Political Parties - Conservative Manifesto (2024) Example
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The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 CLEAR PLAN BOLD ACTION SECURE FUTURE
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Contents Page 3 - Foreword Page 4 - Bold actions to deliver a secure future for our country and for your family Page 5 - Our plan for a secure, dynamic and growing economy Page 13 - Our plan to cut taxes and protect pensions Page 17 - Our plan to support families Page 21 - Our plan to get more people into work and build a fairer welfare system Page 25 - Our plan to give young people the opportunities and skills they need Page 29 - Our plan to secure our nation from global uncertainty Page 35 - Our plan to control immigration and stop illegal immigration Page 39 - Our plan to deliver better health and social care Page 43 - Our plan for safer streets and justice for victims of crime Page 47 - Our plan for an afordable and pragmatic transition to net zero Page 51 - Our plan to build more houses in the right places Page 55 - Our plan to strengthen communities Page 61 - Our plan to back farmers and fsheries to grow our food security Page 65 - Our plan to support our rural way of life and enhance our environment Page 69 - Our plan to support sport and the creative sector Page 71 - Our plan to strengthen the United Kingdom
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We are restoring our economic stability after Covid and Ukraine. Infation is down, real wages are up, growth has returned – and we are cutting taxes to give working people fnancial security. This did not happen by accident. The economy is turning a corner because we built strong economic foundations before the pandemic and we have stuck to our plan. We must stick to this plan and take bold action to secure the future of our nation and society. In the next decade, we’ll face challenges to our energy and national security from foreign conficts; to our border from uncontrolled and illegal migration; to our economy from global shocks and to our society from those seeking to divide and disempower communities. Dealing with these challenges requires a clear plan and bold action. We have that plan and the courage to take the bold steps necessary to build a secure future for you and your family. A future where hard work and doing the right thing is always rewarded, not punished with higher taxes and hidden green levies, or discouraged with unconstrained welfare. A future where aspiration and opportunity are celebrated and young people always get the skills they need to succeed. A future where public services, like the NHS, serve citizens not vested interests, and every citizen upholds British values of decency, democracy and service. A future, where national, border, energy and food security are put frst, not taken for granted, and immigration is never allowed to run out of control. A future where family is always supported and communities decide their own priorities, rather than having them imposed from above. A future where we can have pride – in ourselves, in our communities and in our country. There is only one way to secure that future – and that is to vote Conservative on 4 July. We must stick with the plan – a plan that has given four million more people the security and purpose of a job, cut taxes for 29 million working people, protected pensioners with the Triple Lock, delivered more than 2.5 million homes, recruited record numbers of police ofcers to cut crime by more than 50%, recruited record numbers of teachers to help our children become the best readers in the West, delivered the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War and got Brexit done. The alternative is we go back to square one. To a fragile economy under Labour driven by unfunded spending, higher taxes on working families and debt piling up for future generations to pay of. And where immigration, crime and defence are not taken seriously. On 4 July, choose lower immigration, lower taxes and protected pensions. Choose a secure future with the Conservatives. The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party
