Contents
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Foreword...........................................................................................................................................................................................3
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Bold actions to deliver a secure future for our country and for your family ...................4
•
Our plan for a secure, dynamic and growing economy.......................................................................5
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Our plan to cut taxes and protect pensions..................................................................................................13
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Our plan to support families ........................................................................................................................................17
•
Our plan to get more people into work and build a fairer welfare system.....................21
•
Our plan to give young people the opportunities and skills they need...........................25
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Our plan to secure our nation from global uncertainty................................................................... 29
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Our plan to control immigration and stop illegal immigration...................................................35
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Our plan to deliver better health and social care...................................................................................39
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Our plan for safer streets and justice for victims of crime.............................................................43
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Our plan for an affordable and pragmatic transition to net zero............................................47
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Our plan to build more houses in the right places.................................................................................51
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Our plan to strengthen communities ................................................................................................................55
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Our plan to back farmers and fisheries to grow our food security.........................................61
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Our plan to support our rural way of life and enhance our environment ......................65
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Our plan to support sport and the creative sector...............................................................................69
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Our plan to strengthen the United Kingdom...............................................................................................71
We are restoring our economic stability after
Covid and Ukraine. Inflation is down, real
wages are up, growth has returned - and
we are cutting taxes to give working people
financial 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
conflicts; 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 first, 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 officers 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 off. 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
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 off
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 longterm
ambition to end the double tax on work when
financial 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 inflation, 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 Benefit by moving to a
household system, so families don't start losing Child
Benefit until their combined income reaches £120,000
- saving the average family which benefits £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 benefits of Brexit by signing further trade
deals, speeding up infrastructure and unblocking
100,000 homes, cutting red tape for business, and
creating new fishing 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 off.
•
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
artificial 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 fit for the challenges we
face.
To strengthen our communities
•
Increase NHS spending above inflation 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 first time buyers and introduce a
new Help to Buy scheme.
•
Recruit 8,000 more full-time, fully warranted
police officers to ensure a new police officer 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 fill 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
Traffic 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.
In 2010 we inherited an
economy in tatters, with Labour
admitting themselves there was
'no money'. We have faced three
generational global economic
challenges: the aftermath of the
financial crisis; a global pandemic;
and the biggest energy shock since
the 1970s.
Against this backdrop, since 2010 the UK has
had the third highest growth rate in the G7.
We have created four million more jobs, cut
taxes for working people and pensioners and
repaired the public finances. The UK economy
is now growing faster than Germany, France,
Italy and the United States, real wages have
been rising for nearly a year, inflation has fallen
from 11.1% to 2.3%, lower than in Europe and the
US, and debt as a share of GDP is forecast to
start falling next year. The plan we set out last
year, to halve inflation, grow the economy and
reduce debt, is working.
Economic security is the bedrock of any future
success, which is why we have a clear plan to
take the bold action needed to build a strong
economy.
•
reducing borrowing and debt;
•
backing businesses to invest, innovate and
trade;
•
cutting taxes and reforming our welfare
system;
•
delivering world-class education; and
•
delivering an affordable transition to
domestic, sustainable energy.
Reducing debt and
borrowing
Sustainable public finances are essential for a
strong economic plan. It was only because of the
difficult decisions we took to repair the public
finances after 2010, which saw the deficit fall from
10.3% under Labour to 2.1% on the eve of the
pandemic, that we were able to provide almost
£400 billion of support to families and businesses
to get through Covid and the energy shock.
The only way to give people the peace of
mind that government will be able to support
them again when future shocks hit is to get
borrowing and debt down. The alternative is to
let borrowing get out of control, driving inflation
and interest rates up, and leaving our children
and grandchildren to pick up the bill.
In the next Parliament, we will continue to meet
our fiscal rules of having public sector net debt
falling and for public sector net borrowing to
be below 3% of GDP in the fifth year of the
forecast. The measures in this manifesto
are fully funded and would result in lower
borrowing in 2029-30, which will be the
target year for our fiscal rules in the first fiscal
event of the new Parliament.
Backing business to invest,
innovate and trade
A competitive tax system
The Conservative Party will always be the
party of business. It is the private sector
which will unlock the investment, growth and
opportunities of the future.
That is why a tax system that incentivises
business to invest is at the heart of our
economic plan. We introduced the biggest
business tax cut in modern British history,
which hundreds of business leaders have
described as the 'single most transformational'
measure for growth and investment. So more
businesses can benefit, we will look to extend
our 'full expensing' policy to leasing, once
the fiscal conditions allow. And we will not
raise corporation tax. For the very smallest
businesses, the four million people who are
self-employed, we will abolish the main rate
of National Insurance entirely by the end
of the next Parliament. We will back the risk
takers and entrepreneurs who help drive our
economy.
Small and medium-sized businesses are the
lifeblood of our economy and we are making
the UK the best place in the world to start or
grow a business. We have great foundations:
world-class talent, an internationally envied
legal system and a business-friendly regulatory
environment.
We are supporting firms with a business rates
support package worth £4.3 billion over the
next five years to support small businesses
and the high street. We want small businesses
to get a bigger share of public contracts and
have improved the public sector procurement
system to that end. We have made it easier
and cheaper for small businesses to hire an
apprentice. And we have taken 28,000 small
businesses out of paying VAT altogether
by raising the VAT registration threshold to
£90,000. In the next Parliament, we will deliver
a ten point plan to support SMEs:
1. Continue to ease the burden of business
rates for high street, leisure and hospitality
businesses by increasing the multiplier on
distribution warehouses that support online
shopping over time.
2. Keep the VAT threshold under review and
explore options to smooth the cliff edge at
£90,000.
3. Improve access to finance for SMEs including
through expanding Open Finance and by
exploring the creation of Regional Mutual Banks.
4. Take more companies out of the scope of
burdensome reporting requirements. Making
use of freedoms granted by Brexit, we will lift the
employee threshold allowing more companies to
be considered medium-sized. This is expected to
save small businesses at least one million hours
of admin per year.
5. Retain key tax incentives that encourage
small businesses to grow, including the
Enterprise Investment Scheme, Seed Enterprise
Investment Scheme, Venture Capital Trusts,
Business Asset Disposal Relief, Agricultural
Property Relief and Business Relief. We will not
increase Capital Gains Tax.
6. Promote digital invoicing and improve
enforcement of the Prompt Payment Code
to support small businesses with the perennial
challenge of cashflow, building on our creation of
the Small Business Commissioner with powers to
tackle unfavourable payment practices.
7. Ensure that Basel III capital requirements do
not inhibit lending to SMEs.
8. Continue our world leading programmes
including the Invest in Women Task Force and
the Lilac Review to encourage more female and
disabled entrepreneurs.
9. Work with the British Business Bank and
private sector fund managers to secure a £250
million Invest In Women Fund to support female
entrepreneurs.
10. Work with public sector organisations
including local authorities and NHS trusts
and companies benefitting from government
contracts to ensure that procurement
opportunities are focused on SMEs in their local
economies where possible and practical.
Investing in infrastructure
A Conservative Government will continue
to invest in the digital, transport and energy
infrastructure needed for businesses to grow.
We have transformed our digital infrastructure
by rolling out gigabit broadband to over a
million hard to reach premises, helping to
deliver high-speed internet to over 80% of
the country. We are set to achieve at least
85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025 and
nationwide coverage by 2030. Our ambition
is for all populated areas to be covered by
'standalone' 5G mobile connectivity and to
keep the UK at the forefront of adopting and
developing 6G.
We will spend £36 billion of HS2 savings on
transport projects that will benefit more people,
in more places, more quickly. Every penny
saved in the North or Midlands will be spent
there. Savings from our new plan for Euston,
which will see 10,000 new homes built, have
freed up £6.5 billion for transport across the
rest of the country.
Labour has no plan. They neither support
the second phase of HS2 nor our alternative
package of investment, meaning they won't
back schemes their own local leaders say will
transform their areas. We will:
•
Invest £4.7 billion for smaller cities, towns
and rural areas in the North and Midlands
to spend on their transport priorities. This will
cut congestion and upgrade local bus and
train stations.
•
Invest a record £8.3 billion of investment
to fill potholes and resurface roads. We will
bring forward funding into this financial year
and the next.
•
Back our city regions with an additional
£8.55 billion to spend on their local priorities.
We will scrap rules that stop Mayors investing
in strategic roads.
•
Deliver our plan for Northern Powerhouse
Rail bringing more frequent trains, more
capacity and faster journeys. We have
committed £12 billion on top of our HS2
savings to deliver the section of Northern
Powerhouse Rail between Manchester and
Liverpool. Savings from HS2 enable us to
fund electrification to Hull and build a new
station in Bradford.
•
Boost rail connectivity in the Midlands,
with £1.75 billion to fund the Midlands Rail
Hub in full. This will improve journey times
and deliver more frequent rail services at
50 stations, benefiting over seven million
people. We will upgrade the line between
Newark and Nottingham to halve journey
times between Nottingham and Leeds.
•
Provide an additional £1 billion to support
hundreds of new bus routes across the
North and Midlands.
•
Improve accessibility at 100 train stations,
starting with the 50 stations announced in
May.
•
Deliver upgrades to railways in the South
West, including the line through Dawlish, the
Energy Coast Line in Cumbria and the Ely
Junction scheme in East Anglia.
•
Electrify the North Wales Main Line with
£1 billion of investment and alleviate pinch
points on the A75 between Gretna and
Stranraer.
•
Reopen Beeching lines and stations to
reconnect communities around the country,
building on the success of the Dartmoor Line
in the South West. We are committed to all
the schemes set out in the Network North
Command Paper.
This comes on top of £44 billion of funding
for Network Rail over the next five years and
our investment in the Transpennine Route
Upgrade, laying the foundations for Northern
Powerhouse Rail. We will complete HS2
between London Euston and the West Midlands
and support the growth of the rail freight sector.
We have invested £40 billion in England's
strategic roads between 2015 and 2025, with
further investment to come in the next Road
Investment Strategy, ensuring we can deliver
major roads including the Lower Thames
Crossing and the A303. This is alongside the
road schemes set out in our Network North
plan, including the A1 between Morpeth and
Ellingham.
Automated vehicles will be on British roads in
the next Parliament, thanks to our new world-
leading legislation. We will support people to
choose electric cars by ensuring our charging
infrastructure is truly nationwide, including rapid
charging and delivering the Zero Emission
Vehicle Mandate to support manufacturers to
safeguard skilled British jobs.
We will support the growth and decarbonisation
of our aviation sector. We will back British
Sustainable Aviation Fuel through our SAF
mandate, an industry-backed revenue support
mechanism and investment in future aviation
technology. We will support domestic flights
including through Public Service Obligations,
protecting vital routes within the UK, including
to islands and remote areas.
We will back our maritime sector, including
shipping and ports, as it decarbonises. Recognising
the current challenges with cross-Solent transport,
we will establish a review to explore all options to
provide more choice and drive down fares. We will
foster our science and innovation expertise in the
We can only achieve our infrastructure ambitions if we
continue to simplify the planning system to make it easier to
build, faster. We will speed up the average time it takes to
sign off major infrastructure projects from four years toone. We will:
•Introduce reforms to outdated EU red tape to better protect
nature while enabling the building of new homes, new
prisons and new energy schemes. Along with the reforms
to the EU's bureaucratic environmental impact assessment
regime that we have already started, these changes will
speed up local and national infrastructure planning
systems.
•Ensureanyrequirementstooffsettheimpactofnewinfrastructure and homes on an area are proportionate,
without compromising environmental outcomes.
•Reduce the cost of infrastructure by allowing quicker
changes to consented projects.
•Ensure National Policy Statements are regularly updated.
•Focus the role of statutory consultees in the planning
system on improving projects in line with clearer
objectives, rather than piecemeal requirements that add
delays.
•End frivolous legal challenges that frustrate infrastructure
delivery by amending the law so judicial reviews that don't
have merit do not waste court time.
Speeding up
infrastructure delivery
space industry.
Securing the UK's position as a world
leader in innovation
Artificial intelligence (AI) will accelerate human
progress in the 21st century, just as the steam
engine and electricity did in the 19th century.
The UK is well positioned to spearhead this
transformation and is already leading global
work on AI safety. Over the last 14 years, the
Conservatives have turned the UK into a
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
OECD. We pioneered the fastest development
and deployment of the Covid vaccine. The
UK has Europe's leading tech ecosystem. We
have secured improved financial terms to join
Horizon.
In the next Parliament, we will:
•
Increase public spending on R&D to £22
billion a year, up from £20 billion this year.
•
Maintain our R&D tax reliefs. Recent
changes worth £280 million a year have
simplified and improved R&D tax reliefs,
including by bringing more SMEs into
scope of the relief.
•
Continue investing over £1.5 billion in
large-scale compute clusters, assembling
the raw processing power so we can
take advantage of the potential of AI
and support research into its safe and
responsible use.
•
Push forward with our Advanced
Manufacturing Plan, providing a £4.5
billion commitment to secure strategic
manufacturing sectors including
automotive, aerospace, life sciences and
clean energy.
•
Build on the success of our nine specialist
Catapults, which support innovation and
de-risk the transition from research and
delivery, distributing £1.6 billion of funding
across the country by 2028.
We are proud to be the leading market for
starting and growing a FinTech firm - part of
our world-leading financial and professional
services which supports the employment of
almost 2.5 million people. We will build on
the policies set out in the Edinburgh Reforms
so that the UK continues to be the world's
most innovative and competitive global
financial centre. We will support the City of
London's position as the leading global market
through the implementation of the Mansion
House reforms and measures such as a retail
sale of NatWest shares. We will maintain the
highest standards of consumer protection and
prudential regulation to ensure there can never
be a repeat of the banking crisis under the last
Labour Government.
The UK car industry is the jewel of our
manufacturing crown. Last year the UK built
over a million vehicles and secured £23.7
billion of private and public investment. We
secured a £4 billion investment in a new
battery gigafactory to be built in Somerset,
safeguarding the future of the Jaguar Land
Rover plant in the West Midlands for decades
to come. Contrary to dire warnings that Brexit
would lead to major brands leaving our shores.
Nissan is delivering up to £2 billion of new
investment to produce two new electric vehicle
models in Sunderland and BMW made a £600
million investment to produce iconic all-electric
Mini Coopers in Oxfordshire.
We will always back our world-leading
automotive industry, which faces
unprecedented competition from China in the
electric vehicles market. We stand ready to
support domestic car manufacturers if there is
evidence other countries are breaking global
trade rules.
Building new trade links to help
British businesses thrive
The UK is a global exporting superpower and is
now the fourth biggest exporter in the world,
having overtaken France, the Netherlands, and
Japan.
Having left the EU, we have seized the
opportunity to negotiate trade deals that suit
the UK, boosting our exports and creating jobs
at home. UK exports are growing, reaching
£850 billion last year and service exports are at
an all-time high. We have secured trade deals
with 73 countries plus the EU and last year
we removed £1 million of trade barriers every
single hour.
Last year we signed a deal to join the
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement
for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a modern
and ambitious trade deal spanning economies
across Asia and the Pacific. With the UK as a
member, it will account for 15% of global GDP
and in time is expected to boost UK GDP by
around £2 billion a year.
We will complete free trade agreements with
India and with the Gulf Cooperation Council,
home to some of the world's biggest investors.
And we will continue to pursue free trade
agreements with countries such as Israel and
Switzerland.
Our Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)
is the most comprehensive FTA the EU has
ever agreed. We will build on it, but will not
agree to anything in the forthcoming review
of the TCA that would infringe our legal
sovereignty or involve submission to the CJEU
or dynamic alignment. We will take a tough
approach on ensuring that the EU are meeting
their commitments under the TCA and not
discriminating against our exporters.
