The Labour Party today unveiled its manifesto for the 4 July General Election, with wealth creation and economic growth at the heart of the party’s plans.
The Labour Party today unveiled its manifesto for the 4 July General Election, with wealth creation and economic growth at the heart of the party’s plans.
Unveiling the party’s manifesto at the Co-op headquarters in Manchester, Starmer told the audience: “The way we create wealth is broken. It leaves far too many people feeling insecure. Wealth creation is our number one priority. If you take nothing else away from this today, let it be this. We are pro-business and pro-worker. A plan for wealth creation.”
He went on to add: “It is too hard for working people to get on, opportunity is not spread evenly enough and too many communities are not just locked out of the wealth we create, they’re disregarded as sources of dynamism in the first place.”
The Labour Party leader pledged to ‘turn the page forever’. So, what are the key themes and takeaways from the manifesto. We’ve got a breakdown of some of the key pledges:
Economy
- The Labour Party made clear its commitment to its fiscal rules, that the current budget moves into balance, so that day-to-day costs are met by revenues and that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the fifth year of the forecast
- Planning reform in order to build 1.5 million new homes
- Set up the publicly owned GB Energy in order to cut bills for good
- £1.5bn to new gigafactories “so our automotive industry leads the world”
NHS
- Alongside pledging to reduce NHS waiting lists, the Labour Party will deliver 40,000 more NHS appointments each week, during evenings and weekends too
- New dentistry rescue plan, including 700,000 more urgent appointments
- Recruit 8,500 additional mental health staff
- Double the number of cancer scanners
- Bring back the “family doctor”
Immigration
- Create a “Border Security Command” -with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers, and cross-border police officers, funded by ending Rwanda scheme
- Hire additional caseworkers to tackle the asylum backlog
- Reform the points-based immigration system
Education
- Recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects
- 3,000 new primary school-based nurseries
- Free breakfast clubs in every primary school
- High-quality apprenticeships and specialist technical colleges
Constitutional reform
- Votes for 16 and 17 year olds
- Immediate reform of the House of Lords
- A new Ethics and Integrity Commission
- Enforced House of Lords retirement age of 80
- Establish “modernisation committee” for House of Commons
Law and order
- Crack down on antisocial behaviour with more neighbourhood police
- Recruit “thousands” of new police officers
- Introduce new offences for spiking and for the criminal exploitation of children
- Refer every young person caught in possession of a knife to a Youth Offending Team to receive a mandatory plan to prevent reoffending, with penalties including curfews, tagging, and custody for the most serious cases.
- A ban ninja swords, lethal zombie-style blades and machetes, and strengthen rules to prevent online sales
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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