Who should I vote for and what are the parties promising?

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Polls open in the UK general election on Thursday - have you decided which party will get your vote?

If not, this guide offers a summary of where the main parties stand on the issues most important to voters, based on the promises they have made during the campaign.

Click on the drop-down list to select the nation, political parties and issues that interest you.

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What are the parties promising you?

Find out what the UK political parties are promising at this election by selecting an option below.

England

Conservatives

Party leader profile
Leader

Rishi Sunak

Top priorities
  • Cut another 2p off National Insurance by April 2027, abolish the main rate for self-employed people, and pledge not to raise income tax rates or VAT
  • Raise the minimum amount a pensioner receives before paying income tax in line with the pension triple lock of inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
  • Introduce mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds - either taking on a role serving the community or securing a military placement
  • Raise defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030
  • Send asylum seekers to Rwanda to deter illegal Channel crossings and introduce an annual cap on the number of migrant visas
  • Increase NHS spending above inflation every year and recruit 28,000 more doctors and 92,000 more nurses
Economy
  • Keep public finances sustainable by reducing public sector debt and borrowing
  • Promise not to increase corporation tax and to scrap the main rate of National Insurance for self-employed people by 2029
  • Simplify the planning system to speed up infrastructure projects and invest in digital, transport and energy infrastructure
  • Give 30 more towns £20m each to invest in regeneration projects, create more freeports and back investment zones to boost growth
  • Cut the benefits bill by £12bn with better targeting of disability benefits and by expanding mental health services
  • Sign more trade deals and keep scrapping or reforming laws still based on EU regulations to cut red tape for British businesses
Cost of living
  • Cut another 2p off National Insurance by April 2027, abolish the main rate for self employed people, and pledge not to raise income tax rates or VAT
  • Promise not to change or re-evaluate council tax bands, bring in new property charges or increase stamp duty
  • Raise the minimum amount a pensioner receives before paying income tax in line with the pension triple lock of inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
  • Keep the Energy Price Cap, lower energy bill green levies and reform standing charges
  • Give 30 hours of free childcare to parents with children aged nine months to five years from September 2025
  • Change the rules on child benefit so families keep all of it until the household’s total income exceeds £120,000
NHS & care
  • Increase NHS spending above inflation every year
  • Continue programmes to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 and recruit 28,000 more doctors and 92,000 more nurses by 2029
  • Expand community care with 250 new and modernised GP surgeries, 50 new Community Diagnostic Centres and by letting pharmacies offer more treatments
  • Invest £3.4bn in new technology to increase NHS productivity, such as artificial intelligence (AI) to cut paperwork for doctors and nurses
  • Create 2.5 million more NHS dental appointments by encouraging dentists to take on new NHS patients and reforming the dental contract
  • Push ahead with social care reforms announced in 2021, including a lifetime cap on the cost of personal care from October 2025
Immigration
  • Begin regular flights to take asylum seekers to Rwanda from July until Channel small boat crossings stop
  • Crack down on organised immigration crime, including through the National Crime Agency and intelligence services
  • Clear the asylum backlog and process all future claims within six months to end the use of hotels for migrants
  • Cap the number of migrant visas at a level approved annually by MPs, with the number falling every year in the Parliament
  • Raise the minimum earning level for skilled worker or family visas - set to reach £38,700 in 2025 - by inflation every year
  • Require migrants to have a health check and pay a higher health surcharge or have insurance if they are likely to need NHS care
Housing
  • Build 1.6m new homes over five years, prioritising urban and brownfield development and raising density levels in inner London
  • Help first-time buyers with a new Help to Buy scheme requiring only a 5% deposit and scrap stamp duty for them for properties up to £425,000
  • Complete leasehold reforms that will cap ground rents at £250, and support leaseholders affected by historic building safety problems
  • Introduce a temporary measure that means landlords who sell their property to the tenants will not have to pay capital gains tax
  • Ban so-called no-fault evictions as part of a wider bill to reform the rental market
  • Bring in rules to evict tenants from social housing after three instances of antisocial behaviour, such as noise disturbances or vandalism
Environment
  • Get to net zero - stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - by 2050 in a proportionate way
  • Treble offshore wind capacity, support small modular nuclear reactors and deliver existing projects at Hinkley Point and Sizewell
  • Support Britain’s North Sea energy industry with new oil and gas licences
  • Continue to transition to electric vehicles by 2035
  • Protect the green belt
  • Work with the water regulator to hold firms that pollute rivers and seas to account and re-invest fines into a new fund to improve water quality
Education
  • Protect day-to-day school spending in real terms per pupil
  • Ban mobile phone use during school and ensure parents can see what is being taught, especially in areas such as sex education
  • Replace A-levels and T-levels with an Advanced British Standard giving 16 to 19-year-olds a broader education
  • Introduce mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds - either taking on a role serving the community or securing a military placement
  • Deliver 100,000 more high-skilled apprenticeships a year by closing the poorest performing university courses
  • Provide 60,000 more places for children with Special Educational Needs, and a further 15 new free schools for SEN pupils
Foreign & defence
  • Raise defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030 and seek to make that the new baseline for Nato members
  • Invest in the UK’s defence industry and aim to become the largest defence exporter in Europe by 2030
  • Accelerate the modernisation of the armed forces and improve accommodation for service families
  • Maintain the Office for Veterans Affairs, with further pledges including cheaper railcards and a Veterans’ Bill to set out key rights
  • Provide Ukraine with the support it needs following Russia’s invasion
  • Stand behind Israel’s right to defend itself, support access to aid for those affected by the conflict, and push for a two-state solution, recognising a Palestinian state at the best moment for the peace process
Crime & justice
  • Recruit 8,000 more police officers over the next three years
  • Give police new powers to seize knives and stolen goods, and to prevent protests that pose a risk of serious disorder
  • License police officers for specialist roles, as happens for firearms officers, with appropriate vetting and sacking those who fail
  • Cut antisocial behaviour in town centres with hotspot policing
  • Increase sentences for the most serious crimes, including a minimum jail sentence of 25 years for murders in the home
  • Build four new prisons and simplify the planning system to make it easier to build more
Transport
  • Deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail, improve rail connectivity in the Midlands and deliver upgrades in the South West of England and Wales
  • Scrap rules that stop mayors investing in strategic roads and give communities extra money to invest in their transport priorities
  • Invest £8.3bn to repair and resurface roads
  • Promise referendums on all proposed Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes or 20mph zones, and on existing ones where enough residents demand a vote
  • Ban any potential future pay-per-mile taxes and reverse the recent expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez)
  • Keep the £2 bus fare cap in England for the next five years
Democracy
  • Legislate to collect comparable data across the UK so the performances of public services can be accurately compared
  • Protect the UK’s internal market and Northern Ireland’s place in it
  • Continue to oppose Scottish independence
  • Retain the community ownership scheme that makes it easier for communities to take control of key assets such as pubs, libraries and leisure centres
  • Scrap rules that stop mayors investing in strategic roads and give communities extra money to invest in their transport priorities
  • Amend the Equality Act to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex is biological sex