We have always been clear the NHS and the
services it provides are not on the table in
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
always stand up for UK agriculture in our trade
deals.
The US is our single largest trading partner. We
have signed the Atlantic Declaration and deals
with eight US states, including Florida and
Texas, with a combined GDP of £5.7 trillion. And
we will look to agree a free trade agreement
with the US when they are ready to do so.
Using our Brexit freedoms to deliver
regulatory reform
Conservatives believe in reducing the burden
of regulation, freeing up businesses to thrive.
We want small businesses free to innovate,
balanced with proportionate protections
for consumers and working people. We will
never introduce Labour's package of French-
style union rules, which are a threat to jobs,
our competitiveness and our economy. We
will go further to transform the UK regulatory
landscape, making sure regulators deliver the
best outcomes for business, consumers and
the environment.
Thanks to Brexit, we have taken back control
of our laws and freed British businesses from
unnecessary burdens. We legislated to remove
the principle of EU law supremacy and have
undertaken a root-and-branch review of the
more than 6,000 laws we had inherited from
the EU.
We have already repealed or reformed over
2,000 EU laws and by July 2026 we will
have repealed or reformed over half of the
entire stock of EU law we inherited. Only the
Conservatives will keep on removing EU laws
from our statute book. Our Smarter Regulation
approach has already saved 50 million hours of
administrative time for business, saving them
an estimated £1 billion.
We have also used post-Brexit tax freedoms,
including introducing VAT-free installations
of energy-efficient materials and replacing
complex EU alcohol duty rates. And to protect
our pubs we will maintain our Brexit Pubs
Guarantee that means the duty on drinks on
draught, such as beer and cider, will be less
than in supermarkets.
Cutting government bureaucracy
We will make government more efficient, cut
waste and attract the best and the brightest, by:
•
Returning the civil service to its prepandemic
size to pay for our commitment
to increase defence spending to 2.5% of
GDP.
•
Halving the amount of taxpayers' money
spent on external consultants. We will
introduce controls on all 'Equality, Diversity
and Inclusion' initiatives and spending.
•
Bring quango spending under control.
•
Moving 25,000 more civil servants outside
of London, building on successes like the
Darlington Economic Campus and hubs in
Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton.
•
Opening up civil service recruitment by
requiring jobs to be advertised externally to
identify the best candidates.
•
Doubling digital and AI expertise in the
civil service, to take advantage of the latest
technologies to transform public services.
These reforms will allow us to achieve a
significant productivity boost in Whitehall. If
we returned public sector productivity to prepandemic
levels that would deliver up to £20
billion of annual savings. The NHS Productivity
Plan shows that the public sector can set out
detailed plans for achieving a step-change in
productivity, so we will require all Departments
to deliver plans for 2% annual productivity
growth at the next Spending Review.
To limit the impact of industrial action on public
services and balance the ability of workers
to strike with the rights of the public, we will
continue implementing our Minimum Service
Levels legislation.
12
As Conservatives, we believe
in lower taxes because people,
not governments, make the best
decisions about how to spend
their money. But we can only ever
cut taxes responsibly when we
have a way to fund it sustainably,
consistent with getting debt and
borrowing down and in a way
which does not send inflation
spiralling.
Because of the support we provided to families
and businesses through Covid and the energy
shock, we had to make difficult decisions to
pay down our debts. But we were clear that
once inflation was under control and the public
finances were on a sustainable path, we would
cut taxes. Because of the progress we have
made, with inflation back to normal and debt on
track to fall from next year, we have been able
to afford to begin cutting taxes as part of our
plan to reward work and grow the economy,
all without increasing borrowing or cutting
spending on public services.
Cutting tax for workingpeople
In the first half of this year, we began cutting
National Insurance. It is unfair that working
people pay two taxes on their income - income
tax and National Insurance - when other
people only pay income tax.
Our long-term ambition, when it is affordable
to do so, is to keep cutting National Insurance
until it's gone, as part of our plan to make the
tax system simpler and fairer. As the next step
in that plan, we will cut employee National
Insurance to 6% by April 2027 - meaning
that we will have halved it from 12% at the
beginning of this year, a total tax cut of
£1,350 for the average worker on £35,000.
This comes on top of the significant above
inflation increase to the personal allowance we
have delivered since 2010, nearly doubling it
from £6,475 to £12,750.
This means the tax burden on workers is falling,
with the average earner paying the lowest
effective personal tax rate since 1975 - lower
than in the US, France, Germany or any G7
country.
As a further downpayment on our long-term
ambition to abolish National Insurance, there
is one group for whom we will make that
a reality in the next Parliament. Last year,
the main rate of National Insurance for the
self-employed stood at 9%. To recognise
the unique contribution of these risk-takers
and entrepreneurs to our economy and
the insecurity they face without the rights
and protections that employees enjoy,
we will abolish it entirely by the end of
the next Parliament. The abolition of the
main rate of Class 4 National Insurance
contributions builds on our abolition of Class
2 contributions for self-employed people
from April this year. This will not affect their
entitlement to the State Pension. This is a
massive simplification of the tax system which
means that 93% of self-employed people -
four million of them - will no longer pay self-
employed National Insurance.
As well as cutting National Insurance for 29
million people, we will also not raise the rate
of income tax or VAT.
Increasing pay for workingpeople
We introduced the National Living Wage in
2016 and this year achieved our ambition of
raising it to two thirds of median earnings -
increasing it to £11.44 per hour and extending it
to cover all workers aged over 21. This ended
low pay for those on the National Living Wage,
with someone working full-time receiving a pay
rise worth £1,800. As a result of our personal
tax cuts and increases in the minimum wage,
the take-home pay of someone working full
time on the National Living Wage has gone
up by 35% in real terms since 2010.
We will maintain the National Living Wage
in each year of the next Parliament at
two-thirds of median earnings. On current
forecasts, that would mean it rising to around
£13 per hour, up from a minimum wage of £5.80
under Labour in 2010.
We will ensure the UK retains the flexible and
dynamic labour market that gives businesses
the confidence to create jobs and invest in their
workforce. The number of payrolled employees
is at a near record high, and there are around
four million more people in work than when we
came to office in 2010.
Cutting tax for pensioners
We believe that those who have worked hard
during their lives should have dignity and
security in their retirement. We came to power
in 2010 after Labour had hit pensioners with a
£118 billion pensions tax raid and a paltry 75p
per week increase to the State Pension.
Since 2010, we have made it a priority to give
people peace of mind in their retirement. We
introduced the Triple Lock, which has seen the
basic State Pension rise by £3,700 since 2010.
This year, the new State Pension increased by
£900.
We will continue to do everything we can to
provide pensioners with dignity in retirement
and ensure the new State Pension is not
dragged into income tax for the first time in
history by introducing the new Triple Lock
Plus. This has two elements:
1. Continuing to uprate the State Pension in
line with the highest of prices, earnings
or 2.5%. On current forecasts, this will
mean the new State Pension increases by
a further £430 in April next year to £11,970;
and increases by £1,685 a year to £13,200
by the end of the Parliament.
2. Ensuring that from next year the tax-
free personal allowance for pensioners
also rises by the highest of prices,
earnings or 2.5%, guaranteeing that
the new State Pension is always below
the tax-free threshold. From April 2025,
we will increase the personal allowance
for pensioners by introducing a new
age-related personal allowance. This is
a tax cut of around £100 for eight million
pensioners next year - rising to £275 a
year by the end of the Parliament.
Under our new Pensions Tax Guarantee, the
Conservatives will not introduce any new taxes
on pensions. We will maintain the 25% tax free
lump sum and maintain tax relief on pension
contributions at their marginal rate. We will not
extend National Insurance to employer pension
contributions.
We will maintain all current pensioner benefits,
including free bus passes, Winter Fuel
Payments, free prescriptions and TV licences.
We are carefully considering the Ombudsman
report into WASPI women and will work with
Parliament to provide an appropriate and swift
response.
By opposing the Triple Lock Plus, Labour's
Retirement Tax will mean millions of pensioners
paying more tax. It will also mean that for
the first time in history, someone whose
only income is the new State Pension will
be dragged into paying income tax, which
alongside making them worse off means the
administrative burden of going through a tax
assessment.
Clamping down on taxavoidance
It is vital we make sure people and companies
are paying the tax they owe. That's why,
since 2010, Conservative Governments have
introduced over 200 measures to tackle tax
non-compliance. In total across all the fiscal
events we have delivered since 2010, the OBR
has scored these measures as raising £95
billion across the forecasts it has produced -
£6.7 billion for each year. Building on that, we
will raise at least a further £6 billion a year
from tackling tax avoidance and evasion by
the end of the Parliament.
The Conservatives have a
plan to deliver a brighter future
for the UK, one where families
are supported and children are
given the best chance to gain the
skills they need to succeed. We
are delivering the largest ever
expansion of childcare in history:
•
Working parents of two-year-olds are now
able to access 15 hours of free childcare,
with over 200,000 two-year-olds already
benefitting from the offer.
•
From September 2024, eligible parents
of children between nine months and two
years old will also be able to access 15
hours free childcare.
•
From September 2025, all eligible parents
with children from nine months old to when
they start school will be able to access 30
hours of free childcare a week.
•
Once the roll out is completed, families will
save an average of £6,900 per year.
To help the childcare sector expand we have
committed to increasing hourly funding rates
over the next two years by an estimated £500
million and are helping the sector, including
childminders, to hire more staff, create more
places and spend less time on paperwork. And
to give working parents more flexibility, we are
investing £300 million so that all parents can
access wraparound childcare before and after
school by September 2026.
But families' needs don't stop when children
start primary school, which is why Family
Hubs support families all the way up until
children reach adulthood. They back families
in the early years, helping with things like
breastfeeding support, antenatal care and
early learning interventions, in addition to
services like relationship support, stopping
smoking services and youth services. Our plan
has already delivered Family Hubs in over 75
local authorities. We will go further to deliver
a Family Hub in every local authority in
England.
We will improve the experiences of children
in social care, because every child deserves
to live in a safe and loving home. We will
create more places in children's homes while
prioritising keeping families together where
that's best for the child through our Kinship
Care Strategy and helping children grow up in
loving adoptive families where that is a better
option. We will also support those leaving care
with housing, education and employment,
in addition to expanding befriending and
mentoring programmes for care leavers.
Cutting tax for families
In April, we raised the threshold at which
individuals begin to lose Child Benefit from
£50,000 to £60,000 and halved the rate at which
it is withdrawn. This is the right thing for families
and the right thing for the economy.
But it still isn't fair that single earner households
can start losing their Child Benefit when a
household with two working parents and a
much higher total income can keep it in full.
We will end this unfairness by moving to a
household rather than individual basis for
Child Benefit. So nobody is worse off than
under the current system, we will set the
combined household income at which a family
will start losing Child Benefit at £120,000 and
gradually remove it until household income
reaches £160,000, above which families will no
longer receive Child Benefit. This will benefit
over 700,000 households, each gaining an
average of £1,480 a year.
Protecting children online
Digital technology is a force for good. But as
technology develops, we need to respond to
the concerns many parents have.
Children are spending much more of their
time using screens, often unsupervised, with
research finding 63% of eight to 11-year-olds are
now using social media. We also know that the
number of children suffering from mental illness
is rising dramatically and children spend less
time playing, sleeping and socialising.
In the last decade, we have done more to
protect children online than any other country.
From next year, our Online Safety Act will
make it a legal requirement for social media
firms to protect children from illegal or harmful
content online. This includes fining social media
companies who shirk their responsibilities to
keep children safe.
But we need to do more to protect young
people and empower parents to make
decisions in the best interests of their children.
We will put our guidance on banning mobile
phones in the school day on a statutory
footing which will require all schools to operate
a ban, as the best schools already do. We will
provide funding for schools to help them ban
mobile phones where they need it.
We will urgently consult on introducing further
parental controls over access to social media.
We know this is a complex area and we need
more effective age verification and parental
controls. That's why we will consult widely
to get this right, including developing the
necessary technology, in partnership with
other countries who are considering similar
measures. We expect to build on the existing
responsibilities set out for social media
companies under the Online Safety Act.
20
Our plan to get
more people into
work and build
a fairer welfare
system
We believe in fairness and the
value of hard work. Alongside a tax
system that rewards work, we want
a welfare system which supports
everyone to fulfil their potential
and live dignified and independent
lives. There should always be a
safety net for those who need it
most; but those who can work to
support themselves, should work,
and they should be better off for
doing so.
Since 2010, we have delivered transformational
reforms to put work at the heart of our welfare
system. We have rolled out Universal Credit
and cut its taper rate by 10p in the pound to
make work pay. We've brought discipline to
the system through tougher sanctions and
conditionality. We introduced the household
benefit cap and the two-child limit to make the
system fairer to the taxpayers who pay for it
and ensure benefits are always a safety net, not
a lifestyle choice.
All of this has delivered near record levels
of employment and low unemployment, with
around four million more people in work since
we came to office.
At the same time, we have protected the
most vulnerable, safeguarding millions of
jobs through the pandemic and delivering
unprecedented support to help households
through the energy shock from Putin's war.
Since the pandemic, new challenges have
emerged. The number of people who are
economically inactive due to ill health has risen
from 2 million to 2.8 million, with a significant
increase in mental health conditions among
younger people. As a result, the number of
working age people claiming benefits is
projected to grow at an unsustainable rate,
with all the wasted human potential that entails.
We are now spending £69 billion a year on
benefits for people of working age with a
disability or health condition, a figure which
has risen by two thirds since the pandemic.
By the end of the decade, that spending is
projected to increase to £90 billion. It would be
irresponsible not to take bold action to put
the welfare system on a sustainable footing.
So we will reform the system to make it fairer
and more sustainable, unlocking the potential
of millions of people and giving them the
support they need to get into work.
This next generation of welfare reforms will
build a system fit for the post-pandemic world.
They will give everyone who can the best
possible chance of returning to work, while
providing the right support to those who need
it. With fewer people moving onto welfare and
more people in work fulfilling their potential, we
will save taxpayers £12 billion a year. To deliver
this, we will take a two-pronged approach.
First, to address the unsustainable rise in
benefit claims for people of working age with a
disability or health condition, we will:
•
Reform our disability benefits so they
are better targeted and reflect people's
genuine needs, while delivering a step-
change in mental health provision. We
will improve PIP assessments to provide a
more objective consideration of people's
needs and stop the number of claims from
rising unsustainably. While people suffering
with mental health conditions face
significant challenges, it is not clear that
they always face the same additional living
costs as people with physical disabilities.
We will look at the best way to provide
support, including whether treatment or
services could be more appropriate for
some people than a monthly cash payment,
while also delivering a dramatic expansion
in mental health support. At the same time,
we will make the assessment process
simpler and fairer for those with the most
severe conditions.
•
Tighten up how the benefits system
assesses capability for work. People
are now three times more likely to be
assessed as not fit for any work and put on
the highest tier of sickness benefits than
they were a decade ago. We will change
the assessments from September 2025
so that those with more moderate mental
health issues or mobility problems who
could potentially engage with the world of
work are given tailored support, instead
of being written off on benefits. The OBR
has forecast that these reforms will reduce
the number of people on these benefits by
424,000.
•
Overhaul the fit note process so that
people are not being signed off sick as
a default. Currently, 94% of fit notes are
being signed off as 'not fit for work'. We
will design a new system which moves
the responsibility for issuing fit notes
away from our hard-pressed GPs towards
specialist work and health professionals,
and we will test integrating this with the
new WorkWell service to provide tailored
support to help people stay in or get back
to work.
