labour exploitation.
As home secretary, Theresa May brought forward the Modern Slavery Act, the first of its kind in Europe,
appointed the world’s first anti-slavery commissioner
and set up the Modern Slavery Taskforce to bring together the heads of MI5, MI6 and the National Crime Agency to coordinate our response to criminal gangs operating across the world.
We now need to go further.
We need to focus on the exploitation of vulnerable men, women and children for their labour, people who are moved around our own country and between nations, as if they were not human at all.
We will review the application of exploitation in the Modern Slavery Act to strengthen our ability to stop criminals putting men, women and children into criminal, dangerous and exploitative working conditions.
And the UK will use its power to push the United Nations and other international bodies to make Modern Slavery a thing of the past.
STRONG DEFENCE IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD
Our world is full of opportunity but is also riven by conflict, terrorism and threat.
As a global power, we have a responsibility to sustain our fine armed forces so that they can defend the realm, our overseas territories and our interests around the globe.
We will play a leading role in NATO
and maintain the ability to conduct strike operations, peacekeeping, security missions and the deployment of a joint expeditionary force.
We will maintain the overall size of the armed forces, including an army that is capable of fielding a war-fighting division.
We shall expand our reach around the world.
We will retain the Trident continuous-at-sea nuclear deterrent to provide the ultimate guarantee of our security.
We have the biggest defence budget in Europe and the second largest in NATO.
We will continue to meet the NATO commitment to spend at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence
and we will increase the defence budget by at least 0.5 per cent above inflation in every year of the new parliament.
The finest servicemen and women
We will attract and retain the best men and women for our armed forces, including by engaging them on a flexible basis.
We will protect our brave armed forces personnel from persistent legal claims, which distress those who risk their lives for us, cost the taxpayer millions and undermine the armed forces in the service they give.
Under a Conservative government, British troops will in future be subject to the Law of Armed Conflict, which includes the Geneva Convention and UK Service Law, not the European Court of Human Rights.
We will strengthen legal services regulation and restrict legal aid for unscrupulous law firms that issue vexatious legal claims against the armed forces.
We will introduce better compensation for injured armed forces personnel and the families of those killed in combat.
The best equipment for our armed forces
We plan to invest £178 billion in new military equipment over the next decade,
creating high-skilled jobs across the whole country.
For the first time in a generation the Royal Navy is growing.
We have cut steel on the first of a new fleet of four Dreadnought ballistic missile boats
and we will complete the Astute class of hunter-killer submarines.
Our two new aircraft carriers will project British military power for the next fifty years:
HMS Queen Elizabeth begins sea trials in the summer and HMS Prince of Wales is due to enter active service in 2020.
Alongside our new Type destroyers, we will build eight Type 26 anti-submarine frigates
and develop our programme for a new class of lighter, general purpose frigates so that by the 2030s we can further increase the size of our fleet.
We shall also deliver five Offshore Patrol Vessels.
For the Army we will deliver AJAX armoured vehicles, Apache attack helicopters, new drones, new missile and bomb systems, and better equipment for the Special Forces.
The Royal Air Force will receive, with the Fleet Air Arm, the Lightning II strike fighter, as well as new Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
Taken together, this is the largest programme of investment in our armed forces for generations.
Supporting our veterans
We will support former members of the armed forces, who were willing to risk their lives for us, as they move into civilian life.
We will maintain and strengthen the Armed Forces Covenant.
We will help veterans to start new careers by ensuring that the skills and qualifications they gained in service are recognised by civilian employers and by introducing a one year holiday on Employer National Insurance Contributions for firms hiring service personnel after they leave service.
We will improve the co-ordination of government services to veterans, including housing, employment and mental health services, by introducing a Veterans Board in the Cabinet Office.
THE HOME OF DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW
This election will decide the composition of our parliament, the oldest of all large democracies.
The laws that we make form the basis of judgments in our courts, which are respected around the world.
This unequalled democracy and legal system is our greatest national inheritance.
However, collective faith in our democratic institutions and our justice system has declined in the past two decades.
It is the purpose of this Conservative Party, in responding to the historic vote on our membership of the European Union, to re-establish faith in our democracy, and in our democratic and legal institutions.
A flourishing and secure democracy
Our democratic institutions may be ancient but should not be neglected.
We will continue to modernise and improve our electoral registration process, making it as accessible as possible so that every voice counts.
We will legislate for votes for life for British overseas electors.
We will continue with the current boundary review, enshrining the principle of equal seats,
while reducing the number of MPs to 600, similar to other Western democratic chambers.
We will retain the first past the post system of voting for parliamentary elections and extend this system to police and crime commissioner and mayoral elections.
We will retain the current franchise to vote in parliamentary elections at eighteen.
We will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.
The British public deserves to have confidence in our democracy.
We will legislate to ensure that a form of identification must be presented before voting,
to reform postal voting
and to improve other aspects of the elections process to ensure that our elections are the most secure in the world.
We will retain the traditional method of voting by pencil and paper,
and tackle every aspect of electoral fraud.
Although comprehensive reform is not a priority we will ensure that the House of Lords continues to fulfil its constitutional role as a revising and scrutinising chamber which respects the primacy of the House of Commons.
We have already undertaken reform to allow the retirement of peers and the expulsion of members for poor conduct
and will continue to ensure the work of the House of Lords remains relevant and effective by addressing issues such as its size.
Celebrating public service
Our nation is made great by millions of people who work every day to serve the public.
Public service is a noble vocation, one which we will celebrate.
55We want the most committed and capable people to come into public service,
and for public services to be motors of social mobility – which is why we are looking at ways to make sure civil service recruitment is as diverse as possible, not only from the perspective of gender and race but social class too.
We will continue to fund schemes to get graduates from Britain’s leading universities to serve in schools, police forces, prisons, and social care and mental health organisations.
These programmes are now some of the UK’s largest graduate employers, taking the brightest and best from our universities and using their talents to tackle entrenched social problems.
We want to go further.
We will provide seed funding for similar schemes to recruit older professionals from other sectors, including those returning to the workplace having cared for children and relatives
and those approaching retirement.
We know public services are dependent upon the public servants who run them, which is why we will establish in law the freedom for employees to mutualise, where appropriate, within the public sector.
We will review the honours system to make sure it commands public confidence,
rewards genuine public service
and that recipients uphold the integrity of the honours bestowed.
Reforming the justice system
The last seven years have seen historic falls in crime and improvements in public safety.
We will build on that record.
A strong criminal justice system requires a good legal system.
We cherish our strong and independent judiciary.
Our courts and judiciary are respected as the finest in the world.
Legal services are a major British export and underpin our professional services sector.
We will continue to modernise our courts,
improving court buildings and facilities
and making it easier for people to resolve disputes and secure justice.
We will take action to make it harder for people to enter the country if they have a criminal conviction
and will implement satellite tracking for every foreign national offender subject to an outstanding deportation order or deportation proceedings.
Standing up for victims
We will ensure that victims of crime are supported at every stage of the criminal justice system.
We will enshrine victims’ entitlements in law, making clear what level of service they should expect from the police, courts and criminal justice system.
We will ensure that child victims and victims of sexual violence are able to be cross-examined before their trial without the distress of having to appear in court.
Publicly-funded advocates will have specialist training in handling victims before taking on serious sexual offences cases.
To ensure that the pain and suffering of the Hillsborough families over the last twenty years is not repeated, we will introduce an independent public advocate, who will act for bereaved families after a public disaster and support them at public inquests.
We will extend the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme so a wider range of sentences can be challenged.
And we will push forward with our plan for tackling hate crime committed on the basis of religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Strengthening the police and security services
We will help Britain’s world-leading police forces and prosecutorial services to fight crime,
protect the public
and provide security for businesses.
We will create a national infrastructure police force, bringing together the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, the Ministry of Defence Police and the British Transport Police to improve the protection of critical infrastructure such as nuclear sites, railways and the strategic road network.
We will strengthen Britain’s response to white collar crime by incorporating the Serious Fraud Office into the National Crime Agency, improving intelligence sharing and bolstering the investigation of serious fraud, money laundering and financial crime.
We will extend direct entry into the police, including at chief officer level.
We will continue to invest in our world-leading security services
and maintain and develop our counterterrorism strategy to protect us from terrorism at home and abroad.
And we will bolster the response to cyber threats on private businesses, public services, critical national infrastructure, and individuals, working with the National Cyber Security Centre to prevent attacks wherever possible and with the police and international law enforcement agencies to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
We will widen the role of police and crime commissioners to help them cut crime for their local communities.
We will ensure that commissioners sit on local health and wellbeing boards, enabling better co-ordination of crime prevention with local drug and alcohol and mental health services.
We will build on the Policing and Crime Act, which introduced better co-ordination of policing and fire and rescue services, with greater devolution of criminal justice responsibility and budgets to local commissioners.
Punishment and reform
Prisons should be places of reform and rehabilitation, but we should always remember that incarceration is punishment for people who commit serious crimes.
The £15 billion annual cost to society of reoffending shows we have so much more to do to make the penal system work better.
Prisons must become places of safety, discipline and hard work, places where people are helped to turn their lives around.
They should help prisoners learn English, maths and the work skills they need to get a job when they leave prison,
whilst providing the help prisoners require to come off drugs and deal with mental health problems.
We will invest over £1 billion to modernise the prison estate, replacing the most dilapidated prisons and creating 10,000 modern prison places.
We will reform the entry requirements, training, management and career paths of prison officers.
We will create a new legal framework for prisons, strengthening the inspectorate and ombudsman to provide sharper external scrutiny.
Community punishments do not do enough to prevent crime and break the cycle of persistent offending.
So we will create a national community sentencing framework that punishes offenders and focuses on the measures that have a better chance of turning people around and preventing crime, such as curfews and orders that tackle drug and alcohol abuse.
We will introduce dedicated provision for women offenders.
3. THE WORLD’S GREAT MERITOCRACY
Theresa May’s Conservatives will deliver · More good school places, ending the ban on selective schools
and asking universities and independent schools to help run state schools.
World class technical education, underpinned by prestigious new institutes of technology with the freedoms that make our universities great.
A government unafraid to confront the burning injustices of the gender pay gap,
racial disparity,
the stigma of mental health
and disability discrimination.
Protections for victims of domestic abuse in law through a new landmark Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill.
Fairer markets for consumers
and action on the cost of living, including a safeguard tariff cap to protect energy customers from unacceptable rises.
Controlled, sustainable migration, with net migration down to the tens of thousands.
We have done much in recent years to break down longstanding divisions in our country.
Yet some social injustices endure.
If you are at a state school you are less likely to reach the top professions than if you are educated privately.
If you are a white, working-class boy, you are less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.
If you are black, you are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you are white.
If you are born poor, you will die on average nine years earlier than others.
If you are a woman, you will earn less than a man.
If you suffer from mental health problems, there is not enough help at hand.
These are burning injustices that damage the unity of our country, and we will address them.
The truth is that if we are to make Britain the world’s Great Meritocracy, we also need to do much more to support millions of people who live in ordinary, working families.
Because life is often much harder for these families than many in positions of power seem to realise.
They might have a job, but not always job security;
they might be homeowners, but they worry about paying the mortgage and wonder if their children will be able to afford a home of their own;
they can just about manage, but worry about the cost of living and getting their children into a good school.
They deserve a government that is on their side.
A COUNTRY FOUNDED ON MERIT
The greatest injustice in Britain today is that your life is still largely determined not by your efforts and talents but by where you come from, who your parents are and what schools you attend.
This is wrong.
We want to make Britain the world’s Great Meritocracy:
a country where everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their talent and their hard work will allow,
where advantage is based on merit not privilege.
To succeed, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, can have a world-class education.
More good school places
We are proud of our reforms to education, which are giving millions of children a better start in life than they could have expected a decade ago.
Thanks to our school reforms – such as the establishment of free schools and academies, and changes to ensure a rigorous curriculum – there are more good and outstanding schools today than ever before.
There are now more than 1.8 million more children in schools rated good and outstanding than in 2010.
The proportion of pupils taking core academic subjects at GCSE has almost doubled.
There remains a long way to go.
For too many children, a good school remains out of reach.
There are still 1 million children in primary and secondary schools rated by Ofsted as ’requires improvement’ or ’inadequate’.
If schools across the Midlands and north of England had the same average standards as those in the south, nearly 200,000 more children would be attending good schools.
We need to give every child in our country the best possible education if we are to provide them with the best opportunities in the world.
To achieve that ambition we will have to go further in reforming our education system.
So we will continue with our programme of free schools, building at least a hundred new free schools a year.
We will prohibit councils from creating any new places in schools that have been rated either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted.
We will make it a condition for universities hoping to charge maximum tuition fees to become involved in academy sponsorship or the founding of free schools.
We will introduce new funding arrangements so we can open a specialist maths school in every major city in England.
We will replace the unfair and ineffective inclusivity rules that prevent the establishment of new Roman Catholic schools, instead requiring new faith schools to prove that parents of other faiths and none would be prepared to send their children to that school.
We will work with the Independent Schools Council to ensure that at least 100 leading independent schools become involved in academy sponsorship or the founding of free schools in the state system, keeping open the option of changing the tax status of independent schools if progress is not made.
We will lift the ban on the establishment of selective schools, subject to conditions, such as allowing pupils to join at other ages as well as eleven.
Contrary to what some people allege, official research shows that slightly more children from ordinary, working class families attend selective schools as a percentage of the school intake compared to nonselective schools.
While the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils stands at 25 per cent across the country, at selective schools it falls to almost zero.
These changes will have a great effect, but alone they cannot overcome the unfairness of selection by house price, where ordinary, working class families find it difficult to access the best schools because they cannot afford to live in the catchment area.
We will therefore conduct a review of school admissions policy.
We will be clear at the outset that we will never introduce a mandatory lottery-based school admissions policy.
A knowledge-rich curriculum
Our reforms to what is taught in schools have been profound.
We have addressed grade inflation and poor standards and developed a world-class curriculum.
This has meant considerable change for pupils, teachers and schools.
So now we will help them consolidate those gains, starting with the early building blocks of learning.
A Conservative government will strengthen the teaching of literacy and numeracy in the early years so that all pupils – regardless of background – get the best possible start in life.
We will build on the success of the phonics screening test.
We will expect every 11-yearold to know their times tables off by heart.
To maintain progress as children go through secondary school, we will improve schools’ accountability at key stage.
We will expect 75 per cent of pupils to have been entered for the EBacc combination of GCSEs by the end of the next parliament, with 90 per cent of pupils studying this combination of academic GCSEs by 2025.
We will ensure all children have access to an academic, knowledge-rich curriculum.
We will introduce a curriculum fund to encourage Britain’s leading cultural and scientific institutions, like the British Museum and others to help develop knowledge-rich materials for our schools,
and we will ensure that assessments at the end of primary school draw from a rich knowledge base,
and reduce teaching to the test.
We will consider how Ofsted can give parents more information on what their children are being taught.
Supporting teachers
We want great people to become teachers, teach in our most challenging schools and stay there.
We will continue to provide bursaries to attract top graduates into teaching.
To help new teachers remain in the profession, we will offer forgiveness on student loan repayments while they are teaching and bring in dedicated support to help them throughout their careers.
We will provide greater support for teachers in the preparation of lessons and marking, including through the use of technology,
and we will bear down on unnecessary paperwork and the burden of Ofsted inspections.
We will create a single jobs portal, like NHS Jobs, for schools to advertise vacancies in order to reduce costs and help them find the best teachers.
Fairer funding
The way funding is distributed to schools in England is not fair.
Across the country, children with the same needs and expectations receive markedly different rates of funding for their school place.
We have begun to correct this and in the next parliament we will make funding fairer still.
We appreciate that it is hard for schools receiving a higher level of funding to make cuts in order to pay for increases elsewhere, so while we will make funding fairer over the course of the parliament, we will make sure that no school has its budget cut as a result of the new formula.
We will increase the overall schools budget by £4 billion by 2022, representing more than a real terms increase for every year of the parliament.
We will continue to protect the Pupil Premium to support those who need it.
In order to fund these commitments, we have taken an important decision.
We do not believe that giving school lunches to all children free of charge for the first three years of primary school – regardless of the income of their parents – is a sensible use of public money.
There is now good evidence that school breakfasts are at least as effective in helping children to make progress in school.
So under a new Conservative government, schools in England will offer a free school breakfast to every child in every year of primary school, while children from low-income families will continue to receive free school lunches throughout their years in primary and secondary education.
The savings made from this change will be added to the core schools budget, meaning that every penny saved will go towards children’s education.
World-class technical education
For too long in this country, technical excellence has not been valued as highly as academic success.
We want British technical education to be as prestigious as our worldleading higher education system, and for technical education in this country to rival the best technical systems in the world.
This will require bold reform of the funding, institutional and qualifications frameworks for technical education, in partnership with British industry.
We have already introduced high quality apprenticeships that can reach to degree level and beyond for the 200,000 young people who choose to enter full-time vocational study after their GCSEs each year.
We now need to go further to improve technical education and offer young people a real choice between technical and academic routes at sixteen.
We will start by replacing 13,000 existing technical qualifications with new qualifications, known as T-levels, across fifteen routes in subjects including construction, creative and design, digital, engineering and manufacturing, and health and science.
We will increase the number of teaching hours by fifty per cent to an average of 900 hours per year
and make sure that each student does a three-month work placement as part of their course.
And we will extend our reforms to the highest levels of technical qualification.
We will invest in further education colleges to make sure they have world-class equipment and facilities
and will create a new national programme to attract experienced industry professionals to work in FE colleges.
We will establish new institutes of technology, backed by leading employers and linked to leading universities, in every major city in England.
They will provide courses at degree level and above, specialising in technical disciplines, such as STEM,
whilst also providing higher-level apprenticeships and bespoke courses for employers.
They will enjoy the freedoms that make our universities great, including eligibility for public funding for productivity and skills research, and access to loans and grants for their students.
They will be able to gain royal charter status and regius professorships in technical education.
Above all, they will become anchor institutions for local, regional and national industry, providing sought-after skills to support the economy,
and developing their own local identity to make sure they can meet the skills needs of local employers.
To ensure that further, technical and higher education institutions are treated fairly, we will also launch a major review of funding across tertiary education as a whole, looking at how we can ensure that students get access to financial support that offers value for money,
is available across different routes
and encourages the development of the skills we need as a country.
We will put employers at the centre of these reforms.
We will deal with local skills shortages
and ensure that colleges deliver the skills required by local businesses through Skills Advisory Panels and Local Enterprise Partnerships working at a regional and local level.
We will deliver our commitment to create 3 million apprenticeships for young people by 2020
and in doing so we will drive up the quality of apprenticeships to ensure they deliver the skills employers need.
We will allow large firms to pass levy funds to small firms in their supply chain,
and work with the business community to develop a new programme to allow larger firms to place apprentices in their supply chains.
We will explore teaching apprenticeships sponsored by major companies, especially in STEM subjects.
Lastly, we will make the system easier for young people taking technical and vocational routes.
We will introduce a UCAS-style portal for technical education.
We will introduce significantly discounted bus and train travel for apprentices to ensure that no young person is deterred from an apprenticeship due to travel costs.
Career learning
We will in the next parliament produce the best programme of learning and training for people in work and returning to work in the developed world.
We will help all workers seeking to develop their skills in their existing jobs by introducing a new right to request leave for training for all employees.
Alongside this, we will help workers to stay in secure jobs as the economy changes by introducing a national retraining scheme.
Under the scheme, the costs of training will be met by the government, with companies able to gain access to the Apprenticeship Levy to support wage costs during the training period.
We will break down the barriers to public sector workers taking on more qualified roles because of their prior educational attainment.
For instance, we will ensure that teaching assistants can become qualified teachers and healthcare assistants can become nurses via a degree apprenticeship route, in addition to other routes.
We will equip people with the digital skills they need now, and in the future, by introducing a right to lifelong learning in digital skills, just as we have done for literacy and numeracy.
More people in work
Employment is at a record high and we will continue to strive for full employment.
We will continue to run the welfare system in accordance with our belief that work is the best route out of poverty,
that work should always pay,
and that the system should be fair both to the people in need of support and those who pay for it.
We have no plans for further radical welfare reform in this parliament and will continue the roll-out of Universal Credit, to ensure that it always pays to be in work.
We will also work to help those groups who have in the past found it difficult to get employment, by incentivising employers to take them on.
So for businesses employing former wards of the care system, someone with a disability, those with chronic mental health problems, those who have committed a crime but who have repaid their debt to society, and those who have been unemployed for over a year, we will offer a holiday on their employers’ National Insurance Contributions for a full year.
We will also provide targeted support for young people between the ages of 18 and 24 so that everyone, no matter what their start in life, is given the very best chance of getting into work.
A COUNTRY THAT COMES TOGETHER
Controlling immigration
Britain is an open economy
and a welcoming society
and we will always ensure that our British businesses can recruit the brightest and best from around the world and Britain’s world-class universities can attract international students.
We also believe that immigration should be controlled and reduced, because when immigration is too fast and too high, it is difficult to build a cohesive society.
Thanks to Conservatives in government, there is now more control in the system.
The nature of the immigration we have – more skilled workers and university students, less abuse and fewer unskilled migrants – better suits the national interest.
But with annual net migration standing at 273,000, immigration to Britain is still too high.
It is our objective to reduce immigration to sustainable levels, by which we mean annual net migration in the tens of thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands we have seen over the last two decades.
We will, therefore, continue to bear down on immigration from outside the European Union.
We will increase the earnings thresholds for people wishing to sponsor migrants for family visas.
We will toughen the visa requirements for students, to make sure that we maintain high standards.
We will expect students to leave the country at the end of their course, unless they meet new, higher requirements that allow them to work in Britain after their studies have concluded.
Overseas students will remain in the immigration statistics – in line with international definitions – and within scope of the government’s policy to reduce annual net migration.
Leaving the European Union means, for the first time in decades, that we will be able to control immigration from the European Union too.
We will therefore establish an immigration policy that allows us to reduce and control the number of people who come to Britain from the European Union,
while still allowing us to attract the skilled workers our economy needs.
Integrating divided communities
Britain is one of the world’s most successful multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious societies.
We are proud of our diversity, and the cultural and economic enrichment it brings.
The enjoyment and pride we take in our diversity should not cause us to ignore the fact that in too many parts of our country, we have communities that are divided, often along racial or religious lines.
To address this, we will bring forward a new integration strategy, which will seek to help people in more isolated communities to engage with the wider world,
help women in particular into the workplace,
and teach more people to speak English.
We will work with schools to make sure that those with intakes from one predominant racial, cultural or religious background teach their students about pluralistic, British values
and help them to get to know people with different ways of life.
Defeating extremism
Our enjoyment of Britain’s diversity must not prevent us from confronting the menace of extremism.
Extremism, especially Islamist extremism, strips some British people, especially women, of the freedoms they should enjoy,
undermines the cohesion of our society
and can fuel violence.
To defeat extremism, we need to learn from how civil society and the state took on racism in the twentieth century.
We will consider what new criminal offences might need to be created, and what new aggravated offences might need to be established, to defeat the extremists.
We will support the public sector and civil society in identifying extremists,
countering their messages
and promoting pluralistic, British values.
And we will establish a Commission for Countering Extremism to identify examples of extremism and expose them,
to support the public sector and civil society,
and help the government to identify policies to defeat extremism
and promote pluralistic values.
CONFRONTING BURNING INJUSTICES
To make Britain the world’s Great Meritocracy, where your talent and hard work, not who you are or where you come from, determine your life chances, we must look beyond divisions in educational opportunity.
We must tackle the burning injustices that Theresa May identified on the steps of Downing Street last year: longstanding, entrenched injustices that affect people of different ethnicities, genders and those with disabilities and mental ill health.
The gender pay gap
We will take measures to close the gender pay gap.
We will require companies with more than 250 employees to publish more data on the pay gap between men and women.
We shall continue to work for parity in the number of public appointments going to women,
and we shall push for an increase in the number of women sitting on boards of companies.
We will take steps to improve take-up of shared parental leave
and help companies provide more flexible work environments that help mothers and fathers to share parenting.
We want to help those who have been caring for a child or children for a number of years or supporting an elderly relative.
For these people, returning to work can be daunting: things have moved on and people worry that their skills have been eroded.
We will address this, providing parents and carers with the confidence to return to work when and how they wish.
So we will support companies to take on parents and carers returning to work after long periods of absence
and back similar schemes in the public sector, including the country’s biggest employer, our NHS.
The race gap
Theresa May’s first act as prime minister was to order an unprecedented audit of racial disparity across public services, to reveal the outcomes experienced by people of different ethnicities.
That audit reports in July and a Conservative government will not hesitate to act on its findings, however uncomfortable they may be.
Alongside that assault on injustice, we will tackle those issues we already know about head on.
We will strengthen the enforcement of equalities law – so that private landlords and businesses who deny people a service on the basis of ethnicity, religion or gender are properly investigated and prosecuted.
We will legislate to mandate changes in police practices if ’stop and search’ does not become more targeted and ’stop to arrest’ ratios do not improve.
We will reduce the disproportionate use of force against Black, Asian and ethnic minority people in prison, young offender institutions and secure mental health units
and we will legislate here too if progress is not made.
We will launch a national campaign to increase the number of Black, Asian and ethnic minority organ donors to cut the long waiting times for patients from those groups and save more lives.
We will also ask large employers to publish information on the pay gap for people from different ethnic backgrounds.
The mental health gap
It was Conservatives in government that gave parity of esteem to the treatment of mental health in the National Health Service.
We have backed this with a significant increase in funding: since 2010 we have increased spending on mental health each year to a record £11.4 billion in 2016/17, with a further investment of £1 billion by 20/21, so that we can deliver the mental health services people deserve.
We will now build on this commitment.
First, we will address the need for better treatments across the whole spectrum of mental health conditions.
We will make the UK the leading research and technology economy in the world for mental health, bringing together public, private and charitable investment.
Improving treatment services will not be sufficient, however.
We will also reform outdated laws to ensure that those with mental illness are treated fairly
and employers fulfil their responsibilities effectively.
The current Mental Health Act does not operate as it should:
if you are put on a community treatment order it is very difficult to be discharged;
sectioning is too often used to detain rather than treat;
families’ information about their loved ones is severely curtailed
– parents can be the last to learn that their son or daughter has been sectioned.
So we will introduce the first new Mental Health Bill for thirty-five years, putting parity of esteem at the heart of treatment.
We will transform how mental health is regarded in the workplace.
We will amend health and safety regulations so that employers provide appropriate first aid training and needs assessment for mental health, as they currently do for risks to physical health,
and extend Equalities Act protections against discrimination to mental health conditions that are episodic and fluctuating.
We will consider the findings of the Stevenson-Farmer Review into workplace mental health support, working with employers to encourage new products and incentives to improve the mental health and wellbeing support available to their employees.
And, as we did with Dementia Friends, we will train one million members of the public in basic mental health awareness and first aid to break the stigma of mental illness.
The disability gap
We will build on the proud Conservative record in supporting those with disabilities, including the landmark Disability Discrimination Act of 1995.
We want to see attitudes to disability shift as they have for race, gender and sexuality in recent years:
it should be completely unacceptable for people with disabilities to be treated negatively.
We will get 1 million more people with disabilities into employment over the next ten years.
We will harness the opportunities of flexible working and the digital economy to generate jobs for those whose disabilities make traditional work difficult.
We will give employers the advice and support they need to hire and retain disabled people and those with health conditions.
We will continue to ensure a sustainable welfare system, with help targeted at those who need it most.
We will legislate to give unemployed disabled claimants or those with a health condition personalised and tailored employment support.
We believe that where you live, shop, go out, travel or park your car should not be determined by your disability.
So we will review disabled people’s access and amend regulations if necessary to improve disabled access to licensed premises, parking and housing.
We will work with providers of everyday essential services, like energy and telecoms, to reduce the extra costs that disability can incur.
Preventing domestic violence
Conservatives in government have already acted to help victims of domestic violence to seek refuge.
We can and should go further.
We need the police to investigate allegations thoroughly and treat victims with the care they deserve.
We need to bring to the justice system greater guidance and clarity about the impact of domestic violence and abuse on families.
And we need to understand and respond to the devastating and lifelong impact that domestic violence and abuse has on children, who carry the effects into adulthood.
A Conservative government will bring forward a Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill in the next parliament to consolidate all civil and criminal prevention and protection orders
and provide for a new aggravated offence if behaviour is directed at a child.
There is currently no statutory definition of domestic violence and abuse.
We will therefore also legislate to enshrine a definition of domestic violence and abuse in law, providing the legal underpinning for everything in our new act.
This will enable us to work with victim support groups, experts and agencies to determine whether the current statutory definition is wide enough,
to help survivors understand more easily if they have a basis for a complaint,
and to provide a more reliable basis for police forces to investigate and the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute.
We will create a domestic violence and abuse commissioner in law,
to stand up for victims and survivors,
monitor the response to domestic violence and abuse
and to hold the police and the criminal justice system to account.
And we will take action to support victims of domestic violence to leave abusive partners,
reviewing the funding for refuges
and ensuring that victims who have lifetime tenancies and flee violence are able to secure a new lifetime tenancy automatically.
Reducing homelessness
Finally, we will continue to combat homelessness and rough sleeping including through full implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act.
Our aim will be to halve rough sleeping over the course of the parliament and eliminate it altogether by 2027.
To achieve this we will set up a new homelessness reduction taskforce that will focus on prevention and affordable housing,
and we will pilot a Housing First approach to tackle rough sleeping.
CUTTING THE COST OF LIVING
Breaking down long-standing social divisions in our society means tackling everyday economic pressures that hold back ordinary, working families.
Government can help with the cost of living by keeping tax as low as possible.
As we set out in chapter one we want to reduce taxes on British businesses
and working families.
But government can also help by making consumer markets work more fairly, and in doing so reducing the cost of the essentials that families have no choice but to buy.
These costs make up a much larger share of working class household budgets than those of better-off households.
Fair markets for consumers
Tackling living costs must mean making consumer markets work fairly.
Markets should work for consumers, as well as producers – with competition keeping prices low and encouraging new product development.
Poor information, complex pricing and exploitative behaviour prevents markets operating efficiently for the benefit of all.
As Conservatives, we believe in markets as the best means to bring about prosperity and innovation, but we should act firmly and fast when a market works against the interests of consumers.
Since 2010, we have capped the cost of credit for expensive payday lenders
and will shortly ban letting agent fees.
We will now go further to reform markets in the interests of consumers and reduce the cost of living.
A Conservative government will strengthen the hand of regulators.
We will strengthen the powers of consumer enforcement bodies to order fines against companies breaking consumer law and deliver redress for wronged parties
. We will explore how to give consumers a voice in the regulation of business.
We will put the interest of vulnerable consumers first, including considering a duty on regulators to weigh up their needs.
We will investigate how switching sites can better serve competition, including by providing shoppers with information about quality of service and complaints.
We will strengthen the hand of online consumers.
We will act to make terms and conditions clearer,
and end the abusive use of subscription services, including by making it clearer when free trials come to an end.
We will also act in specific markets.
A Conservative government will reform and modernise the home-buying process so it is more efficient and less costly.
We will crack down on unfair practices in leasehold, such as escalating ground rents.
We will also improve protections for those who rent, including by looking at how we increase security for good tenants and encouraging landlords to offer longer tenancies as standard.
We will make billing for telecoms customers fairer and easier to understand, including making clear when a mobile customer has paid off the price of their handset.
We will consider a ban on companies cold calling people encouraging them to make false personal injury claims.
We will take steps to tackle rogue private parking operators.
We will reduce insurance costs for ordinary motorists by cracking down on exaggerated and fraudulent whiplash claims.
We will review rail ticketing, removing complexity and perverse pricing, and introduce a passenger ombudsman to stand up for the interests of rail users suffering a poor deal.
We will work with train companies and their employees to agree minimum service levels during periods of industrial dispute –
and if we cannot find a voluntary agreement, we will legislate to make this mandatory.
Fair energy markets
We will pay immediate attention to the retail energy market.
Customers trust established brands and mistakenly assume their loyalty is rewarded.
Energy suppliers have long operated a two-tier market, where those constantly checking for the best deal can do well but others are punished for inactivity with higher prices.
Those hit worst are households with lower incomes,
people with lower qualifications,
people who rent their home
and the elderly.
A Conservative government will act in their interests.
First, we will ensure that smart meters will be offered to every household and business by the end of 2020, giving people control over their energy bills that they have not had before.
We will go further.
We will introduce a safeguard tariff cap that will extend the price protection currently in place for some vulnerable customers to more customers on the poorest value tariffs.
We will maintain the competitive element of the retail energy market by supporting initiatives to make the switching process easier and more reliable,
but the safeguard tariff cap will protect customers who do not switch against abusive price increases.
Alongside giving individuals greater control over their energy bills and protecting customers from unfair bills, we will help them to save energy.
An energy efficient home is a more affordable and healthy home.
We will improve the energy efficiency of existing homes, especially for the least well off, by committing to upgrading all fuel poor homes to EPC Band C by 2030.
We will also review requirements on new homes.
Fair debt
For some people, the cost of living can become too great.
Problem debt can be hard to escape and can compound family breakdown, worklessness, stress and mental health issues.
We will adopt a “Breathing Space” scheme, with the right safeguards to prevent abuse, so that someone in serious problem debt may apply for legal protection from further interest, charges and enforcement action for a period of up to six weeks.
Where appropriate, they will be offered a statutory repayment plan to help them pay back their debts in a manageable way.
This will give eligible debtors time to seek advice and assistance to apply for a sustainable solution to their debt.
4. A RESTORED CONTRACT BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS
Theresa May’s Conservatives will deliver ·Sound public finances, built on fiscal credibility and a balanced budget by the middle of the next decade.
Guaranteed annual increases in the state pension through a new Double Lock to be introduced in 2020.
Dignity and protection in old age through the right long-term solution for elderly care.
Exceptional healthcare, whenever, wherever, delivered by an NHS with the money, buildings and people it needs.
Homes for all, including a new generation of fixed-term council housing linked to a new Right to Buy.
High-quality childcare for working families, supported by thousands of new nursery places a year.
No grandparent wants to see their grandchildren worse off than they were, yet that is precisely the fear many older people now have.
No son or daughter wants to see their parents poorly cared for or their hard-earned assets whitiled away, yet that is the reality for too many old people in care.
We must admit that the solidarity that binds generations is under strain in our country.
We will restore the contract between the generations,
providing older people with security against ill health
while ensuring we maintain the promise of opportunity and prosperity for younger generations.
That contract includes our National Health Service, which is founded on the principle that those who have should help those who do not.
It is a system of solidarity to which we all contribute, not just to help us and our families when we are in need but to protect others in our community when they need help too.
This not just expediency: we do it because the support we give each other ties us together.
This solidarity is a Conservative principle, growing out of family, community and nation – all things that Conservatives believe in and work to conserve.
At times, solidarity will require great generosity from one group to another – of younger working people to pay for the dignified old age of retired people, and of older people balancing what they receive with the needs of the younger generation.
Our United Kingdom can seize enormous opportunities but only if we make decisions for the long term.
We trust the people of this country, who know that we face difficult choices
– and demand the respect of politicians who should be honest about how those choices can be resolved.
DEALING WITH THE DEFICIT
The greatest impact a government can have on future generations is the amount it chooses to borrow to pay for current spending.
Borrowing always means spending money you do not have; but government borrowing differs because the repayment falls to others – those who come later, including people not yet born.
Conservatives believe in balancing the books and paying down debts – because it is wrong to pass to future generations a bill you cannot or will not pay yourself.
The next Conservative government will continue the difficult but necessary work of restoring our public finances while still ensuring that we are investing for the future.
As we set out in chapter one, we will continue to aim for a balanced budget by the middle of the next decade, in line with the fiscal rules announced by the chancellor in his autumn statement last year.
AN AGEING SOCIETY
People are living longer.
This is a good thing, but we should not ignore the consequences.
As our society ages, the costs of caring for older generations – pensions, pensioner benefits, health and social care – rise; and these are borne by working people through their taxes.
As the relative number of younger people is falling, those costs increase, not just in total, but also for individuals.
So if we are to give older people the dignity we owe them and younger people the opportunities they deserve, we face difficult decisions.
Guaranteed annual increases in the state pension
A decade ago, pensions were in crisis and poverty blighted the retirement of many older people.
It was wrong and it has been a Conservative government that has helped to put it right.
By introducing the Pensions Triple Lock and the new State Pension, we have lifted the incomes of millions of older people, reducing pensioner poverty to historically low levels.
The Triple Lock has worked: it is now time to set pensions on an even course.
So we will keep our promise to maintain the Triple Lock until 2020, and when it expires we will introduce a new Double Lock, meaning that pensions will rise in line with the earnings that pay for them, or in line with inflation – whichever is highest.
We will also ensure that the state pension age reflects increases in life expectancy, while protecting each generation fairly.
The state pension is the basic building block for income in retirement.
In addition to safeguarding the rising state pension, we will continue to support the successful expansion of auto-enrolled pensions, enabling more people to increase their retirement income with help from their employers and government;
we will continue to extend auto-enrolment to small employers and make it available to the self-employed.
We will promote long-term savings and pensions products, including the Lifetime ISA, to encourage and incentivise more people to make provision for long-term needs, including a house purchase and retirement.
A long-term plan for elderly care
Our system of care for the elderly is not working for the hundreds of thousands currently not getting the dignified and careful attention they deserve,
nor for the people and organisations providing that care,
nor is it sustainable for today’s younger people who will potentially one day face care costs themselves.
It is not fair that the quality of care you receive and how much you pay for it depends in large part on where you live and whether you own your own home.
Where others have failed to lead, we will act.
We have already taken immediate action, putting £2 billion into the social care system
and allowing councils to raise more money for care themselves from Council Tax.
We are now proposing medium and long-term solutions to put elderly care in our country on a strong and stable footing.
Under the current system, care costs deplete an individual’s assets, including in some cases the family home, down to £23,250 or even less.
These costs can be catastrophic for those with modest or medium wealth.
One purpose of long-term saving is to cover needs in old age;
those who can should rightly contribute to their care from savings and accumulated wealth, rather than expecting current and future taxpayers to carry the cost on their behalf.
Moreover, many older people have built considerable property assets due to rising property prices.
Reconciling these competing pressures fairly and in a sustainable way has challenged many governments of the past.
We intend to tackle this with three connected measures.
First, we will align the future basis for means-testing for domiciliary care with that for residential care, so that people are looked after in the place that is best for them.
This will mean that the value of the family home will be taken into account along with other assets and income, whether care is provided at home, or in a residential or nursing care home.
Second, to ensure this is fair, we will introduce a single capital floor, set at £100,000, more than four times the current means test threshold.
This will ensure that, no matter how large the cost of care turns out to be, people will always retain at least £100,000 of their savings and assets, including value in the family home.
Third, we will extend the current freedom to defer payments for residential care to those receiving care at home, so no-one will have to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for care.
We believe this powerful combination maximises protection for pensioner households with modest assets, often invested in the family home, while remaining affordable for taxpayers.
We consider it more equitable, within and across the generations, than the proposals following the Dilnot Report, which mostly benefited a small number of wealthier people.
An efficient elderly care system which provides dignity is not merely a function of money.
So our forthcoming green paper will also address system-wide issues to improve the quality of care and reduce variation in practice.
This will ensure the care system works better with the NHS to reduce unnecessary and unhealthy hospital stays and delayed transfers of care
, and provide better quality assurance within the care sector.
We will reduce loneliness
and promote technological solutions to prolong independent living,
and invest in dementia research.
As the majority of care is informally provided, mainly by families, we will give workers a new statutory entitlement to carer’s leave, as enjoyed in other countries.
Creating a sustainable elderly care system means making decisions about how the rising budget devoted to pensioners is spent, so we will target help where it is needed most.
So we will look at Winter Fuel Payments, the largest benefit paid to pensioners, in this context.
The benefit is paid regardless of need, giving money to wealthier pensioners when working people on lower incomes do not get similar support.
So we will meanstest Winter Fuel Payments, focusing assistance on the least well-off pensioners, who are most at risk of fuel poverty.
The money released will be transferred directly to health and social care, helping to provide dignity and care to the most vulnerable pensioners and reassurance to their families.
We will maintain all other pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, eye tests, prescriptions and TV licences, for the duration of this parliament.
OUR NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
Our National Health Service is the essence of solidarity in our United Kingdom
– our commitment to each other, between young and old, those who have and those who do not, and the healthy and the sick.
The Conservative Party believes in the founding principles of the NHS.
First, that the service should meet the needs of everyone, no matter who they are or where they live.
Second, that care should be based on clinical need, not the ability to pay.
Third, that care should be free at the point of use.
As the NHS enters its eighth decade, the next Conservative government will hold fast to these principles by providing the NHS with the resources it needs
and holding it accountable for delivering exceptional care to patients wherever and whenever they need it.
The money and people the NHS needs
In five ways, the next Conservative government will give the NHS the resources it needs.
First, we will increase NHS spending by a minimum of £8 billion in real terms over the next five years, delivering an increase in real funding per head of the population for every year of the parliament.
Second, we will ensure that the NHS and social care system have the nurses, midwives, doctors, carers and other health professionals that it needs.
We will make it a priority in our negotiations with the European Union that the 140,000 staff from EU countries can carry on making their vital contribution to our health and care system.
However, we cannot continue to rely on bringing in clinical staff instead of training sufficient numbers ourselves.
Last year we announced an increase in the number of students in medical training of 1,500 a year;
we will continue this investment, doing something the NHS has never done before, and train the doctors our hospitals and surgeries need.
Third, we will ensure that the NHS has the buildings and technology it needs to deliver care properly and efficiently.
Since its inception, the NHS has been forced to use too many inadequate and antiquated facilities, which are even more unsuitable today.
We will put this right and enable more care to be delivered closer to home, by building and upgrading primary care facilities, mental health clinics and hospitals in every part of England.
Over the course of the next parliament, this will amount to the most ambitious programme of investment in buildings and technology the NHS has ever seen.
Fourth, whilst the NHS will always treat people in an emergency, no matter where they are from, we will recover the cost of medical treatment from people not resident in the UK.
We will ensure that new NHS numbers are not issued to patients until their eligibility has been verified.
And we will increase the Immigration Health Surcharge, to £600 for migrant workers and £450 for international students, to cover their use of the NHS.
This remains competitive compared to the costs of health insurance paid by UK nationals working or studying overseas.
Fifth, we will implement the recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review to make sure that patients get new drugs and treatments faster
while the NHS gets best value for money
and remains at the forefront of innovation.
Holding NHS leaders to account
It is NHS England that determines how best to organise and deliver care in England, set out in its own plan to create a modern NHS – the Five Year Forward View.
We support it.
We will also back the implementation of the plan at a local level, through the Sustainability and Transformation Plans, providing they are clinically led and locally supported.
We will hold NHS England’s leaders to account for delivering their plan to improve patient care.
If the current legislative landscape is either slowing implementation or preventing clear national or local accountability, we will consult and make the necessary legislative changes.
This includes the NHS’s own internal market, which can fail to act in the interests of patients and creates costly bureaucracy.
So we will review the operation of the internal market and, in time for the start of the 2018 financial year, we will make non-legislative changes to remove barriers to the integration of care.
We expect GPs to come together to provide greater access, more innovative services, share data and offer better facilities,
while ensuring care remains personal – particularly for older and more vulnerable people – with named GPs accountable for individual patients.
We will support GPs to deliver innovative services that better meet patients’ needs, including phone and on-line consultations and the use of technology to triage people better so they see the right clinician more quickly.
We will ensure appropriate funding for GPs to meet rising costs of indemnity in the short term while working with the profession to introduce a sustainable long-term solution.
We will introduce a new GP contract to help develop wider primary care services.
We will reform the contract for hospital consultants to reflect the changed nature of hospital care over the past twenty years.
We shall support more integrated working, including ensuring community pharmacies can play a stronger role to keep people healthy outside hospital within the wider health system.
We will support NHS dentistry to improve coverage and reform contracts so that we pay for better outcomes, particularly for deprived children.
And we will legislate to reform and rationalise the current outdated system of professional regulation of healthcare professions, based on the advice of professional regulators,
and ensure there is effective registration and regulation of those performing cosmetic interventions.
We will also help the million and more NHS clinicians and support staff develop the skills they need and the NHS requires in the decades ahead.
We will encourage the development of new roles and create a diverse set of potential career paths for the NHS workforce.
And we will reform medical education, including helping universities and local health systems work closer together to develop the roles and skills needed to serve patients.
We want the NHS to become a better employer.
We will strengthen the entitlement to flexible working to help those with caring responsibilities for young children or older relatives.
We will introduce new services for employees to give them the support they need, including quicker access to mental health and musculoskeletal services.
We will act to reduce bullying rates in the NHS, which are far too high.
We will take vigorous and immediate action against those who abuse or attack the people who work for and make our NHS.
Exceptional standards of care, wherever, whenever
Outcomes in the NHS for most major conditions are considerably better than three, five or ten years ago.
However, the founding intention for the NHS was to provide good levels of care to everyone, wherever they live.
This has not yet been achieved: there remain significant variations in outcomes and quality across services and across the country.
We will act to put this right.
To help the NHS provide exceptional care in all parts of England, we will make clinical outcomes more transparent so that clinicians and frontline staff can learn more easily from the best units and practices,
and where there is clear evidence of poor patient outcomes, we will take rapid corrective action.
We will ensure patients have the information they need to understand local services and hold them to account.
We will empower patients, giving them a greater role in their own treatment
and use technology to put care at their convenience.
In addition to the digital tools patients already have, we will give patients, via digital means or over the phone, the ability to book appointments, contact the 111 service, order repeat prescriptions, and access and update aspects of their care records,
as well as control how their personal data is used.
We will continue to expand the number of NHS approved apps that can help monitor care and provide support for physical and mental health conditions.
We will pilot the live publication of waiting times data for A&Es and other urgent care services.
We will further expand the use of personal budgets.
We will also continue to take action to reduce obesity and support our National Diabetes Prevention Programme.
Our ambition is also to provide exceptional care to patients whenever they need it.
That is why we want England to be the first nation in the world to provide a truly seven-day healthcare service.
That ambition starts with primary care.
Already 17 million people can get routine weekend or evening appointments at either their own GP surgery or one nearby, and this will expand to the whole population by 2019.
In hospitals, we will make sure patients receive proper consultant supervision every day of the week with weekend access to the key diagnostic tests needed to support urgent care.
We will also ensure hospitals can discharge emergency admissions at a similar rate at weekends as on weekdays, so that when someone is medically fit to leave hospital they can, whichever day of the week it is.
We will retain the 95 per cent A&E target and the 18-week elective care standard so that those needing care receive it in a timely fashion.
We will continue to help the NHS on its journey to being the safest healthcare system in the world.
We will extend the scope of the CQC to cover the health-related services commissioned by local authorities.
We will legislate for an independent healthcare safety investigations body in the NHS.
We will require the NHS to continue to reduce infant and maternal deaths, which remain too high.
Our commitment to consistent high quality care for everyone applies to all conditions.
We will set new standards in some priority areas and also improve our response to historically underfunded and poorly understood disease groups.
In cancer services, we will deliver the new promise to give patients a definitive diagnosis within 28 days by 2020,
while expanded screening and a major radiotherapy equipment upgrade will help ensure many more people survive cancer.
We will continue to rectify the injustice suffered by those with mental health problems, by ensuring that they get the care and support they deserve.
So we will make sure there is more support in every part of the country by recruiting up to 10,000 more mental health professionals.
We shall require all our medical staff to have a deeper understanding of mental health and all trainees will get a chance to experience working in mental health disciplines;
we shall ensure medical exams better reflect the importance of this area.
And we will improve the co-ordination of mental health services with other local services, including police forces and drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.
We have a specific task to improve standards of care for those with learning disabilities and autism.
We will work to reduce stigma and discrimination
and implement in full the Transforming Care Programme.
We will improve the care we give people at the end of life.
We will fulfil the commitment we made that every person should receive attentive, high quality, compassionate care, so that their pain is eased, their spiritual needs met and their wishes for their closing weeks, days and hours respected.
We will ensure all families who lose a baby are given the bereavement support they need, including a new entitlement to child bereavement leave.
HOMES FOR ALL
We have not built enough homes in this country for generations,
and buying or renting a home has become increasingly unaffordable.
If we do not put this right, we will be unable to extend the promise of a decent home, let alone home ownership, to the millions who deserve it.
We will fix the dysfunctional housing market so that housing is more affordable and people have the security they need to plan for the future.
The key to this is to build enough homes to meet demand.
That will slow the rise in housing costs so more ordinary, working families can afford to buy a home
and bring the cost of renting down.
And it will ensure that more private capital is invested in more productive investment, helping the economy to grow faster and more securely in future years.
We will meet our 2015 commitment to deliver a million homes by the end of 2020 and we will deliver half a million more by the end of 2022.
We will deliver the reforms proposed in our Housing White Paper to free up more land for new homes in the right places,
speed up build-out by encouraging modern methods of construction
and give councils powers to intervene where developers do not act on their planning permissions;
and we will diversify who builds homes in this country.
More homes will not mean poor quality homes.
For too long, careless developers, high land costs and poor planning have conspired to produce housing developments that do not enhance the lives of those living there.
We have not provided the infrastructure, parks, quality of space and design that turns housing into community and makes communities prosperous and sustainable.
The result is felt by many ordinary, working families.
Too often, those renting or buying a home on a modest income have to tolerate substandard developments -some only a few years old
-and are denied a decent place in which to live, where they can put down roots and raise children.
For a country boasting the finest architects and planners in the world, this is unacceptable.
We will build better houses, to match the quality of those we have inherited from previous generations.
That means supporting high-quality, high-density housing like mansion blocks, mews houses and terraced streets.
It means maintaining the existing strong protections on designated land like the Green Belt, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
It means not just concentrating development in the south-east but rebalancing housing growth across the country, in line with our modern industrial strategy.
It means government building 160,000 houses on its own land.
It means supporting specialist housing where it is needed, like multigenerational homes and housing for older people, including by helping housing associations increase their specialist housing stock.
We will never achieve the numbers of new houses we require without the active participation of social and municipal housing providers.
This must not be done at the expense of high standards, however: councils have been amongst the worst offenders in failing to build sustainable, integrated communities.
In some instances, they have built for political gain rather than for social purpose.
So we will help councils to build, but only those councils who will build high-quality, sustainable and integrated communities.
We will enter into new Council Housing Deals with ambitious, pro-development, local authorities to help them build more social housing.
We will work with them to improve their capability and capacity to develop more good homes,
as well as providing them with significant low-cost capital funding.
In doing so, we will build new fixed-term social houses, which will be sold privately after ten to fifteen years with an automatic Right to Buy for tenants, the proceeds of which will be recycled into further homes.
We will reform Compulsory Purchase Orders to make them easier and less expensive for councils to use and to make it easier to determine the true market value of sites.
We will also give greater flexibility to housing associations to increase their housing stock, building on their considerable track record in recent years.
And we will work with private and public sector house builders to capture the increase in land value created when they build to reinvest in local infrastructure, essential services and further housing, making it both easier and more certain that public sector landowners, and communities themselves, benefit from the increase in land value from urban regeneration and development.
And we will continue our £2.5 billion flood defence programme that will put in place protection for 300,000 existing homes by 2021.
These ambitious policies will mean more and better homes, welcomed by existing communities because they add, rather than subtract, from what is already there.
This is the sustainable development we need to see happen in every village, town and city across our country.
These policies will take time, and meanwhile we will continue to support those struggling to buy or rent a home, including those living in a home owned by a housing association.
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Britain should be the best country in the world for children.
We want to reduce levels of child poverty,
and have high ambitions for the quality of childcare,
children’s health
and support for vulnerable children for whom the state acts as a parent.
High-quality childcare
We know high-quality childcare is important not just to working parents but even more so to a child’s development and happiness.
That is why a Conservative government will introduce, this year, thirty hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds for working parents who find it difficult to manage the costs of childcare.
We will go further.
The next Conservative government will assess what more is needed, including looking at the best ways that childcare is provided elsewhere in Europe and the world.
As a sign of our commitment, we will immediately institute a capital fund to help primary schools develop nurseries where they currently do not have the facilities to provide one.
We will introduce a presumption that all new primary schools should include a nursery.
And we will continue to support maintained nurseries and allow them to take on academy freedoms, supporting them to grow independently or as part of a multi-academy trust.
Children’s and young people’s health
We believe government has a role to play in helping young people get the best possible start in life.
We are seeing progress: smoking rates are now lower than France or Germany,
drinking rates have fallen below the European average
and teenage pregnancies are at record lows.
We will continue to take action to reduce childhood obesity.
We will promote efforts to reduce unhealthy ingredients and provide clearer food information for consumers, as our decision to leave the European Union will give us greater flexibility over the presentation of information on packaged food.
We shall continue to support school sport, delivering on our commitment to double support for sports in primary schools.
We understand the massively increased pressures on young people’s mental health.
We will take focused action to provide the support needed by children and young people.
Half of all mental health conditions become established in people before the age of fourteen.
So we will ensure better access to care for children and young people.
A Conservative government will publish a green paper on young people’s mental health before the end of this year.
We will introduce mental health first aid training for teachers in every primary and secondary school by the end of the parliament
and ensure that every school has a single point of contact with mental health services.
Every child will learn about mental wellbeing and the mental health risks of internet harms in the curriculum.
And we will reform Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services so that children with serious conditions are seen within an appropriate timeframe and no child has to leave their local area and their family to receive normal treatment.
Protecting vulnerable children and families
We have made significant progress in helping vulnerable children and families over the past seven years.
Our investments in the social work profession and in successful, innovative programmes have given tens of thousands of vulnerable families the coordinated support they need.
Placing a child under the oversight of social services and taking a child into care are amongst the most serious duties the state may discharge.
We will demand all local authorities be commissioners of the highest- quality family support and child protection services, removing these responsibilities from the weakest councils and placing them in trust.
We will ensure that councils provide consistency of care and cannot relocate vulnerable children far from their home when it is not in their best interests to do so.
We will review support for Children in Need to understand why their outcomes are so poor and what more support they might require, in and out of school.
Finally, we shall explore ways to improve the family justice system.
The family courts need to do more to support families, valuing the roles of mothers and fathers, while ensuring parents face up to their responsibilities.
5. PROSPERITY AND SECURITY IN A DIGITAL AGE
Theresa May’s Conservatives will deliver ·The world’s most dynamic digital economy, giving digital businesses access to the investment, skills and talent they need to succeed.
Protections for people’s data online, backed by a new data protection law.
Safety for children online,
and new rights to require social media companies to delete information about young people as they turn eighteen.
Digital government and public services, using data and digital technology to transform school choice, local services and issues like planning and social care.
New rules for the digital economy, underpinned by domestic regulation and international partnership.
Security online, with unprecedented investment in cyber security and stronger cyber standards for government and public services.
The opportunities and threats arising from the advance of digital technology pose significant practical and philosophical challenges to people, communities and governments around the world.
These new technologies provide us with new and faster ways to communicate, learn, travel, have fun and do business.
They accelerate the pace of change – ushering in new norms in the space of years rather than decades; challenging our laws and regulations to keep pace.
The UK has always been at the forefront of such changes, from the earliest days of computing to the development of the World Wide Web.
Today, we continue that tradition with our world-leading digital economy, boasting particular expertise in artificial intelligence, cyber security, gaming, FinTech, GovTech, and virtual reality.
We are optimistic about the opportunities on offer in the digital age, but we understand these opportunities come with new challenges and threats – to our security, privacy, emotional wellbeing, mental health and the safety of our children.
A Conservative government will respond to these challenges, to assure the British people of security and fairness in the new digital age,
and to strengthen the UK’s position as one of the world’s leading digital economies.
A DIGITAL CHARTER
For hundreds of years, the United Kingdom has determined the rules and formed the environment where new ideas and new technologies prosper – from financial markets to the steam train to human embryology and the code of life itself.
Our wealth and security as a nation is founded on our ability to shape the future not just for ourselves but for the world.
Now we must do it again, to create the rules-based framework in which the new technologies can create prosperity and growth.
A Conservative government will develop a digital charter, working with industry and charities to establish a new framework that balances freedom
with protection for users,
and offers opportunities alongside obligations for businesses and platforms.
This charter has two fundamental aims: that we will make Britain the best place to start and run a digital business;
and that we will make Britain the safest place in the world to be online.
The best place for digital business
Britain’s future prosperity will be built on our technical capability and creative flair.
Through our modern industrial strategy and digital strategy, we will help digital companies at every stage of their growth.
We will help innovators and startups, by encouraging early stage investment and considering further incentives under our worldleading Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.
We will help digital businesses to scale up and grow, with an ambition for many more to list here in the UK,
and open new offices of the British Business Bank in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newport, specialising in the local sector.
As we set out in chapter one, we will ensure digital businesses have access to the best talent from overseas to compete with anywhere in the world.
This will be complemented by at least one new institute of technology in the UK, dedicated to world-leading digital skills and developed and run in partnership with the tech industry.
When we leave the European Union, we will fund the British Business Bank with the repatriated funds from the European Investment Fund.
We will ensure there is a sustainable business model for high-quality media online, to create a level playing field for our media and creative industries.
We will help provide the skills and digital infrastructure that creative companies need
and will seek to build upon the favourable tax arrangements that have helped them, including the highly successful creative industries tax credits scheme.
We will ensure there is a robust system for protection of intellectual property when the UK has left the EU, with strong protections against infringement.
We will make doing business online easier for companies
and consumers.
We will give businesses the right to insist on a digital signature and the right to digital cancellation of contracts.
We will oblige all digital companies to provide digital receipts, clearer terms and conditions when selling goods and services online and support new digital proofs of identification.
We will give consumers the same protections in online markets as they have on the high street.
For broadband customers, we will make broadband switching easier and pricing more transparent.
We will ensure that consumers and businesses have access to the digital infrastructure they need to succeed.
By the end of this year, 19 out of 20 premises will have access to superfast broadband and our Universal Service Obligation will ensure that by 2020 every home and every business in Britain has access to high speed broadband.
We will work to provide gigaspeed connectivity to as many businesses and homes as possible.
We will introduce a full fibre connection voucher for companies across the country by 2018 and by 2022 we will have major fibre spines in over a hundred towns and cities, with ten million premises connected to full fibre and a clear path to national coverage over the next decade.
We have similar ambitions for mobile phone coverage.
By 2022 we will extend mobile coverage further to 95 per cent geographic coverage of the UK.
By the same date, all major roads and main line trains will enjoy full and uninterrupted mobile phone signal, alongside guaranteed WiFi internet service on all such trains.
We will continue to reléase more spectrum from public sector use to allow greater private sector access and begin the roll-out of a new 5G network, providing gigaspeed connection to your smart phone.
We plan to have the majority of the population covered by a 5G signal by 2027.
The safest place to be online
In harnessing the digital revolution, we must take steps to protect the vulnerable and give people confidence to use the internet without fear of abuse, criminality or exposure to horrific content.
Our starting point is that online rules should reflect those that govern our lives offline.
It should be as unacceptable to bully online as it is in the playground, as difficult to groom a young child on the internet as it is in a community, as hard for children to access violent and degrading pornography online as it is in the high street, and as difficult to commit a crime digitally as it is physically.
Where technology can find a solution, we will pursue it.
We will work with industry to introduce new protections for minors, from images of pornography, violence, and other age-inappropriate content not just on social media but in app stores and content sites as well.
We will put a responsibility on industry not to direct users – even unintentionally – to hate speech, pornography, or other sources of harm.
We will make clear the responsibility of platforms to enable the reporting of inappropriate, bullying, harmful or illegal content, with take-down on a comply-or-explain basis.
We will continue to push the internet companies to deliver on their commitments to develop technical tools to identify and remove terrorist propaganda,
to help smaller companies build their capabilities
and to provide support for civil society organisations to promote alternative and counter-narratives.
In addition, we do not believe that there should be a safe space for terrorists to be able to communicate online and will work to prevent them from having this capability.
We will educate today’s young people in the harms of the internet and how best to combat them, introducing comprehensive Relationships and Sex Education in all primary and secondary schools to ensure that children learn about the risks of the internet, including cyberbullying and online grooming.
Where we believe people need more protections to keep them safe, we will act to protect them.
We will give people new rights to ensure they are in control of their own data, including the ability to require major social media platforms to delete information held about them at the age of 18, the ability to access and export personal data, and an expectation that personal data held should be stored in a secure way.
To create a sound ethical framework for how data is used, we will institute an expert Data Use and Ethics Commission to advise regulators and parliament on the nature of data use and how best to prevent its abuse.
The Commission will help us to develop the principles and rules that will give people confidence that their data is being handled properly.
Alongside this commission, we will bring forward a new data protection law, fit for our new data age, to ensure the very best standards for the safe,
flexible and dynamic use of data
and enshrining our global leadership in the ethical and proportionate regulation of data.
We will put the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care on a statutory footing to ensure data security standards are properly enforced.
We will continue with our £1.9 billion investment in cyber security and build on the successful establishment of the National Cyber Security Centre through our worldleading cyber security strategy.
We will make sure that our public services, businesses, charities and individual users are protected from cyber risks.
We will further strengthen cyber security standards for government and public services, requiring all public services to follow the most up to date cyber security techniques appropriate.
A free media
At a time when the internet is changing the way people obtain their news, we also need to take steps to protect the reliability and objectivity of information that is essential to our democracy and a free and independent press.
We will ensure content creators are appropriately rewarded for the content they make available online.
We will be consistent in our approach to regulation of online and offline media.
Given the comprehensive nature of the first stage of the Leveson Inquiry and given the lengthy investigations by the police and Crown Prosecution Service into alleged wrongdoing, we will not proceed with the second stage of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press.
We will repeal Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2014, which, if enacted, would force media organisations to become members of a flawed regulatory system or risk having to pay the legal costs of both sides in libel and privacy cases, even if they win.
DIGITAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES
We believe government should not only be exceptional in dealing digitally with the people it serves but should also at the forefront of using digital technology in all its systems so that it can deliver better public services.
We will therefore create a new presumption of digital government services by default and an expectation that all government services are fully accessible online, with assisted digital support available for all public sector websites.
We will publish far more information about public services online, including relevant information about local issues and public transport so that every person can find out up to date information about roadworks, planning applications and bus routes online, without the hassle and delay that currently exists.
We will create new ’schools maps’ to help parents choose the school that is right for their child, giving them key information about quality of teaching, attainment and the curriculum of local schools as they choose their school preferences to support their decisions.
We will publish operational performance data of all public-facing services for open comparison as amatterof course–helpingthe publicto holdtheirlocal services to account, or choose other better services if they prefer.
In doing so, central and local government will be required to release information regularly and in an open format, and data will be aggregated and anonymised where it is important to do so.
We will incubate more digital services within government and introduce digital transformation fellowships, so that hundreds of leaders from the world of tech can come into government to help deliver better public services.
We will continue the drive for open data,
maintaining our position as the world leader.
If we are to make full use of this opportunity, we must use common platforms across government and the wider public sector.
That must start with the way we identify ourselves online, so that people have one single, common and safe way of verifying themselves to all parts of government.
That is why we shall roll out Verify, so that people can identify themselves on all government online services by 2020, using their own secure data that is not held by government.
We will also make this platform more widely available, so that people can safely verify their identify to access non-government services such as banking.
We will set out a strategy to rationalise the use of personal data within government, reducing data duplication across all systems, so that we automatically comply with the ’Once-Only’ principle in central government services by 2022 and wider public services by 2025.
We also want to use digital innovation to help tackle the great challenge of an ageing population, in conjunction with our social care reforms set out in chapter four.
We will support new providers seeking to use digital technology to monitor long-term conditions better, deploy carers to patients or support better domiciliary care away from hospitals.
Digital infrastructure
Digital technology will also transform the management of our national infrastructure.
We are leading the world in preparing for autonomous vehicles and will press ahead with our plans to use digital technology to improve our railways, so that our roads and tracks can carry more people, faster, more safely and more efficiently.
Smart grids will make the most efficient use of our electricity infrastructure and electric vehicles,
and we will use technology to manage our airspace better to reduce noise pollution and improve capacity.
We will step up our programme of support for businesses developing these new technologies, creating a better environment for them to be tested in the UK.
Digital land
And we will use digital technology to release massive value from our land that currently is simply not realised, introducing greater specialisation in the property development industry
and far greater transparency for buyers.
To make this happen, we will combine the relevant parts of HM Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, the Valuation Office Agency, the Hydrographic Office and Geological Survey to create a comprehensive geospatial data body within government, the largest repository of open land data in the world.
This new body will set the standards to digitise the planning process and help create the most comprehensive digital map of Britain to date.
In doing so, it will support a vibrant and innovative digital economy, ranging from innovative tools to help people and developers build to virtual mapping of Britain for use in video games and virtual reality.
A FRAMEWORK FOR DATA AND THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet.
We disagree.
While we cannot create this framework alone, it is for government, not private companies, to protect the security of people and ensure the fairness of the rules by which people and businesses abide.
Nor do we agree that the risks of such an approach outweigh the potential benefits.
It is in the interests of stable markets that consumers are protected from abusive behaviour, that money is able to flow freely and securely, and that competition between businesses takes place on a level playing field.
It is in no-one’s interest for the foundations of strong societies and stable democracies – the rule of law, privacy and security – to be undermined.
So we will establish a regulatory framework in law to underpin our digital charter and to ensure that digital companies, social media platforms and content providers abide by these principles.
We will introduce a sanctions regime to ensure compliance, giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute those companies that fail in their legal duties, and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law.
We will also create a power in law for government to introduce an industry-wide levy from social media companies and communication service providers to support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms, just as is already the case with the gambling industry.
Just as we led the world in regulating embryology thirty years ago, we know that if we create the right system of governance for the digital economy and use of data, we will attract the right businesses who want to become the global centre for data use and research.
An international settlement
These are questions with which every nation is grappling.
The internet is a global network and it is only by concerted global action that we can make true progress.
We believe that the United Kingdom can lead the world in providing answers.
So we will open discussions with the leading tech companies and other like-minded democracies about the global rules of the digital economy, to develop an international legal framework that we have for so long benefited from in other areas like banking and trade.
We recognise the complexity of this task and that this will be the beginning of a process, but it is a task which we believe is necessary and which we intend to lead.
By doing these things – a digital charter, a framework for data ethics, and a new international agreement – we will put our great country at the head of this new revolution;
we will choose how technology forms our future;
and we will demonstrate, even in the face of unprecedented change, the good that government can do.
CONCLUSION
This is our plan for a stronger Britain and a prosperous future.
This is our vision of a nation united,
of shared opportunity,
of safe, vibrant and sustainable communities
and of a Great Meritocracy, where everyone, in every part of our country, is given the chance to go wherever their talents will take them.
In this period of profound national change, we will only achieve our ambitions if we have the strong and stable leadership our national interest demands.
With Theresa May and her team, we will secure the best possible deal with the European Union and chart a course to a new global future.
Now is the time that we must show, once again, our strength as a nation and the character of our united people.
We shall succeed, if we go forward, together.
Plaid Cymru will:
Defend our nation, by  Protecting our country’s economy, identity and our Assembly from a Conservative power grab
Defend our economy, by  Demanding that every single penny we lose from Europe is replaced by Westminster
Defend our people, by  Funding new Welsh hospitals, railways, roads, schools and affordable homes with our multi-billion pound investment programme
You have a choice of two futures.  Make your choice count – it will matter more now than  ever before.
A vote for the status quo: A forgotten Wales
A silenced Wales
Endless cuts
A starved Welsh NHS and an unfit social care system
Continued preying on  the most vulnerable
Jeopardising our children’s future
An isolated nation
Communities under siege
An unsustainable environment
A neglected rural Wales
Living in England's shadow
A vote for Plaid Cymru: DEFENDING WELSH INTERESTS
A STRONGER WALES
PROTECTING WELSH JOBS
A HEALTHIER, HAPPIER WALES
CARING FOR THOSE IN NEED
CONNECTING WALES
GIVING EVERY CHILD A CHANCE
PUTTING ENERGY INTO OUR  ENVIRONMENT
PROTECTING OUR COMMUNITIES
CHAMPIONING RURAL LIFE
WALES ON THE GLOBAL STAGE
Plaid Cymru is the  hardest working party   in Parliament
In 2016, Plaid Cymru MPs asked more questions and made more speeches than the Labour, Tory and Lib Dem MPs representing constituencies in Wales.
Defending Wales. Defending  Welsh interests
Wales is under attack.
The Tory Government is hell-bent on taking us along a treacherous path where all economic ties with our closest trading partners are severed.
Labour are too busy squabbling amongst themselves to stand up for Wales.
Wales needs Plaid Cymru MPs to fight for Welsh interests and to protect our nationhood.
Where we are: Wales is becoming a forgotten nation, destined to be no more than a minor English region
. Our interests ignored at every step of the Brexit negotiations.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Elect Plaid Cymru MPs to stand up for our nation and to give Wales a strong voice during this crucial time.
Where we can be: A Wales where our interests are defended at all times and Welsh interests are put at the heart of Brexit negotiations.
Where we are: Our vital economic ties with our closest trading partners are being severed.
Jobs are disappearing,
wages are falling,
prices are going up.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will ensure that Wales can continue to buy and sell to Europe without any costly barriers.
Where we can be: 200,000 jobs that rely on our trade with Europe being protected.
Where we are: Wales is at threat of losing the £680 million a year it currently receives in funding from the EU.
Plaid Cymru's answer:We will secure the money promised to Wales by the Leave campaign.
We will not accept a penny less.
Where we can be: Investing in our local communities to give the people of Wales every chance to succeed.
Where we are: Europeans who have made their lives in Wales face being deported.
This will destroy families and friendships,
and put public services at risk.
Plaid Cymru's answer:Plaid Cymru will guarantee the rights of all Europeans currently living and working in Wales.
Where we can be: A welcoming society,
that recognises the contribution that hard-working Europeans have made to our public services.
Where we are: A debilitating trade deal with the EU
where Wales's interests are last on the agenda.
Businesses moving from Wales
and jobs at risk.
Plaid Cymru's answer:We will fight to get the best possible Brexit deal for Welsh industry
and agriculture.
Where we can be: Welsh interests at the heart of Brexit negotiations, with Welsh industry and agriculture protected.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
We already punch well above our weight in representing Wales in Westminster.
Jonathan Edwards was the only Welsh MP on the influential Brexit Select Committee and Liz Saville Roberts has championed the issues that matter to the people of Wales on the Welsh Affairs Committee since she was elected.
Defending Wales.
A stronger Wales.
The people of Wales have consistently voted for a National Assembly for Wales.
The Tory Government in Westminster’s attempt to subvert the will of the Welsh people by undermining it will not be tolerated.
Our message to Westminster is simple – Hands off our Assembly.
Where we are: Facing a power grab from Westminster, who want to disregard the interests of the Welsh people and undermine our control of our public services.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will bring forward a new law to protect our nation’s sovereignty and democracy.
Where we can be: Decisions about Wales being made in Wales, where the will of the Welsh people cannot be ignored.
Where we are: The most underpowered Parliament in all of the UK.
Wales at the whim of a Tory government determined to slash taxes for the rich and let the poorest bear the burden.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will give the National Assembly for Wales the powers it needs to properly represent the people who elect it.
Where we can be: A truly representative Welsh Parliament that reflects the people of Wales.
Where we are: A Wales starved of the funds it needs to progress as a nation,
sinking deeper into poverty as a result of Brexit.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will demand fair funding for Wales by pushing for a new independent Commission to oversee an agreed way of redistributing funds across the UK, based on a needs-based formula.
Where we can be: Fair funding for Wales which will protect it from the economic uncertainty to come.
Where we are: A voting system rigged to benefit the powerful.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We want to grant 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote and reform the voting system so that it is more representative.
Where we can be: A democracy where young people are not silenced and each vote counts.
Where we are: Debilitating free trade deals with a Trump-led United States where standards are compromised,
agriculture suffers
and our health service is at risk of privatisation.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Wales must have an equal say when decisions are made which have major implications for devolved functions.
All future free trade deals, for instance, must be endorsed by the National Assembly for Wales.
Where we can be: Public services free from the threat of privatisation by big international corporations.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
Instead of bowing down to the Tories, Jonathan Edwards led a grass-roots campaign demanding £4 billion for transport in Wales following the decision to go ahead with the England-only HS2.
We will continue to oppose the Tories’ plans to waste £5 billion on renovating the Houses of Parliament and £400 million on Buckingham Palace, so that we can invest in the people of Wales rather than the establishment.
Defending Wales Protecting Welsh jobs.
Wales has the lowest wages
and weakest economy of any UK nation.
Westminster has neglected our needs for generations,
making us one of the poorest regions in Western Europe.
Successive Tory and Labour governments have consistently prioritised investment in the South East of England at the expense of Wales.
Plaid Cymru will not tolerate this act of neglect any longer.
It’s time to stand up for Wales.
Where we are: Businesses are threatening to move away from Wales in fear of not being able to afford higher costs as a result of leaving the EU.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will push for targeted tax discounts for new and existing businesses in Wales as a central part of the new UK Regional Policy.
We will demand that Wales has the power to set its own rates of tax including Corporation Tax, Air Passenger Duty and VAT.