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Bold actions to deliver a secure future for our country and for your family To support working people and secure a stronger economy ❱ Cut tax for workers by taking another 2p of employee National Insurance so that we will have halved it from 12% at the beginning of this year to 6% by April 2027, a total tax cut of £1,350 for the average worker on £35,000 – and the next step in our long- term ambition to end the double tax on work when fnancial conditions allow. ❱ Cut taxes to support the self-employed by abolishing the main rate of self-employed National Insurance entirely by the end of the Parliament. ❱ Cut tax for pensioners with the new Triple Lock Plus, guaranteeing that both the State Pension and the tax free allowance for pensioners always rise with the highest of infation, earnings or 2.5% – so the new State Pension doesn’t get dragged into income tax. ❱ Give working parents 30 hours of free childcare a week from when their child is nine months old to when they start school, saving eligible families an average of £6,900 per year. ❱ End the unfairness in Child Beneft by moving to a household system, so families don’t start losing Child Beneft until their combined income reaches £120,000 – saving the average family which benefts £1,500. ❱ Cut the cost of net zero for consumers by taking a more pragmatic approach, guaranteeing no new green levies or charges while accelerating the rollout of renewables. ❱ Seize the benefts of Brexit by signing further trade deals, speeding up infrastructure and unblocking 100,000 homes, cutting red tape for business, and creating new fshing opportunities. To provide young people with a secure future ❱ Give young people the skills and opportunities they deserve by introducing mandatory National Service for all school leavers at 18, with the choice between a competitive placement in the military or civic service roles. ❱ Fund 100,000 high-quality apprenticeships for young people, paid for by curbing the number of poor-quality university degrees that leave young people worse of. ❱ Protect children by requiring schools to ban the use of mobile phones during the school day and ensuring parents can see what their children are being taught, especially on sensitive matters like sex education. ❱ Transform 16-19 education by introducing the Advanced British Standard, enabling young people to receive a broader education and removing the artifcial divide between academic and technical learning. To safeguard our borders and national security ❱ Boost defence spending to our new NATO standard of 2.5% of GDP by 2030, so we can protect British interests at home and abroad in an increasingly hostile world. ❱ Introduce a legal cap on migration to guarantee that numbers will fall every year, so public services are protected while bringing in the skills our businesses and NHS needs. ❱ Stop the boats by removing illegal migrants to Rwanda. ❱ Work with other countries to rewrite asylum treaties to make them ft for the challenges we face. To strengthen our communities ❱ Increase NHS spending above infation every year, recruiting 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors, driving up productivity in the NHS and moving care closer to people’s homes through Pharmacy First, new and modernised GP surgeries and more Community Diagnostic Centres. ❱ Protect female-only spaces and competitiveness in sport by making clear that sex means biological sex in the Equality Act. ❱ Deliver 1.6 million well-designed homes in the right places while protecting our countryside, permanently abolish Stamp Duty for homes up to £425,000 for frst time buyers and introduce a new Help to Buy scheme. ❱ Recruit 8,000 more full-time, fully warranted police ofcers to ensure a new police ofcer for every neighbourhood. ❱ Cut anti-social behaviour in town centres by rolling out Hotspot Policing, expanding community payback and legislating to evict social tenants who repeatedly disrupt their neighbours. ❱ Invest £36 billion in local roads, rail and buses to drive regional growth, including £8.3 billion to fll potholes and resurface roads, funded by cancelling the second phase of HS2. ❱ Back drivers by stopping road pricing, reversing the London Mayor’s ULEZ expansion and applying local referendums to new 20mph zones and Low Trafc Neighbourhoods. ❱ Champion our rural communities by backing farmers with a legal target and additional investment for food security, and protecting our best agricultural land from solar farms. ❱ Continue to directly invest in communities across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, protect the UK’s internal market and the integrity of our United Kingdom.