Second, to make sure that being on benefits
remains a safety net, not a lifestyle choice, we
will:
•
Introduce tougher sanctions rules so
people who refuse to take up suitable jobs
after 12 months on benefits can have their
cases closed and their benefits removed
entirely. We will bring forward the new
claimant review point for the long-term
unemployed from 18 months to 12 months.
At the claimant review, Work Coaches will
set renewed conditions for claimants. If
they fail to accept or comply with those
conditions, such as refusing a suitable job
or a mandatory work placement, their claim
will be closed and their benefits will stop.
•
Accelerate the rollout of Universal Credit
to ensure it always pays to work. We will
move all of those remaining on outdated
legacy benefits onto Universal Credit,
removing disincentives for them to work
and ensuring they will always be better off
in work.
•
Continue to clamp down on fraudsters.
Since 2019 we have delivered cumulative
scored savings of £7.7 billion through
measures we have taken to tackle fraud
in the welfare system. Despite this, the
level of welfare fraud remains far too high,
having more than doubled during the
pandemic. To deliver further savings, we
will maintain our zero-tolerance approach
to fraud. This will include a new Fraud
Bill to give DWP powers similar to that
of HMRC, so we can treat benefit fraud
like we do tax fraud with new powers to
identify, investigate and pursue fraudsters.
We hugely value the work that unpaid carers do
supporting their loved ones. We have increased
Carer's Allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010
and given employees who are also unpaid
carers entitlement to a period of unpaid leave.
We will continue to stand behind our carers.
The vast majority of parents work incredibly
hard to give their children the best start in
life, but sadly a small number shirk their
responsibilities. We will reform the Child
Maintenance Service to prevent noncompliance
and new laws to help crack
down on non-payment. We'll also look at
how the Service can better support victims
of domestic or economic abuse, building on
recommendations from Dr Samantha Callan's
2023 Independent Review.
24
Our plan to give
young people the
opportunities and
skills they need
Education is the closest thing we
have to a silver bullet, which is why
since 2010 we have focused on
driving up standards in education.
English children are now the best
readers in the Western world and
are 11th in the world for maths, up
from 27th when Labour left office in
2010. Children in England now far
outperform their peers in Labourrun
Wales and SNP-run Scotland.
We will build on this success to
make sure every child gets a world-
class education and reaches their
full potential.
Giving every child thechance to go to a greatschool
Today, 90% of schools are Good or
Outstanding, up from 68% in 2010. School
funding is at its highest ever level in real terms
per pupil and there are record numbers of
teachers, 27,000 more than 2010. The pupil
premium, introduced by the Conservatives in
2011, will allocate almost £3 billion next year to
support disadvantaged children to reach their
full potential. Free school meals have been
extended to more groups of children than
under any other government over the past
half a century. We will build on this progress in
the next Parliament by protecting day-to-day
schools spending in real terms per pupil.
None of this progress has been possible
without our great teachers. We have hit our
2019 manifesto commitment to introduce
starting salaries of £30,000 and are backing
headteachers to manage behaviour and
enforce discipline. We will require schools to
follow our guidance on banning the use of
mobile phones during the school day, which
is proven to boost attainment, reduce bullying
and support good behaviour in schools. We will
attract more talented teachers by expanding
our recruitment and retention premium and
reducing workload. From this September, new
teachers in priority areas and key STEM and
technical subjects will receive bonuses of up
to £30,000 tax-free over five years. We will
extend the payments to eligible teachers in
our further education colleges. We will always
support and celebrate our further education
colleges.
We will champion excellence in our classrooms.
In primary schools, we will support teachers
to use tried and tested techniques, including
our world-leading phonics programme and our
mastery approach to maths, enabling every
child to master the basics before they start
secondary school. We will support children in
their transition to secondary school and ensure
they continue to receive a broad and enriched
education during and after-school, including via
our multi-million pound Music Hubs.
We will mandate two hours of PE every week
in primary and secondary schools, supported
by extending the PE and Sport Premium to
secondary schools. We will increase funding
for School Games Organisers to get more
competitive sport into and between schools
and work with sporting bodies to create more
UK-wide school competitions like National
Finals, to identify the best sporting talents.
To keep pace with our global competitors we
will introduce the Advanced British Standard,
a new approach to 16-19 education which will
build on the best of A Levels and T Levels.
We will end the artificial and damaging divide
between academic and technical education
which has persisted for far too long. Every
young person will spend more time in the
classroom, learning more subjects, including
English and maths to 18, as they do in most
advanced economies around the world.
For children and young people to benefit from
the bold reforms we have made to education,
they must be in school. The legacy of Covid
has made this more difficult. We will continue
to work with schools and local authorities to
improve school attendance, including through
more mental health support, building on our
plan that is working - there were 440,000
fewer children persistently absent last year
compared to the year before. And to ensure all
children are getting a high-quality education,
including those who are home schooled, we
will legislate to create a register of children
not in school.
We will work to strengthen the relationship
between schools and parents, including by
delivering new legislation which will make clear,
beyond all doubt, that parents have a right to
see what their child is being taught in school
and schools must share all materials, especially
on sensitive matters like relationships and sex
education. This builds on the progress we have
already made, having updated Relationships,
Sex and Health Education Guidance to
introduce clear age-limits on what children
can be taught and guarantee the contested
A new model of modern
National Service
We will reinvent National Service for this century to
give young people valuable life skills and build a stronger
national culture. National Service will be compulsory, so it
becomes a rite of passage for every 18-year-old, but young
people will be given a choice, between:
•
civic service. The equivalent of one weekend a month
(25 days a year) volunteering in the community,
alongside work or study, for a year. Roles could include
special constable, NHS responder or RNLI volunteer; or
•
military service. A year-long full-time placement in the
armed forces or cyber defence. This placement will be
competitive and paid, so our armed forces recruit and
train the brightest and the best.
We
will
establish
a
Royal
Commission,
the
first
in
a
quarter
of a century, to design our modernised National Service. It
will
be
backed
by
funding
rising
to
£2.5
billion
in
the
final
year of the Parliament and a new National Service Act.
concept of gender identity is not taught to
children.
We will expand strong academy trusts. This
builds on our record to date, where half of all
state-funded schools are now academies and
over 700 free schools have been delivered,
with more in the pipeline. We will further
protect parents' choice on where to send their
child to school, including preserving the rights
of independent and grammar schools. We will
lift the cap on faith schools, allowing them to
offer more places to children based on faith
and encouraging them to expand. We will back
Ofsted to provide clear judgements to parents
on the quality and safety of schools. We are
rebuilding over 500 schools through the School
Rebuilding Programme, including rebuilding
or refurbishing every school identified to have
RAAC.
We will transform education for children
with special educational needs, ending the
postcode lottery of support by delivering
60,000 more school places and a further 15
new free schools for children with special
educational needs. Instead of penalising
independent special schools by taxing them,
we will back them because we believe in the
right of parents to choose the best education
for their child.
Facilitating training andskills at every stage of life
We believe in giving young people the
best possible start to their adult lives and
going to university is not the only route to
success. The Conservatives have prioritised
apprenticeships after they were neglected
under Labour. Since 2010, we have delivered
5.8 million apprenticeships and have created
apprenticeship routes into 70% of occupations,
including through degree apprenticeships.
We passed new laws requiring children to be
taught about technical education opportunities,
not just university routes, and have set up 21
Institutes of Technology. We will build on this
by creating 100,000 more apprenticeships
in England every year by the end of next
Parliament.
We will fund this by changing the law to close
university courses in England with the worst
outcomes for their students. Courses that
have excessive drop-out rates or leave students
worse off than had they not gone to university
will be prevented from recruiting students
by the universities regulator. This will protect
students from being missold and the taxpayer
from having to pay where the graduate can't.
We are committed to delivering the best value
for students, so have already reformed student
loans to make them fairer, meaning no one will
pay back more than what they borrowed in real
terms. And we will work with universities to
ensure students get the contact hours they are
promised and their exams get marked.
We will support the National Citizen Service
to help young people build confidence and
develop the skills they need to thrive.
We will deliver the Lifelong Learning
Entitlement, giving adults the support they
need to train, retrain and upskill flexibly
throughout their working lives. From the 2025
academic year, adults will be able to apply
for loans to cover new qualifications. We
will also continue to expand our adult skills
programmes, such as Skills Bootcamps which
meet skills shortages.
The world is an increasingly
dangerous place so we will take
bold action to keep the British
people safe and our homeland
secure. Our prosperity depends on
our ability to preserve international
security. As our record proves,
we will do so by deterring our
adversaries and acting as a force
for peace and stability in the world.
We will fully deliver our new pledge for the
defence of the nation.
We will hit 2.5% of GDP on defence in 2030
with our fully funded plan. This is the biggest
strengthening of our defence since the Cold
War, ensuring we remain the largest defence
power in Europe. It will protect our security,
cement our UK leadership in NATO and create
more jobs in the UK.
If all NATO partners spent 2.5% of GDP on
defence, our collective spending would
increase by over £140 billion. Therefore, we will
launch a campaign to set a new baseline of
2.5% for all NATO allies by 2030.
We will invest in the vital capabilities of the
future, to give our Armed Forces the best
equipment to do their job.
Taking pride in our record
•
We have led the world in support of
Ukraine against Putin's aggression, as the
first European country to mobilise lethal
aid and to send Western tanks and long-
range missiles. Russia's attempts to destroy
Ukraine are an assault on European
security.
•
We will always be steadfast in our support
for our Trident nuclear deterrent and have
invested in its modernisation, including a
nuclear skills package worth up to £763
million by 2030.
•
We have taken action to prevent Iran and
its proxies from attacking the UK and its
partners.
•
We have toughened our cyber defences
and national security laws to protect the
nation from terrorists and hostile state
actors.
•
We have chased dirty money out of the
UK with new measures to protect our
economic security.
•
We have ripped out Huawei from key
parts of our telecommunications system
and reduced Chinese influence in our
critical national infrastructure and sensitive
technological sectors.
•
Due to our post-Brexit freedoms, we have
introduced a new independent sanctions
regime that we have used to stand up for
human rights around the world in countries
such as Russia, Belarus and Iran.
•
We have agreed new trade and security
deals across the world including in Europe,
the Middle East, Africa and the Indo-Pacific.
•
We have delivered major new investment.
The Integrated Review was supported by
an additional £24 billion and the Integrated
Review Refresh by an additional £5 billion
to invest in stockpiles and our nuclear
enterprise. We have pledged over £12
billion to date on support to Ukraine.
•
We have created new defence industrial
partnerships, including AUKUS to create
the world's most advanced nuclear-
powered, conventionally and continually
armed, submarines and the Global Combat
Air Programme to create a new fighter jet
with Italy and Japan.
•
We will always stand up for British values
and interests and will never be afraid to act
when it is necessary. We have been part of
a coalition that protected maritime security
from Houthi attacks and helped police the
airspace of our partners in the Middle East.
Our strategic defencepriorities
We will adapt to the lessons from the war
in Ukraine which showed us it is vital to be
able to replenish equipment quickly and that
the acceleration of disruptive technologies
is changing the character of warfare. Our
strategic priorities will be:
Our pledge to Veterans
We
are
proud
to
have
created
the
United
Kingdom's
first
Office
for
Veterans
Affairs,
run
by
a
dedicated
Minister
who attends Cabinet, transforming what it feels like to be a
Veteran
in
the
United
Kingdom.
•
We
will
maintain
the
Office
for
Veterans
Affairs
in
its
current
position
in
the
Cabinet
Office,
with
a
dedicated
Minister for Veterans Affairs in Cabinet.
•
We will maintain the base operating budget of the
Office for Veterans Affairs at £10 million throughout
the next Parliament. We will retain the National
Insurance holiday for those who employ veterans and
we will bring forward measures so that War Pensions
and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme awards are
not
counted
as
income
for
the
purpose
of
benefits
and
pensions.
•
We will extend the visa fees waiver introduced to
cover Commonwealth personnel, to include their
direct
dependants.
We
will
fully
implement
the
findings
of
the
independent
review
into
Veterans
UK.
We
will
bring forward measures to ensure public bodies record
whether someone has served in the UK's Armed Forces.
•
We will cut the cost of the Veterans Railcard so that it
costs the same as the HM Forces Railcard.
•
We will pass the UK's first ever Veterans' Bill to
enshrine
Veterans'
rights
in
law.
Ensuring
qualifications
from Service are correctly recognised in civilian life,
creating a legal duty on government to look after our
Veterans
and
widening
the
scope
of
the
Armed
Forces
Covenant in law to include the UK Government and
devolved administrations.
•
We will change the law to ensure Veterans ID cards are
valid identification in all future elections.
•
Boosting the UK defence industrial base
by giving industry the multi-year certainty
it requires to produce the equipment
we need when we need it, with at least
£10 billion of investment in munitions
production, the majority of which will be
spent in the UK over the next decade. We
will do this in the areas in which we have
the most pressing priorities, building on UK
expertise. We will build long-term strategic
partnerships with our industrial partners
and invest in high quality British defence
industry jobs across the UK.
•
Accelerating the modernisation of our
Armed Forces and investing in technology
that is advantageous on the modern
battlefield. Through our new Defence
Innovation Agency, we will scale R&D
funding to a minimum of 5% of the defence
budget, together with an additional 2% to
exploit that R&D, accelerating investments
in new weapon systems.
•
Guaranteeing Ukraine the support it
needs for the long haul, assuring current
levels of support for as long as they are
required. We will secure additional military
supplies for Ukraine and build international
agreement to use immobilised Russian
assets to support Ukraine.
We will deliver a National Defence and
Resilience Plan for our security, preparedness
and resilience as a nation. This will be based
on the latest assessment of threats and risks,
bringing together defence and civilian planning
to reflect our increasingly interdependent
world, and sit alongside work to build on
learnings from Covid to improve the country's
preparedness for risks on the National Risk
Register.
We will improve Service Family
Accommodation, improving quality and
ensuring military families get the support they
deserve.
Improving efficiency andinvesting across the UnitedKingdom
Defence already contributes significantly to our
economic prosperity, supporting over 400,000
jobs in the UK. As part of our new investment
in defence, we will prioritise growth in UK
industries and supporting communities
across the United Kingdom.
We will make sure new investment is spent
more effectively than before. By delivering our
new Integrated Procurement Model, we will
make defence procurement faster, smarter and
more joined up, boost private sector investment
by confirming that ESG considerations are
entirely consistent with investment in our vital
defence industry and transform innovation.
We will ensure we achieve value for money
from this investment in defence alongside
our procurement reforms. We will improve
productivity, along with a new target to
become the largest defence exporter in
Europe by 2030.
Leadership in the world
Since the 2019 election, the Conservative
Government has delivered on our promise to
make Britain a force for good in the world.
We are proud of our record in defence and
diplomacy in an increasingly contested
and dangerous world and we celebrate
the professionalism of our Armed Forces,
diplomats, development experts and
intelligence agencies.
Our highest priority remains protecting the
British homeland, Crown dependencies and
Overseas Territories from risks and threats.
As part of that, we continue to ensure the
democratic rights of people in Gibraltar, the
Falklands and all our Overseas Territories are
protected.
We believe that the United Kingdom needs
to be outward-looking and global in
perspective, seizing opportunities to deepen
its economic ties and bolster its prosperity in
the most dynamic parts of the world.
We have a record in standing up to those who
threaten our security and values, and we are
taking new action to protect ourselves, our
democracy and our economy at home.