As we leave the EU the new assisted areas map must be determined in Wales.
Where we can be: Attracting businesses to Wales,
our economy thriving
and our people seeing and feeling the benefits in their pockets.
Where we are: Far too much public money is being spent buying goods and services from non-Welsh contractors.
Huge multi-national companies are doing work that could be done by local companies.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will fight to ensure that £4.3 billion in public sector contracts are spent in Wales
and we will introduce a real, independently verified, Living Wage.
Where we can be: 50,000 new, well-paid jobs from public sector contracts,
each paying a genuine living wage.
Where we are: Our public transport system is not fit for purpose.
All of this while England benefits from next-generation trains and high-speed rail links costing £56 billion.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will introduce a £7.5 billion investment programme to fund vital infrastructure projects throughout Wales.
We will press for our fair share of UK infrastructure spend.
Where we can be: Upgraded rail and road links,
10,000 extra affordable homes,
and new schools and hospitals.
Where we are: Small businesses across Wales are suffering due to the recent business rates revaluation,
and town centres are becoming deserted.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will put an end to the unfair business rates system, by moving towards a turnover-based system.
We will ensure there is a properly funded Welsh Development Bank to invest in Welsh businesses.
We will also ensure that you can always have access to a local bank by opening a publicly-owned bank.
Where we can be: Small businesses in our town centres thriving giving a new lease of life to Welsh high streets.
Where we are: The steel industry is a vital part of the Welsh economy, but is in danger of being sacrificed by a Thatcherite government that has no plans to replace the jobs lost.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will demand stringent anti-dumping measures, previously blocked by the UK Government,
and put in place a comprehensive plan to ensure the future of the steel industry.
Where we can be: Jobs saved
and a real future for the Welsh steel industry.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
In the National Assembly, Plaid Cymru put pressure on the Labour Welsh Government to introduce a New Medicines and Treatments Fund, to make sure everyone has access to the medicines they need, no matter where they live in Wales.
Defending Wales.
A healthier, happier Wales.
Plaid Cymru is the only party you can trust to deliver a Welsh health service that works.
Where there has been poor management and underinvestment in the past - by the Tories in Westminster and by Labour in Wales - we will fight for a world-class health service that works.
Where we are: Wales has one of the lowest number of doctors per head in Europe, beds have been cut by 7% and waiting times for diagnosis and treatment are the worst in the UK.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will train and recruit an additional 1000 doctors and 5000 nurses for the Welsh NHS in the next decade.
We will also establish a medical school in the north of Wales.
Where we can be: Wales as a global leader in healthcare where you can secure an appointment, speak to a specialist and be treated quickly, conveniently and effectively.
Where we are: We are facing a social care crisis.
This is due to underinvestment and a perverse historic divide between health and social care.
This has a knock-on effect on our GPs and hospitals with patients not receiving access to care support.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will introduce a social care rescue plan which will help people to live independently and increase the role of community hospitals.
We will ensure that health and social care services are seamlessly provided.
A Plaid Cymru carers’ contract will support those who care for others.
Where we can be: A Wales which gives the highest level of service and care to our most vulnerable citizens and the people who look after them.
Where we are: Avoidable mortality is about 15% higher in Wales than in England.
Too many people are dying prematurely in Wales and we need to do much more to reduce the number of preventable deaths.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will make it our target to save 10,000 lives over ten years, through a range of measures from public health actions and promoting individual lifestyle changes, whilst also ensuring earlier diagnosis of disease and better access to life-saving treatments.
Where we can be: A happy and healthier Wales where thousands of premature deaths are avoided.
Where we are: A Tory government back-tracking on promises made during the referendum campaign.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will hold the Leave campaign to account and push for our share of the £350 million promised to the NHS after leaving the European Union.
Where we can be: Not allowing politicians to make false promises without being held accountable.
Where we are: Services available for those with mental health issues are poor and people lack the essential support that is necessary for their full participation in society.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Having already secured an extra £20 million for mental health treatment as an effective opposition party in the National Assembly, we will continue to call for increased funding and improved access to trained counsellors and therapists in the community.
Where we can be: Timely access to good quality mental health services, and mental and physical health needs to be treated equally.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
In Westminster, Plaid Cymru MPs have consistently campaigned and fought for pensioners’ rights, including fair pensions for women and the mineworkers’ pension scheme.
It is only right that the schemes they have worked hard to pay into for so many years deliver for them.
Defending Wales. Caring for  those in need.
We want to see a Wales where everyone is treated with dignity and respect and given the support they need to fully participate in society.
Where we are: Unscrupulous companies conducting benefits capability assessments  for profit.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We want to see powers over social security devolved to Wales.
We would use those powers, for example, to ban private firms from carrying out benefits assessments for profit.
Where we can be: A fairer and more transparent benefits system, minus the profit motive.
Where we are: Thousands of people are living every day in fear of being evicted or losing the little money they need to survive.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We commit to  scrapping the bedroom tax
and we will continue to fight the cruel ‘rape clause’
and the changes to bereavement support payments.
We will support and encourage disabled people into employment without facing threats of sanctions.
Where we can be: Lifting Wales out of poverty enabling people to feed their families and heat their homes – a right everyone should have.
Where we are: Hundreds of jobs at threat as the Tory UK Government centralises tax offices and closes job centres.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will continue to oppose the centralisation of tax offices in Wales
and fight to keep job centres open.
Where we can be: Hundreds of jobs kept
and people properly supported when searching for good quality, well-paid work.
Where we are: Veterans have been forgotten by successive governments, with vast numbers continuing to suffer mental and physical health issues with little access to the services they require.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Our vow to veterans will mean that they are given the support they deserve and need.
We will make sure veterans receive excellent health care, including mental health care, and adequate housing.
Where we can be: No veteran to be left behind and a Wales where Welsh veterans, who have sacrificed so much, are shown gratitude and respect.
Where we are: The Tories are punishing the most vulnerable in society to pay for the mistakes of politicians and bankers.
Since 1994, the Westminster government has siphoned over £3 billion from the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will ensure a Living Pension for all and we will fight to guarantee the Triple Lock.
We will also continue to oppose increases in the state pension retirement age.
Plaid Cymru calls for an independent review into the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme surplus so that future sums are more fairly split between scheme members and the UK Government.
Where we can be: An end to pensioner poverty
and a Wales where everyone can stand on their own two feet in dignity.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
Plaid Cymru opposed raising tuition fees to £9,000 during the Lib Dem – Tory Coalition.
We believe that, in principle, education should be free for all and we will continue to work towards this aim.
In the National Assembly, we will oppose any attempts to re-introduce grammar schools.
Wales Giving every child a chance.
The Tories are ruthlessly cutting school funding and Labour is insisting on running our education system into the ground, jeopardising our children's future.
Plaid Cymru will ensure that our children are taught by the best teachers at well funded schools, so they have the skills they need to flourish.
Plaid Cymru will give every child in Wales a chance.
Where we are: One in three Welsh children is being raised in poverty, with many families forced to fork out huge amounts of their wages on childcare.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will provide free full-time nursery places for all three year olds.
This will form a part of our three point plan for tackling child poverty, which will also include measures to end fuel poverty through reduced household bills and scrapping the bedroom tax.
Where we can be: Wales as a nation where every child is given every chance to succeed,
helping families out of poverty.
Where we are: Wales has the lowest school test results of any UK nation, with a third of teachers planning to leave the profession within three years.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will raise education standards, by pledging to pay teachers a more competitive salary and improving teachers’ training to allow them to reach higher qualifications and perform better.
Where we can be: An outstanding education for every child delivered by teachers who are passionate about shaping the next generation.
Where we are: Wales facing an enormous and debilitating brain drain, with our brightest students often crossing the border and staying in England.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will create an incentive for those students, who remain or return to live and work in Wales after graduating, helping to retain our brightest young people and strengthen our economy.
We will demand that our universities are properly funded and represented at a UK level.
Where we can be: Giving young people the very best opportunities to thrive and to work here in Wales to boost our economy.
Where we are: The Labour Welsh Government’s chronic under-funding of vocational education in Wales is a matter of national shame.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will guarantee employment, education or training for any person under-25 looking for work.
To ensure we have the skills necessary to prosper, we will also create a new network of specialist National Colleges of Vocational Education, for 14+ and post-compulsory education.
Where we can be: A Wales where there is parity of esteem between vocational and academic qualifications and people are equipped with the skills businesses need.
Where we are: Patchy provision for children and adults to learn Welsh and people not given sufficient opportunity to engage in the language.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will increase the availability of Welsh language education from nursery, to further and higher education right through to adult learning.
We will act to help achieve the steps in our ‘Reaching the Million’ framework for the Welsh language.
Where we can be: A world-class education system that is truly bilingual, giving everyone the opportunity to learn through the medium of Welsh.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
All three MPs have spearheaded local campaigns in Parliament to increase mobile phone and broadband coverage in rural Wales, leading to huge improvements for residents and local businesses.
Defending Wales.
Connecting Wales.
Wales has been left behind.
Our transport system is not fit for purpose and our links with the rest of the world have been neglected.
We cannot afford to be forgotten anymore.
Our communities and country need connecting.
The only way to ensure this case is made in Westminster is by electing a strong group of  Plaid Cymru MPs.
Where we are: Years of chronic underinvestment has meant Welsh roads, railways and buses are overcrowded and crumbling.
The Labour Welsh Government is determined to blow Wales's borrowing budget on an M4 relief road that will only benefit one part of Wales.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru wants to see a real Wales-wide transport system, including re-opening the Carmarthen-Aberystwyth railway, improved Valleys line services, improvements to the A55 and the expansion of the Traws Cymru bus network.
We will also ensure that walking and cycling is integrated with bus and rail services.
Where we can be: A Wales with a transport system fit for the 21st century so people can travel in and around Wales easily.
Where we are: A media controlled by London, with Wales and its people sidelined and forgotten.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will create a level-playing field with every other UK nation and give Wales the power to decide its own media and broadcasting policy.
We will ensure that S4C receives the funding it needs.
Where we can be: A real Welsh media that represents the people of Wales and what matters to them.
Where we are: Swathes of the country are suffering from broadband and mobile not-spots making business untenable in rural Wales.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We commit to making ultra-fast broadband available to all of Wales and rolling out 5G mobile signal nationwide.
Where we can be: Rural communities connected to the world so small businesses can reach their global markets.
Where we are: A tourism industry throttled by unfair taxes
and a Government that is failing to promote Wales as a global tourist destination.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will double the funding for Visit Wales
and cut tourism VAT to put Wales ahead in the international tourism market.
Where we can be: Making Wales the destination of choice for tourists and businesses across the world.
Where we are: Wales risks being totally unrepresented on the international stage, with no Welsh presence in UK embassies to champion our people and businesses.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will develop a real international policy for Wales, so that we can restore our position as a great trading nation.
We will introduce a Welsh Development Agency (WDA) for the 21st century, tasked with boosting Welsh trade.
Where we can be: Closer economic and cultural cooperation with our friends and allies to makes sure Welsh people, culture and businesses are promoted at home and abroad.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
Liz Saville Roberts brought forward a law to the stop the intimidation of rape victims in court.
Concessions were made by the British Government in light of Plaid Cymru pressure and the practice will be curtailed.
Plaid Cymru has worked closely with the Police and Crime Commissioners in an attempt to decriminalise cannabis for medicinal use.
Wales Protecting our communities.
Cuts to frontline policing have left our communities without the protection they need.
The people of Wales have the right to a safe society and access to justice when they need it.
Plaid Cymru will be a voice for victims.
Where we are: Police budgets have been slashed, putting far fewer officers on the street.
Welsh forces have been hit harder than those in the rest of the UK, due to an unfair funding formula.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will secure an extra £25 million for Welsh police forces and we will guarantee Wales gets the police force it needs with decisions about crime and justice made in Wales, for Wales.
Where we can be: Better funded police services, rooted in our communities, focused on the priorities they need to keep us safe.
Where we are: Victims of crime are often sidelined in a justice system that does too little to protect the most vulnerable.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will reverse cuts to legal aid
and bring forward new laws to protect victims of crimes such as rape and domestic abuse so that they can give evidence in court without being intimidated.
Where we can be: Rich or poor, everyone will have access to a justice system that gives victims a fair hearing.
Where we are: The governments in Westminster and Wales want to build an enormous super prison in Port Talbot,  that will become a dumping ground for criminals from all over the UK.
Plaid Cymru's  answer: Plaid Cymru will block the development of the Port Talbot super prison and instead provide much-needed prison spaces for women and youth offenders in Wales.
Where we can be: Prisons that meet Wales's needs
and work for offenders who want to rehabilitate.
Where we are: Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales doesn't have its own legal system to reflect the needs of our people.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Create a Welsh legal jurisdiction that ensures we can create a justice system that reflects the needs of Wales.
Where we can be: A fair, workable and effective Welsh legal system so that the people of Wales can have the certainty they need in the law and the access to justice they deserve.
Where we are: Our fundamental human rights are at risk, exposing the weakest, most vulnerable members of our communities.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will publish a human rights charter for Wales to defend Welsh people against the backdrop of a Tory government intent on undermining the Human Rights Act.
Where we can be: Legal protection for our human rights
and guarantees that whatever your race, gender or sexual orientation you will be treated equally.
Plaid Cymru  is the hardest working party  in Parliament.
Plaid Cymru MPs, along with representatives in the Welsh Assembly, have spearheaded campaigns for 100% of our electricity to be generated by renewables by 2035.
Defending Wales.
Putting energy into our environment.
Our environment is being eroded whilst our natural resources are being used for the benefit of others.
Our energy bills are needlessly high despite us being an exporter of electricity
and our housing stock is outdated and inefficient.
If we carry on with business as usual, none of this will change.
Wales needs Plaid Cymru to make Wales greener.
Where we are: We are far too reliant on fossil fuels that are becoming scarcer, guaranteeing rising energy bills for households.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will increase energy generation from renewables including delivering tidal lagoons in Swansea Bay, Cardiff and Colwyn Bay.
We will establish a national electric vehicle charging network
and will transfer responsibility over Welsh energy generation and natural resources to the National Assembly.
Where we can be: Wales self-sufficient in electricity from renewables
and powering ahead with world-leading tidal energy technology.
Wales managing its own natural resources for the benefit of our people.
Where we are: Electricity bills in Wales are higher than in any other part of the UK, despite the fact that we produce more electricity than we consume.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will create a Welsh energy company, to use profit from Welsh resources to cut the cost of energy for Welsh consumers and shifting to decentralised and distributed networks.
Where we can be: Lifting the people of Wales out of fuel poverty.
Where we are: Too many Welsh houses are poorly insulated, and rely on outdated, expensive heating systems.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will roll out a nationwide scheme to make our housing stock more energy efficient.
We will secure compensation for those who have suffered from badly installed, government-backed cavity wall insulation.
Where we can be: Energy efficient homes that are cheaper to heat,
and a cleaner, greener environment.
Where we are: Wildlife species in Wales are at risk of disappearing, with loss of biodiversity a threat to our natural environment.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will update and consolidate Welsh wildlife legislation, creating a new Wildlife Act for Wales.
We will continue to call for the creation of an Animal Abuse Register for Wales.
Where we can be: Wales can lead the way in the protection of wildlife and biodiversity levels as key elements of our environment.
Where we are: The British government is neglecting its international duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, endangering our children’s future.
As we leave the EU there is a risk that this threat will become greater.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will introduce a new Climate Change Act, adopting ambitious but achievable greenhouse gas and pollution reduction targets for 2030 and 2050.
We will ensure that we build upon the standards set by the EU which have protected our environment.
We will reduce plastic waste with a deposit return scheme.
Where we can be: An environment where the air is cleaner and the climate more sustainable for our children and our grandchildren.
Plaid Cymru  is the hardest working party  in Parliament.
In the National Assembly for Wales, Plaid Cymru opposed the maximum 15% transfer of funds from Pillar One to Pillar Two which took over a quarter of a billion pounds directly out of Wales’s rural economy.
Defending Wales.
Championing  rural life.
Rural Wales is under serious threat from the reckless Tories who are determined to strike irresponsible trade deals with the United States and New Zealand, hindering our competitivity.
With rural communities cut off due to poor digital connectivity and rocketing fuel prices, Wales needs Plaid to make rural Wales matter.
Where we are: Our farms are set to lose European grants that account for 80% of their income.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will fight to ensure that every penny of European funding, including farming payments, is replaced by the UK government.
Where we can be: Vibrant rural communities built around successful farms.
Where we are: Irresponsible trade deals meaning that Wales will be flooded with cheap imported food, harming the Welsh farm industry and the rural communities built around them.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will require the UK Government to seek the endorsement of each UK country before any trade deal can be signed, in order to protect Welsh farmers.
Where we can be: A domestic food market full of locally sourced produce, supporting Welsh farmers and rural communities.
Where we are: Funding for meat marketing in Wales is being diverted across the border, harming Welsh producers.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will fight to reform the Red Meat Levy so that the £1 million of lost funding for Hybu Cig Cymru stays within Wales.
Where we can be: Top quality Welsh produce being sold and marketed across the world, increasing demand for Welsh produce and pushing up farmgate prices.
Where we are: The blighting of our natural landscape with unnecessary and unwanted pylons.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will oppose the construction and use of pylons through National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, advocating underground or undersea cabling where possible.
Where we can be: Keeping our world-class countryside clear of unnecessary pylons so that future generations can enjoy it as we do.
Where we are: Fluctuating fuel prices are hitting people’s pockets, with rural areas suffering most.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We believe it is necessary to introduce a fuel duty regulator to stop rising fuel costs.
Where we can be: Fair fuel prices for everyone, including in rural areas where industry and residents are more reliant on fuel-based vehicles.
Plaid Cymru is the hardest working party in Parliament.
Hywel Williams protected Bangor University international student Shiromini Satkunarajah from deportation by securing 171,000 signatures on a petition and putting pressure on the Home Office to release her.
Plaid Cymru voted against the illegal war in Iraq
and led a cross-party campaign  to impeach Tony Blair  for his war crimes.
We also voted against air strikes in Syria.
Defending Wales On the global stage.
Wales was once a global trading superpower.
We now face a situation where we are forced to go cap in hand to a Westminster Government that cosies up to dictators
and attacks our closest allies.
Plaid Cymru wants an outward-looking, ambitious Wales.
By electing Plaid Cymru MPs, you can make sure Wales's voice is heard on the global stage.
Where we are: The Tory Prime Minister is willing to do anything to appease her new-found friend, Donald Trump.
Unnecessary, undemocratic and ill-considered military action is likely.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will oppose military action without UN and Parliamentary authority.
Where we can be: Wales as part of a global community where we work together to keep each other safe and secure.
Where we are: Both Tories and Labour want to spend billions on the renewal of an ineffective and unnecessary nuclear weapons system.
Labour want to locate it in Wales.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We are determined to scrap Trident, resisting any attempts to relocate it to Wales.
We will instead invest in home-based troops and strengthen our conventional forces.
Where we can be: Basing our regiments at home in Wales with a properly funded and looked-after defence force.
Where we are: The Tories are not doing enough to help those in need.
The UK Government is more interested in selling arms to Saudi Arabia than taking our fair share of refugees.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will maintain the 0.7% of GDP commitment on international aid
and fight for the Dubs amendment, allowing vulnerable refugee children into the UK,  to be upheld.
Where we can be: A fairer Wales within a fairer world where we don’t turn our back on children in need of our help.
Where we are: This government is proposing unworkable and illogical immigration policies which will hurt jobs and wages in Wales.
Plaid Cymru's answer: We will create a Welsh Migration Advisory Service so that we can have a system that suits Wales's needs.
Welsh-specific visas are necessary to plug skills gaps and to protect our health service from staff shortages.
International students must be taken out of net migration targets.
Where we can be: A logical immigration policy that works for Wales, where students and job creators can come,
but wages aren’t undercut
and communities are protected.
Where we are: The ‘for Wales see England’ mentality is all too familiar on the global stage.
Welsh sporting superstars are beginning to change this, but more needs to be done to put Wales on the map.
Plaid Cymru's answer: Plaid Cymru will demand UK and Welsh Government support for Wales hosting major events including the Commonwealth Games and World Expo.
Where we can be: Making sure that Brand Wales is recognised on the global stage with Welsh talent showcased all over the world.
STRONGER FOR SCOTLAND
SNP MPs have used their influence to deliver positive change.
Here’s just some of what a strong team of SNP MPs has worked to achieve in the past two years.
Holding the UK government to account on powers
When the Scotland Bill was going through Westminster it was the SNP who forced the UK government to give Scotland more powers.
And it was SNP MPs, working with the Scottish Government, who saw off Tory attempts to slash Scotland’s budget by £7 billion in the process.
The SNP secured a deal that ensures Scotland will not lose billions of pounds in return for new powers.
Opposing Tory austerity
SNP MPs have consistently opposed Tory austerity.
Our MPs have been instrumental in forcing UK government budget u-turns on some of the proposed cuts to tax credits and disability benefits.
Fighting to end the Rape Clause
Alison Thewliss has been at the forefront of the campaign against the Tory policy to limit Child Tax Credits to two children
and force women to prove they have been raped to claim benefits for third and subsequent children.
Pension justice for women born in the 1950s
SNP MPs have worked with Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) and led calls at Westminster for women born in the 1950s to receive the pensions they are due.
Legislation on ending violence against women
This year Dr Eilidh Whiteford became the first SNP MP to have a Private Member’s Bill pass at Westminster.
The Bill requires the UK government to ratify the Istanbul Convention and take further action to eradicate domestic violence.
Fighting against the cruel and punitive sanction regime Mhairi Black has led opposition to the punitive benefit sanctions regime, and proposed a Private Member’s Bill to make the system fairer.
SNP MPs will continue to press for change in the next Parliament.
Leading opposition to the bombing of Syria
It was the SNP that provided the clear and unified opposition to the UK government’s ill-judged decision to bomb Syria.
SNP MPs will continue to press the UK government to take meaningful action to bring about a political resolution to end the six-year conflict in Syria, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
Clear, consistent and unified opposition to Trident SNP MPs have been the only effective opposition to the UK government’s plan to spend billions on a new generation of nuclear weapons.
Fighting for a fairer immigration policy
Ian Blackford and Alex Salmond successfully lobbied on behalf of the Brain family and secured their right to live in Scotland.
We will continue to support a post-study work visa, to help attract and retain the skills and talent Scotland needs.
Demanding action on tax evasion
Roger Mullin has led calls for the UK government to take action on the use of the Scottish Limited Partnership business model that can be used to undertake criminal activity, fraud and tax evasion.
As a result of SNP pressure, the UK government has commenced a review into the use of such practices.
Fair compensation for veterans
Kirsten Oswald, alongside the Royal British Legion, successfully campaigned to force the UK goverment to ensure that veterans are entitled to the same compensation for asbestos-related mesothelioma as civilians who contracted the illness.
BUILDING A BETTER SCOTLAND
In Scotland we are working to protect public services, social protections and family incomes from Tory cuts.
High quality health care
Investment in Scotland’s NHS is at a record level and the number of staff working in our NHS has increased by almost 10 per cent since 2007.
Health and social care has been integrated and our hospital A&E departments are the best performing in the UK.
Prescription charges abolished, ensuring there’s no tax on ill health
We abolished prescription charges in 2011.
In England, patients are still forced to pay a Tory tax on health of £8.60 per prescription.
Free, high quality childcare increased
We have increased the availability of free early years education and childcare from 12.5 hours in 2007 to 16 hours a week for all three and four year olds – and also extended it to two year olds from low income households.
By 2021 we will increase provision to 30 hours.
Investing in a good education for all
Spending on education and training in Scotland is going up.
Total spending rose by almost five per cent in 2015-16, in contrast to the UK as a whole, where it fell.
We are seeing record exam passes in our schools and more young people going into positive destinations.
We have abolished university tuition fees, saving students up to £27,000 compared to the cost of study in England.
College students in Scotland are eligible for the best level of non-repayable bursary anywhere in the UK.
Cheaper Council Tax bills
Average Council Tax bills in Scotland, in all property bands, are lower in Scotland than in England.
Free personal care for older people
Around 77,000 people in Scotland enjoy access to a wide range of personal care services without charge.
Older people in England are not entitled to free personal care.
The highest house building rate in the UK
Scotland has the highest house building rate in the UK.
We have overseen a new generation of council house building and, since 2007, over 60,000 affordable homes have been completed.
Higher youth employment
Youth employment in Scotland is higher and youth unemployment is lower than the rest of the UK.
Fair pay
Scotland has the highest proportion of employees paid the Living Wage of any country in the UK.
More police officers and less crime
In Scotland, under the SNP, police numbers are up, while they’ve fallen in England.
And crime is at a 42-year low.
No Bedroom Tax
No one in Scotland has to pay the Bedroom Tax and we will use new powers to abolish it completely.
OUR KEY PLEDGES
Now more than ever, it is vital to have strong SNP voices standing up for Scotland.
A vote for the SNP will make Scotland’s voice heard at Westminster.
It will elect MPs who will always work to protect our public services,
social protections
and family budgets from the impact of Tory cuts.
It will be a vote to make sure that Scotland’s interests are not sidelined in the Brexit negotiations.
And it will send a message to Westminster that Scotland’s future should always be in Scotland’s hands.
An end to austerity
SNP MPs will demand an end to austerity.
We have a responsible plan to repair the public finances
while also freeing up additional resources to bring an end to austerity.
This will allow us to support a halt to further social security cuts,
an end to the freeze on working age benefits,
increased investment in public services
and protection for family budgets.
Fair tax
Setting rates of income tax is now the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.
In the current financial year, we have frozen the basic rate of income tax to help low and middle earners
- and we have opted not to cut tax for higher rate taxpayers through an increase in the higher rate threshold.
Until such time as the Scottish Parliament controls the rules on income tax avoidance, there is a risk that an increase in the Additional Rate of income tax in Scotland alone would lead to a loss of revenue.
However, we support an increase in the Additional Rate from 45p to 50p across the UK as a whole from 2018/19.
At a time when household budgets are under increasing pressure, SNP MPs will oppose any proposed increases in Value Added Tax or National Insurance.
We will also support the reversal of the married couple’s allowance,
the reversal of the reductions to the bank levy
and the introduction of a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Protecting the NHS
We are already committed to increasing the budget of NHS Scotland by £2 billion by the end of the current Scottish Parliament.
Our plan to end austerity would enable the UK government to increase investment in the NHS far beyond current plans.
We will continue to call for increased health spending, passing on all health revenue consequentials in full for healthcare in Scotland.
SNP MPs will also vote against any further privatisation of the NHS in England and back any moves to restore it to a fully public service.
Improving education
We will expand early years education and childcare to 30 hours a week for all 3 & 4 year olds and vulnerable 2 year olds.
We will continue to invest in and reform school education, with the new National Improvement Framework, the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the £120 million Pupil Equity Fund.
However, we will not follow the Tories’ market driven education-reforms.
There will be no selective grammar schools in Scotland.
We will also guarantee the continuation of free university education.
Tackling poverty and inequality
The Tories have cut taxes for the wealthiest in our society, while cutting support for the disabled and low income working families.
According to the Resolution Foundation, the UK is on course for the biggest increase in inequality since the days of Margaret Thatcher.
SNP MPs will vote against further cuts to social security.
We will also press for the abolition of the two child cap on tax credits
and the associated Rape Clause.
And we will vote to ensure that benefits increase at least in line with CPI inflation.
Fair pensions
Pensioner poverty is on the rise across the UK.
We will vote to protect the Triple Lock, ensuring that pensions continue to rise by inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent - whatever is the highest.
We will also continue to support the WASPI campaign.
A focus on jobs, growth and productivity
SNP MPs will not support further reductions to Corporation Tax.
However, to support job creation, we will propose a doubling of the Employment Allowance – the National Insurance discount that businesses receive when they increase employment.
To boost productivity, we will also support extension of the Annual Investment Allowance, which encourages firms to invest in plant and machinery.
We will also demand fresh support for our oil and gas sector,
and an industrial strategy that works for Scotland.
More powers for the Scottish Parliament
We will seek additional powers for the Scottish Parliament to boost our economy,
mitigate the damage of Brexit,
and protect the most vulnerable in our society from damaging Tory cuts.
Making work fair and tackling low pay
SNP MPs will support repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016
and a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts.
Low pay and falling real wages is a driver of increasing inequality and therefore one of the biggest challenges of the next Parliament.
We will support moves over the next Parliament to increase the Minimum Wage to the level of the real Living Wage.
The Scottish Government has supported public sector workers through a difficult time of pay restraint with additional measures to tackle low pay.
However, we recognise that at a time of rising inflation, public sector pay caps become unsustainable.
For the NHS, the Scottish Government will work with unions to submit evidence to the independent pay review body on the impact of pay restraint and ask it to make fair recommendations.
And we will commit - as we always have done - to implementing the recommendations of the pay review body in full.
For the wider public sector, we will enter into negotiations for next year’s pay settlement in good faith and with a view to agreeing a fair outcome that takes account of both the public finances and the cost of living.
SNP MPs will also call for tough new action to close the gender pay gap.
Protecting Scotland’s place in the Single Market
We must make sure that our interests are not ignored in the Brexit negotiations - a vote for the SNP will make sure that Scotland’s voice is heard.
A majority of people in Scotland voted to remain in the EU - but even many of those who voted to leave have real concerns about the extreme Brexit being pursued by the Prime Minister.
Leaving the Single Market could cost 80,000 jobs in Scotland.
That is why the Scottish Government published proposals that would keep Scotland in the Single Market, even as we left the EU.
These proposals were rejected by the UK government.
However, if the SNP wins this election, we will demand a place for Scotland at the Brexit negotiating table and the inclusion of the case for our place in the Single Market in the UK’s negotiating remit.
Scotland’s choice
At the end of the Brexit process, when the final terms of the deal are known, it is right that Scotland should have a choice about our future.
Brexit must not simply be imposed on Scotland no matter how damaging it turns out to be.
Last year’s Holyrood election delivered the democratic mandate for an independence referendum.
The recent vote of Scotland’s national Parliament has underlined that mandate.
If the SNP wins a majority of Scottish seats in this election, that would complete a triple lock, further reinforcing the democratic mandate which already exists.
And, in such circumstances, any continued Tory attempts to block the people of Scotland having a choice on their future - when the time is right and the options are clear - would be democratically unsustainable.
Modernising UK democracy
Our democratic institutions should be representative of, and accountable to, the people they represent.
We support the replacement of the first-past-the-post system with proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons.
SNP MPs will bring forward proposals to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds in all elections.
We will also support the right to vote of citizens from other EU countries resident here.
SNP MPs will vote for the abolition of the House of Lords.
Scrap Trident
SNP MPs will build a cross-party coalition to scrap Trident as quickly and safely as possible.
We will vote for the billions other Westminster parties are committing to renewing Trident to be spent on our public services.
STANDING UP FOR SCOTLAND
BY ANGUS ROBERTSON
In the last two years your SNP team at Westminster has worked tirelessly to stand up for Scotland.
We’ve ensured that, at every opportunity, Scotland’s interests have been represented.
We will not allow the Tory government to go unopposed. We will work to protect our schools, hospitals and pensions from more Tory cuts. And we will never allow the Tories to trade away our jobs and industries in Brexit negotiations.
We’ve fought unnecessary Tory cuts to public services and immoral policies like the Rape Clause, the Bedroom Tax, and welfare cuts pushing children into poverty.
Only a vote for the SNP on 8 June will ensure Scotland has a strong voice at Westminster, standing against Tory cuts.
And we’ve shown Westminster what hard¬working MPs should look like – doing more and costing less than our predecessors.
I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved over these two years. But there’s much more to do.
Now, more than ever, it’s vital that Scotland continues to have strong voices at Westminster.
Angus Robertson
ENDING THE CALLOUS TORY BENEFIT SANCTIONS REGIME
BY MHAIRI BLACK
The Tory obsession with austerity is a political choice, not a necessity. The punitive benefit sanctions regime is one of the worst policies to ever come out of Westminster.
As a new MP I vowed to make some commonsense changes to benefit sanctions. Last year I secured a Private Member’s Bill to ensure that a person’s mental health, caring responsibilities and risk of homelessness were accounted for before a sanction could be applied
Disgracefully the Bill was shot down. Very few Labour MPs even showed up and the Tory Minister used Parliamentary tactics to dismiss it.
If I had the power to do so, I’d scrap this cruel and callous regime immediately. That’s why I am proud that the SNP government in Scotland has chosen to take a different approach. The SNP puts people first. We’re committed to placing dignity and respect at the heart of the new social security system in Scotland. No government should be making its own citizens destitute and that is exactly what the Tory government is doing.
Disadvantaged and low income individuals in Scotland must be protected not punished.
Only a strong team of SNP MPs can take the fight to Theresa May and halt the unfair benefit sanctions regime.
CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE ABHORRENT RAPE CLAUSE
BY ALISON THEWLISS
At the first Budget after the 2015 General Election, the Tories announced they would restrict eligibility for Child Tax Credits to the first two children in a family.
For larger families, the impact of this cut is huge. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that nearly one million three and four-child families will be worse off by thousands of pounds a year because of this cut.
Poring over the Budget document, I noticed that the Tories two-child policy also contained sinister small print – an exemption if it could be proven that the third or subsequent child being claimed for was conceived as a result of rape.
Putting victims through the trauma of having to prove they were raped to the Department for Work and Pensions, just to receive support for their children, is abhorrent and appalling. This is a new low for the Tories.
Working with women’s organisations, the SNP continues to campaign to scrap the regressive two-child policy and the repugnant Rape Clause. We haven’t and we won’t shy away from taking the Tories to task on their ideological, punitive cuts.
The SNP stands up for all children in Scotland.
STANDING UP FOR OUR OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
BY CALLUM MCCAIG
Scotland’s oil and gas industry is vital to our economy and jobs. Yet there has been a lack of action from the Tory government at Westminster since the downturn in the sector.
At Westminster, we’ve consistently stood up for the sector.
Only after pressure from SNP MPs did the Tory Chancellor abolish the petroleum revenue tax and halve the supplementary charge to 10 per cent. That’s just a start.
Further measures to support the industry are urgent and cannot continue to be ignored. Time and time again, the Tories have turned down our proposals on further support through late life transfers, decommissioning and exploration incentives. We will not let a Tory government at Westminster get away with destroying another vital Scottish industry. Our oil and gas industry can have a bright future, but it needs a UK government that is willing to act. Only strong SNP voices can ensure this happens.
COMBATTING DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
BY DR EILIDH WHITEFORD
The reality is that one in four women, and some men and boys, will experience these types of violence over the course of their lives. It impacts us all, not just those directly affected.
Most of us will have a relative, friend or colleague with first-hand experience, and know the toll it takes on families and relationships.
The Istanbul Convention is a comprehensive international treaty aimed at securing minimum standards to prevent and combat domestic and sexual violence. It’s recognised as the best framework in the world to tackle gender-based violence.
My new Bill will ensure that the Istanbul Convention is incorporated into UK law. It will make it much more difficult to cut services offering refuge for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault or rape, and will help improve the experiences of victims within the judicial system.
I’m proud that it was the SNP that led the campaign to get the Istanbul Convention on the UK statute book. SNP MPs will now ensure there is a clear timetable for the work towards finally eradicating domestic violence.
Earlier this year my Bill to ensure new action on domestic violence was passed at Westminster with cross-party support.
FIGHTING THE TORIES’ GREAT RURAL ROBBERY
BY CALUM KERR
It’s never been more important for our rural communities to have a strong voice at Westminster. With more SNP MPs since 2015 that’s what we’ve been delivering.
As SNP rural affairs spokesperson I’ve challenged the Tory decision to rob Scottish farmers of £190 million of EU money, which only came to the UK because of Scotland’s historically low average farm payments. I will continue to fight for this funding to be passed on to Scotland’s farmers.
As the UK leaves the EU, there is still no firm guarantee that EU powers and funding over farming will return to Scotland.
At Westminster, I’ll continue to fight any Tory power grab.
Our fishing communities know the consequences of leaving the Tories in charge. They need an unequivocal commitment that their livelihoods will not be bargaining chips in Brexit negotiations or treated, again, as ‘expendable’. SNP MPs will continue to put the concerns of our fishing sector front and centre. At this election we face an unfettered Tory government ready to grab farming powers for themselves and sell-out our fishing industry. Only the SNP will put Scotland’s rural communities first and put more power in Scotland’s hands.
WORKING HARDER, COSTING LESS
SNP MPs spoke in an average 61 debates in 2015-16, compared to 27 for their predecessors in 2014-15.
Since 2015, SNP MPs tabled 4,000 written questions to the UK government.
SNP MPs cost £1 million less in 2015-16 than their predecessors did in 2014-15.
FIGHTING FOR OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS FROM OTHER EU COUNTRIES
BY STEPHEN GETINS
Theresa May has, time and time again, refused to provide any firm answers for our EU neighbours, colleagues and friends. Instead she has made a series of vague commitments to seeking an early resolution to the issue. It’s just not good enough.
The Prime Minister cannot speak on one hand of building a fairer and global UK whilst also jeopardising the status and rights of EU citizens who have made the UK their home.
EU nationals contribute immeasurably to our economy, our public services and our culture. By giving straightforward access to permanent residence, we can end the uncertainty about their future.
The SNP will continue to stand up for the rights of EU citizens at Westminster. And if the UK government chooses not to give EU nationals the certainty they deserve, then immigration powers should be devolved so that Scotland can do so.
Leaving the EU will have an impact on every one of us. For EU nationals in particular, Brexit will bring uncertainty about their right to continue living and working in Scotland.
DEMANDING ACTION ON TAX EVASI0N
BY ROGER MULLIN
When it was revealed that SLPs were being used for criminal activity, fraud and tax avoid-ance, we knew we had to act fast to protect Scotland’s reputation as a world class place to do business.
While the Tories at Westminster were happy to do nothing, we pressed them for action. We repeatedly submitted amendments to Bills. We raised the issue in debates and at Prime Min-ister’s Questions. We wrote letters to the UK government, calling for a robust strategy.
Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) are a way of registering businesses that has existed for over a century.
After repeatedly disregarding their duty to act, the Tories were eventually forced to do a u-turn and instigate a review into limited partnerships and criminality - in the face of mounting evidence, inter-national scandals, and, of course, the unrelenting efforts of SNP MPs.
It’s a step closer to a robust solution to this serious issue, but only the SNP will ensure the Tories aren’t let off the hook.
PROTECTING OUR PUBLIC SERVICES
Tackling austerity and securing investment in our public services will be the priority for SNP MPs.
We have a plan to repair the public finances by the end of this Parliament,
while freeing up additional resources to end austerity and support investment in our public services.
Ending austerity and investing in public services
SNP MPs will demand an end to austerity.
We will demand a new, credible fiscal plan for the UK.
The UK government’s current fiscal plans are driven more by ideology and their own political interests than the interests of the country.
They intend to build up a financial war-chest ahead of the next election – and they will do it on the back of the poorest in society by slashing welfare.
This is neither morally acceptable nor economically necessary.
Our alternative fiscal plan has three key aims: Balance the budget by the end of the Parliament
We will propose to achieve a current budget balance by the end of the next Parliament in 2021/22
with net borrowing being used only for investment from that year onwards.
Return the deficit to its pre-crash long-term average
Under our plans, the UK’s net borrowing requirement will fall to 2.3 per cent of GDP – the thirty-year, long-term average for net borrowing prior to the financial crisis.
It will reach this level in 2020/21 and remain there in 2021/22.
Set debt on a downward path from 2019/20
These steps will see debt falling as a percentage of GDP from 2019/20, meeting the current target on public sector net debt.
This plan will release almost £120 billion for public spending over the next Parliament,
while returning the UK’s finances to a stable, sustainable path.
The cost of Tory cuts
Over the 10-year period from 2010-11 and 2019-20,
the Tories will have cut Scottish Government day-to-day spending by £2.9 billion in real terms.
That is enough to:
•build the new Queensferry Crossing twice, or
•build the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital – Europe’s largest – three times, or
•train more than 3,800 consultant doctors
Fair and balanced personal taxation
We will back tax proposals that promote fairness,
while raising the revenues required to protect the public services we all rely on.
Setting rates of Income Tax is now the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.
In the current financial year, we have frozen the basic rate of Income Tax to help low and middle earners
- and we have opted not to cut tax for higher rate taxpayers through an increase in the higher rate threshold.
Until such time as the Scottish Parliament controls the rules on income tax avoidance, there is a risk that an increase in the additional rate of Income Tax in Scotland alone would lead to a loss of revenue.
However, we support an increase in the Additional Rate from 45p to 50p across the UK as a whole from 2018/19.
We will support the reversal of the married couple’s allowance,
the reversal of the reductions to the bank levy
and introduction of a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
We will not support further reductions to Corporation Tax.
At a time when household budgets are under pressure and consumer confidence in Scotland is low, SNP MPs will back a freeze on National Insurance contributions and Value Added Tax.
We will back the continuation of VAT-exemption on essential items like children’s clothes,
and will hold the UK government to a commitment to remove VAT from sanitary products.
Until VAT is removed from sanitary products, SNP MPs will call for Scotland’s population share of the Tampon Tax Fund to be transferred to the Scottish Government so that a fair and proportionate amount can be distributed to organisations working with and for women across Scotland.
Improving tax collection
SNP MPs will back improvements to tax collection
and tougher action on tax avoidance, including:
•a moratorium and review of the closure of HMRC offices in Scotland and across the UK;
•beneficial ownership of companies and trusts to be made public;
•measures to improve the transparency of tax paid by major international companies;
•and further action by the UK government to tackle international tax avoidance.
Protecting our health service
We all rely on our NHS – that is why we are committed to making sure it is fit for the future.
The SNP Scottish Government is already committed to an increase in the NHS revenue budget of £500 million more than inflation by the end of the current term of the Scottish Parliament.
That means the budget will increase by £2 billion in total.
Latest statistics show that overall health spending in Scotland is around 7 per cent per head higher than in England.
If the UK government were to match Scotland, England’s Health investment would increase by over £11 billion above inflation by the end of this Parliament.
At Westminster, SNP MPs will argue for an increase in frontline health spending – and the Scottish Government will ensure that any consequential funding from this goes to Scotland’s health service.
We will always vote to protect the health service in all parts of the UK from privatisation – as any moves to privatise the NHS in England could lead to the erosion of the budget that is available to Scotland.
We will work on a cross-party basis to support an NHS Reinstatement Bill that returns the NHS south of the border to its founding principles.
We are committed to an NHS that is free to those who need it.
That is why we abolished prescription charges in Scotland in 2011 , ensuring there is no tax on ill health.
We remain committed to free prescriptions.
Scotland’s population is changing and our health service must change with it.
To meet the challenge of an ageing population an additional £1 .7 billion will be invested in Scotland’s health and social care partnerships over this term of the Scottish Parliament.
We are also reforming primary care and increasing the share of the total NHS budget that is committed to it - this will support an increase in the numbers of GPs and nurses working in our communities.
In Scotland, we are taking new action to promote health and well-being in children’s early years.
We are increasing the number of health visitors,
introducing the Baby Box for every new-born child,
and delivering the Childsmile programme to improve oral health.
We are also developing and implementing the Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
Obesity is one of the biggest challenges facing our nation’s health, but the UK government’s strategy falls short on key measures to make meaningful progress.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to re-commit to key policies which can only currently be implemented at Westminster – such as closing the loopholes in the sugary drinks tax,
tightening regulation of broadcast and digital junk food advertising seen by children,
and introducing clearer food labelling.
We are also taking action to improve mental health services in Scotland.
In government, the SNP has appointed the UK’s first dedicated Minister for Mental Health and mental health spending is at record levels.
We have also significantly increased the number of people working in child and adolescent mental health.
One in four of us experience mental health issues in our lifetime, so there is much still to do.
Our new ten-year Mental Health Strategy includes 40 different actions – based around improving access to services and supporting earlier intervention.
Actions include increasing the mental health workforce and improving delivery of child and adolescent mental health services.
In contrast to the approach of the UK government, the Scottish Government values junior doctors, nurses and our wider NHS workforce.
We have committed to enshrining safe NHS staffing levels in law.
The Scottish Government has supported NHS workers through a difficult time of pay restraint with additional measures to tackle low pay
and support progression.
As a result, many nurses and Agenda for Change staff are better paid than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK.
However, we recognise that at a time of rising inflation, public sector pay caps become increasingly unsustainable.
For the NHS, the Scottish Government will work with unions to submit evidence to the independent pay review body on the impact of pay restraint and ask it to make fair recommendations.
And we will commit - as we always have done - to implementing the recommendations of the pay review body in full.
However, should a UK Government continue to constrain pay in the next parliament, and therefore curtail the independence of the pay review body, we will seek to work with health unions to explore the creation of distinct Scottish pay review arrangements.
The SNP Scottish Government is committed to protecting free tuition
and the non-means tested, non-repayable nursing and midwifery student bursary, which was scrapped by the UK government.
At Westminster SNP MPs will continue to pursue policy outcomes that will attract and retain talented young people to work in our public services.
NHS workers from across Europe help to staff our GP surgeries, hospitals and our care homes.
SNP MPs will continue to press the UK government to immediately protect their right to live and work in Scotland and the UK.
We will also press for immigration powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so that Scotland can attract EU and EEA nationals to work in Scotland’s NHS and care sector in the years to come.
Losing access to the European Medicines Agency through Brexit means that there may be delays to new medicines becoming available in the UK, or new medicines potentially not being made available here at all.
The SNP will call on the UK government to stay part of the EMA so that access to vital drugs is maintained, and so that we can continue to participate in Europe-wide clinical trials and data sharing.
We will also call on the UK government to devolve responsibility for medicine and medical product regulation to the Scottish Parliament.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to ensure continuity in cross-border health insurance arrangements – including the European Health Insurance Card.
Costs will be increased for UK citizens living in, and travelling to, other parts of the EU if the UK government fails to agree reciprocal insurance arrangements with our European partners.
Scotland is the first of the UK nations to approve the provision of Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by the NHS to prevent HIV.
We will support efforts to have PrEP made available on the NHS in the rest of the UK too.
Victims of contaminated blood products deserve answers.
In 2008 the SNP Scottish Government established the Penrose Public Inquiry, which reported in 2015.
In government, we have also worked with stakeholder groups to develop a substantially improved compensation scheme, which is now the best in the UK.
SNP MPs will support a full public inquiry on this issue in the rest of the UK.
Scotland’s NHS: the facts
•We are investing record amounts in health – over £13 billion in 2017, £3.6 billion more than when we took office. And health spending per head in Scotland is higher than in England – to the tune of £152 per person.
•In 2011 the SNP abolished prescription charges. In England patients are forced to pay £8.60 per item.
•The number of nurses, doctors and dentists working in Scotland’s NHS has increased. Staffing is at record high levels, up more than 12,200 under the SNP. Per head of population, Scotland has the most GPs of any UK country and there are now almost 50 per cent more qualified nurses and midwives working in our NHS Scotland than in England.
•Scotland’s core A&E services are the best performing in the UK – and have been for 2 years.
•Most recent figures show that 90 per cent of NHS Scotland patients rated their care and treatment as good or excellent.
•Nurses in Scotland are better paid than anywhere else in the UK. A nurse in Scotland, at Band 5, is paid up to £309 more than their English counterparts. And, unlike in the NHS in England, we are supporting the lowest paid workers in our NHS by delivering the real Living Wage. As a result the starting salary of NHS support staff in Scotland is over £1,100 higher than in England. Read more at www.snp.org/record
Protecting our education sector
We will guarantee the continuation of free university education in Scotland.
The Post-Study Work Visa is a vital tool to help attract and retain young talent.
The UK government’s decision to scrap the scheme, and then run a pilot which does not include a single Scottish university, is unacceptable.
SNP MPs will call for the full reinstatement of the Post-Study Work Visa scheme.
Scotland’s universities receive vital research funding from the EU, through programmes like Horizon 2020.
SNP MPs will continue to work with Scotland’s universities and institutions to seek clarity from the UK government on what will replace this funding.
The SNP will also call for a Scottish representative to be a standing member of the UK Research and Innovation Board, which decides on allocation of UK research funding to UK universities.
The SNP believes that our students should be able to seamlessly travel to Europe for study and we will support the continuation of programmes like ERASMUS+ and other arrangements such as those being worked on by the AURORA group of universities including Aberdeen.
Supporting our young people
A good education is an investment – not just in our children, but in our society and our economy too.
While the Tories in Westminster are intent on removing support for our young people, the SNP Scottish Government is committed to ensuring our young people are able to get ahead in life.
•Research shows improved childcare is the single policy that will do most to reduce income inequality. Under the SNP the availability of free early years education and childcare has increased from 12.5 hours in 2007 to 16 hours a week for all three and four year olds and it has also been extended to two year olds from low income households. By 2021 we will increase the provision to 30 hours.
•In government we are investing £50 million to ensure all staff working in private nurseries delivering our childcare pledge are paid the real Living Wage.
•We have extended free school meals to all children in Primary 1 to 3 in Scotland, ensuring they get a healthy and nutritious meal every day, improving their concentration, helping them to achieve better results, and saving families around £380 per child per year.
•Free tuition has been maintained, saving students in Scotland up to £27,000 compared to the cost of studying in England.
•We have been reforming vocational education and increasing the number of Modern Apprenticeships, hitting new records every year on the road to our target of 30,000 new starts by the end of this parliament.
•We have expanded the Education Maintenance Allowance – now scrapped for new students south of the border – to support even more school pupils and college students from low income families.
Supporting our emergency services
Despite emergency services in England having tax relief from VAT, the UK government has failed to deliver the same relief for Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
This has cost Scottish taxpayers more than £140 million since 2013.
SNP MPs will continue to make the case to the UK government to extend a VAT exemption to Scottish emergency services.
The money saved will be invested by the Scottish Government in making Scotland safer.
Public Sector Pay
The Scottish Government has supported public sector workers through a difficult time of pay restraint with additional measures to tackle low pay.
However, we recognise that at a time of rising inflation, public sector pay caps fbecome increasingly unsustainable.
For the NHS, the Scottish Government will work with unions to submit evidence to the independent pay review body on the impact of pay restraint and ask it to make fair recommendations.
And we will commit - as we always have done - to implementing the recommendations of the pay review body in full.
For the wider public sector, we will enter into negotiations for next year’s pay settlement in good faith and with a view to agreeing a fair outcome that takes account of both the public finances and the cost of living.
Better rail services
We are committed to improving standards for rail users.
Since the SNP took office, we have invested £7.7 billion to maintain and upgrade tracks, stations and trains in Scotland.
Scotland’s rail passengers benefit from the lowest levels of fare increases since rail powers were devolved in 2005,
as well as more seats, services and stations.
And we are already using new powers to ensure a public sector operator will be able to bid for a future rail contract.
ScotRail has worked in recent months to improve the punctuality of its services.
However, fifty-four per cent of ScotRail delays are caused by issues connected to Network Rail.
SNP MPs will make a strong case for the full devolution of Network Rail so that we can deliver a more effective and efficient rail service for Scotland.
Connecting Scotland to HS2 must be a priority, with construction beginning in Scotland as well as England, and a high speed connection between Glasgow, Edinburgh and the north of England as part of any high-speed rail network
SNP MPs will engage the UK government in discussions on the feasibility of improving cross-border rail links, including linking Carlisle to the Borders Railway.
Championing public service broadcasting and a thriving press
We continue to believe that responsibility for broadcasting in Scotland should transfer from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament.
In the meantime we welcome the creation of a new BBC Scotland TV channel and its associated investment.
We will continue to push for greater authority and funding to be moved from BBC network to BBC Scotland.
We will also continue to push for a fairer share of the TV licence fee raised in Scotland being spent in Scotland.
We welcome the proposals for the relocation of Channel 4 outwith London, and SNP MPs will make a strong case for as many functions of the Channel 4 operation as possible to be based in Scotland.
As the UK government consults on proposals to reduce the requirement for local content on radio, SNP MPs will seek to protect local news and other content provided by local commercial radio stations,
recognising the valuable contribution they make to informing and entertaining listeners.
We remain committed to a vibrant, free press and we will work with other parties, in Scotland and at Westminster, to ensure it is supported.
We will make the case for the Scottish Parliament to have the power to decide which sporting events in Scotland are included in the list of those that are free to view in Scotland.
We will demand that the UK government reinstates its funding for Gaelic broadcasting.
AN OPEN, MODERN ECONOMY
Now more than ever, it is vital to have strong SNP voices standing up for jobs
and businesses in Scotland.
At Westminster, we will demand fresh support for businesses to grow
and to boost productivity.
We will hold the Tories to account, making sure they cannot trade away Scotland’s industries in Brexit negotiations.
We will fight for Single Market membership.
And we will demand new powers, so we can continue to encourage the best and brightest from around the world to make Scotland their home, and contribute to our economy and society.
Supporting business
We will support the targeted reduction in National Insurance to bring down the costs employers face when taking on new workers by the doubling of the Employment Allowance – the National Insurance discount businesses receive when they increase employment – from £3,000 per business per year to £6,000 per business per year, phased in over the Parliament.
Productivity remains a major challenge in the UK economy.
We will, therefore, support the Institute of Directors’ calls for the further extension of the Annual Investment Allowance, which encourages firms to invest in plant and machinery, from the current £200,000 per year to £1 million per year.
The UK government’s Draft Industrial Strategy doesn’t deliver for our manufacturing industries.
The SNP will work with partners to deliver a strategy that takes account of Scotland’s economic challenges.
Additionally, there should be clear guidance and a mandate for the Small Business Commissioner to play a role in delivering the Industrial Strategy.
We are standing up for Scottish industry
Standing up for Scotland is what we do. Unlike successive Westminster governments that allowed Scottish industries to wither and die, we never shy away from an opportunity to make Scotland even stronger.
•The SNP Scottish Government secured a future for Scottish Steel, with the transfer of the Dalzell and Clydebridge plants to Liberty Steel.
•We secured a future for the UK’s last remaining aluminium smelter in Lochaber, with plans to create up to 600 jobs and invest £120 million at the site.
•The SNP Scottish Government stepped in to save Ferguson’s in Inverclyde. The shipyard has since won its biggest order since 2001. The £97 million contract to build two new CalMac ferries will secure 150 jobs.
Find out more at www.snp.org/record
To help small businesses, the Scottish Government is already lifting more than half of all premises out of business rates altogether.
Most of the taxes and regulations that impact on small businesses are, however, the responsibility of Westminster.
Despite setting up an Office of Tax Simplification, the UK government has ignored the vast majority of its recommendations with just 16 of its 60 ‘big picture’ recommendations and less than half of its other formal recommendations so far adopted.
We will push for a formal, independently chaired review of the recommendations to assess which should now be taken forward.
Building a better Scotland: our investment in infrastructure
In government, the SNP has prioritised investment in infrastructure to improve public services, enhance connectivity, create jobs and grow our economy.
In 2017-18 alone almost £6.4 billion of infrastructure projects will be under construction in Scotland.
•We are delivering the £1.4 billion Queensferry Crossing.
•We are transforming Scotland’s road network. We are upgrading Scotland’s motorways, with improvements to the M8, M73 and M74 network. Work to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness is well underway, and dualling of the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen is in preparation too.
•Over £5 billion has been invested in Scotland’s health infrastructure since 2007 and nearly £500 million of new hospitals and healthcare facilities are due to open in Scotland in 2017-18.
•£742 million is being invested in improvements to the Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line, including widespread electrification of the network between the two cities and to Stirling and Dunblane. And the £170 million Aberdeen-Inverness rail upgrade, which is now under construction, will see shorter journey times between the two cities, as well as new stations at Dalcross and Kintore.
•Over the current term of the Scottish Parliament, we are investing over £3 billion to deliver at least 50,000 new affordable homes, at least 35,000 of which will be for social rent.
•In government we have made energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority, and we will support it with more than £500 million of public funding over four years.
•We have invested £400 million to deliver superfast broadband to 95 per cent of properties across Scotland by the end of 2017, and we are on track to deliver this target. We will now go further, ensuring that 100 per cent of premises across Scotland have access to super-fast broadband by 2021.
And to avoid a significant increase in the bureaucratic burden on small businesses, we will press the UK government to phase the introduction of the Quarterly Digital Tax Reporting over a five- year transition period, and consider industry calls for exemptions to those who are not incorporated or VAT-registered.
SNP MPs will work to ensure that UK agencies are working with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to support Scottish businesses to export.
The Scottish Government has led the way by paying 99 per cent of invoices from small businesses within 10 working days.
More should be done to help small businesses with cash flow in the wider economy.
SNP MPs will support the introduction of effective legal protections to ensure small businesses – particularly those attempting to scale up – are paid on time.
And we will press the UK government to ensure that it is demonstrating best practice on paying small businesses promptly for the services they deliver.
Protecting our place in the European Single Market
The European Single Market represents in excess of 500 million consumers – eight times the size of the UK’s market.
The Tories’ plans to take us out of the Single Market would damage our economy.
In Scotland 80,000 Scottish jobs could be lost,
wages face a £2,000 per head cut
and our economy faces a hit of up to £11 billion a year by 2030.
Our public finances are also threatened by the loss of EU funding for research and development,
and support for our rural communities.
It is clear that there is no rational case for taking Scotland, or the UK, out of the Single Market.
SNP MPs will seek to protect Scotland’s economy by working to protect Scotland’s place in the Single Market.
Scotland does not have to choose between the Single Market and the UK market.
Whatever future the people of Scotland choose, it is in everyone’s interests that Scotland and the rest of the UK maintain a smooth trading relationship.
After all, the rest of the UK exports over £50 billion a year to Scotland, making Scotland the top destination in Europe for exports from the rest of the UK, and England’s second biggest market after the United States of America.
SNP MPs will continue to press the UK government to work with the Scottish Government to support Scotland’s businesses in the wake of Brexit,
and ensure their voice is heard during negotiations.
Safeguarding the success of our world-class food and drink sector
Scotland’s food and drink is a global success story, worth £14.4 billion.
The EU – Scotland’s biggest overseas regional food and drink export market – is of vital importance to the sector.
We will fight to maintain Single Market membership, to protect the future success of the industry.
SNP MPs will also seek to ensure that any future trade deals secure geographical indications for key Scottish food and drink products like Scotch Whisky, Arbroath smokies and Stornoway black pudding.
EU regulation over animal and plant health and environmental and food safety gives Scotland access to export markets around the world.
SNP MPs will support the Scottish Government‘s efforts to maintain all these current standards and regulations.
The loss of freedom of movement has the potential to harm Scotland’s rural economy.
Around 8,000 EU nationals have come to live in Scotland and work in our food and drink sector.
Every year up to 15,000 seasonal migrant workers also help harvest our world class soft fruit and vegetables.
SNP MPs will continue to call on the UK government to guarantee EU nationals’ right to remain in the UK, and safeguard the success of our food and drink sector.
Scottish dairy farmers have been adversely affected by market volatility in recent years.
SNP MPs will press for a review of the Voluntary Code of Practice for the dairy sector and for contract provisions and arrangements to better meet the interests and needs of milk producers.
Successful food production is driven by demand as well as supply.
SNP MPs will press for all relevant UK government departments and agencies to apply for and achieve the Food for Life catering award and to purchase more quality Scottish food produced to current farm assurance standards.
We will not allow the UK government to dismantle Scotland’s GM-free status and commitment.
Given the Scotch Whisky industry is a key sector of Scotland’s economy, SNP MPs will continue to advocate a review of alcohol taxation to better reflect alcohol content,
while supporting health benefits through minimum unit pricing.
Tourism and hospitality
Tourism is a growing part of Scotland’s economy with Scotland hailed as the second best place to visit in the world this year.
Against the backdrop of Brexit, Scotland’s tourism industry has worked hard to ensure we continue to be seen as an open and welcoming nation.
To provide further support to our tourism industry the SNP will call on the UK government to examine a reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector, levelling the playing field with other EU nations
and creating new jobs.
The tourism and hospitality sector faces real challenges presented by Brexit.
The Tourism Industry Council expects that there will need to be a 200 per cent increase in Border Force resources to deal with post-Brexit EU passengers.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to ensure border checks are as seamless as possible after the UK leaves the EU, making it as easy as possible for international tourists to visit Scotland.
Connecting Scotland to the world
International connectivity plays an important role in facilitating trade,
tourism
and investment.
Membership of the EU has helped open up skies across Europe, boosting the number of flights to and from Scotland, creating more choice for businesses and families.
SNP MPs will: press the UK government to commit to the Open Skies Agreement in Brexit negotiations to ensure there is no loss of flights to or from Scotland and our airports are not disadvantaged;
•work with the Scottish Government, Visit Scotland, Scottish Development International and UK departments to secure an expansion of international flights to and from Scotland, opening up new markets for trade
and tourism;
•protect vital Scottish air connections to other parts of the UK;
•continue to work with local partners as part of City and Regional Deals to deliver improved connectivity including an Inverness Airport Rail Hub;
•ensure the UK government continues to work with the Scottish Government to secure an exemption from air passenger taxes on Highlands and Islands flights.
The current system for managing aviation noise is outdated and is in urgent need of reform.
In the last Parliament, SNP MPs secured a UK government consultation on a new Independent Aviation Noise Authority to ensure communities are fully engaged in decisions by airports to alter flight paths.
We will now push for the establishment of this body, ensuring that airspace changes are delivered with the approval of the community,
without having an adverse impact on our environment.
Standing up for Scotland’s oil and gas sector
There are encouraging signs Scotland’s oil and gas industry is emerging from its recent downturn, thanks to the efforts of the men and women who have made it an international success story.
Despite raising £330 billion in tax revenues for the UK Treasury, Westminster has repeatedly failed to provide adequate support for the industry
and the families which depend upon it.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to deliver a strong deal for the oil and gas sector.
This must include targeted incentives to develop small pool discoveries,
as well as further support to stimulate exploration activity
and loan guarantees for critical infrastructure – measures which were promised in the UK Government’s 2016 Budget but have not been delivered.
SNP MPs will work to ensure the UK government takes appropriate action on the taxation of late life oil and gas assets.
They will also urge the UK government to provide incentives for oil and gas companies diversifying into renewables.
Scotland is uniquely well placed to capitalise on the opportunities presented by onshore decommissioning work.
But we must have the right infrastructure in the right place.
SNP support has already led to major investment at Dales Voe in Shetland.
Our MPs will fight to win UK government investment and ensure Scotland is home to the UK’s first ultra-deep water decommissioning port and associated facilities.
Building on initiatives such as the Scottish Government’s Decommissioning Challenge Fund, and working closely with the industry and regulator, the SNP will seek to ensure our supply chain companies are strongly placed to compete effectively for contracts associated with decommissioning.
The Oil and Gas Institute at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen has estimated that leaving the EU is likely to cost the North Sea oil and gas supply chain £200 million a year in tariffs and export taxes.
Yet a leaked UK government document states that oil and gas will be a low priority in Brexit negotiations.
The SNP will press the UK government for assurances that the oil and gas industry is always treated as a high priority.
In light of local concerns, SNP MPs and the SNP Scottish Government will continue to demand the UK government devolves control of ship-to-ship oil transfers.
Investing in our cities and regions
SNP MPs will campaign for a UK government funding commitment for an Ayrshire Growth Deal, a Tay City Deal, a Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Deal, an Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal, and a Deal for the Islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
SNP MPs will also demand a commitment from the UK government to match the Scottish Government’s investment in Aberdeen and Inverness.
The Scottish Government will establish a new enterprise agency to address the enterprise and skills needs of the South of Scotland.
While the UK government has, time and again, failed to match the funding put forward by the Scottish Government to develop Scotland’s cities and regions, SNP MPs will demand that the UK government meets the ambition and funding put forward by the Scottish Government to develop the south of Scotland.
Aberdeen and Inverness - the missing millions
The Scottish Government has worked in close partnership with local councils and the UK government to deliver City Deals, boosting jobs and investment in Glasgow Region, Aberdeen region and Inverness & Highland Region.
In total the SNP Government has pledged more than £1 billion but the UK has failed to match this. Their investment in the Aberdeen Region fell short by a mammoth £254 million and in the Inverness Region Deal by £82 million.
SNP MPs will demand the UK government delivers on its responsibilities to these areas and matches the missing millions. And they will demand that in all future deals, the UK does not short-change the people of Scotland.
An immigration policy that works for Scotland
Our vision of Scotland is one of an open country that looks outwards, and encourages the best and brightest from Europe, and around the world, to make Scotland their home.
Scotland needs an immigration policy suited to our specific circumstances and needs.
Scotland needs people to want to work here, in our businesses, our universities and in our public services.
The current UK one-size-fits-all approach to immigration is failing Scotland.
The SNP will continue to seek devolution of immigration powers so that Scotland can have an immigration policy that works for our economy and society.
And we will stand firm against the demonisation of migrants.
Throughout the Brexit process the UK government has treated EU nationals living in the UK as bargaining chips.
It is shameful, and it must end.
SNP MPs will continue to press the UK government to confirm the rights of EU nationals to remain as a matter of urgency.
We expect the rights of UK nationals living in the EU to be guaranteed in the same way.
We will continue to make the case for the reintroduction of a Post-Study Work Visa scheme for Scotland, to enable international students who come here to study to then stay and contribute to our society and economy after they graduate.
The UK government recently introduced a Skills Immigration Charge – a charge for employers, including the public sector, of £1,000 per non-EEA worker per year.
This fee will lead to skills shortages,
harm our economy
and remove funding from frontline public services.
We oppose this policy and remain concerned that the UK government will implement a similar charge for workers from the EU post-Brexit.
SNP MPs will oppose any such moves, and press for the charge to be scrapped altogether.
SNP MPs will continue to press the UK government to limit immigration detention to 28 days.
No other European country has indefinite detention.
We continue to oppose the detention of children and vulnerable people, including pregnant women and people with mental illnesses.
We will continue to call for the UK government to pursue alternatives to detention.
Access to citizenship has become increasingly expensive.
We support a review of the citizenship application process, with a view to bringing down its cost and reducing its complexity.
Reforming the banking sector
The SNP supports the creation of a robust regulatory framework to ensure that the UK economy is not vulnerable to a re-run of the 2008 financial crisis.
The SNP will support measures including the reinstatement of the reverse burden of proof which, before being removed by the Tories, required senior bank managers to demonstrate they had done the right thing where wrongdoing had emerged on their watch.
The SNP will support a long overdue and comprehensive investigation into LIBOR rigging.
The SNP will call for protection for whistle-blowers in the banking and financial services sector, to protect the integrity of UK banking and safeguard our economy.
To ensure that taxpayers get their money back, the SNP will press for the public interest to be fully protected in any future disposal of RBS shares, including decisions on how any windfall revenues should be used.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to compel the banking industry and LINK members to sign up to the Universal Cash Deposit Transaction, which means that ATMs which take deposits can be used by customers of any bank.
This will protect convenient access to cash deposit and withdrawal facilities, for both the public
and businesses.
SCOTLAND’S FUTURE
This election is about the kind of country we want to Scotland to be.
More than ever, Scotland needs strong voices in Westminster, standing up for the values we hold dear.
A vote for the SNP is a vote to ensure Scotland’s future is in Scotland’s hands – not in the hands of Westminster Tories.
We will oppose any attempts by the Tories to water-down the vital rights currently protected by EU membership.
We will stand up for Scotland’s place in Europe,
and we will make sure Scotland’s voice is heard in the Brexit negotiations.
Scotland’s choice
This election won’t decide whether or not Scotland will be independent.
But a vote for the SNP is a vote to reinforce the Scottish Parliament’s right to decide when an independence referendum should happen.
At the end of the Brexit process, when the final terms of the deal are known, it is right that Scotland should have a real choice about our future.
Brexit must not simply be imposed on Scotland no matter how damaging it turns out to be.
Last year’s Holyrood election delivered the democratic mandate for an independence referendum in these circumstances.
The recent vote of Scotland’s national Parliament has underlined that mandate.
If the SNP wins a majority of Scottish seats in this election, that would complete a triple lock, further reinforcing the democratic mandate which already exists.
And, in such circumstances, any continued Tory attempts to block the people of Scotland having a choice on their future, when the options are clear, and on a timescale determined by the Scottish Parliament, would be democratically unsustainable.
Scotland’s place in Europe
The SNP believes that if Scotland chooses to become independent, we should be a member state of the EU.
Before asking people to vote in an independence referendum, we will set out the process by which our membership of the EU will be secured in the circumstances that prevail at that time – such as whether or not Scotland has already left the EU as part of the UK.
We will continue, in all circumstances, to demand the scrapping or fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and support Scottish control of Scottish fisheries, as we have done for many years.
We will also oppose any attempt by the UK government to treat the fishing industry as a bargaining chip.
Having sold out fishing as ‘expendable’ on the way in to the EU, a Tory government must not be allowed to betray it again on the way out.
Given that an independence referendum would happen at the end of the Brexit process, this election also presents Scotland with a more immediate opportunity.
In the months ahead, we must make sure that our interests are not ignored in the Brexit negotiations.
A vote for the SNP will make sure that Scotland’s voice is heard.
A majority of people in Scotland voted to remain in the EU - but even many of those who voted to leave have real concerns about the extreme Brexit being pursued by the UK government.
To be taken out, not just of the EU, but also of the Single Market, poses a real and present danger to Scottish jobs - to our farmers and fisherman, our universities, our food and drink businesses and to almost every sector of our economy.
Indeed, it has been estimated that leaving the Single Market could cost 80,000 jobs in Scotland.
That is why the Scottish Government published compromise proposals that would keep Scotland in the Single Market, even as we left the EU.
These proposals were rejected out of hand by the UK government.
Despite promising to listen to the devolved administrations, and being prepared to countenance a special deal for the car industry, they refused to consider arrangements that would address the specific needs of Scotland.
However, this election offers people the chance to give the Scottish Government’s proposals real democratic legitimacy and make it impossible for the Prime Minister to continue to ignore Scotland’s voice.
If the SNP wins the election, it will give us a mandate to demand a place for Scotland at the Brexit negotiating table
and the inclusion of the case for our place in the Single Market in the UK’s negotiating remit.
Protecting fundamental rights
Brexit threatens the fundamental rights that people in the UK currently enjoy, including workers’ rights, as well as vital social and environmental protections.
SNP MPs will hold the Tories to account to ensure that the rights and protections currently safeguarded by EU membership are not diminished after the UK leaves.
We will also seek a cast-iron guarantee from the UK government that they will seek the consent of the Scottish Parliament under the Sewel Convention to the terms of the Brexit Bill.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is enshrined in the Scotland Act 1998, ensuring that human rights are protected by the Scottish Government and all Scottish legislation.
The SNP re-affirms its commitment to the Council of Europe, the ECHR and their institutions.
We will fight to protect human rights across the UK.
SNP MPs will oppose any attempts by the UK government to scrap the Human Rights Act and withdraw the UK from the ECHR.
So long as Scotland is covered by trade arrangements negotiated by the UK government, the SNP will call for greater transparency in any proposed international trade deals following Brexit, with the UK and Scottish Parliaments being given a say.
The benefits delivered by EU funding for Scotland are significant and wide-ranging - supporting jobs,
paying for new infrastructure across the country,
funding research at our universities,
and providing support for our farming and fishing industries.
SNP MPs will demand urgent clarity from the UK government on long-term funding arrangements after the UK leaves the EU,
and ensure that current funding levels are matched.
Strengthening the Scottish Parliament
Until such time as Scotland chooses to be independent, SNP MPs will support increased powers for the Scottish Parliament.
Indeed, the implications of Brexit make it both appropriate and essential that the current devolution settlement is fundamentally revisited, to ensure that the interests of Scotland can be protected.
SNP MPs will seek additional powers.
These will include: powers that will be repatriated from Brussels to the UK that currently sit within the competences of the Scottish Parliament, like agriculture, fisheries and environmental protection;
•powers to be repatriated in reserved areas, such as employment law, which protect fundamental rights currently enjoyed by the people of Scotland;
•new powers, beyond those being repatriated, including, but not limited to immigration;
powers to conclude international agreements in areas of the Scottish Parliament’s responsibility,
and powers that would allow Scotland to meet the regulatory and administrative requirements of continued European Single Market membership.
Protecting Scotland’s budget from a Tory cash grab
SNP MPs will support the Scottish Government to ensure that Scotland’s finances are protected from any attempt by the UK government to reduce Scotland’s budget.
As long as part of the Scottish Parliament’s budget continues to be determined by Westminster we will fight to protect the Barnett formula.
MAKING WESTMINSTER FAIRER
While handing tax cuts to the wealthiest, the Tories have cut support for the most vulnerable.
And the Tories are now openly threatening a race to the bottom in tax, wages and working conditions.
That’s not the Scotland we seek.
The SNP will fight to end the appalling Tory welfare policies that are punishing the most vulnerable in society – including pensioners, the disabled, vulnerable young adults, and even the bereaved.
We will demand that the UK government calls a halt to the cuts that are damaging lives,
and we will seek new powers for the Scottish Parliament so we are better able to protect our communities.
Social security powers
Social security should be there for all of us in times of need.
It is part of what holds us together as a society.
Social security is a safety net that we all pay into when times are good, in the expectation that it is there for us when we find ourselves in difficult financial or personal circumstance.