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Our plan for a secure, dynamic and growing economy The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 5
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In 2010 we inherited anfnances after 2010, which saw the defcit fall from 10.3% under Labour to 2.1% on the eve of the economy in tatters, with Labour pandemic, that we were able to provide almost admitting themselves there was£400 billion of support to families and businesses ‘no money’. We have faced threeto get through Covid and the energy shock. generational global economicThe only way to give people the peace of challenges: the aftermath of themind that government will be able to support fnancial crisis; a global pandemic;them again when future shocks hit is to get borrowing and debt down. The alternative is to and the biggest energy shock sincelet borrowing get out of control, driving infation the 1970s. and interest rates up, and leaving our children and grandchildren to pick up the bill. Against this backdrop, since 2010 the UK has had the third highest growth rate in the G7.In the next Parliament, we will continue to meet We have created four million more jobs, cutour fscal rules of having public sector net debt taxes for working people and pensioners andfalling and for public sector net borrowing to repaired the public fnances. The UK economybe below 3% of GDP in the ffth year of the is now growing faster than Germany, France, forecast.The measures in this manifesto Italy and the United States, real wages haveare fully funded and would result in lower been rising for nearly a year, infation has fallenborrowing in 2029-30, which will be the from 11.1% to 2.3%, lower than in Europe and thetarget year for our fscal rules in the frst fscal US, and debt as a share of GDP is forecast toevent of the new Parliament start falling next year. The plan we set out last year, to halve infation, grow the economy andBacking business to invest, reduce debt, is working. innovate and trade Economic security is the bedrock of any future success, which is why we have a clear plan toA competitive tax system take the bold action needed to build a strong economy. The Conservative Party will always be the party of business. It is the private sector ❱reducing borrowing and debt; which will unlock the investment, growth and ❱backing businesses to invest, innovate andopportunities of the future. trade; That is why a tax system that incentivises ❱cutting taxes and reforming our welfarebusiness to invest is at the heart of our system; economic plan. We introduced the biggest business tax cut in modern British history, ❱delivering world-class education; and which hundreds of business leaders have ❱delivering an afordable transition todescribed as the ‘single most transformational’ domestic, sustainable energy.measure for growth and investment. So more businesses can beneft, we will look to extend our ‘full expensing’ policy to leasing, once Reducing debt and the fscal conditions allow. Andwe will not borrowing raise corporation tax. For the very smallest businesses, the four million people who are Sustainable public fnances are essential for a self-employed,we will abolish the main rate strong economic plan. It was only because of theof National Insurance entirelyby the end difcult decisions we took to repair the publicof the next Parliament. We will back the risk 6
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takers and entrepreneurs who help drive ourProperty Relief and Business Relief. We will not economy. increase Capital Gains Tax. Small and medium-sized businesses are the6 Promote digital invoicing and improve lifeblood of our economy and we are makingenforcement of the Prompt Payment Code the UK the best place in the world to start orto support small businesses with the perennial grow a business. We have great foundations:challenge of cashfow, building on our creation of world-class talent, an internationally enviedthe Small Business Commissioner with powers to legal system and a business-friendly regulatorytackle unfavourable payment practices. environment. 7 Ensure that Basel III capital requirements do not inhibit lending to SMEs We are supporting frms with a business rates support package worth £4.3 billion over the8 Continue our world leading programmes next fve years to support small businessesincluding the Invest in Women Task Force and and the high street. We want small businessesthe Lilac Review to encourage more female and to get a bigger share of public contracts anddisabled entrepreneurs. have improved the public sector procurement9 Work with the British Business Bank and system to that end. We have made it easierprivate sector fund managers to secure a £250 and cheaper for small businesses to hire anmillion Invest In Women Fundto support female apprentice. And we have taken 28,000 smallentrepreneurs. businesses out of paying VAT altogether by raising the VAT registration threshold to10 Work with public sector organisations £90,000. In the next Parliament, we will deliverincluding local authorities and NHS trusts a ten point plan to support SMEs:and companies beneftting from government contractsto ensure that procurement 1 Continue to ease the burden of business opportunities are focused on SMEs in their local rates for high street, leisure and hospitality economies where possible and practical businessesby increasing the multiplier on distribution warehouses that support onlineInvesting in infrastructure shopping over time. A Conservative Government will continue 2 Keep the VAT threshold under reviewand to invest in the digital, transport and energy explore options to smooth the clif edge at infrastructure needed for businesses to grow. £90,000. 