We must be prepared to tackle the axis of
authoritarian states and hostile actors who
are working together to threaten international
security. That is why we will include Russia,
Iran and China within the enhanced tier of the
Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
•
We will strengthen our relationships with
like-minded partners around the world. As
a permanent member of the UN Security
Council, the UK has a responsibility to
stand up for international peace and
security. We will keep investing in our
collective security through groups like the
G7, Five Eyes and NATO.
•
We will maintain our special relationship
with the United States, building on the
closer trading and national security ties we
have built in recent years.
•
We will seek to strengthen the
Commonwealth, as an organisation
that accounts for over a quarter of the
membership of the UN and a champion of
values. We will deepen cooperation with
Commonwealth partners and institutions
to enhance the benefits of membership,
strengthen intra-Commonwealth trade,
support members facing challenges
in attracting inward investment and
strengthen the resilience of the most
vulnerable members to climate change,
nature loss and environmental degradation.
•
We will build on our post-Brexit
relationships in Europe, including through
the Joint Expeditionary Force and new
defensive treaties with Germany and
Poland, to match the treaty we have with
France under Lancaster House.
•
In relation to China, we will strengthen our
national security protections, align and
cooperate with our partners, and engage
where it is consistent with our interests.
China has disregarded universal human
rights and its international commitments,
from Tibet and Xinjiang to Hong Kong. We
will continue to raise our grave concerns
at the UN and other fora and use asset
freezes and travel bans on those involved
under our human rights sanctions regime.
•
We will maintain our close ties in the Indo-
Pacific, following our accession to CPTPP,
our AUKUS partnership with Australia and
ASEAN dialogue partner status. We will
bolster the Hiroshima Accord with Japan
and expand trade and security ties with
South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and
Singapore. We will finalise a free trade
agreement with India, alongside a deeper
strategic partnership on technology and
defence.
•
We will continue to seek closer ties with
partners in the Gulf and Middle East based
on an appreciation of regional perspectives
and shared interests.
•
We will sign partnership agreements with
each of the British Overseas Territories,
ensuring we are working together to
deliver for their residents and identifying
areas for greater cooperation on defence,
trade and investment.
To ensure our world-class diplomacy and
development expertise is brought together we
will maintain the merger of the Foreign Office
and former Department for International
Development - and use this advantage to the
maximum benefit in every post overseas.
The UK will remain one of the largest
development donors in the world. We will
return to spending 0.7% of GNI when fiscal
circumstances allow. We will assess every
penny of this money with a strict national
interest test.
•
We will continue to ensure that aid and
development supports our strategic
objectives, with a focus on fragile states.
We will work with our partners to deliver
the Sustainable Development Goals
and tackle poverty, as set out in the
International Development White Paper.
•
We will use our influence to ensure
Multilateral Development Banks get more
money to the countries who need it and
work to deliver debt relief.
•
We will expand our international campaigns
on girls' education, women's rights and
reproductive health. We will stand up for
those persecuted for their faith and put the
existing role of Special Envoy for Freedom
of Religion or Belief on a statutory
footing. We will promote international
media freedom and work to end human
trafficking and modern slavery.
•
We will support marginalised communities
in the developing world and protect those
persecuted for their ethnicity, political
views, faith or sexuality. We will continue
our campaigns against child marriage and
FGM.
•
We will scale up high impact, cost effective
global health interventions, including
maternal nutrition and antimicrobial
resistance, for benefit at home and overseas.
We will continue our longstanding support
for GAVI and the Global Fund - organisations
that have saved millions of lives in the fight
against disease.
We will maintain the leadership on climate
change we achieved at COP26 and our efforts
to tackle global warming and biodiversity loss.
We will continue to ring-fence our commitment
to International Climate Finance.
We will work with Small Island Development
States, including our Commonwealth friends
in the Caribbean and the Pacific, to access
finance for climate change adaptation and
resilience.
We will be confident in spreading British values
around the world, publishing a new Soft Power
Strategy to support the role of our embassies
and the British Council overseas. We will
support the BBC World Service, expand the
use of the English language worldwide and
champion English learning around the globe.
We will not apologise for standing up for our
values and we will work against the global
rollback on people's rights and freedoms. We
will use all the tools available to us, including
travel bans and sanctions, on individuals and
entities that warrant it.
We have delivered on our manifesto pledge to
introduce 'votes for life' for British citizens living
overseas. We will appoint a Minister for British
Citizens Overseas to represent them across
government.
The UK has a strong record of providing
world-leading consular support to our citizens
overseas and we will ensure British nationals
abroad get help when they need it. We will
introduce a new model for complex detention
cases, with new Family Advocates to help
provide specialist assistance and give greater
confidence to families.
We are proud to be a problem-solving
and burden-sharing nation. We will use
our diplomatic efforts to keep pushing for
reconciliation and stability in parts of the world
where there is conflict or unresolved territorial
disputes.
We staunchly stand behind Israel's right to
defend itself and to live with security. We will
continue to support access to aid for those
affected by the conflict. We will push for a
two-state solution in the Middle East - our
long-standing position has been that we will
recognise a Palestinian State at a time that is
most conducive to the peace process. We will
redouble our efforts to help achieve diplomatic
breakthroughs in Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Sudan and
Myanmar.
We will bring back our Bill to ban public bodies
from imposing their own boycott or divestment
campaigns against foreign countries and
territories.
We will intensify our fight to stop money
laundering and dirty money and ensure
all British Overseas Territories and Crown
Dependencies adopt open registers of
beneficial ownership.
Illegal migration is unfair. It
is unfair for people to jump the
queue in front of people who
play by the rules. It is unfair
for taxpayers to pay for the
hotels and public services. And
it is unfair for illegal migrants
themselves who risk their lives in
the hands of people smugglers.
The Conservatives are the only party with a plan
to stop the boats and reduce the strain that illegal
migration places on our communities and public
services. Labour have no plan and would grant an
amnesty to thousands of illegal migrants.
We have made progress. Last year, small boat
arrivals to the UK fell by a third. Our work with
international partners prevented more than
26,000 crossings last year. Our Albania deal
shows that deterrence works, with numbers
down 90%.
But the only way to stop the boats entirely is
to remove the incentive to come - by making
clear that if you come here illegally, you will not
be allowed to stay. Only then will the boats stop
coming and people stop dying in the Channel.
We will:
•
Establish a deterrent. We will run
a relentless, continual process of
permanently removing illegal migrants to
Rwanda with a regular rhythm of flights
every month, starting this July, until the
boats are stopped. If we are forced to
choose between our security and the
jurisdiction of a foreign court, including the
ECtHR, we will always choose our security.
•
End the legal merry-go-round. We will stop
illegal migrants from bringing spurious
challenges to block their removal by
bringing our Illegal Migration Act into force
and clearing the asylum backlog, with all
claims processed in six months and the use
of hotels ended.
•
Crack down on organised immigration
crime, including through the National
Crime Agency and our intelligence
services, to disrupt supply chains and
tackle people smugglers.
•
Reform asylum rules, holding an
international summit and working with
other countries to reform international
laws to make them fit for an age of mass
migration. We will restrict visa access from
countries that don't work with us on our
national priorities, like illegal migration.
•
Return people with no right to be here
to their own country. We will sign further
returns deals like the one we have already
agreed with Albania.
•
With control of our borders, we can do
more to help refugees fleeing persecution.
In addition to maintaining visa schemes for
people fleeing Hong Kong, Ukraine and our
Afghan settlement schemes, we will give
parliament control of how many places we
offer on safe and legal routes to support
those in genuine need from around the
world, with a cap based on the capacity of
local areas.
Delivering sustainablelevels of high-skilledmigration
Immigration is too high. We want to attract
the brightest and best skilled migrants to the
UK to contribute to our businesses and public
services. We must bring migration numbers
down to sustainable levels to reduce the
impacts on public services and housing and to
restore public confidence in the system.
We have already implemented changes which
mean that 300,000 people who were eligible
to come the UK last year now couldn't. We
have:
•
Ended the ability of almost all
international students and all care
workers to bring dependants.
•
Scrapped cut-price shortage labour
from overseas, by abolishing the 20%
going rate salary discount for shortage
occupations.
•
Stopped immigration from undercutting
British workers, by increasing the salary
threshold for Skilled Worker visas by 48%
to £38,700.
•
Ensured those sponsoring dependants
can support them financially, by raising
the minimum income for family visas to
£38,700.
Going forward, we will raise the Skilled Worker
threshold and Family income requirement
with inflation automatically to make sure they
don't undercut UK workers.
Our plan to cut migration
We need to control numbers and give the public confidence
they will come down significantly.
•
We will introduce a binding, legal cap on migration,
set on work and family visas so public services are
protected whilst we bring the skills our businesses and
the NHS needs.
•
Our cap will be set at a level that explicitly takes into
account the costs and the benefits of migration.
•
The cap will fall every year of the next Parliament and
cannot be breached.
•
We will give parliament an annual vote on the level of
the cap so that the British people can have confidence
that immigration numbers will be controlled.
•
Unlike Labour, we won't allow any form of free
movement to return.
We have taken steps to ensure those coming to
the UK do not place a burden on the NHS, by
requiring them to pay the Immigration Health
Surcharge and increasing this to £1,035. We
will go further, in line with other countries,
by requiring migrants to undergo a health
check in advance of travel and increasing their
Immigration Health Surcharge or requiring them
to buy health insurance if they are likely to be a
burden on the NHS.
We will increase all visa fees and remove the
student discount to the Immigration Health
Surcharge to raise more money for public
services.
We will continue to attract the brightest and
best students to study in our world class
institutions. We will ensure those who come
here are able to integrate into communities
and participate in the economy. We want
to make sure our immigration system is fair
and will continue delivering the Windrush
Compensation Scheme. We are committed to
the EU Settled Status Scheme and the rights it
has guaranteed for EU citizens.
38
Since 2010, we have invested
more in the NHS than at any other
point in its history. We will continue
to increase NHS spending above
inflation in each year of the next
Parliament.
During Covid, we saw the NHS at its finest, with
extraordinary acts of service and sacrifice from
health and care professionals. Throughout the
pandemic, the Conservative Government acted
to save lives, protect the NHS and deliver a
world leading vaccine programme. But dealing
with a once-in-a-generation pandemic put a
strain on our health and social care system and it
has taken time to recover.
Thanks to record funding, we now have
more doctors and nurses than ever before,
delivering record numbers of appointments.
We are committed to accelerating the NHS's
recovery from the pandemic, delivering safe and
effective services and ongoing improvements
in waiting times for primary, elective, cancer and
emergency care. We will return performance to
the levels set out in the NHS Constitution by the
end of the next Parliament.
We will invest in and modernise the NHS. We
have taken the long-term decision to train the
staff the NHS needs, by backing the NHS's first
ever Long-Term Workforce Plan. By the end of
the next Parliament, there will be 92,000 more
nurses and 28,000 more doctors in the NHS
than in 2023. We are also delivering record
increases in training places for other clinicians,
such as midwives and paramedics and we
are boosting training places for dentists and
other dental care professionals by 40%. We will
improve working conditions for all NHS staff.
We are committed to supporting a high-quality
and sustainable social care system, building
on our additional investment of up to £8.6
billion over the last two years. At the next
Spending Review, we will give local authorities
a multi-year funding settlement to support
social care and will take forward the reforms in
our 'People at the Heart of Care' White Paper.
Bringing health and care
closer to patients
The NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan will help shift care
away from hospitals and into local communities. To support
this, we will:
•
Expand Pharmacy First, including for menopause
support, contraception and treatment for chest
infections, freeing up 20 million GP appointments a year.
•
Build or modernise 250 GP surgeries, focused on areas
of new housing growth.
•
Build 50 more Community Diagnostic Centres,
including in underserved areas, resulting in an additional
2.5 million checks a year.
We will attract and retain a high-quality care
workforce, make reforms to shape the market
for older people's housing and support unpaid
carers. We will implement our planned reforms
to cap social care costs from October 2025.
We will invest in more and better facilities,
continuing to deliver 40 new hospitals by
2030 and investing proportionately more
in out-of-hospital services over time. We will
modernise NHS primary care services and bring
health and care closer to patients.
Our Dental Recovery Plan will unlock 2.5
million more NHS dental appointments,
through a patient premium to encourage dentists
to take on new NHS patients. We will make further
reforms to the dental contract to ensure its future
sustainability and we will ensure newly qualified
dentists have to work in the NHS for a number
of years or pay back their training costs. We will
promote good oral health through our 'Smile for
Life' programme. Rural and coastal communities
will be better served through 'golden hellos' to
encourage dentists to work in these areas, and
through new dental vans.
We will further improve access to NHS services
across England by training more staff in rural
and coastal areas. For the first time the NHS
Constitution will reflect the bespoke healthcare
needs of rural and coastal communities and the
need for the NHS to tailor services accordingly.
We will protect and promote patients' right
to choose the NHS service that is right for
them. We will grow opportunities for all types of
providers - NHS, charity or independent sector to
offer services free of charge to NHS patients,
where these meet NHS costs and standards.
We will extend patients' right to choose to more
NHS community services over time, including
diagnostics, talking therapies and other mental
health services. We will fully roll out Martha's
Rule, giving patients the right to a second
opinion.
We will support our world-leading life sciences
sector, embracing the opportunities provided
by Brexit to pursue nimble and agile regulation,
supported by a well-equipped MHRA. We will
support research into new treatments, including
for Parkinson's and motor neurone disease and
Transforming NHS
technology and productivity
We will invest £3.4 billion in new technology to transform
the NHS for staff and for patients. The NHS Productivity
Plan will see NHS productivity grow by 1.9% a year from
2025-26 - unlocking £35 billion of cumulative savings by
the end of the decade. We will:
•
Make
the
NHS
App
the
single
front
door
for
NHS
services. Patients will use the App to access their medical
records, order prescriptions, book vaccine appointments,
access a digital red book and manage their hospital
appointments.
•
Use AI to free up doctors' and nurses' time for frontline
patient care.
•
Replace tens of thousands of outdated computers,
slashing the 13 million hours in doctors' and nurses' time
lost to IT issues every year and digitise NHS processes
through the Federated Data Platform.
•
Fund
technology
to
help
clinicians
read
MRI
and
CT
scans more quickly and accurately, speeding up results
for 130,000 patients every year.
•
Create new incentives for improved performance,
rewarding the best performing providers of care.
secure more commercial clinical trials. We will
remove bureaucratic obstacles to the use of new
medicines, such as the NHS Budget Impact Test
and will align NHS England's cost-effectiveness
thresholds for new medicines indications with
those used by NICE. We will implement a
new medtech pathway so that cost-effective
medtech, including AI, is rapidly adopted
throughout the NHS.
We will cut waste and bureaucracy in the
NHS, reducing the number of managers
by 5,500, releasing £550 million for frontline
services and simplifying and streamlining
oversight and accountability. We will carefully
consider the implications of the review of the
whistleblowing framework for the NHS and
we will consult on a disbarring regime for NHS
managers.
We know that, for most people, poor health
comes from living with one or more of six
major health conditions: cancer, heart disease,
musculoskeletal disorders, mental ill-health,
dementia and respiratory disease. We will publish
and implement a Major Conditions Strategy
to prevent these conditions from occurring
and ensure those living with them receive the
best possible care. We will also take forward our
Rare Diseases Action Plan. We will continue to
modernise autism and learning disability services.
We will bring forward our landmark Tobacco
and Vapes Bill in our first King's Speech. We will
continue to tackle childhood and adult obesity
and will legislate to restrict the advertising of
products high in fat, salt and sugar. We will
gather new evidence on the impact of ultra-
processed food to support people to make
healthier choices.
We will roll out new digital health checks to
250,000 more people every year, helping to
prevent hundreds of strokes and heart attacks.