We will protect the principles that have underpinned the social security system since its foundations.
The limited social security powers being devolved to the Scottish Parliament give us the opportunity to take a different approach to the Tories in Westminster, one with fairness, respect and dignity at its heart.
However, decisions over 85 per cent of UK welfare spending in Scotland will continue to be made in Westminster.
Only with full powers over social security will the Scottish Parliament be able to stop obscenities like the Rape Clause,
the Family Cap,
cuts to people with disabilities,
and the Tory assault on the poor.
SNP MPs will continue to call for the Scottish Parliament to have full control over all social security benefits, so that we can deliver a system based on dignity and respect
that is tailored to the needs of all the people of Scotland.
Tackling child poverty
The SNP Scottish Government has introduced a new Child Poverty Bill, following the Tory government’s decision to scrap income-based child poverty targets in the last Parliament.
The new Bill introduces new Scotland-wide targets to eradicate child poverty.
SNP MPs will call on the UK government to match that ambition by reintroducing UK-wide targets to end child poverty.
We will also urge the UK government to follow the lead of the SNP Scottish Government, by working with devolved administrations to establish a Poverty and Inequality Commission that provides expert advice on tackling poverty, and monitors and regularly reports on progress.
Protecting women and girls from gender-based violence
Dr Eilidh Whiteford became the first SNP MP ever to have a Private Member’s Bill reach the statute book.
She led a campaign to get the UK government to ratify an important international treaty to prevent and combat sexual and domestic violence,
which disproportionately affects women and girls.
The Bill will commit the UK government to funding essential services such as women’s refuges and rape crisis helplines.
SNP MPs will ensure there is a clear timetable for that to happen.
Protecting disabled people from Tory cuts
The Tory government is driving disabled people and those with illnesses into poverty by cutting their incomes.
Under the Tories, from April this year, disabled and ill people assessed as not fit for work have lost out on £29 per week from their Employment and Support Allowance.
SNP MPS will support reversal of this cut.
The current Work Capability Assessment is failing.
SNP MPs will call for this to be halted, and a new system to be put in place which treats everyone with fairness and respect, helping people into employment rather than crisis.
SNP MPs will urge the UK government to follow the lead of the Scottish Government to review Personal Independence Payments, ensuring assessments, descriptors and award times are appropriate and rooted in respect and dignity.
Protecting family budgets
The SNP strongly opposes the cap that restricts Child Tax Credits to the first two children and the removal of the family element of Universal Credit.
We believe that all children should be treated equally.
We oppose the ruthless and inhumane Rape Clause which forces women to relive the ordeal of rape in order to claim tax credits for third or subsequent children.
The SNP believes that the UK social security system, paid for by all of us, should provide a safety net for all low income families, to ensure that even in the most difficult times we can all make the best futures for our children.
Protecting people on low incomes
We will call for the end of the cash freeze that the Tories have imposed on many benefits, leaving families struggling as the cost of living rises.
Instead, we will support the annual uprating of all benefits by at least CPI inflation.
The SNP Scottish Government will abolish the Bedroom Tax in Scotland completely, when we have the powers to do so.
SNP MPs will continue to demand that the Bedroom Tax is scrapped across the UK.
The punitive benefit sanctions regime is causing hardship and pushing people into poverty, debt, crisis and towards foodbanks and emergency aid.
The SNP will continue to call for the current sanction regime to be scrapped.
SNP MPs will demand that the UK government follows the lead of the SNP Scottish Government by ruling out the private sector having any involvement in assessments for Scotland’s social security benefits.
The roll out of Universal Credit, which has been introduced in the Highlands and East Lothian first, has caused rent arrears, household debt and left families to rely on food banks.
SNP MPs will continue to argue for a complete halt to the roll out of Universal Credit until it is designed to treat everyone with fairness and respect,
and will continue to call for it to be fully devolved to Scotland.
The Income Tax Personal Allowance is set to increase, boosting the amount of money people can earn before they pay Income Tax.
At the same time, the Tories have reduced the work allowance leading to a significant reduction in the support provided by Universal Credit.
This acts as a disincentive to working more hours or taking up employment.
We will support the re-instatement of the work allowance to all benefit claimants.
This will encourage people back into work by reducing the amount the state claws back – making work pay more.
As Home Secretary Theresa May scrapped the socio-economic duty contained in the Equality Act requiring public bodies to evaluate the impact of their policies to reduce inequality.
SNP MPs will seek an early opportunity to pursue a Bill at Westminster to ensure the UK government commences this important duty.
The Tory government has introduced new charges for parents seeking support from a former partner through the Child Maintenance Service.
The SNP will demand an end to this tax on child support.
SNP MPs will continue to fight for an end to premium-rate telephone charges faced by those seeking advice on or claiming benefits from the DWP.
Protecting vulnerable young people
Vulnerable young people under the age of 21 are no longer entitled to financial support for housing unless they can prove family breakdown or abuse.
SNP MPs will support restoration of housing support for 18 to 21 year olds across the UK.
Support for people who have lost loved ones
The Tory government is cutting Bereavement Payments and Widowed Parents’ Allowance - making grieving families worse off.
According to the UK government’s own analysis, 75 per cent of families entitled to Widowed Parents’ Allowance will be worse off.
SNP MPs will support the reversal of this cut.
Making work fair
SNP MPs will continue to press for full devolution of employment and employability policy – including the Minimum Wage – to enable the Scottish Government to protect and enhance vital workers’ rights that are under threat from a hard-line Tory government.
Upon devolution of these new powers, an SNP Scottish Government will take advice from a strengthened Fair Work Convention to deliver workplace policy that is fit for the 21st century, including a full review of work-place leave entitlements.
Until employment and employability policy are devolved, SNP MPs will press the UK government to follow the lead of the SNP Scottish Government, by establishing a Fair Work Commission – with representation from trade unions, public sector organisations, and businesses – to ensure workers’ rights across the UK are not diminished as a result of Brexit.
We believe people should receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
We support payment of the real Living wage, which ensures people’s basic wage continue to meets the real cost of living.
We will back a transition over the next parliamentary term towards payment of the real Living wage as a new minimum legal requirement to all adults above the age of 18, creating a new single adult rate.
We believe that the rate paid to 16 to 18 year olds and apprentices should increase in line with changes to the rate of the real Living wage.
We will call for the UK government to task the Low Pay Commission to deliver this national pay rise, and to put in place appropriate support for employers.
SNP MPs will support the immediate repeal of the Trade Union Act, which represents a direct threat to unions and to the fundamental rights of workers.
We will argue for public sector workers across the UK to be able to use check-off facilities and for workplace support for trade union activities in the public sector.
SNP MPs will call for the UK government to follow the lead of the Scottish Government by abolishing fees for Employment Tribunals.
The SNP will press the UK government to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, and ensure that workers have appropriate rights and protections, including holiday and sick pay.
This will help casual and agency workers as well as those now part of the growing gig economy.
To tackle maternity and pregnancy discrimination, we back the Women and Equalities Committee’s recommendation to strengthen the law to protect women from discriminatory redundancies and practices.
Championing equality in work
It is unacceptable that 47 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed, businesses are still not properly penalised if they break the law by not paying men and women the same rate.
We will seek to ensure that any employer who loses an equal pay claim conducts and publishes an equal pay audit and then takes appropriate action on the results.
More action needs to be taken to address the gender, race and disability pay gap and tackle pay inequality and occupational segregation.
Equal pay audits should cover gender, race and disability.
SNP MPs will support lowering the threshold to 150 employees, from the current level of 250 employees, and the introduction of sanctions, including fines, for employers that fail to comply with the law.
We will also call on the UK government to follow the lead of the SNP Scottish Government by ensuring all public authorities with more than 20 employees provide gender pay gap reports every two years.
We will also call for equal pay statements every four years, which provide policies on equal pay and occupational segregation and include reporting on gender, disability and race.
We support efforts to increase gender balance in the private sector but it is important that governments lead by example.
The Scottish Government is committed to legislating for gender balance in public sector boardrooms.
SNP MPs will call on the UK government to do likewise.
To tackle workplace discrimination and sexist dress codes, SNP MPs will vote for a change in the Equality Act to strengthen and change the law that currently allows employers to have different dress codes for men and women.
The SNP will fight to protect the rights of pregnant women and new mothers afforded under EU laws, ensuring that maternity and workplace rights are not eroded.
No-one should face discrimination at work because of pregnancy or childbirth.
The Scottish Government is putting in place support for new parents to ensure they know their rights.
SNP MPs will push the UK government to ensure all workplaces provide information to new parents on their rights when they return to work and to enforce those rights.
The UK is one of the few countries in the world not to provide a statutory right to breastfeed on return to work.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to introduce a proper legal right to breastfeed in the workplace.
All women should have a real choice about how long they breastfeed their babies.
Halt Jobcentre closures
The UK government is proposing the closure of up to 23 Jobcentre Plus sites across Scotland, including half of all Jobcentres in Glasgow.
SNP MPs will urge the UK government to abandon their planned closures and work with the Scottish Government to bring forward proposals for joint governance of Jobcentres with the Scottish Government, as recommended by the Smith Commission.
Promoting fair work through procurement
We will support the continued use of procurement processes to ensure the Scottish Government can continue to seek the Living Wage for workers in firms who win contracts from the public sector.
We believe the practice of ‘blacklisting’ individuals from employment is unacceptable.
The SNP Scottish Government has introduced regulations to exclude businesses which have been found to be involved in blacklisting from bidding for public contracts.
Similar measures should be introduced to ensure blacklisters do not benefit from UK government procurement.
Fairness in retirement
We will continue to argue for a fairer pensions system.
SNP MPs will oppose plans to increase the State Pension Age beyond 66.
We will support the establishment of an Independent Savings and Pension Commission, to ensure pensions and savings policies are fit for purpose.
The remit of the Commission should include consideration of the specific demographic needs of different parts of the UK in relation to State Pension Age.
The Triple Lock on the State Pension protects the income of pensioners, many of whom rely on their pension as their only source of income.
Age UK has described the Triple Lock as a “vital tool in the fight against pensioner poverty.”
The SNP will stand up for pensioners against any attempts to remove the Triple Lock on the State Pension.
We’ll stand up for the women in Scotland, and across the UK, who have been short-changed by the Tory Government due to the accelerated timetable for increases in the women’s State Pension Age.
SNP MPs will continue to support the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign in their efforts to secure fairness for the women affected.
The SNP will call for the UK government to take steps to extend auto-enrolment, so that more low paid, and self-employed, workers can benefit from regular pension savings.
We believe that saving for a pension is the best route to a stable retirement.
The SNP will seek to ensure that regular, simple, and affordable saving schemes are offered to provide for a secure income in retirement.
SNP MPs will call for an end to Tory gimmicks like the Lifetime ISA, which can disincentivise other forms of retirement savings that offer a greater return.
Protecting the most vulnerable in society from Tory cuts
By 2021 , the total cumulative loss to people in Scotland as a result of Tory welfare cuts will be over £2 billion per year.
Since 2013, the Scottish Government has spent over £100 million a year to protect people from the worst aspects of Tory welfare cuts.
•We are fully mitigating the Bedroom Tax in Scotland, protecting over 70,000 households, and we will abolish the tax completely when we have the powers.
•Since 2013, the Scottish Welfare Fund has provided a vital lifeline with awards totalling £124 million to over 241,000 households in their time of greatest need, helping them to live independently and buy essentials such as nappies, food and cookers.
•We are safeguarding support for over 2,800
disabled people across Scotland with the new Scottish Independent Living Fund, which was set up in July 2015.
•We have extended the Scottish Welfare Fund on an interim basis to ensure no vulnerable young person is victim to the UK government’s decision to remove housing support for 18-21 year olds.
•We have invested over £1 billion in the Council Tax Reduction scheme which helps over a half a million households. We have restored Westminster’s cut and extended the child allowance in the Council Tax Reduction scheme by 25 per cent, benefiting 77,000 low-income households by an average of £173 per year or around £15 per month. This boost for low income families will help nearly 140,000 children across Scotland. And we will not apply the two child cap to this or any other Scottish social security scheme.
Read more at www.snp.org/record
How we are using new powers
The social security powers being devolved to the Scottish Parliament are limited, but they give us the opportunity to take a different approach – one with fairness, dignity and respect at its heart, shaped by experts and the people of Scotland.
Here are just some of the actions the SNP Scottish Government is taking.
•The SNP will abolish the Bedroom Tax.
•The SNP will increase Carer’s Allowance to the level of Jobseekers Allowance.
•We will protect the Winter Fuel Payment, and extend the eligibility to families with severely disabled children.
•We don’t believe that profit should ever be a motive in making decisions on, or assessing people’s health and eligibility for benefits. So the SNP has ruled out the private sector having any involvement in assessments for Scotland’s social security benefits.
•Disability benefits are intended to support people with the additional cost of living with a disability. We will not means-test disability benefits.
•We want to stop the revolving door of disability assessments and reintroduce long term awards for those with long term conditions. That’s why we have established a Disability Benefits Assessment Commission to provide recommendations and guidance on eligibility and conditions.
•The SNP Scottish Government will offer a new Best Start Grant worth £1,900 to a two child family - £1,400 more than the UK Sure Start Maternity Grant.
Diverse but equal
The SNP is committed to tackling the challenges of racism and discrimination in society.
SNP MPs will press for strengthened provisions relating to Equality Impact Assessments which will ensure that legislation is sensitive to the interests of minority communities.
The SNP Scottish Government is committed to reviewing and reforming gender recognition laws, in line with international best practice.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to match the Scottish Government’s commitment to legislation within this parliament.
SNP MPs will continue to demand full devolution of equality law to the Scottish Parliament.
Until that happens we will seek equality law reforms to ensure same-sex couples have equal pension rights
and protected characteristics are expanded to ensure all LGBTI people are fully protected from discrimination and harassment.
At Westminster the SNP successfully pressured the UK government to pass a ‘Turing Bill’ which pardoned deceased gay men convicted for same-sex sexual activity that is now lawful.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to go further and match the Scottish Government’s commitment to extend the pardon to gay men who are still alive today and have such records.
The Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the historic British Sign Language (Scotland) Act in 2015, which recognises BSL as a language of Scotland.
SNP MPs will support cross-party efforts at Westminster to recognise BSL as a UK language in law
and strengthen the rights of BSL users.
Working with disabled people and organisations that represent them, the Scottish Government has produced an action plan for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Scotland.
The UN committee responsible for the Convention is currently assessing its implementation in the UK.
The UK government should fully engage with the investigation, implement its findings and work towards the incorporation of the Convention in UK law.
A better deal for consumers
SNP MPs will call for all powers over consumer protection to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Consumers in the UK pay some of the highest prices for petrol and diesel in Europe.
The SNP will call for the introduction of a fuel duty regulator which delivers more stability to the cost of filling up your car.
Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) penalises those who pay more for their insurance.
This includes groups such as young drivers and communities in flood risk areas.
SNP MPs will call for a freeze in further IPT tax hikes.
SNP MPs will seek to ensure that Scotland does not lose out on the EU commitment to abolish mobile roaming charges.
We strongly object to ticket touting, and secondary agent sites making obscene profits selling tickets, which are often invalid, to unsuspecting customers.
SNP MPs, backed by the Scottish Government, will press the UK government for stronger consumer protection against ticket touting, and will seek a ban on software used by ticket touters which instantly purchases large volumes of tickets.
There is no doubt that Fixed Odds Betting Terminals cause harm and hardship in communities across Scotland.
That’s why the Scottish Government needs legislative powers to control the growth and impact of these machines,
and we believe the UK government should devolve these powers in full.
The problem of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals is linked to the proliferation of betting shops in some communities and so we will continue to argue for Scotland to have full responsibility for the regulation of gambling.
The SNP Scottish Government is providing resources for financial health check-ups to help pensioners and those on low incomes to make the most of their money and to secure the best energy tariffs.
SNP MPs will demand that the UK government follows the lead of the Scottish Government.
Successive Westminster governments have cost consumers billions of pounds by failing to make the energy market work for families.
The time for change is long overdue.
We want bills reduced
and fairness and transparency in the system.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to: put in place an energy price cap on standard variable tariffs, ensuring a fair deal for customers and energy suppliers;
•introduce a new duty to be placed on energy companies to set out a clear timetable to reduce the number of people on prepayment meters;
•immediately implement the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations on metering to reduce costs for households;
•put in place a requirement for energy companies to prioritise the roll-out of smart meters to those households at risk of fuel poverty
•introduce financial health checks to help people switch to the lowest tariffs and provide advice on reducing energy use;
•and take new action, alongside Ofgem, to identify those at risk from fuel poverty, with new legislation to ensure these groups are on the lowest energy tariff possible starting with those eligible for the Cold Weather Payment.
The loss of local post offices threatens the economic well-being of rural communities all over Scotland.
SNP MPs will seek presumptions against the closure of rural post offices – similar to the presumption against closing rural schools delivered by the Scottish Government – and seek to expand the services available, including local banking.
STANDING UP FOR  RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES
As the UK government embarks on Brexit negotiations, it’s more important than ever that Scotland’s farming, fishing, food production and forestry sectors have a strong voice to defend their interests.
The SNP always has and always will champion rural Scotland.
We will be a strong voice for our farmers and crofters,
our food and drink sector,
our fishing and fish processing industries,
our billion-pound forestry sector –
and all the tens of thousands of jobs, businesses and livelihoods that depend on a strong, sustainable and productive rural economy.
An end to the UK government’s great rural robbery
Without Scotland’s historically low average farm payments, the UK would not have been eligible for additional EU ‘convergence uplift’ funding.
Not only has the UK government refused to pass on additional funding it has received to Scottish farmers, they have now broken their promise to review how they allocate farm funding in the UK.
As a result, farmers in Scotland have been short-changed to the tune of around £190 million.
SNP MPs will continue to demand that this vital support to Scotland’s farmers is passed on.
We will also press for clarity and certainty over existing funding.
Forestry grants for 2019 and beyond must be guaranteed now to allow investment and planting decisions to go ahead.
Funding for our Less Favoured Areas grant scheme in 2019 – a vital support for our most fragile farmers and crofters – must be met in full.
Fighting off the Tory power and money grab
Before the EU Referendum, the UK government promised to match current EU funding, which is worth half a billion pounds every year to Scotland’s rural and remote communities, “without a shadow of a doubt”.
Now they refuse to provide any guarantees over funding beyond Brexit, and want a UK wide funding mechanism.
With a 16 per cent share of current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding, there is no doubt that Scotland would lose out.
Just as we will expect all powers over agriculture and rural policy to be repatriated to Scotland, there should be no question that we should have full control of EU agricultural funding following Brexit.
SNP MPs will fight any and all Tory attempts to grab Scotland’s powers and funding for Westminster.
A better deal for our fishing industry
The SNP always will stand up for Scottish fishing, demanding a productive and sustainable approach to fisheries management in the future, to ensure a thriving industry both on and offshore, whether we are in or out the EU.
The SNP has been consistent over many years in our criticisms of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and very clear about our intentions to see it scrapped or fundamentally reformed.
And in the SNP Scottish Government’s paper on ‘Scotland’s Place in Europe’, our proposals would have meant we would be able to leave the CFP while all of the UK could continue to benefit from the EU Single Market.
The Tories failed our fishing industry in the 1970s, dismissing the livelihoods of our coastal communities as ‘expendable’.
Under the CFP, the UK government has regularly traded away our interests and put those of fishing communities elsewhere in the UK ahead of those in Scotland.
Now they are gearing up to sell out our fishing interests in Brexit negotiations.
SNP MPs will fight against any attempts to sell out Scotland’s fishing communities, and we will press for Scottish Ministers to be fully involved in all Brexit negotiations.
Europe is the leading export destination for Scotland’s fish and seafood exports – particularly Scottish salmon.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to protect Scotland’s place in the Single Market.
We will also seek guarantees for permanent residence from the UK government for the 3,000 EU nationals working in fish processing.
Fishing is fully devolved and whatever future Scotland chooses, we will expect all powers over policy to be repatriated to Scotland when the UK leaves the EU.
SNP MPs will press for EU fisheries funding to be matched and transferred to Scotland in full.
Improving rural connectivity
At Westminster the SNP successfully secured a UK government commitment to a Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband of 10Mbps.
In the next parliamentary term SNP MPs will call for the USO to cover up to 30Mbps with an appropriate update mechanism to ensure that rural areas are not left behind.
Some of our more rural areas remain so called mobile “not spots” – where there is little or limited mobile phone signal.
SNP MPs will support the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity to host a summit on mobile “not spots”, inviting service providers and the UK government to put forward concrete actions for improving mobile connectivity across Scotland
SNP MPs will call on the UK government to ensure that future mobile spectrum licensing meets key tests on geographical and population coverage, with a ‘rural areas first’ policy for new spectrum deployments.
What the SNP has achieved for rural Scotland
We are committed to creating sustainable rural communities, where young people can live, work and prosper. That means building more homes, delivering broadband to all and supporting our farmers, crofters and fishermen.
Here’s are just some of the ways the SNP Scottish Government is supporting rural Scotland.
•We are investing in digital connectivity, with £400 million to deliver superfast broadband to 95 per cent of properties across Scotland by the end of 2017 and we will reach 100 per cent by 2021.
•We have legislated to create a presumption against rural school closures.
•We are building new homes and refurbishing existing properties through the £25 million Rural Housing Fund, and delivering 100 affordable homes in island communities through a dedicated £5 million fund.
•We are supporting around 11,500 farmers and crofters annually to help sustain fragile and remote rural communities.
•We have invested over £100 million in fishing projects, infrastructure and businesses, creating and safeguarding over 8,000 jobs.
•We have invested a record £1 billion in vessels, ports and ferry services since 2007.
•Fares on lifeline ferry services have been frozen until 2017 for passengers, cars and commercial vehicles.
•We have reduced ferry fares on routes in the Clyde and Hebrides through the roll-out of the Road Equivalent Tariff.
•Residents of Caithness and north-west Sutherland, Colonsay, Islay, Jura, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles are eligible for a 50 per cent discount on air fares.
•We have awarded over £100 million grants to food and drink businesses to increase investment and safeguard jobs.
Find out more at www.snp.org/record
We will press the UK government to provide appropriate support and resources for Scotland’s Mobile Action Plan
and also to ensure that Scotland does not miss out on access to EU wide regulation in future, including plans to improve and increase fixed and mobile connectivity throughout the EU.
Ending unfair delivery charges
Consumers living in the Highlands and Islands, and in some of Scotland’s most remote communities, face unfair additional delivery charges.
SNP MPs will call on the UK government to step in to regulate for fair delivery charges for rural communities.
MODERNISING UK DEMOCRACY
Our democratic institutions should be representative of and accountable to the people they represent.
We support an electoral system where every vote counts equally and where 16 and 17 year olds, and EU citizens resident here, have a vote.
And we believe in a fair and level playing field in our elections, for the integrity and health of our democracy.
Making Westminster work for the people
The SNP will oppose the exorbitant cost associated with the refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster.
SNP MPs will continue to oppose the undemocratic House of Lords and vote for its abolition.
We will work to ensure that there is as much support as possible for disabled people, and people of all classes, races and gender identities to stand for election to the House of Commons.
Making Westminster more democratic
We will vote for the replacement of the first-past-the-post system with proportional representation.
The SNP supports the Single Transferable Vote, a system that makes sure every vote and every part of the country counts.
We trust our young people.
That’s why, where we have had the powers to do so, the SNP have granted 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote – in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and in Scottish local authority and Scottish Parliament elections.
We will look to introduce our own legislative proposals at Westminster, working with other parties to give 16 and 17 year olds a vote in all elections.
And we will support extending the franchise to citizens of other EU countries, resident in the UK, for elections to the UK Parliament.
The gap between the voting age population and those registered to vote is greater than it has ever been in the post-war era.
More must be done to get people to join the electoral register.
We support the recommendations of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation to get the ‘missing millions’ onto the electoral register.
SNP MPs will urge the UK government to implement the recommendations, working alongside the Scottish Government and the other devolved administrations of the UK.
A fair and level playing field in our elections
Ensuring a fair and level playing field is essential to the integrity of, and public confidence in, elections and our democracy.
SNP MPs will support new powers for the Electoral Commission, providing them with legal authority to investigate offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
We will also support the Electoral Commission’s call to make higher sanctioning powers available to them, increasing the maximum penalty from £20,000 to £1,500,000.
Lobbying and charities
We support strict rules on lobbying and enhanced registration thresholds for campaigners
but we oppose the restrictions on the activities of campaigning charities.
We will push for those parts of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 which have been used to gag campaigning organisations to be removed.
DEFENCE, SECURITY AND  GLOBAL PEACE-KEEPING
The Tory government has presided over cuts to the defence estate in Scotland,
while committing billions to a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons.
SNP MPs will oppose the erosion of the defence estate in Scotland.
We will stand up for Scottish bases, regiments and our veterans.
We will press for investment in conventional defence.
And we will oppose the immoral and expensive Trident nuclear weapons system at every opportunity.
Scrapping Trident
SNP MPs will build a cross-party coalition to scrap Trident as quickly and safely as possible.
The Tory Chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Crispin Blunt, has calculated the total cost of the next generation of Trident at £179 billion over its lifetime.
CND estimate the cost may even be as high as £205 billion.
We will vote for that money to be spent on our public services – like our NHS, schools and expanded free childcare.
At Westminster we will press the UK government to meet their international obligations with regard to multilateral nuclear disarmament.
SNP MPs will support long-term investment in HMNB Faslane as a conventional military base.
Investing in conventional defence
SNP MPs will hold the UK government to its promise on building the new Type-26 Frigates in Scotland.
SNP MPs will continue to campaign to protect Scotland’s bases – including Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik, Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, Fort George near Inverness, and MoD Caledonia in Rosyth – from closure.
We will press the UK government to engage fully with the Scottish Government, local authorities and local communities as a matter of urgency.
Scotland’s distinct defence needs are not being met by the current UK government’s defence policy.
SNP MPs will support a new Strategic Defence and Security Review, in order to assess the need, as a matter of priority, for permanent basing of ocean-going conventional patrol vessels in Scotland.
We will press to ensure that the nine multi-role Maritime Patrol Aircraft on order reach full operational capacity at the earliest possible stage,
and support a review into the need for additional aircraft.
Fighting international crime and terrorism
International co-operation is essential to keep Scotland and the rest of the UK safe from the threats of organised crime, cybercrime and terrorism.
SNP MPs will call for continued co-operation on detecting, disrupting and detaining criminals across borders through Europol.
We will seek assurances that our law enforcement agencies will continue to have the same level of access to Europol as they currently enjoy.
We will oppose any moves that would seek to use security co-operation as as a bargaining chip in Brexit or trade negotiations with our European friends and neighbours.
Supporting our veterans
Far too often, the UK government has let down our service personnel and veterans.
The SNP will act to ensure the UK government prioritises the duty of care to service personnel, veterans and their families, especially in the event of a loss of a serving relative,
and we will press the UK government to put the Armed Forces representative body on a statutory footing.
To provide practical support for veterans requiring social care, the Scottish Government changed the rules to ensure the War Disablement Pension is exempt from the assessment of income – meaning our veterans get the help they need and keep the full value of this pension.
We believe this approach should be taken to all social security benefits, so that those who have been injured in the service of our country get the full value of their War Disablement Pension and we will press the UK government to adopt this approach.
Getting a better deal for the taxpayer
The UK government’s own report says that the Royal Navy’s fleet is being depleted because of a “vicious cycle” of poor planning and cost overruns that is wasting taxpayer money and undermining the viability of the shipbuilding industry.
SNP MPs will continue to call for the publication of the long-overdue National Shipbuilding Strategy.
The SNP will call for greater transparency in UK defence spending with a full breakdown of spending by nation and region in the UK, including all procurement and small and medium sized enterprise (SME) expenditure and a full breakdown of component costs of all major projects by location.
SNP MPs will press for more Scottish SMEs in Scotland to benefit from the manufacturing supply chain for major defence projects.
Arms exports
SNP MPs have led the calls for resolution of the destructive conflict in South Yemen.
Given the clear evidence that munitions supplied by the United Kingdom have been used in breach of international law, there should be an immediate ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia pending proper investigation.
And we will urge the UK government to immediately halt all military support and arms sales to regimes suspected of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
Our place in the world
Building on the experience of the Scottish Government’s partnership with the United Nations to empower the women of Syria and promote Scotland as a centre for training of female peacemakers, the SNP will continue to support UN Security Council Resolution 1325 reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.
Use of banned weapons against civilian populations should be investigated by the United Nations.
If the Security Council is unable to act, we believe the General Assembly should take the initiative and if the evidence supports it those responsible – including state actors – should be brought before the International Criminal Court.
SNP MPs will continue to argue that the struggle against Daesh must be pursued by more than military means and must include the battle of ideas which demonstrate that international justice and civic tolerance can be achieved without recourse to violence and barbarity.
SNP MPs will urge the UK government to redouble its efforts to bring about a political resolution, through the UN Security Council in accordance with its Resolution 2254, to end the six year conflict in Syria.
The SNP will uphold the international agreement which led to the end of the Republic of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
Any attempt to renege on the agreement in terms of the reintegration of Iran into the international community and the relaxation of sanctions would be to undo one of the greatest achievements in peace building of recent years.
The SNP will continue to work with international partners to progress a lasting peace settlement in the Middle East, pursuing a two state solution for Israel and Palestine.
PROTECTING OUR  ENVIRONMENT AND  TACKLING CLIMATE  CHANGE
Renewable energy is a Scottish success story.
We are determined to build on that success.
We will fight climate change,
while keeping energy bills down
and creating jobs,
by continuing to champion low cost renewable energy.
Standing up for Scotland’s renewables industry
Scotland has a wealth of onshore and offshore renewable energy potential which, if unlocked, can support thousands more jobs
and further economic growth.
However, this has been undermined by the UK government’s ideologically-driven cuts to support for renewables.
SNP MPs will work to ensure low cost green energy schemes get the long term certainty needed to support further development and reductions in cost.
SNP MPs will press the Westminster government to include onshore wind, the lowest cost renewable energy technology, in its industrial strategy.
They will also demand an increased focus on offshore wind, tidal energy and wave power.
Our MPs will support the development of wind and other renewable energy projects in the Northern and Western Isles – and a clear timescale for the delivery of the electricity interconnectors needed in the islands.
The SNP will champion the interests of island and mainland communities to ensure they benefit financially from renewable energy projects and Scotland’s outstanding natural resources.
SNP MPs will work to protect Scotland’s place in Europe’s energy markets and funding programmes – ensuring continued funding and cooperation with the EU for Scotland’s renewable energy sector.
The European Union is set to establish a €320 million investment fund to support wave and tidal power, in which Scotland is a world leader.
We will also seek to build a regulatory environment which supports investment in new energy storage schemes, including pumped hydro and batteries, allowing Scotland to maximise the benefits of our outstanding resources
and build an energy system for the 21st century.
Carbon Capture and Storage
We want Scotland to be a leader in the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology,
which has the potential to create thousands of jobs in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and beyond,
while fighting climate change.
Scotland’s oil and gas sector remains uniquely well placed to develop CCS on an industrial scale – despite the UK government reneging on its commitment to a £1 billion project set to benefit Peterhead Power Station.
We will work to ensure Scotland is not denied this opportunity by working to secure the funding needed to develop this vital technology here in Scotland.
Transmission charges
The UK’s punitive transmission charging regime forces renewable and conventional energy generators in Scotland to pay huge fees to connect to the electricity grid, while power stations in the south of England receive subsidies.
This unfair system contributed to the early closure of the power stations at Longannet in Fife and Cockenzie in East Lothian, with the loss of hundreds of local jobs, and must be overhauled.
The SNP will continue to demand the reform of the punitive transmission charging regime, which has come to symbolise the UK government’s repeated failure to deliver energy policies which meet Scotland’s needs.
Nuclear power
The UK government is determined to push ahead with the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in the south of England, which will cost at least £18 billion to build and will result in huge costs for taxpayers and consumers.
We are opposed to these plans, which have already come close to collapse.
If built, electricity generated by Hinkley C will be sold for more than twice the current retail price.
SNP MPs will hold the UK government to account over its support for the Hinkley white elephant.
Working with our neighbours to fight climate change
Scotland has already exceeded a world-leading target to reduce emissions by 42 per cent by 2020.
The Scottish Government has now produced a draft Climate Change Plan, with tougher targets for future years, ensuring Scotland continues to set an example for other countries to follow.
SNP MPs will press the UK government to match Scotland’s commitment and ambition.
SNP MPs will work to prevent the threat of Brexit being used by the UK to reduce commitments to tackle climate change or to undermine the European Union’s efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment.
Scotland has played an important role in these areas, and has also directly benefited from the EU’s work.
We are determined to safeguard the advances which have already been made, while continuing to protect and enhance our environment in the years ahead.
We will defend the interests of environmental scientists from across the EU who contribute so much to the success of Scotland’s research institutes.
Animal welfare
We will oppose any relaxation of the laws on fox-hunting.
Protecting Scotland’s environment and tackling climate change
Scotland is a world leader in tackling climate change – and the SNP Scottish Government is taking important steps to protect our natural environment for generations to come.
•We have exceeded our world-leading target of reducing emissions by 42 per cent by 2020 – six years early. We have already produced a draft Climate Change Plan, with tougher targets for future years.
•We have blocked underground coal gasification and a moratorium means fracking cannot take place in Scotland.
•Scotland has exceeded its target to produce 50 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2015 – helping to fight climate change and create jobs too.
•With the support of the SNP Scottish Government, the low carbon and renewables sector in Scotland supported 58,500 jobs in 2015 – up by a third since 2014.
•Scotland’s household recycling rate was 44.2 per cent in 2015 – up from around 32 per cent for municipal waste in 2007.
•Scotland is showing international leadership on moving to a more circular economy, where we keep valuable resources in circulation for as long as possible. The Scottish Government has won the Award for Circular Economy Governments, Cities and Regions at the World Economic Forum summit at Davos.
Find out more at www.snp.org/record
A COMPASSIONATE COUNTRY
Extreme poverty,
inequality,
climate change,
the plight of refugees fleeing war and repression,
and the humanitarian impact of disasters and emergencies are global issues on which we have a moral duty to act.
A strong team of SNP MPs at Westminster will make sure that when it comes to their humanitarian and moral obligations, the UK government will not be let off the hook.
International development
SNP MPs will hold the UK government to its commitment of spending 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income on international development.
We will seek to ensure overseas aid funding meets the internationally-recognised Development Assistance Criteria and does not undermine public services in developing countries.
We believe that overseas aid funding must not be used for defence or intelligence related expenditure.
We will urge the UK government to ensure development programmes have human rights and the rights of women at their heart.
The world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries are the least responsible for climate change, yet face its biggest impacts.
We will maintain the position of a Climate Justice Spokesperson, and call on the UK government to match the approach of the Scottish Government with a dedicated Climate Justice Fund.
In 2015, Scotland’s First Minister confirmed that the Scottish Government would be one of the first anywhere in the world to commit to meeting the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development, both at home and overseas.
The Global Goals should be a key focus for international development policy and spending,
and the particular role of women and girls in development must be recognised.
The Department for International Development should be maintained as a stand-alone department of Government with its own Secretary of State.
SNP MPs will continue to support the EU in the pursuit of the objectives outlined in the EU Global Strategy, particularly in the cross-cutting themes of Human Rights,
Women,
Peace and Security
and Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
As new trading relationships are formed, the SNP will back policies which support development and ensure that the UK’s trade arrangements with developing countries prioritise poverty reduction.
Given Scotland’s long and enduring relationship with Malawi, the SNP will continue to call for the UK government to renegotiate a new, fair tax treaty with Malawi.
Ethical trade
As the UK sets its own trade policy, it must be done responsibly and ethically.
ActionAid has ranked the UK joint worst in the world for having the largest number of treaties with developing countries which most restrict the rights of poor countries to tax UK companies operating there.
The SNP will urge the UK government to develop a trade and development policy that outlines how the UK will support development as part of its trade with developing countries.
The SNP Scottish Government has committed to “always consider the human rights implications of its engagement with countries and business” and to ensure that “investment agreements should only be signed where appropriate due diligence, including on the human rights record of companies involved, has been undertaken.”
The SNP Scottish Government is now engaging with Amnesty International to put these commitments into practice.
SNP MPs will demand that the UK government follows the lead of the Scottish Government.
Championing LGBTI rights globally
SNP MPs will support the establishment of a special envoy to promote the rights of LGBTI people throughout the world, as an integral part of UK foreign policy - helping to alleviate the discrimination and persecution faced by LGBTI people in Chechnya and across the world.
Meeting our humanitarian and moral obligations
We believe that the UK government has a responsibility – through action and leadership – to tackle global issues such as extreme poverty,
the impact of climate change,
the plight of refugees fleeing war and repression
and the humanitarian impact of disasters and emergencies.
The UK government’s response to the refugee and migration crisis has fallen far short of their humanitarian and moral duty.
The decision to close the Dubs Scheme for unaccompanied children – putting them at risk of exploitation – is shameful.
SNP MPs will back an immediate reversal to ensure safe and legal routes are open.
In addition, the Dublin Regulation process needs to be simplified, reformed, and properly implemented so that those with family in the UK can be more easily reunited with them.
SNP MPs will urge the UK government to take action on the recommendations of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees including implementing a National Refugee Integration Strategy that ensures all agencies coordinate support for refugees and helps refugees take part in, and contribute to, our society.
There has been a worrying trend in the rhetoric coming from the current UK government as it relates to those seeking protection.
The SNP will always defend the system of international protection of refugees that provides a place of safety for those facing serious harm or persecution.
We need to ensure that the system of assessing asylum claims is thorough and fair and treats all passing through it with dignity.
Those who have waited six months for an asylum decision should be able to use their skills and to support themselves by taking up work – as most EU countries allow.
We will continue to oppose the continued cuts to support that have led to asylum seekers becoming destitute.
We need to fundamentally change the UK government’s system for housing asylum seekers.
The disgraceful condition of the housing provided and the contracts the UK government has with providers have been roundly criticised by all parties.
The Scottish Government’s work to resettle Syrian refugees has shown how people can be supported and welcomed into communities and should be used as basis for settling asylum seekers in the future.
We will urge the UK government to work with the devolved administrations, local authorities and local communities to provide services for asylum seekers
rather than use private contractors who have profit rather than people as their prime motive.
There needs to be reform to the detention and asylum system for LGBTI individuals escaping countries where homosexuality is still criminalised, removing unfair and invasive demands for ‘proof’ of sexuality or gender identity.
1 Restoring Devolution Now
The Democratic Unionist Party believes that Northern Ireland needs a working Assembly and Executive as the best form of government for all of our people.
Stormont is far from perfect but it is immeasurably better than what happened before or what would replace it.
The progress we have made should not be easily cast aside to be replaced by uncertainty with power transferred to unaccountable Direct Rule Ministers.
There are 5 pressing reasons why we need devolution restored immediately.
To help achieve the best deal for Northern Ireland as the UK leaves the EU
– at precisely the time when Northern Ireland’s voice needs to be heard loudly and clearly the Northern Ireland Executive has not been formed.
If we are to deal with the challenges and seize the opportunities that leaving the European Union presents then we need our own local Ministers lobbying London and Brussels.
To get a Budget put in place –
Northern Ireland is in unchartered territory where senior Civil Servants are making public spending decisions and not elected politicians.
Sinn Fein’s Finance Minister left post without proposing a Budget.
Key public services and – most importantly – the people who rely on them, need a Budget to be set so they can get the support they need.
To progress much needed health reforms –
our National Health Service faces unprecedented pressures.
The DUP kick started much needed reforms aimed at creating a new model of health and social care
and reducing bureaucracy and streamlining structures.
Those reforms are now effectively on hold with challenges like waiting lists mounting.
People should not have to wait any longer to have those reforms implemented and problems tackled.
To protect and improve our education system –
the impact of not having an Executive in place is already being felt across our school system.
Having an Executive up and running is critical to resolving the funding crisis facing our schools thus ensuring that we prioritise frontline funding for our schools so that all our children receive the best educational start in life.
It is vital that we build on positive practical reforms in education.
To attract investment and jobs –
it is no coincidence that our record levels of inward investment have happened during a sustained period of devolution.
Having stable structures at Stormont with local Ministers leading efforts to sell Northern Ireland internationally has helped us secure thousands of new jobs.
Without devolution, all of the efforts to reduce our rate of Corporation tax will have been for nothing.
Political stability is key to our future economic success.
THE STRONGEST, MOST EXPERIENCED UNIONIST TEAM READY FOR NEGOTIATIONS
Immediately after the General Election, we will enter another round of negotiations.
The DUP will place the interests of the people of Northern Ireland first in those negotiations.
We will not draw any red lines or put any roadblocks in the way of seeing an Executive formed straight away.
It is absolutely imperative that voters use this election to not only send a clear message that they want to see Stormont restored
but also give unionism the strongest possible hand in the talks.
No other Party has the strength, unity or experience of delivering for unionism that the DUP possesses.
Unionists remember what it was like in the past when Sinn Fein were able to advance their radical republican agenda in negotiations, aided and abetted by weak unionists.
This all changed when the DUP started to lead unionism.
Since 2003, the DUP has slowly but surely regained ground for unionism culminating in the Stormont House and Fresh Start Agreements.
Sinn Fein have sought to use their mandate at the last Assembly election to block the re-establishment of the Assembly,
to demand a destabilising Border Poll
and to push their agenda.
It’s time for unionists to come out and vote so the real voice of Northern Ireland is heard.
The DUP needs a strong mandate to stand strong against Sinn Fein’s demands.
Immediately after the election on 8 June the negotiations aimed at restoring devolution will recommence with a view to establishing a new Executive by 29 June.
We will enter these negotiations with a positive approach and a goal of seeing the Assembly and Executive restored.
We will not draw any red lines or preconditions but will judge any potential deal against 5 core tests.^
Is the agreement likely to increase support for Northern Ireland’s constitutional position within the United Kingdom?
Is the agreement fully consistent with Northern Ireland remaining a full and integral part of the United Kingdom?
Is the agreement fully compatible with our British citizenship?
Will the agreement result in better government and policies for the people of Northern Ireland than a return to Direct Rule?
Is the agreement consistent with the mandate we received for our Assembly manifesto in March?
For ease of reference we set out the 10 commitments for negotiations which were endorsed on 2 March.
OUR 10 COMMITMENTS IN NEGOTIATIONS
We will work to avoid Direct Rule and get local government back at Stormont as quickly as possible.
Our demands in negotiations will be proportionate to those of Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein.
As has been the case since 2007, we remain committed to working constructively and in partnership with all those who are in an Executive after an election.
We will respond positively to any proposals to increase transparency, accountability
and will help the institutions function more effectively.
We will not compromise on fundamental unionist principles in order to retain power.
We will not permit the rewriting of the past
or the persecution of the security forces.
We will oppose any Border Poll outside the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
We will stand over those proposals for reform as set out in our ‘Making Stormont Work Better’ document which have not yet been delivered.
We will work to ensure the full implementation of the Military Covenant in Northern Ireland.
We will honour all previous commitments we have made on the basis that republicans will honour theirs as well.
2 Increasing Family Incomes
Our national and local economy has been improving steadily over the last number of years.
Indeed, Northern Ireland is performing better in some aspects than the rest of the UK.
The DUP believes that it is essential that the benefits of economic growth are felt by everyone, everywhere.
An improving economy must not just be for the benefit of big companies or confined to London and the South East.
Growth must also have a meaningful and positive impact on the lives of hardworking families in every part of our nation.
We welcome the fact that median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees increased by 2.2% in Northern Ireland last year.
That made it the second consecutive annual increase in inflation adjusted earnings in the region.
We want to see continued improvement in earnings and incomes.
We understand that it will be the responsibility of the Party that forms the next Government to bring forward a Budget that encourages economic growth
and protects our society’s most vulnerable.
The DUP proposes measures aimed at increasing family incomes that we seek to have included in future Budgets.
INCREASE THE NATIONAL LIVING WAGE
The newly introduced National Living Wage (NLW) has helped increase family incomes across the United Kingdom.
Whilst acknowledging the pressures that the NLW can place upon small businesses, the DUP believes that it can have a positive impact on working families, help lift people out of poverty and make work pay.
The DUP supports:Continued increases in the National Living Wage; and
Firm action against companies who fail to pay their staff the NLW.
FURTHER INCREASE THE PERSONAL TAX ALLOWANCE
The DUP were frontrunners in proposing increases in the personal tax allowance.
We firmly believe that the gradual increase in the personal tax allowance has been positive for all taxpayers but especially for the lowest paid, taking them out of the tax system entirely, and hugely beneficial for thousands of people from Northern Ireland.
In Parliament, we will support proposals to further increase the personal allowance.
FREEZE THEN CUT OR ABOLISH THE TV LICENCE AND REFORM THE BBC
The TV licence fee is a highly regressive tax which was designed for a different era and a world of communication that no longer exists.
The success of Netflix and Amazon streaming services shows that subscription based media can and does work.
An independent Commission should be established to conduct a review of how the BBC is structured and the services it provides
and to examine alternative funding models,
identify the opportunities for competitive tendering of key services
and produce a plan that will either significantly reduce the licence fee or abolish it.
PROTECTING PENSIONS
The DUP has always advocated for the interests of our older people.
In the Northern Ireland Executive, we have introduced initiatives like free bus passes and have defended their retention against those who would take them away.
We will continue our staunch support for pensioners in the new Parliament.
The DUP will:Support the maintenance of the pensions ‘triple lock’; and
Support an end to the unfair treatment of women pensioners.
AFFORDABLE ENERGY
Paying for oil, gas and electricity can consume a significant chunk of household budgets.
A perception exists that electricity prices in Northern Ireland are high.
Whilst prices are undoubtedly high for the largest industrial customers, our approximately 800,000 domestic customers pay just below the EU average for their electricity and considerably lower than their counterparts in the Republic of Ireland.
The DUP wants to see our energy companies place further downward pressure on household bills.
We will support efforts to better control energy bills and will seek to ensure any such measure operates in Northern Ireland.
SAFEGUARDING UNIVERSAL BENEFITS
The DUP is proud of the universal benefits we have introduced in Northern Ireland like free public transport for the over 60s.
Some parties have once again placed universal benefits like the winter fuel allowance in their sights.
The DUP will resist any assault on these important universal benefits.
3 Creating a Globally Competitive Economy
Northern Ireland’s economy – like the rest of the United Kingdom’s – is heading in the right direction.
Key economic indicators show sustained progress across a range of important areas:
Our unemployment rate and economic inactivity levels have fallen significantly since their peak during the downturn;
Growth of 1.6% in the last year driven by the private sector;
Spending on Research & Development rose by 24% last year to £750 million – an all time high;
Exports by Northern Ireland companies increased by 6% in the past year – the highest increase of any UK region;
Manufacturing sales increased by 6% in the last year and jobs in the sector grew by 1.4%; and
External visitor numbers increased by 12% to 2.6 million.
We are determined to build on that success and continue the positive development in our economic fortunes.
This is our plan for the Northern Ireland economy.
1. MORE AND BETTER PAYING JOBS
Northern Ireland has experienced falling unemployment,
increased job creation
and record levels of inward investment.
Between 2011 and 2016: 42,500 new jobs were promoted
64% of those new jobs were outside of Belfast
£3 billion of employment related investment was secu red
The DUP wants to build on that outstanding success by: Reaffirming our pledge to create 50,000 new jobs by 2021;
Implementing the Economic Inactivity Strategy; and
Reducing Northern Ireland’s Corporation Tax rate to at least 12.5%.
2. AN INDUSTRIAL RENAISSANCE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland has a rich industrial heritage.
The DUP wants to build on our strong manufacturing base and encourage a renaissance in Northern Ireland industry.
The DUP supports the delivery of an ambitious new Industrial Strategy for Northern Ireland which is aimed at increasing our competitiveness
and ensuring inclusive growth.
A Northern Ireland Industrial Strategy must be aligned to the wider UK Industrial Strategy and be centred on: Accelerating innovation and research;
Enhancing education, skills and employability;
Driving inclusive, sustainable growth;
Succeeding in global markets; and
Building the best economic infrastructure.
While some seek to talk Northern Ireland down we see huge potential in our economy.
Northern Ireland has world class capabilities in sectors such as cyber security, agri-foods, advanced engineering and materials handling.
By taking a long term, ten years plus view, we can become a globally competitive economy
built upon a renewed and reinvigorated industrial base.
We will also continue to press HM Government to create City Region Growth Deals for Northern Ireland.
3. SELLING NORTHERN IRELAND TO THE WORLD
Increasing exports and improving trade links will play a huge part in Northern Ireland’s economic future.
While Northern Ireland has been the best performing region for exports in the whole of the United Kingdom, we must build on that success and begin the groundwork needed to capitalise on the trade opportunities that the UK leaving the EU will present.
That’s why the DUP introduced an International Trade Plan which included: a new Trade Advisory Board;
the appointment of Northern Ireland Trade Ambassadors;
the expansion of Invest NI’s international presence in up to 10 more locations;
the creation of new trade, investment and innovation hubs in key global markets; and
a Trade Accelerator Plan including an enhanced range of initiatives to help support both new and existing exporters to explore new markets
The DUP supports the roll out of the International Trade Plan
and we will ensure that the new Department of International Trade works closely with Invest NI to, for example, include more local companies in UK wide trade missions to help them develop international business opportunities.
We will lobby Her Majesty’s Government to: help market Northern Ireland internationally through its agencies and embassies across the world;
establish a Freeports policy targeted at economically underdeveloped parts of the UK
encourage international events to be staged in Northern Ireland; and
continue to incorporate Northern Ireland prominently in UK branding.
4. MAKING TOURISM A £1 BILLION INDUSTRY
Northern Ireland has developed hugely in recent times as a must visit destination for visitors from around the world.
The DUP supports the development of a new Tourism Strategy for Northern Ireland to take the industry here to a new level and reach our full potential.
A Tourism Strategy should: Introduce a Capital Investment Fund for the development of new tourism products;
Create a Tourism Development Fund to support the growth of tourism businesses with an export potential;
Establish a Market Access Fund to encourage businesses to participate in marketing activity;
Set a target of 3,000 new hotel beds; and
Establish a new Air Routes Task Force.
We will also pursue: The abolition of Air Passenger Duty; and
A cut in the VAT rate for tourism businesses.
5. A SECURE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SUPPLY FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland needs a secure and sustainable energy supply for both domestic and business customers.
While concerns have been highlighted about the future security of supply of electricity in Northern Ireland, the DUP believes that this can be addressed by continued progress on interconnection, market integration and the development of new generation capacity.
We are encouraged by recent planning applications for new power stations and see this as a sign that the market is responding positively and that the issues with security of supply can be addressed.
The DUP also believes that a comprehensive new Energy Strategy is needed to deal with security of supply as well as the future of renewable energy policy in Northern Ireland.
The DUP supports:  A comprehensive new Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland;
Continued progress on the Integrated Single Electricity Market and the North South Interconnector;
Improved interconnection with Great Britain; and
The development of new generation capacity.
6. MAKING NORTHERN IRELAND THE BEST PLACE TO DO BUSINESS
Northern Ireland is already a great place to do business.
Whether it is a start-up or an inward investor, Northern Ireland offers companies a lower cost base, loyal and skilled workers and sensible regulation.
The DUP wants to build on that hard-earned reputation and make Northern Ireland not just a good place but the best place to do business.
We will support:  Keeping the cost of doing business low by maintaining Industrial De-Rating and the Small Business Rates Relief;
Reducing the rate of Corporation Tax to at least 12.5%;
Introducing a new Better Business Initiative that will systematically review health and safety legislation working in concert with sectors such as construction;
the maintenance of the present workers’ rights framework and for the UK to lead the way in improving this framework as it has throughout its history;
UK wide tax policy improvements to encourage economic growth in Northern Ireland; and
Assistance from HM Government to attract FDI into Northern Ireland.
7. SECURING THE SKILLS TO SUCCEED
A strong skills base has been a substantial element to Northern Ireland’s recent economic success.
In an increasingly competitive global economy, it is often the skills and talents of our people that positively differentiate Northern Ireland from other possible investment destinations.
Investment in skills must continue if Northern Ireland is to continue to secure jobs and investment.
The DUP supports: Further investment in job focused skills schemes like Assured Skills and Future Skills to provide potential investors and existing employers with the skilled workers they need to grow;
A digital skills revolution in our schools, colleges and universities to enable young people to become digital citizens, digital workers and digital makers, ready for the modern economy;
Continued delivery of the reformed apprenticeships and youth training systems;
Efforts to deliver a better deal for NI business from the Apprenticeship Levy;
Increased involvement of industry in shaping the skills agenda; and
Better alignment of third level courses with the strong and emerging sectors of our economy.
8. KEEPING NORTHERN IRELAND WELL CONNECTED
Investment in infrastructure is crucial for economic competitiveness as well as providing a boost for the local construction industry.
Given Northern Ireland’s geographical location, improved digital and transport connectivity remain key to building a world class economy.
The DUP will:  Support expansion at Heathrow as the UK’s aviation hub with increased air connectivity to Northern Ireland;
Seek an independent investigation into ferry price structures on North Channel and Irish Sea routes between Northern Ireland and Great Britain;
Develop a comprehensive Broadband Infrastructure Plan to roll out high speed internet connectivity across Northern Ireland;
Continue to press the mobile telephony providers to invest in their networks ensuring 4G provision across Northern Ireland and that we are at the forefront of future 5G investments; and
Establish the new Northern Ireland Infrastructure Fund as quickly as possible.
4 Improving Public Services
The DUP has a track record of positively reforming public services and streamlining the political system.
Due to our determination, we have delivered: a reduction in the number of Government Departments from 12 to 9;
a reduction in the number of Special Advisors;
a reduction in the number of MLAs per constituency from 6 to 5; and
a reduction in the number of Councils from 26 to 11.
The DUP has also been the driving force behind a series of public sector reforms which are aimed at developing a more effective and more efficient government.
These include: a Civil Service Voluntary Exit Scheme yielding annual savings of approximately £100 million;
a Public Sector Reform Architecture including the NI Public Sector Innovation Laboratory; and
a suite of internationally renowned Shared Services which have saved the public purse hundreds of millions of pounds in reduced office, IT, procurement and energy costs.
Reforming public services is not solely about realising efficiencies so that Northern Ireland can live within its means.
It is also about delivering a more effective public sector and freeing up resources to be spent on priorities like schools, hospitals and policing.
The DUP wants to continue to reform our public sector.
This is our Plan to improve public services in Northern Ireland.
A NATIONAL REFORM PLAN FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
The DUP believes that all parties should agree to the creation of a structured, long term, cross-government National Reform Plan for Northern Ireland including measurable targets and agreed implementation dates.
Elements of a National Reform Plan for Northern Ireland could include: alternative models of service delivery such as increasing the use of social enterprises;
a Civil Service Reform Plan;
a more digital government;
expanding shared services provision; and
a dedicated Change Fund to stimulate reform.
A GOOD BUDGET SETTLEMENT
The DUP will fight hard at Westminster for a Budget settlement that allows for real terms increases in health and education spending over the next parliamentary term and will prioritise these areas in future Northern Ireland Budgets.
PROGRESSING HEALTH REFORMS
The DUP were in the driving seat in developing ambitious, far sighted reforms for our National Health Service in Northern Ireland.
These reforms including the Bengoa Panel’s recommendations for a new model of health and social care, and proposals to eliminate a layer of bureaucracy by abolishing the HSC Board are much needed.
The DUP supports these reforms and wants to see them progressed as a matter of urgency.
Similarly, our Health Service needs a properly resourced plan to reduce waiting lists and a dedicated Transformation Fund to support reform.
Health is fundamental to every person in Northern Ireland.
The DUP will continue to strive for a situation where key decisions about the enhancement of the NHS in Northern Ireland are free from party politics.
GIVING EVERY CHILD THE CHANCE TO SUCCEED
The DUP is committed to defending and improving our education system in Northern Ireland to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed in life.
We will fight for sufficient resources to be provided for frontline schools budgets,
and for greater autonomy in decision making for schools.
We support academic selection,
the maintenance of the Dickson Plan,
and greater value being placed on vocational qualifications.
We will focus on tackling educational underachievement through support for early years interventions,
n expanded childcare strategy
and community based initiatives.
The DUP supports equality of treatment for all education sectors, including removal of discrimination in teacher employment,
as well as increased shared education across all education sectors.
SAFER STREETS AND SMARTER JUSTICE
Maintaining law and order is one of government’s primary duties.
The DUP supports the justice family across the United Kingdom in the fight against crime in all its increasingly complex guises.
The DUP supports: The adoption a ‘Problem Solving’ approach in our courts;
A measure of protection for the Police in future Budgets;
An increased focus on cyber crime;
the introduction of a NI Register of Animal Cruelty Offenders
and the seriousness of these animal cruelty offences reflected in the sentences handed down by courts;
the PSNI in their efforts to target criminal gangs and ensure they have all the powers necessary to seize assets of paramilitary godfathers
5 Defending Our Nation from Old and New Threats
The DUP does not believe that the present defence arrangements for the United Kingdom are adequate enough to cope with the emerging threats in the 21st Century.
We appreciate that in a time of significant challenge to public finances, almost all areas will be affected, but more consideration needs to be given to prioritising the funding of defence.
In order to afford it some protection, the DUP supported the UK maintaining the NATO target of 2% of GDP for the Defence Budget, despite reservations about the funding formula.
However, it would be unwise to allow the present funding, strength and plans for our Armed Forces to become the accepted norm.
History demonstrates that re-growing defence capability in times of national crisis is both disproportionately expensive and too late.
It should be remembered that the NATO target is intended as a minimum figure not a ceiling for Defence expenditure.
There is also legitimacy to the charge that the UK has only maintained the 2% target through a new definition of Defence spending.
In the next term, it is expected that the UK public finances should improve.
When we achieve this we believe Defence should be one of the priorities for new investment.
Recent harrowing events in Manchester highlight the fact that the strategic threat of the Cold War escalating to a nuclear conflict has been replaced by a multiplicity of threats, both conventional and unconventional, and not just from states but also from trans-national groups of linked terror movements.
This has triggered the emergence of a multitude of terrorist threats
and precipitated the current migration crisis in Europe.
Additionally, Jihadists returning to the United Kingdom represent a new and highly dangerous threat.
This means the capabilities of our Defence and Intelligence infrastructure needs strengthened with a focus on the ability of our forces to deploy rapidly and to adapt to emerging threats.
We must not ignore dissident Republican terrorists and the threat they pose to all our citizens in Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The intelligence community and our security forces must be given a budget and rules of engagement that enable them not only to deter the threat from Republican splinter groups but also to actively pursue such terrorists and defeat them.
This is the DUP’s Plan to strengthen the UK’s Defences and support service personnel and veterans.
A NEW NATIONAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC DEFENCE REVIEW
When the public finances improve we believe it will be appropriate to have a new National Security and Strategic Defence Review.
The 2015 Review demonstrated a lack of strategic ambition and was too much a product of expenditure limitations.
The DUP believes that such a review needs to be honest about the nature of the threats we face and the consequences of failing to deal with them.
Only then can we make the difficult choices about capability and affordability.
In terms of military doctrine, we believe our military capability should be driven by the ability to act alone in defence of our own strategic interests in places like the Falkland Islands
whilst also continuing to be the partner of choice to our allies, primarily through NATO.
Within our military capabilities, the DUP believes the sufficient staffing, training and equipping of our reserve forces must be a priority.
MAINTAINING OUR INDEPENDENT NUCLEAR DETERRENT, AND NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION
The DUP has consistently supported the maintenance of the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent and will continue to support Trident’s renewal.
One of the reasons for the need to renew is the systematic failure of the international community to deal with the issue of nuclear proliferation.
We believe the UK should use all international forums to completely overhaul the approaches to counter proliferation and support efforts to prevent the likes of North Korean dictatorships from gaining and distributing such technology.
PLAYING A FULL ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL MILITARY AND SECURITY RELATIONSHIPS
The DUP supports our participation in NATO but shares the American concerns that other members are consistently failing to fulfil the minimum spending target.
The Russian state is becoming more belligerent in its actions based on its assessment of western political and military weakness.
This pattern of behaviour will only be arrested by a reversal of both of these weaknesses.
A CYBERSECURITY LEADER FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM ^
Cybersecurity is recognised as the current dominant threat to global security.
Part of the growth of the knowledge economy in Northern Ireland has been a specialism in the area of cybersecurity.
The DUP believes this is a critical area where Northern Ireland could contribute to countering this growing threat to national security.
We support the expansion of cybersecurity research in Northern Ireland.
A REVIEW OF THE MILITARY COVENANT
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom with both an immense contribution to our Armed Forces and debt to our Armed Forces for the protection they provided in the successful execution of Operation Banner.
These are why fulfilling the Military Covenant is particularly important for us.
We believe that the Military Covenant should be reviewed and updated.
The DUP supports the introduction of Independent Commissioners in the four parts of the United Kingdom to ensure the Covenant is fully implemented.
The DUP is conscious how equality legislation in Northern Ireland has been used to hamper the fulfilment of both the spirit and the practical elements of the Covenant here.
It wishes to see this situation ended and Veterans in Northern Ireland to be treated equally to Veterans right across the United Kingdom.
BRINGING ARMED FORCES DAY TO NORTHERN IRELAND
It is unacceptable that Northern Ireland has never hosted the main national event for Armed Forces Day in the UK.
The DUP wish to see Northern Ireland host the main national event at some point in the life of the next Parliament and regularly thereafter.
A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT TERRORISM LEGISLATION
The DUP believes that considering the multi-faceted evolving and insidious nature of the terrorist threat it is time to review whether present arrangements need to be updated or upgraded.
This review should include: An updated legal framework for intelligence led anti-terrorism investigations and operations in the U.K.
A UK wide definition of a victim which excludes perpetrators.
Changes to the glorification of terrorism offences with an examination of the 20 year time limit.
Consideration of intelligence and security committee membership representing all regions of the UK
RESISTING ATTEMPTS TO REWRITE THE PAST
Ninety percent of the deaths in the Troubles were by paramilitaries yet the balance of investigations is disproportionately against former police officers and soldiers.
A one-sided approach only serves those who want to re-write the past.
It is only natural that the public are outraged to see former soldiers who stood against the brutal terrorism of the early seventies instigated by the IRA now being hounded while many of those who hid behind balaclavas avoid justice.
The recent Defence Select Committee’s report “ Investigation into Fatalities in Northern Ireland involving British Personnel” recommends Government bring forward a statute of limitations, following a DUP led debate in Parliament.
The DUP also managed to secure Committee backing to extend such a proposal to include members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and other security personnel.
The last twenty years have been marred by the completely imbalanced treatment of those who terrorised our society compared against brave service personnel who ensured they would never succeed.
Early release of prisoners, a maximum two year sentence for fresh terrorist convictions, odious On the Runs legislation and a secretive scheme to issue letters of immunity have all tarnished the process of justice.
Our troubled past can only be dealt with effectively in an honest and holistic manner, not the partial way republicans would wish.
We must ensure that the past cannot be rewritten.
Government should go ahead and publish their draft legislation so the new Historical Investigations Unit can commence its work as soon as possible.
We will do everything we can to assist innocent victims to obtain a measure of justice.
6 Getting the Best Deal for Northern Ireland from the UK leaving the EU
WHY WE SUPPORTED A VOTE TO LEAVE:
The DUP’s decision to support leaving the European Union was based on principle and practicality.
The DUP had opposed joining in the first place, had been consistent in its scepticism throughout our membership and fully supported the question of membership being put to the people of the United Kingdom.
This was the demonstration of our commitment to principle.
In terms of practicality when the then Prime Minister David Cameron attempted to achieve tangible reform of the European Union we supported this initiative.
In our previous Westminster manifesto the DUP stated: “We support the current UK Government pledge to renegotiate elements of our relationship with the European Union.”
The deafness of the EU institutions to change in those negotiations meant that this process did not deliver the fundamental reform the EU required.
Therefore, with no reasonable alternative available, the DUP chose to maintain its stance and advocate for a leave vote.
Some would seek to make this a re-run of last year’s referendum.
Our job now is not to refight old battles but to use our mandate and our influence to get the best deal for Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union inevitably brings with it opportunities as well as challenges.
Whichever way people voted in the referendum last June, and whatever concerns they may still have we can all unite to ensure Northern Ireland’s interests are promoted.
For our part we will work to get the best deal for Northern Ireland, recognizing that we share a land frontier with the Republic and the particular circumstances of our unique history and geography.
The circumstances of Northern Ireland are well understood and working together sensibly we have the opportunity to secure a good outcome that delivers for everyone.
In the new Parliament, Northern Ireland needs to have a strong, united DUP team arguing the case for our people.
DURING THE NEGOTIATIONS THE DUP WANTS TO SEE A FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES:
Successful outward-looking knowledge-based economy in Northern Ireland
Ease of trade with the Irish Republic and throughout the European Union
Maintenance of the Common Travel Area
Strengthened relationships across the four components parts of the United Kingdom with no internal borders
Northern Ireland-specific solutions achieved through active Executive engagement
Particular circumstances of Northern Ireland with a land border with the EU fully reflected
Frictionless border with Irish Republic assisting those working or travelling in the other jurisdiction
Progress on new free trade deals with the rest of the world
Comprehensive free trade and customs agreement with the European Union
Northern Ireland established as a hub for trade from Irish Republic into the broader UK market
Customs arrangements which facilitate trade with new and existing markets
Confidence and capacity within local businesses to maximize opportunities
Business to retain competiveness and not face additional costs
Arrangements to facilitate ease of movement of people, goods and services
Proportionate regulatory regime which can promote competiveness, with legislation to suit our local needs
Local input into new UK agriculture and fisheries policies which can offer sustainability and new growth opportunities
Particular importance of agri-food sector to Northern Ireland economy recognised and reflected
Strong protections for agri-food to guard against vulnerabilities to cheap inferior imports
An appropriate support programme for our farmers should continue after we leave
Effective immigration policy which meets the skills, labour and security needs of the UK
Rights of British citizens in the EU and those from EU member states living here safeguarded
Energy market stability
Effective, time bound transitional arrangements where necessary
Higher and further education continuing to attract international expertise and collaboration
Ability to opt-in to EU funds where proven to be cost-effective and add value
Continued participation in funding programmes that have been proven to be of benefit and are open to non-EU members e.g. research funding
Fair share for Northern Ireland from dividends from leaving the EU
UK wide skills and infrastructure funds should be established to lead with an emphasis on regional specialisations
Jurisdiction of European Court of Justice ended and greater control over our laws restored
Positive ongoing relationship with European Union in keeping with Article 8 of Lisbon Treaty.
It is in the interests of all in Northern Ireland that the UK-EU negotiations progress well
and that the trade elements commence as soon as possible.
The stronger and more positive the agreements reached, especially on trade and customs relationships, then the better for the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland
7 A Real Respect Agenda
The role and importance of identity is an increasing issue of discussion across the Western world.
The development and impact of globalisation had led many to assume that identity was inexorably fading away.
This is not true.
The desire to be from somewhere remains inherent in many and played an important role across many recent elections.
Simply put, identity matters.
In a Northern Ireland context, the DUP Leader Arlene Foster has commenced an ongoing process of engagement around how identity is treated in Northern Ireland.
The aim of this is to develop a real respect agenda on the issue of identity here.
Respect does not mean simply acceding to everything asked for or demanded by different groups or communities.
Instead, it is a dialogue of what is wanted, what is needed and what can be practically delivered to ensure the expression of an identity and its successful communication to the next generation.
In this dialogue, an important place must be made for our growing minority ethnic communities to ensure their contribution to our diversity
and to integrate into our society.
While the desires of the Irish language community have been highlighted it would be a mistake to assume that this means there is contentment with the present identity settlement amongst the variety of cultural expressions in Northern Ireland.
The commentary and manifestation of disrespect is not exclusive to one identity or one form of expression.
An obvious example is the continuing targeting of Orange Halls for physical attack while political parties, with cheerleading from sections of the media, attack any public funds going to them.
In the spirit of contributing to a genuine discussion and development of a real respect agenda the DUP would see a number of areas of concern that need to be addressed.
The DUP believes these reflect the identity concerns of different cross-sections of those who support Unionism and in some cases beyond it.
It does not claim to be exhaustive or prescriptive for all different identities here but to contribute to the discussion and development of a real respect agenda.
These concerns fit within three broad categories: Our British Identity
Our Ulster Identities
Our Pride in Northern Ireland
OUR BRITISH IDENTITY
Within this context there are four broad areas where progress is sought.
These include:
British Symbols
For significant periods of recent history, there has been a consistent attempt to reduce the display of British symbols.
This process was particularly aggressive in Northern Ireland.
It was commonly referred to as “ hol lowing out Ulster’s Britishness” but the process was not exclusive to Northern Ireland.
More recent times have shown a greater desire to display national symbols in the public realm and greater embracing of Britishness.
Northern Ireland has been excluded from this process.
For example, Northern Ireland’s flag legislation has seen a consistent reduction in days while Nationalist ministers blocked a simple measure like the Union flag on driving licences, rejecting even an opt-in option.
Therefore, there is a clear desire that this exclusion of Northern Ireland from these positive developments for the public expression of Britishness ends.
National Celebration and Commemoration
The celebration and commemoration of important national events are central to the maintenance and promotion of a common identity.
The full enjoyment, celebration and/or participation in them needs to be guaranteed.
Examples of how this has not been occurring are Homecoming parades, the Armed Forces Day National event and the Battlefield Tours programme.
There were demonstrations against Homecoming parades.
Northern Ireland has never hosted the main national event for Armed Forces Day, unlike every other constituent part of the UK.
Schools from Northern Ireland have only just started participating on a pilot basis in WW1 Battlefield tours.
These commenced elsewhere in the UK in 2014 and NI’s exclusion was the result of Sinn Fein’s control of the education and cultural ministries.
Recognition and Support of Military Service
Our Armed Forces, their sacrifices and their achievements are a central and continuing bond.
The debt that is owed to these men and women is expressed through the Military Covenant.
The inequality that sees veterans In Northern Ireland not enjoying the full benefits of this covenant is not something that the DUP considers in any way acceptable.
Thus, a framework to: ensure its complete fulfilment;
support research on veterans’ needs and acting on its recommendations; and
proper structures with ongoing oversight, is required.
Likewise, to encourage our future contribution to the military our Cadet services in Northern Ireland should receive comparable support arrangements as elsewhere in UK
and the development of a new Army Museum in Northern Ireland should be seen as an opportunity for significant development.
The Commonwealth
Our membership of the EU meant the Commonwealth and its contribution was often overlooked.
Its peoples have contributed so much to the diversity of modern Britain and is an international network we must utilise better at pursuing our mutual interests.
The role and contribution of the Commonwealth should be better promoted in our schools.
Northern Ireland should seek to host Commonwealth political and sporting events and maximise the range of sports in which Northern Ireland teams participate.
Beyond these themes the DUP would also like to see the development of a UK equivalent of Co-operation Ireland promoting the linkages across the constituent parts of the country.
OUR ULSTER IDENTITIES
The Ulster-Scots heritage, language and culture and Orangeism have both made a huge contribution to our own local identity as well as having a significant impact beyond our shores.
However, their birth and strength remain here.
Ulster-Scots heritage, language and culture
When you consider the breadth and depth of the Ulster-Scots identity the range of measures and opportunities that could be pursued is long.
At its core there must be reform and resourcing of the Ulster-Scots Agency,
refocusing of the Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund
and fulfilling the 2003 promise to create an Ulster-Scots Academy.
These developments would facilitate the likes of language promotion,
tourism initiatives,
capital investment,
cultural networks,
diaspora development,
social economy projects,
inclusion in the education system and bespoke courses
, academic research
and digital and broadcasting growth.
Orangeism
It is a continuing contradiction that despite all the talk of rights in Northern Ireland many of the same people are silent about or opposed to freedom of assembly.
Public expression by parades is central to Orangeism but over the years regardless of who was on the Parades Commissions the end result has been the same.
Namely, the exclusion of Orangeism from ever greater areas of public space.
This is regardless of engagement or not or compliance or not and often rewarded violence.
Thus the DUP is committed to a new start on parades.
OUR PRIDE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
The pride in Northern Ireland that many feel in what we can achieve together or individually is something the DUP wishes to promote and believes would be attractive to a broad cross-section of people in Northern Ireland.
This would include:
Celebration of Northern Ireland’s Centenary
Despite an agreement of Executive support for the ‘Decade of Centenaries’, this led to little practical action.
The DUP does not want that to be the case in 2021.
It will be a clear opportunity for us to celebrate what has been achieved in the previous 100 years but equally to look forward to what we want to achieve in the next century.
The programme for this should include a public holiday,
public art,
an ‘Expo’,
centenary wood and greenway,
securing of major sporting events
and practical measures to demonstrate our values such as ‘baby boxes’ and awards for centenarians.
Recognition of Northern Ireland
The recognition of Northern Ireland can be given practical effect in a number of ways, for example:
Within our museums, a narrative of a global, positive and innovative Northern Ireland that achieved economic success and is dedicated to regaining such a position again;
Recognition for the symbols associated with Northern Ireland; and
Recognition of Northern Ireland sporting bodies,
the Olympic team should be referred to as Team UK
and the freedom for athletes to choose their national team.