3 Improve access to fnance for SMEsincludingWe have transformed our digital infrastructure through expanding Open Finance and by byrolling out gigabit broadbandto over a exploring the creation of Regional Mutual Banks.million hard to reach premises, helping to deliver high-speed internet to over 80% of 4 Take more companies out of the scope of the country. We are set to achieve at least burdensome reporting requirementsMaking 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025 and use of freedoms granted by Brexit, we will lift the nationwide coverage by 2030. Our ambition employee threshold allowing more companies to is for all populated areas to be covered by be considered medium-sized. This is expected to ‘standalone’ 5G mobile connectivity and to save small businesses at least one million hours keep the UK at the forefront of adopting and of admin per year. developing 6G. 5 Retain key tax incentives that encourage small businesses to grow, including theWe will spend £36 billion of HS2 savings on Enterprise Investment Scheme, Seed Enterprisetransport projects that will beneft more people, Investment Scheme, Venture Capital Trusts,in more places, more quickly. Every penny Business Asset Disposal Relief, Agriculturalsaved in the North or Midlands will be spent there. Savings from our new plan for Euston, The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 7
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which will see 10,000 new homes built, havestarting with the 50 stations announced in freed up £6.5 billion for transport across the May. rest of the country. ❱Deliver upgrades to railwaysin the South Labour has no plan. They neither supportWest, including the line through Dawlish, the the second phase of HS2 nor our alternativeEnergy Coast Line in Cumbria and the Ely package of investment, meaning they won’tJunction scheme in East Anglia. back schemes their own local leaders say will ❱Electrify the North Wales Main Linewith transform their areas. We will: £1 billion of investment andalleviate pinch ❱Invest £4.7 billion for smaller cities, towns points on the A75between Gretna and and rural areas in the North and Midlands Stranraer. to spend on their transport priorities. This will cut congestion and upgrade local bus and ❱Reopen Beeching lines and stations to train stations. reconnect communities around the country, building on the success of the Dartmoor Line ❱Invest a record£8.3 billion of investmentin the South West. We are committed to all to fll potholes and resurface roads. We willthe schemes set out in the Network North bring forward funding into this fnancial year Command Paper. and the next. This comes on top of £44 billion of funding ❱Back our city regions with an additional for Network Rail over the next fve years and £8.55 billionto spend on their local priorities. our investment in the Transpennine Route We will scrap rules that stop Mayors investingUpgrade, laying the foundations for Northern in strategic roads. Powerhouse Rail. We will complete HS2 ❱Deliver our plan for Northern Powerhousebetween London Euston and the West Midlands Rail bringing more frequent trains, moreand support the growth of the rail freight sector. capacity and faster journeys. We haveWe have invested £40 billion in England’s committed £12 billion on top of our HS2strategic roads between 2015 and 2025, with savings to deliver the section of Northernfurther investment to come in the next Road Powerhouse Rail between Manchester andInvestment Strategy, ensuring we can deliver Liverpool. Savings from HS2 enable us tomajor roads including the Lower Thames fund electrifcation to Hull and build a newCrossing and the A303. This is alongside the station in Bradford. road schemes set out in our Network North plan, including the A1 between Morpeth and ❱Boostrail connectivity in the Midlands, Ellingham. with £1.75 billion to fund the Midlands Rail Hub in full. This will improve journey timesAutomated vehicles will be on British roads in and deliver more frequent rail services atthe next Parliament, thanks to our new world- 50 stations, benefting over seven millionleading legislation. We will support people to people. We will upgrade the line betweenchoose electric cars by ensuring our charging Newark and Nottingham to halve journeyinfrastructure is truly nationwide, including rapid charging and delivering the Zero Emission times between Nottingham and Leeds. Vehicle Mandate to support manufacturers to ❱Provide an additional£1 billion to supportsafeguard skilled British jobs. hundreds of new bus routesacross the North and Midlands. We will support the growth and decarbonisation of our aviation sector. We will back British ❱Improve accessibility at 100 train stations,Sustainable Aviation Fuel through our SAF 8