We will take forward the NHS Vaccination
Strategy.
We are implementing the HIV Action Plan, which
will end new HIV transmissions by 2030. Subject
to evaluation, we will expand HIV opt-out testing
in emergency departments in England.
We will prioritise women's health, following
publication of the first ever Women's Health
Strategy in 2022. To support women further, we
will:
•
Bring forward a comprehensive
national strategy for maternity care as
recommended by the APPG on Birth
Trauma's inquiry.
•
Deliver additional funding for maternal
safety and improve access to mental
health services for new mums, improve
perinatal pelvic health services to prevent
and support women with birth injuries
and postnatal appointments dedicated to
checking mums, not just their babies.
•
Expand women's health hubs so that every
integrated care system has at least one hub
up and running.
•
Roll out fracture liaison services to every
region, reaching 100% coverage by 2030
as osteoporosis disproportionately impacts
women.
•
Support continued research into disparities
in maternity care through the National
Institute for Health and Care Research.
We will complete the implementation of
the Cass Review, protecting young people
questioning their gender from ideologically-
driven care and ensuring that NHS services
follow evidence-based best practice. We have
already stopped the routine use by the NHS of
puberty blockers for gender dysphoria and will
legislate to permanently prevent their private
prescription and supply.
We will amend the NHS Constitution so that
it recognises every patient's right to request
single-sex accommodation and same-sex
intimate care. We will not allow the word
'woman' to be erased by health services. Words
such as 'breastfeeding' and 'mother' will not be
replaced by 'chestfeeding' and 'birthing parent'.
We will introduce a new licensing scheme
and age limits for non-surgical cosmetic
procedures, ensuring services are administered
by suitably qualified and trained professionals.
Improving mental health
support
Mental
health
should
have
parity
of
esteem
with
physical
health. To support children, young people and adults with
their mental health, we will:
•
Expand
coverage
of
Mental
Health
Support
Teams
from
50% to 100% of schools and colleges in England by 2030.
•
Open early support hubs for those aged 11-25 in every
local community by 2030.
•
Increase the planned expansion of NHS Talking
Therapies by 50%, supporting people with anxiety,
stress and depression.
•
Boost the capacity of Individual Placement and Support
for Severe Mental Illness by 140,000 places.
•
Pass a new law to provide better treatment and support
for severe mental health needs in the first session of the
next Parliament.
We will maintain the position that assisted dying is
a matter of conscience and will respect the will of
Parliament. Debates on assisted dying should never
distract from the importance of delivering high-
quality palliative care services and we will continue
to support children's and adults' hospices.
We have made a wholehearted and unequivocal
apology, on behalf of successive governments
of all parties, for the infected blood scandal. As
one of the last acts of Parliament, legislation was
passed that brings the Infected Blood Compensation
Authority into existence and we confirmed Sir
Robert Francis as its Interim Chair. We will pay
comprehensive compensation to those infected
and those affected by this scandal, accepting the
principles recommended by the Inquiry. Whatever
it costs to deliver the scheme, we will pay it. We
will also give a further £210,000 interim payment
to living infected beneficiaries - those registered
with existing infected blood support schemes as
well as those who register with a support scheme
before the final scheme becomes operational and
the estates of those who pass away between now
and payments being made. A scandal like this must
never be allowed to happen again, so we will study
the Inquiry's wide-ranging recommendations and
provide a full response to the Inquiry.
The Conservatives will always
back our brave police and security
services with the powers and
resources needed to keep our
country safe and we will always
work to deliver a justice system that
is fair to victims and sees offenders
repay their debt to society.
Under the Conservatives, violent crime has fallen
by 44% since 2010 and neighbourhood crime
is down 48%. Reoffending has fallen from over
30% in 2010 to 25%. We have recruited 20,000
police officers, delivered 6,000 prison places
as part of the largest prison expansion since the
Victorian era and deported over 18,000 foreign
national offenders since 2019 alone. We will:
•
Give every neighbourhood an additional
police officer by recruiting 8,000 more
police officers to patrol communities and
catch criminals in every ward in the country.
These full time, fully warranted officers will
be dedicated to neighbourhood policing.
•
Back the police, by giving officers new
powers and tools to catch criminals, including
technology like facial recognition and powers
to seize knives and track down stolen
property. We will always back the police in the
lawful and professional use of force, alongside
a fair and proportionate accountability system.
•
Restore public trust in policing. We will
license police officers for specialist roles,
as we do already for firearms officers.
We will legislate to ensure officers are
appropriately vetted during their service
and those who fail can be sacked.
We will foster greater collaboration between
the National Crime Agency and Counter
Terrorism Policing.
We will urgently introduce Martyn's Law,
in tribute to Martyn Hett, who was tragically
killed alongside 21 others in the Manchester
Arena terrorist attack in 2017. This will ensure
premises are better prepared for terrorist
attacks by requiring them to take proportionate
steps to mitigate risks.
We will toughen up community sentencing by
increasing the use of community payback
and electronic tagging, so criminals pay their
debt to society and communities witness justice
being served. We will fund every police force
to roll out Hotspot Policing, which has cut
anti-social behaviour by up to 50% in some
areas.
We will keep turning the tide against fraudsters.
In the last year we have reduced fraud by 13%,
including through our new National Fraud
Squad with 400 officers now in post. We will
ban SIM farms, which are used to send bulk
messages for fraudulent texts, and ban cold
calls on financial products so fraudsters cannot
dupe people into buying fake investments.
Tackling violence against
women and girls
We have made violence against women and
girls a strategic policing requirement for the
first time, making clear to the police that these
crimes are as significant as terrorism, serious
and organised crime and child sexual abuse.
We have strengthened the law to punish
predators with new offences for stalking,
controlling or coercive behaviour, non-fatal
strangulation and suffocation, sharing of intimate
images or 'revenge porn', non-consensual
taking of images of a woman breastfeeding,
'up skirting' and raised the maximum penalties
for harassment. We will legislate to create new
offences for spiking, the creation of sexualised
deepfake images and taking intimate images
without consent.
We will support victims of domestic abuse
including through our Domestic Abuse Act,
which created a statutory definition of domestic
abuse and gave new powers to police and the
courts.
We will toughen sentencing for murders that take
place within the context of domestic abuse with
new aggravating factors, such as if they involve
coercive and controlling behaviour or gratuitous
attacks. We will introduce a 25-year prison term
for domestic murders, regardless of whether a
weapon is used. Those who kill their domestic
abusers will not face the same starting point. This
will be accompanied by a review of homicide
sentencing, looking to close loopholes that
allow some killers to get off lightly.
We will introduce an aggravating factor for
murders that happen in the context of 'rough
sex', so it is never used as an excuse to get a
lighter sentence.
We have increased rape prosecutions by 56%
since 2010 and we will ensure rape victims get
the justice and support they deserve, with
a new investigatory model for rape for police
forces and prosecutors and pre-recorded cross-
examination for victims in all Crown courts.
We will carefully consider the recommendations
of Baroness Bertin's Independent Review of
Pornography and ensure we have the right
safeguards in place to protect against any
harmful impacts of the industry.
A justice system thatdelivers for victims and the
public
We will toughen sentencing for the worst
offenders. We have already ended Labour's
automatic halfway release for violent and
serious sexual offenders. We will make life
imprisonment without parole mandatory
for more of the most heinous murderers
and require rapists and other serious sexual
offenders to spend the whole of their
sentences behind bars.
We will toughen sentences for knife crime,
grooming gangs and assaults against retail
workers and combat the ability of serious
organised crime gangs to use new technology
to harm the public. We will prioritise further
measures to crack down on hyper-prolific
offenders.
We will empower judges to require offenders
to attend hearings or face an increased
sentence. We will stand firmly behind the legal
doctrine of joint enterprise meaning that those
who assist in crimes, from the getaway driver to
the weapon supplier, can be held accountable.
We will build four new prisons, completing
our programme of 20,000 new prison places
by 2030. We will make it easier to build prisons
in appropriate places by scrapping legacy EU
rules and streamlining the planning system.
We will remove more Foreign National
Offenders by increasing removals under the
Early Removal Scheme and negotiating more
Prisoner Transfer Agreements.
We will maintain the ban on prisoners voting
from jail.
We will turn criminals away from the cycle
of reoffending, investing in rehabilitative
services such as drug treatment, education and
employment. We will deliver our ten-year drugs
plan to cut crime and help people rebuild their
lives away from crime.
Our Victims and Prisoners Act ensures victims
are protected and supported, including that
those affected by major disasters such as
Hillsborough, the Manchester Arena bombing
and the Grenfell Tower fire can get the help
they need, when they need it, through a
permanent Independent Public Advocate.
We will expand the provision of legal aid at
inquests related to major incidents where the
Independent Public Advocate is appointed or in
the aftermath of terrorist incidents.
We will bring the mandatory reporting
provisions of the Criminal Justice Bill into force
as soon as possible. We will design a redress
scheme for the victims of child sexual abuse in
institutional settings that reflects their needs.
We will ensure this includes the victims of
grooming gangs and make a national apology
to grooming gang victims.
We will ensure sex offenders cannot evade
justice or conceal their identity by restricting
sex offenders from changing their names.
We will cut the Covid court backlog by
keeping open Nightingale courtrooms, funding
sitting days and investing in court maintenance.
And we will continue to digitise court processes
and expand the use of remote hearings. We
will match fund 100 criminal law pupillages to
speed up justice for victims and will continue
to ensure access to justice through legal aid
provision.
We will expand our Pathfinder Courts pilot
in family court proceedings and continue
mediation vouchers to help more families
resolve private law child arrangements without
an acrimonious court battle.
We will support our world class legal services
sector, including through an Arbitration Bill.
We will help individuals and small businesses
bring cases against wealthier opponents with
legislation to support third party funding of
litigation.
A plan to counter extremism
and to protect our streets
In recent months we have seen shocking
increases in protests being used as a cover for
extremist disruption and criminality. We cannot
allow a small and vocal minority to destroy our
democratic values. That is why we unveiled a
new extremism definition under which certain
groups that promote an ideology based on
violence, hatred or intolerance will be blocked
from government funding and meeting officials.
We have passed tough new laws to curb
disruptive protests. Our Public Order Act
2023 gave the police new powers to intervene
where protests cause serious disruption to
communities, leading to the arrests of over
600 Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion
protestors in London alone. We will introduce
further powers to ban face coverings,
pyrotechnics and climbing on war memorials.
We will strengthen police powers to prevent
protests or marches that pose a risk of
serious disorder, by allowing police to take
into account the cumulative impact of protests.
We will ban protests outside schools to stop
mobs from intimidating teachers and children.
We will always support teachers to uphold
and promote fundamental British values and
ensure they are protected from accusations of
blasphemy.
We will place a duty on the police and
prosecutors to publish regular guidance on the
statements, chants or symbols, for example,
the swastika or the term 'jihad', that in the
context of political protest may constitute an
offence. We will explore ways for the police to
recover some of the costs of policing disruptive
protests from the groups that organise them.
We will also ensure our elected
representatives get the protection needed to
represent their constituents without fear.
Abuse or discrimination based on religion is
unacceptable. We will not tolerate antisemitic
hatred in any form. We have pledged £54
million for the Community Security Trust to give
Jewish schools and synagogues the security
measures they need and allocated additional
funding to support schools and universities to
understand, recognise and tackle antisemitism.
We will get the UK Holocaust Memorial built.
We do not tolerate anti-Muslim hatred and
will seek to stamp it out wherever it occurs.
We have committed to provide £117 million
over four years for the Protective Security for
Mosques scheme and are proud to support and
help fund Tell MAMA's vital work.
Our plan for an
affordable and
pragmatic transition
to net zero
In the last few years, we have
faced the greatest shock to our
energy security since the 1970s.
Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine
sent energy prices spiralling.
Because of the decisions we
had taken to boost domestic
energy production and invest
in renewables, Britain had little
reliance on Russian fuel when the
invasion began, unlike some of our
European neighbours. But when
global energy prices spiked, the
Government stepped in to pay
around half the typical household
bill at the peak, saving families
£1,500 on average. Bills are now
coming down, and in July will fall to
the lowest level in over two years.
But the shock has reminded us
of the importance of securing our
long-term energy supply.
We are proud of our record and remain
committed to delivering net zero by 2050. Today
the UK is home to the five largest offshore
wind farms in the world. Half of our electricity
comes from renewables, compared to just
7% when Labour were last in office. We have
reduced emissions further and faster than any
of our competitors and the UK is the first major
economy to get halfway to net zero. And we
have done this while growing our economy
by 80%, demonstrating to other countries that
there is a positive economic path to tackling
climate change.
Delivering energy security
We will boost our energy independence in an
increasingly unstable world. We will legislate
to ensure annual licensing rounds for oil
and gas production from our own North Sea
to provide energy to homes and businesses
across the country and protect high-skilled and
well-paid jobs in the industry.
Labour are committed to shutting down the
North Sea, rejecting any new licenses. That
would put 200,000 jobs and billions of pounds
of tax receipts at risk. It would leave the UK
more dependent on foreign powers and mean
higher emissions from imported liquefied gas.
We introduced a windfall tax on oil and gas
companies in 2022 to ensure they pay their
fair share of tax from extraordinary profits while
prices remain abnormally high. We will keep
this in place until 2028-29, unless prices fall
back to normal sooner. In total, this is expected
to raise over £26 billion. We will maintain the
investment allowances that provide incentives
to invest in our North Sea, which Labour have
said they would remove.
We will back up renewables and prevent the
prospect of blackouts with new gas power
stations to maintain a safe and reliable energy
source for days when the weather doesn't
power up renewables. Conservatives know
that if we are forced to choose between clean
energy and keeping citizens safe and warm, we
will choose to keep the lights on.
We are delivering record investment into
UK renewables. But we need to go further,
unlocking more investment to secure our
energy supply in the future. In the next
Parliament we will:
•
Treble our offshore wind capacity, to
deliver low-cost, home-grown energy
and support the development of vibrant
industrial clusters in places like the North
East of England, Scotland and Wales.
•
Build the first two carbon capture and
storage clusters, based across North
Wales and, the North West of England and
Teesside and the Humber, cutting carbon
and creating tens of thousands of jobs in
these regions, and progress the second
tranche of projects in Aberdeenshire and
the Humber.
•
Invest £1.1 billion into the Green Industries
Growth Accelerator to support British
manufacturing capabilities, boost supply
chains and ensure our energy transition is
made in Britain.
•
Scale up nuclear power, building on our
work establishing Great British Nuclear.
Within the first 100 days of the next
Parliament, we will approve two new fleets
of Small Modular Reactors to rapidly
expand nuclear power, create well-paid,
high-skilled jobs and deliver cheaper,
cleaner and more secure energy. We will
halve the time it takes for new nuclear
reactors to be approved, by allowing
regulators to assess projects while designs
are being finalised, improving join-up with
overseas regulators assessing the same
technology and speeding up planning and
environmental approvals.
•
Deliver a new gigawatt power plant
at Wylfa in North Wales and work with
industry to deliver existing projects at
Hinkley Point and Sizewell.
This will help the UK to become a net exporter
of electricity. And by building more electricity
links with neighbouring countries, we can
increase exports, make our energy system
more efficient and bring additional revenue to
the UK. We will ensure offshore cables help
reduce the amount of onshore infrastructure,
such as substations, that we need to build.
As we achieve this transition to net zero, we
will take steps to ensure the technology and
infrastructure is made here in the UK. We will
provide a bonus, on top of contract payments
that support offshore wind, to reward energy
firms that invest in manufacturing in the
most disadvantaged places in the UK or
invest in more sustainable supply chains,
creating more good jobs as we get more
energy from renewables.