Standing up for Unionism, Speaking up for Northern Ireland
Sinn Fein have used their mandate at the last Assembly election to demand a destabilising Border Poll, to push a republican agenda and to block the re-establishment of the Assembly.
It’s time for unionists to come out and vote so the real voice of Northern Ireland is heard.
A vote for the DUP is a vote ... For Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom
For real influence at Westminster
For the best deal for Northern Ireland as the UK leaves the EU
For the strongest representation at Westminster
For the restoration of the Assembly and Executive
If you want the DUP to be Northern Ireland’s voice at Westminster so we can stand up for unionism, speak up for Northern Ireland, and stop Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein from dictating the political agenda, then you must send that message by voting for the DUP.
Use your vote to unite around the biggest and strongest unionist party.
Vote DUP!
Brexit Britain: The Key Tests
UKIP has set out six key Brexit tests and until each one of them has been met, we will not have the Brexit the British people voted for on  23rd June last year.
One of the most crucial tests is regaining the fishing rights Britain has under international law.
The Conservatives already look to be backsliding on this.
More than 17 million of us voted ‘Leave,’ giving the government the largest democratic mandate in the history of  British politics. There should be no question of turning back, yet the Tories are leaving the door to the EU wide open. UKIP is the only party that will genuinely respect the referendum result. Gerard Batten MEP, Brexit Spokesman
UKIP believes the UK should have already left the EU, and that following the Article 50 process will lead us to make too many concessions to Brussels.
Theresa May has already shown signs of capitulating on key issues such as immigration
and freeing the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Courts.
What concessions will she make next?
Theresa May should not be allowing the EU to influence how, when, and on what terms we leave.
Ours is a position of inherent strength, and we should be acting from that position of strength, not giving up before negotiations have even begun.
HOW BRITAIN COULD, AND STILL SHOULD, LEAVE THE EUROPEAN UNION
Repealing the European Communities Act (1972) should be the first, not the last step in the leaving process.
There is no legal or moral obligation to use Article 50; we have the legal right to withdraw from the EU unilaterally.
Article 50 is a trap designed to obstruct countries from leaving the EU.
The longer the leaving process lasts, the greater the chance of the Referendum decision being overturned.
May’s decision not to implement the decision of the Referendum as quickly as possible, but follow a slow route that suits the EU, is very worrying.
By repealing the 1972 Act we could immediately take back control of key policy areas such as immigration and border controls,
fishing,
farming,
trade,
security and defence,
and police and criminal justice.
All EU laws could remain in place temporarily, until they are repealed individually, amended , or allowed to stand.
THE OPEN DOOR TO THE 2019 EU ELECTIONS
By now, a Bill for the repeal of the European Elections Act (2002) should have been placed before parliament, to ensure no British national can stand for election to the European Parliament in 2019.
This would have been a clear sign that there is no going back on Brexit, yet this has not happened.
THE EU PLAN TO STOP US LEAVING
Article 50 is not just a two-year process, as it makes provision for negotiations to extend for an indefinite time beyond that.
We are likely to find ourselves facing protracted and tortuous negotiations with a recalcitrant, bullying EU for quite some time.
The EU has no incentive to negotiate a ‘good deal’ for the UK because it does not want us to leave.
The UK has massive exposure to the liabilities of the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, and various other ‘financial mechanisms’ of the EU so long as we remain a member.
We will be expected to contribute to any Eurozone bailouts.
The EU will also have to plug a huge financial hole of some 12 per cent of the gross EU budget when Britain leaves.
These are just two very good reasons for the EU to keep us dangling on the hook for as long as possible.
The longer the EU can keep Britain in, the greater the opportunity for a new government to reverse the referendum decision, or sign up to some kind of associated membership agreement which, to all intents and purposes, will be just like EU membership.
THERE MUST BE NO COMPROMISE ON BREXIT
Our government and our parliament should implement the referendum decision according to our own requirements, and then agree the terms of our separation.
If Theresa May signs a withdrawal agreement which means we will leave in name but not in substance, she will have betrayed Britain to the EU, just as every Prime Minister has done since 1972.
The fact that the political class is choosing to dance to Brussels’ tune proves UKIP is the only political party in Britain you can trust to deliver a true, unequivocal Brexit.
Once we have left the EU, we will not allow the EU flag to be flown from public buildings.
We will declare 23rd June Independence Day, and make it a bank holiday.
Our SIX Brexit Tests
Only when the government has passed all these tests can we be sure the British people have got the deal they voted for on June 23rd 2016:
1 THE LEGAL TEST
Parliament must resume its supremacy of law-making without restriction.
Britain must be completely free from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice,
and we must be free, if we wish, to relinquish our membership of the European Court of Human Rights.
2 THE MIGRATION TEST
Britain must have full control of immigration and asylum policies,
and border control.
We must be not be bound by any freedom of movement obligation,
and we must be free to set and meet our own annual migration targets.
3 THE MARITIME TEST
The UK’s full maritime sovereignty must be restored and we must have control of our maritime exclusive economic zone, which stretches 200 miles off the coast or to the half-way point between the UK and neighbouring countries.
There must be no constraints on our fishing fleet other than those decided upon by the UK parliament.
4 THE TRADE TEST
The UK must retake its seat on the World Trade Organisation and resume its sovereign right to sign trade agreements with other entities or supra-national bodies.
We must have full rights to set our own tariff and non-tariff barriers consistent with WTO rules,
and we must have left both the EU single market and the customs union.
5 THE MONEY TEST
We must not pay any ‘divorce’ payment to the EU, nor contribute to the EU budget.
We must have been paid our share of financial assets from entities such as the European Investment Bank, in which some £9 billion of UK money is vested.
6 THE TIME TEST
Brexit must be done and dusted before the end of 2019.
“Our fishing industry could be worth £6.3 billion when we leave the EU. Free of the Common Fisheries Policy, we can take back full control of the seas up to 200 miles from our coast, as is our right under international law. We can start to rebuild the once- flourishing fishing industry that our membership of the EU destroyed.”
Mike Hookem MEP,
Fishing Spokesman
RESTORING BRITAIN’S FISHING INDUSTRY
Of all the tests for a ‘proper’ Brexit, taking back control of our fisheries is key.
The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy is an environmental, economic and social disaster that has devastated fishing communities
and caused catastrophic damage to our maritime ecology.
Until we have control of our seas and our fish stocks, we do not have Brexit.
The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was cobbled together in 1970 as Denmark, Ireland, Norway and the UK were on course to join the then EEC.
Together, these countries held 90 per cent of Western European fish stocks.
80 per cent of those stocks were British.
It was a cynical but legal way to seize the new entrants’ precious marine resources.
The central tenet of the CFP, that there should be non-negotiable ‘equal access’ to EEC/EU waters was a condition of EEC/EU membership,
Some say Prime Minister Edward Heath committed an act of treachery when he capitulated to the CFP; certainly he allowed the UK’s territorial waters to be plundered by industrialised fishing fleets, which led to huge job and tax revenue losses from fishing and ancillary industries.
The CFP has rightly been described as an obscenity because of its reckless fishing quotas and the discard policy.
This requires fishermen either to throw back into the seas dead fish caught over quota, or to bring them back to port and send them to landfill.
Data on discards from Eurostat show discards equate to some two billion fish suppers thrown back into the sea every year.
It is environmental and economic madness.
Once we leave the EU, we can also leave the CFP, take back control of our seas, and rebuild our fishing industry.
THE 1964 LONDON CONVENTION ON FISHING
UKIP will repeal this little-known convention, an agreement between twelve European nations and the UK, which recognises the historic fishing rights of vessels from the contracting parties to fish in the band of waters between six and twelve nautical miles from the UK coast.
When the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy ceases to apply, the UK will automatically establish controlof a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone giving our fishermen sole access to the seas within 200 miles of the UK coastline, or at the mid-point between two countries’ coastlines.
However, the existence of the pre-EU 1964 Convention could offer a back door to continued EU fishing in British waters, as vessels belonging to signatory nations could cite this legislation and claim ‘historic rights’ to fishing within the 6 to 12 nautical mile band around the UK.
The next government’s willingness - or otherwise - to revoke the 1964 London Convention on Fishing could be indicative of their intentions for the fishing industry in the post-Brexit era.
Article 15 of the Convention calls for a two-year notice period, so time is of the essence, yet to date no action has been taken.
SECURING THE FUTURE OF OUR FISHERIES
Re-building our fishing industry and repatriating one of our nation’s greatest renewable resources will take time but it could be worth as much as £6.3 billion to the UK economy in net-to-plate income alone.
This is a golden opportunity for Britain: our fisheries must not be used as a bargaining chip in EU exit negotiations
To take back full control of our fisheries, UKIP will: Leave the CFP and withdraw from the 1964 London convention
•Restore the UK Exclusive Economic Zone in accordance with international law
•End the obscenity of discards and make best use of all fish caught
•Introduce a time-limited, paid licence fee option for selected foreign vessels to fish within the UK’s territorial waters, while the UK fishing industry re-establishes itself
•Launch an inclusive, collaborative consultation with the fishing community to draft a new Fisheries Bill
•Ensure all fish caught within UK waters, including those taken by foreign vessels operating under licence, are landed and sold in the UK, to help finance and attract investment in the newly developing UK fishing industry
•Create, train and equip a new Fisheries Protection Force, using a mixture of technologies in sea-and land-based methods, to police the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
In addition to the economic, environmental, and social gains we will make in restoring our fishing industry, Brexit also offers a unique opportunity to regenerate British boat and shipbuilding.
We could develop our civil ship and boat building programme in line with the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Related Technical Assistance programme.
Brexit Britain offers a host of opportunities, and nowhere more so than in our fishing industry.
Reviving our proud and profitable maritime tradition will rejuvenate our seaside towns,
enhance our coastline,
produce much-needed skilled employment in economically depressed areas,
and secure the future for British fishermen.
The British PassportIn 1988, the blue British passport was scrapped and replaced by a smaller burgundy EU one, a clear step towards the creation of a United States of Europe. The British people roundly rejected this plan on 23rd June 2016.UKIP will take the opportunity to re-instate the classic blue passport when the British passport contract comes up for  renewal in 2019.
Sound National Finances, a Lower Cost of Living
UKIP will invest in the NHS
and care for the elderly.
We will fund our schools,
build more houses,
and rebuild our depleted armed forces.
We will do this without adding a single penny to anyone’s tax bill.
Our cost-of-living package will also save households £400 a year.
UKIP will make full use of the new  economic freedoms we will gain when we leave the EU. The new policies we will introduce in Brexit Britain will be designed to help cut the cost of living for working people, provide adequate funding for public services, and revive communities hardest hit by our EU membership.
Patrick O’Flynn MEP,
Economics Spokesman
Brexit means we can take back control of those important areas of economic policy we have been forced to surrender to the EU for the last forty-five years.
We will resume full responsibility for taxation
and have more room for manoeuvre when it comes to industrial and regional policy, without having to worry about EU ‘state aid’ rules.
UKIP has always made the case for lower taxes
and an end to wasteful public spending programmes.
We will scrap white elephant vanity projects such as HS2,
replace the out-dated Barnett Formula with a fair funding formula based on need,
reduce foreign aid to 0.2 per cent of Gross National Income,
and end our financial contributions to the EU budget.
These savings will provide us with £35 billion to fund our public service priorities.
By keeping taxation low and incentives for wealth creation high, we will unleash the hardworking, entrepreneurial instincts of the British people.
CUTTING THE COST OF LIVING
UKIP will remove VAT from domestic energy bills
and scrap the green levies currently added to our bills to subsidise renewable energy schemes.
Together, these measures will cut typical household energy bills by £ 170 a year.
Our plans to abolish the TV licence will eventually save households another £147.
UKIP will phase out the licence fee over three years, giving the BBC time to adopt a new funding model based on subscription and/or advertising.
We will expect the BBC to retain a core free-to-air offering on Freeview, maintain the World Service, and its local radio network.
Grants from a new public service broadcast fund, financed from within current government resources, will be available to any broadcaster for specific programmes or projects.
We will remove VAT from hot takeaway food such as fish and chips,
and from women’s sanitary products.
FAIRER, LOWER TAXES
Our economic approach revolves around restoring incentives for workers by cutting taxes
and ending the open door immigration that keeps wages low.
Reducing the tax burden on working people in the bottom and middle ranges of the income scale is our priority.
By the end of the next parliament UKIP will raise the personal allowance to at least £13,500 so people can earn enough money tocover their basic living costs before the state takes anyof their income.
We will alsoraise the 40 percent income tax threshold to £55,000.
A tax originally designed for high earners should not be levied on middle-income professionals such as teachers and senior nurses.
When economic conditions allow, we will restore the personal allowance to those earning over £100,000.
UKIP will raise the inheritance tax threshold to £500,000per individual, transferable for a married couple or those in civil partnerships, so up to £1000,000 in total.
Eventually we want to eliminate inheritance tax altogether.
We will also scrap Tory plansfor new and punitive probate charges.
FLEXIBLE PENSIONS FOR WOMEN
The rise in the retirement age to 66 by 2020 and to 67 by 2028 has been hugely unpopular, especially for women, whountil 2010 could retire at 60.
UKIP’s policy is to introduce a flexible state pension window, so everyone can opt to retire earlier, for a slightly lower state pension, or work longer for a slightly higher pension, as is the case at the moment.
We will allow women to retire on this basis at 60, if they so wish.
Time and again you will see the Conservative Party giving favourable treatment to the rich and powerful and dumping on the up-and-comers. It is not an attractive trait. UKIP’s economic agenda is to speak up not just for the left behind but for the left out, those who work hard and play by the rules but have no special connections or market power.
CRACKING DOWN ON CORPORATE TAX DODGING
The public has every right to be angry when multi¬national corporations fail to make their proper contribution to Britain’s running costs.
PAYE is not voluntary, and corporation tax should not be voluntary either.
We will not let large companies get away with paying zero or negligible corporation tax.
When we leave the EU, we will close the loophole allowing businesses to pay tax in whichever EU or associated country they choose, and bring in any further measures necessary to prevent large multinational corporations using aggressive tax avoidance schemes.
UKIP is not in the pockets of big businesses and we will make them pay their way.
BREXIT: THE BOOST TO THE ECONOMY
If Britain leaves the EU without a free trade agreement and we trade with the EU on World Trade Organisation terms, the Treasury will receive a tax windfall of some £11 billion from import tariffs annually.
This bonus could be used to fund an across the board cut in VAT to compensate consumers for slightly higher prices, or other spending priorities.
In this event, UKIP will also: Encourage a Buy British campaign: if the EU were seen to be punishing Britain, we believe the home market would support home produced goods
Cut unnecessary EU regulation from the 88 per cent of the UK economy that is not linked to trade with EU countries
Prioritise free trade agreements with non-EU countries.
RETURNING TO SOUND FINANCES
The annual public sector deficit may be reducing slowly, but our national debt has been doubled by the Conservatives, since they took office in 2010, to a record high.
There can be no more backsliding on returning to sound public finances.
We will support deficit reduction schedules put forward by the next government and vigorously oppose unnecessary spending plans.
Only by backing enterprise,
rewarding success
and tackling waste in the public sector
can we hope to improve the economic legacy we pass on to future generations.
“Starbucks recently reported profits of £13.4m on a UK turnover of £380m. Its corporation tax contribution fell to £2.7m, down from £7m the year before. How can a vast business that sells coffee in paper cups all over the country for £2.50 a pop end up paying a corporation tax contribution amounting to much less than one per cent of turnover? Would the taxman be happy to accept, pro-rata, such a contribution from an independent coffee shop? I think we know the answer to that.”
Patrick O’Flynn MEP
Backing Business and Investing in British Jobs
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party wants to squeeze as much tax as possible out of British businesses and British workers to pay for their outlandish ideas.
Theresa May’s Conservatives are plotting hikes in dividend tax and Class IV  National Insurance contributions,
and want to make small businesses file tax  returns four times a year.
UKIP is the only party in this election prepared to back British businesses
and British workers
and help both to thrive.
There needs to be a bonfire of excessive EU regulation when we leave the EU so smaller businesses can compete successfully on the global stage.
UKIP is the only party that has any real appetite for this.
Christopher Mills,
Business Spokesman
UKIP is strongly pro-business.
Helping businesses start, succeed, and compete in the global marketplace is a priority for us.
Having long fought against excessive regulations enforced by Brussels, we make the case for clear-cut, sensible regulation to make trading easier,
balancing this with policies to encourage ethical and responsible growth.
BACKING SMALL BUSINESSES
Britain’s 5.5 million small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, making up 60 per cent of the jobs in the private sector, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.
UKIP will support small businesses by: Cutting business rates by 20 per cent for the 1.5 million British businesses operating from premises with a rateable value of less than £50,000
Making HM Revenue and Customs investigate big businesses or public sector bodies that repeatedly make late payments to smaller customers.
Fines proportionate to the amount of delayed payments will be levied, and will escalate for repeat offenders
Improve access to trade credit insurance to remove the drag on growth for businesses struggling to secure loans, and give small traders the confidence to expand their businesses
Encourage local trade by pushing every local authority in the country to offer at least 30 minutes’ free parking in town centres and shopping parades.
We will also freeze Insurance Premium Tax.
Previous governments have raised this tax as an easy way to make extra revenue, yet it cannot be claimed back by businesses so increases have been especially tough on smaller traders.
ACCESSING GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
Local, regional and national governments have immense spending power totalling around £230 billion.
Backing Business and Investing in British Jobs
Big businesses will have to start training the British workforce, investing in succession planning, and paying a decent living wage to all their employees.
Andrew Charalambous,
Work and Pensions Spokesman
While in the EU, they are required to offer contracts right across Europe, which has made it harder for British businesses to compete,
and forced them to jump through expensive bureaucratic hoops.
Brexit offers the perfect opportunity to open up government order books to smaller businesses,
and encourage local, regional and national procurement strategies that will deliver better value for taxpayers.
UKIP will launch an urgent independent review of public sector procurement, with the aim of opening public sector contracts up to small and medium-sized businesses employing less than 250 people.
Recommendations coming out of this review will be put in place immediately after we leave the EU.
Meanwhile, we will compel all public sector bodies to list contracts worth over £10,000 on the government’s ‘Contracts Finder’ website, to help more small firms access public procurement opportunities.
BACKING BRITAIN’S SELF-EMPLOYED STRIVERS
It takes courage and determination to set up your own business.
Many self-employed people work for less than the national living wage, especially when they start out.
UKIP will stand up for Britain’s 4.8 million self-employed people.
There will be no quarterly tax returns, and no increase in Class IV National Insurance or taxes for our self-employed strivers.
UKIP’s goal is to keep taxes and red-tape to the minimum necessary.
BRITISH JOBS FOR BRITISH WORKERS
UKIP is not ashamed to say it: we should be offering jobs first to our own unemployed,
rather than inviting cheap labour from overseas to do the jobs British people are perfectly able to do.
Big businesses are the worst offenders here and we will prevent their deliberately overlooking the 11 per cent of young people in the UK who are currently out of work.
UKIP will bring forward legislation requiring employers to advertise jobs to British citizens before they offer them overseas.
It is the government’s duty to get our own unemployed off benefits and into the workplace,
and improve prospects for our own people, rather than facilitate the continued importation of foreign workers.
We will also ensure employers are legally free to choose to hire a young unemployed British person under the age of 25 ahead of a better qualified or more experienced foreign applicant.
Employers who wish to back British workers and give local young people a chance on the first rung of the career ladder should not face the threat of legal action, as they presently do.
UKIP will make Gordon Brown’s British Jobs for British workers plausible, and meaningful in law.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
Protect workers’ rights once we have left the EU: leaving the EU must not usher in any kind of ‘race to the bottom’ on employment rights.
Enforce the minimum and living wage and reverse government cuts to the number of minimum wage inspectors in England and Wales
Significantly tighten up rules on zero hours contracts and severely limit their use.
Creating Coastal Enterprise Zones
UKIP will make it a top priority to reverse the decline of our seaside towns.
We will be the party that cares about coastal communities and does not write them off as being “at the end of the line”.
NURTURING SEASIDE BUSINESSES
Within our coastal enterprise zones, businesses operating from premises with a rateable value of less than £50,000 will receive a 50 per cent cut in business rates.
Coastal towns will have top ranking when it comes to national successor funds to the European Regional Development Fund.
Our new coastal towns taskforce will raise funding for new arts and heritage facilities in coastal towns.
In this election, UKIP is the first party ever to put forward a comprehensive package of measures targeted at helping coastal communities. UKIP will provide the essential leadership needed to reverse the decline of the great British seaside town.
Patrick O’Flynn MEP
Economics Spokesman
UKIP will make the British seaside great again: vibrant, viable communities attractive to businesses, to British families, and tourists from overseas.
Victoria Ayling,
Heritage and Tourism Spokeswoman
Our fishing industry has been all but destroyed by the Common Fisheries Policy,
and many coastal towns have been pushed into decline with the rise of cheap package holidays abroad,
and transport and infrastructure projects that have been skewed towards big cities.
The great British seaside is well overdue a revival, and UKIP will create a new Coastal Towns Taskforce to oversee a raft of measures to regenerate those areas of the country that have suffered most as a result of our EU membership.
HIGHER STANDARDS OF HOUSING
Rundown housing has become an unfortunate hallmark of many coastal towns in decline.
In coastal enterprise zones, local authorities will be given the power to: Access low interest government loans to buy up and renovate poor housing stock or empty commercial properties, to create quality residential accommodation
Issue compulsory purchase orders for poor quality houses in multiple occupation
Introduce minimum standards for properties in receipt of housing benefit
Refuse housing benefit payments to landlords in breach of planning legislation.
These policies, together with the resumption of Britain’s 200-mile maritime exclusive economic zone one of our key Brexit tests – will boost coastal towns
and give our fishing industry the chance to rebuild.
Solving Britain’s Housing Shortage
The UK is suffering a housing shortage that has been 20 years in the making.
The waiting list for public and affordable housing stands at 1.2 million alone.
UKIP will provide high quality, affordable homes, with security of tenure, where they are needed,
while boosting jobs.
Successive governments have failed to meet the housing needs of an increasing population.
Of the 140,000 homes due to be built this year, 80,000 will be absorbed by population growth, exacerbated by immigration, so at best only 60,000 will begin to address the current chronic shortage.
Labour, the Conservatives, and other parties in this election will promise to build hundreds of thousands of new homes, but their plans are not credible.
There are not enough workers in the traditional construction industry to meet their targets.
Planning permission remains slow and difficult to obtain and developers have no incentive to build more, because under-supply boosts their margins and land bank values.
UKIP is the only party being realistic about what can be done to increase the housing supply and putting forward a viable solution: a bold policy to roll out high quality, low cost factory-built modular (FBM) homes, affordable on the national average wage of £26,000.
LOCALLY MANUFACTURED FACTORY-BUILT MODULAR HOMES
Factory-built homes should not be confused with the pre-fabs of the past.
They are built to last, to high design standards,
and are energy efficient, with running costs up to 30per cent less than traditional homes.
While conventional construction cannot in the medium term meet the need for low cost housing, factory-built modular homes can.
When we leave the EU, we will regain control of the regional development budget, over £1 billion a year.
UKIP will use some of this to boost capacity in UK-based modular homes manufacturing.
We will enable the manufacture of modular homes where jobs are needed,
and they will be built where homes are needed.
UKIP’s housing policy provides a solution to the housing crisis, which requires no direct funding from government, and is not constrained by the current skill-shortage in the construction industry. It is a radical and visionary plan. Finally, our young people will be able to afford their own homes.
Ray Finch MEP,
Housing Spokesman
HOW UKIP’S MODULAR HOMES BUILDING SCHEME WILL WORK
UKIP will establish a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to acquire primarily brownfield sites – at existing use value and through compulsory purchase if necessary – where affordable housing is required.
Planning law will be changed to enable the HDC to give themselves planning permission to build between 10 and 100 FBM homes on an average site.
Homes constructed will be sold on a freehold basis to first time buyers up to the age of 40 who are British citizens and who have a 10 per cent deposit.
We anticipate the total cost for a two-bedroom house will be under £100,000, including land purchase and restoration, construction, infrastructure and a contribution to the costs of the HDC.
Utilities installation would be covered by a 1 per cent energy bill levy,
and Stamp Duty would not be applied.
UKIP’s proposal will bring up to 100,000 extra truly affordable homes onto the market every year.
Combined with a traditional home building programme, we could build another one million homes by 2022.
In addition, the FBM model would also make it feasible to deliver substantial numbers of new Council houses that have been promised, while traditional methods do not.
RESTRICTIONS ON USE AND RESALE
As this scheme is a stepping¬stone from the rental sector to traditional home ownership, to address the current housing crisis, it must not distort the existing property market.
So, homes will be for owner occupation, not private rental.
Owners will not be able to sell them on the open market, but must sell them back to the HDC at a guaranteed price of cost plus inflation over the period of ownership.
Ownership can, however, be retained indefinitely.
THE HOUSING CRISIS SOLVED
UKIP’s modular home scheme provides: High quality homes with security of tenure, where they are needed
•A way for the next generation to build up equity and move into the traditional home owner market
•A realistic way of building homes that is not constrained by the current skills shortage in the construction industry
Words and gimmicks from the old political parties will not solve the housing crisis.
UKIP’s bold plan will.
GOING OVER AND ABOVE
In addition to our FBM homes programme, UKIP will identify long-term dormant land held by central and local government so it can be released for affordable developments.
We will alsoplough all revenue raisedfrom Right to Buy sales into community housing
and change the law to allow mortgages to become inheritable, as they are in other countries.
A REVIEW OF HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS
Housing associations are accountable neither to taxpayers, who provide much of their funding, nor to their own tenants.
A UKIP investigation into the largest 50 housing associations uncovered a catalogue of failures.
They are not building as many homes as private developers,
the homes they do build cost more to put up,
and they are failing to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Average salaries for chief executives reach 51 times their tenants’ rent: one CEO is paid three times as much as the Prime Minister.
Housing associations manage 60 per cent of the socially rented sector and have received £23 billion of Government funding in the past 14 years, but UKIP is not convinced they are benefiting either tenants or the taxpayer.
We will launch a review into their operation.
Defending our National Health Service
THE NHS is Britain’s best-loved public service and one of the benchmarks of our civilised values.
UKIP will keep the NHS free at the point of delivery and increase funding by diverting the £11 billion we will save by cutting the foreign aid budget directly into health and social care.
Successive Labour, Coalition and Tory governments have overloaded the NHS with red tape
and allowed it to be abused as an international, rather than a National Health Service.
The NHS is funded by the British people and should be for the British people.
A catalogue of failures has left the NHS in crisis.
NHS Trusts are in deficit to the tune of £2.5 billion, hospital waiting lists for routine treatment have reached record highs, and tens of thousands of elective operations have been cancelled for non-clinical reasons.
In January this year 23 hospitals could not guarantee patient care or safety.
The Royal College of Nursing says we need 24,000 more nurses, and NHS Digital estimates there is roughly one GP vacancy for every two practices.
1,500 doctors leave Britain every year for better pay and more relaxed working conditions in Australia or New Zealand.
The NHS desperately needs additional funds.
UKIP will provide NHS England with an additional £9 billion a year by 2021/22.
An additional £2 billion for social care will fully utilise the savings we will make from the foreign aid budget.
MORE MEDICAL STUDENTS, DOCTORS, GPS, NURSES, AND MIDWIVES
Despite our national doctor shortage, nearly 800 straight ‘A’ students are turned away from medical school every year.
UKIP will lift the cap on medical school training places from 7,500 to 10,000 and make sure nosuitable ‘A’ grade student fails to get a place.
Provided medical students commit to working within the NHS for at least ten out of the fifteen years after they qualify, we will cover the cost of all their tuition fees.
TACKLING THE GP SHORTAGE
Raising the cap on medical school places will help deliver the 10,000 additional GPs the profession needs by 2025.
We will also introduce new funding arrangements incentivising doctors to work in geographical areas most in need.
However, GPs are also grappling with heavy workloads and over-regulation.
We will end appraisal and revalidation work that goes beyond that deemed necessary by the GMC,
and reduce the burden of data collection and target chasing.
UKIP will also fund the cost of streamlined ‘return to practice’ training, and encourage retired GPs or GPs with small children to work part-time or in job-share schemes.
For doctors who have worked overseas, we will make re-registering with the UK General Medical Council much easier by recognising comparable qualifications, experience, and accreditation.
Introducing a wider rangeof healthcare professionals and clinical services into GPsurgeries will also make general practice less stressful.
We will fund additionalsupport staff such as physician associates, clinical pharmacists and health visitors in GP surgeries, and allow practices to operate a wider range of clinics, including minor surgery, where feasible.
GIVING NURSES THE RESPECT AND RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE
The NHS needs 24,000 more nurses and 3,500 more midwives, yet again potential students are being turned away, tens of thousands of them every year.
UKIP will increase the number of nurse training placements,
reinstate funding for bursaries to cover nursing, midwifery and allied health professions’ tuition and accommodation costs,
and cover the cost of re-training for nurses who have taken career breaks.
We will discontinue the one per cent pay increase cap for frontline NHS workers earning less than £35,000 (Band 6).
RELIEVING PRESSURE ON A&E DEPARTMENTS
UKIP will train more emergency medicine consultants
and improve their working conditions.
Emergency medicine consultants cannot be expected to work unreasonably extended shifts, repeated unsocial hours, excessive numbers of weekends, or be regularly forced to cancel leave.
Every part of the health sector has a role to play in reducing A&E traffic.
By improving access to and facilities in GP surgeries, keeping minor injuries units open, and sustaining funding levels for local chemists, we can start to address the A&E crisis.
“Labour and the Tories have failed the NHS with nine arduous top-down reorganisations since 1973 and a relentless cuts and privatisation agenda. UKIP will fund the NHS to the tune of an additional £11 billion a year by 2021/22, address the most pressing challenges within our healthcare system, and fully integrate the NHS and social care.”
Suzanne Evans,
UKIP NHS Champion
REMOVING BARRIERS BETWEEN THE NHS AND SOCIAL CARE
35,000 bed days are lost every month because of delayed transfers of care, and legal barriers can make it difficult to pass information between the two systems.
The problems caused by our disconnected health and social care system will not be resolved unless the two are fully integrated.
UKIP will establish a Department for Health and Care, and create a sustainably funded social care system assimilated into the NHS.
A NATIONAL, NOT AN INTERNATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
Treating those ineligible for care costs British taxpayers around £2 billion every year.
UKIP will launch the toughest ever crackdown on ineligible foreign nationals using our NHS.
Only British citizens or foreign nationals who have paid UK taxes for at least five consecutive years will be eligible for non-urgent NHS care.
Anyone else must provide evidence of comprehensive medical insurance before being allowed to enter Britain and maintain that insurance for the duration of their stay.
Urgent care will continue to be provided to all in need.
We will close any loopholes in reciprocal healthcare arrangements, making sure reciprocity is like-for¬like, and pursue any moneys owed to us.
We will also tighten the application and approval process for EHIC cards and review the scheme as part of our Brexit negotiations with the EU.
ACCOUNTABLE MANAGEMENT
To improve standards within the NHS, we will create the equivalent of a General Medical Council for NHS managers, making them subject to disciplinary control for the first time.
Managers will require a statutory Licence to Manage.
Removal of this licence would immediately bar them from working as a manager anywhere within the NHS.
The wellbeing of staff is too important to allow incompetent, negligent or bullying managers to remain within the NHS.
Managers and board members will be held individually accountable for poor decisions.
Individual votes should be noted on significant or contentious matters.
We will limit the amount that can be spent on an external management consultancy contract to £50,000.
The annual £589 million cost is far too high.
BANNING LABOUR’S DODGY NHS DEALS
Between 1997 and 2010, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown contracted private syndicates of hedge fund managers, bankers, and big property developers to design, build, and finance new hospitals and run non-clinical services.
These syndicates charged interest rates so high, you might as well have called the scheme: ‘buy one hospital, pay for seven.’
These Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deals financed £11.8 billion worth of new build but will ultimately cost the NHS £79 billion.
75 per cent of the syndicates involved are based offshore, so they do not even pay UK taxes on these enormous profits.
Labour is not the party of the NHS: Labour is the party that allowed the wealthiest in our society to laugh all the way to the bank at the expense of the NHS.
UKIP will end the use of PFI contracts within the NHS.
GUARANTEED RIGHTS FOR EU HEALTHCARE WORKERS
Some 167,000 EU nationals work in the health and social care.
UKIP has no hesitation in guaranteeing their right to remain here, whatever the EU decides with regard to the rights of British citizens overseas.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The five-year political cycle encourages short-termism that is unhelpful to the NHS.
For it to be fit for purpose for another fifty years, we need honest, open debate, and viable solutions to the NHS funding crisis that are free from political interference.
UKIP will establish a Royal Commission to find a way forward that allows the NHS to hold fast to its values while meeting the challenges of the future.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Scrap hospital car parking charges in England.
•Abolish the Care Quality Commission, which has caused a vicious circle of misery. We aim to foster a culture of openness, honesty and challenge, not one of blame, shame and sanction. Our new inspection regime will include greater public accountability, extra protection for whistle-blowers, and increased scrutiny.
•Scrap EU Legislation that has hindered the NHS such as the Clinical Trial Directive and the Working Time Directive.
Britain’s Challenging Mental Health Crisis
The 2012 Health and Social Care Act gave mental health the same priority as physical health, but only in principle.
UKIP will put mental wellbeing on the same footing as physical healthcare, in terms of both access to treatment and funding.
Anyone who has suffered themselves, or seen a loved one deteriorate before their eyes because of a mental health problem, will understand just how important it is to invest in quality psychological services, and get this issue higher up the political agenda..
Suzanne Evans NHS Champion
Unresolved mental health and addiction issues lie at the heart of some of our greatest social challenges: crime, homelessness, family breakdown, unemployment, and more.
Every year, some 150 million GP consultations and up to forty per cent of A&E attendances are linked to mental health issues and drug or alcohol abuse, yet there are insufficient resources for doctors to refer patients to specialist care.
UKIP will increase planned spending on mental health services by at least £500 million every year.
This sum could fund 6,000 clinical psychologists to see 500,000 more adults and young people every year.
UKIP’s mental health priorities will be: Cutting waiting times:
The current target of eighteen weeks between referral and first appointment is far too long.
28 days should be the maximum.
•Closing the gaps between child and adult, and physical and mental care services:
There should be a smooth transition between these sectors with professionals sharing best practice and having a central point of communication
•Getting funding to the right place:
National funding earmarked for mental health services is often being diverted to other NHS services.
This must stop.
YOUNG PEOPLE CRYING OUT FOR HELP
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy says 80,000 children and young people in the UK are clinically depressed.
Around three children in every class have a diagnosable mental health condition, and one in twelve will self-harm.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics are tragic: more than four suicides of young people take place every week.
Mental health problems start before age fourteen in half of all cases, so UKIP will integrate mental health training into the teacher-training syllabus and develop a national school-based counselling strategy for England, on a par with Wales and Northern Ireland.
Specialist counselling services will be available in all secondary schools.
Looking out for those at risk must become everyone’s responsibility.
If a child or teacher saw someone in pain, they would help.
Mental health problems also have clear symptoms.
UKIP’s policies mean professionals will always be on hand to assist.
EDUCATION AND WELLBEING
Education should focus on personal wellbeing, practical coping skills, and developing positive social relationships, as well as academic performance.
In stressing the latter, we have piled stress on our children.
Our education system needs to be more balanced, so UKIP will introduce emotional health and wellbeing into the Ofsted inspection framework.
LETTING CHILDREN KNOW THEY ARE NOT ALONE
Those who have recovered from their problems are often best placed to help others facing similar challenges.
Drugs wreck lives. We are failing in our duty to protect our children if we do not warn them about the dangers and do everything in our power to prevent them having access to illegal drugs.
Paul Nuttall, UKIP Leader
UKIP will encourage schools to invite specialist support organisations into school.
Letting our children know what resources are available to them may be life-changing.
CHALLENGING MEDIA STEREOTYPES
Elsewhere in this manifesto we condemn alien practices that oppress women, but we are not blind to our own failings.
The ‘lad culture,’ which treats young women as sex objects and the ‘red circle of shame’ in celebrity magazines that hold women to unattainable levels of physical perfection are just two examples.
Boys too are increasingly developing eating disorders and body image issues.
UKIP will review advertising, broadcast and editorial codes, seeking commitments that editorial coverage and advertising campaigns will treat men and women with dignity and promote healthy body images.
CYBER BULLYING
We will extend the remit of the current cross-government Internet Safety Strategy and invite participants to consider whether new legislation is required to address the problem of online abuse.
PREVENTING DRUG USE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE
UKIP will not legalise classified drugs.
The social consequences could be catastrophic.
We will rigorously enforce current legislation.
Identifying drug users means they can be steered towards rehabilitation programmes.
Families in which there is a high incidence of addiction can also be identified more easily and appropriate support provided.
We include cannabis in this.
Cannabis was used by 5.3 million 16-24 year-olds in the last year, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and this is extremely worrying.
Teenage cannabis users are five times more likely to develop depression and anxiety, and those who use cannabis at around age fifteen have an above- average risk of developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
That risk is increased in those with a genetic vulnerability.
Cannabis can cause lasting psychotic illness.
UKIP will ensure this message is emphasised by social workers, teachers, doctors, and magistrates.
Britain’s Challenging Mental Health Crisis Our nation has a duty to provide mental health  support to those in our armed forces: many have  served multiple tours of combat duty and may  need a great deal of specialist help
Mike Hookem MEP
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL AND VETERANS
Over 5,000 service personnel were diagnosed with a mental health problem in 2014, but even this shocking statistic may hide a wider problem.
The charity Combat Stress says 40 per cent of serving personnel with symptoms do not seek help from the specialist Defence Mental Health Services (DMHS) because of general stigma.
This trend continues after discharge.
To encourage serving personnel and veterans to report mental health issues, receive a diagnosis and access services, UKIP will: Integrate mental wellbeing monitoring into existing medical examinations for serving armed forces personnel in potentially traumatic or ‘at risk’ roles
•Extend the period during which discharged service personnel are able to access the specialist DMHS scheme from six months to two years.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Offer swift access to vital mental health services for patients diagnosed with debilitating long-term conditions and terminal illnesses
•Provide direct access to specialist mental health treatment for all pregnant women and mothers of children under 12 months of age
•Address and treat the strong link between addiction and mental illness
•End the postcode lottery for psychiatric liaison services in acute hospitals and A&E departments.
A Brighter Future for our Next Generation
Political interference in education has failed children.
We are tumbling down the international education league tables
and rising up the ranks for youth unemployment.
UKIP will reintroduce grammar schools,
invest in vocational education and technical training,
scrap tuition fees for STEM subjects
and prepare our young people for the world of work.
UKIP’s approach to education is one where no child is held back
and where education is as responsive as possible to individual needs.
Our children differ vastly when it comes to talent and speed of development.
Our education system needs to be far more flexible.
STARTING SCHOOL: THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
Without reading, writing, mathematical and learning abilities you will be held back in life and struggle to find well-paid work.
UKIP welcomes the recent reintroduction of phonics to the classroom and we will make this the model for teaching children to read and write.
We will renew focus on mental arithmetic skills and learning times tables, andencourage children to learn languages from year 1 of primary school, when they will find it easier.
Britain has produced some of the most remarkable people in world history, some of the best thinkers, innovators, leaders, and creators. We must keep that trend going: boosting educational opportunities for our young people and giving them every opportunity to help them realise their dreams.
David Kurten AM,
Education Spokesman
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Abolish Key Stage 1 SATs. Seven is too young to be tested and this test narrows the curriculum and puts pressure on teachers to concentrate time and resources on borderline pupils.
•Require every primary school to nominate a science leader to inspire and equip the next generation of scientists and engineers
•End sex education in primary schools.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
UKIP’s approach to secondary education focuses on a range of different schools: technical, vocational, selective grammars, and specialist schools.
A GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN EVERY TOWN
The state education system of grammar, secondary modern and technical schools was designed to make a high standard of education available to all, irrespective of social background.
Grammar schools improved social mobility by giving children from poorer backgrounds access tocareer paths they might have previously thought out of their reach.
When the national grammar school system still existed, 25 per cent of schools were grammar or technical schools and nearly 65 per cent of their pupils came from the working class.
They were not socially elite institutions, as anyone who attended onewill confirm.
The 164 grammar schools that are left no longer represent this classless ideal.
Such is the high demand, it is often those with the most resourceful parents who gain access.
We need 800 more Grammar or Technical schools so every child who would benefit can get a place.
UKIP will open a grammar school in every town, adapting the old 11 + system to add transfer examinations up to the age of sixteen, so pupils who develop in an academic direction, but not quite so fast, will still have the opportunity of a grammar school place.
ON-THE-JOB EDUCATION
To give students a head start into a job, UKIP will introduce a scheme similar to Germany’s Dual Vocational Training system, in which students attend classes at a vocational school and receive on-the-job training at a company.
Employment prospects for children who go through this system are high.
Germany’s reputation for success in manufacturing and industry is second to none.
UKIP will give our children the same educational choice to combine theory and practice in this way, so they leave school with technical knowledge and hands-on experience.
RIGHTING WRONGS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
The average student debt is £44,000.
The poorest students who are now denied a grant fare worst of all, with debts averaging £53,000.
These debts are often pointless in career terms: the latest figures from the ONS show 46 per cent of new graduates will not find a job needing a degree.
The taxpayer fares badly too.
Only around half of the money spent on tuition fee loans will be paid back.
The quota system promoted by both Labour and Conservatives is not a good enough reason for taxpayers to pay for students to go to university.
Students would be better off following another route into the workplace than taking degrees that are unlikely to help them get a job or guide them onto their chosen career path.
The politically motivated decision to increase university places has deceived and blighted a generation.
UKIP will stop paying tuition fees for courses which do not lead at least two thirds of students into a graduate level job, or a job corresponding to their degree, within five years after graduation.
We will also cease offering EU nationals student loans when we leave the EU.
Repayment rates are extremely low and 10,000 EU students currently owe Britain £89 million.
TUITION FEES AND MAINTENANCE GRANTS
UKIP’s long-term goal is to abolish tuition fees entirely and we will seek to enact this as soon as economic conditions allow.
Meanwhile, to help the poorest students now, we will immediately restore maintenance grants.
To plug the skills gap in these areas, UKIP will abolish tuition fees for undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students, provided they work in their discipline and pay tax in the UK for at least five years after they complete their degree.
We will cover the cost of all tuition fees for medical students, provided they commit to working within the NHS for at least ten out of the fifteen years after they qualify.
PATHWAYS TO EMPLOYMENT
School leavers should have an idea of what future career they would like to pursue, and how they can achieve an entry level job in that career.
UKIP will ensure effective career development assumes a more important role in the national curriculum and is assessed accordingly.
DEVELOPING ‘EMPLOYABILITY’
Whatever level of education you have achieved, your chance of success in the workplace will be influenced by more than your academic abilities.
Employers want more from prospective employees than just good exam results.
UKIP will introduce practical ‘employability’ lessons into the careers’ syllabus, teaching ‘soft’ skills such as interview skills, team-working and time-management, making presentations, public speaking, networking, making a good first impression, and developing social skills.
These might not come naturally, but they can be taught.
LINKING SCHOOLS WITH BUSINESS
Often, the local job market will determine career choices, so schools and colleges should establish links with local businesses, to tell students what they need from new recruits, to offer advice, and to show how business works.
ENCOURAGING TOMORROW’S ENTREPRENEURS
UKIP will include practical information about setting up your own business into the syllabus.
Being self-employed is a sound career choice if you have a skill or idea others want to buy, and developing the skill to think creatively and ambitiously can only help in life and the workplace.
Entrepreneurship education is becoming increasingly common in the USA, where it is seen to benefit students from all socio-economic backgrounds by nurturing unconventional skills and talents and encouraging them to ‘think outside the box.’
The next generation is the future of the UK.
Our children need educational solutions that really work, not political dogma.
Grammar schools, dynamic academies and technical schools in every town from Toxteth to Twickenham, combined with high quality vocational training and careers’ advice, will deliver real opportunities for our children.
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
UKIP believes all disabled learners must have the legal right to attend either mainstream courses in mainstream education settings, or schools exclusively tailored to their needs.
It should be their choice.
To this end, we will reverse the policy of closing special schools, and ensure all other schools are accessible to disabled learners and that individual support is in place for each child.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Fund allsecondary schools according to a single formula
•Make First Aid training a statutory requirement so pupils obtain a ‘Basic Life-Saving Dipl ma.’ Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation will be included.
Caring for Young Children, Supporting Families
Childcare costs in the UK are becoming less affordable for ordinary families.
The parents of disabled children struggle to find childcare at all.
Fathers are prevented from seeing their children
and the family courts are not transparent enough.
Tackling these issues are key priorities for UKIP.
Affordable, safe childcare is vital if we are to help women obtain or return to work.
We simply cannot afford to have highly skilled, highly trained women leaving the workplace, especially not if they are working in public service industries such as nursing and teaching.
Margot Parker MEP,
Women and Equalities Spokeswoman
UKIP’s 2015 general election manifesto highlighted the complexity of childcare provision in the UK and how difficult it can be to find quality childcare, especially if your child is disabled, if you work irregular hours, or you are on a low income.
Despite an increase in free childcare provision and new tax-free childcare schemes, recent research from the Family and Childcare Trust revealed British parents now pay more than £6,000 per year on average for childcare, double what they spend on food and drink.
The situation we warned about in 2015 has not improved but got worse.
Perverse government policies intended to expand childcare provision fuel childcare demand yet fail to cover costs incurred by childcare providers.
At the same time there is an acute shortage of places because of over-regulation and higher training fees.
Nurseries and childminders limit places, raise fees, or introduce extra charges in order to remain sustainable.
Despite more public money being allocated to free childcare than ever, the number of childminders has plummeted by 10,000 since 2012.
This is a typical outcome of policy-making done via a ‘bidding war,’ instead of being thought through.
In this case, Labour and the Conservatives have jockeyed for position to see who can offer the highest number of free childcare hours for the youngest children, without considering the unintended consequences, or what else in the system might need to change.
UKIP promised a far-reaching review of childcare provision in 2015, and this is still urgently needed, not least to de-regulate and simplify an increasingly fragmented system.
Meanwhile, UKIP will allow parents to use their free childcare entitlements to access a greater choice of childcare providers by removing restrictions limiting them only to Ofsted-registered childcare providers.
We will also: Extend the primary school day by offering wrap-around childcare from 8am to 6pm during term time
•Require local authorities to keep a register of childcare providers willing to provide emergency childcare cover at short notice
•Amend planning legislation in order to make play spaces compulsory in housing estates,
and to promote nursery or crèche provision in developments such as shopping centres, office blocks, hospitals, airports, and railway stations.
CHILDCARE FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Smaller early years providers may struggle to offer places to children with physical or learning difficulties because of the extra costs involved in maintaining higher staff ratios, delivering additional staff training, buying specialist equipment and creating accessible changing facilities.
This inevitably makes it much more difficult for such children to access the same high quality, flexible early years provision as their able-bodied peers.
UKIP will create a fund worth £80 million a year to help childminders and smaller childcare providers employing five people or fewer, to open their doors to more children with special needs.
Grants of up to £3,000 will be available to adapt their premises to make them more accessible, and to equip their staff with specialist training and equipment, so they can provide a more inclusive childcare service.
KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER
Our 2015 manifesto promised to legislate for an initial 50-50 presumption of shared parenting when couples break up.
We stand by this, as we do our pledge to give visiting rights to grandparents and to review the operation of the Family Court.
The concerns we raised in 2015 about the Family Court system, particularly in relation to forced adoptions, have become more pressing.
Up to 96 per cent of children adopted from public care are forcibly adopted, against their parents’ wishes.
No one wants to see children languishing in care, but until the Family Courts are more transparent, we cannot know whether decisions are made in children’s best interests or in response to adoption targets.
The latter approach risks serious miscarriages of justice.
Maintaining confidentiality in family law proceedings is not incompatible with scrutiny.
To strike the right balance between the two we propose: Removing the current blanket ban on media reporting of placement and adoption proceedings and allowing journalists to report on such cases on the same basis as other family law proceedings
•Publishing all case summaries, skeleton arguments, judgements and other documents relating to Family proceedings as a matter of course, on an anonymised basis
•Requiring expert witnesses to list previous court cases in which they have given evidence
•Promoting more extensive use of Special Guardianship Orders so that children can retain links with their birth family.
Meeting our Responsibilities to the Elderly and Disabled
The voluntary sector would probably collapse without the help and support of those in later life, and the disabled have overcome challenges most of us could not even imagine, yet the Conservative government has treated both badly. UKIP will reverse cuts to the adult social care budget and end humiliating work capability tests for disabled people.
David Sprason,
UKIP Older People’s Champion
People who have worked hard all their lives and contributed to our economy have been stripped of hot meals and essential home help under the Tories, and for what?
To keep shovelling cash out of the door to prop up a corrupt foreign aid regime,
and fund a railway project to help their rich friends get home ten minutes faster
How we respond to older people is an indication of the kind of country we live in.
We should take pride in making public investment into their care, regardless of their financial means.
UKIP remains committed to keeping the winter fuel allowance, free bus passes, prescriptions and eye tests for all over-60s, without means testing.
We will maintain the ‘triple lock’ on the state pension, increasing it every year by the highest of inflation, average earnings, or 2.5 per cent.
SECURE FINANCES AND WORTHWHILE WORK FOR OLDER PEOPLE
Age UK says older people contribute around £61 billion to the economy each year through work, caring and volunteering.
Advancing age does not necessarily mean people want to stop earning, and their wisdom and experience should be seen as an advantage in the workplace.
We will encourage businesses to fund job placements for older people,
and enforce laws protecting workers against age discrimination.
GROWING OLD TOGETHER
As a population, we are living longer.
This would be good news were it not for the funding crisis in elderly care.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services calculates £4.6 billion has been cut from social care budgets since 2010.
The number of adults eligible to receive social care has plummeted by 28 per cent.
This is counter-productive: the government says it wants to help older people stay active and independent, but then removes the support they need.
Most councils only fund those already in ‘critical’ or ‘substantial’ need and past the point of no return.
No wonder older people are now more likely to be admitted to hospital, and less likely to be able to leave hospital when they recover.
6,800 such patients every day cannot be discharged, so ambulances queue up outside A&E and planned operations are cancelled.
This inefficiency costs the NHS approximately £1 billion a year, and it could get worse.
Last year, research by BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours found 59 home care companies had already handed unprofitable contracts back to local authorities, and that one in four care homes may go out of business within three years.
The Better Care Fund was supposed to improve liaison between the NHS and local councils and ease pressure on hospitals, but the Public Accounts Committee found it was ‘little more than a ruse.’
The freedom to raise council tax by two per cent to fund adult social care is of least help to councils in the poorest areas, who have less income from council tax, but the most pressing care needs.
The only answer is to reverse the cuts to care budgets.
UKIP will put back money the Conservatives have removed, investing up to £2 billion every year into social care.
We will prioritise early intervention schemes and community-based models of care that promote independence and wellbeing, such as supported living arrangements.
Institutional and acute care models should be a last-resort.
We will continue to pay Attendance Allowance for all people over the age of 65 who need help with personal care, including new claimants, from central government funds.
We reject Conservative proposals that this benefit should be funded locally for all new claimants.
SUPPORT CARE STAFF
Caring can be difficult and frustrating, and care staff deserve better pay and respect.
We will address the culture of long hours, low pay and perceived low status that leads to high staff turnover.
UKIP will not allow the NHS, or third parties under contract to local authorities, to employ home care workers on zero hours contracts.
Workers must also be paid for travelling time to prevent their being paid less than the minimum or living wage.
INVESTING IN DEMENTIA RESEARCH AND TREATMENT
Dementia is predicted to be the UK’s biggest killer.
Already, 850,000 people in Britain live with dementia.
UKIP will roll out a National Dementia Plan to recommend research and treatment priorities, and co-ordinate expertise.
This plan will be developed in cooperation with multi-discipline dementia specialists to identify spending priorities and deliver a bold new programme of research, treatment, care and understanding.
UKIP will treble the amount we allocated to dementia research and treatment in 2015, taking our total fresh funding pot to £400 million each year over the course of the next parliament.
PROTECTING CARE AT HOME
In January, campaigning organisation Disability United exposed clauses in Continuing Healthcare policies that stated home-based care would only be provided if costs do not exceed residential placement costs by a certain percentage, generally ten percent.
This could mean forcibly moving someone into a care home to save relatively small amounts of money.
UKIP will make sure those with on-going health care needs choose where they wish to live, unless they are unable to make that choice themselves, or care at home becomes unviable.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Protect services such as meals-on-wheels, luncheon clubs, day care services and home care
•Abolish the annual assessment process for continuing healthcare funding in respect of those suffering from a degenerative, terminal illness
•Fund a pro-active co-ordinating service for older and disabled people in every county to combat loneliness, combining resources from across the NHS, social services and the voluntary sector.
•Introduce a legally binding Dignity Code to improve the quality and standard of care for older people in hospital, care homes or their own home, and protect whistleblowers.
UKIP has always opposed the ‘benefits lifestyle,’ but the last government’s behaviour has gone far beyond anything that is reasonable. UKIP will crack down on benefit fraud, but make sure our support and benefits system is fair and fit-for-purpose.
Cllr Star Anderton, UKIP Disability Champion
AN END TO UNFAIR BENEFIT CUTS
Levels of unmet need for disabled and learning disabled people are at a record high.
Sense, the national charity for children and adults who are deaf blind and have complex needs, calculates 108,000 learning disabled adults with moderate to severe needs now receive no support at all.
Over the last year alone, the charity says the number of people in receipt of support for a sensory impairment has decreased by 11.4 per cent.
UKIP will not cut disability benefits.
ENDING THE INJUSTICE OF PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE PAYMENTS
Personal Independence Payments, or PIPs, are replacing the Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Without a PIP, disabled people cannot access other benefits such as Carer’s Allowance or the charitable Motability scheme to get a powered wheelchair or accessible car.
PIPs were supposed to help disabled people into work and pay a range of disability benefits based on individual need, but they seem to have become a covert way of slashing the benefit bill.
Since disabled people were required to undergo a new battery of medical tests, 250,000 of them have had their benefit cut.
Some 300 people a day who have their benefits cut following re¬assessments are appealing against these new decisions, at a cost of £1 million a week to the taxpayer.
They are right to appeal, as six out of ten appeals are successful, but while they await the outcome of their appeals, many are falling into debt, and have vital support or equipment taken away from them.
50,000 people have had accessible vehicles removed since PIPs were introduced.
The current Work Capability Assessments are not fit for purpose.
We will reform them in consultation with disabled people and disability charities.
They must accurately assess the barriers faced by disabled people to enter employment,
and indicate what specialist employment support will be needed for those who are ready for work.
SUPPORTING CARERS
We recommit to giving carers an extra five days’ paid holiday each year,
and increasing Carer’s Allowance from £62.70 per week to £73.10 a week, to match the higher level of Job Seeker’s Allowance.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Protect the rights of the disabled
•Scrap the bedroom tax
•Give tenants the right to request Housing Benefit is paid direct to their landlords, whatever benefit scheme they are on
•Improve carers’ access to support by sharing information on benefit and social care entitlements and on support groups across all public services
•Exempt foodbanks and charity shops from charges imposed by local authorities to dispose of unwanted food waste and other goods.
Fair, Balanced Migration
Britons are among the most welcoming and tolerant people in the world,
yet they have lost faith in our immigration system.
There is nothing in the track records of any of the other parties that suggests they have the necessary political will to address the concerns of the British people, but UKIP will.
Brexit offers an opportunity to calm public concerns about immigration
while still allowing the brightest and the best from around the world to make their home in Britain, and contribute to our society and our economy.
Immigration has placed huge pressure on public services and housing.
It has affected the domestic labour market, where wages for manual and low-paid jobs have stagnated.
Community cohesion has been damaged.
LABOUR’S GREATEST FOLLY
Unsustainable immigration to Britain began  with Tony Blair’s Labour government: Peter Mandelson admitted ‘search parties’ were sent out to encourage migrants to come to Britain, and the plan to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’ did indeed, as Blair’s favourite think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, put it, ‘change the face of the country.’
Allegations of racism, and a raft of faith, race and equalities legislation shut down any criticism of Blair’s policy,
and the benefits system was abused to ‘bribe’ Labour’s core vote.
TORY IMMIGRATION FAILURE
Labour ultimately paid the electoral price for their wilful blindness to problems caused by mass immigration, but the Conservatives have failed just as badly, for seven years reneging on their pledge to bring annual net migration down to the ‘tens of thousands.’
Theresa May admitted in 2015 the case for high immigration on economic grounds has been massively overstated, yet did nothing about it,
and still appears prepared to carry on with unlimited EU immigration for many years ahead.
UKIP is the only party with the political will and the plan to cut immigration.
As part of our overall commitment to a more stringent
and better run immigration system, UKIP will increase the number of Border Agency staff by 4,000 and implement technology solutions to ensure all passport and visa holders are counted in and out
John Bickley, Immigration Spokesman
BALANCED NET MIGRATION OVER FIVE YEARS
UKIP will establish a Migration Control Commission and set a target to reduce net migration to zero, over a five-year period.
This means approximately halving gross immigration for a five-year period.
This will still allow us to bring in the key skills we need, while giving a breathing space topublic services under immense pressure.
Senior Labour parliamentarian, Frank Field, has argued the case for balanced migration such as this formany years.
FAIR, EQUITABLE IMMIGRATION
To make immigration fair and equitable, we will introduce a new Australian-style points-based system, and a work permit system.
Both will apply equally to all applicants, save for citizens of the Republic of Ireland, with whom we will maintain our current arrangements.
To give working class people in particular a chance to find employment, we will place a moratorium on unskilled and low-skilled immigration for five years after we leave the EU.
We will also operate a seasonal worker scheme based on six-month visas to support thosesectors, such as agriculture, which need additional labour for short but predictable periods of time.
A NEW INTERNATIONAL VISA SYSTEM
Operated on a strict principle of non-discrimination between peoples of all nations applying for work, study, or to visit the United Kingdom, our new International Visa System will begin on the date we leave the EU and offer four principal visa categories:
1.WORK VISAS
Highly skilled workers with a job offer sponsored by companies paying them a minimum of £30,000 per annum will have priority.
2.TOURIST AND VISITOR VISAS
Covering those who come to Britain as tourists, to conduct business, or to see their family, these will be valid for up to twelve months.
3.STUDENT VISAS
We want to encourage students to study in Britain,
but will not tolerate abuse of the system.
4.FAMILY REUNION VISAS
We respect the right of British citizens to form relationships with non-British citizens; however, we will abolish the European Economic Area (EEA) family permit scheme and reinstate the primary purpose rule.
Foreign nationals marrying British citizens will have to prove the primary purpose of their marriage is not to obtain British residency.
ASYLUM SEEKERS
U KI P will comply fully with the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and honour our obligations to bona fide asylum seekers.
ACCESS TO WELFARE AND THE NHS
All new migrants to Britain will be expected to make tax and national insurance contributions for at least five consecutive years before they become eligible to claim UK benefits, or access non-urgent NHS services, save for any exceptions stipulated by the Migration Control Commission, or if reciprocal healthcare arrangements are in place with their country of origin.
All new entrants to the UK must have and maintain comprehensive private medical insurance for the duration of their stay, as a condition of their visa.
BRITISH CITIZENSHIP
Those arriving on Work Visas may apply for British citizenship after five years, provided they have worked, paid tax here, and maintained their medical insurance throughout that time.
We will revoke the British citizenship of those who have obtained it by fraud or deception and remove them from the country.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND FOREIGN CRIMINALS
There will be no amnesty for illegal immigrants.
We will increase the number of immigration compliance and enforcement teams.
Foreign criminals will not be granted a visa to enter the UK.
Migrants who commit crimes resulting in a custodial sentence will have their visa revoked and be detained until they are deported.
THE RIGHTS OF EU NATIONALS
UKIP will allow law-abiding EU citizens living in the UK before Article 50 was triggered the right to stay here indefinitely.
We expect the same concession to be granted to British citizens living overseas within the EU.
EU nationals who entered the UK after 29th March 2017 will not have the automatic right to remain and when we leave the EU will lose access to all benefits, including non-urgent healthcare.
No benefits will be paid for any dependants living overseas when we leave the EU.
INTEGRATION IS AS IMPORTANT AS IMMIGRATION
In Britain, we do not believe in treating women or gay people as second-class citizens,
and we hold to a fundamental belief in democracy
and free speech.
UKIP’s points-based immigration system will therefore include one further major principle: we will test the social attitudes of migration applicants to foster community cohesion
and protect core British values.
UKIP’s immigration policies will bring to Britain the brightest, the best, and those with the talents our economy most needs.
They are fair, equitable, and similar to those operating in numerous other countries worldwide, such as Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.
They will benefit Britain, and redress the imbalance that has caused so much frustration, for so long.
“Only UKIP’s immigration policy has, at its heart, a sustainable, ethical and fair system that will restore public faith in the process. We recognise the new openness in our world and the positive benefits controlled, balanced  immigration can bring to our nation.”
John Bickley, Immigration Spokesman
Britain United Under One Law For All
Britain has always welcomed people of whatever faith, nationality or creed who have wanted to make their home in this country,
but a lack of vision for an integrated Britain has led to our society becoming more and more fragmented.
UKIP will take integration as seriously as we have immigration, and we will not tolerate the intolerable.
UKIP stands for a country united under the same set of laws and values. We believe firmly that a multi-ethnic society can be a harmonious and successful one, but only if it is bound together by an
over-arching attachment to Britain and British identity. In treating all practices and traditions as being of equal standing, however much they might offend our values and laws, our national leaders have made a grave error.
Peter Whittle AM,
Deputy Leader and Culture Spokesman
Over many years, the policy of ‘multiculturalism’ has fragmented British society by allowing new migrants to Britain to behave in exactly the same way as they would if they were still in their countries of origin.
Multiculturalism has prevented criticism of certain religious beliefs and cultural practices, even those the overwhelming majority of British people would consider repugnant, and which threaten rights and equalities established in Britain for decades.
Nobody voted for multiculturalism, yet all of us are living with the results of it.
It is generally those who have little interest in preserving British identity, or who are indeed hostile to the very idea of it, who champion multiculturalism most fiercely.
They are vociferous in shutting down debate.
UKIP will stand up for the equal rights of all people in Britain,
and say we are proud of our country and its achievements,
our values of free speech,
democracy,
independence,
and patriotism.
We will promote British values in our legal system, in our schools, and in our society.
ONE LAW FOR ALL
A society that can pick and choose what legal system it lives under gradually ceases to be a society at all.
The growth of sharia councils is of great concern to the public, as is the apparent unwillingness of the political class to prevent them proliferating.
UKIP will take action: we will establish a legal commission to draw up proposals to disband sharia councils.
It is simple: there should be one law for all.
My generation was at the forefront of tackling sexist attitudes towards women. I remember celebrating the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act in the 1970s, and believed we were well on the way to winning the battle for equal rights, in society, in the workplace and in our homes. But now the threat to women’s emancipation is as serious as ever. We cannot take our rights for granted.
Margot Parker MEP,
Women and Equalities Spokeswoman
EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL WOMEN
If we compare the rights of women in the UK to those of the majority of women overseas, the contrast is striking.
Acceptance of the concept of sexual equality is largely confined to a handful of economically advanced nations.
Mass uncontrolled immigration has opened the door to a host of people from cultures with little or no respect for women,
yet when their views have been challenged, some on the ‘Left’ of politics, in particular, have encouraged them to claim a ‘victim’ status they do not deserve.
UKIP will challenge those who do not uphold the rights of women,
or who set themselves on a deliberate collision course with core British values of equality,
free speech
and democracy.
We will protect all women, regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion.
Culture is not an excuse for crime,
nor is ignorance of the law.
STANDING UP FOR WOMEN IN MINORITY COMMUNITIES
Every woman, indeed anyone who believes in women’s rights, should be outraged by the appalling practices occurring on a daily basis in minority communities across Britain.
A new case of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is reported in Britain every hour.
14 NHS clinics in England deal exclusively with FGM cases and 65,000 girls are thought to be at risk of FGM.
The practice of ‘breast ironing’ also appears to beincreasingly prevalent in the UK, with around 1,000 cases identified.
Some 11,000 incidences of so-called ‘honour’ crime were recorded by UK police forces during 2010-2014, and there were eighteen recorded cases of honour killings during the same period.
Government research in 2011 found thatbetween 5,000 and 8,000 people are at risk of being forced into marriage every year.
UKIP will show zero tolerance to all these crimes and aim to eradicate them from our country.
Bigots who shout ‘racism’ or ‘Islamophobia’ will not intimidate us.
They legitimise the problem and demonstrate their ignorance.
We are proud of our position.
They need to get their moral compasses fixed.
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
The Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act (1985) made FGM illegal, but there has not been a single successful prosecution.
The current approach, which focuses on education and support alone, fails thousands of girls every year.
In addition to current programmes, we will also: Make failure to report a known instance of FGM a criminal offence
•Implement a screening programme for girls identified to be at risk of FGM from birth to age sixteen, consisting of annual non-invasive physical check-ups
•Carry out additional check-ups on girls at risk when they return to the UK from trips to countries where FGM is known to be customary
•Make FGM an indictable offence (meaning it can only be heard in the Crown Court) with a sentencing starting point of six years.
Measures similar to these are already law in France, which has a far better record than we have on preventing and prosecuting FGM.
These policies are already proven to work.
They will protect girls from FGM by deterring those who would harm them and help provide essential evidence to mount prosecutions when FGM has taken place.
Prosecutions in France have played a vital role in getting parents to abandon the practice of FGM.
Parents are complicit in allowing their children to be cut, and we will instruct police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service to rigorously investigate and pursue them, as well as those who actually commit the act.
OTHER ‘CULTURAL’ CRIMES
Women at risk from their own families and communities need our help and protection.
UKIP will uphold the integrity of British law and ensure it applies to each individual equally, irrespective of his or her race, faith or ethnic origin.
We will: Make ‘breast ironing’ a specific criminal offence
•Add ‘offences committed to protect family or personal honour’ to the Sentencing Council’s list of aggravating factors, giving leave to impose greater sentences
•Prosecute all cases of child and forced marriage and refuse permanent leave to remain and/or British citizenship to any adult known to have procured a child marriage for themselves or their children
•Make certain that neither the legal nor the welfare system in Britain ever recognises polygamy
•Include information on cultural crimes in safeguarding training for teachers, staff and school governors.
SHOW YOUR FACE IN A PUBLIC PLACE
UKIP will ban wearing of the niqab and the burqa in public places.
Face coverings such as these are barriers to integration.
We will not accept these de-humanising symbols of segregation and oppression,
nor the security risks they pose.
Suggestions that UKIP is undermining liberty with this policy are absurd.
There is no human right to conceal your identity.
If anything prevents liberty, it is the niqab, by preventing women from being perceived as individuals in their own right.
We want to open opportunities to all women, so that they can participate fully in life and in the workplace.
Clothing that hides identity, puts up barriers to communication, limits employment opportunities, hides evidence of domestic abuse, and prevents intake of essential vitamin D from sunlight is not liberating.
We stand in solidarity with women worldwide who are rebelling against the imposition of the niqab and burqa.
ENDING ISLAMIST EXTREMISM IN OUR SCHOOLS
Three years ago, the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal revealed how Islamists had attempted to take over several schools in Birmingham and use them to propagate their warped ideology.
The plot nearly succeeded, and hundreds of young minds were at risk.
We must never again be caught napping like this: we must wake up to the reality that extremism is taking hold in our country.
“Those of us who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender may have first hand experience of how misogynistic  and homophobic attitudes  are tolerated in the name of ‘respecting cultural differences.’  It is important to stand up for true equality in the face of those who would dismiss it.”
Flo Lewis, Chair,
LGBT in UKIP
The failure to address the crucial topic of integration has led to a dangerous situation where young people with little or no experience of wider British society, except having been told that it is bad, are at risk of being brought up as hardline  and potentially violent Islamists.
David Kurten AM,
Education Spokesman
Until such time as the Muslim community is better integrated, UKIP proposes: Immediately putting into Special Measures schools found to be exposing children to Islamism
Giving schools the right to dismiss forthwith any teachers, members of staff or governors found to be actively supporting radical mosques or imams
Requiring Ofsted to conduct snap inspections of schools when parents or pupils have raised concerns that: Girls are being offered unequal access to music, dance, PE or drama lessons, or are otherwise discriminated against
Anti-Western, anti-Semitic, or anti-equality views are being expressed by staff or governors
Muslim or non-Muslim pupils who challenge or do not share hardline views are being bullied or ridiculed.
Strong actions, not political correctness, are needed now, or we will all suffer the consequences in the future.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Declare St George’s Day, April 23rd, as a Bank Holiday in England; and St David’s Day, 1st March, in Wales
•End the use of multi-lingual formating on official documents. These will be published only in English and, where appropriate, Welsh and Gaelic
•Protect religious freedoms in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, provided those beliefs exist firmly within the framework of British law. We will not condone any faith position that is itself intolerant of the human rights of others
Policing, Prison, Punishment
UKIP is the only party prepared to put its faith in imprisonment and a strong police force as the bedrock of our criminal justice system.
We will promote rehabilitation, but also believe in containment, deterrence and punishment.
The Tories used to claim they were the party of law and order but on this, like on so much else, they have let the British people down. Their new definition of the purpose of prison does not even use the word ‘punishment.’ The Tories seem more interested in prosecuting loyal former service personnel than they are in reprimanding real criminals.
Jane Collins MEP,
Home Affairs Spokeswoman
The wealthy might feel safe, secreted away in large houses in lovely areas, living behind electronic gates and protected by top-of-the range burglar alarms.
It is a different story for working class people forced to watch as their communities are blighted by the criminality and antisocial behaviour perpetrated by a wrecking minority on their less gentrified estates.
It seems only UKIP will stand up for them.
Our approach to criminality contrasts starkly with that of the other parties.
As Home Secretary, Theresa May was soft on crime.
She went the way of the Labour party, putting the human rights of offenders before those of their victims, tiptoeing around even the most hardened criminals, instead of concentrating on protecting the public.
We will not tolerate a perverse criminal justice system that allows criminals to get away with serious crimes or repeat offending because the police are under-resourced.
We will train and deploy 20,000 more police and employ 7,000 more prison officers.
REBUILDING OUR POLICE FORCES
The thin blue line is no longer just thin, it is malnourished and emaciated.
In their report of March 2017, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary highlighted an erosion of preventative policing and revealed a catalogue of failings.
Emergency calls were deliberately downgraded when fewer officers were on duty, and gang violence was not classified as organised crime to avoid having to deploy additional resources.
High-risk domestic abuse victims were downgraded to a lower level of concern, and officers were assigned to investigations they were not qualified to conduct.
Forces struggled to find resources to investigate violent crimes.
“UKIP says: ‘If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.’ We think crime must always merit punishment.
However much of a waste of a life it might seem to keep someone locked up, if that is what it takes to keep others safe, we will keep them locked up”.
Peter Jewell,
Justice Spokesman
Theresa May’s legacy as Home Secretary has been to produce a police force that cannot be relied upon to investigate crime properly, and crime figures that cannot be relied upon at all.
The job of police officers is to prevent crime, keep people safe and catch criminals.
We will give them the resources they need to succeed.
We will train and employ 20,000 more frontline officers and equip them with all they need to conduct proper investigations, and track and arrest more suspects.
These jobs will first be offered to ex-armed forces personnel.
STOP AND SEARCH
In 2014, Theresa May weakened Stop and Search, saying it was undermining relations with ethnic minority communities.
UKIP warned this would lead to an increase in knife crime and, sadly, we have been proved right.
Knife crime rose 24 per cent in London last year when 61 people were knifed to death in the city.
Sixteen people were stabbed and killed in London in just the three weeks before this manifesto went to print.
Theresa May showed weakness and inconsistency on Stop and Search and this has cost lives.
UKIP agrees with the father of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor: the police need greater Stop and Search powers to combat knife crime.
UKIP will reinstate full Stop and Search powers to the police and reduce the burden of paperwork police have to complete each time they exercise this function.
SORTING OUT OUR PRISONS
Our prisons are overcrowded, understaffed, and rapidly becoming hotbeds of violence and Islamist extremism.
Drug use is also rising.
These factors unite to increase the risk of prison rioting, or of prison officers losing control, which could lead to serious injury or loss of life.
This vicious circle has to stop.
UKIP will: Boost the number of prison officers by 7,000: There are 7,000 fewer prison officers, supervising officers and custodial managers working in England and Wales than in 2010.
Restoring this number will restore adequate staffing levels.
These jobs will be offered first to ex-armed forces personnel.
Reduce Prison Overcrowding: 68 per cent of our prisons are overcrowded, according to the latest Ministry of Justice statistics.
The Conservatives plan to build four new prisons, close older jails, and reduce the numbers of people incarcerated to solve the problem.