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mandate, an industry-backed revenue supportspace industry. mechanism and investment in future aviation technology. We will support domestic fightsSecuring the UK’s position as a world including through Public Service Obligations,leader in innovation protecting vital routes within the UK, including Artifcial intelligence (AI) will accelerate human to islands and remote areas. progress in the 21st century, just as the steam We will back our maritime sector, includingengine and electricity did in the 19th century. shipping and ports, as it decarbonises. Recognising The UK is well positioned to spearhead this the current challenges with cross-Solent transport, transformation and is already leading global we will establish a review to explore all options to work on AI safety. Over the last 14 years, the provide more choice and drive down fares. We will Conservatives have turned the UK into a foster our science and innovation expertise in the science and innovation superpower. The UK now has the highest level of direct government funding and tax support for business research and development (R&D) of any country in the Speeding up OECD. We pioneered the fastest development and deployment of the Covid vaccine. The infrastructure deliveryUK has Europe’s leading tech ecosystem. We have secured improved fnancial terms to join We can only achieve our infrastructure ambitions if we Horizon. continue to simplify the planning system to make it easier to build, faster.We will speed up the average time it takes toIn the next Parliament, we will: sign off major infrastructure projects from four years to ❱Increase public spending on R&D to £22 one. We will: billion a year, up from £20 billion this year. ❱Introduce reforms to outdated EU red tape to better protect nature while enabling the building of new homes, new ❱Maintain our R&D tax reliefs. Recent prisons and new energy schemes. Along with the reformschanges worth £280 million a year have to the EU’s bureaucratic environmental impact assessmentsimplifed and improved R&D tax reliefs, regime that we have already started, these changes willincluding by bringing more SMEs into speed up local and national infrastructure planning scope of the relief. systems. ❱Continue investing over £1.5 billion in ❱Ensureanyrequirementstooffsettheimpactofnew large-scale compute clusters, assembling infrastructure and homes on an area are proportionate,the raw processing power so we can without compromising environmental outcomes. take advantage of the potential of AI ❱Reduce the cost of infrastructure by allowing quickerand support research into its safe and changes to consented projects. responsible use. ❱Ensure National Policy Statements are regularly updated. ❱Push forward with our Advanced ❱Focus the role of statutory consultees in the planning Manufacturing Plan, providing a £4.5 system on improving projects in line with clearer billion commitment to secure strategic objectives, rather than piecemeal requirements that addmanufacturing sectors including delays. automotive, aerospace, life sciences and ❱End frivolous legal challenges that frustrate infrastructure clean energy. delivery by amending the law so judicial reviews that don’t ❱Build on the success of our nine specialist have merit do not waste court time. Catapults, which support innovation and de-risk the transition from research and The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 9
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delivery, distributing £1.6 billion of fundingBritish businesses thrive across the country by 2028. The UK is a global exporting superpower and is We are proud to be the leading market for now thefourth biggest exporter in the world, starting and growing a FinTech frm – part ofhaving overtaken France, the Netherlands, and our world-leading fnancial and professional Japan. services which supports the employment of almost 2.5 million people. We will build onHaving left the EU, we have seized the the policies set out in the Edinburgh Reformsopportunity to negotiate trade deals that suit so that the UK continues to be the world’sthe UK, boosting our exports and creating jobs most innovative and competitive globalat home. UK exports are growing, reaching fnancial centre. We will support the City of£850 billion last year and service exports are at London’s position as the leading global marketan all-time high. We have secured trade deals through the implementation of the Mansionwith 73 countries plus the EU and last year House reforms and measures such as a retailwe removed £1 million of trade barriers every sale of NatWest shares. We will maintain the single hour. highest standards of consumer protection and Last year we signed a deal to join the prudential regulation to ensure there can never Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement be a repeat of the banking crisis under the last for Trans-Pacifc Partnership (CPTPP), a modern Labour Government. and ambitious trade deal spanning economies The UK car industry is the jewel of ouracross Asia and the Pacifc. With the UK as a manufacturing crown. Last year the UK builtmember, it will account for 15% of global GDP over a million vehicles and secured £23.7and in time is expected to boost UK GDP by billion of private and public investment. Wearound £2 billion a year. secured a £4 billion investment in a new We will