We are strong supporters of domestic steel
production and have introduced effective
safeguards against steel that is heavily
subsidised by foreign governments and helped
public projects procure more UK-made steel.
We agreed a £500 million grant as part of
a £1.25 billion commitment by Tata Steel to
transform and secure a sustainable future
at their Port Talbot works. We will continue
working to support production in Scunthorpe
and the North East of England, securing the
future of steelmaking across the UK.
We will implement a new import carbon pricing
mechanism by 2027 to ensure that imports of
iron, steel, aluminium, ceramics and cement from
countries with a lower or no carbon price will
face a comparable carbon price to those goods
produced in the UK. This will reduce the risk of
industry being displaced to other countries which
aren't taking action on climate change.
A pragmatic andproportionate approach tonet zero
The UK has led the world on tackling climate
change, having cut our emissions more than any
other major economy. We will get to net zero on
the fairest possible path and in a way that brings
people with us.
We will seize the opportunities created by the
transition, opening up whole new sectors and
creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs
in all corners of the country. Our approach
leverages the innovation and investment of
the private sector to unleash technologies that
cut costs for households. This has enabled
us to overachieve on our targets, become a
powerhouse in clean technologies, and continue
to support households. We reject Labour's
dogmatic, top-down approach that will burden
households with higher bills.
We will cut the cost of tackling climate
change for households and business, and
deliver net zero by 2050, by:
•
Sticking to our pragmatic, proportionate
and realistic approach that eases the
burdens on working people. Ensuring that
families are given time to make changes
that affect their lives and never forcing
people to rip out their existing boiler and
replace it with a heat pump.
•
Guaranteeing a vote in the next Parliament
on the next stage of our pathway, with
adoption of any new target accompanied
by proper consideration of the plans and
policies required to meet the target, to
maintain democratic consent for the big
decisions that net zero will mean for our
country.
•
Ensuring that green levies on household
bills are lower. The cost of renewables
such as wind and solar has fallen
dramatically. We will ensure the annual
policy costs and levies on household
energy bills are lower in each year of the
next Parliament than they were in 2023.
•
Reforming the Climate Change Committee,
giving it an explicit mandate to consider
cost to households and UK energy security
in its future climate advice.
•
Ruling out creating further green levies,
and alongside our commitment not to
introduce road pricing schemes, we will
also rule out any frequent flyer levy.
Energy bills are falling, down 63% since the
peak. We will take further action to ensure they
are low as possible for families, by:
•
Maintaining our energy price cap,
protecting millions of households from
being overcharged by their supplier. As
the energy market advances, the price
cap will need to evolve and we will ensure
the regulator has the necessary powers to
continue protecting consumers.
•
Reviewing and reforming standing
charges to keep them as low as possible.
•
Delivering our Pumpwatch scheme that
will force petrol retailers to share live
information on their prices, helping drivers
to get a fair price at the pump.
•
Introducing more efficient local markets for
electricity, which expert analysis estimates
would save £20 - £45 per household per
year.
•
Giving households the choice of smart
energy tariffs, which can save them £900 a
year.
•
Implementing the recommendations of the
Winser Review, ensuring networks are able
to buy forward with confidence and cutting
waiting times to get a grid connection to
deliver an estimated saving of £15 - £25 per
household per year out to 2035.
•
Recognising technological developments
over the last decade, we will undertake
a rapid review into the advantages of
alternative network technologies, compared
to overhead pylons. The review will consider
moving to a presumption in favour of
undergrounding where cost competitive.
Almost half of homes in England are now energy
efficiency Band C, up from just one in seven in
2010. We will invest £6 billion in energy efficiency
over the next three years to make around a
million homes warmer. And we will fund an
energy efficiency voucher scheme, open to every
household in England, to support the installation
of energy efficiency measures and solar panels,
helping families lower their bills.
We will ensure democratic consent for onshore
wind, striking the right balance between energy
security and the views of their local communities.
Our updated National Planning Policy Framework
seeks to ensure local areas that host onshore
wind directly benefit, including potentially through
energy bill discounts.
We will support solar in the right places, not
on our best agricultural land. We have changed
planning rules to protect the best agricultural
land with a presumption that this is used for food
production, while also making it easier for solar to
be located on brownfield sites and on rooftops.
Our new planning rules also prevent multiple solar
farms being clustered in one area to help protect
our rural landscapes. We will retain the current
moratorium on fracking.
We will deliver a secure future
for communities by giving more
people a better chance of living
where they would like - near their
family, friends and job. We have
delivered over 2.5 million homes
since 2010, including meeting our
commitment to deliver one million
homes in the last Parliament. Home
ownership rates plummeted under
the last Labour Government so we
cannot afford to go back to square
one. We will deliver 1.6 million
homes in England in the next
Parliament by:
•
Abolishing the legacy EU 'nutrient
neutrality' rules to immediately unlock the
building of 100,000 new homes with local
consent, with developers required in law to
pay a one-off mitigation fee so there is no
net additional pollution.
•
Delivering a record number of homes
each year on brownfield land in urban
areas. We will do this by providing a fast-
track route through the planning system
for new homes on previously developed
land in the 20 largest cities. Strong design
codes will ensure this enables the gentle
densification of urban areas, with new
family homes and mansion-blocks on tree-
lined streets built in the local character. We
will look at extending 'full expensing' to the
delivery of brownfield housing.
•
Raising density levels in inner London to
those of European cities like Paris and
Barcelona. We will ensure the London
Plan delivers more family homes a year,
forcing the Mayor to plan for more homes
on brownfield sites, like underused
industrial land. We will regenerate major
sites like Euston, Old Oak Common and
Thamesmead.
•
Unlocking new urban regeneration
schemes, by creating locally-led urban
development corporations in partnership
with the private sector and institutional
investors. We will support the delivery of
new quarters in Leeds, Liverpool and York
alongside working with local leaders and
the community to seize the opportunity of
our ambitious Cambridge 2050 plan.
•
Supporting local and smaller builders
by requiring councils to set land aside
for them and lifting Section 106 burdens
on more smaller sites, while ruling out
Labour's proposed 'community right to
appeal' which would bring the planning
system to its knees.
•
Making sure local authorities use the
new Infrastructure Levy to deliver the
GP surgeries, roads and other local
infrastructure needed to support homes.
We will not allow these funds to be spent
on community projects that bear no
relation to support for new homes.
•
Renewing the Affordable Homes
Programme that will deliver homes of all
tenures and focus on regenerating and
improving housing estates.
•
Retaining our cast-iron commitment to
protect the Green Belt from uncontrolled
development, while ensuring more homes
get built where it makes sense, like in inner
cities. Our national planning protections
mean there is never any top-down
requirement for councils to remove Green
Belt protection and these will remain in
place.
A plan to support first-timebuyers onto the housingladder and ensure fairness
in our housing system
As well as building the homes we need, we
will also take immediate steps to support more
people onto the housing ladder. We will ensure
the majority of first-time buyers pay no Stamp
Duty at all, lowering the upfront costs of buying
a first home. We will make permanent the
increase to the threshold at which first-time
buyers pay Stamp Duty to £425,000 from
£300,000, which we introduced in 2022. We
will also launch a new and improved Help to
Buy scheme to provide first-time buyers with
an equity loan of up to 20% towards the cost
of a new build home. First-time buyers will be
able to get onto the housing ladder with a 5%
deposit on interest terms they can afford. The
scheme will be part funded by contributions
from house builders. We will also continue
our Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, which has
already helped over 40,000 households buy
a home, while supporting more families to buy
through shared ownership.
We will always prioritise giving those who work
hard and contribute to our country a leg up in
the housing market. We will legislate for new
'Local Connection' and 'UK Connection'
tests for social housing in England, to ensure
this valuable but limited resource is allocated
fairly. And we will implement a 'three strikes
and you're out' expectation of social housing
landlords for anti-social behaviour. They will be
expected to evict tenants whose behaviour
is disruptive to neighbours and the local
community.
We will protect family homes from higher tax.
Under the Family Home Tax Guarantee, we
will not increase the number of council tax
bands, undertake an expensive council tax
revaluation or cut council tax discounts, as
Labour is currently doing in Wales. We will
maintain Private Residence Relief so that
people's homes are protected from Capital
Gains Tax and we will not increase the rate or
level of Stamp Duty to support homeowners.
To further support homeowners, we will
introduce a two-year temporary Capital
Gains Tax relief for landlords who sell to
their existing tenants. We rule out Labour's
anti-aspiration move to drastically reduce Right
to Buy discounts to levels seen under the last
Labour Government. We will protect the laws
that ensure the discounts rise with inflation and
fight any plan by local authorities to abolish the
Right to Buy altogether.
We will complete the process of leasehold
reform, to improve the lives of over four
million leaseholders. We will cap ground
rents at £250, reducing them to peppercorn
over time. We will end the misuse of forfeiture
so leaseholders don't lose their property and
capital unfairly and make it easier to take up
commonhold.
We will pass a Renters Reform Bill that will
deliver fairness in the rental market for
landlords and renters alike. We will deliver the
court reforms necessary to fully abolish Section
21 and strengthen other grounds for landlords
to evict private tenants guilty of anti-social
behaviour.
We will continue with our plans to end rough
sleeping and prevent people from ending up
on the streets in the first place, after making
significant progress over the last few years. We
will deliver our commitments under the Local
Authority Housing Fund and review the quality
of temporary accommodation.
After delivering landmark new laws that freed
leaseholders from cladding bills following on
from the awful tragedy of Grenfell Tower, we
will continue our support for leaseholders
affected by historic building safety problems
by requiring the continuation of developer-
funded remediation programmes for mid- and
high-rise buildings.
We will ensure councils have the powers they
need to manage the uncontrolled growth of
holiday lets, which can cause nuisance to local
residents and a hollowing out of communities.
We will support those who want to build or
commission their own home by making the
planning process simpler, while also supporting
more community housing schemes. We will
encourage the building of different forms of
housing, particularly housing for older people.
Building on our new powers for the police, we
will further speed up the use and enforcement
of powers to remove illegal traveller sites,
while giving councils greater planning powers
to prevent unauthorised development by
travellers.
Our commitment to levelling
up means giving everyone the
opportunity to stay local and go
far. Conservatives are committed
to delivering stronger communities
and safer streets, unleashing the
power of the private sector to
unlock jobs and opportunity for
all and boosting local pride. We
have already allocated and will
ensure we deliver over £15 billion
in dedicated levelling up funding
across the UK since 2019 and
passed our landmark Levelling
Up and Regeneration Act. We
have saved more than 330 pubs,
sports clubs, arts venues and
other precious community spaces
through our Community Ownership
Fund and we have unlocked the
promise of thousands of jobs with
12 Freeports. To further strengthen
communities, we will:
•
Provide 105 towns in the UK with a £20
million endowment fund for local people to
change their town's future. This includes
extending our plan to 30 more towns who
will benefit from funding that they can use
on their priorities such as reviving high
streets or bringing new housing to town
centres.
•
Extend our Community Ownership Fund to
help more communities across the UK take
control of vital community assets like pubs,
music venues, libraries, green spaces,
leisure centres and more.
•
Extend the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for
three years at the next Spending Review,
before using this funding to support UK-
wide National Service. Both schemes will
involve funding community groups focused
on increasing life chances, instilling civic
pride and boosting people's skills.
•
Create more Freeports and Business
Rates Retention zones. Freeports have
already generated just under £3 billion
in investment, which in turn will create
thousands of jobs. We will extend this
opportunity to more areas and set out an
application round in the next Parliament.
We want to replicate the example of
Sunderland's Crown Works Studios
elsewhere in the country. We will enable
councils to retain all business rates growth
within a defined zone for 25 years, which
they can use to finance the delivery of new
infrastructure and invest in supporting
burgeoning local industries.
•
Continue backing Investment Zones across
the country, giving areas £160 million to
catalyse local growth and investment.
•
Give our high streets a new lease of
life and restore pride in place. We will
change planning laws to support places
to bring back local market days and
regenerate defunct shopping centres.
We will continue to make industry pay for
removing chewing-gum from streets and
raise the fines utility firms must pay when
they create 'street scars' by not properly
restoring roads and pavements after their
works are completed. We will make fly
tipping an offence that carries penalty
points against your driving licence.
•
Empower communities through devolution
and new powers. By 2030, every part
of England that wants one will have a
devolution deal. We will offer our 'level 4'
devolution powers to areas in England with
a devolution deal and a directly elected
leader, starting with the Tees Valley.
•
Launch a Seaside Heritage Fund to support
enhancements to our seaside heritage,
preserving and restoring our coastal assets.
We will ensure councils provide high quality
and value for money services to local
communities. As part of this, we will protect
residents from excessive council tax rises by
ensuring that local people have the final say
on council tax; and we will ban the 'four-day
working week' in local authorities. We will
improve standards in councils by making their
performance more transparent through the
Office for Local Government. We will always
stand behind councils and look to recognise
the unique circumstances of coastal areas
in the allocation of grant funding to local
authorities, alongside providing fairer funding
for rural areas through the Rural Services
Delivery Grant.
Backing drivers
In our first King's Speech, we will go even further and
introduce a Backing Drivers Bill that will:
•
Stop road pricing. A Conservative Government will not
introduce
pay
per
mile
road
pricing
and
will
ban
Mayors
and local councils from doing so.
•
Reverse Labour's unfair ULEZ expansion in London.
Sadiq Khan's ULEZ tax rise only has a 'moderate' or
'minor' effect on pollution. The expansion impacts
thousands of people living around London who had no
say in his election and can now no longer afford to get to
hospital appointments or where they work or study. We
will reverse it.
•
Rule out top-down blanket Low Traffic
Neighbourhoods and 20mph zones. While 20mph
zones can help improve road safety in residential areas or
outside schools, misuse undermines public trust and risks
congestion and pollution. We are clear they must only be
considered on a road-by-road basis and with the support
of people who live there. We will require any new schemes
to be put to a referendum and introduce a 'right to
challenge' existing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and
20mph schemes.
A plan to support the journeyspeople make every day
Reliable transport links are critical for thriving
local communities. The £36 billion of savings
from HS2 will transform local and regional
transport, benefitting more people, in more
places, more quickly. But we will also take
immediate steps to help people now. Buses
are overwhelmingly the most popular form of
public transport, in both urban and rural areas.
Our £2 bus fare has cut bus fares outside
London by 6.2%. We will extend the £2 bus
fare cap in England for the entirety of the
next Parliament, benefitting young people
and low-income households while pensioners
continue to benefit from the free bus pass. The
extension of the £2 fare cap will be funded by
savings from reform of the railway which will
save up to £1.5 billion annually.
Too often over the last few years, local Labour
politicians have made the journeys on which
people rely harder. We are determined to
turn this situation around. Since 2010, the
Conservative Government has consistently
been on the side of drivers. We have prioritised
freezes in Fuel Duty and recently published
our 'Plan for Drivers' including reforms to make
better use of bus lanes, introduce penalties
for overrunning street works and implement
a consistent approach to the enforcement of
entering yellow box junctions. Following the
recent consultation, we will allow motorcycles
in all bus lanes and reform motorcycle
licensing.
We will roll out the National Parking Platform
this year to simplify paying for parking.
Reflecting feedback from older and disabled
people, we will also give councils the power to
ban pavement parking, provided they engage
with businesses and residents to ensure they
are not adversely affected.
We remain steadfastly committed to road safety
and, to that end, will maintain our pledge to
build no new smart motorways and invest in
improving the safety of existing ones.