UKIP thinks this is potentially disastrous: those who benefit most from prison are the law-abiding people who do not go.
We will keep all existing prisons open and continue with the current building programme.
We will send as many as possible of the 13,000 foreign nationals in our jails back to their home countries
and, in future, will seek to have foreign criminals serve sentences in their countries of origin.
If they wish to appeal against their convictions they must do so from their country of origin and pay their own costs.
Our tough immigration policies will weed out potential troublemakers.
Cut Violence in Prisons: Serious assaults within prison walls are increasing.
Two prison guards are attacked every day, a threefold rise in just four years, and there were also 18,510 prisoner¬on-prisoner attacks during 2016.
We will bring all those who assault prison staff or other prisoners before the courts.
Tackle Illegal Drug Use: Prisoners testing positive for illegal substances while in prison will be limited to ‘closed’ visits from friends or family for six months, meaning they will be separated from their visitors by glass.
Prisoners are encouraged to deal with drug addiction problems during their incarceration, and we do them no favours by not taking a tough line.
Address Islamist Extremism: All criminals are at risk of becoming radicalised behind bars, not just the 14.4 per cent of Muslim prisoners.
The Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think-tank, says prisons risk becoming ‘universities of terror’ unless extremists are segregated from the wider prison population.
This approach is shortly to be piloted at three prisons, along with ‘de-radicalisation’ programmes.
We will monitor progress and extend these schemes if they are successful.
We will also: Ensure no prisoner has better ‘perks’ than any other, whatever their faith
•Refuse admission to prisons to any imam, preacher or individual known to promote views contrary to British values
•Give prison governors new powers to impose measures to combat Islamic extremism and gang violence in prisons.
We will review the sentencing regime for police, prison staff or other law enforcement officials convicted of crimes.
We take an especially dim view of corruption, for which we will impose minimum five-year sentences.
TOUGHER ACTION ON ‘HONOUR’ CRIME AND GROOMING GANGS
The Sentencing Council produces guidelines listing ‘aggravating factors’ which make a crime more serious, so it may incur a higher sentence on conviction.
We propose that so-called ‘honour crimes’ should be added to that list.
We will also make it clear that the aggravating factor of ‘racial or religious motivation’ may apply to any offender, of any race or faith.
THE 2003 LICENSING ACT
This Act relaxed opening hours for pubs, bars and clubs and increased the number of establishments able to serve alcohol.
The social consequences have not resembled the ‘continental-style café culture’ Tony Blair claimed it would.
A survey of emergency workers carried out in 2015 by the Institute of Alcohol Studies revealed 52 per cent of paramedics, 42 per cent of A&E doctors and three-quarters of police officers have been attacked in the course of their duties by people who were intoxicated.
To protect emergency workers from abuse, we will repeal the 2003 Licensing Act and bring in new legislation to reduce the density of alcohol outlets and restrict trading times.
THE EUROPEAN ARREST WARRANT
UKIP will opt out of the European Arrest Warrant.
The EAW is in fundamental opposition to the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’
We will co¬operate fully with extradition requests, but not allow British citizens to be extradited to a foreign jurisdiction for minor crimes, when there is no clear case against them, or when they are unlikely to receive a fair trial.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Repeal Labour’s Human Rights legislation and remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.
•Introduce a new UK Bill of Rights.
•Prevent foreign criminals from entering the UK and introduce a fast-track deportation system for those convicted of crimes in the UK
•Prosecute all cases of adult sexual behaviour with under-age minors, and maintain the current age of consent
•Update licensing laws to limit the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2
•Keep and enforce current legislation on the use of illegal drugs
•Refuse to give prisoners the vote
•Adopt a zero tolerance approach to anti¬social behaviour and nuisance and noisy neighbours
•Make the setting up of a traveller pitch without permission a criminal offence.
Britain’s New Role in the World
By reclaiming our status as an independent, democratic nation, the UK can through force of example play a role similar to that it played through force of arms in two World Wars: that of a shining star illuminating the way ahead for other European countries.
Brexit means stepping boldly out into a global world as an important actor on the world stage. Free to pursue a foreign policy prioritising British interests and the security of our nation, UKIP will ensure the safety, wealth and prosperity of British citizens, while meeting our international responsibilities.
Paul Nuttall,
UKIP Leader
There is no question about it: when we leave the EU, Britain will retain her status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and as a leading member of NATO, the organisation that has been the bedrock of our security since the aftermath of the Second World War.
We will sustain our position within the special intelligence ‘Five Eyes’ alliance with the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia,
and continue to value our home within the Commonwealth.
Indeed, Brexit means we can help re-invigorate the Commonwealth, with trade agreements and increased engagement to give these friendly countries parity of esteem in our foreign relations policy.
UKIP will stand up for the territorial integrity of British dependencies and territories.
We remain full committed to upholding the right to self-determination of the people of the Falkland Islands who overwhelmingly wish to remain British.
We will offer the citizens of Gibraltar a referendum on becoming fully British, and having their own MP in the House of Commons.
Our EU membership has weakened our foreign policy interests, so we naturally welcome our coming freedom.
However, we will of course continue our close cooperation with our European partners on matters of defence and security once we have left the EU.
In the context of an American administration that is re-evaluating its defence commitment to Europe, Britain’s position as our continent’s premier defence power is an asset that will strengthen our hand in Brexit negotiations.
UKIP will work constructively with President Trump.
We value the special relationship between the UK and the US, and do not believe gesture politics from establishment politicians seeking to demonstrate their disapproval of his administration is helpful to our national interest.
The values shared between the US and the UK will always outlast individual political administrations in either country.
We are confident the Trump administration’s positive attitude to Britain will lead to a swift free trade agreement bolstering our common interests.
However, UKIP does not believe in surrendering our national freedom of action,
nor pledging our armed forces in advance to any other nation when it comes to important foreign policy decisions, such as those that occurred in the run-up to the Iraq War.
UKIP opposed Britain becoming involved in this conflict from the start.
UKIP supports the recent tradition of consulting parliament before our forces are committed to combat situations.
We are proud of our pro-active role in opposing British participation in the planned bombing of Syria in 2013.
The results of western military intervention across North Africa and the Middle East in the 21st century have been disastrous, from Libya, to Syria, Iraq, and even to Afghanistan, where a necessary initial intervention lost momentum and focus because forces were switched to the Iraq War.
In the years ahead, UKIP will avoid allowing Britain to become embroiled in foreign wars.
We will maintain our sceptical view of neo¬conservative arguments for attempting to deliver change in the Middle East at gunpoint.
You cannot bomb people into democracy.
When it comes to the greatest threat to world peace and the British way of life, UKIP is convinced this comes from the spread of radical Islam across the globe.
The threshold for seeking to topple anti-Islamist leaders will therefore remain very high indeed.
We want to see a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and will put our full diplomatic weight behind seeking this outcome.
UKIP will seek better relations with Russia, but only on the basis of Russia changing its approach to international relations, no longer seeking to intervene in and manipulate the conduct of politics in western nations,
and having respect for the territorial integrity of other countries.
We see Russia as a potential important ally in the struggle against Islamist terror,
and believe Russia should immerse itself in global rules-based relationships instead of seeming to glory in renegade status within the international community.
UKIP will retain Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent.
Give the continued existence of rogue states such as North Korea, any other policy would be utterly irresponsible.
Defending Our Nation, Supporting Our Veterans
Despite the ever-present threat to our safety, our Armed Forces have been cut to the bone.
UKIP will spend a genuine two per cent of GDP on defence,
increase the number of those serving in our armed  forces by 20,000,
properly equip those on active service,
and look after  those who are prepared to put their lives on the line for our country,  in service and when discharged.
UKIP will restore Britain’s armed forces to their rightful place among the most professional, flexible and effective fighting forces in the world, and we will sign a new military covenant with our brave heroes.’
Mike Hookem MEP,
Veterans Spokesman Cllr. Bill Etheridge MEP, Defence Spokesman
REBUILDING OUR ARMED FORCES
US President Theodore Roosevelt said the key to success in foreign policy was to “speak softly but carry a big stick.”
In the modern era, British politicians have all too often shouted loudly while carrying a matchstick.
In 2010, the new Conservative-led government began including the Single Intelligence Account, Armed Forces pensions and Trident in the defence budget, rather than accounting for them separately.
This sleight of hand budgeting allowed them to claim they were still meeting our NATO obligation to spend two per cent of GDP on defence, when in fact our armed forces were being steadily depleted.
Tory cuts to the equipment programme and manpower have been deep: they have put our national security at serious risk.
THE ARMY
The Conservatives ignored their manifesto pledge to keep army numbers above 82,000: reductions imposed on the defence budget since 2010 have shrunk the Army to 78,000, its smallest size since the Napoleonic Wars.
Main battle tank strength has been cut by 40 per cent and there has been a 35 per cent cut in self-propelled artillery.
The government’s ambition to recruit 30,000 personnel to the Territorial Army to address the shortfall in regular army manpower was a fatally flawed concept and undeliverable from the start.
Regulars and Territorials are not interchangeable.
THE ROYAL NAVY
In 1982, the Royal Navy sent 115 ships, including two aircraft carriers carrying jet fighters, plus 23 destroyers and frigates, to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina.
Today, after decades of cuts, the Royal Navy is a shadow of its former self.
The surface fleet is currently down to just 17 frigates and destroyers.
The Navy’s Harpoon missiles will retire from the fleet’s frigates and destroyers in 2018 without a replacement, and there will be a two-year gap without helicopter-launched anti-shipping missiles.
The Royal Navy has shed people faster than ships: we had 39,000 sailors in 2000; now they number only 29,000.
The Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2015 vowed to stop cutbacks on the fleet, but the damage has already been done.
The two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will not be operational before 2020.
Even then, serious questions remain about whether the Royal Navy will be able to man, operate and protect them.
It would take nearly every ship in the current surface fleet to form an effective carrier group so they could be deployed.
Moreover, it has been widely reported that each carrier will routinely deploy with only a dozen F-35B aircraft.
In comparison, the two Royal Navy carriers involved in the Falklands Conflict carried twenty-odd Harrier jump jets each.
THE ROYAL AIR FORCE
The Royal Air Force is shedding one sixth of its staff, some 7,000 personnel, and 295 aircraft.
By then, the RAF will have fewer than 200 fighter planes for the first time since the beginning of World War I.
Despite Russia probing UK air space on a regular basis, we no longer have any maritime patrol aircraft.
In 2015, the UK found itself in the embarrassing position of having to call upon surveillance assistance from US, Canadian, French and German aircraft, more than 20 times.
Many frontline pilots have been on active combat operations for more than a decade.
Combat fatigue has taken its toll and experienced aircrew are leaving the service.
The weapons officers who fly behind the pilot in the two-seater Tornado are particularly in short supply.
After decades of Treasury-driven budgetary cuts, the RAF finds itself in the unhappy position of doing less with less, with no prospect of an upturn in its fortunes.
A GENUINE COMMITMENT TO OUR NATO OBLIGATIONS
The Tories have threatened our security by leaving huge holes in our national defences.
They have failed the British people, who must remain well protected in an increasingly dangerous world,
and those who put their lives on the line for us, who must be properly equipped.
Britain must have a well resourced, properly manned, fit-for-purpose armed force, one with the capability to defend simultaneously Gibraltar and the Falklands Islands, contribute to one major theatre operation and several peacekeeping missions.
UKIP will spend a genuine two per cent of GDP on defence, and scale up defence spending by an additional £1 billion per year by the end of the parliament.
UKIP will reverse the de¬militarisation of our country and rebuild our Armed Forces.
DEFENCE PROCUREMENT
UKIP will overhaul the wasteful defence procurement process.
It has lacked proper scrutiny,
been based on protectionism rather than on the needs of our Armed Forces,
and is subject to inappropriate lobbying and cronyism on a massive scale.
Even Gordon Brown railed against the “incestuous relationship between the Ministry (of Defence) and the arms world,” although he did nothing about it.
Defence contracts regularly run massively over budget and over time.
Botched projects have become the norm.
Despite the fact that Defence Equipment and Support (the organisation responsible for purchasing equipment) employs 12,300 people, one for every six full time soldiers in the British Army, it has failed to deliver value for money for taxpayers
and has left service personnel at risk.
UKIP will end the cosy relationship between ministers, officials and arms firms that lies at the heart of poor defence procurement decision-making.
DISCHARGED FROM SERVICE: A NEW MILITARY COVENANT FOR OUR HEROES
The political class has got its priorities so wrong.
In February this year, Theresa May announced MPs would get a £1,049 pay rise.
Meanwhile, she capped pensions for 140,000 British war heroes and widows, giving them just £1.10 per week.
In 2015, UKIP promised to create a new Veterans’ Administration, organisationally independent and financially separate from the Ministry of Defence.
This is still a priority for us: Britain must do more for veterans.
THE VETERANS’ ADMINISTRATION: KEY ROLES
The Veterans’ Administration will have its own minister and work with existing veteran services and charities.
It will provide a single point of contact for veterans in a range of fields: health care, housing, counselling, education and training, rehabilitation, hospital care, access to financial services, benefits and memorials.
The department will also have responsibility for issues such as bereavement support, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse and veterans’ mental health.
The Veteran’s Administration will issue a veterans’ service card to ensure fast-track access to NHS and mental health care,
and award a National Defence Medal to all veterans, irrespective of rank or length of service.
HOSTELS FOR HOMELESS VETERANS
No veteran should be homeless, let alone have to sleep rough on the street, yet this is happening because the Government is not enforcing a law stating military heroes must be offered homes.
UKIP will enforce this law, and build eight halfway house veterans’ hostels, each with 200 rooms and modelled on similar hostels already in operation.
We will also assign 500 affordable rent homes every year to ex-forces personnel.
GUARANTEED JOBS FOR EX-SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN
UKIP will guarantee a job in the police service, prison service or border force for anyone who has served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of 12 years.
Our ‘Boots to Business’ policy will help ex-service personnel set up their own businesses by offering loans, grants, free professional advice and mentoring to any veteran who wishes to pursue an entrepreneurial career after leaving the forces.
ENDING LEGAL HARRASSMENT OF EX-SERVICE PERSONNEL
UKIP will not allow veterans to be chased, harassed and intimidated by over-zealous human rights lawyers, most of whom are unlikely even to begin to comprehend the pressures of the battlefield.
We will bring forward legislation preventing veterans from being pursued for years by police and prosecutors for actions taken whilst in the service of the Crown.
We will not permit veterans to be tried over allegations of misconduct dating from half a century ago under any circumstances.
Veterans should not be sleeping in the streets or consigned to the dole, nor hounded for doing their jobs.
UKIP is determined they will get the help, care and respect they deserve.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Create an over-arching role of Director of National Intelligence, who will be lead a new, single, unified intelligence service
•Revise the Armed Forces’ terms of service, to ensure personnel on operational duty overseas do not pay income tax
•Oppose any form of military integration with the European Union.
Trade Not Aid: Eradicating Poverty and Securing Britain’s Global Future
UKIP has long believed that trade, not aid, is the most secure route to economic prosperity for the developing world.
We will reduce the foreign aid budget
and advance free trade deals to the poorest nations to help lift them out of poverty.
Only UKIP believes our foreign aid budget should be reduced and reallocated to the NHS and other struggling public services. We are not afraid to say charity begins at home, that the primary responsibility of a British government is to protect British interests and improve the lives of the British people.
Cllr Lisa Duffy,
Foreign Aid Spokeswoman
A 2015 World Economic Forum study concluded that in the developing world there was ‘no effect of aid on growth,’ yet UKIP is the only party in this election offering voters a real choice when it comes to foreign aid spending.
The others all back spending 0.7 per cent of our Gross National Income (GNI), regardless of results.
When carefully targeted, aid can feed the poor and heal the sick, but regular aid payments may act as a disincentive to economic growth.
Between 1970 and 1998, when aid flows to Africa were at their peak, poverty in Africa worsened.
Despite receiving over £400 billion in aid over the past forty years, the continent remains poor.
It is time to consign to history the idea that pouring ever-greater sums into the foreign aid budget is a signal of our virtue.
It is a hangover from the era of celebrity-driven politics personified by Tony Blair and David Cameron.
In many cases, it can be demonstrated to be doing more harm than good.
Leaving the EU gives us the chance to boost the fortunes of developing countries by striking Free Trade Agreements with them.
UKIP will make ‘Transition to Trade’ offers to some of the biggest aid recipient nations as we gradually reduce the amount of UK taxpayers’ money we send to them.
UKIP will close down the Department for International Development.
We will repeal the law requiring us to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on foreign aid
and reduce the aid budget to 0.2 per cent of GNI over time.
This will save at least £10 billion a year, which we will spend on other priorities, such as the NHS.
A single Minister For Overseas Development working out of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will administer aid.
This will bring Britain’s aid spending into line with that of other advanced nations, such as the USA.
We will still be spending around £4 billion annually, which is more in cash terms than Spain and Italy combined.
We will continue to fund projects that make a real difference: clean water programmes, childhood inoculations, medical assistance, and disaster and emergency relief.
We will offer contracts for aid programmes to British providers first, so that we are better able to see what results we get from various programmes and track spending.
We will not allow taxpayers’ money to be spent by aid organisations such as the International Rescue Committee, who pay David Miliband a salary of £425,000.
A DEDICATED BRITISH HOSPITAL SHIP
British medical expertise and disaster support is among the best in the world.
Our help is always welcome in the aftermath of natural disaster, disease epidemic, or famine.
To increase the contribution Britain can make in times of global crises, UKIP will commission, equip and staff a Naval Ocean-Going Surgical Hospital (NOSH).
As 95 per cent of the world’s largest 100 cities are port cities, and 90 per cent of the world’spopulation live within 200 miles of the sea, this will be an extremely useful way to deliver large-scale relief to our armed forces on activeoperational duties,
to civilians and refugees in war zones,
or to undertake humanitarianmissions in peacetime.
The new ship willalso provide useful reinforcement in case of emergencies here at home.
The new NOSH will have at least 500 beds, a flight deck and large hangar to support several helicopters, as well as vehicle decks.
It will be a highly visible ambassador for Britain,
andwill replace the Royal Navy’s current sea-borne medical capability, RFA ARGUS, which is set to retire in 2020.
It will not carry weapons, giving it the full protection of the Geneva Convention in times of war.
This flagship project will help confirm Britain’s status as a force for good in the world,
while simultaneously expanding our naval capabilities.
ETHICAL TRADE WILL ERADICATE POVERTY
UKIP will not be sorry to see the back of the EU’s morally repugnant trade tariff regime.
It has blatantly accentuated poverty in some of the poorest nations on earth.
African farmers, for example, may export raw cocoa beans to the EU without paying any tariffs, but if they want to export chocolate, tariffs are high.
It is the same with coffee.
In 2014, the whole of Africa made just under £1.6 billion from raw coffee bean exports, but Germany alone made £2.6 billion just by exporting roasted beans, despite not growing a single coffee crop.
Our focus on trade, not aid, means we can establish ethical relationships with developing countries by assisting agriculture and industrial growth, rather than simply sending money that is likely to be abused and misspent by dubious regimes.
William Dartmouth MEP,
Trade Spokesman
UKIP will seek to support the economies, infrastructure development, education, health, agriculture and trading capacity of developing nations.
We will not engage in unethical trade practices that harm or inhibit their trade, traditional lifestyles, or natural resources.
This will be a far better way to help developing nations lift themselves out of poverty and become self-sufficient.
Even Bono has now admitted it.
THE WORLD IS OUR OYSTER
Of all the insults thrown at the Leave campaign by the Remain camp, one of the most ludicrous was the ‘little Englanders’ taunt.
The polar opposite is true: those who voted for Brexit could see a brighter, more global and economically successful future outside the confines of a contracting and ever-more protectionist EU.
Trade Not Aid: Eradicating Poverty and Securing Britain’s Global Future
For decades our EU membership has been a factor in our diluted economic growth,
flat-lining wages,
and diminishing influence on the world stage.
In future, we shall have wider and easier access to overseas markets.
For British consumers, choice will increase,
prices will fall,
and we will not be so reliant upon monopoly suppliers.
Increased competition is likely to fuel innovation and offer opportunities for the transfer of expertise and technology,
which in turn means more jobs,
and a stronger economy.
Leaving the EU is not about becoming ‘little Englanders,’ it is about putting the ‘Great’ back into Great Britain.
It is about embracing new trading markets in all seven continents of the globe.
Naturally, we should like to agree a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU, and continue to trade on the same basis as at present.
As the UK is the EU’s largest single export market, the EU should want to reach a swift and sensible trade deal with us.
However, if the EU continues to make unreasonable demands in return for even talking about free trade, then we must be prepared to walk away.
In circumstances where the EU continues to insist Britain pay a huge ‘divorce’ settlement of up to €100 billion, or continues to demand we accept the on-going jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and allow the free movement of people, trading with the EU within the legal framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would be the far better option.
Not having an FTA with the EU will not prevent our trading with EU businesses, so talk of a ‘cliff edge’ is pure hyperbole.
Neither could we ‘crash out’ of the EU, because trade is not going to stop, whatever happens.
It should also be remembered that the EU is itself a member of the WTO and subject to its rules, so therefore extremely limited in any hostile action it could take against Britain.
Trading on WTO terms will never be a ‘punishment’ option, but may be an economically sound choice.
OUR TRADE PRINCIPLES
Post-Brexit, UKIP’s aim is to establish the UK on the world market as a low tax, low regulation economy.
The UK will contribute to the World Trade Organisation’s aim for trade to flow as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
We will reduce tariffs wherever possible, unless initiating anti-dumping measures,
and oppose the establishment and continuance of protectionist customs unions such as the EU.
The sooner we can start making our own free trade deals with countries around the world, the better.
Leaving the EU is a win-win situation for UK trade,
our global business partners,
and developing nations.
Countries are already queuing up to make trade deals with Britain: we can only hope work is already underway to negotiate, conclude, sign and ratify those deals so they that can come into effect on day one after Brexit.
Transport: Keeping Britain Moving
Everyone understands the frustration of being stuck in a traffic jam or going nowhere on a delayed train or bus.
UKIP will improve our existing transport infrastructure instead of investing in vanity projects such as HS2 and the environmentally destructive third runway at Heathrow.
Motorists have had enough of being treated like cash cows and told to stop using their cars. UKIP recognises the huge contribution drivers make to our economy, and that driving is the only viable travel option for many. We are the party that stands up for the beleaguered motorist.
Jill Seymour,
Transport Spokeswoman
Britain’s prosperity depends upon an operational road system and reliable public transport networks.
When transport goes wrong, it has an impact on our economy and our businesses, and makes life miserable and stressful for those experiencing delays and cancellations.
UKIP will get the basics right, and not waste hundreds of billions of pounds on unnecessary transport projects.
UKIP WILL SCRAP HS2
Rail travel is essential but HS2 is not.
This High Speed Rail project is unaffordable,
requires massive borrowing,
will blight people’s homes,
and destroy valuable habitats.
Spending £75 billion just to save a few minutes between London and Leeds is ludicrous and, we think, unethical.
UKIP will put HS2 out of its misery.
We will invest in upgrading existing main line services to create additional capacity, expand electrification, and improve east-west rail services and connections across the north of England.
This will be infrastructure that genuinely supports the economic and industrial regeneration of the region.
A slogan, ‘ The Northern Powerhouse,’ achieves nothing.
ENDING ROAD TOLLS
Tolling increases costs to business
and the public,
and adds an additional unfair burden on the already highly taxed road user.
Road tolls are modern-day highway robbery, and UKIP will aim to remove existing tolls from publicly owned roads and block the introduction of new toll roads.
UKIP opposes the proposed new Thames Crossing in Thurrock and will look to re-open a consultation for a new crossing further east.
This will include the option for a crossing through Canvey Island, linking the A1 30 to the M2 in Kent.
SUPPORT THE TRANSITION TO ZERO EMISSION VEHICLES
Electrically propelled vehicles are now a serious option for many families but the charging infrastructure is not keeping pace.
UKIP will support the installation of rapid charging stations in towns and cities, and encourage off street parking and charging provision in all new housing and industrial developments through the local planning process.
DEFENDING DIESEL DRIVERS
In the 1990s, the EU and our government promoted diesel vehicles, claiming they were more env ronmentally friendly because they produced less carbon dioxide.
Incentives such as higher taxes on petrol and cuts to Vehicle Excise Duty for diesel cars worked and diesel car ownership shot up.
The ‘experts,’ however, have changed their advice.
Policy has now U-turned.
Punitive taxes are being slapped on diesel cars and there are calls to ban them from city centres.
A scrappage scheme giving diesel car owners up to £2,000 to get rid of their vehicles has also been introduced, and UKIP supports this;
however, we will combine it with an incentive scheme encouraging drivers to exchange their vehicles for electric or hybrid models.
UKIP will prevent diesel drivers from being penalised through higher taxes, parking fees, or emissions’ zone charging.
People bought their vehicles in good faith on government advice.
Milking them now for money that simply goes into the Treasury is unacceptable.
SAVING RURAL BUS SERVICES
Rural bus services are vital for those living in the countryside who do not have the financial means or the ability to drive.
UKIP will provide start-up grants to support community bus operators using smaller and more efficient buses where commercial operators have cut essential services.
AIR PASSENGER DUTY
Air Passenger Duty has risen rapidly since its introduction in 1994.
This is a tax on holidays
as well as an additional cost to business.
We will freeze APD at current levels and, when possible in future, seek to reduce it with the long-term objective of scrapping it completely.
LONDON AIRPORTS AND THE SOUTH EAST
Living under a flight path is damaging to health and wellbeing, and the expansion of Heathrow airport will make matters worse for many thousands more people.
UKIP is dismayed the Conservatives have torn up their 2010 manifesto pledge not to go ahead with the third runway.
However, there is a clear commercial need for additional airport capacity in the South East, and UKIP is delighted a £100 million investment plan to revive aviation at Manston Airport in Kent is now on the table.
This would not have been possible without the tireless campaigning of UKIP councillors.
An American logistics company has unveiled plans to acquire the 750-acre site, and use it as a base for at least a dozen aircraft.
Thanet District Council is hoping to become a partner in a compulsory purchase order for the site.
UKIP will continue to support the expansion of smaller regional airports.
THE BRITDISC
We will keep a record of all foreign vehicles entering the UK by introducing a windscreen mounted identification tag, which can be purchased prior to entry.
This will help identify overseas drivers who break UK traffic laws and facilitate enforcement action, which can be taken prior to exit from the country.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Stop mandatory fitment of the e-call vehicle tracking system on new cars
•Exempt vehicles over 25 years old from Vehicle Excise Duty
•Not allow speed cameras to be used as revenue-raisers for local authorities
•Scrap the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence for professionally licensed haulage drivers
Protecting our Environment
Brexit will not put our countryside, our marine environment, or our wildlife at risk.
The idea that our membership of the EU has been only good for our environment is quite simply false.
In some ways we have benefited, but in others our natural environment has suffered as  a consequence of EU policy.
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy has damaged our countryside.
The Common Fisheries Policy has devastated fish stocks around our coastline.
The way the EU – and our government – embraced diesel proved to be disastrous, even fatal.
The Water Framework Directive led to serious flooding in many parts of the country by preventing river dredging.
Repealing this directive will spare homeowners the misery of flooding
and exorbitant insurance premiums.
UKIP will promote evidence-based environmental schemes,
and safeguard protection for Britain’s wildlife, nature reserves, areas of outstanding natural beauty, countryside, and coastlines in a new Environmental Protection Act, prioritising policies to protect our precious countryside for future generations.
PROTECTING OUR ANCIENT WOODLANDS
Current legislation does not go far enough in protecting natural woodland habitats.
We will amend the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to give ancient woodlands ‘wholly exceptional’ status, putting them on a par with listed buildings, registered parks and gardens, and World Heritage Sites.
Major infrastructure projects will be required to give much more respect to irreplaceable rural capital projects which enhance the local environment or help recovery from environmental disasters natural habitats.
HS2 is a prime example of this: we will scrap HS2 and ensure no infrastructure project will ever again be allowed permission to wreak such catastrophic environmental damage.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Prioritise brownfield rather than greenfield or agricultural land for new housing
•Support farming and wildlife though grant schemes prioritising the preservation of natural habitats
•Match fund grants made
by local authorities for
•Protect dolphins by banning the use of pair trawling for sea bass
•Offer local referenda to overturn unpopular development approvals
CREATING SMALL GREEN SPACES
UKIP will amend planning legislation to promote inclusion of trees and open space into new deve opments.
The need to build new homes must be countered by the human need to breathe in open, green spaces.
We will also require new developments to use permeable or porous surfacing materials for single-storey, ground level domestic car parking and front gardens, so rainwater can drain away to help prevent flooding.
Figures analysed by the RAC Foundation show some seven million front gardens now contain concrete and cars rather than flowers and grass, a total space roughly equivalent to 100 Hyde Parks or 72 Olympic Parks.
GENERAL ELECTION DAY IS WORLD OCEANS DAY
32 million single-use plastic bottles are used every day in the UK. 16 million go directly to landfill or end up as litter.
The Marine Conservation Society estimates around 160 plastic bottles per mile are scattered on our beaches.
After years of sunlight and pounding waves, they break down into micro¬plastics which are ingested by plankton, shellfish, shrimp, fish, birds, turtles, other sea animals and ultimately humans.
We will investigate the practicality of introducing a deposit scheme on plastic drinks bottles to encourage recycling.
“After Britain leaves the European Union, UKIP will review all EU environment legislation.
We will review all current EU environmental rules, keeping those which have enhanced our environment, such as improving the cleanliness of our seas and beaches, and amend or repeal legislation which can be shown to have had a detrimental effect”.
Dr Julia Reid MEP,
Environment  Spokeswoman
Food Production and Animal Welfare
When we leave the EU, we will leave the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)  and regain the power to prioritise our own farming objectives,
boost our own  food security,
reform our attitude to farming,
animal welfare and wildlife  management,
and reinvigorate our rural economy.
Farming, rural industries and rural skills have always been fundamental to our economy, our well-being, and our relationship with our countryside. Brexit offers us the chance to restore our seas, rivers, coasts, farmland, and uplands, and address the catastrophic collapse in quality habitat and wildlife species in  our country, and the loss of the specialist  craft trades and skills we need to  manage them.
Stuart Agnew MEP,
Agriculture Spokesman
Naturally, farmers will be nervous about what might replace the CAP and the subsidy system they have become used to over forty years or so.
However, UKIP will continue to make available to the agriculture sector funds that would normally be paid to them via Brussels.
We will introduce a UK Single Farm Payment (SFP) that operates in a similar way to the present EU system.
The major difference will be that UKIP’s SFP will be more ethical.
It will end EU discrimination in favour of larger, intensive farms, and support smaller enterprises.
Subsidies will be capped at £120,000 per year
and, to make sure payments reach farmers, not just wealthy landowners, we will pay only those who actually farm the land.
Anti-Microbial Resistance is a problem for society as a whole.
UKIP will consider transferring some support to those livestock producers who commit to farming without antibiotics.
To qualify for subsidies, land must be used for genuine agricultural purposes and meet Entry Level Stewardship conditions (2013 rules), meaning it must be managed to certain environmental standards.
Organic farms will be paid 25 per cent more,
and additional support will be given to hill farmers.
There will be no set-aside, cropping or rotation restrictions.
We think the British public will prefer and support UKIP’s approach.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Only when we have left the EU can we regain control of animal health and welfare issues.
Currently, EU law prevents us from banning live exports for slaughter, and prevents us from labelling food that has been ritually killed as halal or shechita.
UKIP campaigns against the EU’s stance on both.
It is worth noting that should Britain stay in the single market, we would still not be able to prevent the export and import of live animals destined for the meat trade and end the unnecessary suffering this causes.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Ban the export of animals for fattening and slaughter
•Tightly regulate animal testing, and continually challenge companies concerned regarding its necessity
•Install CCTV in every abattoir and deal severely with any animal welfare contraventions
•Forbid Jewish and Muslim methods of slaughter being carried out by unqualified individuals in unregulated premises, and deal severely with such transgressions
•Insist all meat labelling identifies the method of slaughter
•Triple the maximum jail sentences for animal cruelty
•Impose lifetime bans on owning and/or looking after animals on any individual or company convicted of animal cruelty
•Keep the ban on animal testing for cosmetics.
Our Future Energy Security
Brexit offers the perfect opportunity to review energy policy, prioritising lower prices
and more secure supplies.
There is one major problem:  a lack of MPs in Westminster who recognise the potential of a rational energy policy, and who are committed to delivering it.
UKIP has a clear commitment to secure, affordable energy for everyone. We will repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act, the most expensive piece of legislation in  history. This will cut the cost of energy in our homes and encourage energy- intensive businesses that are failing because of flawed energy policies.
Roger Helmer MEP,
Energy Spokesman
Every political party except UKIP has thrown its weight behind the 2008 Climate Change Act.
Set to cost us an eye-watering £319 billion by 2030, this Act has no basis in science, and its aim of cutting greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050 is unachievable.
It is a textbook exercise in legislative folly, brought about by nothing more than a competitive cross-party ‘dash for green.’
While our major global competitors in the USA, China and India are switching to low-cost fossil fuels, this Act forces us to close perfectly good coal-fired power stations to meet unattainable targets for renewable capacity.
If we carry on like this, the lights are likely to go out.
UKIP will repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act and support a diverse energy market based on coal, nuclear, shale gas, conventional gas, oil, solar and hydro, as well as other renewables when they can be delivered at competitive prices.
We will also withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, to enhance our industrial competitiveness.
CUTTING DOMESTIC ENERGY PRICES
According to government figures, 2.3 million households are living in fuel poverty, meaning they spend more than 10per cent of their total income to heat their homes to an adequate standard of warmth.
In addition to removing VAT from domestic fuel and scrapping ‘green’ levies to reduce household bills by an average of £170,
we will review the ownership and profits of British utilities and the impact on consumers of steadily rising prices.
We will not hesitate to table legislation to address any excesseswe uncover.
CUTTING THE COST OF INTENSIVE ENERGY USE
Repealing the Climate Change Act and leaving the EU means we can also reduce high commercial energy prices and prevent energy-intensive businesses from being driven offshore.
Problems in the steel industry have been well publicised, but similar issues apply to aluminium, chemicals, fertilisers, glass, ceramics and petroleumrefining.
Such companies may move to countries with lower environmental standards, and increase emissions, thereby rendering the 2008 Act even more futile.
Energy policies pursued by Labour and the Tories are arguably increasing global emissions
and causing Britain to lose jobs
and investment.
They have created a lose-lose situation, but only UKIP is awake to the problem.
INVESTING IN SHALE GAS
British demand for energy already exceeds our home-produced supply and unless we reduce this deficit, we will be importing more and more energy.
This risks both our energy
and pur economic security:
bills will have to be paid for in foreign currency over which we haveno control,
and fossil fuel cost and distribution can be severely affected by international conflict.
It would be foolhardy not to maximise home produced energy and this is why UKIP will invest in shale gas exploration.
If ‘fracking’ is viable in Britain, we will have tapped into a source of energy that is cost-effective and delivers domestic fuel security and stability.
Careful utilisation of this method of gas extraction has the potential to create jobs,
improve our industrial competitiveness
and boost our economy.
This makes it too great an opportunity to ignore.
By any measure, shale gas extraction is far safer and cleaner than coal, on which Britain’s Industrial Revolution was based.
UKIP will not, however, allow drilling for shale in our national parks or other areas of outstanding natural beauty.
The Conservatives may be prepared to do this, but we are not.
We will always respect local environmental issues.
WE STAND BY OUR 2015 MANIFESTO PLEDGES TO:
•Prevent energy companies charging extra for customers who use pre-payment meters, who do not pay by direct debit, or who require paper billing
•Remove taxpayer-funded subsidies from unprofitable wind and solar schemes as soon as contractual arrangements expire.
Real Democracy
UKIP’s fundamental belief in radical democracy marks us out from the other parties.
We want real devolution, with an English Parliament.
We will abolish the House of Lords,
hold binding referenda on the issues that matter most to people,
and introduce a fairer voting system.
There is a growing disconnect between people and politicians. People feel their voice isn’t heard, and that their vote doesn’t change anything. UKIP stands for a fundamentally different kind of politics that puts power back in the hands of the British people. Leaving the European Union is the first step on that road.
Jonathan Arnott MEP,
Constitutional Affairs Spokesman
The fabric of the historic Palace of Westminster is in desperate need of restoration, but perhaps it is not just the building itself that is falling apart.
Are the decaying walls symptomatic of what is happening inside the mother of parliaments?
Government has become bloated and unmanageable.
Politics is corrupted by self-interest and big business.
An unaccountable elite revels in mutual back-scratching and cronyism.
If the best interests of the people of this country are to be well served, our current political system needs urgent reform.
UKIP believes it is time to make our nation truly democratic, and this is how we will do it.
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
All votes should matter, so we will introduce a voting system that genuinely reflects the will of the people as a whole.
In the 2015 general election, UKIP got 12.6 per cent of the vote but only one seat, while the SNP won just 4.7 percent of the national vote but took 56 seats.
The current First Past the Post (FPTP) system we use for electing MPs to our national parliament is bad for voters, bad for government, and bad for democracy.
UKIP wants a fairer, more proportional voting system that makes seats match votes, and ends the inbuilt advantage the establishment parties have over smaller parties.
A proportional electoral system that delivers a parliament representative of the number of votes cast, while retaining a constituency link, is one we strongly advocate.
SCRAP POSTAL VOTING ON DEMAND
Originally intended to increase voter turnout and enhance democracy, postal voting has had the opposite effect, fuelling “massive, systematic and organised fraud” that would “disgrace a banana republic,” according to England and Wales’s senior and most experienced Election Commissioner.
UKIP will reserve postal votes only for those who can show a genuine need.
Otherwise, voting must be done at polling stations.
ABOLISH THE HOUSE OF LORDS
It is time for the House of Lords to go.
Attempts at reform have proved counter¬productive.
The House of Lords Act 1999 replaced the majority of hereditary peers with appointees, which only increased the Prime Minister’s ability to put cronies into the upper chamber.
The House of Lords is now stuffed with party donors and fundraisers, ex-MPs, and favoured former employees.
Stuffed is the right word: the House of Lords is the second biggest legislature in the world, after the Chinese National People’s Congress.
The average cost of each peer is £115,000 per year.
A FAIR DEAL FOR ALL FOUR NATIONS
The public widely regards the United Kingdom’s current devolutionary system as fundamentally unfair, particularly to the English.
UKIP will put England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the same footing by instituting a new English Parliament.
It will sit in the chamber vacated by the House of Lords, have its own First Minister, and its 375 members will be elected under the Additional Member system of proportional representation, one or more from each traditional county or large city and 125 top-up seats.
All four nations will have broadly similar devolved powers and none will have power over matters affecting the whole of the UK, such as foreign policy, defence of the realm, or constitutional matters.
A SMALLER HOUSE OF COMMONS
Our national parliament will be given two primary areas of responsibility: to act as an oversight body for the regional Parliaments and Assemblies, and to deal with all matters not devolved to them.
The size of the House of Commons will be halved to 325 directly elected members from across the four nations of the United Kingdom,
according to a system of proportional representation.
These changes will reduce the number of politicians eligible to sit in the legislature from 1475 to 700, a net reduction of 775.
THE CITIZEN’S INITIATIVE
If 10,000 people sign an approved parliamentary petition, the government must respond.
If over 100,000 people sign it, the petition must be debated in parliament.
However, this is not real democracy.
Responses to petitions are often cursory, sometimes derisory, and debates rarely take place in the House of Commons chamber, so are usually badly attended and easily dismissed.
We will pass legislation allowing citizens to influence our legislature directly, by giving them the power to initiate binding referenda on the issues of most importance to them.
Every two years, a national referendum will be held on the issues gaining the highest numbers of signatures on approved petitions.
The outcome of these referenda would be legally binding and included in the Queen’s Speech.
UKIP will lead the way in saving the Union
and ending friction in the current devolution settlement.
Our policies will end the need for tactical voting, which undermines democracy and freedom of political choice,
cut the cost and size of government,
and give people a real say in how they are governed.
UKIP is the real party for the people.
Keeping it Local
UKIP believes in localism, the kind that puts real power into the hands of the people.
Our councillors put party politics last, and believe in rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done.
Councillors exist to serve their communities, and one of the best ways to do that is by offering them a say in what happens on their doorstep, through the use of binding referenda. This will reinvigorate local politics, and shape our neighbourhoods to the benefit of everyone, not just powerful developers, or the most determined lobbyist.
Peter Reeve MBE,
Local Government Spokesman
When it comes to key local issues such as out-of-town supermarkets, incinerators, and major housing developments, UKIP believes in holding binding local referenda.
Why should politicians and planning authorities have the final say?
UKIP is the only party to operate a ‘no whip’ system, so our councillors can always vote in the best interests of residents in their wards, because they are not bound by party politics.
We oppose the ‘cabinet’ system of local governance, which puts too much power in the hands of too few people.
We advocate a committee system, which brings more openness and transparency,
and facilitates cross-party collaborative working.
Collecting rubbish bins promptly and regularly, removing fly-tips, filling potholes, fixing broken or dim streetlights, providing enough parking, and keeping parks and libraries open: these services should be running smoothly before councillors even think about spending money on the next local vanity project.
UKIP believes in keeping Council Tax as low as possible.
We seek to cut excessive allowances for councillors, executive pay and bonuses,
keep advertising and promotion budgets to a minimum,
build partnerships with neighbouring councils to reduce costs,
and abolish non-essential jobs and red tape.
UKIP will end the use of council procurement cards, which operate like credit cards, encouraging over-spending and waste.
Staff should stick within agreed budgets.
UKIP will review the many statutory duties placed on local government, to assess whether the cost burden on councils and taxpayers can be reduced.
Councils should only be doing what they do best, not what national government wants to wash its hands of.
UKIP: the party with local, common sense, cost-cutting policies for local government.
UKIP’s Five Year Fiscal Plan
All figures in £bn
Foreword
The time to vote Green is now.
We know these are dark days.
The threat of Brexit hangs over us
and our democracy is under attack.
Above all, the climate and environmental emergency rages from the Amazon to the Arctic.
The science is clear - the next ten years are probably the most important in our history.
At this time of crisis, we cannot go on as we are.
If ever there was a time to vote Green, it’s now.
We want to unleash a revolution that lifts up everyone.
Our plan for a Green New Deal, and four related programmes of reform, will transform the UK
and improve the quality of everyone’s lives by creating a safer, fairer future for all.
We are the only party you can trust to act in time to tackle the Climate Emergency
in a way that also tackles pressing social problems.
We are the only party you can trust to stand up for remaining part of Europe and for a final say on Brexit,
whilst at the same time tackling the underlying reasons why many people voted to leave.
We are the only party you can trust to fix our broken democracy,
by sharing power
as well as wealth more equally, so that we can all be heard.
The Green Party has always been on the right side of history and you can trust us to get the future right too.
The choices we make now matter like never before.
The UK needs a new start.
If not now, then when?
This is the manifesto of the Green Party of England and Wales. Separate sister Green parties cover Scotland and Northern Ireland. Many public services are devolved, with the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales or the Northern Ireland Assembly taking responsibility. However, most decisions on government expenditure and on taxation are ultimately taken on a UK basis, this is a UK general election and, despite the fact that this Green Party covers only England and Wales, and to maintain consistency and comparability, the policies in this Manifesto will cover the whole of the UK unless otherwise stated.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
To tackle the Climate Emergency,
and deliver social justice, we propose:
The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal will invest in our shared future, funding improvements in:
Energy: including the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy.
Housing: including the provision of better insulation for all homes that need it,
the delivery of major heating upgrades for 1 million homes a year
and the creation of 100,000 new energy efficient council homes a year.
Transport: including the delivery of a public and sustainable transport revolution, which will allow people to travel cheaply and safely on new trains, buses, cycleways and footpaths.
Industry: including support for businesses to decarbonise
and the provision of training to give people skills
to access millions of new green jobs.
Food, Farming & Forestry: including the planting of 700 million trees
and support for healthy and sustainable food and farming systems.
Incomes: including the creation of a Universal Basic Income, paid to all UK residents
to tackle poverty and give financial security to everyone.
New green homes, new green transport and new green jobs will get us on track to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2030
and provide new opportunities for everyone to live happier and more secure lives.
This will be a combined investment of over £100 billion a year in the Green New Deal,
with an additional investment in Universal Basic Income.
To help deliver the Green New Deal, we will deliver four further programmes of reform, closely integrated with our Green New Deal proposals:
Remain and Transform
A People’s Vote to decide the way forward on Brexit,
in which the Green Party will campaign for remain.
A commitment to realise the full potential of the European Union
to lead the fight against the Climate Emergency
and to improve the lives of workers,
low income families
and refugees.
Grow Democracy
Replacing First Past the Post with a proportional voting system,
giving 16-year-olds the vote,
reforming government to better combat the Climate Emergency
and devolving power to councils.
The Green Quality of Life Guarantee
Reversing austerity and funding our public services,
tackling discrimination,
ending the war on drugs,
restoring our natural environment
and making wellbeing the focus of our economy.
The New Deal for Tax and Spend
Ending wasteful spending on government vanity projects
and reforming our tax system so that the wealthiest pay their fair share.
THE GREEN NEW DEAL
Unleashing a Green Economic and Social Revolution
In 2019, we face a collective challenge greater than we have faced for decades.
The climate we all rely on is breaking down.
The impacts are starting to affect us all - the weather is becoming more extreme, wildlife is declining, sea levels are rising.
Our century is only 19 years old, but already we have had 18 of the hottest years on record.
This summer saw the hottest day ever recorded in the UK, and the hottest month ever recorded across the world.
and the hottest month ever recorded across the world.
None of this is happening by accident.
It’s the consequence of an out-of¬control economic system that plunders the Earth’s natural resources to create wealth for the few,
casting the climate into chaos
and causing corrosive levels of inequality.
It’s time for a new start, so we have developed the Green New Deal.
This is a comprehensive ten-year plan ambitious enough to tackle climate and ecological breakdown at the scale and speed set out by science.
It will deliver a fast and fair transformation of our economy and society, renewing almost every aspect of life in the UK:
from the way we produce and consume energy,
to the way in which we grow the food we eat,
and how we work, travel, and heat our homes.
As the originators of the Green New Deal, we are the only party you can trust to act in time to tackle the Climate Emergency
and rapidly reduce social and economic inequality
- and to make these our top priorities.
The Green New Deal will get the UK on track to reducing climate emissions to net zero by 2030 by:
Meeting most of our energy needs through the domestic production of renewable energy.
Reducing our overall energy demand from buildings and homes.
Transforming UK industry, transport and land use.
There will be a combined investment of over £100 billion a year in the Green New Deal,
with an additional investment in Universal Basic Income.
Through this investment, we will provide new opportunities for everyone to work
and live more sustainably and more securely.
The Green New Deal will deliver solid financial foundations across society, through a range of measures including:
The creation of millions of new jobs in renewable energy, transport, land management and other sectors
transformed by the transition to a net zero carbon economy.
The provision of the training people need to access these new jobs.
The creation of at least 100,000 new socially rented homes a year through low carbon construction and retrofitting, converting and extending existing buildings.
Implementing the Green New Deal will need to become a fundamental objective of government, nationally and locally, but it will also involve every single one of us: workers and investors, creatives and care workers, scientists and seniors, administrators and accountants, farmers and factory workers, and beyond.
Investment will be targeted at those who need it most,
including communities with high unemployment,
those excluded from full participation in the economy
and those dependent on old, energy guzzling, polluting industries.
We will work alongside trade unions to ensure a just transition to a green future,
which will leave no one behind.
Business will share collective responsibility for delivering the Green New Deal too and will be incentivised to lead the way by innovating and manufacturing a better future.
Businesses that are currently obliged to maximise returns to shareholders will need to take account of other stakeholders - including the ecosystem - and the impact of their activities on the climate and on communities.
Public sector investment to kick-start the Green New Deal will act as a catalyst for private sector investment,
as private investors seek to share in the financial rewards of the transition to a net zero carbon future.
The Green New Deal will give power and resources for devolved governments, elected mayors and local governments to transform the communities they represent.
Local people will be directly involved, actively engaging all of us in the future of the places where we live and work.
It will also mean new forms of common ownership throughout vital parts of our infrastructure, such as waterways,
buses,
parks
and railways.
We will create a new public banking infrastructure to help deliver our ambitious programme and the Green New Deal will ensure the banks invest and lend at low, affordable interest rates
to support the economy’s environmental transformation.
It will also deliver financial mechanisms and the transfer of new technologies to help the Global South adapt to climate change in a just way.
The Green New Deal will make space for nature, with policies to restore habitats in urban, suburban and countryside settings.
It will transform our food and farming system,
to improve human and environmental health,
maximise the landscape’s ability to store carbon and prevent flooding,
promote innovations in land management and ownership,
and ease the transition by protecting jobs and creating new green employment opportunities.
The wider economy will be transformed too, re-purposed to protect and enhance the wellbeing of citizens, society and the natural world.
Economic growth will no longer be the way we measure progress.
Instead, we will prioritise measures of real prosperity and wellbeing, like improvement in health,
reduction of inequality
and the restoration and protection of the natural environment on which we all depend.
The Green New Deal is also about fairness in a warming world.
Building on the Green Party’s commitment to global justice the Green New Deal includes finance and technology to help the majority world adapt to climate change and support human well-being,
breaking the carbon chains of fossil fuel dependence
and ending the economic culture that has viewed people and places primarily for the extraction of profit.
In short, the Green New Deal will unleash an urgently needed green economic and social revolution.
There is no time to lose - we must start now.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING
Declaring a Climate Emergency
In October 2018 the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a landmark report warning of the urgent need for rapid and unprecedented change in all aspects of society to cut emissions in half in just 12 years.
Green councillors in Bristol were the first very politicians in the UK to act in response. Weeks after the publication of the UN Report, Green Cllr Carla Denyer brought an urgent motion to Bristol City Council declaring a Climate Emergency and committing the Council to comprehensive action to make the city carbon neutral by 2030.
The motion passed - and set off a cascade of others. Over 150 local authorities have now declared their own Climate Emergencies, along with the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales. Green councillors and activists are now working to help those declaring emergencies to follow through on their promise of action, delivering radical action to halt the Climate Emergency from the ground up.
Carla is the Green Party candidate for Bristol West in this General Election.
In spring 2019 the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, sponsored an Early Day Motion highlighting the Climate Emergency, and welcomed environmental activist Greta Thunberg to Parliament. A few weeks after Greta addressed MPs on the need for action, Parliament itself declared a Climate Emergency. Caroline continues to work to ensure that warm words from MPs on tackling the Climate Emergency are followed through with meaningful action.
From council chambers to Westminster, and in hundreds of places in between, Greens are leading the fight against climate chaos.
This election is your chance to stand with us and put the Climate Emergency at the top of the political agenda.
The Green New Deal for energy
The key to reducing our impact on the climate is to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible.
The UK has an abundance of the wind, tides, sun and rivers needed to be self-sufficient in energy - and it’s time for investment to unleash this potential and enable us leave oil and gas in the ground.
The Green New Deal will accelerate the transformation of our energy supply and create the energy infrastructure of the future - one powered by renewables - working in harmony with a reduction in energy demand.
With our renewable energy supply unlocked, we can hugely reduce fossil fuel use in our energy system,
and with it our reliance on nuclear power.
The Green New Deal for energy will revolutionise the way we produce and use energy.
It will: Enable communities to develop their own renewable energy projects, so that the benefits of locally generated energy can stay local.
Introduce new support and incentives to directly accelerate wind energy development,
paving the way for wind to provide around 70% of the UK’s electricity by 2030.
Introduce new support for solar, geothermal, tidal, hydro and other renewable energies to provide much of the remainder of the UK’s energy supply by 2030.
Transform the planning system so that it works to support a massive increase in wind power and other renewable generation.
Work with the Crown Estate, which owns much of the UK’s coastline, to open up more coastal waters for offshore wind and marine energy.
We will ensure that the long-term profits from these vital energy assets come to the UK government rather than energy firms.
Remove subsidies to the oil and gas industries.
Apply a Carbon Tax on all fossil fuel imports and domestic extraction, based on greenhouse gas emissions produced when fuel is burnt.
We will also apply a Carbon Tax on imported energy, based on its embedded emissions.
We will raise the Carbon Tax rate progressively over a decade, rendering coal, oil and gas financially unviable as cheaper renewable energies rise up to take their place.
Connect our electricity supply more closely to that of our neighbours in Europe, to provide a wider supply we can call on when needed
and to allow us to export electricity when we have a surplus.
Subsea connections to Norway and Iceland to connect to their hydro and geothermal power supplies will beparticularly encouraged.
Deploy demand side management and significantly expand and improve the efficiency of the electricity grid, doubling its capacity so that it can distribute the increased electricity the UK will need
as it transitions away from fossil fuels.
Expand our short-term capacity for energy storage so that electricity from peak periods of renewable electricity generation (e.g. days with very strong winds and many hours of sunshine) can be effectively stored
– utilising solutions such a domestic solar batteries,
storage as heat in hot water cylinders and thermal stores,
and smart control of vehicle battery charging.
Prohibit the construction of nuclear power stations.
We know that nuclear is a distraction from developing renewable energy,
carries an unacceptable risk for the communities living close to nuclear energy facilities,
creates unmanageable quantities of radioactive waste
and is inextricably linked with the production of world-destroying nuclear weapons.
Encourage greater energy efficiency across the economy,
including by providing energy efficiency training for businesses and public bodies,
emphasising the need for behavioural change - we all need to value energy as we value money.
Small businesses and co-ops will receive this training for free.
Ban fracking, and other unconventional forms of fossil fuel extraction, now and forever.
The Green New Deal for housing
Green New Deal investment in housing will simultaneously reduce climate emissions,
tackle fuel poverty
and provide genuinely affordable housing.
We will improve the insulation of every home in the UK, making sure they are all warm in winter.
This green homes revolution will make sure nobody is forced to choose between heating or eating.
Everyone should have a safe, affordable and warm place to call home.
We will end the housing crisis by creating enough affordable homes – including 100,0new council homes a year.
Our plans will also ensure that all new and renovated homes meet the highest possible standards and meet social needs.
Work on our homes, businesses and public buildings will create quality jobs in every part of the UK
as we shift to a net zero carbon economy.
Our Green New Deal for housing will: Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use
and create a total of 100,000 new homes for social rent (council homes) a year, built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard.
This standard will see these new homes use 90% less energy for space heating than the average home, significantly reducing household bills.
Allocate funding to local authorities for council home creation based on the needs of their area.
We expect much of the need to be concentrated in areas where Green New Deal jobs will be created.
We will incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, rather than building huge new estates,
and to build, renovate and convert to high quality designs that respect local architectural heritage.
The new council homes will offer secure, lifetime tenancies.
Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life, either having safe pedestrian access to local shops and schools,
or are within 1km of a local rail, tube or tram station,
or 500m of a high frequency bus service.
Make energy efficiency and elimination fuel poverty a national infrastructure priority.
Improve the insulation of every UK home that needs more insulation by 2030.
The material used for these insulation improvements will be sustainable.
Significantly reduce heating bills by improving 1 million existing homes and other buildings a year, so that they reach the highest standard of energy efficiency (over and above the Energy Performance Certificate A rating).
Homes lived in by people on low incomes will be the first to receive these major improvements and benefit from reduced heating bills.
This will be a deep retrofitting of 10 million homes by 2030,
on top of the insulation improvements every home that needs it will receive.
Roll out solar panels and other forms of renewable domestic energy generation, giving 1 million households a year the means to generate a proportion of the energy they use.
This will mean that 10 million homes are able to generate their own renewable energy by 2030.
Reduce the use of natural gas for heating homes through a programme, to replace polluting boilers with renewable heat from heat pumps, and solar thermal, geothermal, biomass and stored heat technologies.
Insulate non domestic buildings, addressing the large amounts of energy lost from offices and public buildings.
Deploy heat networks to transport heat from the source of renewable heat to individual buildings in a district or neighbourhood.
Transform the planning system and building regulations, so that all new buildings built by private developers are built to the Passivhaus standard (or to a standard that delivers energy efficiency at an equivalent or better level).
We will enable self¬build development that meets the same standards.
Improve building regulations so that all renovations to roofs, external walls, windows and doors improve the energy performance of that part of the building to the equivalent of (or better than) an Energy Performance Certificate A rating.
We will reinstate the requirement for local council building control inspectors to carry out inspections themselves of new build properties and renovations to ensure this work is carried out to the required standards.
Ensure that all 8 million rented homes are A rated for energy efficiency, or as close to this as possible, by implementing a Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard escalator to raise the minimum level allowed from the current E rating to A rating by 2030.
Update the fire safety regulations relating to the use of all types of insulation in buildings.
Change the planning system to incentivise renovation, extension and improvement of existing buildings, rather than relying on new build,
to reduce the use of steel, concrete, cladding and finishes, which produce massive amounts of carbon in their manufacture.
Similarly we will incentivise the use of sustainable materials.
These reforms will integrate closely with the proposals set out in the ‘Delivering secure incomes and homes’ section on page 49.
The Green New Deal for transport
Our transport system is built on fossil fuels.
As well as destabilising our climate, this reliance traps us into stressful, unhealthy and expensive forms of travel.
Car dependency contributes to congestion, road danger and air pollution whilst reducing physical activity.
The Green New Deal will revolutionise our transport system by ending dependence on carbon,
and investing instead in alternatives that work for better for the climate and for people.
This means more reliable and affordable trains, electric buses and trams,
and better options for cycling and walking.
From new trains and targeted fare reductions, to rapidly expanding bike hire schemes, we think it’s time to transform the way the UK moves.
Our Green New Deal for transport will invest in public transport, walking and cycling so wherever people live they are not forced to use a car, by:
Spending £2.5 billion a year on new cycleways and footpaths,
built using sustainable materials, such as woodchips and sawdust.
Making travelling by public transport cheaper than travelling by car, by reducing the cost of travelling by train and bus.
Coach travel will also be encouraged, with new routes for electric coaches provided across the country.
Creating a new golden age of train by opening new rail connections that remove bottlenecks,
increase rail freight capacity,
improve journey times and frequencies,
enhance capacity in the South West, Midlands and North,
and connect currently unconnected urban areas.
We would also look, where possible, to re-open closed stations.
These rail improvements will benefit from funding switched from the damaging HS2 scheme, which we will cancel (see ‘Ending wasteful spending’ section below for more details).
Electrifying all railway lines that connect cities, improving punctuality.
Creating a government-owned rolling stock company which would invest in a fleet of new electric trains to run on newly electrified lines.
Giving responsibility for running short-distance passenger rail franchises to councils, or groups of councils that come together to work on local transport.
This will give local communities a greater say in the running of the rail services they rely on.
We will bring all railways back into public ownership over ten years.
Ensuring good railway connections with all ports to enable more freight between ports and inland terminals to be carried on rail.
We will invest in additional freight routes resulting in the majority of long-distance freight switching from road to rail.
Giving all local authorities control over bus services (as London currently has) and supporting local authorities to restore lost bus routes and open new ones.
Local authorities serving urban areas will be encouraged to explore tramways as an additional public transport option.
Providing more bus priority measures on the roads to improve punctuality.
Funding local authorities to improve the appearance and facilities of bus stops, bus stations and train stations, to make them more user friendly and convenient for both passengers and transport staff.
This includes the provision of more public toilets, and ensuring full accessibility for disabled people.
Apply a Carbon Tax on all fossil fuels, as outlined above in the ‘Green New Deal for energy’ section, which will increase the cost of petrol, diesel and shipping fuel, as well as on aviation fuel for domestic flights.
Domestic flights will also lose their VAT exemption
and there will be an additional surcharge on domestic aviation fuel to account for the increased warming effect of emissions release at altitude.
We will lobby against the international rules that prevent action being taken to tax international aviation fuel.
Ban advertising for flights,
and introduce a Frequent Flyer Levy to reduce the impact of the 15% of people who take 70% of flights.
This Frequent Flyer Levy only applies to people who take more than one (return) flight a year, discouraging excessive flying.
Stop the building of new runways and all increased road capacity, saving thousands of acres of countryside every year
and protecting people from the harm of increased air pollution and traffic danger.
End the sale of new petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles by 2030.
Over the next ten years we will ease this transition by incentivising the replacement of diesel and petrol vans, lorries and coaches with electric vehicles.
Our priority is reducing overall mileage and the number of vehicles on our roads
– these further measures will ensure that the vehicles still on our roads in 2030 create the minimum of pollution.
Even electric vehicles pollute, so they represent an improvement on the current situation, not a solution in themselves.
Create a network of electric vehicle charging points across the country, by requiring their construction through the planning system
and encouraging the private sector to deliver them.
We will ensure that these charging points are located in public places, and do not take up pavement and cycling space.
We will require all existing petrol stations and motorway service stations to offer electric vehicle charging points by 2025.
Civilise our streets by making Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (in which rat-running is blocked) the norm for residential areas
and making 20 miles per hour the default speed limit.
These changes would reduce traffic, carbon emissions and danger to people walking and cycling.
They would restore our streets to all people.
They would also form part of a wider commitment to the core principle of the Vision Zero campaign - that there should be no fatalities or serious injuries as a result of road traffic collisions.
Make 40 miles per hour the default speed limit in non-residential areas except on major roads.
Ensure through the planning system that all new housing is served by high quality walking and cycling routes and much improved bus, tram and local rail services.
New residents must not be forced into car use.
Incentivise changes to travelling behaviour by promoting more stay at home working
(with working hours’ heating, electricity and Wi-Fi costs reimbursed by employers for low income workers working from home),
more business teleconferencing,
more local work station hubs
and more car club schemes.
We will also encourage more domestic holiday travel, through removing VAT from UK hotel and holiday home stays and attractions.
The Green New Deal for industry
Green New Deal investment will rebalance industry, away from the carbon past and towards the renewable future.
New technologies, along with huge expansions in renewable energy, will create millions of new, good quality, well-paid, secure jobs in every corner of the country
- with training for these new jobs funded by the Green New Deal.
This unprecedented investment in training and skills will prioritise communities hit hard by economic changes over recent decades.
A circular economy will underpin this green industrial revolution, designing out waste and pollution,
keeping products and materials in use,
and regenerating natural systems.
Recycling and repairing will be made easier for all, reducing the need to buy new, expensive products on a regular basis.
Our Green New Deal for industry will: Bring back the UK as an internationally recognised manufacturing powerhouse
with proactive, wide-scale support for the UK-based manufacturing of renewable energy infrastructure.
Set new clean technology standards and invest in research and development to help industry to meet them
and create new job opportunities through doing so.
We will provide companies with grants to allow replacement of old high-emitting carbon equipment with newly developed low carbon equipment.
These incentives to replace equipment will avoid the long-term lock-in of high carbon technologies.
Help create a network of regional mutual banks to provide funding for start-up companies (particularly co-operatives, community interest companies and other non-profit businesses)
developing technologies which contribute to decarbonising our economy.
Apply a Carbon Tax as outlined above in the ‘Green New Deal for energy’ section.
This will raise the price of processes that use fossil fuels and thus of the products they produce.
This will incentivise industry to switch to low and zero carbon technology and equipment
developing technologies which contribute to decarbonising our economy.
as well as encouraging consumers to choose low carbon products.
Non-fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions from industrial installations will also be subject to the Carbon Tax.
Prepare for the rapid decommissioning of North Sea oil rigs
and the phasing out of the UK’s remaining coal plants and coal mines,
ensuing a just transition for workers affected.
Invest £2 billion a year in training and skills (including new apprenticeships),
to help people access the new, decent jobs created through the transition to a low carbon economy.
Give local authorities the power to direct the newly created training and skills programmes.
National government will provide the funding
and democratically elected local authorities will be given the power to decide how it should be spent,
to help residents’ access new jobs.
Encourage the renovation of non-domestic buildings, through making planning consent harder to achieve for new commercial property.
Reduce the emission of polluting fluorinated gases (used in fridges, air conditioners and aerosols) in all manufactured goods by implementing the Committee on Climate Change recommendations in this area.
Boost the repair and recondition sector with new apprenticeship schemes.
Develop the infrastructure necessary to enable large corporations and individuals to recycle close to 100% of the items they use.
Require manufacturers to offer ten- year warranties on white goods, to encourage repair and reuse.
We will create a comprehensive ‘right to repair’, to require manufacturers to keep goods operational years after purchase
and to ban the practice of producing goods with the intention that they will become obsolete in a few years’ time.
Require manufacturers to only produce the most energy efficient white goods, TVs, lighting and electric cookers.
Require manufacturers to only produce the most energy efficient, low emissions vehicles.
Encourage a shift from models of ownership to usership, such as with car-sharing platforms and neighbourhood libraries for tools and equipment.
Ban the production of single-use plastics for use in packaging
and invest in research and development into alternatives to plastic.
We will also extend the successful tax on plastic bags to cover plastic bottles, single-use plastics and microplastics,
and extend plastic bottle deposit schemes.
Develop and implement a reformed waste strategy where manufacturers and retailers are required to pay the full cost of recycling and disposing of the packaging they produce.
Start deployment of a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) system that can deal with CO2 emissions from manufacture of iron, steel and cement.
The Green New Deal for food, farming & forestry
The Green New Deal will transform our relationship with the land.
It will increase space for nature through the restoration of natural landscapes, habitats and species in urban, suburban and countryside environments.
We want to increase the opportunities for food growing,
for greening our landscape and improving our health.
Through reforestation, rewilding and regenerative farming, we will reduce carbon emissions and realise the land’s ability to absorb carbon.
The way we produce our food needs to support employment,
the ecosystem
and improve public health.
A ten-year transition to agroecological farming will include the transfer of subsidies to farming methods and food systems that create jobs
and restore ecosystem health, including the quality of our soils and rivers.
It will also advance food sovereignty, including by localising food systems and putting control over the resources to produce, distribute and access food in the hands of communities and workers across the food system.
We will also lay down a new natural inheritance to be passed down to future generations, through the creation of community owned and run forests.
Our Green New Deal for food, farming & forestry will: Work with farmers to refocus farm subsidies to help farmers transition to more sustainable, diverse and environmentally friendly forms of land use,
including organic farming, agroforestry and mixed farming, and away from intensive livestock farming.
Provide farmers with grants to allow replacement of old high-emitting carbon farming machinery with low carbon machinery (including vehicles powered by biofuels rather than fossil fuels).
Grants will also be available to enable further improvements to farm buildings and infrastructure, to help farmers in the transition to agroecological farming.
Encourage the expansion and replanting of majority of hedgerows lost in the last 50 years through new subsidies,
creating new environments for wildlife.
Legislate to give farmers greater security of tenure, so that they can invest in sustainable improvements to their land,
whilst ending the use of land as a tax shelter and encouraging new entrants into farming.
Create thousands of new jobs in rural areas,
through the shift away from intensive farming towards smaller-scale, more people- focussed food production and land management that respects nature.
We will invest in training and skills to help people develop and apply the skills needed in these new jobs.
Better connect rural communities through reliable broadband and mobile internet,
delivered through councils who understand local connection needs.
Establish a Land Commission to investigate the effects concentrated land ownership is having on food and farming systems, housing, local economies, cultures and livelihoods.
This Commission will be introduced alongside a new Land Value Tax (see ‘Reforming property taxes’ section below), which will help ensure that all land is taxed fairly.
Reduce pesticide and fungicide use by at least 50% by overall weight by 2022,
phase out all non-agricultural uses of pesticides,
and immediately ban the most harmful substances.
We will secure protection of rural residents and communities from exposure to pesticides sprayed on nearby crop fields
and prohibit the use of pesticides in the locality of homes, schools and children’s playgrounds.
We will strengthen the role of independent scientific advice and the application of the precautionary principle in the pesticide regulation and monitoring process - only pesticides that pass strict tests, and demonstrably don’t harm bees, butterflies and other wildlife, will be approved for use in the UK.
We will also reduce the amount of nitrogen fertiliser used on UK farms.
Plant 700 million new trees
and aim for 50% of all farms to be engaged in agroforestry by 2030.
We will encourage the planting of more trees in more towns and cities, including apple, nut and other crop trees than can produce food.
The new woodland, when fully grown, will store carbon,
 provide home-grown timber
and create new wildlife-rich environments.
We will support farmers to diversify their incomes through new forest management.
Encourage, through changes to the planning system, the ‘rewilding’ of spaces to provide new habitats for wildlife.
An ecological crisis is happening - we must tackle it by restoring, expanding and joining up the wild spaces nature needs to thrive.
Maintain a moratorium on production and import of genetically modified (GM) foods, including food from animals fed on GM feed.
Establish a Food and Agriculture Research Council to research sustainable and health-promoting methods of food production and distribution.
We will also support research into the reduction of methane emissions from livestock
and the conservation and development of high quality soils, as the foundation of all that we grow.
Encourage urban food growing, including new community farms and allotments, through the planning system,
as well as matching those with gardens and who want to grow food with those with the skills to undertake the work for communal benefit.
Similarly we will encourage the creation of new green spaces wherever they can take root - from pocket parks on vacant land, to living green roofs and walls.
We will also encourage urban gardeners to plan for wildlife - opting for grass and shrubs over paving in a garden can create vital new habitats for wildlife.
Incentivise changes in food consumption, by promoting the benefits of healthy diets, based on locally and sustainably produced food,
and ‘less but better’ meat and dairy consumption, including clear labelling to indicate carbon emissions,
high animal welfare
and intensive production methods.
Support the transition to plant- based diets by phasing in a tax on meat and dairy products over the next ten years,
to reduce the 5% of the UK’s carbon emissions that come from the methane produced by livestock.
The revenues from this part of the Carbon Tax will be recycled back into farming,
and will be spent on measures to help farmers transition to more sustainable farming methods.
Promote initiatives to reduce food waste, including education programmes
and changing the rules to allow food waste to be used for animal feed for pigs and chickens.
Legislate for a right to food, giving everyone access to healthy, nutritious, locally grown food,
including the creation of new providers to supply this food at an affordable price to schools.
We will also promote children’s access to healthy food and tackle childhood obesity, including by updating the School Food Standards to reflect the latest nutritional guidance and apply to all schools,
and renaming ‘Free School Meals’ the ‘School Meals Allowance’ to tackle stigma.
Deploy environmentally friendly flood management measures to protect communities from flooding.
These measures, which include tree planning and soil restoration in upland catchment areas to tackle excess water at source, are cheaper and more effective than the traditional approach of simply covering river banks in concrete
We will change the planning system to prevent building on floodplains, to further reduce the flooding risk communities face.
Launch a public information campaign to educate the public about the biodiversity loss and other Climate Emergency threats we face,
and encourage the behaviour change needed in response.
These reforms will integrate closely with the proposals set out in the ‘Restoring our nature and countryside’ section on page 57.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING
Fighting for Sheffield’s Trees
Sheffield City Council began a tree felling programme in 2012, as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal with a private company. Over the next six years more than 5,000 trees, most of them healthy, were felled in the city. Sheffield Green Party stood with residents horrified at the loss of the trees, protesting in the Council Chamber and the streets against the de-greening of the city. In 2017 Green Cllr Alison Teal was arrested with other residents trying to save trees earmarked for destruction.
The Labour council took Alison and several residents to the High Court and had an injunction imposed to prevent them from protecting trees. Later the Labour council accused Alison of breaching the injunction and took her to the High Court to face a committal hearing. However, the judge dismissed the case and the evidence the council had presented against her.
More Green councillors were elected in the 2018 and 2019 local elections in Sheffield. Finally in July 2019 Sheffield City Council gave into pressure from residents and Green councillors and agreed to save the city’s trees.
Alison is the Green Party candidate for Sheffield Central in this General Election.
The Green New Deal for incomes
It’s time to deliver a secure, basic income for all.
The Green New Deal will transform our social welfare system by phasing in a Universal Basic Income (UBI), an unconditional financial payment to everyone at a level above their subsistence needs.
Through UBI we plan, open the door to opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach,
and liberate people from job insecurity.
We think financial security is a key building block of a good society.
No one currently in receipt of benefits will be worse off under UBI - and many will be much better off.
Those excluded or overlooked by the current means-tested system will see the biggest benefits.
This includes low to medium income families with children, young people and students, and some pensioners.
Someone earning the minimum wage and working 37.5 hours a week would see their income increase by 10 to 15% through UBI.
UBI will also start to challenge how work is often valued as simply about earning money to drive consumption,
as part of our plans to encourage sensible, green economic decision making for the long term.
This universal enrichment will provide all of us with new options and opportunities, in both our work and personal lives.
Our Green New Deal for incomes will: Phase in the introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) sufficient to cover an adult’s basic needs.
UBI will be an unconditional payment, paid to all UK residents regardless of employment status.
Replace most income-related benefits with UBI (except for the additional benefits described below).
Replacing a large range of variously means-tested benefits with one unconditional payment will simplify and streamline the system.
Ensure nobody will be worse off.
The adult rate of UBI of £89 per week will result in around a 6% increase in disposable income over five years for someone in full¬time work and paid the average salary.
It is our firm intention to increase in particular adult rates at regular intervals during the first full parliamentary term.
Include additional payments above the basic adult rate for some groups of people:
Pensioners will receive a weekly payment totalling £178.
