THE election campaign is now well underway and the political parties will soon be releasing their manifestos, with Labour’s expected today at 10am.
Here’s everything you need to know about what to expect from Labour’s 2019 election manifesto.
- Follow our live blog for the latest General Election 2019 news and updates
When will the Labour manifesto come out?
Labour will soon be launching its manifesto for December’s election
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn will reveal full details of his election manifesto in Birmingham at 10am today.
Party officials reportedly met on Saturday to decide which policies will be included.
The party previously had a form, now closed, inviting members of the public to submit policy ideas.
You can sign up to receive the manifesto by e-mail once it is published using a form on Labour’swebsite.
What has Labour announced so far?
The party’s major announcements so far have focused on spending and taxation.
It plans to nationalise key industries, including water suppliers and the national grid, and to launch a 250bn infrastructure fund.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has also pledged to increase funding for the NHS by 40bn over the next five years, which would leave it 26bn higher than if it rose only with inflation.
He said the plan would give the health service 5.5bn per year more than the Conservatives, and would be funded by changes to higher-rate tax thresholds.
Income tax rates, national insurance and VAT will not increase for 95 per cent [of people]”, he said.
“We will reduce the threshold for 45p rates for 80,000 and reintroduce the 50p rate for 125,000.”
On Brexit, the party has said it would renegotiate a deal with closer trade ties and put it to a public vote.
In September, delegates also voted to commit the party to net-zero emissions by 2030.
To achieve the goal, the party wants to invest 3.4bn in a national network of charging points for electric vehicles and offer interest-free loans for electric cars.
What else can we expect?
Labour has also released a list of 10 broader election commitments. They are:
- An end to in-work poverty
- An end to food bank use
- An end to 1.4 million older people not getting the care they need
- Over 100,000 genuinely affordable homes built per year
- An end to rough sleeping
- An end to tuition fees
- Reduced waiting times for A&E and cancer treatments
- Brexit sorted in six months
- Smaller class sizes
- A Green Industrial Revolution to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and cut carbon emissions
Future policy commitments are likely to focus on fulfilling these pledges.
What do the polls say?
Polling company Britain Elects, whose poll tracker provides an average figure from a range of polls, currently puts Labour’s support at 28.6 per cent behind the Tories’ 37.2 per cent.
The two main parties have been mostly neck-and-neck since the last election, but the Conservatives have pulled away since Boris Johnson became prime minister in July.
Labour is responding by campaigning hard on areas like in-work poverty and the NHS, on which it is typically more trusted by voters than the Conservatives.
The leader’s office is also hopeful that Jeremy Corbyn could reverse the party’s fortunes with a strong performance in the televised debates.