2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the
first passenger railway in the UK and we are
the only party with a credible plan for rail
reform. Labour's incoherent and ideological
nationalisation plan would put the trade unions
in charge, continuing to prolong unaffordable
and unfair working practices which are
unjustifiable to the public.
We will introduce a Rail Reform Bill in our first
King's Speech to create Great British Railways
(GBR), headquartered in Derby. GBR will usher
in a revitalised private-public partnership,
delivering a modern and innovative railway with
reliable services, and simpler tickets. We will
task GBR with growing the role of the private
sector, including supporting the expansion of
open access services to bring greater choice
for passengers. We will also look to include
measures to reform outdated working practices
in the rail industry in the Rail Reform Bill.
Over the next Parliament, we will also roll
out mobile pay as you go contactless tickets
nationwide, bringing rail into line with how we
pay for many goods and services.
We will work with Active Travel England to
make it safer for people to walk or cycle,
including projects like ensuring safe walking
routes to schools and measures to protect
pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable
road users. Where new schemes are
introduced, we will ensure they have local
support first. While we back responsible
cyclists, we will bring penalties for the rare
instances where dangerous cyclists kill or
injure into line with those for other road users.
Protecting our heritage andinstitutions
The Conservative Party will always protect
our national heritage - including statues,
monuments and memorials. We will keep
our 'retain and explain' guidance under
review to ensure it supports custodians in
the preservation of our national history and
heritage. We will continue to support museums
and libraries across the country. Government
has the power to leverage philanthropy for
good causes and cultural institutions. We will
work with individuals, businesses, charities and
other networks to find opportunities to unleash
this even further. We will complete the review
of Gift Aid within the next Parliament.
We will ensure Royal Mail continues to deliver
the universal postal service in a way which
is affordable for customers as well as being
efficient and financially sustainable. Saturday
deliveries are important, particularly to
businesses, which is why we are clear they will
not be scrapped. Conservatives are clear we
want a continued six-day service, which Labour
and the trade unions would put at risk.
We have taken exceptional and unprecedented
action, legislating to quash the convictions
of those affected by the Post Office Horizon
scandal, one of the greatest miscarriages of
justice in our nation's history. We will ensure
the new redress scheme is in place and ready
to make payments to claimants by the end of
July. We are clear that the Post Office should
be a valuable social and economic asset for
communities and businesses for years to come.
That requires a change of culture at the top to
deliver the scale of change needed across the
organisation.
We have legislated to require banks and
building societies considering closing a branch
to consider the needs of all their customers
and ensure they continue to have appropriate
access to cash in their local community. We
have already announced over 100 Banking
Hubs which enable customers to access free to
use cash and everyday banking services.
We remain steadfast in our support for the
fundamental principles that underpin the
UK's constitutional settlement. We remain
committed to the First Past the Post system for
elections, maintaining the direct link with the
local voter. We will not change the voting age
from 18. We will maintain rules to tackle voting
fraud, including the requirement to show ID.
Our plan for greaterprotections around sex and
gender
Biological sex is a reality. The overwhelming
majority of people in this country recognise
that. It is right that we have in place provisions
and protections for those whose sense of self
does not match their biological sex. However,
we will not allow the safety and privacy of
women and girls to be undermined.
It has been more than a decade since
the Equality Act was passed by a Labour
Government. It has not kept pace with evolving
interpretations and is not sufficiently clear
on when it means sex and when it means
gender. The next Conservative Government
will introduce primary legislation to clarify
that the protected characteristic of sex
in the Equality Act means biological sex.
This will guarantee that single sex services
and single sex spaces can be provided, for
example in healthcare and sports settings, to
ensure women and girls are protected. We are
clear that on fundamental matters of personal
identity there should be one approach across
the country, so we will also legislate so that an
individual can only have one sex in the eyes
of the law in the United Kingdom.
In recent years, an increasing number of
children have started questioning their gender,
the consequences of which are still unknown.
This is why we will pass legislation to ensure
schools must follow our guidance for teachers
on how best to support gender questioning
students in schools and colleges. Parents
will have a right to know if their child wants to
be treated as the opposite sex and schools
will have to involve parents when it comes to
decisions about their children.
We are clear that no one in this country should
be harmed or harassed for who they are. That
is why we are proud that the UK has one of
the world's strongest legislative frameworks
to prevent and tackle discrimination and
harassment against those with particular
protected characteristics, including sexual
orientation and gender reassignment. Attempts
at so-called 'conversion therapy' are abhorrent.
But legislation around conversion practices
is a very complex issue, with existing criminal
law already offering robust protections. The
challenges involved can be seen, for example,
with the SNP re-consulting for views on their
proposals in Scotland and Sweden recently
concluding that they will not be pursuing a
similar ban. In light of the Cass Review Final
Report, it is right that we take more time before
reaching a final judgement on additional
legislation in this area.
Equality of opportunity
We are committed to promoting equality of
opportunity, not divisive identity politics. We
value a society that is inclusive no matter what
sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion a
person is. Our United Kingdom is a multi-
ethnic, multi-racial, multi-faith success story.
Our Inclusive Britain plan advances opportunity
while tackling unfair ethnic disparities across
education, employment, health and the justice
system. We are seeing some of the most
entrenched disparities in our society narrowing,
for example in our justice system and our police
forces, we now have the highest proportion of
ethnic minority officers, judges and magistrates
since records began.
Our ambition is to make this country the most
accessible place in the world for people
with disabilities to live, work and thrive. We
are delivering on our Disability Action Plan
to transform the everyday lives of people
with disabilities. We passed the British Sign
Language Act to ensure all public services and
information are accessible to Deaf people who
use BSL. The Down Syndrome Act will improve
access to services and the quality of life of
people with Down's syndrome. In the next
Parliament we will improve support for people
who have guide or assistance dogs and explore
bidding to host and deliver the 2031 Special
Olympics World Summer Games.
We are proud of our record on delivering for
LGBT people and will continue to do so. We
passed the Same Sex Marriage Act to give
same-sex couples the opportunity to enjoy the
institution of marriage. We have delivered the
largest national roll out of PrEP in Europe.
Our food and farming sectors
generate over £120 billion for the
UK economy every year. In the
last Parliament, we maintained
the farming budget to support our
food security. In England, this has
supported farmers with a range of
options to choose what works best
for them, from business advice to
new equipment, soil and nutrient
management and hedgerow
planting. Labour's actions in Wales
show that they will never be on
the side of the farming community.
Their blueprint involves top-down
targets, fundamentally denying
farmers the flexibility they need
to achieve environmental goals
in ways that work for them and
making their primary job of
keeping the nation fed harder.
Conservatives will always be on
the side of farmers.
To continue backing our farmers, we will:
•
Increase the UK-wide farming budget
by £1 billion over the Parliament,
ensuring it rises by inflation in every year.
Farmers will be able to spend every
extra penny on grants to boost domestic
food production on top of maintaining
our approach to Environmental Land
Management Schemes. In England, nearly
half of all farmers have now signed up to
schemes, choosing what works best for
their business to invest in food security and
sustainable agriculture. We will build on
work to date to ensure our schemes work
for all farmers, from tenants to the uplands
and beyond.
•
Continue to ringfence agricultural funding
so it is passed directly on to farming and
rural communities in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland alongside a new UK-wide
£20 million Farming Innovation Fund.
•
Introduce a legally binding target to
enhance our food security. The target
will apply UK-wide alongside our UK Food
Security Index, the first of its kind, helping
us to determine where best to concentrate
farming funds. This will also feed into the
development of the Land Use Framework.
•
Improve public sector procurement to
deliver our goal that at least 50% of food
expenditure is spent on food produced
locally or to higher environmental
production standards.
•
Reform our planning system to deliver
fast track permissions for the building
of infrastructure on farms, such as
glasshouses, slurry and grain stores, and
small-scale reservoirs.
•
Use our significant investment in R&D to
prioritise cutting-edge technology in areas
such as fertiliser and vertical farming.
•
Stick to our plan to support the agricultural
sector with the labour it needs to maintain
our food security, while moving away from
the reliance on seasonal migrant labour
with a five-year visa tapered scheme,
alongside clear investment in automation
and promoting agri-food careers and skills.
•
Always stand up for farmers when
negotiating new trade deals. At the 2023
UK Farm to Fork Summit, an event which
we will continue every year, we set out our
commitments to ensure UK farming is at the
heart of UK trade. We will always look for
the right deal for farmers. We will continue
to support UK agri-food and drink attachés
in our embassies abroad, pioneering new
markets and new opportunities for our
domestic food and drink industry.
Championing our fishingsector
We have taken back control of our waters
post-Brexit and will continue to back our fishing
sector to feed the nation, build long term
sustainability, and grow coastal businesses
from Shetland to Cornwall. In 2024, we
secured quotas worth over £970 million for UK
fishermen. We will go further to seek additional
opportunities for our inshore fleet in the 2026
negotiations, and ensure inshore voices are
better heard by their representative bodies.
We will replicate the £100 million UK Seafood
Fund to continue to support the sector to
thrive. The fund could be used to invest in
harbour and fish market upgrades, provide new
equipment and technology for fish processing
or to support our growing aquaculture sector.
We will particularly concentrate funding on
small and medium sized businesses and the
inshore fishing fleet. Recognising competing
pressure on marine space, we will also seek
opportunities to back the inshore fleet when
making marine planning decisions.
64
Conservatives are committed to
nurturing a thriving rural economy.
Rural areas already contribute
over £250 billion to the economy.
We will build on this, supporting
jobs, growth and education in rural
communities.
Over 80% of properties across the country can
now access high-speed broadband, up from just
7% in 2019, with a record £714 million committed
to boosting rural broadband coverage in 2024.
We will invest in new technology to achieve our
ambitious broadband targets for hard-to-reach
areas. On transport, the £2 fare cap has cut rural
bus fares by over 11% and our commitment in our
Backing Drivers Bill not to introduce pay per mile
road pricing schemes will ensure people who rely
on their cars in rural areas are protected.
We will do more to boost the availability of
affordable housing for local people in rural
areas. We will ensure rural exception sites
support local people into home ownership and
create a dedicated taskforce in Homes England
to deliver on the mission set out in their Rural
Housing Statement to invest in regeneration
and building high quality homes. We will ensure
councils have the powers they need to manage
the uncontrolled growth of holiday lets, which
can cause nuisance to residents and a broader
'hollowing out' of communities.
Conservatives will always seek to preserve
and enhance the rural way of life. We will
make no changes to the Hunting Act. Further,
public arms-length bodies must be responsive
to those they serve. Rural communities are
clear that improvements must be made to the
ways in which these bodies consult and make
decisions, especially from Natural England and
the Environment Agency. We will improve their
accountability and give them clearer objectives
to focus on. They must take balanced decisions
and factor in the impact on the rural economy.
In recent years we have seen increasingly
extreme wet weather, underlining the
importance of building flood resilience. Since
2010, Government investment has better
protected over 600,000 properties from
flooding and coastal erosion, and since 2015,
has protected over 900,000 acres of farmland.
In 2020, we announced a doubling of capital
funding into flood defences in England to
a record £5.6 billion over 2021-2027. We
will maintain this record flooding funding
to continue to protect homes, farms and
businesses. This will work alongside the
Flood Recovery Framework and Farming
Recovery Fund to directly support communities,
businesses and farmers affected by flooding.
Enhancing nature andprotecting our environment
Our beautiful countryside, coastline, woods
and rivers are a crucial part of what makes
our country so special. We are committed
to leaving the environment in a better state
for future generations. We introduced our
landmark Environment Act including ambitious
targets to halt nature's decline by 2030 and
Biodiversity Net Gain, a world leading scheme
to deliver greener new development. We led
international efforts to protect our oceans and
seas, building on the success of the Blue Belt
programme which protects an area of ocean
the size of India. We will consult UK overseas
territories on opportunities to expand it
further.
We will continue with our moratorium on deep
sea mining and will ratify the Global Oceans
Treaty early in the next Parliament. We have
prioritised animal welfare, passing legislation
to protect pets from harm whilst ensuring
owners are responsible and cracking down on
dangerous dogs such as XL Bullies. We remain
committed to banning the import of hunting
trophies and tackling puppy smuggling and
livestock worrying.
Water supply interruptions to customers have
decreased five-fold and leakage has been
cut by one-third since privatisation. Last year
90% of our designated bathing waters were
classified as 'good' or 'excellent', up from 76%
in 2010. But we must go further. That is why we
set out an ambitious Plan for Water, bringing
historic levels of transparency and investment,
while keeping bill increases affordable for
consumers. Our plan includes:
•
Working with the regulator to further
hold companies to account, including
banning executive bonuses if a company has
committed a serious criminal breach. This will
build on our legislation for unlimited fines.
•
Extending the £50 water rebate for those
in the South West across the Parliament.
•
Using fines from water companies to invest
in river restoration projects, including linking
up thriving habitats to multiply the benefits
for wildlife and water quality. This will create
a river recovery network, modelled on our
nature recovery network, and create new
destinations for people to enjoy across
England. It will take a more local, tailored
approach like the plan for the River Wye.
The next five years will see transformational
investment and change in the water sector
on a scale never seen before, thanks to the
introduction of 100% monitoring - up from
7% under the last Labour Government - and
targets on leaks and pollution. To deliver our
ambitious plan for water beyond 2030, we will
reform the 'Price Review' regulatory process
for water companies. This will consider how
we move to a more localised catchment-based
and outcome-focussed approach, that better
utilises nature-based solutions and further
strengthens sanctions for water companies that
fail to deliver for the public, coasts and rivers.
We are sticking to our ambitious plan to plant
more trees. We will:
•
Deliver our tree planting and peatland
commitments through our Nature for
Climate funding, and continuing our work to
unlock private investment.
•
Launch a new design competition for
urban greening, focused on the new
quarters we want to develop in Leeds,
Cambridge and sites in inner London.
•
Cut red tape that holds back the planting
of trees in the planning system. This will
identify particularly suitable areas for tree
planting where processes and permits will be
streamlined.
•
Deliver our commitment at COP28 to
introduce forest risk commodities
legislation early in the next Parliament,
tackling our impact on illegal deforestation
internationally.
We know that spending time outdoors in
nature can significantly benefit our health and
wellbeing, especially for children. That is why
we set an ambitious commitment for everyone
to have access to nature within 15 minutes'
walk of where they live. To deliver this, we will:
•
Designate our 11th National Park alongside
investing to improve existing National
Parks and protected landscapes.
•
Use future rounds of our Landscape
Recovery Scheme to support more local
projects like the community-led schemes
near Hadrian's Wall as the area recovers
from the vandalism at the Sycamore Gap.
•
Continue to support programmes that
encourage disadvantaged children and
young people to access green spaces.
•
Deliver our commitments on National
Trails including the Coast to Coast Path
and the King Charles III England Coast
Path.
•
Continue to work with landowners,
charities and others to open up more
'access to nature' routes. We will not
impose a universal Right to Roam.
We will take comprehensive action to crack
down on organised waste crime, especially
those who impact protected nature sites.
We will deliver our enhanced penalties for
fly tipping, giving councils new tools to help
tackle offenders. We will continue to develop
a UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme, while
working to minimise the impact on businesses
and consumers. We will prevent new waste
incinerators being built, including those with
recent permit approvals, revoking those
where substantial construction has not taken
place. This recognises the impact on local
communities and that increased recycling rates
will reduce the need for incineration capacity in
the longer term.
At the core of our national and
local identities is culture and sport.
We are proud of our investment in grassroots
sports across the country, with over £320
million being delivered between 2021 and
2025 to build, renovate and maintain grass
pitches and, multi-sport facilities. We will
maintain this pace of investment over the next
Parliament through the continuation of the
Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme.