Disabled people will receive an additional supplement to their UBI, as will lone parents and lone pensioners.
People who were reliant on Housing Benefit before UBI was introduced will continue to receive it, so that they can cover their rent.
Families with an income of under £50,000 per year will receive an additional supplement of £70 per week for each of their first two children
and a further £50 per week for each additional child.
Families with an income of over £50,000 per year will receive smaller additional supplements per child,
with the amount decreasing further the more a family earns.
Draw directly on income from the Carbon Tax to help fund UBI,
thereby ensuring that the proceeds of the tax on carbon emissions help meet the cost of enabling people to make the transition to a carbon free future.
These reforms will integrate closely with the proposals set out in the ‘Delivering secure incomes and homes’ section on page 49.
The Green New Deal and the rest of our Manifesto
You can find out more environmental and financial detail about how we would deliver our Green New Deal in the appendix to this Manifesto.
The remainder of this Manifesto sets out four related programmes of reform that will help a Green New Deal to succeed - remaining in the EU,
growing democracy,
making improving quality of life a government priority
and reforming the tax system to make it capable of funding the green revolution.
This General Election is a chance to show the other parties the scale of support for not just talking about the Green New Deal concept, but implementing a real, meaningful version of it.
Every Green vote is a vote to keep the Climate Emergency on the political agenda.
Every Green vote is call to action on climate chaos.
Every Green vote will make the Green New Deal happen.
REMAIN AND TRANSFORM
Saying yes to Europe.
And its Potential to Deliver Climate and Social Justice.
Brexit and a People’s Vote
We are a proudly pro-European party and are unequivocally campaigning for Britain to Remain in the EU.
Nobody voted for less democracy during the 2016 referendum
and we continue to believe that more democracy is the way to break the current Brexit deadlock
and start to unite our country again.
Our Green MP, Caroline Lucas, was a co-founder of the campaign for a People’s Vote.
The Green MPs you elect will champion their constituent’s right to an immediate final say on the terms of any Brexit deal, through a People’s Vote,
with Remain as an option on the ballot paper.
The place that we’ve been brought to by the outcome of the Brexit referendum is difficult, dangerous and divisive.
Democracy and truth are under attack,
and the real agenda of those pulling the populist strings is widespread chaos in which discord will thrive.
It’s time to choose what kind of country we want to be and to rediscover the hopes and dreams that will unite us.
There can be no turning back the clock.
The referendum was a radical rejection of a status quo that is intolerable for huge numbers of people in this country.
The social contract is broken and the power game is rigged.
We recognise the reasons why many people voted for Brexit: hollowed out communities,
power centralised at Westminster,
local economies starved of investment,
run down public services
and jobs without dignity.
We will make staying and fighting for the Europe we want a pathway to change
- to a society that is genuinely fair, green and fulfilling.
Greens will play a leading role in mobilising a positive pro-European movement
that has young people at its heart.
We have demonstrated that we are willing to work across party boundaries to resist Brexit, and will continue to do so.
We will inspire a vote to remain with a vision of the way membership of the EU can improve all our lives.
And whatever happens, we will guarantee the full rights of EU citizens and their families living in the UK, including the right to automatic settled status
and ensure there is no rolling back of the rights and protections enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
A Green vote in this General Election is an opportunity to choose remaining in the EU and transforming the UK.
It’s an opportunity to choose a People’s Vote.
It’s an opportunity to choose Project Hope over Project Fear.
Transforming the European
Being part of the European Union offers us the best chance of facing down the big challenges of the future - from climate chaos to international terrorism.
We are fully committed to working collaboratively with our closest neighbours to resolve the common issues we face
and in the pursuit of peaceful and prosperous lives for all.
The Green Party believes in this vision of international bridges, not walls,
and is committed to realising it through building a truly democratic EU
that delivers social rights and opportunities for all its citizens.
As Greens we have campaigned hard to keep the UK in the EU
whilst also being strong voices for change and reform within the EU.
It’s time to transform the EU into a beacon of democracy,
as well as making it more accountable and transparent.
We want to build on the positive changes secured by Green MEPs in Europe so far,
to further rebalance power within the EU in favour of citizens and national self-determination,
and away from corporate dominance.
We believe this will lead to a renewed focus on the EU’s potential to deliver effective solutions to poverty,
inequality
and climate chaos
- and help secure a long-term, positive future for the UK in the EU.
Our plan to transform Europe will: Allow Members of the EU Parliament to initiate Europe-wide legislation, something they don’t currently have the power to do.
In time, we hope that the European Parliament will become the main source of new European legislation to improve the lives of citizens.
Allow groups of EU citizens to propose reforms to the EU treaties.
New rules will require every citizen initiative to receive a response, setting out how it will lead to concrete action being taken by the EU.
Increase the transparency of European institutions, including the European Central Bank, with steps such as live streaming all meetings, and publishing minutes and key papers like trade negotiation documents.
Citizens have the right to know how decisions are made and how their money is spent.
Open up the European Council by making positions taken by Member States public.
Introduce a binding lobbying register for all EU institutions and set up an independent body to supervise its operation,
as well as other rules on transparency and ethics.
Campaign for the operations of the EU to be centred in Brussels, ending the wasteful transfer of EU staff and operations between Brussels and Strasbourg.
Champion reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, so that it promotes more sustainable farming methods.
We will also press for a review of the Common Fisheries Policy in order to increase its sustainability.
Advocate for the EU to prioritise policy areas where cross-border co-operation can help deliver real change.
These include: Linking up national Green New Deals, to pool renewable energy resources and share insights and expertise.
Co-ordinating crackdowns on tax avoidance and evasion, so no one seeking to hide from tax rules can do so anywhere in the EU.
Harmonising minimum environmental standards.
As nature knows no borders, the EU can play a major role in ensuring that habitats split between different counties are all protected by the same rules.
Enforcing social rights and protections for citizens,
such as a guaranteed minimum income for all workers.
Reducing migration in the long term, by correcting imbalances caused by labour-market inequalities across Europe.
EU policies hold the key to this, including an EU-wide minimum income guarantee,
EU-wide minimum wages,
and fiscal transfers via the Euro.
Working for peace, security
and human rights.
The EU was developed by WWII veterans to support peace in Europe and we celebrate the success of this peace mission.
Enshrine Freedom of Movement as a core principle of the EU - enabling people to freely live, learn and love without borders.
Reform European refugee policy, centring it on principles of humanity and compassion.
We will campaign to re-establish a European sea-rescuing mission, to save all lives in danger in European waters.
Press for an urgent review on the safety of all migrants travelling to and across Europe.
Advocate for European legalisation to end factory farming
and to reduce transportation times for animals, including the halting of all live animal exports from the UK.
We will work to ban the killing of animals for sport across the EU.
Extend the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights to give women in all EU countries access to legal, safe and affordable abortion services.
Support the introduction of an EU-wide carbon tariff on countries that are not reducing their carbon emissions, to further encourage global action on the Climate Emergency.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING:
Decriminalising Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees
In June 2018 Green Members of the European Parliament proposed a motion calling on EU states to stop criminalising humanitarian assistance for desperate refugees. This came after cases when countries had detained and tried to prosecute European citizens working to save the lives of refugees at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean.
The motion was won by the Greens, with then Green MEP for London Jean Lambert saying:
‘I am delighted that the European Parliament has sent out a strong message calling on the European Commission and EU Member States to stop criminalising those who provide humanitarian assistance to people in desperate and life-threatening situations. We can, and must, do better. ’
GROWING DEMOCRACY
Unleashing a Democrativ Revolution
Brexit laid bare the extent to which our governance structures are derelict, but our democracy has been broken for a long time.
The First Past the Post voting system means that often more than half of all votes cast simply don’t count.
The House of Lords gives power to people who have never been elected
and our political representation doesn’t reflect the diversity and reality of the modern UK.
We are one of the most centralised countries in Europe, with disproportionate power held at Westminster, and far too little in our regions and local authorities.
These flaws allow those who traditionally hold power to keep hold of power, at the expense of the rest of us.
The Green Party will fix our democracy, so that it becomes an effective tool for redistributing power away from the privileged and towards the people.
We want an active democracy in which we can all believe and trust.
We think it’s time for every vote to always count
and for citizens’ assemblies to develop a written People’s Constitution
and explore how as a country we can ensure the fair redistribution of power.
The Green Party’s plans to unleash people power and grow democracy will :Replace the First Past the Post system for parliamentary elections with a fair and proportional voting system.
We are champions of the Good Systems Agreement, a cross-party commitment to democratic reform brokered by the Make Votes Matter campaign group.
Replace the First Past the Post system for local government with a fair and proportional voting system.
Voters will be asked to elect half the Council every two years to ensure that fast changing local concerns and priorities can be expressed at the ballot box on a regular basis.
Create a fully elected House of Lords.
Members will be elected for a maximum of ten years with half of the house being elected every 5 years.
Give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote and have a say on their future.
We will also allow people to stand for Parliament and all other elected offices from the age of 16, offering support to elected young people so that they can combine their duties with studying.
We are proud to march with the inspiring Youth Strike activists against climate chaos
and know the passion and wisdom young people can inject into our policies.
Introduce job-sharing, at all levels of government, to make politics more accessible, especially for disabled people and people with caring responsibilities.
We will expand the Access to Elected Office Fund to support disabled people to stand for election, and support women, non-binary people and those from minority ethnic backgrounds to stand.
Require all political parties to report the diversity of their candidates, so that progress in selecting more women and minorities to contest Westminster and local government seats can be monitored.
This was set out in Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 but has yet to be implemented.
Implement a fair system of state funding for political parties to eliminate dependence on large private donations, removing the undue influence large donations can give corporations and the super wealthy.
Remove the cap on fines that can be imposed by the Electoral Commission on political parties that have been found to have breached electoral law.
Strengthen the transparency rules on recording political lobbying
And make the work of Think Tanks more transparent too, by establishing a distinct legal entity for political foundations which conduct policy research and political education.
Protect the BBC,
reinstate free TV licences for over-75-year-olds
and tighten the rules on media ownership so no individual or company owns more than 20% of a media market.
To further challenge the control of our media by big tech and unaccountable billionaires, the Green Party will ensure that a suitable independent regulator is better able to safeguard a healthy plurality of media ownership, to undertake regular plurality reviews and to trigger remedies where necessary.
The recommendations of the 2012 Leveson Report will be implemented, to hold the UK press to high ethical standards.
Support, through new grants, the growth of a wider range of civic- minded local news publishers.
Local newspapers in the UK are an important part of our democracy and culture yet many are closing or struggling to survive.
Introduce a Digital Bill of Rights that establishes the UK as a leading voice on standards for the rule of law and democracy in digital spaces
and ensure independent regulation of social media providers.
This legislation will safeguard elections by responding to the challenges of foreign interference, social media and declining confidence in democracy.
End the sale of personal data, such as health or tax records, for commercial or other ends.
Revive the role of democratic trade unions.
Back a Citizens Convention and citizens assemblies to examine further ways to strengthen democracy,
including developing a written People’s Constitution and Bill of Rights, and ensure the proposals come before Parliament.
This will enshrine genuine democracy at the core of our political system, making sure that ultimate power will always rest with the people.
Give fuller voice to regional and national identities,
holding a referendum on a Cornish Assembly
and increasing the powers of the current National Assembly for Wales.
Tackle our toxic political culture, by exploring measures such as new codes of conduct to embed compassion and co-operation in all aspects of public life.
Introduce a public interest defence for breaching the Official Secrets Act,
alongside better protection and support for whistle-blowers in the public and private sectors.
Protect the right to peacefully protest
and prevent disproportionate police responses to protest.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING
More Local Democracy
In 2018 Green councillors successfully campaigned for Worcester City Council to move from a Cabinet system, where power was concentrated in the hands of one party, to a Committee system requiring all councillors to work together. Across the country Green councillors campaign to open up decision making and increase community involvement in it.
Shaking up central government
A safer, fairer future for all will only be delivered with effective central government.
Yet right now we have an out of control executive attacking the independence of the courts, undermining the rule of law and ignoring the great challenges of our time.
We have a Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a feudal barony from the 14th century, but no Cabinet Minister responsible for combatting the Climate Emergency that threatens the future of every UK citizen.
It’s time to make government fit for purpose today and fit to face the future.
We will also transform how Parliament works, to improve accountability
at the same time as encouraging greater co-operation and long-term decision making.
We will restore central government to its democratic purpose and core function of making the lives of UK citizens better.
The Green Party’s plan to ensure central government serves a modern UK will: Create a new government department to oversee the implementation of the Green New Deal, led by a Carbon Chancellor, based at number 11 Downing Street to put the just transition to a net zero economy right at the heart of government.
The Carbon Chancellor will set a yearly Carbon Budget, which will drive the decarbonisation of the economy.
We will create a fossil fuel free politics, with vested interests who depend on continued fossil fuel use banished from positions of influence
Move away from consumption and Gross Domestic Product as key measures of economic success and towards indicators that measure human and ecological wellbeing, such as work/life balance and quality of life.
Introduce a Future Generations Act for England, modelled on the current Act for Wales, building the needs of future generations into every government decision.
We will also appoint a Minister for Future Generations to represent young people at the heart of government.
Empower the Youth Select Committee, currently a learning programme, to scrutinise and hold the government to account like any other Select Committee.
Scrap the Home Office, and end its decades-long creation of a hostile environment for Black Minority Ethnic (BME) and other minority communities.
We will instead create a Ministry for Sanctuary
and a Ministry of the Interior.
The Ministry for Sanctuary will be responsible for enforcing migration rules with compassion, and due regard for human rights,
as well as providing recompense for those affected by the Windrush scandal.
One of the Ministry of Sanctuary’s first acts will be to abolish income requirements for people wishing to come to the UK to join a loved one - no families should be separated because of how much someone earns.
The Ministry of the Interior will oversee domestic security with full regard to human rights
and the needs of diverse communities.
Replace the Ministry of Defence with a Ministry for Security and Peace, making the promotion of peace a key foreign policy objective
and linking the role of the defence services more closely to the world we now live in -
a central part of their responsibilities will become defending environments around the world from the effects of climate chaos
and dealing with the humanitarian and environmental impacts of climate-related disasters.
Instruct all government departments to work to meet, and when possible exceed, the UK’s commitments under the Paris Agreement of 2015, which committed UN nations to combat climate chaos.
The Foreign Office will be tasked with promoting the Agreement and other international agreements to tackle climate change around the world,
and encouraging nations to uphold them.
Create a legal responsibility for government to give individuals consular support, rather than it being discretionary.
Transform how Parliament works with electronic voting,
measures to protect against filibustering,
steps to promote cross-party and co¬operative working,
and a systematic overhaul of parliamentary language to make it self-explanatory.
Develop and implement a robust plan for ending bullying and sexual harassment in Parliament.
Close down the government’s arms sales activities, including the Department for International Trade’s Defence and Security Organisation (DSO),
and end all subsidies and support for the UK arms industry’s exporting of weapons and systems that fuel conflicts, violence and suffering across the world.
Stop the gagging of our democracy through the creation of better protections and support for whistleblowers in the public and private sector including a public interest defence for breaching the Official Secrets Act.
These policies will integrate closely with those set out in the ‘Green New Deal’ chapter of this Manifesto, ensuring that central government is reshaped around the overwhelming need for green social and economic revolution.
Empowering local government
Across the country, hardworking councillors and council workers strive to improve the lives of people and communities.
They do this at a time of staggering and unprecedented cuts to local government budgets.
Over £50 billion has been slashed from council budgets over the past decade because of central government decisions.
Councils have been forced to close libraries, sell off public land, abandon meals on wheels for older people, close children’s centres, stop repairing roads or no longer collect litter.
We will choose to devolve real power from central to local government, giving councils the tools needed to deliver public services.
Properly resourced and led councils are in the unique position of being able to make real and effective change, bring people together and lead the services people need where they live.
We will reverse spending cuts and restore local government budgets so local councils can afford to serve their communities.
It’s time to transform local government.
In this age of climate chaos, action to secure the future of people and the places they love, led by democratically elected local representatives, is needed more than ever.
We want local councils to lead the delivery of the Green New Deal and the transition to a resilient, zero carbon economy.
We believe this is how to make life better today and create a future where local people and businesses can thrive.
The Green Party’s plan to empower local government will: Increase central government funding to councils by £10 billion a year.
This funding, combined with the local council revenue raising, will enable local government to improve the frontline services they provide and which local people need and want.
We will support councils to also use this funding to nurture arts and culture in their areas, keeping local museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
Ensure councils can plan with financial certainty by committing to annual, rolling multi-year financial settlements.
Give councils access to an additional £3 billion a year Climate Adaption Fund.
Bids from councils facing the greatest threat from climate chaos,
and councils with the high levels of poverty, will be prioritised as money is distributed from the Fund.
Give all councils power over bus services in their area,
and over franchises for local train services.
Fund councils to deliver new training and skills for residents, to equip them for jobs created by the Green New Deal.
Give councils the power to set their own housing targets,
and to strike the right balance between local housing need and the need to preserve the local environment.
Expand the powers of councils to prevent land banking through mechanisms including charging developers who sit on land where permission has been granted
or using compulsory purchase powers to accelerate appropriate development where development is stalled or slow.
Give councils the ability to set planning fees locally.
Tax payers are subsidising developers for the costs of their planning applications to the tune of £200 million a year - councils need the power to meet these planning costs not from central funds, but from charging developers realistic fees for the planning services councils provide for them.
Fund councils to deliver additional social housing in their area (over 100,0new homes a year nationally) through sustainable construction, renovation and conversion,
and to improve and insulate existing homes (over 1 million homes a year).
We will also support councils to set more affordable rent rates for social housing tenants in their area by lifting the local housing allowance and reconnecting it to average area rents.
Support councils to better provide housing for disabled people,
supporting every council to draw up their own disability housing plans,
and work to significantly increase the numbers of homes built to mobility standards over the next five years.
Give councils clearer guidance and better training on helping homeless people, including support for the Housing First approach,
a widening of the grounds on which councils can offer help to people without a home,
and the provision of social services once a person is housed.
The extra costs of this can be met from the £10 billion yearly uplift to council funding.
We will refocus council services in this area on homelessness prevention rather than crisis management, through expanding and combining multiple funding pots into a single grant distributed to councils.
We would also repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824, which criminalises street homelessness and can hinder attempts to help those without a home.
Provide an additional £4.5 billion a year to fund councils to provide free social care to people over 65 who need support in their own homes.
This model has been in place in Scotland since 2001 and has helped millions of people be cared for in their own homes - it’s time to extend this right to free home care to pensioners in England (care in Wales is devolved to the National Assembly for Wales).
We will also explore how this free social care at home could be extended to everyone who needs it, regardless of age.
Support councils to extend staying put arrangements, to enable fostered young people to stay with foster parents until they are 21.
Task the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government with reviewing on a rolling basis which powers can be further devolved from central government to local government.
Replace the First Past the Post system for local government with a fair and proportional voting system.
Voters will be asked to elect half the Council every two years to ensure that fast changing local concerns and priorities can be expressed at the ballot box on a regular basis.
Legislate to require councils to switch from a Cabinet system, which concentrates power into the hands of a few councillors, to a Committee system - where all elected councillors make decisions together for the community they represent.
Support councils to further democratise their own processes, including introducing more participatory democracy, allowing residents to form panels and assemblies to directly input into council decision making.
Introduce participatory budgeting, to enable local citizens to decide how to allocate part of the council budget, through identifying, discussing and prioritising public spending projects, and having real power to decide how money is spent.
Support councils to promote waste prevention innovations and to increase recycling.
Give councils new powers and resources to deliver environmental improvements and increase biodiversity,
as well as tackling flooding and coastal erosion locally.
Require councils (and other public bodies) to divest their pension funds away from fossil-fuel-related investments.
We will encourage all private pension funds to do the same.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING:
Action on Affordable Housing
In 2018 Green councillors on Brighton & Hove Council pushed the controlling Labour group to reduce rents on local council houses, by calculating these rents using local wages - not local house prices.
The Green campaign succeeded and in September 2018 council houses were for the first time offered to local families at lower rents based on local wages, meaning that a family with an annual income of £20,000 can now afford to live in a new council house in Brighton.
In the 2019 local elections the Greens won the popular vote in Brighton, winning 19 councillors - just short of Labour’s total of 20. The Green and Labour groups are now working together on the Council on a plan to build 800 new council homes in the city.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING:
A New Year Bus Service for Residents
Each and every year, Green Party activists and councillors in Huddersfield operate and a run a free New Year’s Day bus service for residents. Green Cllr Andrew Cooper helped start the voluntary service in 1992, as residents without cars had to rely on expensive taxi journeys to visit relatives at New Year, due to limited local bus services. Twenty seven years on, Cllr Cooper still drives the bus every year!
Global justice and international aid
As one of the world’s richest countries and being amongst the first to industrialise, the UK has caused more historical climate change emissions than most.
We have a moral imperative to right the wrongs of the past, including using our influence and wealth to help alleviate suffering and redress global power imbalances.
We want the UK to be a leading force for good in the world,
to be the country that brokers peace
and tries to resolve the refugee crisis.
Our international policy will focus on co-operation in order to tackle climate chaos,
to secure fairer, more sustainable societies around the world
and encourage fair and peaceful resolutions to conflict.
We will make supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals a priority.
We will build bridges not walls and we will empower people in the Global South to control their futures.
The Green Party’s plan for global justice will: Phase in an increase in spending on foreign aid from 0.7% to 1% of our GNI, making us the third highest donor (by Gross National Income) in the world by 2021.
Make the Climate Emergency
and tackling poverty priorities for our international aid budget.
We will phase out payments to richer nations and increase support for the poorest,
to help countries deal with the causes and impacts of the Climate Emergency.
Support will be given on the basis of need, not UK defence and trade considerations.
Ensure that all UK aid is aimed at the poorest, and is locally designed, appropriate and subject to local scrutiny.
Where feasible, aid will be given as grants, not loans.
Making finance and technology available to support developing nations to develop local Green New Deals and transform their economies,
equipping them to tackle the causes and impacts of the Climate Emergency.
Increase the proportion of aid paid to individuals through electronic cash transfers, providing regular monthly payments to women in the developing world.
This builds on evidence showing that greater control over household resources by women can result in spending that benefits children and builds economic resilience.
Write off debts owed to the UK by the poorest countries.
Other aid-receiving countries in debt to the UK will have their debt service payments limited to 10% of export earnings per year.
Press other aid-giving nations and international bodies to embed the above principles in their aid programmes, and to abolish ‘tied aid’ (whereby a nation is only given aid in return for buying goods and services from the donor).
Require UK corporations to abide by the environmental, labour and social laws of their own country and of the country in which they are operating - whichever are the more stringent - and advocate for other corporations to do the same.
Ensure just supply chains for the materials necessary for the Green New Deal.
Introduce a new law on Universal Jurisdiction, to make it easier to prosecute those committing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, wherever these crimes take place.
Seek to make the combatting of climate and ecological breakdown
and the spreading of human rights and justice core purposes of the United Nations.
Support the introduction of an EU-wide carbon tariff on countries which are not reducing their carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement of 2015, to further encourage global action on the Climate Emergency.
Seek resolution in line with international law and the principles of self-determination to long running conflicts, illegal occupations and human rights violations.
Guarantee the rights of indigenous and native people by securing their autonomy, land rights and human rights,
providing aid to protect cultures
and support sustainable initiatives
and ensuring that development schemes where the UK government has influence only take place with the permission, and under the active control of, indigenous people.
Champion a treaty which establishes the Arctic, Antarctic and Amazon as World Nature Reserves.
In these new reserves, commercial exploitation of natural resources would be banned
and the rights of indigenous populations protected.
Create a new international ‘ecocide’ law to prosecute crime against the natural environment.
Commit that any future trade deals will maintain and enhance environmental and food standards
and workers’ rights,
minimise the environmental footprint of trade,
make trade terms explicitly subject to environmental and human rights commitments,
and not undermine the implementation of existing or new national and international commitments (including over protections for vital global ecosystems and habitats such as the Amazon,
and for indigenous people).
End the current practice of including investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in trade and investment agreements.
These mechanisms can give too much power to investors, at the expense of democracy, and need to be scrapped.
Ensure trade democracy by assessing the development impact of all trade and investment agreements and guaranteeing Parliament a vote on them.
These policies will integrate closely with those set out in the ‘Green New Deal’ chapter of this Manifesto, ensuring that international aid and UK foreign policy help other countries to reduce their carbon emissions and build sustainable economies.
THE GREEN QUALITY OF LIFE GUARANTEE
Unleashing a Revolution in Public Services and the Public Realm
We pay for public services, we use them, we own them.
It’s time they properly belonged to all of us.
From our hospitals to our post offices, energy grid, water, railways and schools, the Green Party will campaign for public services that are run by the people for the people.
These services will be properly resourced to meet your needs, now and in the future, not struggling to keep pace with demand.
Since 2010 the NHS, facing unprecedented rising demand, has been given barely half the resources it needs to keep up.
Schools now have less to spend per pupil than they did in 2010.
The government’s role is to make you feel safer and more secure, but it’s doing the opposite.
Too many people fear not being able to access the basic services they need, and this can sometimes turn into resentment against scapegoats eagerly offered up by hard right politicians, such as migrants and people on benefits.
The Green Party offers something different: a guarantee that our public services will grow and improve.
And we will be honest enough to tell you that this means transforming the tax system so we can afford to invest in quality of life for all.
We will ensure those working in our public services have the resources to deliver services they can be proud of.
We will invest in public services built on the principle of kindness.
We will support new technologies and approaches that will let us live longer, healthier lives.
We will revolutionise the relationship between citizens and the public realm.
From access to the countryside to spending more time with loved ones, our quality of life guarantee is all about unleashing the potential for everyone to live happier, more secure lives - and making this the central purpose of government.
A guarantee of a good quality of life is at the very heart of what the Green New Deal will achieve.
Delivering secure incomes and secure homes
Social justice is at the heart of our plans to transform the UK into a more equal country, where everyone can build a decent, secure life.
The Green New Deal set out in the first part of this Manifesto will deliver a Universal Basic Income (UBI), a weekly payment for everyone, replacing the current benefits system and lifting everyone up.
The Green UBI will also: Provide all pensioners with a decent income, recognising their contribution to society over their lifetimes.
All pensioners will receive £178 a week (£10 higher than the current highest possible state pension payment).
This rate will be increased in line with inflation over the years to come.
Be phased in, with a view to all adults being in receipt of their full rate of UBI by 2025.
with the first tranche of people to receive it being women born in the 1950s.
These women, represented by the campaign Group WASPI (Women against State Pension Inequality) have been penalised by unnecessarily abrupt changes to the pension age brought in by the Coalition Government and it is right that are first to feel the benefits of UBI.
We will also look at additional ways of addressing this injustice, which has affected hundreds of thousands of women.
We hope to have fully phased UBI for every UK resident by 2025.
Ensure nobody who takes times off work in order to care for loved ones, or has an irregular employment record, unjustly struggles to access the state pension.
Everyone will receive UBI, at either the adult (£89 per week) or pension (£178 per week) rate.
Provide a supplement to UBI for people with disabilities.
This will help restore the benefits withdrawn from disabled people over the past ten years, providing more financial security.
Continue to pay Housing Benefit to those who received it before UBI was introduced, so that they can cover their rent.
Continue to pay a full Carers Allowance to carers, on top of the UBI payment.
This means that a full-time carer would continue to receive their £3,200 Carers Allowance, plus £4,630 in UBI payments a year.
Replace Universal Credit and the cruel benefit sanctions regime, which have left hundreds of thousands of people facing destitution.
We will also transform the support provided to citizens by: Increasing the Living Wage to £12
and extending it to workers aged between 16 and 21.
Legislating to ensure the maximum wage paid to any member of staff in an organisation should not exceed ten times that paid (pro rata) to the lowest paid worker in the same organisation.
We will also ban any bonuses exceeding the annual wage of the lowest paid worker in the organisation granting the bonus.
Reviewing current employment law to close loopholes that allow employers in the gig economy (where workers are offered freelance work or short-term contracts only) to deny gig workers key rights.
We will ensure that gig economy workers always receive at least the current minimum wage,
and have job security, sick leave, holiday pay and pension provision.
Closing the gender pay gap.
We will require all large and medium size companies to carry out equal pay audits and redress any inequality uncovered both in terms of equal pay for equal work,
and recruitment and retention practices which create a glass ceiling which needs to be shattered.
We will change the law so it’s easier to take action against employers in unequal pay cases.
Installing a 40% quota for women on major company boards.
We recognise the many barriers faced by women and gender non-conforming people in male- dominated spaces,
and know that tackling the ‘boys’ club’ atmosphere in workspaces is crucial to tackling inequality in the workplace.
Provide 35 hours a week of free childcare for all, from the age of nine months.
This free childcare will include in-work facilities, such as on-site creches
and flexible working opportunities (e.g. job¬shares) to help parents who choose to return to work.
Requiring all employers, no matter their size, to legally recognise any union chosen by their workforce to represent them.
Transform the lives of renters, by increasing housing security and bringing rent levels down, especially in places where they currently far outstrip incomes.
We will introduce rent controls on private tenancies, which reflect average local income rates and the cost of maintenance.
We will also end no-fault evictions
and make it easier to set up community-led housing initiatives and for private renters in Houses of Multiple Occupancy to buy and run their home as a housing co-op.
Give communities the first chance to buy local land that comes up for sale by extending Scotland’s Community Right to Buy policy to England and Wales.
Communities will then be able to directly deliver new affordable homes on purchased land, supported by the Community Housing Fund (which the Government plans to end in 2020, but we will maintain for at least another three years).
Creating an environment where everyone feels fulfilled in worthwhile employment
and pursuing policy which will lead to a shorter working week and better work life balance,
freeing up people to spend more time with their loved ones and doing things they love - with no loss of pay.
We will support employers to explore four day working weeks in their workplace, driving up productivity
as well as boosting the wellbeing of staff.
Modernising and reforming copyright and intellectual property rights legislation to ensure a better balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of those working in the creative economy to be protected from commercial exploitation.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING
In February 2019 the Green Group of councillors on Richmond Council proposed a motion to extend payment of the London Living Wage to all council staff, including contractors. The Green councillors built support for the motion and got it through council, securing a pay rise for hundreds of people and allowing vital workers to continue to afford to live in the borough in which they work.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING
Green Party Co-Leader Sian Berry was elected to the London Assembly in 2016. During that time she has campaigned relentlessly for the introduction of rent controls to ease the pressure on the city’s renters, repeatedly demanding at Mayoral Question Time that action be taken. The pressure has paid off – in July 2019 London Mayor Sadiq Khan formally asked the government for powers to introduce London rent controls.
Restoring the NHS
The NHS has an amazing history.
We want it to have an even brighter future.
We will build on the founding principles of the Health Service - universal, publicly provided healthcare free at the point of delivery - to widen and enhance the services provided.
This will include fit-for-purpose mental and reproductive health services available to all.
The increased funding that will enable this will be complemented by a devolution of healthcare, with communities given more control over health services .
and individuals supported to take steps to improve their own health.
Our plan to restore the NHS will: Increase funding for the NHS by at least £6 billion per year each year, until 2030 (a 4.5% increase on the 2018/2019 NHS Budget),
and a further £1 billion a year in nursing higher education, allowing for nursing bursaries to be reinstated.
This will constitute a programme of sustained investment, bringing spending of health services in the UK up to northern European averages.
Roll back privatisation of the NHS, through repealing the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and abolishing the internal market.
This reduce private sector involvement in the NHS, which has proved to be a costly and dangerous distraction from universal healthcare provision.
Replace private sector involvement in the NHS with community leadership.
We will allow local authorities to lead a ‘bottom up’ process, and services will be planned and provided without contracts through Health Boards, which could cover more than one local authority area if there were local support.
Provide stronger powers to Health and Wellbeing boards to represent the interest of the public in the NHS.
Reinstate the Health Secretary’s duty to provide services throughout England and create a duty to ensure there are enough health and care staff - including nursing - to meet the needs of the population.
Focus funding to enable the construction of new community health centres, bringing health services closer to people’s homes.
These health centres will pioneer preventative healthcare, helping people live healthier lifestyles so that they are less likely to fall ill.
Focus funding to enable major improvements to mental health care to truly put it on an equal footing with physical health care,
and ensure that everyone who needs it can access evidence-based mental health therapies within 28 days.
We will ensure that tailored and specific provision is readily available for the particular needs of Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) and Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, children and adolescents, and older people.
Focus funding to provide better reproductive health services.
We will ensure that all forms of birth control are free, to give women a real choice of the birth control that works best for them.
We will also ensure that PrEP - a daily pill which prevents HIV infection - is provided by NHS England without delay.
Unlocking education
Education should be about nurturing potential and inspiring a love of learning.
Yet all too often it can feel like a production line, manufacturing children-shaped pieces to fit gaps in the workplace.
The freedom to let children play, flourish and grow has been replaced with endless testing and measuring.
It demoralises teachers and adds yet more pressure on young people.
And we have turned further and higher education into a commodity, when it should be a basic right.
It’s time to build an education system on the principles that learning must be lifelong, liberating and accessible to all.
Education can and should unlock creativity and enable self-expression across all ages.
Our plan to unlock education will: Relieve the financial squeeze on schools after years of education cuts, by increasing funding by at least £4 billion per year.
Focus funding to reduce class sizes down to under 20 in the long term, to help teachers focus on individual pupil needs and create a pleasant learning environment.
Free schools from centrally imposed testing regimes, OFSTED inspections, rigid national curriculum and league tables.
Teachers will be trusted to plan their lessons and assess progress according the needs of their pupils, not to meet one-size-fits-all measurements that currently cause huge stress to pupils and teachers alike.
Formal education will start at 6 years, to allow young children to develop at their own pace.
Those under 6 will remain in early years education, with a focus on play-based learning and access to nature.
Sweden has hugely benefited from using a similar system.
Strengthen the link between schools and the communities they serve, by ending academisation and bringing all schools back into the control of democratically elected local authorities, not private companies,
and empowering local authorities with the responsibility and accountability for education within their communities.
Replace OFSTED with a collaborative system of assessing and supporting schools locally, to improve standards and be accountable to the communities in which they serve.
Create a fully inclusive education system, where children with special education needs are able to access their local school and are fully supported in that school.
This means ensuring accessible buildings, an inclusive curriculum and the provision of specially trained teachers across the school system.
Specialist schools will be retained, for when children and parents would prefer that option.
Introduce an English Climate Emergency Education Act to support schools to teach young people about the urgency, severity and scientific basis of the climate and environmental crises,
and to ensure youth voices are heard on climate issues.
We will also enable more outdoor lessons, where children will learn more about nature, animals and the environment, and a new Nature GCSE.
Restore arts and music education in all state schools, to enable children to develop their creative potential.
Make sure all children get at least a half-day equivalent of sports in school
and encourage both the use of schools sports facilities by the community and participation in regional and national sporting events by our young people.
Remove charitable status from private schools and charge full VAT on fees.
The private school sector will be subject to regular independent audits, to ensure private schools improve accessibility and pay their taxes in full.
Ensure that all children receive the basic elements of a good childhood: a decent place to live, safety and security in their community, time and space to play, as well as opportunities to learn and develop inside and outside of school.
Revive the further education sector to provide a wider choice of academic and vocational learning.
We will also raise the funding rate for 16-17-year-olds, followed by an annual rise in line with inflation,
at the same time as introducing a capital expansion fund for sixth form providers.
Fully fund every higher education student
and scrap undergraduate tuition fees.
University will be fully accessible, with courses being offered as learning experiences, not as pre-work training.
Education will be for education’s sake.
Write off existing debt for former students who studied under the £9k tuition fee regime.
Increase funding for adult education across England and Wales, creating a range of new adult education programmes for learners to access.
These programmes will be integrated with Green New Deal training projects.
Restoring our nature and countryside
Our countryside is a precious resource – a home for people and wildlife, a source of employment, a place of enjoyment for those who visit its wealth of landscapes.
It is vital for our common health, prosperity and wellbeing.
Yet this national treasury is under threat.
The amount of farmland, woodland and forest destroyed by development has grown by nearly 60% in recent years,
whilst over 10,000 miles of footpaths have been blocked, built over or allowed to fall out of use.
Nature is under attack from industrial farming, over fishing, hunting and shooting - with devastating impacts for wildlife species and their habitats, from farmland to the hills to the coast.
It’s time for an approach that recovers, rebuilds, restores, regenerates and reinstates nature and the health of our countryside.
We have a plan to transform and reconnect with the countryside, which will: Create a new ‘ecocide’ law to prevent crimes against the natural environment.
Amend the National Planning Policy Framework so it no longer imposes centrally set development targets on local councils.
We will allow councils to develop their own planning policies, based on genuine local housing need
and their requirement to contribute to the creation of at least 100,000 new council homes a year nationally.
Councils will be required to deliver these new homes in a way that preserves local ecology and creates6 new green spaces.
Strengthen Green Belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest protections,
with development in these areas only being permitted in exceptional circumstances.
Ban mineral extraction, road building and military training from all National Parks.
We will give local communities a say in National Park governance, though creating new democratically elected positions on National Park boards.
Open up car-free access to the National Parks with new cycling, walking and bus links.
Encourage applications from communities for new Green Belt, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Park designations.
Create a new Environmental Protection Commission (EPC).
This will be one integrated body to enforce environmental protections, from clean air to litter-free roads.
The EPC will enforce the ecocide law,
a new Clean Air Act, which will set new air quality standards for the UK,
and a new Sustainable Economy Act, including targets for new soil quality and biodiversity standards.
Develop a soil health monitoring programme for England, to match those in Scotland and Wales, to assess and understand changes in the health of soil over time.
Increase funding for the Environment Agency and Natural England, to support the vital work they do to protect our environment.
Immediately ban the most harmful pesticides (including glyphosate)
and introduce new rigorous tests for pesticides.
Only pesticides that pass this test, and demonstrably don’t harm bees, butterflies and other wildlife, will be approved for use in UK.
Invest in peatland restoration and end both the burning of peatlands and use of peat in compost in horticulture.
We will advocate an emergency international agreement to conserve and enhance carbon sinks and reservoirs including forests, peat fields and coastal and estuarine areas.
Protect our precious water supplies by enforcing stricter penalties for polluters
and for water companies found to be extracting too much water.
We will require water companies to invest in water conservation and in capturing water surpluses, to enable transportation across the country.
Restore access to the countryside by re-opening lost public rights of way and creating new ones.
We will grant to people in England and Wales the same right to roam over all landscapes as people in Scotland currently enjoy.
We will protect and enhance access to inland waterways.
Invest in ecotourism and associated schemes such as rewilding, habitat recovery and species reintroduction,
creating new job opportunities.
Introduce new support for small- scale family farms and for new entrants to farming.
This support, including increased security of tenure for farmers, will help develop sustainable farming methods.
Farmers will be supported to adopt diverse uses for agricultural land and buildings, such as fitting solar panels on farm buildings and planting orchards and other woodland.
The incorporation of trees into farming will provide new crops such as fruits and nuts, as well as timber, linking forestry and farming industries.
A more densely wooded and hedged farming landscape will provide new habitats for wildlife, and sanctuaries for threatened species.
As a member of the EU we will press for a review of the Common Agricultural Policy,
so that it is focussed on supporting UK and other EU farmers as they make the transition to sustainable farming.
Commit to making at least 30% of UK domestic waters into fully protected marine protected areas by 2030.
We will also work with British Overseas Territories (BOTs) to increase the ‘blue belt’ protecting BOTs’ waters from commercial extraction, from the current 32% of coverage to 50%.
Reintroduce nature into our urban environments, by investing in schemes such as street planting of native trees,
compulsory hedgehog holes in all new fencing
and bee corridors.
Recognise access to diverse nature as a human right and uphold it across society.
Create a Nature GCSE to encourage children to value nature, and to grow a whole new generation of naturalists.
We will also introduce an English Climate Emergency Education Act to support schools to teach young people about the urgency, severity and scientific basis of the climate and environmental crises,
and to ensure youth voices are heard on climate issues.
These policies will integrate closely with those set out in the ‘Green New Deal for food, farming & forestry’ section of this Manifesto on page 21, reducing the carbon emitted from the use of the UK’s land.
Tackling discrimination
Despite huge social progress over the past century, we still live in a society where factors like our gender, ethnicity and sexuality play a part in how we are treated.
The Green Party wants to actively challenge discrimination and exclusion, at the same time as creating opportunities for everyone to flourish.
In doing so we recognise that rights for one group should not take away rights from others - that none of us are equal until we all are.
Our Green plan to transform society and end discrimination will: Establish a cross-government strategy tasked with tackling ethnic inequalities, ranging from school exclusions through to biased treatment in the criminal justice system, and covering housing, employment and health.
Replace ‘Prevent’ with community cohesive policing which engages rather than antagonises Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and addresses concerns about the use of stop and search powers.
End the hostile environment which puts migrants, from the EU and further afield, at risk and increases racism and anti-immigrant sentiment.
This will include ending indefinite detention, closing the immigration detention centres and ending the culture of abuse and violence that has prevailed in them.
We will immediately suspend all deportation flights and allow refugees to live freely, with a right to work, whilst their applications are considered.
Create a new Ministry for the Interior that will be fully committed to upholding human rights.
This Ministry will have responsibility for protecting the fundamental rights of Travellers, a group that are often overlooked in efforts to end discrimination.
Make a ‘Windrush Day’ bank holiday, to celebrate the contribution that migration has made to our society.
Bring forward a new humane immigration system with no minimum income rules for visas,
full workplace rights for migrants,
the right to work for asylum seekers
and recourse to public support for migrants and asylum seekers who need it.
Confront racism, antisemitism and prejudice, including from an early age through a broader and decolonialised curriculum in school, focussing on histories and role models from a diverse range of ethnicities and religions.
Guarantee safe and discreet access to public services such as the police, health and education, so that migrants can access these without fear of being subject to immigration enforcement.
We will also abolish the draconian powers brought in under the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts and scrap health charging for migrants.
Defend the right of people of all faiths - to express their faith, be that in religious clothing, food or reasonable accommodation of religious observance.
We will also work with religious communities to defend the safety of places of worship.
Retain the Human Rights Act
and reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Make misogyny a hate crime across the UK
and increase the police’s capacity to deal with domestic violence and misogynistic hate crimes.
Funding to support the prevention and prosecution of all hate crimes will be increased,
and police officers will be given further training in this area.
We need an intersectional approach to hate crime, which recognises the groups of women who are most at risk.
Develop and implement a UK-wide strategy to tackle gender-based violence, including domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and trafficking.
This will include working with perpetrators to prevent them from continuing to abuse.
We will also reverse cuts to legal aid to prevent survivors being forced to represent themselves against their abusers in court
and introduce a new Domestic Abuse Bill, which enables prosecution of economic abuse.
Roll back the cuts to domestic violence support centres and women’s refuges, and increase funding to provide more safe and secure accommodation for women and their children.
Put funding for Rape Crisis Centre services on a sustainable footing so that every survivor of sexual assault or violence receives proper support.
We will increase and ring fence the Rape Support Fund and ensure funds are provided via the Victim Surcharge.
Establish a new press regulatory regime which will allow women to make formal complaints about media coverage that will encourage misogyny against women.
This regime will allow for third party complaints to be made, on behalf of women negatively affected by media coverage.
Media-led misogyny affects women of all backgrounds, all ethnicities, all religions, cis and trans, lesbian, bisexual and straight – it’s time to end it once and for all.
Introduce a regulatory framework for online harms to ensure social media companies take responsibility for how their platforms are being used
and invest in technological solutions to address misogyny and online harassment.
Extend the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights to give women in all EU countries access to legal, safe and affordable abortion services.
Support employers to explore the benefits of offering menstruation and menopausal leave to workers.
Improve access to high quality care during pregnancy and ensure that all women are entitled to the care of a single midwife through prenatal care, birth and the first month of post-natal care.
Baby clinics will be expanded, so that women can get access to health visitors and take their babies for regular check¬ups at a location and time that is convenient for them.
Increase funding for areas of the NHS heavily relied on by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) people, including trans healthcare, gender identity clinics, HIV treatment and mental health provision.
Properly fund training to support the delivery of comprehensive, age- appropriate Personal Health and Sexual Education (PHSE) lessons in schools covering all aspects of sex and relationships, with a focus on consent.
End the opt-out of LGBTIQA+ inclusive PHSE classes at school to ensure that every child learns about different types of couples and families that make up UK society.
Train school staff in spotting and stopping sexual harassment and bullying, to ensure that schools are safe places for all to learn in.
Fund schools to provide free eco- friendly sanitary products to pupils.
Remove the spousal veto so that married trans people can acquire their gender recognition certificate without having to obtain permission from their spouse.
We will also change the law so an X gender marker can be added to passports for non-binary and intersex people who wish to use it,
and update the Gender Recognition Act to allow trans youth and non-binary people to get legal recognition through self-declaration.
Introduce a legal right to independent living for disabled people, overseen by a National Independent Living Support Service.
This service will support and empower disabled people who do choose to live independently.
Fully embed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) into UK law.
This will mean that the unacceptable practices of compulsory treatment, chemical and physical restraint, isolation, and seclusion are made illegal in the UK.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING
Combatting Hate Crimes Against Women
In 2017 Green Party Deputy Leader Amelia Womack called for violence against women motivated by their gender to be considered a hate crime, saying:
‘From domestic abuse to rape, groping to stalking and harassment, we know that women suffer abuse because of their gender. The Home Office does not record hate crimes according to gender and to me that’s a powerful symbol of the way misogyny is treated in this country: sidelined, ignored, brushed under the carpet. ’
Amelia and the Green Party joined forces with cross-party campaigners on this issue, to keep up the pressure on government to take action. In September 2018 the Ministry of Justice announced that they had asked the Law Commission to undertake a review of the coverage and approach of hate crime legislation, including consideration of how gender characteristics should be considered by hate crime law.
Preventing crime
Everyone has the right to feel safe - on the street, in their home or online.
Simple things like more police on the beat and enforceable laws against malicious trolling can make a huge difference.
However, not all crime can be tackled by being tough.
Punishment for its own sake is ineffective.
It might make us feel better, but it doesn’t change very much.
The Green Party thinks it’s time to transform our justice system.
We want to tackle the underlying causes of crime more effectively than CCTV cameras, stop and search or draconian sentencing can ever do.
So we will focus on the prevention of crime with community-based policing, alongside investment in education and employment.
Overall, we aim to halve the prison population, as has successfully been achieved in the Netherlands, breaking the vicious cycle of reoffending.
60% of newly released short-term prisoners reoffend in the year after their release, often graduating to more serious crimes than the one for which they were originally imprisoned.
We will expand restorative justice when crimes do take place, both to give victims a voice and to help offenders see the effects of what they have done and take responsibility.
The Green Party’s plan to make everyone safer will: Significantly reduce the number of short-term prison sentences handed out, replacing them with restorative justice projects that have a better record of preventing reoffending.
Enhance the rehabilitation services on offer to long-term prisoners, commissioning rehabilitation services that have a track record of success.
Follow the evidence that shows that prison is particularly counter¬productive for women, trapping them in lives of crime.
We will therefore support and develop a network of specialist women’s centres in order to reduce the female prison population.
These small-scale custodial centres will offer pastoral support to women to address the issues that led to them offending.
Invest in youth services and centres, to help turn at-risk children away from crime.
All the evidence shows the cuts in youth services have increased crime, especially knife crime.
To end knife crime once and for all we need to invest in specialist programmes provided through youth centres
.
End the war on drugs, which has trapped hundreds of thousands of people into lives of crime
and treat drug addiction as a health condition, not a crime, building on the successful approaches pioneered in Portugal and other countries (see below page on ending the war on drugs for further information).
Integrate police forces more closely with the communities they serve by creating new community liaison and equality officers to work on positive relations and by putting more police on the beat.
Ending the war on drugs
Taking drugs can be dangerous but prohibition of drug use has created many more problems than it has solved.
Over the last 50 years, the international war on drugs has been a resounding failure.
Harmful drug consumption has markedly increased and has given rise to a multi-billion pound illegal industry that has fuelled organised violent crime
and caused untold social and ecological destruction.
There is little evidence for the two core assumptions that form the basis of current UK drug policy:
1. That supply-side enforcement can reduce drug availability and use.
2. That the criminalisation of people who use drugs is an effective deterrent.
The Green Party recognises that people have always and will always use drugs, including alcohol.
Drugs perform many purposes in society, including recreational use and as part of medical treatment.
Seeking to prevent drug use is demonstrably futile; we need a radically new system grounded in harm reduction.
Government needs to strike the right balance between responsible adult drug use and the potential harms of problematic use.
The taxes and licence fees that will apply to drugs under our proposed system will raise significant revenues.
Some of these revenues will pay for the harm that drug use can cause, including NHS time.
Our Green plan to reduce harm and adopt an evidence-based approach will: Repeal the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.
Pardon and expunge the criminal records of all individuals previously convicted for possession and small-scale supply of drugs.
Enable medical scientists to conduct research on psychoactive drugs to develop new treatments for mental and physical illnesses.
Invest in education and treat problematic drug use as a health issue, not a crime, building on the successful approaches pioneered in numerous other countries.
Replace the current system of prohibition with an evidence-based, legalised, regulated system of drug control.
The production, import and supply of all drugs will be regulated according to the specific risks that they pose to the individual, to society and to the environment.
Make heroin available on prescription after a medical assessment by a doctor
and provide safe facilities for users who inject drugs, building on the success of drug consumption rooms in other countries which have encouraged more problematic drug users into treatment.
Regulate access for adults to stimulant and psychedelic drugs based on the evidence around harm reduction through pharmacies, after a safety consultation with a qualified pharmacist,
at fixed doses and fixed prices.
Make cannabis, labelled according to laboratory-tested strength, available to adults from licensed small businesses.
Cannabis will be sold subject to minimum unit pricing and plain packaging.
Allow for licensed Cannabis Social Clubs where adults can collectively cultivate and consume cannabis
and allow adults to grow a limited number of cannabis plants at home.
Prohibit commercial advertising of alcohol (and all other drugs)
and introduce minimum unit pricing, which has been shown to reduce harmful drinking in Scotland.
Set up an independent statutory body, the Advisory Council for Drug Safety, comprised of experts, who will be responsible for monitoring patterns of drug use, advising the government on changes to regulation and sourcing socially and ecologically sustainable supplies of opium and coca from the Global South.
Transforming our relationship with animals
We share this planet with, and are dependent on, a wealth of other animal species.
Yet wildlife destruction, factory farming, live export, companion and domestic animal abuse, and the use of animals for experiments, sport and entertainment are all contributing to the systematic mistreatment of animals.
We think it’s time for a better future, where animals are actively protected from cruelty and our own quality of life is improved too.
The Green plan to transform understanding of the relationship between humans and animals will: Guarantee the principle of animal sentience.
This will mean that that regard for the welfare needs of animals as sentient beings is uppermost in formulating and implementing relevant government policy.
Ban all hunting.
This includes trail hunting, where dogs are used to track foxes who are then shot,
and the commercial shooting of deer and game birds.
Government subsidies, used to maintain artificial landscapes designed only for hunting (such as grouse moors) will be ended and the land rewilded where possible.
Where necessary for ecological reasons, humane culling will be licensed by Natural England and carried out by trained professionals.
We will also ban the use of lead ammunition and outlaw all forms of snaring.
End the badger cull, which has no evidence basis and has failed to effectively reduce Bovine TB.
We will fund research into a sensitive test to enable cattle vaccination, as an essential, as well as humane, part of a meaningful strategy to control the spread of the disease.
We will also invest in better farm bio-security and badger vaccination.
Stop the use of primates, cats and dogs in research
and the importation of monkeys for use in labs,
and work towards an outright ban on all animal testing.
We will also end the use of live animals in military training.
Enforce tougher regulations on animal transportation, including a maximum limit of eight hours travel for animals in transit
and an end to all live exports from our shores.
We will work to minimise all stress- causing practices during production of animal-based food products.
Advocate for European legalisation to end factory farming,
prohibit the routine use of antibiotics for farm animals,
and ban the killing of animals for sport across the EU.
Call on all nations to declare the waters under their control as havens from whaling,
to provide sanctuary throughout those waters for cetaceans (whales and dolphins),
and to co-operate in achieving global sanctuary for cetaceans in the longer term.
Implement a complete ban on cages and close confinement
and deliberate mutilation of farm animals.
Help shoppers choose cruelty free food, with mandatory method of production labelling for meat, milk and dairy products.
Protect animals that give companionship or support.
We will enhance regulation and controls on breeding, sale and import, with compulsory licensing applying to everyone working with animals.
Those convicted of cruelty will be placed on an animal cruelty register and prevented from working with animals again.
Encourage the use of companion animals in therapy and other treatments, drawing on evidence showing the beneficial impact of contact with animals on human psychology.
Create a new Commission on Animal Protection, responsible for overseeing all rules designed to protect animals from cruelty.
This Commission will ensure that the highest standards of animal welfare are applied to companion animals, farm animals and wildlife.
This will ensure that the right of all sentient beings not to be subject to undue suffering is always respected.
THE NEW DEAL FOR TAX AND SPEND
Unleashing a Revolution in the Redistribution on Wealth
We’re the fifth largest economy in the world and yet today there are 4 million children living in poverty.
The streets of our cities are home to 4,000 rough sleepers.
Nurses are going to foodbanks to put dinner on the table.
We can do so much better than this.
It’s a question of political choices.
The rich are getting richer whilst everyone else struggles to make ends meet.
Talking about the problem isn’t enough - it’s time to act.
We will redistribute wealth and lift everyone up.
We want to enable people to build secure lives and livelihoods.
Alongside giving everyone a minimum level of security with a Universal Basic Income,
we will make our tax system fit for purpose - fairer and more effective at bringing in revenue for public services
and funding the Green New Deal.
We see tax as the primary way most of us contribute towards our own and the common good - a fair and valuable payment towards a well-functioning, just society that protects citizens
and the planet which sustains us.
We will simplify taxes, close tax loopholes and make sure everyone pays their fair share.
We will redesign the way property and land are taxed, shifting responsibility away from renters and business tenants and instead towards wealthy landowners who benefit the most.
We will redirect government spending away from wasteful vanity projects, and towards enabling people to build the lives they want to lead.
Above all, we will transform our tax system, so it is able to generate the funds needed to deliver good public services
and the Green New Deal, and deliver ongoing economic, climate and social justice.
Simplifying income taxes
Our current system of income taxes is hugely complex.
Those seeking to avoid tax are able to use this complexity to their advantage.
Tax avoiders can shift their money in and out of different income and asset categories, switching category just before the tax official catches up with them.
A whole tax avoidance industry exists to guide those prepared to pay to wriggle out of tax through the cracks in the system.
This charade keeps billions of pounds out of the public purse every year, money that could be spent on new homes, schools and hospitals.
It’s time to straighten out the tax system, so that tax avoiders can no longer evade their responsibilities,
and so that income from wealth is taxed the same as income from work.
This will ensure that the wealthiest pay their fair share.
Our Green plan to simplify tax will shine a light on the corners of the economy where the richest stash their wealth.
We will: Merge Employees National Insurance, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, Dividend Tax and Income Tax into a single Consolidated Income Tax.
This closing of loopholes will bring in an estimated £20 billion extra per year into the public purse.
It will mean that all income is treated the same way for tax purposes.
Tax income from investments/ assets at the same level as the taxation of income from work, through the Consolidated Income Tax.
This will end the injustice whereby people who work for their incomes are taxed more highly than those whose income is derived from wealth.
Replace the Income Tax threshold with Universal Basic Income.
End the double taxation of pension funds, which are currently subject to Corporation Tax and then Income Tax when paid out to individual pensioners.
Reforming property taxes
The Green Party wants to transform land and property taxes.
Half of England is owned by less than 1% of its population.
Our tax system allows landlords to sit on land and do nothing whilst public money for enhancements sees land value increase.
Council Tax is failing too.
It is one of the main ways of taxing wealth, yet bands are still based on valuations from 1991.
This means someone in a multi-million pound property pays a far lower proportion of tax than someone in a one-bedroom flat.
All the while, small and independent businesses are crying out for reform of the unfair business rates system,
and young people face a lifetime of housing insecurity and high prices.
It’s time for change.
Over the long term we will take steps to replace the current unjust, out-of¬date system with a Land Value Tax (LVT), designed to redistribute wealth
and help fix our broken housing market.
LVT will be a single tax (replacing the multiple taxes that currently exist) which will capture the real value of land, and the increased value arising from improvements to it.
Winston Churchill backed an LVT, arguing that the value added to a property because of improvements, like transport infrastructure, paid for by the public purse, should be returned to the community.
The many other benefits include bringing more brownfield sites into use;
discouraging speculative land banking;
and more efficient, sustainable use of land.
LVT will help stabilise the property market and shift the burden of taxation from land users, including renters and business tenants, to wealthy landowners.
It’s a critical part of how to tackle the housing crisis.
Our Green plan to transform land and property taxes will: Abolish Council Tax and Business Rates, replacing them with an LVT.
The LVT will also absorb National Non-domestic Rates, Stamp Duty on Land, Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings, Capital Gains Tax on land sales, Inheritance Tax on land and Income Tax on land for owner- occupiers.
The new LVT will charge the landowner a proportion of the capital value of the land each year (estimated to be around 1.4% of current values).
Ensure LVT is paid by landowners regardless of whether or not they live on the land.
This will incentivise those who own empty properties to release them back into the housing market.
Lift millions of renters and business tenants out of property taxes altogether, by shifting the burden of land taxation from land users to landowners.
We will legislate to prevent landowners passing these tax costs back to renters and tenants.
Phase in the changes over ten years, with reliefs on offer.
This will ensure that the vast majority of homeowners will face similar or lower levels of tax to that which they pay now.
Protect those who have low incomes but who are ‘land rich’ with a right to defer the tax until the property is sold or transferred.
Likewise, pensioners who are homeowners will be enabled to ‘roll over’ LVT payments until their property is sold, so they don’t feel undue pressure to move.
In the long term, the new LVT will bring in more money for the public purse.
However due to the phased introduction of the policy, and the reliefs we will offer to help homeowners transition to the new system, we estimate that the LVT will be revenue neutral for the first ten years (bringing in the same amount of revenue as the taxes it replaces).
Making big business pay its fair
In a transformed green economy we will need to harness the power and influence of businesses to do good.
At the moment, huge corporations tend to use their power to generate profit for a small number of people and to reduce the amount of tax they pay.
We think it’s time to straighten things out, so nobody can abuse the tax system and dodge their responsibilities.
When Corporation Tax was first introduced to the UK in 1965, it stood at 40%. Now it’s at 19%, one of the lowest in Europe.
And overseas giants like Amazon and Google exploit tax loopholes to pay even less.
Businesses can be the bedrock of an economy that enables us all to thrive, if they pay what they owe and invest in the public services and infrastructure from which they benefit.
Our plan for tax justice Increase the rate of Corporation Tax to 24%, in line with the Organisation for Economic Co¬operation and Development (OECD) average.
We will advocate public country-by-country reporting and consolidated Corporate Tax across the EU to prevent profit shifting
Increase the Bank Asset Tax.
This will counteract the huge levels of support previous governments have given the banking sector, through public protections, licenses and subsidies.
We will also close a loophole in the Stamp Duty on Shares, by including share purchases of all values and new share issues within the Duty.
Establish HM Revenue & Customs as an independent agency of government, answerable to Parliament.
This will remove the power of politicians to strike secret deals with powerful corporations and individuals.
Entrench the anti-avoidance principle in UK tax law and oblige banks to provide information about companies automatically to HMRC.
ELECTED GREENS DELIVERING.
Combatting Tax Avoidance
In 2014, Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South West, was chosen to represent the Green Group on the European Parliament’s tax working group. The LuxLeaks scandal broke shortly afterwards and the Greens lobbied the parliamentary authorities to establish a special tax inquiry committee. Molly was a member of that and the three subsequent inquiries into the outrageous way that large companies and wealthy individuals have avoided paying the taxes they owe to society.
This process has led to powerful new tax avoidance polices, including a blacklist of tax havens, a unified minimum tax rate for the whole EU, and the end of the buying of golden visas by wealthy non-EU citizens.
Molly is the Green Party candidate for Stroud in this General Election.
Close down Corporation Tax loopholes by widening the definition of ‘profit’ to cover dividends, share buybacks, additions to cash holdings, payments to parent or subsidiary companies (both onshore and offshore), and other distributed income.
Clamp down on tax havens internationally and, domestically,
require offshore companies to reveal their beneficial ownership before being accepted as competitors for publicly funded contracts.
In instances where beneficial ownership is not clear and/or payments are made to secretive tax havens, all money and assets transferred will be treated as income distribution and taxed at the full Corporate or Income Tax level.
We will explore how to best to tackle tax avoidance channelled through British Overseas Territories.
We will campaign for the EU to clamp down on member state tax havens, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Abolish the rule that allows non¬domiciled residents not to pay tax on foreign income.
Supporting small business
We will transform our economy to make it work for the wellbeing of people and our environment - and we want business to play a leading role.
We want enterprise in the 21st century to be about more than what pays.
We want to support enterprise to create a bigger, more diverse future, through stakeholder finance, ownership rooted in communities and business done for the common good.
We recognise the many challenges facing businesses today, especially small, local businesses, run by families or individuals - and the enormous value they bring to the communities they serve.
We understand how hard it is to start and run a business - and how rewarding it can be when that business grows.
We want to transform the business environment in the UK, so enterprise that benefits us all is rewarded and helped to thrive.
The Green plan for a small business revolution will: Give small businesses access to lending at affordable rates, by helping to establish a network of regional mutual banks.
These new banks will be created specifically to provide funding for locally led economic initiatives and opportunities, including co¬operatives, community interest companies and other non-profit businesses.
Further free up funding by introducing credit guidance for traditional banks, requiring them to increase their lending to small businesses
and businesses focussed on the sustainability transition.
Grant 15% of government contracts to small and micro businesses.
We will revise the government contract application process, to remove the current barriers for entry to small business.
We will encourage local authorities to adopt this model with their own contracts.
Require businesses to publish and report the difference between agreed payment days and actual payment days.
We will introduce fines for large companies that fail to pay small businesses on time.
Support small business to work with employees to adopt full workplace rights.
Create new support for entrepreneurs and small business owners from BME backgrounds.
Reduce VAT on food and drink served in pubs, bars and restaurants, on hotel bookings and on theatre, music concert and museum and gallery tickets,
This will boost the leisure and cultural sectors,
helping 125,000 businesses at the heart of their local communities.
Increase the Employment Allowance to £10,000 (currently just £3,000) per year, allowing small businesses which employ people to claim back the equivalent National Insurance of four full-time workers earning the average salary.
This tax cut will benefit hundreds of thousands of small businesses, allowing them to hire more people, increase wages or reduce prices.
Promote and support an increase in co-operatives and community interest companies.
Education about these forms of communal enterprise would start in school.
Roll out high speed broadband.
Ending wasteful spending
Successive governments have committed large sums of public money to projects that contribute nothing to the potential for a safer, fairer future for all.
Beliefs that big is always best, that growth is good for growths sake and that communities and environments can be sacrificed have left a dreadful legacy of public harm and financial waste.
It’s time to pull the plug on what hasn’t worked so we can invest instead in the Green New Deal and other ways to sustainably transform the state of the nation.
As we transition to a net zero economy the Green Party will tackle wasteful spending, starting by: Cancelling the Trident nuclear weapons system
and nuclear powered submarines.
We will join the United Nation’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and work within that multilateral framework work for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons, including the implementation, enforcement and verification of all disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation agreements.
We need a security system that can keep us safe from 21st-century challenges, not one that could realise cold war nightmares.
The funds saved from cancelling Trident will be diverted towards the development of non-carbon- emitting technologies
and finance to help countries deal with the Climate Emergency.
Scrapping the government’s new road building programme, including the proposed road tunnel at Stonehenge that threatens to desecrate an iconic World Heritage Site.
The funding for this road building programme, the £6.5 billion in revenue received from Vehicle Exercise Duty each year, will be switched to supporting sustainable public transport and new cycleways and footpaths as part of the Green New Deal.
£1.5 billion of Vehicle Exercise Duty revenue will be retained to maintain existing roads.
Scrapping plans for airport expansion across the country.
Scrapping the doomed HS2 rail line.
The funds freed up will be spent on more effective sustainable public transport options, as part of the Green New Deal.
This will enable an increase in rail capacity in regions that desperately need more investment, including the creation of three electrified rail lines running from Liverpool and Manchester to Sheffield, Hull and the Tees Valley.
These three newly electrified lines will run through Bradford and Leeds, creating new rail hubs in the heart of Yorkshire.
Ending the NHS internal market, which has driven up administrative costs in the health service without improving clinical practice, patient care or staff wellbeing.
Ending the Help to Buy Programme, which mainly served to drive developer profits.
The funds will be redirected to the Green Party’s council home creation programme that will deliver attractive, affordable homes for all.
Abolishing the heavily subsidised current Right to Buy Programme.
We will instead allow councils to set discounts locally
and retain 100% of receipts to reinvest in new and existing homes.
These are the worst offending projects - our review of government spending is likely to consider further vanity projects that need a rethink.
The Green Party’s plans will also deliver savings in the long term.
By tackling some of society’s major problems head-on, Green policies will free up funds currently allocated to managing the harmful effects of poverty, pollution and illegal drug use.
Poverty alone costs the UK taxpayer an incredible £85 billion per year.
Using effective anti-poverty measures such as the Universal Basic Income,
new job opportunities created by the Green New Deal
and increased support for the disabled, pensioners and carers, the Green Party’s programme will slash poverty rates
and ultimately save billions per year in government spending.
We accept that these savings will take place over a long period of time.
When they are delivered we will seek to allocate these funds to other areas of public service provision that are currently being underfunded, such as education,
healthcare and local services.
POSTSCRIPT
In this age of Brexit, our politics resounds with references to the Second World War.
In all this looking back, there is one pointer to the future.
At the height of the War, amidst the chaos and confusion, a social activist named William Beveridge presented a report to the political parties of the day on how the country could be reshaped when peace came.
The Beveridge Report set out five aspirations which, if met, could build a better future for all:
Adequate household income
Access to healthcare
Access to educational opportunity
Adequate housing
Gainful employment
These five aspirations became the building blocks of the NHS and other social services built after the war.
In the chaos of the present, we have a similar opportunity to look ahead and make big choices that will unleash a bigger future.
This Green Manifesto sets out five aspirations for our times:
A Green New Deal to tackle the Climate Emergency
and deliver social justice
A UK that remains in the EU, to transform it for the better
A democratic renewal, that gives everyone a voice
An economy for tomorrow that has improved quality of life and wellbeing at its heart
A revolution in tax & spend to spread wealth fairly and fund the Green New Deal
Every Green vote in this election is a vote for this bigger future.
It’s a vote to transform the UK and build something good together.
It’s a vote for making sure that our best days are still to come.
If not now, then when?
APPENDIX HOW IT ALL ADDS UP
The section below sets out how we will pay for the policies proposed in this Manifesto.
We have set out our spending over ten years, in line with our proposed ten- year Green New Deal to put us on track to reducing our carbon emissions to zero by 2030. This extended time period reflects the scale of the change needed to fix our climate and fund our future. For ease of comprehension, we have put investment and spending amounts as per billion per year. Although exact rates of investment and spending may vary year from year (especially as policies are phased in), the average for each year after ten years will be the yearly figure given.
This is the manifesto of the Green Party of England and Wales. Separate sister Green parties cover Scotland and Northern Ireland. Many public services are devolved, with the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales or the Northern Ireland Assembly taking responsibility. However, most decisions on government investment, expenditure and taxation are ultimately taken on a UK basis, this is a UK general election and, despite the fact that this Green Party covers only England and Wales, and to maintain consistency and comparability, all the figures in this chapter are UK figures.
A Green New Deal
Operational Expenditure related to Universal Basic Income
Cost of proposed UBI regime (including supplements and free childcare): £86.2 billion To be met from tax changes and savings revenue
Operational Expenditure not related to Universal Basic Income
Investment in skills and training:£2 billion
Support to private sector to kick- start investment: £1 billion Reduction in public transport fares: £3.5 billion
Upgrading cycleways and footpaths: £0.5 billion (admin costs)
Research and development for farming & forestry: £1 billion
Research into carbon capture technologies: £0.8 billion
Tree and forest planting: £0.7 billion
Total: £9.5 billion
To be met from tax changes and savings revenue
Capital Expenditure
Upgrades to electricity grid: £10.4 billion
Improvements to energy storage system: £4.5 billion
Renewable electricity generation: £12 billion
Funding local authorities to better insulate all homes and deep retrofit of 1 million homes a year:
£24.6 billion
Funding local authorities to better insulate non-domestic buildings:£7 billion
Funding local authorities to create at least 100,000 new social homes a year: £10.2 billion
Research and development for industry: £6 billion
Industrial processes: £3 billion
Upgrading rail capacity, including electrification: £12.2 billion
Upgrading cycleways and footpaths infrastructure: £2.0 billion
Electric vehicles and infrastructure: £2.5 billion
Total: £94.4 billion
To be met from public borrowing
Growing Democracy
Operational Expenditure
Increasing direct funding to local authorities: £10 billion
Providing a climate adaption fund for local authorities: £3 billion
Funding local authorities to provide free social care at home for over 65s: £4.5 billion
Funding political parties and other smaller policies: £1 billion
Increasing international aid: £6.5 billion
Total: £25 billion
To be met from tax changes andsavings revenue
The Green Quality of Life Guarantee
Operational Expenditure
Increased funding for NHS, including increased nursing training: £7 billion
Increased funding for schools: £4 billion
Scrapping tuition fees and funding every student: £7.8 billion
Increasing adult education: £1 billion
Smaller policies: £1 billion
Total: £20.8 billion
To be met from tax changes andsavings revenue
Additional revenue generated from savings (per year)
The below figures come from calculations made by Green Party Tax and Fiscal Working Group:
Savings from cancelling wasteful projects:
Scrapping Trident: £2.2 billion (an additional £0.2 billion of savings from this measure will be spent on costs of cancellation)
Scrapping the government’s road building programme: £5 billion Scrapping HS2: £3.5 billion (an additional £0.5 billion of savings from this measure will be spent on costs of cancellation)
Scrapping Help to Buy: £1 billion Ending the NHS internal market: £2.3 billion
Savings from tackling social problems (we have assumed we will only be able to realise 30% of longterms savings in these areas in the first ten years):
Tackling poverty: £12.6 billion Ending the war on drugs: £1 billion Ending air pollution: £1.8 billion
Total extra revenue generated by savings: £29.4
Additional revenue generated from tax changes (per year)
The below figures come from calculations made by Green Party Tax and Fiscal Working Group:
Carbon Tax: £76.7 billion (excluding Carbon Tax revenue from farming sector, which is restricted for spending on the farming sector only)
Simplifying income taxes: £21.7 billion
Increasing Corporation Tax to 24%: £12 billion
New taxes on banking: £5 billion
Tax avoidance and evasion crackdown: £3 billion
Reduction of tax relief on pension contributions (all relief at 20%/basic tax rate): £6 billion
Reduction of tax-free drawdown on pensions to £40k: £2 billion
Legalised drug taxes: £8 billion
Increased alcohol duties: £3 billion
Minus VAT reduction for leisure, eating & drinking out, sports, recreation, creative arts & entertainment and household repairs sector (£9.5 billion)
Minus increase in Employment Allowance from £3k to £10k (£3.5 billion)
We have not added any increase in revenue from our reforms to land taxes to our revenue predications. This is because, whilst the new Land Value Tax will bring in increased revenue, we are committed to using the initial extra revenue generated to mitigate the impact of the new tax on homeowners. This transition period, and the associated reliefs to help homeowners move to the new system, will last for ten years.
Total extra revenue generated by new tax regime: £124.4 billion
Green New Deal - additional private sector investment
We envision that Green New Deal public sector investment will be a catalyst for private sector investment, as private investors seek to share in the financial rewards of a transition to a low carbon future. We have budgeted (see Green New Deal Operational Costs) for the administration of a fund to encourage and help direct this private sector investment.
This private investment will form a second, non-publicly funded stream of finance for a Green New Deal. We expect the amount of private investment to reach £50 billion per year, including around £25 billion of private sector finance matching public sector spending on deep retrofitting homes. Private investment will also benefit the Green New Deal for energy and the Green New Deal for industry, accelerating progress in these sectors.
Public borrowing
We propose to borrow an extra £94.4 billion a year, to pay for capital expenditure. Our commitment to write off student debt from fee loans accumulated under the £9,000 tuition fee regime will add an additional sum onto the national debt.
The costs of servicing the extra borrowing and paying down the debt over time will be met by the additional revenue from the new jobs created and the surplus left over from our tax changes and savings revenue. The cost of government borrowing is at its lowest for decades, creating an unparalleled opportunity for public investment.
We feel that this borrowing to invest is justified, in the face of the looming Climate Emergency, and prudent, given how Green New Deal investment will kick-start an economic and social regeneration. The proceeds of this investment will in time mean that the Green New Deal pays for itself.