complete free trade agreements with battery gigafactory to be built in Somerset, India and with the Gulf Cooperation Council, safeguarding the future of the Jaguar Land home to some of the world’s biggest investors. Rover plant in the West Midlands for decades And we will continue to pursue free trade to come. Contrary to dire warnings that Brexit agreements with countries such as Israel and would lead to major brands leaving our shores. Switzerland. Nissan is delivering up to £2 billion of new investment to produce two new electric vehicleOur Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) models in Sunderland and BMW made a £600is the most comprehensive FTA the EU has million investment to produce iconic all-electricever agreed. We will build on it, but will not Mini Coopers in Oxfordshire. agree to anything in the forthcoming review of the TCA that would infringe our legal We will always back our world-leading sovereignty or involve submission to the CJEU automotive industry, which faces or dynamic alignment. We will take a tough unprecedented competition from China in the approach on ensuring that the EU are meeting electric vehicles market. We stand ready to their commitments under the TCA and not support domestic car manufacturers if there is discriminating against our exporters. evidence other countries are breaking global trade rules. We have always been clear the NHS and the services it provides are not on the table in Building new trade links to help trade negotiations. All food and drink products imported into the UK, including those from countries we have trade agreements with, must comply with the UK’s high standards. We will 10
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always stand up for UK agriculture in our tradedraught, such as beer and cider, will be less deals. than in supermarkets. The US is our single largest trading partner. WeCutting government bureaucracy have signed the Atlantic Declaration and deals with eight US states, including Florida andWe will make government more efcient, cut Texas, with a combined GDP of £5.7 trillion. Andwaste and attract the best and the brightest, by: we will look to agree a free trade agreement ❱Returning the civil service to its pre- with the US when they are ready to do so.pandemic size to pay for our commitment Using our Brexit freedoms to deliverto increase defence spending to 2.5% of regulatory reform GDP. ❱Halving the amount of taxpayers’ money Conservatives believe in reducing the burden spent on external consultants. We will of regulation, freeing up businesses to thrive. introduce controls on all ‘Equality, Diversity We want small businesses free to innovate, balanced with proportionate protectionsand Inclusion’ initiatives and spending. for consumers and working people. We will ❱Bring quango spending under control. never introduce Labour’s package of French- style union rules, which are a threat to jobs, ❱Moving 25,000 more civil servants outside our competitiveness and our economy. Weof London, building on successes like the will go further to transform the UK regulatoryDarlington Economic Campus and hubs in landscape, making sure regulators deliver theStoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. best outcomes for business, consumers and ❱Opening up civil service recruitment by the environment. requiring jobs to be advertised externally to Thanks to Brexit, we have taken back controlidentify the best candidates. of our laws and freed British businesses from ❱Doubling digital and AI expertise in the unnecessary burdens. We legislated to remove civil service, to take advantage of the latest the principle of EU law supremacy and have technologies to transform public services. undertaken a root-and-branch review of the more than 6,000 laws we had inherited fromThese reforms will allow us to achieve a the EU. signifcant productivity boost in Whitehall. If we returned public sector productivity to pre- We have already repealed or reformed over pandemic levels that would deliver up to £20 2,000 EU laws and by July 2026we will billion of annual savings. The NHS Productivity have repealed or reformed over half of the Plan shows that the public sector can set out entire stock of EU law we inherited. Only the detailed plans for achieving a step-change in Conservatives will keep on removing EU laws productivity, so we will require all Departments from our statute book. Our Smarter Regulation to deliver plans for2% annual productivity approach has already saved 50 million hours of growthat the next Spending Review. administrative time for business, saving them an estimated £1 billion. To limit the impact of industrial action on public services and balance the ability of workers We have also used post-Brexit tax freedoms, to strike with the rights of the public, we will including introducing VAT-free installations continue implementing our Minimum Service of energy-efcient materials and replacing Levels legislation. complex EU alcohol duty rates. And to protect our pubs we willmaintain our Brexit Pubs Guaranteethat means the duty on drinks on The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 11
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Our plan to cut taxes and protect pensions The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 13