We will look to expand the criteria to ensure
more sports benefit from this investment. We
will introduce laws to ensure our fans never
again face the threat of clubs in England
joining breakaway closed-shop competitions
and giving them more of a voice through the
Independent Football Regulator.
The Conservative Party stands up for women
and girls in sport. We delivered equal access
for grassroots sporting facilities for women and
girls, the £30 million Lionesses Futures Fund,
established the Board of Women's Sport and
are implementing recommendations from the
Carney Review of Women's Football. We will
prioritise equal access for women and girls
in our ongoing programme of investment in
grassroots sports facilities.
Supporting our world-
leading creative industries
We believe apprenticeships are a key pipeline
of talent into our world-leading creative
industries. We will work with industry to deliver
a dedicated flexible coordination service so
that everyone who wants to work in the film,
TV, gaming and music sectors can work on live
productions whilst benefiting from at least 12
months of secure training.
We will ensure our creative sector tax incentives
remain competitive. The UK is now the second
most popular place in the world to make
films and high-end TV. That's a direct result
of Conservatives taking action: there have
been 1 million new jobs since 2010 and the
economic value of the creative industries has
doubled. We provided an unprecedented £1.57
billion support package during Covid. We will
ensure creators are properly protected and
remunerated for their work, whilst also making
the most of the opportunities of AI and its
applications for creativity in the future.
As well as standing behind the creative sector
we have also stood behind our pubs and
hospitality businesses, prioritising them for
Business Rates relief and freezing alcohol duty.
But, in parts of the country, hospitality and
particularly our nighttime economy is in decline.
In Wales, Labour have hiked taxes on business
by axing tax relief. In London, despite the high
profile hiring of a 'Night Czar' by the Labour
Mayor, over 3,000 pubs, bars and nightclubs
have closed in the capital since March 2020.
We will turn this around by launching a review
of the nighttime economy in England, looking at
how to reverse the decline in pubs and clubs and
how to make our towns and cities great places to
go out.
The BBC should represent the perspectives
of the entire nation with diversity of thought,
accuracy and impartiality as its guiding
principles. We will carefully consider the
findings of the Funding Review ahead of the
next Royal Charter and ensure it upholds these
principles. We will introduce a new complaints
process for the BBC so the BBC does not mark
its own homework.
The Conservative Party is a strong defender of
freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
We oppose state regulation and control of the
press, including any attempt to bring forward
Leveson 2 or re-open the Royal Charter on
self-regulation of the press. We were proud
to deliver the Freedom of Speech Act to
protect free speech and open debate in our
universities.
Our plan to strengthen
the United Kingdom
In recent years, each part of the
UK has worked together to tackle
shared challenges. The United
Kingdom is a unique and uniquely
successful Union, enabling each
constituent part to grow and
thrive. As the Conservative and
Unionist Party, we are committed
to supporting our Union and
continuing to deliver for people
across the UK.
During the 25th anniversary year of devolution,
we celebrate the progress which has been
made and the relationships which have been
built. We are focused on working together to
deliver for people across the UK, including
maintaining meaningful intergovernmental
relations. Since the initial devolution
settlements, significant further powers have
been devolved to Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and
Stormont. We believe governments in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland now have the right
balance of powers to deliver for people there.
As powers have been transferred, it has
become more important than ever that the
devolved governments are held responsible
for their performance. To support this, we will
legislate to deliver comparable data across the
UK so the performance of public services can
be accurately compared.
We support greater accountability within
the devolved parliaments and centralisation
within Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
to ensure decisions are made as close to
the communities they serve as possible.
Devolved governments should be focused
on utilising the powers they have to deliver
on people's priorities and we will continue to
oppose attempts to distract from these with
constitutional wrangling.
We will relentlessly protect the UK's internal
market, securing Northern Ireland's place in it
and protecting consumers and businesses from
unnecessary trade barriers. Intra-UK trade is
worth £190 billion, and to boost this, we have
legislated to guarantee unfettered access for
goods from Northern Ireland to the rest of the
UK and will establish a new Intertrade UK body
to promote trade within the United Kingdom.
The UK Internal Market Act ensures businesses
can sell goods and provide services freely
across the UK.
Levelling up across the UK
Delivering for people right across the country
requires joint working between the UK and
devolved governments as well as local
partners. Our focus on delivery and working
with local partners to do so, has paid dividends
in recent years, providing:
•
over £3 billion of investment in levelling up
in Scotland;
•
over £2.5 billion to level up Wales; and
•
over £1 billion for levelling up projects in
Northern Ireland.
The UK Government has a duty to citizens
right across the country. Over the course of
the last Parliament we have been building
stronger relationships with local authorities
and community groups in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland to help us deliver for people
there. We are committed to continuing to fund
projects across the UK directly and will:
•
Extend the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for
another three years, delivering a further
£540 million a year for communities across
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
•
Expand the Long-Term Plan for Towns,
supporting a further nine towns in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland with £20
million endowments to make long-term
improvements over 10 years.
•
Maintain the Community Ownership
Fund for another three years, enabling
community groups across Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland to continue accessing
funding to save community assets which are
at risk of being lost.
•
Continue the Multi-Sport Grassroots
Facilities Programme throughout the next
Parliament so sports facilities in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland can access vital
investment.
These schemes improve communities and
support infrastructure as well as sports
and cultural activities across the UK, sitting
alongside our backing for events such as the
Hay Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe
and the UK and Ireland Euro 2028 tournament.
We will support Freeports and investment
zones in Scotland and Wales, delivering jobs
and investment from the Cromarty Firth to Port
Talbot, and establish an Enhanced Investment
Zone in Northern Ireland.
We will pursue the extension of the Enhanced
Investment Zone to cover Stranraer and
Cairnryan on the west coast of Scotland,
recognising this vital route between Northern
Ireland and Scotland and the opportunities for
trade and economic growth.
Our Islands Forum will also continue to bring
together island communities from across the
UK to consider and identify solutions to their
unique needs.
Scotland
Ten years on from the 2014 independence
referendum, the SNP remain focused on the
constitution while Scotland has moved on. They
are distracted from the day job, with falling
educational standards, rising drug deaths and
long-delayed ferries. The Conservatives and
Unionists will continue to oppose this - the
2014 vote was decisive.
Instead, we will focus on what really matters to
people.
We will cut taxes for working people again,
benefitting 2.4 million Scots. We are also boosting
Scotland's economy through mechanisms such
as our City and Growth Deals, dedicated British
Business Bank fund and support for Scottish
exports. Our new Intertrade UK body will promote
trade within the United Kingdom, with 61% of
Scotland's exports going to the rest of the UK in
2021.
We will press for the permanent removal
of tariffs on Scotch whisky with the US
Government and work to achieve a significant
tariff reduction in India through free trade
agreement discussions. Scottish businesses
will also continue to benefit from measures
including tax reliefs for creative industries,
support for small businesses and entrepreneurs
and the Global Britian Investment Fund.
We will prioritise our energy security. We have
already put the Energy Security Investment
Mechanism into legislation, ensuring the energy
profits levy will end when oil and gas prices
fall below a threshold. We will bring legislate
to require annual oil and gas licensing rounds
and maintain investment allowances for the
oil and gas sector while supporting renewable
technologies.
We will continue backing the North Sea
Transition Deal and Aberdeen City Region Deal,
with Aberdeen's Investment Zone bringing £160
million of support to the area over the next ten
years. We will focus on supporting Scotland's
workforce transition to new industries such
as carbon capture, offshore wind, hydrogen
and tidal, including by providing £15 million
to support the Energy Transition Zone's skills
programmes. We will continue laying the
groundwork for nuclear projects to be taken
forward in Scotland to deliver cheaper, cleaner
and more secure energy.
We will support Scotland's fishing and
farming industries. We have extended the
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme until
2029, introduced a new UK-wide Food Security
Index and will increase the UK-wide farming
budget by £1 billion over the next Parliament,
ensuring the ringfenced amount provided to
the Scottish Government rises by inflation each
year. We will use powers in the Scotland Act
to require the Scottish Government to provide
annual reports on how this funding is being
utilised and work with them to put a UK-wide
food security target into law.
We will establish a UK Farming Innovation
Fund to deliver grants for innovative
agricultural projects directly to farmers in
Scotland, promoting economic development
in rural areas. Only the Conservatives and
Unionists will support Scotland's fishing
communities, with a further £100 million for the
UK Seafood Fund to support small businesses
and inshore fleets and a steadfast commitment
to taking back control of our waters, negotiating
the best quotas possible and remaining out of
the hated Common Fisheries Policy.
We will improve connectivity across Scotland
with support for road and rail improvements
and ferry services, including guaranteed
investment to improve pinch points on the
A75, providing £5 million for the evaluation of
proposals to extend the current Borders Railway
from Tweedbank through Hawick and on to
Carlisle, updating the East Coast Main Line
timetable to provide faster rail journeys between
Edinburgh and London and providing funding for
the UK Islands Forum Connectivity Project.
Wales
The Labour Welsh Government have let
standards slide across crucial public services
while focusing on policies people in Wales do
not want, from putting more politicians in the
Senedd to implementing a blanket 20mph
speed limit across Wales and banning new
roadbuilding.
By contrast, the Conservatives and Unionists
are delivering for Wales by cutting taxes
again for 1.2 million working people in Wales
and making investments in industry, local
communities and infrastructure.
And we want to go further.
To improve connectivity across Wales,
we'll provide match funding to the Welsh
Government to reconsider the M4 relief road
and third Menai crossing options as well as
wider improvements to the A55 and the A483
around Wrexham. We will provide funding to
Monmouthshire Council to develop plans for
a Chepstow bypass and prioritise the Pant-
Llanymynech bypass.
As a result of our decision to cancel the second
phase of HS2 and invest the savings into local
transport projects, we can commit £1 billion
for the electrification of the North Wales Main
Line and ensure Wales starts receiving Barnett
consequentials for the projects funded from
HS2 savings in England. We will fund rail
upgrades at Padeswood to unlock the potential
for wider improvements on the Borderlands
Line and facilitate the electrification of the
North Wales Main Line. We will prioritise
development of the Pencoed level crossing
and progressing work on the South Wales Main
Line, to deliver new stations and services.
We will expand our Backing Drivers' Bill to
cover Wales, reversing Labour's blanket 20mph
speed limit by requiring local consent for
20mph zones and giving local communities the
legal right to challenge existing zones.
To support Wales' key sectors and industrial
heritage, Welsh farmers will benefit from a £1
billion increase to the UK-wide farming budget,
ensuring the ringfenced amount directed to
Welsh farmers increases by inflation throughout
the next Parliament, as well as grants for
innovative agricultural projects from the £20
million UK Farming Innovation Fund and the
extension of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker
Scheme.
We will also build on our new UK-wide food
security index by putting a UK-wide food
security target into law, adopt a consistent
approach to biosecurity across Great Britain
and require the Welsh Government to provide
annual reports on how ringfenced agricultural
funding from the UK Government is spent.
The £500 million we are investing to secure
a sustainable future for steelmaking in Port
Talbot is bolstered by the £80 million the UK
Government is providing to support the area to
transition. We remain committed to delivering
the electric arc furnace and supporting Port
Talbot to thrive, including through the new
Celtic Freeport. Floating offshore wind is at the
heart of these plans and we will continue to
support its development in the Celtic Sea. We
will deliver the UK's third mega-nuclear power
station at Wylfa and support Wales' potential to
host small modular reactors.
To strengthen Wales' public services, we will
put an additional neighbourhood police officer
in every community across Wales, restore trust
in policing and introduce tougher sentencing to
make Wales safer.
Improving the comparability of data across
the UK will ensure the current Labour Welsh
Government are held to account for their
performance running Wales' schools and
hospitals. We will assess options to promote
choice in NHS services across the UK, whether
provided by the NHS or independent sector,
and improve interoperability between the
NHS in different parts of the UK, cross-border
healthcare processes and joint working to
tackle waiting lists.
We will continue working with the Welsh
Government on the expansion of Levelling
Up Partnerships to Wales and support the
Welsh language, including by backing Welsh
broadcasting and the equitable provision of UK
Government services in Welsh.
We will bring forward legislation to reapply the
entirety of the Trade Union Act 2016 to Wales.
And a Welsh Conservative Government would
reverse Labour's plans to expand the Senedd,
redirecting the cost towards people's real
priorities.
Northern Ireland
As Conservatives and Unionists, we continue to
hugely value Northern Ireland's contribution to
our Union. For us, the best future for Northern
Ireland will always be as part of a strong,
prosperous and dynamic United Kingdom. We will
never be neutral in expressing our support for it.
At the same time, we respect those who seek
a different constitutional outcome pursued by
exclusively peaceful and democratic means. We
will always govern in the interests of the whole
community in Northern Ireland. Our aim is to
build a Northern Ireland where politics works, the
economy grows and society is stronger and more
united.
Our commitment to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday)
Agreement in all its parts remains unwavering.
Fundamental to the Agreement is the consent
principle - that there can be no change to the
constitutional status of Northern Ireland without
the support of a majority of those who live there.
Conservatives will always uphold the democratic
wishes of the people of Northern Ireland.
•
We are committed to supporting Northern
Ireland's communities and economy to
thrive. At the last Spending Review, we
provided the Northern Ireland Executive
with a record £15 billion a year through the
block grant. To underpin the restoration
of devolution, we provided the incoming
Executive with a £3.3 billion spending
package and subsequently agreed an interim
fiscal framework in May 2024. We are also
delivering over £1 billion of levelling up
funding, including £150 million to develop
an Enhanced Investment Zone. We hosted
an Investment Summit in Northern Ireland
last year, showcasing its innovation and
technological strengths. And cutting National
Insurance again will benefit 800,000 working
people in Northern Ireland.
•
The Windsor Framework and our
Safeguarding the Union Command Paper
have addressed the fundamental problems
with the old Northern Ireland Protocol
and provide Northern Ireland with unique
advantages, including guaranteed unfettered
access to the UK internal market and
privileged access to the EU Single Market
for goods. Through our UK internal market
system, we have ensured that goods moving
from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that
will only ever stay in the United Kingdom
are subject to no checks, save for those
conducted by UK authorities as part of a
risk-based or intelligence-led approach to
tackle criminality, abuse of the scheme,
smuggling and disease risks. In addition,
through the Stormont Brake we have
addressed the democratic deficit in the old
Protocol. A Conservative Government will
faithfully implement all its commitments in the
Windsor Framework and the Command Paper,
including those measures to strengthen
Northern Ireland's place in the Union.
•
Through the Northern Ireland Troubles
(Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023
we have established the Independent
Commission for Reconciliation and
Information Recovery with £250 million
of funding to ensure victims and survivors
can recover more information about what
happened to their loved ones than has been
available through established mechanisms.
We will continue to implement this legacy
legislation and support the Commission with
the aim of providing more answers to those
that want them and helping society to move
forward.
•
While the security situation has been
transformed for most people in Northern
Ireland over the past three decades, there
remains a very real threat from dissident
republicans who retain both a capability and
intent to cause harm. We will always give our
fullest possible support to the Police Service
of Northern Ireland and other agencies for the
vital work they do to keep people safe and
secure. We will continue our efforts to end
all forms of paramilitary activity for good.
The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024
Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative and Unionist Party, both at 4 Matthew Parker Street, London, SW1H 9HQ.
Printed by Paragon, Park House, Lower Ground Floor, 16-18 Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7EB.
Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative and Unionist Party, both at 4 Matthew Parker Street, London, SW1H 9HQ.
Printed by Paragon, Park House, Lower Ground Floor, 16-18 Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7EB.