The rate of the Carbon Tax will rise through the Green New Deal period, with the reducing amounts of carbon in the economy taxed at an accelerating rate to encourage further phasing out.
At the end of the Green New Deal period the extra revenue from the jobs, rented homes and transport assets created by New Deal investment will make themselves felt - replacing Carbon Tax revenue in the long term and providing a healthy surplus. This will form a stable foundation for future finances.
Our programme of investment should be seen as a starting push on our national bicycle - giving us the momentum to set off and pedal with growing strength towards a better future.
Drawing it all together
This Manifesto proposes extra operational expenditure of £141.5 billion a year, paid for by a mix of tax reforms and savings measures. We propose £94.4 billion of capital expenditure, raised through government borrowing. Surplus from our tax reforms and savings measures, alongside increased revenues from the new jobs created, will pay for servicing and paying down this extra borrowing.
We appreciate these are large numbers. We are, however, confident in them. We have been deliberately cautious in our estimates. We have not included in full
the increased revenues the government is likely to receive from an economy boosted by significant investment, or the reduced spending requirements arising from a happier, healthier society. These benefits are likely to accrue at an accelerated rate as our policies begin take effect, paving the way in the long term for an economy and that is far more stable than ours currently is.
Our investment will kick-start the great transition to a net zero carbon economy and a better quality of life. If not now, then when?
www.greenparty.org.uk
Promoted by Judy Maciejowska on behalf of the Green Party, both at The Biscuit Factory, Unit 215 J Block, 100 Clements Road, London, SE16 4DG.
USE YOUR VOTE TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE
This election is about your future.
in 2016 a cross-community majority of people in the north voted to remain within the EU;
voted to protect your best interests,
people's jobs and livelihoods,
and your rights and entitlements currently enjoyed as lrish and EU citizens.
Since then the Tories and the DUP have ignored your views.
The dominant voice in the Tory party has been of right-wing English nationalism.
They have disregarded the voices of citizens in Scotland and the north of Ireland to remain.
But the game is far from over.
Your vote for remain candidates in this election is again about sending a message about which union you want to belong to; Ireland in Europe or Britain.
For three years the Tory/DUP desire for a Brexit at any cost has led us to the verge of crashing out of the EU without a deal
and a reintroduction of a hard border on our island.
This threat has not disappeared.
But there is a solution that allows us to ensure that we do not have a hard border, with all the political and financial consequences that would flow from that.
A solution that frees us up to shape our own political destiny,
free from the diktats of right-wing English nationalism.
That solution is contained within the Good Friday Agreement- the creation of a new, agreed and united Ireland - an inclusive society.
Spurious arguments that this is not the time for such a democratic exercise miss the fact that the discussion about our futureislive and growing.
Some on this island who are content with the status quo don't want to face the prospect of change; particularly when it must herald a realignment of politics on the island of lreland.
But the voices and desires of ordinary citizens will not be suppressed.
BREXIT:
There is no good Brexit.
The Tory government and the Westminster parliament created Brexit.
The British government and the Westminster parliament are committed to Brexit.
There is no British or Westminster solution to Brexit.
The lrish solution to Brexit will only be found in Dublin and in Europe.
That is where Sinn Fein has focussed our efforts to protect lreland,
the lrish economy
and the best interests of all citizens from the disaster of Brexit
and the chaos of Westminster.
TEAM SINN FEIN HAVE DELIVERED:SPECIAL STATUS FOR THE NORTH;
NO HARDENING OF THE BRITISH BORDER IN IRELAND;
PROTECTION FOR THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT;
NO UNIONIST VETO;
AUTOMATIC RE-ENTRY TO EUROPE THROUGH IRISH UNITY.
USING INFLUENCE WHERE IT MATTERS
Sinn Fein has been anti-Brexit from the start.
We campaigned across the North for Remain.
After the referendum we identified Europe, Dublin, and Washington as the key points of engagement in countering the Brexit process.
lnitially the focus in Europe was on Scotland.
The then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, when he first went to Brussels talked about Scotland and didn't mention the North of lreland.
ln that context we launched a political offensive highlighting the case for Special Status for North.
We took legal advice and presented legal positions that proved Special Status was not only possible but imperative to protect lrish interests.
Defending the GFA would be key in challenging the DUP/Tory Brexit strategy.
We established direct links with many key players.
We published and distributed thousands of pamphlets areund Europe and Ireland - highlighting the key points of concern, and how they could be addressed.
ln Brussels our voice was being heard and our analysis sought by many.
ln Dublin we led and won the debate for Special Status.
Over time all the political parties in the Dail moved on to our position.
The lrish Government's approach to Brexit has been significantly influenced by our ideas and sustained by political and community pressure.
Our approach was always to be constructive.
We have worked closely with Border Communities Against Brexit (BCAB).
Their public profile and publicity provided them the space to influence.
Sinn Fein successfully nominated BCAB for a civic award in Brussels.
This amplified the popular anti-Brexit voice both at home in Ireland and in Brussels.
ln Westminster we regularly met with every political party to explain the need to protect the GFA in any Brexit deal.
We engaged with the British Government directly.
We continue to do so.
But we recognised that participation in the Westminster political system was never going to deliver the results/influence we wanted.
The numbers game there is rigged.
Scotland and the north of Ireland are small fry in the Westminster numbers game.
The SNP/DUP experience illustrate that perfectly.
For instance, despite 59 Scottish MPs taking their seats in Westminster their voice is ignored.
The British government have twice struck deals with the EU27 which ignored Scottish interests.
The outcome ofthe DUP's dalliance with the Tories needs no rehearsal here.
The electorate's voice needs not just to be heard but heeded.
We have worked where your voice counts.
So, we have worked at the other side of the negotiating table to ensure those in Dublin, Brussels and Washington who would be negotiating on lreland's behalf understood the power of the GFA and could bringthat weight to bear on the process.
Our approach to Westminster is not only right in principle- but clearly in these times it is practically and strategically correct also.
We have helped shape and influence the debate inthe places where power ultimately lies.
Sinn Fein drove the demand for special arrangements and the protection of the GFA.
ln an ever increasingly globalised world - our constituents are sawy enough to understand that political representation is about having a voice strong enough to be heard in the corridors of power throughout the world - from Capitol Hili in America, Downing Street in London, the Dail in Dublin and Brussels -
Sinn Fein is the only political party that can offer that active, robust representation where it matters.
Sinn Fein MPs will continue to use their influence to promote lrish Unity as lreland's solution to an English Brexit.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The debate on lrish unity has moved centre stage.
Brexit has been a dynamic which has fuelled the public debate around lrish unity leading many, from a range of backgrounds including unionists, to consider where their future interests lie.
While lrish unity is not inevitable - we have to work to make it happen - the reality is that the debate has taken on a new dimension.
A referendum on lrish unity is coming.
lt's no Ionger a question of 'if, but 'when'.
In a recent opinion poll in the north carried out on behalf of the Tory peer, Lord Ashcroft a majority of those polled said that if there was a referendum on lrish unity tomorrow, they would vote in favour of unity.
ln the south there has been resistance from the political establishment to start planning for lrish reunification.
lt is the responsibility of all governments to plan for the future.
The lrish Government has a responsibility to Iead the discussion on lrish unity.
lt must urgently convene a truly representative, all-lreland forum to discuss and plan for lrish unity.
lt is clear that the electorate are weil ahead of the politicians.
An Exit Poil conducted on behalf of RTE/TG4 shows us that 77% of voters would support a united lreland, even if the vote was held tomorrow.
The Good Friday Agreement provides the avenue for lrish unity based on the right of Seit­ determination and the principle of consent.
The power to trigger a referendum rests with the British Secretary of State and Sinn Fein MPs will continue to call on them to set out, in clear and unambiguous terms, the circumstances in which they will call the referendum.
lt is clear that support for lrish unity is growing.
A recent BMG survey in Britain for The Independent newspaper found that, excluding the don't knows, 73% werein favour of allowing the north to decide whether to remain in the UK or 'join the Republic'.
Sinn Fein will continue to push the lrish government to Iead the conversation on lrish unity.
An Oireachtas committee on unity must be formed and a Green Paper on unity published.
lrish unity is the democratic alternative to Brexit which the people of the North have not consented to.
MAKING POLITICS WORK
All elections and referendums on this island are inextricably linked in respect of their impacts; local government, An Dail, Westminster, the Assembly, Europe, the GFA and Brexit.
Sinn Fein remains fully invested in and committed to the Good Friday Agreement.
The commitment to a referendum on a united Ireland is within this Agreement.
lt cannot be cherry-picked.
This includes the restoration of an Assembly that works for everyone.
The current political impass is unacceptable.
Three years after the RHI scandal brought the assembly down people deserve functioning government and genuine power-sharing.
They demand integrity in government.
An agreementwas reached in February '18, however the DUP regrettably walked off the pitch.
That is not a sustainable position.
The delivery of rights cannot be avoided, National Rights, Citizenship Rights and Nationalldentity.
At the start of the year, after years of campaigning, same sex couples will be able to marry the one they Iove.
The injustice of women being criminalised has ended.
There is now a consultation underway which Sinn Fein will help shape to provide access to compassionate health care for all women.
After years of waiting the Historical lnstitutional Abuse victims can see some light in their journey for compensation.
We should be legislating for these things in the Assembly that we are elected to.
Sinn Fein stand ready to form a credible Executive.
A new Assembly and a new kind of politics is what we are working towards.
To be credible, then it must adequately deliver on issues like welfare mitigations,
public sector pay,
safe staffing Ieveis for health care workers,
streng economic policies that Iift all parts of the economy,
action to tackle the climate emergency
and investment in rural communities.
To be credible all of the outstanding issues must be dealt with, including an lrish Language Act
and reform of the use of the Petition of Concern.
lt must also include dealing with the legacy ofthe past.
Failure to deal properly with the legacy issues is hindering reconciliation and is impacting negatively on our peace process.
Victims and survivors have had to wait for far too Ieng for truth and justice.
The Stormont House Agreement must be implemented by the British Government immediately.
Those who call for special treatment for British soldiers who murdered lrish citizens are out of order.
There can be no amnesties for British State forces now or ever.
Everyone should be equal before the law.
Successive British governments have failed to legislate to give full effect to the Good Friday Agreement provision which recognises the birth right of people here to be British, lrish or both.
Sinn Fein support fully Emma DeSouza in her campaign and our Westminster and Leinster House teams will continue to campaign for urgent change.
The lrish Government must fulfil its duty and defend these rights on behalf of lrish citizens on this island.
USING YOUR INFLUENCE
“They’ve (Sinn Féin) been playing a strong political rolw which they haven’t done historically, that I hadn’t foreseen” – David Davis MP
“Sinn Féins’s voice has been heard loud and clear in the European Parliament Brexit steering group, when it comes to issues of Nothersn Ireland and the border.” – John Campbell BBC Economics and Business Editor
“The Good Friday Agreement expressly provides for an agrees mechanism wherby a united Ireland may be brought…and in accordance with international laq, the entire territory of such a united Ireland would thus be part of the European Union.” – European Council
A GREEN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
11 ECONOMY AND ENERGY
19TRANSPORT
22 ENVIRONMENT
25 ANIMAL WELFARE
ECONOMY AND ENERGY
This election is about the crisis of living standards
and the climate and environmental emergency.
Whether we are ready or not, we stand on the brink of unstoppable change.
We must confront this change while dealing with the growing inequality and insecurity in Britain.
Labour led the UK Parliament in declaring a climate and environmental emergency.
The next Labour government will lead the world in fighting it, with a plan to drive up living standards by transforming our economy into one low in carbon,
rich in good jobs,
radically fairer
and more democratic.
The climate crisis ties us all into a common fate.
This election is our best hope to protect future generations from an uninhabitable planet.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said we need to cut global emissions in half by 2030 to have a chance of keeping global heating within safe limits – that means acting now, and acting decisively.
The Tories wasted a decade serving the interests of big polluters.
Labour will use the crucial next decade to act.
The Tories slashed support for renewable energy while pushing through dangerous fracking.
Now Britain is decades off course on vital emissions targets.
That’s why Labour will kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution
that will create one million jobs in the UK
to transform our industry, energy, transport, agriculture and our buildings
,    while restoring nature.
Our Green New Deal aims to achieve the substantial majority of our emissions reductions by 2030 in a way that is evidence-based,
just and that delivers an economy that serves the interests of the many, not the few.
Just as the original Industrial Revolution brought industry, jobs and pride to our towns, Labour’s world-leading Green Industrial Revolution will rebuild them,
with more rewarding, well-paid jobs,
lower energy bills
and whole new industries to revive parts of our country that have been neglected for too long.
For some, industrial transition has become a byword for devastation, because successive Conservative governments were content to sit back and leave the fate of whole industries and communities at the mercy of market forces.
A Labour government will never let that happen.
We will work in partnership with the workforce and their trade unions in every sector of our economy, so that they lead the transition in their industries,
creating new, good-quality jobs
and making sure that their extensive skills are passed on to the next generation of workers.
We will show the world how prioritising sustainability will not only deliver immediate improvements to everyone’s lives but also offer humanity a pathway to a more equitable and enlightened economy:
one that protects our environment,
reins in corporate power,
revitalises democracy,
unites our communities,
builds international solidarity
and promises a better quality of life for all.
The scale of the challenge requires nothing less.
Tackling the destruction of our planet is a question of justice – for the communities at home and abroad who are most affected by it and for our children who will bear the consequences if we don’t.
Social justice will define Labour’s approach.
We will make sure that the costs of the green transition fall fairly and are mostly borne by the wealthy and those most responsible for the problem.
2019 saw the blossoming of a global movement calling on politicians to wake up and act on the climate and environmental emergency.
Labour welcomed that movement and, as a government in waiting, we have turned its demands into detailed, credible plans for real change.
Investment
Delivering the far-reaching change needed to tackle the climate and environmental emergency will require a full mobilisation of national resources, both public and private.
Labour will create a Sustainable Investment Board to bring together the Chancellor, Business Secretary and Bank of England Governor to oversee, co-ordinate and bring forward this investment – involving trade unions and business.
We will ask the Office for Budget Responsibility to incorporate climate and environmental impacts into its forecasts so that the cost of not acting will be factored into every fiscal decision.
The cost of not acting is far greater than the cost of acting.
We will launch a National Transformation Fund of £400 billion
and rewrite the Treasury’s investment rules to guarantee that every penny spent is compatible with our climate and environmental targets –
and that the costs of not acting are fully accounted for too.
Of this, £250 billion will directly fund the transition through a Green Transformation Fund dedicated to renewable and low-carbon energy and transport,
biodiversity and environmental restoration.
We will create a National Investment Bank, backed up by a network of Regional Development Banks, to provide £250 billion of lending for enterprise,
infrastructure and innovation over 10 years.
They will be mandated to lend in line with our mission to decarbonise our economy
while increasing productivity
and creating good jobs across the country.
As well as large-scale national and regional projects, smaller loans will be available through our new Post Bank based in Post Office branches, enabling thousands of bottom-up transformational changes by start-ups, small businesses, local co-operatives and community projects in towns and villages up and down the country.
We will make sure that the UK’s financial sector is helping to tackle the emergency rather than fuelling it.
We will do this by improving the fitness of our financial authorities to mobilise green investment
and by giving them powers to manage the risk to financial stability posed by short-sighted investment in polluting assets.
Just 100 companies globally are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions.
We won’t be afraid to tackle this wanton corporate destruction by taking on the powerful interests that are causing climate change.
We will change the criteria a company must meet to be listed on the London Stock Exchange so that any company that fails to contribute to tackling the climate and environmental emergency is delisted.
Levelling Up Across the Country
Many parts of Britain would need this investment even without a climate and environmental emergency.
Years of under-investment and neglect by Westminster have left too many communities feeling powerless
and too many areas left behind with low- quality jobs,
weak productivity and slow growth.
The climate and environmental emergency is a chance to unite the country to face this common challenge by mobilising all our national resources, both financial and human.
But we will only succeed by ensuring that everyone shares in the benefits.
Labour will make sure that investment is spread evenly across the whole country and will give powers and funding to every region and nation of the UK.
We will bring about a radical decentralisation of power in Britain so that local people and communities are given far greater control over their own lives and prospects.
A Local Transformation Fund in each English region will be used exclusively to fund infrastructure projects decided at a local level,
as will devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Our Regional Development Banks will be governed by boards made up of key local stakeholders such as local chambers of commerce, trade unions and councillors –
with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland empowered to make similar arrangements.
They will set priorities for lending, giving every region and nation a new and powerful lever to rebuild their economy on their own terms.
We will shift the political centre of gravity by placing the National Transformation Fund Unit, a key part of the Treasury, in the North of England
and build up the regional offices of government in each of the nine English regions to co-ordinate government policies at the regional level,
as well as ensuring a regional voice in Whitehall.
Energy
Energy use in buildings accounts for 56% of the UK’s total emissions, making it the single most polluting sector.
We will develop the recommendations of our ‘30 by 2030’ report to put the UK on track for a net-zero-carbon energy system within the 2030s –
and go faster if credible pathways can be found.
We will deliver nearly 90% of electricity and 50% of heat from renewable and low-carbon sources by 2030.
We will build: 7,000 new offshore wind turbines
2,000 new onshore wind turbines
Enough solar panels to cover 22,000 football pitches.
New nuclear power needed for energy security.
We will trial and expand tidal energy and invest to reduce the costs of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production.
We will upgrade almost all of the UK’s 27 million homes to the highest energy-efficiency standards, .
reducing the average household energy bill by £417 per household per year by 2030 and eliminating fuel poverty
We will introduce a zero-carbon homes standard for all new homes.
As part of heat decarbonisation, we will roll out technologies like heat pumps, solar hot water and hydrogen,
and invest in district heat networks using waste heat.
To balance the grid, we will expand power storage and invest in grid enhancements and interconnectors.
We will expand distributed and community energy,
and immediately and permanently ban fracking.
We will support energy workers through transition and guarantee them retraining
and a new, unionised job on equivalent terms and conditions.
We will introduce a windfall tax on oil companies, so that the companies that knowingly damaged our climate will help cover the costs.
We will provide a strategy to safeguard the people, jobs and skills that depend on the offshore oil and gas industry.
Ownership
We will not achieve the promise of a fair and sustainable economy if we repeat the mistakes of the carbon era, when the capture of a natural resource for private profit created a vastly unequal and polluting economy dominated by powerful vested interests.
It’s not just carbon.
From the depletion of fish stocks to the burning of the Amazon, profit has proved a poor regulator for use of our natural resources.
Whether it is the trillions of litres of water lost through leakages,
barriers to renewable energy connecting to the grid
or the billions of pounds of bill- payers’ money being siphoned off in dividends to wealthy shareholders,
Tory privatisation of our utilities has been a disaster for both our planet and our wallets.
We will put people and planet before profit by bringing our energy and water systems into democratic public ownership.
In public hands, energy and water will be treated as rights rather than commodities,
with any surplus reinvested or used to reduce bills.
Communities themselves will decide, because utilities won’t be run from Whitehall but by service-users and workers.
Public ownership will secure democratic control over nationally strategic infrastructure
and provide collective stewardship for key natural resources.
In the case of energy, it will also help deliver Labour’s ambitious emissions targets.
Whereas private network companies have failed to upgrade the grid at the speed and scale needed,
publicly owned networks will accelerate and co-ordinate investment to connect renewable and low-carbon energy
while working with energy unions to support energy workers through the transition.
Under Labour’s plans: A new UK National Energy Agency will own and maintain the national grid infrastructure and oversee the delivery of our decarbonisation targets.
14 new Regional Energy Agencies will replace the existing district network operators
and hold statutory responsibility for decarbonising electricity and heat
and reducing fuel poverty.
The supply arms of the Big Six energy companies will be brought into public ownership where they will continue to supply households with energy
while helping them to reduce their energy demands.
The Conservatives allowed the proceeds of North Sea oil to be squandered on tax cuts for the richest
and captured in profits for the few, instead of investing them in our future.
We now stand at an even greater crossroads in the development of our national economy.
Under Labour, our green future will be owned by all of us.
Whenever public money is invested in an energy generation project, the public sector will take a stake and return profits to the public.
Industry and Innovation
Averting climate catastrophe offers huge economic opportunities.
But Britain will only benefit from a Green Industrial Revolution with the right policies.
Over the past three decades, Britain has reduced its emissions at the expense of domestic industry by offshoring production.
This is an accounting trick, not a solution.
It does not protect the climate
, is unfair to other countries
and it damages jobs and communities at home
Labour will take full responsibility for our carbon footprint instead of passing the buck.
We will instruct the Committee on Climate Change to assess the emissions the UK imports as well as those it produces, and recommend policies to tackle them,
including making UK industry the greenest in the world.
The Conservatives have presided over a lost decade of productivity and allowed Britain to fall behind in the green technologies of the future.
Labour will make sure this never happens again.
Targeted science, research and innovation will be crucial to tackling the climate crisis,
dealing with the plastic waste filling our oceans
and addressing other societal challenges, such as an ageing population
and antibiotic resistance.
As part of our plan to usher in a Green Industrial Revolution, Labour will create an innovation nation, setting a target for 3% of GDP to be spent on research and development (R&D) by 2030.
We will achieve this target by increasing direct support for R&D
and reforming the innovation ecosystem to better ‘crowd in’ private investment.
We will establish a Foundation Industries Sector Council to provide a clean and long-term future for our existing heavy industries like steel and glass
and fund R&D into newer technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.
A thriving steel industry will be vital to the Green Industrial Revolution.
Labour will support our steel through public procurement,
taking action on industrial energy prices, exempting new capital from business rates
, investing in R&D,
building three new steel recycling plants
and upgrading existing production sites.
We will ensure that new technologies aren’t just invented here, but are engineered, manufactured and exported from here.
We will put British innovation at the heart of our procurement to support local sourcing and reshoring, so that every investment we make strengthens our manufacturing and engineering sectors and supply chains
and creates hundreds of thousands of good, unionised jobs here at home.
We will use the power of public procurement to strengthen local jobs and supply chains
and will require all companies bidding for public contracts to recognise trade unions,
pay suppliers on time
and demonstrate equalities best practice.
As we transition, we will ensure the UK’s automotive sector isn’t left behind by the electric revolution by investing in three new gigafactories
and four metal reprocessing plants.
By supporting UK-made electrical steel we will ensure robust support for an end to end UK supply chain.
We’ll also take on the global plastics crisis by investing in a new plastics remanufacturing industry
creating thousands of jobs
, ending exports of plastic waste
and reducing our contribution to ocean pollution.
Labour’s progressive trade strategy will be aligned with our industrial strategy to help develop the industrial base needed to deliver high-quality exports
and the decent jobs that go with them.
Labour will champion exports from the environmental goods and services sector,
building on the 300,000 jobs that the sector already sustains.
We will uphold the highest environmental and social regulations in all our trade relations,
and will never downgrade standards as ‘barriers’ to trade.
Skills
Our Green Industrial Revolution will create at least one million well-paid,
unionised jobs in the UK.
We will train people in the skills they need to access these jobs of the future.
Britain’s skills crisis has grown under the Tories.
The Apprenticeship Levy has been beset by problems, leaving employers paying into a training budget they are unable to spend.
And it is not delivering for small businesses.
We cannot afford to carry on like this.
Labour will make it easier for employers to spend the levy by allowing it to be used for a wider range of accredited training, in line with guidelines set by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and government’s wider priorities for the economy.
We will launch a Climate Apprenticeship programme to enable employers to develop the skills needed to lead the world in clean technology.
Under this programme, employers will be expected to allocate 25% of the funds in their Apprenticeship Levy accounts to training Climate Apprentices.
These funds can be spent directly or allocated to a ring-fenced Climate Apprenticeship Fund, which will be topped up with any surplus raised through Inclusive Ownership Funds and made accessible to non- levy-paying businesses.
Targeted bursaries will be available to women,
BAME people,
care leavers,
ex-armed forces personnel,
and people with disabilities
to encourage them to take up climate apprenticeships – the STEM of the future.
We will further help small businesses by increasing the amount that can be transferred to non-levy-paying employers to 50%
and introducing an online matching service to help levy-paying businesses find smaller businesses to transfer their funds to.
TRANSPORT
Labour will build a sustainable, affordable, accessible and integrated transport system,  founded on the principle that transport is an essential public service.
Cutting emissions will drive our transport policies.
We will review public expenditure on transport to ensure that it promotes environmental sustainability and contributes to decarbonisation.
Bus services have been devastated by the Conservatives, despite carrying more people than any other mode of public transport.
Women are especially dependent on buses, which also provide a lifeline for both older and younger people and for many economically disadvantaged groups.
Labour will ensure that councils can improve bus services by regulating and taking public ownership of bus networks,
and we will give them resources and full legal powers to achieve this cost-effectively,
thereby ending the race to the bottom in working conditions for bus workers.
Where councils take control of their buses, Labour will introduce free bus travel for under-25s.
We will increase and expand local services, reinstating the 3,000 routes that have been cut, particularly hitting rural communities.
Labour will deliver improvements for rail passengers by bringing our railways back into public ownership, using options including franchise expiry.
This will enable us to make fares simpler and more affordable,
rebuild the fragmented railways as a nationally integrated public service,
cut the wastage of private profit,
improve accessibility for disabled people,
ensure safe staffing levels and end driver-only operation.
Our publicly owned rail company will steer network planning and investments.
It will co-ordinate mainline upgrades, resignalling, rolling stock replacement and major projects.
We will implement a full, rolling programme of electrification.
Our model will ensure continuity of skills,
jobs
and supply chain capacity to reduce costs,
improve productivity
and support the economic benefits of Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution.
We will introduce a long-term investment plan including delivering Crossrail for the North as part of improved connectivity across the northern regions.
We will consult with local communities to reopen branch lines.
We will also unlock capacity and extend high-speed rail networks nationwide by completing the full HS2 route to Scotland,
taking full account of the environmental impacts of different route options.
We will deliver rail electrification and expansion across the whole country,
 including in Wales.
We will ensure that these major infrastructure projects are a model of good employment practice
and pay due regard to the environmental impact.
We will promote the use of rail freight in order to reduce carbon emissions, air pollutants and congestion on the roads
and expand the provision of publicly owned rail freight services.
We will increase the funding available for cycling and walking.
We will bring together transport and land-use planning to create towns and cities in which walking and cycling are the best choice: safe, accessible, healthy, efficient, economical and pollution- free.
We will help children’s health and well-being by ensuring street designs provide freedom for physically active outdoor play
and by introducing measures to ensure the zones around our schools are safer, with cleaner air.
Our transport programme is focused on creating better, publicly accessible local transport systems.
By improving public transport, Labour will help people to become less reliant on their cars, for our better health
, for a cleaner environment
and to improve quality of life in our towns and cities.
The Conservatives have committed to ending new sales of combustion engine vehicles by 2040.
Labour will aim for 2030.
We will position the UK at the forefront of the development and manufacture of ultra-low emission vehicles
and will support their sale.
We will invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure
and in electric community car clubs.
We will accelerate the transition of our public sector car fleets and our public buses to zero-emissions vehicles.
We will reform taxi and private hire services, including a review of licensing authority jurisdictions, setting national minimum standards of safety and accessibility
and updating regulations to keep pace with technological change
and to close loopholes to ensure a level playing field.
We will adopt an ambitious Vision Zero approach to UK road safety, striving for zero deaths and serious injuries.
Labour will invest to make our neglected local roads, pavements and cycleways safer for the everyday journeys of both drivers and vulnerable road users.
We will review all tolled crossings.
Labour recognises the Davies Commission’s assessment of pressures on airport capacity in the South East.
Any expansion of airports must pass our tests on air quality,
noise pollution,
climate change obligations
and countrywide benefits.
We will examine fiscal and regulatory options to ensure a response to the climate crisis in a way that is fair to consumers
and protects the economy.
We will take action to end nationality- based discrimination in seafarer pay.
ENVIRONMENT
A Labour government’s Green Industrial Revolution is complemented by our Plan for Nature.
Our commitments to ecosystem repair and environmental protections
work hand in hand with sustainable jobs
and industries,
and social justice.
We are facing a climate and environment emergency, and unlike the Tories we will not trade our environment in pursuit of reckless trade agreements.
Labour will review and improve protected area designations, from National Parks
to local nature reserves
and urban green spaces.
We will introduce a Climate and Environment Emergency Bill setting out in law robust, binding new standards for decarbonisation,
nature recovery,
environmental quality
and habitats and species protection.
We will maintain and continuously improve the existing EU standards of environmental regulation.
A Healthy Environment
Our polluted air contributes to over 40,000 premature deaths a year
and poisons our environment,
with further impacts on children’s health.
But the Conservatives’ air-quality measures are so inadequate they have been found to be illegal.
Labour will introduce a new Clean Air Act,
with a vehicle scrappage scheme
and clean air zones, complying with World Health Organisation limits for fine particles and nitrous oxides.
We will provide an extra £5.6 billion in funding to improve the standard of flood defences
and respond to the increased risk of flooding, prioritising areas at risk in North West England, Yorkshire and the East Midlands that have been neglected by Conservative investments.
Nature Restoration
Our Plan for Nature will set legally binding targets to drive the restoration of species and habitats.
We will embark on an ambitious programme of tree planting, with both forestry and native woodland species.
We will fully fund the Environment Agency and other frontline environment agencies,
and improve upstream river management.
We will create new National Parks alongside a revised system of other protected area designations, which will guard existing wildlife sites and join up important habitats,
while also ensuring more people can enjoy living closer to nature.
We will establish a new environmental tribunal to ensure that administrative decisions are consistent with environmental and nature-recovery obligations.
Land
Land is a public good, but it is not a common asset.
In 1979, 20% of land was owned by the public sector.
Today, that has halved.
Green Belts protect one tenth of our land
and offer conservation of some of our natural environment.
Introduced by Labour in 1947 to provide access to the countryside, they are threatened by developments.
A Labour government will maintain agricultural and rural structural funds but repurpose them to support environmental land management and
sustainable methods of food production.
We will invest in more county farms to replace those lost,
and will work with agricultural organisations to increase access into farming for new entrants.
Food
A quarter of all food purchased is wasted every year, equivalent to over 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, costing over £20 billion.
Yet Britain has an epidemic in food- related ill health, obesity, malnutrition and diabetes,
as well as increased food insecurity – with a boom in food bank use and record levels of hunger.
Labour will introduce A Right to Food.
We will end ‘food bank Britain’.
We will ensure everyone has access to healthy, nutritious, sustainably produced food.
We will halve food bank usage within a year
and remove the need for them altogether in three years.
We will establish a National Food Commission and review the Allotments Act.
We will make food security a reason to intervene in the economy and work with local councils to minimise food waste .
We will put farmers, fishers, food producers and workers at the heart of our plans for delivering healthy food locally.
We will support local food networks,
expand access to farm holdings
and ensure rights of union representation for all food and agricultural workers.
We will re-establish an Agricultural Wages Board in England so every part of the UK is covered.
We will set maximum sustainable yields for all shared fish stocks,
redistribute fish quotas along social and environmental criteria
and, if people vote to leave the EU, require the majority of fish caught under a UK quota to be landed in UK ports.
We aim to achieve net-zero-carbon food production in Britain by 2040.
Waste and Recycling
Waste, including plastic waste, pollutes our land and seas, killing wildlife and contaminating our food.
We will make producers responsible for the waste they create and for the full cost of recycling or disposal, encouraging more sustainable design and manufacturing.
In government in Wales, Labour has transformed the position of recycling, placing them in the top five globally for recycling rates.
A UK Labour government will learn from Wales’ example, and will also back bottle-return schemes.
We will invest in three new recyclable steel plants in areas with a proud history of steel manufacturing.
ANIMAL WELFARE
The Conservatives will sacrifice animal welfare standards in trade deals with other countries.
They threaten to bring back fox hunting and are pursuing the ineffective badger cull – the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory.
Labour has published an ambitious animal welfare manifesto which reiterates our commitments to prohibit foxhunting
and end the cull of badgers.
In England, we will introduce an animal welfare commissioner,
prohibit the sale of snares and glue traps,
end the badger cull
and ban the keeping of primates as pets.
We will work internationally to end commercial whaling,
ban the importation of hunting trophies of threatened species,
and boost police resources to tackle rural and wildlife crime.
REBUILD OUR PUBLIC SERVICES
29FUNDING
31NHS AND SOCIAL CARE
37NATIONAL EDUCATION SERVICE
42 POLICE AND SECURITY
46JUSTICE
49COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
52FIRE AND RESCUE
53DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
FUNDING
Universal public services, collectively provided through general taxation and free at the point of use for all, are how we guarantee the right to a good life.
Public services do more than make sure everyone has the basics.
They create shared experiences and strengthen social bonds.
They make our lives richer and more fulfilling.
A decade of Tory cuts has pushed our public services to breaking point.
Labour offers real change – we will make Britain’s public services the best and most extensive in the world.
We will pay for this by creating a fairer taxation system, asking for a little more from those with the broadest shoulders,
and making sure that everyone pays what they owe.
We will reverse some of the Tories’ cuts to corporation tax while keeping rates lower than in 2010.
We’ll ask those who earn more than £80,000 a year to pay a little more income tax,
while freezing National Insurance and income tax rates for everyone else.
We will end the unfairness that sees income from wealth taxed at lower rates than income from work.
VAT is a regressive tax that hits the poorest hardest and we guarantee no increases in VAT.
We will launch the biggest ever crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion
and reform the inefficient system of tax reliefs
Public services must also be accountable.
Labour will end the current presumption in favour of outsourcing public services and introduce a presumption in favour of insourcing.
And we will stop the public getting ripped off by taking back all PFI contracts over time.
When services are procured from the private sector, companies will be assessed against best practice public service criteria, including provisions for collective bargaining,
fair wage clauses,
adherence to environmentalstandards,
effective equalities policies,
full tax compliance
and application of pay ratios.
In the public sector, we will enforce maximum pay ratios of 20:1.
We will repair the damage the Tories have done to our social fabric, with a £150 billion Social Transformation Fund to replace, upgrade and expand our schools,
hospitals,
care homes
and council houses.
Public buildings will be modernised to ensure a reduction in their carbon footprint.
Our most valuable assets are the dedicated people who work in our public services, but under this government their pay has been cut in real terms.
Labour will restore public sector pay to at least pre-financial crisis levels (in real terms), by delivering year-on-year above-inflation pay rises, starting with a 5% increase, to reward and retain the people who do so much for us all.
NHS AND SOCIAL CARE
The National Health Service is one of Labour’s proudest achievements.
The right to free-at- the-point-of-use healthcare, universal and comprehensive in scope, is socialism in action.
A decade of Tory health cuts and privatisations has pushed our greatest institution to the brink.
Our hospitals are crumbling, equipment is outdated, IT systems are inadequate and community facilities are neglected.
There are 100,000 staff vacancies in NHS England, including a shortage of 43,000 nurses.
There are 15,000 fewer hospital beds.
Every winter, bed occupancy rates exceed dangerous levels.
Patients now wait far too long to see their GP, for an ambulance or for treatment.
Our immediate task is to repair our health services.
Our urgent priority is to end NHS privatisation.
Our mission is to create the conditions to prevent illness and enable people to live longer, healthier lives.
Quality Care for All
A Labour government will invest in the NHS to give patients the modern, well- resourced services they need.
We will increase expenditure across the health sector by an average 4.3% a year.
This investment enables us to end patient charges,
guarantee the standards of healthcare patients are entitled to receive from NHS England,
invest in education for the health workforce
and restore public health grants.
Our investments mean we deliver the standards of care enshrined in the NHS.
We will stabilise our overstretched A&E departments.
We will improve stroke, heart disease and cancer survival rates by providing earlier diagnosis and
improved screening rates.
We will call a moratorium on bed cuts.
Every penny spent on privatisation and outsourcing is a penny less spent on patient care.
Labour will end and reverse privatisation in the NHS in the next Parliament.
We will repeal the Health and Social Care Act
and reinstate the responsibilities of the Secretary of State to provide a comprehensive and universal healthcare system.
We will end the requirement on health authorities to put services out to competitive tender.
We will ensure services are delivered in-house and also bring subsidiary companies back in-house.
We will halt the fire sale of NHS land and assets.
We will publish an infrastructure plan to return NHS England to the international average level of capital investment
and to ensure future decisions are transparent and balanced fairly between every region.
We will complete the confirmed hospital rebuilds
and invest more in primary care settings,
modern AI, cyber technology and state-of-the-art medical equipment, including more MRI and CT scanners.
We will ensure data protection for NHS and patient information, a highly valuable publicly funded resource that can be used for better diagnosis of conditions and for ground-breaking research.
We will ensure NHS data is not exploited by international technology and pharmaceutical corporations.
We will uphold the principle of comprehensive healthcare by providing free annual NHS dental check-ups.
We will guarantee universal healthcare by ensuring women’s and children’s health services are comprehensive,
by protecting the rights of EU workers, other migrants and refugees
and by ensuring all our services are made accessible to BAME, LGBT+ and disabled patients.
We will end mixed-sex wards.
We will ensure our NHS becomes a net- zero-carbon service with an NHS Forest of one million trees,
more efficient heating and insulation systems,
greater reliance on renewable energy, including more solar panelling
and a transition to electric paramedic vehicles, NHS fleet cars and hybrid ambulances.
We will introduce mandatory standards for NHS in-patient food
and will provide free hospital parking for patients, staff and visitors.
Joined-up Care
As medical technologies advance, we will live with a wider array of chronic conditions.
Health and care must become more joined-up, more accessible, more personal and more preventative
We will stop Tory plans to further entrench the private sector delivery of health care under the cover of integration plans set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Instead we will join up, integrate and co-ordinate care through public bodies.
A Labour government will develop a planned model of joined-up community care, enabling people to live longer lives in better health in their own homes.
We will ensure the voices of local people
and NHS staff are heard in future developments of the health system.
We will allocate a greater proportion of overall funding to close-to-home health services
and build interdisciplinary, patient-focused services across primary care, mental health and social care.
We will ensure patients in deprived and remote communities will have better access to primary care services.
We will also ensure those living with long-term conditions can access the care they need.
To support our transition to community health care services, we will expand GP training places to provide resources for 27 million more appointments each year
and ensure community pharmacy is supported.
Mental Health
A Labour government will provide an additional £1.6 billion a year to ensure new standards for mental health are enshrined in the NHS constitution ensuring access to treatments is on a par with that for physical health conditions
Our mental health hospitals are not fit for purpose.
Over 1,000 people with mental health problems face hospital stays in old, dormitory-style  hospital wards,
while less than one in four A&E departments have the facilities to deal with people experiencing a mental health crisis.
We will invest £2 billion to modernise hospital facilities
and end the use of inappropriate, out-of-area placements.
The legislation for detaining people with learning disabilities and mental illnesses is outdated.
We will implement in full the recommendations set out in the independent review of the Mental Health Act, so that people are given choice, autonomy and the treatment they need.
We will invest more in eating disorders services
and ensure NICE guidelines on eating disorders are implemented.
We will improve access to psychological therapies to ensure they deliver the quality care patients deserve.
We will ensure provision of 24/7 crisis services.
Only one in four children and young people are able to receive help from a mental health professional.
Our £845 million plan for Healthy Young Minds will more than double the annual spending on children and adolescent mental health services.
We will establish a network of open- access mental health hubs to enable more children to access mental health
and recruit almost 3,500 qualified counsellors to guarantee every child access to school counsellors.
Inequalities
Life expectancy is stalling and infant mortality rates are increasing, especially among those living in our most deprived communities.
A Labour government will target a reduction in health inequalities with a comprehensive children’s health strategy.
We will introduce a Future Generations Well-being Act, enshrining health aims in all policies
and a new duty for NHS agencies to collaborate with directors of public health.
We will invest more than £1 billion in public health
and recruit 4,500 more health visitors and school nurses.
We will increase mandated health visits, ensure new mothers can have access to breastfeeding support
and introduce mental health assessments in a maternal health check six weeks after birth.
We will invest in children’s oral health,
tackle childhood obesity
and extend the sugar tax to milk drinks.
We will ban fast-food restaurants near schools
and enforce stricter rules around the advertising of junk food
and levels of salt in food.
We will take actions to significantly reduce infant deaths
and ensure families who lose a baby receive appropriate bereavement support
as well as protections at work.
The re-emergence of measles is an indictment.
We will urgently put in place a vaccination action plan to regain our measles-free status in WHO listings.
We will fully fund sexual health services
and roll out PrEP medication.
We will address drug-related deaths,
alcohol-related health problems
and the adverse impacts of gambling as matters of public health, treated accordingly in expanded addiction- support services.
Alcoholic drinks will be labelled with clear health warnings.
We will review the evidence on minimum pricing.
We will implement a Tobacco Control Plan
and fund smoking cessation services.
Workforce
A Labour government will end the crisis in our health and care services, plan for the future
and guarantee real-terms pay rises every year.
Agenda for Change terms and conditions will be put into law alongside safe staffing limits for all staff.
We will invest, train and develop NHS staff throughout their careers.
We will introduce a training bursary for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.
We will remove the obstacles to ethical international recruitment.
A Labour government will review the tax and pension changes implemented by the Tory government to ensure that the workforce is fairly rewarded .
and that services are not adversely affected.
We will provide mental health support for staff
and create a working environment within the NHS that is safe, flexible and free from harassment, bullying or violence.
Medicine
Under a Labour government the NHS will be at the forefront of the development of genomics and cell therapies
so that patients can benefit from new treatments for cancer and dementia,
whilst ensuring the UK continues to lead in medical developments.
The Orkambi cystic fibrosis drug is just the latest example of patients held to ransom by corporations charging extortionate prices for life-saving drugs.
We will establish a generic drug company.
If fair prices are rejected for patented drugs we will use the Patents Act provisions, compulsory licences and research exemptions to secure access to generic versions,
and we will aim to increase the number of pharmaceutical jobs in the UK.
We will play an active role in the medical innovation model,
ensuring rewards and incentives match the areas of greatest health need.
We will ensure that all parts of the NHS, the treatment of patients, the employment of staff and medicine pricing are all fully excluded and protected from any international trade deals.
We will progress clinically appropriate prescription of medical cannabis.
We will abolish prescription charges in England.
Social Care
Social care funding cuts have left 1.5 million older people without the care they need.
Almost £8 billion has been lost from social care budgets since 2010.
This is having a profound impact on unpaid carers in this country, with 2.6 million arers quitting their jobs to provide care to family members.
The current care system is at risk of collapse.
A Labour government will build a comprehensive National Care Service for England.
We will provide community-based, person-centred support, underpinned by the principles of ethical care and independent living.
We will provide free personal care, beginning with investments to ensure that older people have their personal care needs met,
with the ambition to extend this provision to all working-age adults.
We will develop eligibility criteria that ensures our service works for everyone, including people with complex conditions like dementia.
We will ensure no one ever again needs to face catastrophic care costs of more than £100,000 for the care they need in old age, which we will underscore with a lifetime cap on personal contributions to care costs.
We will also invest in other social care packages to reverse the damage done by Conservative cuts
and provide additional care packages to support both older people and working-age adults living independently in their own homes.
Our investments in social care services will enable us to more than double the number of people receiving publicly funded care packages,
improve the standard of care provided to them
and remove the distinction between health and care needs.
The provision of additional care packages also means we can support autistic people and people with learning disabilities to move out from inappropriate inpatient hospital settings and provide support in their own homes
Our National Care Service will work in partnership with the NHS, ensuring care is delivered for people, not for profit.
Contracts for providing care will not be awarded to organisations that do not pay their fair share of taxes
and do not meet our high standards of quality care.
Our focus will be on the ethical delivery of care that ensures growing public sector provision
and providers who meet standards of transparency, compliance and profit capping.
Nearly one and a half million people work in the care sector, but there are over 100,000 vacancies.
Labour will invest to end the social care crisis,
end 15-minute care visits
and provide care workers with paid travel time,
access to training
and an option to choose regular hours.
We will increase the Carer’s Allowance for unpaid full-time carers.
NATIONAL EDUCATION SERVICE
Education makes our economy stronger, our society richer and our people more fulfilled.
Whether it is businesses finding people with the right skills, a tech start-up making our economy more dynamic or more people in better paid work and able to contribute to public services, we all benefit from an educated society.
But education isn’t just vital to our economy –
it lets people develop their talents,
overcomes injustices and inequalities
and helps us understand each other and form social bonds.
The Conservatives have starved our education system of funding, transferring costs onto students, staff and communities.
They have lost sight of its value.
From cutting budgets of schools,
disproportionately in deprived areas,
to closing Sure Start centres
and underfunding support for those with special educational needs and disabilities,
Conservative policy has meant those in most need have lost out.
That’s why our National Education Service will be at the heart of Labour’s plan for real change.
It will provide free education for everyone throughout their lives
and will nurture every child and adult to find a path that’s right for them,
by promoting all types of learning, skill and knowledge – technical, vocational, academic and creative.
Early Years
Early years education is vital to children’s development.
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds start falling behind their peers before they even start school.
Early years education also helps parents – usually mothers – by providing a bridge between maternity/parental leave and school.
But the current system falls far short of what is needed.
One thousand Sure Start centres have closed since 2010,
while the Tories’ so-called free childcare offer is desperately underfunded
and excludes many of the most disadvantaged children.
We will reverse cuts to Sure Start and create a new service, Sure Start Plus, with enough centres to provide a genuinely universal service, available in all communities, focused on the under-2s.
Labour will radically reform early years provision, with a two-term vision  to make high-quality early years education available for every child.
We will also extend paid maternity leave to 12 months.
Within five years, all 2, 3 and 4-year- olds will be entitled to 30 hours of free preschool education per week
and access to additional hours at affordable, subsidised rates staggered with incomes.
Labour will also work to extend childcare provision for 1-year-olds
and to ensure that childcare provision accommodates the working patterns of all parents.
We will improve child development by transitioning to a qualified, graduate- led workforce.
We value the experience of current early years workers, and will offer free training to the workforce to attain these qualifications on the job.
Achieving this vision will require significant investment.
We will increase funding and end the fragmentation of the current system by funding providers directly, making things simpler and more sustainable for both parents and providers.
We will recruit nearly 150,000 additional early years staff, including Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators,
and introduce a national pay scale,
driving up pay for the overwhelmingly female workforce.
Maintained nursery schools provide a proven, high-quality service but they are under threat from Tory cuts.
We will provide sustainable, long-term funding to secure their future.
Schools
Labour will make sure schools are properly resourced with increased long- term funding,
while introducing a fairer funding formula that leaves no child worse off.
We will invest to upgrade schools that have fallen into disrepair.
Labour’s funding settlement will ensure pupils are taught by a qualified teacher,
that every school is open for a full five days a week,
and maximum class sizes of 30 for all primary school children.
We will also fund more non-contact time for teachers to prepare and plan.
Schools have faced years of budget cuts, leaving headteachers forced to beg parents for money for basic equipment.
Despite promising to reverse their own cuts, the Tories latest funding announcement leaves 83% of schools still facing cuts next year.
Schools are being subjected to intensified testing, inspection, league tables and competition.
These aren’t improving pupil achievement or narrowing the attainment gap,
but are contributing to a growing teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
The narrowing curriculum is denying many children access to modern languages, arts and music,
or technical and engineering skills that will be essential in a world shaped by climate change.
The academies system is over-centralised, inefficient and undemocratic.
Parents, communities and even teachers are shut out of decisions about schools
and vulnerable children are being let down.
And there is no evidence that academies deliver better results.
The Conservatives have failed a generation of children with special educational needs and disabilities, who have endured years of cuts and chaos.
Labour will provide the necessary funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Labour will end the ‘high stakes’ testing culture of schools by scrapping Key Stage 1 and 2 SATs and baseline assessments,
and refocussing assessment on supporting pupil progress.
We will introduce an Arts Pupil Premium to fund arts education for every primary school child.
We will review the curriculum to ensure that it enriches students and covers subjects such as black history and continues to teach issues like the holocaust
Pupils will learn both the science of climate and environmental emergency, and the skills necessary to deal with them
We will end the fragmentation and marketisation of our school system by bringing free schools and academies back under control of the people who know them best – parents, teachers and local communities.
Under our system:Budget and day-to-day decisions will be transferred back to schools, overseen by an accountable governing body with elected representatives.
Responsibility for delivery of education and support for young people will sit with local authorities, they will manage admissions. and have responsibility for school places, including the power to open schools
Oversight and coordination, including of continuous, peer-to-peer school improvement modelled on the London Challenge, will be carried out by regional offices of the NES.
All schools will be subject to a common rulebook, set out in legislation.
We will replace Ofsted and transfer responsibility for inspections to a new body, designed to drive school improvement.
A new teacher supply service will tackle the waste of funds going to private supply teacher agencies thanks to the government’s failure to recruit and retain experienced teachers.
We will take action to end ‘off-rolling’, removing the perverse incentives for schools to let pupils fall out of the system, by making schools accountable for the outcomes of pupils who leave their rolls.
We will properly regulate all education providers
and reform alternative provision (AP) to ensure an excellent education is the right of every child,
and improve the outcomes and life chances of some of the most vulnerable children in society.
We will ‘poverty-proof’ schools, introducing free school meals for all primary school children, encouraging breakfast clubs, and tackling the cost of school uniforms.
We will bring back the School Support Staff Negotiating Body
and national pay settlements for teachers.
We will close the tax loopholes enjoyed by elite private schools and use that money to improve the lives of all children,
and we will ask the Social Justice Commission to advise on integrating private schools and creating a comprehensive education system.
Further Education and Lifelong Learning
With automation and the Green Industrial Revolution bringing major changes to industry, it is more important than ever that people have the opportunity to retrain and upskill throughout their lives.
Under the Tories, adult education has undergone 10 years of managed decline.
England already faces a shortage of people with higher-level technical qualifications,
and demand for these skills will only grow as we create new green jobs.
Instead of investing in people to prepare them for the jobs of the future,
the Conservatives have slashed funding and cut opportunities.
Labour will ensure fairness and sustainability in further education,
aligning the base rate of per-pupil funding in post-16 education with Key Stage 4,
providing dedicated capital funding to expand provision
and bringing back the Education Maintenance Allowance as the Welsh Labour Government has done.
Labour will make lifelong learning a reality, giving everyone a free lifelong entitlement to: Training up to Level 3.
Six years training at Levels 4-6,
with maintenance grants for disadvantaged learners.
We will introduce additional entitlements for workers in industries that are significantly affected by industrial transition.
We will make sure training delivers the right skills by giving employers a role in co-design and co-production of qualifications.
We will restore funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses
and restore and expand the Union Learning Fund, giving workers the right to accrue paid time off for education and training.
Labour will reform existing careers advice, working towards an integrated information, advice and guidance system that covers the entire NES.
We will reverse the fragmentation and privatisation of further and adult education, incorporating it into a single national system of regulation that functions for education as our NHS does for healthcare provision.
Higher Education
Under the Tories, universities are treated as private businesses, left at the mercy of market forces, while top salaries soar and students pay more for less.
Tuition fees have trebled and maintenance grants have been scrapped, leaving the poorest graduates with an average debt of £57,000.
Labour will end the failed free-market experiment in higher education,
abolish tuition fees
and bring back maintenance grants.
We will fundamentally rethink the assessment of research and teaching quality,
and develop a new funding formula for higher education that: Ensures all public HE institutions have adequate funding for teaching and research.
Widens access to higher education
and reverses the decline of part-time learning.
Ends the casualisation of staff.
We will transform the Office for Students from a market regulator to a body of the National Education Service, acting in the public interest.
We will introduce post-qualification admissions in higher education,
and work with universities to ensure contextual admissions are used across the system.
POLICE AND SECURITY
The primary duty of government is to keep people safe.
Our communities were endangered when the Conservatives took 21,000 police officers off our streets.
Recorded crime has risen, including violent crimes like knife crime, which has risen to record high levels, up 80% in the last five years.
Last year more than 11 million crimes were recorded, and the proportion of offences charged has fallen across all categories: violence, drugs, robbery, burglary, weapons possession and vehicle theft.
Prosecutions have fallen to a record low level.
Some offences have been decriminalised in practice.
Only 1.4% of reported rapes are prosecuted.
Crime rates reflect the society we live in.
Conservative cuts to services have eroded the fabric of local communities.
The rate of school exclusions has increased, as has social inequality – crime rates are driven by both.
Where the Conservatives have failed, a Labour government will take action to address the causes of crime and end the epidemic.
We will invest in our communities and public services to build the stronger,  fairer society that keeps us all safer.
Rebuilding our criminal justice services, we will focus on crime prevention and early interventions, giving people the best chance of rehabilitation.
We will rebuild our youth services and guarantee young people’s access to youth workers.
We will invest in a youth justice system in which schools, local authorities, health authorities and youth services work together to divert young people away from the pathways towards crime.
Police
A Labour government will invest in policing to prevent crime and make our communities safer,
and we will enforce the laws protecting police and other emergency workers from violent assault.
We will rebuild the whole police workforce, recruiting more police officers, police community support officers and police staff.
We will re-establish neighbourhood policing
and recruit 2,000 more frontline officers than have been planned for by the Conservatives.
We will work with police forces to invest in a modern workforce to tackle the rise in violent crime
and cybercrime under the Tories.
To deliver these priorities, Labour will work with police and crime commissioners to reform police funding
and share new resources fairly, and to ensure that local needs are met.
The Tory approach to policing has been different: reckless, remote, authoritarian, ineffective policing on the cheap.
It has led to what HM Inspectorate of Constabulary described as dangerous, disturbing practices, with investigations shelved, vulnerable victims let down and dangerous suspects remaining at large.
We will retain local democratic accountability for police forces
and reform the police funding formula to ensure sufficient, sustainable resources are fairly allocated.
We will agree resources with the police authorities to combat crime
and restore community policing by consent.
Effective police work requires the police to serve their communities and work collaboratively with youth workers, mental health services, schools, drug rehabilitation programmes and other public agencies.
A police force working within our communities, with the capacity to gather local intelligence, is also the frontline of our domestic security – the first eyes and ears of effective counter-terrorism.
We will work to eliminate institutional biases against BAME communities.
Proportionate stop-and-search based on intelligence is a needed tool of effective policing, but the use of expanded powers means black and Asian men are still more likely to be stopped and searched, poisoning relations between the police and the local communities they serve.
We will ensure better police training on domestic abuse and offences arising from coercive control,
as well as historical abuses and other crimes neglected by the reduced forces operating under Tory austerity.
A Labour government will establish a Royal Commission to develop a public health approach to substance misuse, focusing on harm reduction rather than criminalisation.
We will introduce minimum legal standards of service for all victims of crime.
Security
We will address the failure of the Conservatives to take effective measures against a growing problem of extreme or violent radicalisation.
We will ensure closer counter terrorism co-ordination between the police and the security services, combining neighbourhood expertise with international intelligence.
We will ensure the powers exercised by the security services are proportionate and used in accordance with human rights.
We will review the circumstances requiring judicial warrant.
We will ensure agencies are accountable
and strengthen the powers of the Joint Intelligence and Security Committee.
We will constrain the right of the Prime Minister to suppress publication of committee reports.
A Labour government will review our security strategies.
We will review the Prevent programme to assess both effectiveness and potential to alienate communities
and consider alternatives including safeguarding programmes to protect those vulnerable to the recruitment propaganda and ideologies of the far-right and others who promote terror as a political strategy.
We will review the Protect programme to ensure that public authorities take appropriate security measures,
without alienating the communities they serve.
We will evaluate the mobile phone trials with the aim of introducing an emergency alert system.
We will use our diplomatic services, our aid budgets and our international standing to promote peaceful solutions to conflicts
and tackle the risks arising from poverty, natural catastrophes and population displacements.
Our national security is linked to global threats.
We will respect international law
and avoid needless military interventions.
Our security co-operation arrangements with EU neighbours are essential for our safety.
If the British people confirm their decision to leave, we will prioritise agreement of a new UK-EU Security Treaty.
Cybersecurity
Cybercrime and cyberwarfare are growing, all around the world.
Every aspect of our lives, from the NHS to our nuclear facilities, from transport systems to communications networks is vulnerable.
A Labour government, ever more dependent on digital technology, will overhaul our cybersecurity by creating a co-ordinating minister and regular reviews of cyber-readiness.
We will review the role and remit of the National Cyber Security Centre to determine whether it should be given powers as an auditing body, with the ability to issue warnings to private and public sector organisations and designate risk.
We will also review the structures and roles of the National Crime Agency, to strengthen the response to all types of economic crime, including cybercrime and fraud,
and ensure a modern, technologically advanced police service that has the capacity and skills to combat online crime,
supported by a new national strategy on cybercrime and fraud.
Border Security
Our border security prevents serious crimes including child abduction, people trafficking, smuggling of drugs and guns, terrorism and modern day slavery.
The Tories have further weakened our borders,
cutting another 200 jobs over the last four years.
They have failed to deliver exit checks.
In place of an effective border control they have required landlords, teachers and medical staff to work as unpaid immigration officers, creating a hostile environment.
A Labour government will review our border controls to make them more effective.
JUSTICE
Smarter justice requires cross-government action to reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences
and to break the vicious cycle of poverty, inequality and crime.
We will champion a joined-up approach, fostering close working relationships between criminal justice agencies with education authorities, health services and others by establishing violence-reduction units
and ensuring vulnerable people get the support they need by boosting public health, mental health and early years services.
Prison is not the best place to address the drug addictions, mental illnesses and debts that lead many people into crime.
The crisis in our criminal justice system has left communities less safe,
victims less supported
and people less able to defend their rights.
Labour will defend the rule of law.
Cutting thousands of prison officers has driven record levels of prison violence.
A Labour government will restore total prison officer numbers to 2010 levels,
and phase out dangerous lone working.
We will bring PFI prisons back in-house and there will be no new private prisons.
We will tackle the prison maintenance backlog and develop a long-term estate strategy.
The Ministry of Justice’s own evidence shows tens of thousands of crimes could be prevented if robust community sentences replace short prison sentences.
We will set new standards for community sentences and introduce a presumption against prison sentences of six months or less for non-violent and non-sexual offences.
We will invest in proven alternatives to custody, including women’s centres,
expand problem-solving courts
and plug the funding gap in the female offender strategy.
We will further consider the evidence for effective alternatives and rehabilitation of prolific offenders.
A Labour government will reunify probation
and guarantee a publicly run, locally accountable probation service.
Under Labour, probation staff and professional standards will once again be properly valued.
Legal aid cuts mean essential legal help is too often denied.
To help people enforce their rights, we will restore all early legal aid advice, including for housing, social security, family and immigration cases.
We will recruit hundreds of new community lawyers,
promote public legal education
and build an expanded network of law centres.
We will ensure legal aid for inquests into deaths in state custody
and the preparation of judicial review cases.
We will consult on the civil legal aid means-test levels
and act on the criminal legal aid review.
We will defend workers’ ability to recover legal representation costs from negligent employers.
We will keep the right for workers to be represented
and recover their costs in cases of employer negligence leading to injury at work.
We will review the eligibility criteria for the criminal injuries compensation scheme.
A Labour government will halt court closures
and cuts to staff,
and undertake a review of the courts reform programme.
We will facilitate a more representative judiciary
while upholding its independence,
and review funding for the Crown Prosecution Service.
We will tackle the disproportionate levels of BAME children in custody,
review the youth custody estate,
strengthen youth courts
and build on the Lammy Review.
Violence against women and girls is unacceptable
as is many women’s experience of criminal justice agencies.
We will set new standards for tackling domestic and sexual abuse and violence,
and appoint a Commissioner for Violence against Women and Girls.
We will establish an independent review into shamefully low rape prosecution rates.
We will establish a National Refuge Fund,
ensure financial stability for rape crisis centres
and reintroduce a Domestic Abuse Bill.
We will improve the safety of the family court system for domestic violence victims
and prohibit their cross-examination by their abuser.
We will introduce protections for victims of so-called revenge porn.
Labour will introduce a no-fault divorce procedure.
We will uphold women’s reproductive rights and decriminalise abortions.
We will establish public inquiries into historical injustices including blacklisting
and Orgreave,
and ensure the second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry has the confidence of all those affected, especially the bereaved families and survivors.
We will also consider a public inquiry in the case of Zane Gbangbola.
We will require judicial warrants for undercover operations
and retain the Mitting Inquiry into undercover policing.
We will release all papers on the Shrewsbury 24 trials
and 37 Cammell Laird shipyard workers
and introduce a Public Accountability Bill.
We will ensure fair compensation for the victims of contaminated blood products across the UK.
COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Labour will reverse the Tory decade of austerity for local government and aim to restore council spending powers to 2010 levels over the lifetime of the Parliament.
While those who make decisions in Whitehall can seem distant and detached, our local councillors live among us, shopping on the same high street, using the same parks and leisure centres and sending their children to the same schools.
Thriving local councils are vital to Labour’s democratic transformation of the economy.
Councils are the collective voice of local communities
and are on the frontline in delivering many essential public services.
Tory cuts, which have been deliberately targeted at the poorest areas of the country,
have plunged our councils into crisis
and pushed many services to breaking point
Decades of privatisation and outsourcing have hollowed out council capacity,
taken money out of communities
and undermined democratic accountability.
We will act to bring services – from bin collections to management of local leisure centres – back in-house within the next Parliament,
improving service quality, saving money
And ensuring the people who deliver vital local services are treated decently
Rural councils deliver public services differently, and this needs to be reflected in funding allocation mechanisms.
We will introduce a ‘rural- proofing’ process so that all our laws, policies and programmes consider their impact on rural communities.
Where local areas experience a sharp rise in demand for services, we will make council funding more reactive, and will work with councils to establish such a fund to meet changing circumstances.
Our high streets are being decimated by store closures and jobs losses.
High streets are more than places to shop, they are places we go for culture, company and character.
We will revive high streets by stopping bank branch closures,
banning ATM charges
and giving local government new powers to put empty shops to good use.
Business rates are causing real issues for high-street retailers and others.
A Labour government will review the option of a land value tax on commercial landlords as an alternative
and develop a retail sector industrial strategy.
We will make sure the rights of consumers are enhanced and protected,
that safety standards are maintained and improved,
and that local authority trading standards departments and other consumer protection agencies have the resources to enforce those rights and standards
We will stop Crown Post Office closures and bring Royal Mail back into public ownership at the earliest opportunity,
reuniting it with the Post Office and creating a publicly owned Post Bank run through the post office network
to ensure every community has easy access to face-to-face, trusted and affordable banking.
A Business Development Agency will be based in the Post Bank, providing free support and advice on how to launch, manage and grow a business.
Pubs are community hubs but 18 are closing each week in Britain.
Labour will list pubs as Assets of Community Value so community groups have the first chance to buy local pubs when they are under threat.
We will ensure libraries are preserved for future generations
and updated with Wi-Fi and computers.
We will reintroduce library standards so that government can assess and guide councils in delivering the best possible service.
As well as the presumption to insource public services, we will build community wealth by giving communities the powers and resources they need to keep public spending circulating in the local economy,
rather than being sucked offshore to corporate tax havens.
We will extend community control in the private sector by supporting local and community businesses.
We will give a new Co-operative Development Agency a mission to double the size of the co-operative sector.
Labour will put the voices of local people at the heart of planning.
We will rebalance power in the planning system by giving local government greater freedom to set planning fees
and by requiring the climate and environmental emergency to be factored into all planning decisions.
Young people have been let down by the Conservatives.
At least 750 youth centres have closed since 2012.
Too many young people now have nowhere to go, nothing to do and no one to help them with their problems.
Labour will build a properly funded, professionally staffed National Youth Service, and will guarantee every young person has access to local, high-quality youth work.
Vulnerable children have suffered most, with many left waiting until crisis point for support.
Councils are having to meet the needs of more at-risk children with lower funding.
Labour will launch a wholesale review of the care system, including kinship care, considering national standards such as a central register of foster parents
and regulation of semi-supported housing, to ensure we meet the needs of every child.
We will rebuild early intervention services and replace the Troubled Families programme with a Stronger Families programme, refocused on long-term support to reduce the risk of children going into care.
We will protect and build on Staying Put for over-18s in care
and the Adoption Support Fund.
FIRE AND RESCUE
The Conservatives have cut 11,500 firefighter jobs
and closed dozens of fire stations.
Response times have got slower and lives have been put at risk.
A Labour government will halt the cuts and further invest in our Fire and Rescue Service,
recruiting at least 5,000 new firefighters.
We will learn lessons from the public inquiries into Grenfell and earlier disasters.
We will establish a broadly based implementation taskforce, but will not wait for final recommendations to make urgently needed changes.
We will ensure dedicated fire controls under Fire and Rescue Service governance
and provide resources for a public Fire and Rescue College to ensure that necessary training, research and planning is undertaken.
We will conduct a review of the Fire and Rescue Service, evaluating safe staffing levels
and consulting on national minimum standards.
We will establish in law a standards body for fire prevention, protection and intervention,
with trade union representation at all levels.
We will reinstate separate governance arrangements for Fire and Rescue Service and police services.
We will give fire services the duty to co- ordinate the emergency response to floods locally.
DIGITAL , CULTURE , MEDIA AND SPORT
Digital
Digital and technological advancements bring challenges, but also huge opportunities.
In the age of AI and automation, digital connectivity will underpin our future economy.
We will need world-class digital infrastructure in which everyone can share.
Labour will deliver free full-fibre broadband to all by 2030.
We will establish British Broadband, with two arms: British Digital Infrastructure (BDI) and the British Broadband Service  (BBS).
We will bring the broadband-relevant parts of BT into public ownership,
with a jobs guarantee for all workers in existing broadband infrastructure
and retail broadband work.
BDI will roll out the remaining 90–92% of the full-fibre network, and acquire necessary access rights to existing assets.
BBS will coordinate the delivery of free broadband in tranches as the full-fibre network is rolled out, beginning with the communities worst served by existing broadband networks.
Taxation of multinationals, including tech giants, will pay for the operating costs of the public full-fibre network.
The plan will boost jobs,
tackle regional inequality
and improve quality of life
as part of a mission to connect the country.
We will enforce a legal duty of care to protect our children online,
impose fines on companies that fail on online abuse
and empower the public with a Charter of Digital Rights.
Culture
Britain’s thriving arts, culture and creative industries drive investments and encourage tourism.
A Labour government will open up career opportunities in these industries for everyone
and consult on ways to address the gender imbalance in the digital creative industries.
We will introduce an Arts Pupil Premium to every primary school in England –
a £160 million annual boost for schools to ensure creative and arts education is embedded in secondary education, and providing a pathway to grow our thriving creative sector.
We will invest in the towns and communities neglected for too long, with a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to transform libraries, museums and galleries across the country.
We will make the distribution of National Lottery funding more transparent to help communities get their fair share of project funding.
We will maintain free entry to museums, because everyone should have access to our shared heritage.
Building on the success of the UK City of Culture, we will launch a Town of Culture competition.
We will work with trade unions and employers to make creative jobs accessible for all, ensuring diversity in these industries so that everyone sees themselves represented on screen and on stage.
We will review the copyright framework to ensure fair remuneration for artists and content creators.
Media
A Labour government will ensure a healthy future for all our public service broadcasters, including BBC Alba and S4C.
We will protect free TV licences for over-75s.
A free and fair press is vital to protecting democracy and holding the powerful to account
We will address misconduct and the unresolved failures of corporate governance raised by the second stage of the abandoned Leveson Inquiry.
We will take steps to ensure that Ofcom is better able to safeguard a healthy plurality of media ownership
and to put in place clearer rules on who is fit and proper to own or run TV and radio stations.
We will take action to address the monopolistic hold the tech giants have on advertising revenues and will support vital local newspapers and media outlets.
We will consult media-sector workers and trade unions to establish an inquiry into the ‘fake news’ undermining trust in media, democracy and public debate,
and on a legal right of public interest defence for journalists.
Sport
Sport enriches our lives, binds communities together and helps us all to stay healthy.
Sport must be accessible and run in the interests of those who participate in it and love it.
In football, the professional game has become divided between the extremes of the very rich and the very poor with clubs in Bury and Bolton facing collapse.
A Labour government will examine the state of the game, its governance and regulation, its ownership rules
and the support and funding of the clubs that are vital to local communities.
We will review the ‘fit and proper person test’ for club owners and directors
and ensure that supporters’ trusts have a proper role so that the professional game is properly run for all its fans and all its clubs.
A Labour government will legislate for accredited football supporters’ trusts to be able to appoint and remove at least two club directors
and purchase shares when clubs change hands.
We will regulate safe standing in stadiums
and ensure that a proportion of the Premier League’s television rights income is spent on grassroots football facilities.
We will add the ICC Cricket World Cup to the list of crown jewel sporting events that are broadcast free-to-air.
We will commission an independent review into discrimination in sport.
Gambling
A Labour government will curb gambling advertising in sports
and introduce a new Gambling Act fit for the digital age,
establishing gambling limits,
a levy for problem gambling funding
and mechanisms for consumer compensations.
Civic Society
In the years of austerity it was non-government organisations that often held the social fabric of our society together,
protecting our communities from even greater harm
and providing precisely targeted support.
As we rebuild our public services, we will support and maintain the social capital values of these organisations.
TACKLE POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
59WORK
65WOMEN AND EQUALITIES
70MIGRATION
72 SOCIAL SECURITY
77HOUSING
81CONSTITUTIONAL  ISSUES
WORK
Work should provide a decent life for all,
guaranteeing not just dignity and respect in the workplace,
but also the income and leisure time to allow for a fulfilling life outside it.
Under the Tories, pay has stagnated
while insecurity and inequality are rising.
Work no longer guarantees a way out of poverty.
Of 14.3 million people in poverty, nine million live in families where at least one adult works.
Real wages are still lower than before the financial crisis,
while dividends paid to shareholders are up 85%.
Labour will eradicate in-work poverty in our first term by tackling the structural causes of poverty and inequality,
such as low pay
and high living costs,
while raising the floor provided by our social safety net.
Too many people have found themselves in a spiral of debt as wages fell and housing costs rose.
Labour will cap the total amount that can be paid in overdraft fees
or interest on a loan.
We will rapidly introduce a Real Living Wage of at least £10 per hour for all workers aged 16 and over,
and use savings to public finances to help small businesses manage the extra cost.
We will give workers a stake in the companies they work for – and a share of the profits they help create – by requiring large companies to set up Inclusive Ownership Funds (IOFs).
Up to 10% of a company will be owned collectively by employees,
with dividend payments distributed equally among all,  capped at £500 a year,
and the rest being used to top up the Climate Apprenticeship Fund.
The cap will rise to ensure that no more than 25% of dividends raised by IOFs are redistributed in this way.
And we will explore other innovative ways of responding to low pay, including a pilot of Universal Basic Income.
Growing numbers of the workforce are self-employed.
While for some this brings freedom and autonomy, it can also bring insecurity.
Self-employed people will benefit from a broad range of our policies, from free childcare and full-fibre broadband to face-to-face lending and business support through our Post Bank.
We will also seek to develop tailored support and protections for the self- employed, including: collective income protection insurance schemes,
annual income assessments for those on Universal Credit,
and better access to mortgages and pension schemes.
We will tackle late payments that leave small businesses and the self-employed waiting months to be paid, including banning late payers from public procurement.
Ministry for Employment Rights
Throughout history, working people in Britain have improved their lives by coming together to demand rights and protections.
Even after decades in which workers’ rights have been cut back and their unions’ capacity to defend them have been slashed, the Tories believe that workers’ terms and conditions should be dictated by employers on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis.
We are proud of the trade union movement’s historic achievements in giving people a voice at work through collective action.
It is not just part of our history; it is also part of our future.
Only by shifting the balance of power back towards workers will we achieve decent wages, security and dignity at work.
The next Labour government will transform people’s lives for the better through the biggest extension of workers’ rights in history.
We will give working people a voice at the Cabinet table by establishing a Ministry for Employment Rights.
We will start to roll out sectoral collective bargaining across the economy, bringing workers and employers together to agree legal minimum standards on a wide range of issues, such as pay and working hours, that every employer in the sector must follow.
Sectoral collective bargaining will increase wages
and reduce inequality.
This will also stop good employers being undercut by bad employers.
We will tackle insecurity by: Giving everyone full rights from day one on the job.
Strengthening protections for whistleblowers
and rights against unfair dismissal for all workers,
with extra protections for pregnant women, those going through the menopause and terminally ill workers.
Ending bogus self-employment and creating a single status of ‘worker’ for everyone apart from those genuinely self-employed in business on their own account, so that employers can not evade workers’ rights;
and banning overseas-only recruitment practices.
Introducing a legal right to collective consultation on the implementation of new technology in workplaces.
Banning zero-hour contracts
and strengthening the law so that those who work regular hours for more than 12 weeks  will have a right to a regular contract, reflecting those hours.
We will help people balance work and family life by: Increasing wages through sectoral collective bargaining.
Requiring breaks during shifts to be paid.
Requiring cancelled shifts to be paid and proper notice for changes in hours.
Giving all workers the right to flexible working.
Extending statutory maternity pay from nine to 12 months.
Doubling paternity leave from two weeks to four and increasing statutory paternity pay.
Introducing statutory bereavement leave, guaranteeing workers time off to grieve the loss of close family members or following miscarriage.
Introducing four new bank holidays celebrating our four patron saints’ days.
Reviewing family-friendly employment rights, including rights to respond to family emergencies.
We will make sure people are treated equally at work by: Requiring employers to devise and implement plans to eradicate the gender pay gap –
and pay inequalities underpinned by race and/or disability – or face fines.
Requiring employers to maintain workplaces free of harassment, including harassment by third parties.
Increasing protection against redundancy for people wherever they work.
Giving statutory rights to equalities representatives.
Setting up a Royal Commission to bring health (including mental health) and safety legislation up to date.
Ensuring that public-facing workers are protected by toughening the law against abuse and violence.
Banning unpaid internships.
We will remove unfair and unnecessary restrictions on trade unions, allowing people to come together and speak up on issues that affect them at work.
Allow trade unions to use secure electronic and workplace ballots.
Remove unnecessary restrictions on industrial action.
Strengthen and enforce trade unions’ right of entry to workplaces to organise, meet and represent their members and to recruit.
Ban union-busting,
strengthen protection of trade union representatives against unfair dismissal
and union members from intimidation, harassment, threats and blacklisting.
Repeal anti-trade union legislation including the Trade Union Act 2016 and create new rights and freedoms for trade unions
to help them win a better deal for working people.
Simplify the law around union recognition.
Give union reps adequate time off for union duties.
We will develop collective income- protection insurance schemes for the self-employed.
We will introduce a maximum workplace temperature to protect workers and require employers to take counteracting measures.
For years, the UK has been in breach of our international obligations.
We will bring UK law into line with the International Labour Organisation standards it has ratified, so Britain leads the world, instead of engaging in a race to the bottom.
Working Time
Time off to rest, relax and be with family is essential to a happy and fulfilling life, but workers in the UK put in some of the longest hours in Europe.
Labour will tackle excessive working hours.
Within a decade we will reduce average full-time weekly working hours to 32 across the economy, with no loss of pay, funded by productivity increases.
We will meet this target by: Ending the opt-out provision for the EU Working Time Directive and enforcing working-time regulations.
Setting up an independent Working Time Commission to advise on raising minimum holiday entitlements
and reducing maximum weekly working time.
Mandating bargaining councils to negotiate reductions in working time.
Investing to increase productivity
and making sure workers share the benefits.
We will keep restrictions on Sunday trading in place
and review unpaid overtime.
Enforcement
Rights don’t mean anything unless they’re enforced, but that is not happening under the Tories.
That doesn’t just hurt workers who lose out, it is also bad for employers who follow the law and are undercut by unscrupulous competitors prepared to break it
Strong trade unions are the best and most effective way to enforce rights at work.
Labour will also introduce a new, unified Workers’ Protection Agency to enforce workplace rights,
including the Real Living Wage.
It will be given extensive powers to inspect workplaces and bring prosecutions and civil proceedings on workers’ behalf.
We will keep employment tribunals free,
extend their powers,
and introduce new Labour Courts with a stronger role for people with industrial experience on panels.
Rewriting the Rules
Social justice also means levelling the playing field between small and big business,
and ensuring that democracy and accountability are valued across society, including in the private sector.
Businesses are the heartbeat of our economy, creating jobs, wealth and innovations.
But the upper echelons of corporate Britain have been corrupted by a culture in which the long-term health of a company is sacrificed for a quick buck for a few:
a short-term culture has seen some treasured companies asset-stripped,
leaving workers,
small business suppliers
and pensioners in the lurch.
Too often, the link between reward and long-term performance is broken for short-term greed.
Labour will take on short-termism and corporate greed, making sure good businesses are rewarded, not undercut.
We will rewrite the rules of the economy and ensure everyone plays by them.
We will amend the Companies Act, requiring companies to prioritise long-term growth
while strengthening protections for stakeholders, including smaller suppliers and pension funds.
We will tackle late payments that leave small businesses waiting months to be paid, including banning late payers from public procurement.
For small businesses, we will ensure no quarterly reporting for businesses below the VAT threshold.
We will require one-third of boards to be reserved for elected worker-directors and give them more control over executive pay – because when those who depend on a company have a say in running it, that company generally does better and lasts longer.
We will introduce a broader ‘public interest test’ to prevent hostile takeovers and asset-stripping
weakening our industrial base and destroying treasured home-grown companies.
And we will give workers a voice on public bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority.
We will let struggling companies go into protective administration, so they can be sold as a going concern rather than collapsing into insolvency.
Audits are vital to corporate accountability, but the auditing industry is dominated by a few players riddled with conflicts of interest.
Labour will separate audit and accounting activities in major firms
and impose more robust rules on auditors.
We will tackle regulatory capture and streamline regulation by creating a new Business Commission, responsive to parliamentary select committees.
Social Justice Commission
Labour will usher in a new era of social justice in Britain.
Everyone in our society should be allowed to flourish regardless of what class or postcode they are born into,
or the colour of their skin.
But that’s impossible when you cannot meet your most basic needs and have to choose between eating and heating your home.
Britain is one of the richest countries in the world, but under the Tories millions of people can’t make ends meet.
They tell us we shouldn’t care about inequality, because social mobility allows those who work hard to get on.
But nobody becomes a billionaire through hard work alone, and as inequality has grown, it has become more entrenched.
For Labour, the true measure of fairness is not social mobility but social justice.
Implicit in the notion of social mobility is the idea that poverty and inequality are acceptable provided some people can climb the social ladder.
Social justice, on the other hand, demands that we end poverty, reduce inequality and create a society in which the conditions for a fulfilling life are available to everyone.
Labour will replace the Social Mobility Commission with a Social Justice Commission, based in the Treasury,
with wide-ranging powers to hold us, and future governments, to account.
WOMEN AND EQUALITIES
Labour is the party of equality, committed to achieving a world free from all forms of bigotry and discrimination.
Whether campaigning on the streets or passing legislation in government, Labour is the only party to consistently stand with women, disabled people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and LGBT+ communities.
The Conservatives have failed to tackle society’s burning injustices.
Instead, they have inflicted injustice after injustice on women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and LGBT+ communities and disabled people.
Over 85% of the burden of Tory/Lib Dem cuts has fallen on the shoulders of women.
Labour will create a new Department for Women and Equalities, with a full-time Secretary of State, responsible for ensuring all our policies and laws are equality-impact assessed in order to deliver a fairer society for women
and all under-represented groups.
We will establish a modernised National Women’s Commission as an independent advisory body to contribute to a Labour government.
We are guided by our firm commitment to the Human Rights Act and Convention on Human Rights that have been consistently attacked by the Conservatives.
We will ratify both the Istanbul Convention on preventing domestic abuse
and the ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment at work.
We will put class at the heart of Britain’s equality agenda and create a new ground for discrimination on the basis of socio-economic disadvantage.
Women
Labour will put women at the heart of our government and programme.
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, yet women still earn 13% less than men.
Labour will take action to close the gender pay gap by 2030.
We will also: Deliver gender pay equality by making the state responsible for enforcing equal pay legislation for the first time.
The new Workers’ Protection Agency working with HMRC will ensure that employers take equal pay seriously and take positive action to close the gender pay gap.
Women will no longer be left to take enforcement action by themselves through the courts.
Require all employers with over 250 employees to obtain government certification on gender equality or face further auditing and fines.
By the end of 2020, we will lower the threshold to workplaces with 50 employees,
whilst providing the necessary additional support for small businesses.
Revolutionise parents’ rights by increasing paid maternity leave from nine to 12 months,
doubling paternity leave to four weeks
and extending pregnancy protection.
We will ban the dismissal of pregnant women without prior approval of the inspectorate.
Transform the workplace and require all large employers to have flexible working, including a menopause policy,
and consider changes to sickness and absence practices.
Enable positive action for recruitment to roles where employers can justify the need for more diversity
and introduce a right for all workers to request flexibility over their hours from the first day of employment.
Ensure that the single-sex-based exemptions contained in the Equality Act 2010 are understood and fully enforced in service provision.
Create a safer society for women
and prioritise domestic abuse as a health issue,
introduce 10 days of paid leave for survivors of domestic abuse,
and ensure women’s refuges receive the long-term sustainable funding they need.
Misogyny and violence against women and girls will become hate crimes.
Increase women’s representation across parliament by building on the Equality Act, passed by the last Labour government,
and enact Section 106 so that all political parties publish diversity data about electoral candidates.
Race Equality
Achieving racial equality is a bedrock Labour value.
It has never been more important than in the current climate.
We are proud of the way our country has been shaped by the contributions, cultures and values of people from around the world.
The Conservatives have fanned the flames of racism, using difference to divide.
They have made BAME people pay the price for their austerity project and scapegoated refugees and migrants.
Never was this starker than with their ‘hostile environment’, leading to the scandalous treatment of the Windrush generation.
Hate crime has more than doubled in the last five years.
This is a wake-up call for all of us.
Labour will ensure a pathway to economic inclusion for all, putting an end to all forms of racism and discrimination in our economy and society.
Inclusion will be at the heart of its programme for government.
We will: Seek to end the politics of hate and commission an independent review into the threat of far-right extremism and how to tackle it.
Put wealth and power in the hands of the many,
extend pay-gap reporting to BAME groups
and tackle pay discrimination on the basis of race.
Commit our National Investment Bank to addressing discrimination in access to finance, which many BAME business owners face;
and take action to ensure that BAME and women business owners have access to government contracts and spending.
Implement recommendations of the Lammy Review to address the disparity of treatment and outcomes for BAME people within the criminal justice system.
Create an Emancipation Educational Trust to educate around migration and colonialism,
and to address the legacy of slavery and teach how it interrupted a rich and powerful black history which is also British history.
On religious discrimination, we will: Strengthen protection for religious communities
and amend the law to include attacks on places of worship (including synagogues, temples, mosques and churches) as a specific aggravated offence.
Review current levels of funding for and access to the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme,
maintain funding in real terms for the Community Security Trust,
and consult on giving it statutory protection to ensure that religious communities have the support they need.
Disability with Dignity
Over the last 10 years, through a catalogue of punitive welfare policies, the dignity of people with disabilities has been degraded by the Conservatives.
Not one, but two UN reports describe the government having committed ‘systematic violations’ of the rights of disabled people –
while their families have been ‘driven to breaking point’ by cuts to social care.
More disabled people are now living in poverty,
and people have died because of this government’s choice to make the most vulnerable pay for tax cuts for the few.
Labour will end this cruelty, restoring the protections that disabled people and their families – many of whom shoulder the cost of their care -should expect in one of the richest countries in the world
Labour supports the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’.
We will:Champion the social model of disability throughout government.
Through our new Department for Women and Equalities, we will ensure that disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives.
Transform the workplace for disabled people by requiring that all employers be trained to better support them,
while introducing mandatory disability pay-gap reporting for companies with over 250 employees.
End disability discrimination and update the Equality Act to introduce new specific duties including disability leave, paid and recorded separately from sick leave.
Recommend that the Equality and Human Rights Commission prepare a specific code of practice on reasonable adjustments to supplement existing codes.
Thisnwill provide an appropriate balance between flexibility and clarity on how ‘reasonable’ cost is determined.
The code will also set timescales for implementation of reasonable adjustments to end the long and distressing delays experienced by disabled workers.
Reinstate the Access to Elected Office Fund to enable disabled people to run for elected office.
Adopt a British Sign Language Act, giving BSL full legal recognition in law.
We will work with employers, trade unions and public services to improve awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace and in society.
LGBT+ Equality
Labour has a proud history of standing shoulder to shoulder with LGBT+ people.
We abolished Section 28,
equalised the age of consent,
created civil partnerships,
and only with Labour votes could equal marriage become law.
Labour is committed to reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to introduce self-declaration for transgender people, but we are not complacent about the culture shift required to make LGBT+ inclusivity a reality.
The Conservatives have been slow to understand the scale of abuse and discrimination LGBT+ people continue to face in our society.
Labour will eliminate remaining areas of discrimination in law, ensuring that LGBT+ people can live in safety and dignity.
We will: Put LGBT+ equality at the heart of government, ensuring our public services are LGBT+ inclusive
and delivering on the national LGBT Action Plan.
Take steps to safeguard LGBT+ rights inside or outside the EU, such as retaining and promoting the Human Rights Act.
Tackle the homelessness and rough sleeping crisis in the UK, ensuring that all strategies and services
are tailored to understand needs unique to LGBT+ homeless people, particularly young people who make up a disproportionate number of our currently homeless people.
Provide sufficient funding for schools to deliver mandatory LGBT+ inclusive relationships and sex education.
Fully fund sexual health services
and roll out PrEP medication.
Respond fast and firmly wherever LGBT+ people face violence or persecution internationally
and appoint a dedicated global ambassador to the Foreign Office on LGBT+ issues.
Labour will work with organisations and charities already making the UK a more equal and fairer society and together we will build a country for the many, not the few.
MIGR ATION
A Labour government will establish a humane immigration system
and end the ‘hostile environment’ that caused the Windrush scandal of British citizens being deported.
Instead, our system will be built on human rights
and aimed at meeting the skills and labour shortages that exist in our economy and public services.
Our immigration system must allow us to recruit the people we need, and to welcome them and their families.
Our work visa system must fill any skills or labour shortages that arise.
The movement of people around the world has enriched our society, our economy and our culture.
We will take decisive action to regulate the labour market to stop the undercutting of wages and conditions,
and the exploitation of all workers including migrant workers.
It is the actions of bad bosses and successive Conservative governments that have driven down wages and working terms and conditions.
Labour will ensure all workers have full and equal rights from day one,
with a Real Living Wage for all.
The Conservative policy of pursuing net migration targets has undermined our economy
and our public services, refusing entry to essential key workers including nurses.
It has created a hostile environment within our communities,
encouraged the demonisation of migrants
and enabled the callous use of three million residents as bargaining chips in our negotiations over EU withdrawal.
Moreover, the Tories have not once met their own targets.
Their migration policies are a complete and damaging failure, whichever way they are looked at.
We will scrap the 2014 Immigration Act introduced by the Tories with their Liberal Democrat coalition partners.
We are for a levelling up of rights, not a race to the bottom.
We will not tolerate a two-tier system for those entitled to be here.
The Windrush scandal continues to create new victims.
We will end its injustices and provide fair compensation to those who have unfairly suffered.
We will end indefinite detention,
review the alternatives to the inhumane conditions of detention centres,
and close Yarl’s Wood and Brook House,
from which immediate savings would contribute towards a fund of £20 million to support the survivors of modern slavery, people trafficking and domestic violence.
We will ensure justice for migrant domestic workers
and restore the overseas domestic workers’ visa.
If we remain in the EU, freedom of movement would continue.
If we leave, it will be subject to negotiations, but we recognise the social and economic benefits that free movement has brought both in terms of EU citizens here and UK citizens abroad –
and we will seek to protect those rights.
In accordance with our values and domestic laws, we will uphold the right to a family life for British, EU and non-EU residents alike.
We will end the deportation of family members of people entitled to be here
and end the minimum income requirements which separate families.
Refugees
Refugees are victims of wars, environmental catastrophes, famine or persecution.
This government has failed its international legal obligations to refugees
and to allow people to exercise their rights to seek asylum.
A Labour government will uphold those rights and meet those obligations.
We will work with others to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean,
co-operate with the French authorities to put an end to the horrific camps,
and establish safe and legal routes for asylum seekers.
Once here, refugees will have the right to work,  access to public services and will be treated humanely by government at all levels.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Labour holds social security in the same esteem as our health and education systems.
It is there to help each of us in times of need.
If someone falls on hard times – because they lose their job, get sick or lose a loved one – Labour will help them live with dignity and provide support to get them back on their feet.
While Labour wants a society in which people care for one another, the Tories are trying to pitch us against each other.
Under the Tories, the social security system has lost sight of its purpose.
Poverty has become endemic,
the glue that binds our society together has come unstuck
and, in the words of the United Nations, the UK’s social safety net ‘has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos’.
The cruelty and heartlessness of the Tories has made the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) a symbol of fear.
When people feel the DWP is more about harassment than a helping hand, something has gone seriously wrong.
Labour will completely change this culture, replacing the DWP on day one with a Department for Social Security, which will be there to help and support people, not punish and police them.
We will put children at the heart of everything we do, developing a cross- governmental National Strategy for Childhood focusing on health, security, well-being and poverty.
We will give effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Universal Credit
The Tories’ flagship social security programme, Universal Credit (UC), has been a catastrophe.
It has pushed thousands of people into poverty,
caused families to lose their homes
and forced parents to visit food banks in order to feed their children.
Labour will scrap UC.
We will immediately stop moving people onto it and design an alternative system that treats people with dignity and respect.
Our ambition in designing this system will be to end poverty by guaranteeing a minimum standard of living.
We will start developing this system immediately.
But we have learned the lessons from Tory failure: major policy change can’t be delivered overnight, especially when people’s lives depend on it.
So we will also implement an emergency package of reforms to mitigate some of the worst features of UC while we develop our replacement system.
We will end the five-week wait by introducing an interim payment based on half an estimated monthly entitlement.
We will immediately suspend the Tories’ vicious sanction regime and ensure that employment support is positive not punitive.
We will stop 300,000 children from being in poverty by scrapping the benefit cap and the two child limit, so ending the immoral and outrageous ‘rape clause’.
We will pay childcare costs up front so that parents aren’t forced to turn down work or get into debt to pay for childcare.
Labour will protect women in abusive relationships by splitting payments and paying the child element to the primary carer.
We will make it easier for people to manage their living costs by introducing fortnightly payments and paying the housing element directly to landlords.
The Conservative’s ‘digital only’ approach is excluding vulnerable people.
Labour will end the digital barrier and offer telephone, face-to- face and outreach support.
We will recruit 5,000 additional advisors to deliver this.
Tory cuts are pushing people into rent arrears and leaving them at risk of homelessness.
We will stop housing costs running away from benefits by scrapping the bedroom tax
and increasing the Local Housing Allowance.
Disabled People
Labour stands with and for disabled people.
We will always challenge stigma and discrimination wherever it is found
and support the right of disabled people to live independently and be treated with respect.
The Tories’ rhetoric of ‘scroungers’ and ‘skivers’ has whipped up hatred of disabled people, with disability hate crime skyrocketing, up 37% in the last year alone.
Labour will never demonise disabled people
or the unemployed.
Labour follows the social model of disability – it is not people’s condition or impairment that disables them, but society’s failure to adapt to those conditions and impairments.
We are committed to removing the barriers constructed by society and ensuring that disabled people can participate fully and equally in our society.
The Conservatives have created a hostile environment for disabled people, who have borne the brunt of Tory cuts.
The United Nations has said that the Tories have systematically and gravely violated disabled people’s rights by denying them the support they are entitled to.
Labour will end this hostile environment.
We will give effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
and amend the Equality Act to reflect the social model of disability.
We will stop the dehumanising Work Capability and PIP Assessments, which repeatedly and falsely find ill or disabled people fit to work,
and make sure all assessments are done in-house.
Social security is meant to help disabled people cope with the additional costs and disadvantages they face.
But the Tories have cut back that support to inadequate levels.
Time and again disabled people have had to fight through the courts to receive the support they are entitled to.
Labour will make sure people who are ill and disabled receive the support they need to lead full, independent lives.
We will: Increase Employment and Support Allowance by £30 per week for those in the work-related activity group.
Raise the basic rate of support for children with disabilities to the level of Child Tax Credits
Ensure that severely disabled people without a formal carer receive extra support to enable them to meet the extra costs they inevitably face.
We will support those who look after others, increasing the Carer’s Allowance to the level of the Jobseeker’s Allowance.
We will help disabled people who want to work by bringing back specialist employment advisors,
introducing a government-backed Reasonable Adjustments Passport scheme to help people move between jobs more easily,
and reviewing support for disabled people at work, including the Access to Work scheme.
Pensions
People work hard for most of their lives and deserve a decent retirement free of financial stress and insecurity.
Under the Tories, 400,000 pensioners have been pushed into poverty
and a generation of women born in the 1950s have had their pension age changed without fair notification.
This betrayal left millions of women with no time to make alternative plans – with sometimes devastating personal consequences.
Labour recognises this injustice, and will work with these women to design a system of recompense for the losses and insecurity they have suffered.
We will ensure that such an injustice can never happen again by legislating to prevent accrued rights to the state pension from being changed.
The Conservatives have repeatedly raised the state pension age despite overseeing a decline in life expectancy.
Labour will abandon the Tories’ plans to raise the State Pension Age, leaving it at 66.
We will review retirement ages for physically arduous and stressful occupations, including shift workers, in the public and private sectors.
We will maintain the ‘triple lock’ and guarantee the Winter Fuel Payment, free TV licences and free bus passes as universal benefits.
Thanks to automatic enrolment, which was introduced by the last Labour government, record numbers of employees are now in workplace pension schemes.
But too many people are still not saving enough for a comfortable retirement.
We will stop people being auto-enrolled into rip-off schemes and seek to widen and expand access for more low-income and self-employed workers.
We will establish an independent Pensions’ Commission, modelled on the Low Pay Commission, to recommend target levels for workplace pensions.
We will create a single, comprehensive and publicly run pensions dashboard that is fully transparent, including information about costs and charges.
We will legislate to allow the CWU- Royal Mail agreement for a collective pension scheme to proceed and allow similar schemes.
Labour has listened to the NUM and in government will end the injustice of the state taking 50% of the surplus in the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme
and introduce new sharing arrangements so that 10% goes to government and 90% stays with scheme members.
This new sharing arrangement will also apply to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.
We will ensure that the pensions of UK citizens living overseas rise in line with pensions in Britain.
HOUSING
Everyone has the right to a decent, secure home.
In 1945, Labour promised to ‘proceed with a housing programme with the maximum practical speed until every family in this island has a good standard of accommodation’.
In 2019, we renew that pledge.
But too many people are being denied their right to a good home by our housing system that treats homes as financial assets rather than places to live.
There is no starker symbol of the failing housing system than the horror of the Grenfell Tower fire.
A Labour government will bring system-wide change, so that a tragedy like Grenfell never happens again.
We will introduce a £1 billion Fire Safety Fund to fit sprinklers and other fire safety measures in all high- rise council and housing association tower blocks,
enforce the replacement of dangerous Grenfell- style cladding on all high-rise homes and buildings,
while introducing mandatory building standards and guidance, inspected and enforced by fully trained Fire and Rescue Service fire safety officers.
Grenfell Tower was the confirmation of a more far- reaching crisis.
Everyone knows of someone affected by the housing crisis: younger people unable to buy a first home,
renters trapped in damp flats,
families stuck on council waiting lists,
leasehold home-owners hit by unfair fees,
people who are homeless living and dying on our streets.
The gap between the housing haves and have-nots is at the heart of the injustice in our country today.
Since 2010, the Conservatives have slashed funding for new homes,
refused to regulate for higher standards
and given a free hand to commercial property developers.
There are fewer new homes for social rent,
a million more households stuck renting from a private landlord,
900,000 fewer young people owning a home
and more than twice as many people sleeping on our streets.
Only Labour has a plan to fix the housing crisis.
We will act on every front to bring the cost of housing down and standards up, so that everyone has a decent, affordable place to call home.
Labour will create a new Department for Housing,
make Homes England a more accountable national housing agency
and put councils in the driving seat.
We will set out a strategy for a flourishing construction sector
with a skilled workforce
and full rights at work.
Labour will set up a new English Sovereign Land Trust, with powers to buy land more cheaply
for low-cost housing.
We will use public land to build this housing, not sell it off to the highest bidder.
Developers will face new ‘use it or lose it’ taxes on stalled housing developments.
We will keep the Land Registry in public hands, and make ownership of land more transparent.
We will make brownfield sites the priority for development
and protect the green belt.
Labour will tackle the climate crisis and cut energy bills by introducing a tough, new zero-carbon homes standard for all new homes,
and upgrading millions of existing homes to make them more energy efficient.
We will review the planning guidance for developments in flood risk areas.
Council and Social Homes
The only way to deliver on everyone’s right to a good home is to build publicly funded social housing.
Labour will deliver a new social housebuilding programme of more than a million homes over a decade, with council housing at its heart.
By the end of the Parliament we will be building at an annual rate of at least 150,000 council and social homes,
with 100,000 of these built by councils for social rent in the biggest council housebuilding programme in more than a generation.
We will establish a new duty on councils to plan and build these homes in their area,
and fund them to do so, with backing from national government.
We will scrap the Conservatives’ bogus definition of ‘affordable’, set as high as 80% of market rents, and replace it with a definition linked to local incomes.
These council and housing association homes will be more affordable than market housing
and built to higher standards.
We will end the conversion of office blocks to homes that sidestep planning permission through ‘permitted development’.
We will stop the haemorrhage of low- cost homes by ending the right to buy,
along with the forced conversion of social rented homes to so-called ‘affordable rent’.
We will review the case for reducing the amount of housing debt councils currently hold.
And we will give councils the powers and funding to buy back homes from private landlords.
We will give tenants a stronger say in the management of their homes
and stop social cleansing by making sure regeneration only goes ahead when it has the consent of residents,
and that all residents are offered a new property on the same site and terms.
We will fund a new Decent Homes programme to bring all council and housing association homes up to a good standard.
Home Ownership
Under the Tories, home ownership is getting further out of reach for more and more people.
Numbers of new affordable homes to buy have fallen,
and fewer younger people can afford their own home.
We will build more low-cost homes reserved for first-time buyers in every area, including Labour’s new discount homes with prices linked to local incomes.
We will reform Help to Buy to focus it on first-time buyers on ordinary incomes.
We will introduce a levy on overseas companies buying housing,
while giving local people ‘first dibs’on new homes built in their area.
We will bring empty homes back into use by giving councils new powers to tax properties empty for over a year.
Labour will end the scandal of leasehold for the millions who have bought their home but don’t feel like they own it.
We will end the sale of new leasehold properties,
abolish unfair fees and conditions,
and give leaseholders the right to buy their freehold at a price they can afford.
We will introduce equivalent rights for freeholders on privately owned estates.
Private Renters
More than 11 million people rent from a private landlord and many of them are at the sharp end of the housing crisis.
We will take urgent action to protect private renters through rent controls,
open-ended tenancies,
and new, binding minimum standards.
Labour will stop runaway rents by capping them with inflation,
and give cities powers to cap rents further.
We will give renters the security they need to make their rented housing a home, with new open-ended tenancies to stop unfair, ‘no fault’ evictions.
We will make sure every property is up to scratch with new minimum standards, enforced through nationwide licensing and tougher sanctions for landlords who flout the rules.
We will fund new renters’ unions in every part of the country – to allow renters to organise and defend their rights.
We will get rid of the discriminatory rules that require landlords to check people’s immigration status
or that allow them to exclude people on housing benefit.
We will give councils new powers to regulate short-term lets through companies such as Airbnb.
Homelessness
No one should sleep without a roof over their head in one of the richest countries in the world.
But under the Tories, the number of people sleeping rough has more than doubled.
Over 125,000 children are now living in temporary accommodation, without a home to call their own – or the space they need to thrive.
Labour will tackle the root causes of rising homelessness with more affordable homes
and stronger rights for renters.
Labour will end rough sleeping within five years, with a national plan driven by a prime minister-led taskforce.
We will expand and upgrade hostels, turning them into places where people can turn their lives around.
We will make available 8,000 additional homes for people with a history of rough sleeping.
We will tackle the wider causes of homelessness, raising the Local Housing Allowance in line with the 30th percentile of local rents,
and earmarking an additional £1 billion a year for councils’ homelessness services.
We will bring in a new national levy on second homes used as holiday homes to help deal with the homelessness crisis, so that those who have done well from the housing market pay a bit more to help those with no home.
We will save lives this winter by ensuring extra shelters and support are in place in all areas.
And we’ll repeal the Vagrancy Act and amend antisocial behaviour legislation to stop the law being used against people because they are homeless.
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
For many people, politics doesn’t work.
The Westminster bubble is a world away from their daily lives.
The Labour Party was founded to give working-class people a voice in politics.
We want our political institutions to be connected fully to the wider electorate, and will take urgent steps to refresh our democracy.
The time has come for the real changes that a Labour government will bring.
We will act immediately to end the hereditary principle in the House of Lords,
and work to abolish the House of Lords in favour of Labour’s preferred option of an elected Senate of the Nations and Regions,
but we also believe that the people must be central to historic political changes.
The renewal of our Parliament will be subject to recommendations made by a UK-wide Constitutional Convention, led by a citizens’ assembly.
This Convention will answer crucial questions on how power is distributed in the UK today,
how nations and regions can best relate to each other
and how a Labour government can best put power in the hands of the people.
Only a Labour government will safeguard the future of a devolved UK, reforming the way in which it works to make it fit for the future.
Britain is one of the most centralised countries in Europe.
Labour will decentralise decision-making and strengthen local democracy.
We reiterate our commitment to One Yorkshire,
and will make directly elected mayors more accountable to local councillors and elected representatives.
We will re-establish regional Government Offices to make central government more attuned to our English regions,
to support our regional investments,
and to enable the shift of political power away from Westminster.
Our democratic revolution will also extend to elections.
A Labour government will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which has stifled democracy and propped up weak governments.
We will maintain 650 constituencies and respond objectively to future, independent boundary reviews.
We will oversee the largest extension of the franchise in generations, reducing the voting age to 16,
giving full voting rights to all UK residents,
making sure everyone who is entitled to vote can do so by introducing a system of automatic voter registration,
and abandoning plans to introduce voter ID which has been shown to harm democratic rights.
Tackling Vested Interests
Labour will change how politics is funded, banning donations from tax avoiders and tax evaders,
and closing loopholes that allow the use of shell companies to funnel dark money into politics.
We will free the voices of civil society by repealing the Lobbying Act 2014 and overhauling the rules that govern corporate lobbying.
We will introduce a lobbying register covering both in-house lobbyists and think tanks and extending to contacts made with all senior government employees, not just ministers.
We will also increase the financial penalties available to the Electoral Commission
and require imprints for digital political adverts.
We will stop MPs from taking paid second jobs, with limited exemptions to maintain professional registrations like nursing.
We will replace ACOBA, the business appointments committee, with a sufficiently resourced and empowered new body, governed by a diverse and representative board and established in law.
We will also overhaul the system of ministerial appointments to public office.
We will bring greater transparency by extending Freedom of Information rules to cover private providers of public services, setting new standards of consistent disclosure practice
and ending the six-month time limit in which the Information Commissioner can prosecute the deliberate destruction of public records.
Northern Ireland
The Good Friday Agreement and long- term peace in Northern Ireland is one of the great achievements of Labour in government.
Therefore, as a priority, Labour will work quickly and tirelessly to secure the return of a genuine power- sharing government in Northern Ireland.
The devolved power-sharing institutions have not been running in Stormont for over 1,000 days.
During this period people have suffered in the face of a funding crisis as austerity continues to damage public services, which Labour will resolve.
Working with a new assembly and power-sharing government, Labour will invest an extra £1.9 billion to end austerity and rebuild public services in Northern Ireland
Women in Northern Ireland should have access to abortions in Northern Ireland.
A Labour government will fully implement new laws on equal marriage in Northern Ireland so that same- sex couples are no longer treated as second-class citizens.
We will work with all major parties in Northern Ireland to provide a good platform for the restoration of devolution
alongside bringing forward and implementing a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland as outlined in the Good Friday Agreement.
A Labour government will also protect Northern Ireland and its people in any future Brexit outcome by ensuring that there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
or the creation of a regulatory border down the Irish Sea.
Wales
Labour’s constitutional convention will include the Welsh Government’s 20-point plan for the future of the UK to better recognise the realities of a devolved UK.
Alongside this work, we need long-term reform of how the UK allocates public expenditure to ensure that it reflects the needs of different parts of our country
and that no nation or region of the UK is unfairly disadvantaged.
Labour in Wales has pioneered the social partnership approach.
With a UK Labour government investing an extra £3.4 billion in Wales,
and a UK Ministry for Employment Rights we will be able to do much more.
Wales led the first industrial revolution and with a Labour government in Westminster, we will be at the forefront of the Green Industrial Revolution of the future.
We will create jobs in Wales through environmental energy schemes such as the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project.
The Tories have let down the people of Ynys Môn (Anglesey) by failing to deliver the Wylfa project.
Labour will work with people on the island to maximise its potential for new nuclear energy,
alongside investment in renewables.
Nine years of Tory cuts have done untold damage
and the Thomas Commission on Justice in Wales is clear that the justice system is not working for Wales.
Labour governments in Wales and Westminster will work together, using the Commission’s report, to put that right.
Three years on from the 2016 EU referendum we understand much more about how Wales will be uniquely exposed to a hard Brexit.
Only Labour will put this decision back in the hands of the people,
and in Wales the Welsh Labour government will campaign to remain.
Scotland
Labour in government will give around 700,000 Scottish workers a pay rise when we introduce a Real Living Wage of £10 an hour.
We will also provide Scotland with at least around £100 billion of additional resources over two terms.
This investment will transform Scotland’s people, communities, public services and industries.
As part of that additional resource Labour would want to see £10 billion from our new National Transformation Fund invested in the building of 120,000 council and social homes in Scotland over the next ten years,
ending the housing crisis
and creating up to 50,000 jobs.
This is the difference a UK Labour government would make to Scotland
As part of our Green Industrial Revolution we will invest £6 billion in retrofitting houses across Scotland, which will help tackle the climate emergency
at the same time as lowering bills, ending fuel poverty
and creating 35,000 jobs.
A UK Labour government will also provide the Scottish National Investment Bank, under Scottish control, with £20 billion of lending power to deliver funds to local projects
and Scotland’s small businesses.
Labour believes that Scottish independence would be economically devastating and it would be the many not the few who would pay the price.
Scotland needs the transformative investment coming from a Labour government, not another referendum and not independence.
A UK Labour government will focus on tackling the climate emergency,
ending austerity and cuts,
and getting Brexit sorted.
That’s why in the early years of a UK Labour government we will not agree to a Section 30 order request if it comes from the Scottish Government.
THE FINAL SAY ON BREXIT
89THE FINAL SAY ON BREXIT
THE FINAL SAY ON BREXIT
Labour will give the people the final say on Brexit.
Within three months of coming to power, a Labour government will secure a sensible deal.
And within six months, we will put that deal to a public vote alongside the option to remain.
A Labour government will implement whatever the people decide.
Only a Labour government will put this decision in the hands of the people to give you the final say.
This will be a legally binding referendum and we will implement the people’s decision immediately.
The Tories have failed for three years to get Brexit sorted, in a shambles of repeated delays and uncertainty.
Whether people voted Leave or Remain in 2016, people and businesses are crying out for politicians in Westminster to finally focus on the wider challenges we face.
Labour rules out a no-deal Brexit,
and we will end the scandal of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being wasted on no-deal preparations.
No deal has never been a viable option.
It would do enormous harm to jobs, rights, security and to our NHS.
Labour has led the campaign to stop a no-deal Brexit.
A majority Tory government would pose a renewed threat of the UK crashing out with no deal.
Only a Labour government can prevent this.
We will rip up the deeply flawed deal negotiated by Boris Johnson.
We opposed his deal precisely because it would do such harm to workers’ rights,
environmental protections
and to our manufacturing industry.
Boris Johnson’s deal is even worse than Theresa May’s:
it would leave the UK £70 billion worse off by 2029;
it would give the green light to deregulation undermining UK manufacturing;
and it would leave our NHS at the mercy of a trade deal with Donald Trump.
This sell-out deal is unacceptable to Labour.
Labour will secure a new Brexit deal – one that protects jobs,
rights
and the environment,
avoids a hard border in Northern Ireland
and protects the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process.
We will also ensure that there is no change in the status or sovereignty of Gibraltar.
Our deal will be based on the principles we have set out over the last two years.
It will include: A permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union, which is vital to protect our manufacturing industry
and allows the UK to benefit from joint UK-EU trade deals,
and is backed by businesses and trade unions.
Close alignment with the Single Market – ensuring we have a strong future economic relationship with the EU that can support UK businesses.
Dynamic alignment on workers’ rights,
consumer rights
and environmental protections
so that UK standards keep pace across Europe as a minimum, allowing the UK to lead the way, not fall behind.
Continued participation in EU agencies and funding programmes, including in such vital areas of co-operation as the environment, scientific research and culture.
Clear commitments on future security arrangements, including access to the European Arrest Warrant and shared databases, making people safer at home and abroad.
Labour will secure a revised Withdrawal Agreement that provides legal protection for citizens’ rights,
meets our international obligations –
particularly with regard to the Good Friday Agreement –
and ensures an appropriate transition period to allow businesses and citizens to adapt to any new arrangements.
We will also secure robust and legally binding protections for workers’ rights,
consumer standards
and environmental protections,
and ensure level-playing- field protections are maintained.
Labour will never accept an outcome that puts rights and standards at risk.
Once we have secured this new deal we will put it to a legally binding referendum alongside the option of remaining in the EU.
This will take place within the first six months of a Labour government.
Labour is the only party that can heal the harmful divisions in our communities
and address the devastation caused by 10 years of austerity, ruthlessly imposed on society by the Tories and Lib Dems.
While other parties have exacerbated polarisation, defining everyone by how they voted in the 2016 EU Referendum, Labour has consistently reached across this divide.
Only Labour will deliver a final say referendum.
Only Labour will offer the choice of remaining in the EU, or leaving with a sensible deal.
This final say referendum will not be a re-run of 2016.
It will be legally binding.
Labour will implement the decision of the British people immediately.
Labour will introduce legislation to facilitate this referendum and to provide legal certainty and stability following the result.
We will introduce a Withdrawal Agreement and Referendum Bill, providing the legal basis to conduct and implement the outcome of the referendum.
We will scrap the Brexit legislation currently proposed by the Tories and introduce new legislation that is in line with Labour’s priorities and principles to protect our economy,
trade,
jobs
and rights.
This will include new legislation to ensure support and certainty for UK farmers,
our fishing industry
and protection for our natural environment.
Labour recognises the huge benefits of immigration to our country.
Many British citizens have benefited from freedom of movement, which has given them the opportunity to study, work or retire abroad.
Likewise our public services and our industry have benefited from skilled workers coming here.
Labour believes that citizens’ rights should never have been used as a bargaining chip in the Brexit negotiations,
and recognises the huge anxiety this has caused for the three million EU nationals living in the UK and the 1.2 million UK nationals who have made their home elsewhere in the EU.
We will end the uncertainty created by the EU Settlement Scheme by granting EU nationals the automatic right to continue living and working in the UK.
This new declaratory system will allow EU nationals the chance to register for proof of status if they wish, but will mean they no longer have to apply to continue living and working in this country.
This will help ensure reciprocal treatment for UK citizens living in the EU.
It will also prevent a repeat of the shameful Windrush scandal and avoid unnecessarily criminalising hundreds of thousands of EU nationals.
If in a referendum the British people decide to remain in the EU, this must not mean accepting the status quo.
Labour will work with partners across Europe to make the case for radical reform of the EU –
in particular to ensure that its collective strength is focused on tackling the climate emergency,
tax evasion
and ending austerity and inequality.
The EU needs a new political direction and, if the people decide the UK should remain in the EU, Labour will lead the way to ensure that change.
For too long a politically inflicted wave of austerity has damaged communities across Britain and across Europe.
The most vulnerable members in our society have suffered,
while the super-rich continue to be rewarded by a system that allows them to thrive at the expense of the many.
This must change.
If the country decides to remain, a Labour government will take a different approach and strive to ensure that the EU works for people across our communities.
The EU should focus on policies that value investment, protect public services and make those who have the most pay their fair share.
If people decide to leave, a Labour government will work constructively with the EU on vital issues of mutual interest and to the mutual benefit of the UK and EU.
But we will leave the EU.
Most importantly, under a Labour government, you will get the final say on Brexit.
A NEW INTERNATIONALISM
95A NEW INTERNATIONALISM
97EFFECTIVE DIPLOMACY
100DEFENCE AND SECURITY
103INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
A NEW INTERNATIONALISM
Labour will put human rights,
international law
and tackling climate change at the heart of our international policies,
and use our global influence to end the ‘bomb first, talk later’ approach to security.
Labour will always do what is needed to protect the security of people in the UK.
International peace and security will be a primary objective of a Labour government’s foreign policy.
Britain deserves better than the Conservatives’ reckless approach to complex global challenges
or the outsourcing of UK foreign policy to US President Donald Trump.
Failed military interventions in countries like Libya have worsened security across North Africa,
accelerating the refugee crisis.
Our approach will be based on our values.
Within the first year of government Labour will: Introduce a War Powers Act to ensure that no prime minister can bypass Parliament to commit to conventional military action.
Unlike the Conservatives, we will implement every single recommendation of the Chilcot Inquiry.
Conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy to understand our contribution to the dynamics of violence and insecurity across regions previously under British colonial rule.
Invest an additional £400 million in our diplomatic capacity to secure Britain’s role as a country that promotes peace,
delivers ambitious global climate agreements and
works through international organisations to secure political settlements to critical issues.
EFFECTIVE DIPLOMACY
Internationalism is at the core of the Labour movement.
We recognise our responsibility to confront injustices we see today and to correct the injustices of the past.
We will: Establish a judge-led inquiry into our country’s alleged complicity in rendition and torture,
and the operation of secret courts.
Issue a formal apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre,
and hold a public review into Britain’s role in the Amritsar massacre.
Allow the people of the Chagos Islands and their descendants the right to return to the lands from which they should never have been removed.
Uphold the human rights of the people of West Papua
and recognise the rights of the people of Western Sahara.
We have a duty to stand up for the security and sovereignty of our overseas territories, including the Falklands,
and for the rights of our citizens and dual- nationals abroad,
and will continue fighting for justice on behalf of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other British nationals wrongly imprisoned or suffering mistreatment in captivity abroad.
Human Rights
Human rights and international humanitarian law are fundamental pillars of a secure global system.
These principles are under threat.
Some of the world’s most powerful states choose to sell arms to human-rights abusing states.
Conservative ministers, including Boris Johnson, have signed off well over £2 billion of arms sales to repressive regimes since June 2017.
Around the world, human rights defenders and civil society activists remain vulnerable to attacks, often carried out with impunity.
We will: Immediately suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen
and to Israel for arms used in violation of the human rights of Palestinian civilians,
and conduct a root-and-branch reform of our arms exports regime so ministers can never again turn a blind eye to British-made weapons being used to target innocent civilians.
Reform the international rules- based order to secure justice and accountability for breaches of human rights and international law, such as the bombing of hospitals in Syria,
the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip,
the use of rape as a weapon of war against the Rohingya community in Myanmar
and the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in Yemen.
We will work through the UN and the Commonwealth to insist on the protection of human rights for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil and Muslim populations.
Appoint human-rights advisers to work across the Foreign Office and government to prioritise a co-ordinated approach to human rights.
Advocate for human rights at every bilateral diplomatic meeting.
Climate Diplomacy
There is no greater injustice today than countries in the Global South paying the price for a climate crisis they did not cause.
Yet some world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, champion a climate-change denial agenda.
Britain’s climate-change diplomacy was respected internationally, playing an important role in securing the Paris Agreement, following the leading role the UK played in securing the Kyoto Agreement.
However, Boris Johnson – who has described global warming as a ‘primitive fear… without foundation’ – has overseen a 60% cut in the UK’s global network of climate experts.
Only Labour can rebuild Britain’s leadership on the most serious threat to our shared humanity.
We will: Rebuild our climate expertise within the Foreign Office, putting climate diplomacy at the heart of our foreign policy.
Use our influence at the UN, EU, G7, G20, World Bank, the Commonwealth and other global institutions to promote policies to tackle the climate emergency.
Use our diplomatic expertise to negotiate and deliver more ambitious global targets to deal with the climate emergency, starting with COP 26 in Glasgow next year.
Prioritising Conflict Prevention and Building Peace
The Conservatives have failed to play a constructive role in resolving the world’s most pressing humanitarian crises, including in Kashmir, Yemen and Myanmar, and the escalation of tensions with Iran.
The treatment of the Kurdish people in Syria, including by Turkey, and of the Uighurs in China has been met with total inaction and apathy by the current UK government.
In some cases, they set aside regard for international law, including refusing to criticise Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Labour is committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two- state solution – a secure Israel alongside a secure and viable state of Palestine.
There can be no military solution to this conflict, which must be settled on the basis of justice and international law.
All sides must avoid taking action that would make peace harder to achieve.
That means both an end to the blockade, occupation and settlements, and an end to rocket and terror attacks.
Labour will continue to press for an immediate return to meaningful negotiations leading to a diplomatic resolution.
A Labour government will immediately recognise the state of Palestine.
Labour will take all lawful action necessary to counter and confront all forms of terrorism, .
and we will advocate a long-term multinational political strategy, led by regional actors, to tackle the spread of extremism.
We believe effective diplomacy can address the drivers of conflict and insecurity.
We will: Build support for UN reform, including assessing and developing democratisation initiatives, and improving the engagement of the General Assembly in decision-making to ensure its institutions are more effective at achieving peace.
Prioritise our responsibility to prevent conflict by investing in local capacities for peacebuilding in areas of conflict – advocating for political, multilateral strategies for peace.
Act immediately to urge negotiations towards a political resolution to conflict wherever it arises, including in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
DEFENCE AND SECURIT Y
The primary duty of government is to guarantee the security of people in the UK.
Labour’s defence policy will be strategic and evidence-led.
Our security at home is made stronger when the security of others elsewhere is guaranteed too.
An incoming Labour government will undertake a Strategic Defence and Security Review to assess the security challenges facing Britain, including new forms of hybrid, cyber and remote warfare.
This review will also take account of the climate emergency,
and associated threats of resource competition,
involuntary migration
and violent conflict.
Under the Conservatives:  Boris Johnson refuses to publish the report into possible foreign interference by Russia in UK democracy.
Trained army personnel have been cut from 102,000 to just over 74,000.
Armed forces and their families have been forced to live in sub-standard accommodation.
Failing outsourced contracts have not been terminated.
Our Armed Forces personnel received below-inflation pay rises for seven years.
The security challenges we face know no borders.
Labour will increase funding for UN peacekeeping operations to £100 million.
We will maintain our commitment to NATO
and our close relationship with our European partners,
and we will use our influence at the United Nations to support peace and security worldwide.
Labour supports the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Labour will also actively lead multilateral efforts under our obligations to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to create a nuclear-free world.
Labour’s commitment to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence will guarantee that our armed forces are versatile and capable of fulfilling the full range of roles and obligations
We will scrap the public sector pay cap, which resulted in a real-terms pay cut for our armed forces,
ensure decent housing for forces members and their families,
and guarantee better access for all forces children to good quality local schools.
We will consult on creating a representative body for the armed forces, akin to the Police Federation.
Labour will improve opportunities for veterans through access to lifelong learning and training,
housing
and mental and physical health services,
and will seek greater consistency in the implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant by public authorities.
We will pay a lump sum of £50,000 to each surviving British nuclear-test veteran to support them and their families with the health conditions they have suffered as a result of exposure to radiation.
We will also ensure that black and Asian soldiers who fought in Britain’s colonial armies receive a full apology
and explore ways to compensate them for the discriminatory demob payments they received compared to their white counterparts serving at the same rank in the same regiments.
The UK defence industry is world- leading and Labour will continue to work with manufacturers, unions and export partners in line with Labour’s foreign policy to support innovation in this sector to ensure it maintains its highly skilled workforce and world- class apprenticeship programme.
We are committed to procurement that supports UK defence manufacturing including our aerospace and shipbuilding,
alongside a vibrant supply chain that includes the British steel industry and other component manufacturing companies
providing good jobs throughout supply chains.
Labour will publish a Defence Industrial Strategy White Paper, including a National Shipbuilding Strategy, that keeps all Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary shipbuilding contracts in the UK,
to secure a long-term future for the industry and its workers.
Reducing our carbon footprint can only happen with ambitious emissions reduction targets at the Ministry of Defence, one of government’s biggest energy users.
So as part of our Green Industrial Revolution, we will create a Climate Change Sustainability Committee within the department to review the feasibility of increasing the use of sustainable energy in defence,
and publish a strategy to accelerate the safe and sustainable recycling of our old nuclear submarines.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARIT Y AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
The scale of the challenges facing our world are enormous.
Conflict, climate change and a global economy rigged in favour of a tiny elite are driving instability and inequality across the world.
A bold international development policy driven by social justice has never been more needed.
Labour will use Britain’s influence within the World Bank, IMF and WTO to transform the rules of the global economy so they work for the many.
We recognise the need to address historic injustices and will reset our relationships with countries in the Global South based on principles of redistribution and equality, not outdated notions of charity or imperialist rule.
Unlike the Conservatives, Labour is fully committed to a standalone Department for International Development (DfID), with an aid budget of at least 0.7% of gross national income.
We will introduce the reduction of inequality as a goal for all aid spending alongside existing poverty reduction and gender equality goals.
For the Conservatives, too often humanitarian aid is undermined by their disastrous foreign policy, as in Yemen.
Under Labour, we will ensure policy coherence across our international-facing departments.
Under Labour, DfID will continue to respond to the world’s biggest crises
and will ensure humanitarian aid is provided according to need, not whether the UK has commerical or other interests in the country.
DfID will assume a strong position in cross-government decision making, including a permanent seat on the Export Control Joint Unit responsible for licensing arms exports.
Our international programme will be based on human rights
and gender equality.
We will: Uphold basic rights to education, health and clean water by establishing a new Unit for Public Services within DfID, which will include increasing direct budgetary support to governments so they can build sustainable services for their citizens.
Promote fairer international tax rules
and help countries in the Global South build progressive tax systems to finance essential public services.
Support trade unions internationally in their efforts to promote collective bargaining for better pay and conditions,
and include binding social chapters in trade agreements to safeguard workers’ rights.
Support ongoing UN efforts to introduce a binding international treaty on business and human rights,
and make companies legally accountable for failing to prevent human rights abuses
or environmental damage in their operations and supply chains,
including criminal liability in the most serious cases.
Implement a gender transformative approach across all our international work,
including tripling funding for grassroots women’s organisations
and establishing an independent ombudsman to tackle abuse in the development sector.
Labour believes in climate justice.
Wealthy countries like the UK bear the greatest responsibility for the climate emergency.
Countries in the Global South that have done the least to cause climate change are already facing the worst impacts, such as rising sea levels, more frequent hurricanes and greater food insecurity.
We have a duty to right this wrong.
We will: Provide a top-up of new and additional spending on international climate finance to bring the total to £4 billion a year,
and also support international calls for compensation to those nations already suffering loss and damage.
Stop all aid spending on fossil fuel production overseas, redirecting it towards clean, renewable energy for all.
End all UK Export Finance support to fossil fuel projects,
and reject any trade deals that conflict with our climate principles.
Undertake a root-and-branch reform of CDC Group plc (DfID’s principal vehicle for encouraging private sector investment in developing countries), transforming it into a green development bank mandated to fight poverty,
inequality
and climate change.
Labour respects the crucial role played by small-scale farmers the world over in guaranteeing people the right to food.
We will: Establish an aid-funded Food Sovereignty Fund to enable small- scale farmers in the Global South to gain access to land, seeds and finance,
and uphold indigenous peoples’ right to land.
Support sustainable local food and agriculture markets in the fight against climate change.
Labour believes human rights should drive our trade policy.
We will:  Implement UK arms export controls to the highest standard, putting an end to exports where they might be used in violation of human rights
or international humanitarian law.
Ensure government procurement contracts are not granted to companies that are complicit in serious human rights abuses,
and require all UK trade agreements to be consistent with international humanitarian law.
Introduce legislation to ensure transparency and parliamentary scrutiny of trade and investment agreements.
Reject any trade agreements that undermine labour standards
or environmental protections,
and rule out UK Export Finance support to companies engaged in bribery or corruption.
Labour recognises the right to essential medicines as an integral part of the right to health.
We will: Promote fairer international patent regimes that do not prevent countries from accessing essential medicines
and support efforts to increase the transparency of medicines pricing so governments can negotiate fair prices.
In the long term, ensure that all medicines developed with the support of UK taxpayer money are accessible to people in the Global South.
12904_19 Reproduced from electronic media, promoted by Jennie Formby, General Secretary, the Labour Party, on behalf of the Labour Party, both at, Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London, SW1E
Stop Boris, Stop Brexit
SDLP Manifesto General Election 2019
We’ll take our seats - where it counts, when it counts
THE BATTLE AGAINST BREXIT
After this election, Boris Johnson will use every tool at his disposal to remove Northern Ireland from the European Union to satisfy the ERG and Nigel Farage.
People here know that the European Union has played a central role in our peace process,
providing constitutional comfort
and critical resource to stabilise our new society.
A Conservative government, propped up by the DUP, will not hesitate in dismantling that architecture to achieve their selfish ambition of a reckless Brexit.
Regardless of your feelings about Westminster and its behaviour over the last three years – that is where the battleground against Brexit now is.
The solidarity we have received from our European friends and neighbours has been immense and it is appreciated.
Only MPs who take their seats can stop Brexit and stop Boris Johnson.
Small numbers will make a big difference to the parliamentary arithmetic, particularly when it comes to neutralising the influence of the DUP.
SDLP MPs will use their votes to protect people, businesses and communities here at all costs.
We will go to work to stop Boris and stop Brexit.
A POLITICAL VACUUM
In the absence of an inclusive, power sharing Executive at Stormont, more and more decisions have been outsourced to MPs in London.
While two parties abdicate their responsibility to compromise, come together and govern, Westminster has slowly started to take decisions on issues that we should be taking here.
That includes: Welfare
Equal Marriage
Climate emergency
Historical  Institutional  Abuse compensation
Victims’ Pensions
NHS Privatisation
The SDLP believes that decisions should be made in Belfast not in London.
We want power back on Irish soil not in Westminster.
However, it is impossible to argue that Westminster is irrelevant while it makes decisions affecting the lives of people here.
It is dishonest of other parties to say Westminster does not affect our lives while writing to British Government Ministers asking them to act in our interests.
SDLP MPs are more interested in writing laws than writing letters.
We have used our influence at Westminster in the past, across a range of issues, to secure more for people here, including:
City and Region growth deals for Northern Ireland Belfast and Derry;
Climate Change legislation in Westminster;
The response to the Saville report;
Preventing an amnesty for those who committed sectarian violence;
Devolution of Justice to the Assembly;
Voting against welfare cuts;
Voting against the Iraq war;
Pensions for the Desmonds workers;
There is no principle more important than defending and delivering for the people we represent.
If you turn up for us, SDLP MPs will turn up for you.
Stop Boris, Stop Brexit
THE MOST PRO-EUROPE PARTY
The SDLP is proud of our history as the most pro-European party on this island.
While others opposed the principles of European integration, our leaders were inspired by the European Union as the world’s most successful peace project - bringing former enemies together to forge a new vision for the continent from the fierce antagonism of the second world war.
The European ideals are ingrained in our own peace process thanks to the work of SDLP Leaders and negotiators.
That’s why we were the only party in Northern Ireland to officially register to campaign against Brexit and the first party to propose special status.
It’s also why we are the only local party that consistently voted against withdrawal from the European Union at Westminster after the referendum.
We voted to remain.
For the last three years, Northern Ireland has been abandoned by abstentionist MPs and misrepresented by hardline DUP Brexiteers at Westminster who have ignored the will of people here for five minutes of influence with two Tory governments.
This election is your chance to say their time is up.
VOTING FOR CHANGE
For the first time in almost three years, we now have the opportunity to remove Boris Johnson from office and put an end to Brexit.
SDLP MPs will use every parliamentary, legal and diplomatic tool at our disposal to stop Brexit.
These include: Voting to revoke the Article 50 notification.
Supporting a People’s Vote second referendum and campaigning to remain.
Voting for continued membership of the EU Single Market and Customs Union.
Voting against any attempt to introduce a customs or regulatory border across Ireland.
Voting to prevent a damaging no-deal exit.
A PROGRESSIVE COALITION
There is no such thing as a good Brexit, there are only degrees of harm which will be inflicted on people, businesses and communities here.
SDLP MPs will defend the interests and the will of people here by voting to stop Brexit at every opportunity.
Pro-Brexit parties are already cooperating, we need a strong coalition to counter their efforts.
That’s why the SDLP has already taken unilateral pre-election action to maximise the pro-remain vote and remove pro-Brexit DUP MPs.
Our first act in a new parliament will be to bring together a progressive cross-party coalition to stop Brexit and stop Boris Johnson.
We will work with Labour, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, Plaid Cymru, the Alliance Party and anyone else who shares our goal of ending this hard Tory Brexit chaos.
Delivering Climate Justice
OUR VISION
A green new deal and just transition that transforms our economy
and helps prevent immediate climate breakdown.
OUR PLEDGE
Emergency legislation incentivising the transition from a carbon-intensive to a carbon neutral economy by 2030
and support schemes to allow families to make informed decisions about a clean, green future.
A SEISMIC CHALLENG E
Climate breakdown is the seismic global challenge facing this generation.
Failure to take action now will result in significant changes to our global climate and weather patterns that will devastate developed and developing economies across the world, leaving millions destitute and poverty-stricken.
Global warming is happening and at a much faster rate than anticipated.
Extraordinary action is required to keep global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius and avert irreversible damage to our climate.
Over the course of the last few years, millions of citizens, led by young people, across Europe and across the world have called on governments and the political establishment to take action on the climate emergency, for this generation and for the next.
The expressions of this crisis, through protests in European capitals and school strikes on the streets of Northern Ireland, have their roots in social, economic, ecological and political upheaval.
We know that this crisis will disproportionately affect those least able to bear the burden.
Interventions designed to tackle the climate emergency must be robust, equitable and contribute to social justice more broadly.
We cannot create a society that offers tax cuts to the wealthy while introducing new levies that disproportionately target the poor.
ECOLOGICAL & ECONOMIC EQUALITY
We cannot decarbonise our economy without ensuring that clean energy is affordable energy.
We cannot deliver income equality without a green economy that creates high quality jobs.
We know that ecological transition and economic equality must go hand in hand.
Accepting and addressing the causes of the climate crisis is critical to avoiding irreversible damage to ecosystems
and economies
The SDLP believes that protecting the environment is not an expensive political hobby horse.
It is a moral, economic and health imperative that, if planned and implemented correctly, can benefit people, communities and businesses.
While balancing the needs of our economy with the needs of people and communities,
we must also respect the needs of our natural environment.
Protecting our indigenous plant and animal life is critical to preserving the delicate ecosystems which we occupy.
That demands a tough new look at planning policy to create a new approach to development that respects and nurtures local habitats.
The shift to a net gain approach to biodiversity and development across these islands should be examined as a potential model for an ecologically aware economy.
A GREEN TRANSITION
We understand the scale of the challenge facing developed economies.
We can’t step into an open, Green economy without a stable transition from where we are now.
We need to create low-carbon alternatives to high-carbon industries
and a significant support package to those working in these industries.
Our green transition will balance our duty to preserve, protect and enhance the environment
with the social and economic rights of all workers.
The European Commission estimates that measures to achieve the current 2030 climate targets alone could create an additional 900,000 jobs.
But first, we have to support carbon-intensive industries to make their processes more carbon neutral and resource efficient.
We also have to support workers in these sectors to develop new skills that will allow us to lead emerging and transformed industries.
ACTION AT EVERY LEVEL
The scale of the crisis we’re facing demands urgent action at every level.
That’s why SDLP councillors have established climate crisis committees in councils across Northern Ireland to examine how they can mitigate climate breakdown through procurement, by reducing reliance on single use plastics, increasing the availability of water refill stations in parks and public places among other measures.
Under an SDLP Minister, the Executive introduced the plastic bag levy, raising almost £30m for environmental projects
and removing 1.2 billion bags from circulation since 2012.
An SDLP Minister introduced a moratorium on Fracking.
An SDLP Minister refused the planning application for an incinerator at Hightown.
The limit of our ambition for renewable energy should not be heating empty sheds with biomass boilers.
Northern Ireland has immense capacity for a transformational shift from legacy fossil fuel technology to green, clean energy production.
From the potential of geothermal spots on the North Coast to diversifying our fishing fleets to support sustainable offshore wind, renewable technology is an underutilised resource.
It’s vital that we invest in renewable tech, research and development to occupy the space of leadership in this growth sector.
OUR CLIMATE PRIORITIES
Governments across the world must do more to secure the sustainability of our planet.
Failure in this moment will condemn future generations to a crisis not of their making.
SDLP MPs will: Press for coordinated action at inter-governmental level to deliver robust emissions reduction targets with an aim for carbon neutrality by 2030.
Secure robust carbon reduction targets specific to Northern Ireland through the Committee on Climate Change.
Incentivise green energy production to position Northern Ireland as a leader in clean technologies.
Support electric vehicle subsidy programmes with a view to ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
Introduce a Coastal Community Network to develop a coastal adaptation plan to deal with the threat of rising sea levels.
Work with farming organisations to explore alternative methods of subsidy which prioritise public goods including carbon sequestration,
forest management
and flood plain development.
Reform planning rules to make climate change adaptation a material consideration for significant development proposals
and introduce a biodiversty net gain approach to new development applications.
Pass laws that ban fracking.
Introduce a moratorium on strip mining and precious mineral/metal mining until it can be proven that there will be no risk to the enviroment or public health.
CLIMATE  COORDINATION
The European Union is the perfect model for coordinating climate action across all member states.
Acting together with our European sister nations, we can more effectively coordinate emissions reduction targets, renewable energy uptake and decarbonisation plans.
The European Commission’s analysis shows that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 will deliver: A 2% increase in GDP compared with the baseline scenario
A 0.9% increase in employment, representing 2.1 million new jobs
A reduction in energy import dependence from 55% to 20%
A reduction in the fossil fuel import bill by 70% (curently €266 billion)
A saving of €200 billion per year on health spend associated with air pollution
We’ll be even more ambitious and push for carbon neutrality by 2030, setting the pace for a decade of action to save our planet.
World Class Health Services
OUR VISION
A world class health service, delivering excellent care free at the point of need.
THE PRICE OF IMPASSE
The SDLP believes that our health service is suffering from the political impasse.
We need a Health Minister, scrutinised by a Health Committee, to take key decisions and unlock urgent investment.
It is clear that our health service has been a victim of chronic under-resourcing for a number of years, as a result of the Tory-led austerity and a lack of decisive and courageous leadership to implement strategic review after review.
From hospitals to community care, there has been no commitment to a strategic and properly resourced vision of how our health service will care for an expanding and ageing population.
Our waiting lists are growing, leading to distress for individuals and their families.
People in the North are at least 48 times as likely to wait more than a year for care as the closest waiting time in Britain.
One in four people here are on a waiting list.
Waiting lists in each individual Trust area here in the North are longer than the entirety of waiting lists in England.
It is clear our health service needs to transform to meet the needs of the people.
That’s why the SDLP supports the Bengoa Expert Panel report and supports removing politics from the equation and planning services based on need.
NHS PRIVATISATION
The SDLP will fight hard against any attempt to privatise our NHS.
Our MPs will oppose Boris Johnson and make it clear that our NHS is not on the table in any future trade negotiations with the USA.
Our votes in Westminster will be crucial to help to ensure that the biggest social democratic achievement in the world is protected from creeping Tory-Trump privatisation.
OUR PLEDGE
Our pledge to you is that we will take the politics out of health.
We will lead an honest conversation about our health and social care system and we will not shy away from difficult decisions when they are in the public interest.
SUPPORTING OUR GREATEST ASSET – OUR STAFF
The greatest asset of our health service is the staff who go above and beyond, in challenging circumstances, to deliver excellent care.
Our hardworking staff deserve a fair and consolidated long over due pay rise, along with the protection of working conditions.
The SDLP will fight for pay parity so our nurses and healthcare workers are not earning less than their counterparts in Britain.
We also need a comprehensive and fit-for-purpose strategy to tackle the crisis in our workforce, focusing on recruitment and retention.
THE IMPACT OF BREXIT ON HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Brexit will have a huge impact on public services across the North, but most acutely on our health and social care sector.
In Northern Ireland, 8.8% of doctors come from other EU countries.
In the absence of a functioning Executive, more than ever, Northern Irelands needs MPs to show up to vote in patients interests against a hard Tory Brexit that threatens health workforce supply and timely access to drugs.
MENTAL HEALTH
More than 200,000 people across the North suffer as a result of poor mental health, with almost 50% of these cases related to the conflict.
The SDLP believes in parity of esteem for mental health services
and that these services need to be properly resourced.
We must secure an appropriate, community based provision which addresses both the trauma imparted by the conflict
and other areas of mental ill health such as eating disorders.
It is crucial we instill knowledge and tools in our young people, from childhood, to ensure they are resilient with strong mental wellbeing.
The SDLP supports enhanced dual diagnosis and services for those suffering from mental ill health and addiction,
particularly for under 18’s.
RURAL  HEALTHCARE
The SDLP is of the firm view that there must be a balance between centralisation of services in regional centres of excellence and ensuring that rural communities are able to access care, particularly emergency care, in a way that needs their needs.
We will ensure that the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Air Ambulance is properly resourced to meet the needs of geographically isolated communities.
GENERAL PRACTICE`
The number of GP practices in the North have decreased to the lowest level in over 20 years, providing care to on average 500 more people than 10 years previously.
We must properly invest in primary care provision, supporting the roll out of the multidisciplinary teams to enhance general practice.
The SDLP supports a review of primary care, seeking to model the service in more innovative ways with easier referral pathways.
MEDICAL SCHOOL AT MAGEE
The SDLP will support the development of a Medical School in Derry to address decades of economic inequality and long standing workforce challenges, to provide much needed primary care capacity west of the Bann.
This investment will provide critical support to a workforce at breaking point
and provide opportunity for communities in the North West, who have been neglected for too long.
PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
The SDLP supports measures to increase public health and prevention including; inclusion of prevention as a key Programme for Government priority,
engage the entire workforce in prevention
and a wider focus on maternal and child health, obesity, smoking, substance misuse and mental health.
LONELINESS
The SDLP believes there should be a strategy to address loneliness in the North, noting the work done by Sinead Bradley MLA on the cross-party Loneliness taskforce.
Evidence highlights the impact extreme loneliness can have on the mental and physical health of an individual.
NORTH - SOUTH HEALTHCARE
The SDLP is committed to an all-island approach to health and social care.
We want to see increased provisions for North-South healthcare including a joined-up approach to ambulance service provision in the border areas.
Cross border services including ENT at Daisy Hill and Craigavon hospitals and paediatric cardiology in Dublin have all reduced waiting times and waiting lists.
It is vital these services are protected and more investment in cross border services is delivered.
FERTILITY
Noting that 1 in 7 families across the North experience   difficulty  in  having  children, the SDLP supports wider access to IVF treatment on the NHS
and will increase the entitlement to three IVF cycles, as  is  the  case  in   Scotland.
Investing in skills
OUR VISION
An education system that provides all of our people with the skills and opportunities to achieve their ambitions.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Excellence and achievement in education is vital for equality, prosperity and wellbeing.
The SDLP is committed to the development of an education system which sees achievement and excellence as something that all of our young people can reach for
For too long, too many young people have left our schools still lacking basic numeracy and literacy training and with next-to-no training for life or the workplace.
Improvements mean tackling, at source, the problems which lead to educational underachievement, be they inside or outside the classroom.
Financial cuts to school have had a drastic effect on the ability of teachers to provide basic materials in our schools - in some areas principals have had to resort to asking parents for financial and other support to ensure schools are adequately resourced.
SDLP MPs will ensure that any future funding package for Northern Ireland includes ring-fenced resources for our education system.
EARLY YEARS
The first years of a child’s life are vital for their wellbeing.
The foundations for our paths in life are laid in these years.
The SDLP has consistently campaigned for an increase in free childcare provision to 20 hours per week, with a view to further increasing this to 30 hours per week.
We remain steadfastly committed to delivering on this commitment and any extra funding secured by SDLP MPs will be used for this purpose.
OUR PLEDGE
We will ensure that any future funding package includes ring fenced resources for university expansion and skills development.
PRIMARY AND POST PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
The political failure to restore power-sharing in Stormont, has led to a deepening of the financial crisis, with a delay in decision making leading to the decay at the heart of our education sector.
It is disgraceful that schools are now resorting to writing to parents asking for support so that schools can be properly resourced - this cannot continue and increased funding for schools will form a central principle of any package which SDLP MPs secure.
Our curriculum requires modernisation if we are to compete globally.
This should include the introduction of computer coding and modern languages for all children from primary school,
the reinstatement of the requirement to take a GCSE in a modern language
and the teaching of mathematics to age 18
In addition, life skills such as financial management and mental resilience should be taught from post-primary school on.
The SDLP remains opposed to academic selection, a system which results in dramatic inequality in education and puts young children through a needlessly stressful process.
An education system which welcomes and supports all children in deciding their own educational pathway is vital and we will continue to work to end this outdated and unfair system.
AUTISM AND ADHD SUPPORT
The lack of support for children diagnosed with autism or ADHD is reaching crisis levels in our schools.
Delays in assessments, excessive bureaucracy, red-tape and the lack of co-ordination between health and educational authorities means that children and their families do not receive the help they need.
The SDLP will commission an urgent review of SEND education provision, including the Education Authrority’s work in this area and the implementation of the SEND Act (NI) 2016 to report urgently on improvements to be made in this area.
FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Universities and FE Colleges are critically important to providing training and skills for our society and economy.
As well as providing training for our young people, they attract national and international funding and build close links with research and industry which benefits our entire economy and society.
The SDLP is committed to enhancing financial support for our third level institutions, ensuring that they are resourced to deliver world-class standards in teaching and research.
Supporting and enhancing relationships with businesses is also vital in making sure young people who want to stay here for employment are able to do so.
The SDLP remains committed to funding education as a public good, including putting an end to tuition fees.
In addition, the SDLP is committed to the expansion of the Magee campus to 10,000 student places through direct government funding, North South structural funds and further government support.
APPRENTICESHIPS
Funding for apprenticeships at all levels, including higher-level apprenticeship is vital to improve training and skills opportunities for young people and in our overall productivity.
The SDLP will seek to increase funding of these opportunities, and to provide direct support to universities, colleges and employers to further expand the number of Higher-Level Apprenticeships.
The Apprenticeship Levy requires substantial reform and the inclusion of a delivery mechanism to allow Northern Ireland based employers to access additional resource.
A vibrant economy
OUR VISION
A prosperous, world class economy, delivering equality and opportunity to all our citizens.
A BROAD CHALLENGE
Building a vibrant and world class economy creates jobs,
reduces inequality
and means more revenue to support public services
That is why the task of strengthening our economy will be the central focus of SDLP MPs, an Executive if and when it returns, and our local councils.
The SDLP is committed to improving our economy and growing our private sector.
That economy is not just our businesses, but it is all organisations, including third sector, who work to improve our society.
CITY DEALS
The SDLP pioneered the introduction of City Deals in Northern Ireland.
We welcome the recent developments in councils across Northern Ireland.
City Deals will play a key part in ensuring access to training for young people increasing employment
and ensuring that our technology infrastructure meets the demands of the modern economy.
However, it is clear that for spending to be authorised for each City Deal, we need a local Executive in place and that is absolutely vital to fully realise the potential of our City Deals.
OUR PLEDGE
The SDLP will prioritise wealth creation, training and skills,safeguarding our young people and workers against the economic threats of Brexit.
TOURISM
While our tourism market goes from strength-to-strength, key financial tools to support the tourism industry remain in the control of Westminster.
The SDLP will continue to call for an end to Air Passenger Duty (APD) which will allow airports in Northern Ireland to compete with their Southern counterparts and explore new routes to attract tourists.
In addition, the power to reduce VAT on tourism and hospitality services remains at Westminster and SDLP MPs will seek its reduction to act as an additional stimulus to our tourism market.
AGRICULTURE & AGRI-FOOD
Brexit is the greatest threat to the agriculture sector in decades and SDLP MPs will do everything in our power to stop it and to reduce the damaging effect it will have on our farming communities.
That means ensuring that everything must be done to stop a hard Brexit which would see the economic decimation of farms through the removal of tariffs
and flooding of our markets with cheap poor-quality imports.
Ensuring the maintenance of EU standards, including on animal welfare, will form a key part of our work in Westminster
and we will not support a race-to-the-bottom for any agricultural standards in any post-Brexit scenario.
SDLP MPs in Westminster will ensure that our agri-food industry has a voice at the top table when it comes to decisions on agri-food and new markets.
This means our farmers and agri-food businesses will not be disadvantaged through any UK-wide deals which may emerge.
CORPORATION  TAX
The SDLP supports the devolution of corporation tax powers to Northern Ireland as an absolutely vital step in growing private sector employment.
The impact of any cut must be competitive, especially against other similar regions, and should be focused on delivering growth in areas of high productivity and employment.
HOUSING
The work of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and housing associations in providing social housing is absolutely vital.
It is important that social housing providers are given full support to ensure that more new housing is built in the areas of greatest need.
The reclassification of housing association debt is a vital way of ensuring the full financial strength of associations can be harnessed to build more homes.
Affordable housing schemes should also be expanded to give more first-time buyers the chance to own their own home.
This means that those who are unable to access social housing, but cannot buy their own home, are able to have this chance.
The SDLP will work to see the creation of more shared housing schemes, more mixed developments to include social, affordable and private homes and reform of common selection and regulation of the private rented sector.