Labour

Party leader profile
Leader

Keir Starmer

Top priorities
  • Provide economic stability with clear rules on tax and spending, including no increases to existing income tax rates, National Insurance or VAT
  • Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments a week by paying staff more to work weekends and evenings
  • Create a Border Security Command with counter-terror style powers to stop trafficking gangs and people smuggling
  • Set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean energy firm, to create jobs, cut bills and invest in clean energy
  • Tackle antisocial behaviour with 13,000 more neighbourhood police and community support officers on the beat in England and Wales
  • Recruit 6,500 more teachers and introduce free breakfast clubs at every primary school in England
Economy
  • Provide economic stability with clear rules on tax and spending policies and more independent oversight
  • Cap corporation tax at its current level of 25%, replace the business rates system and publish a roadmap setting out future business taxes
  • Boost growth by reforming the planning system to allow more housebuilding and infrastructure projects
  • Set up Great British Energy and a National Wealth Fund to invest in clean energy industries and create 650,000 jobs
  • Draw up an industrial strategy focused on the UK’s strengths
  • Reform employment support, including by bringing Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service together, to help people get into work
Cost of living
  • Pledge not to increase existing income tax rates, National Insurance or VAT
  • Cut energy bills with a National Warm Homes Plan to upgrade five million homes in five years and by generating more clean energy
  • Turn the minimum wage into a real living wage that takes the cost of living into account, and scrap the age bands for adults
  • Ban “exploitative” zero-hours contracts and the practice of "fire and rehire", and give workers more rights from the first day in a job
  • Protect the state pension triple lock so it rises in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
  • Expand childcare with 3,000 new primary school-based nurseries and free breakfast clubs at every primary school in England
NHS & care
  • Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments a week by paying staff more to work weekends and evenings
  • Expand the NHS workforce with thousands more medical training places and modernise hospital equipment and buildings to catch cancer and other conditions earlier
  • Guarantee a face-to-face GP appointment by training more GPs, and modernise the appointment booking system “to end the 8am scramble”
  • Provide 700,000 more NHS dentistry appointments a year and bring in a supervised toothbrushing scheme for three to five-year-olds
  • Recruit 8,500 more mental health staff
  • Begin to create a National Care Service to set minimum standards for social care, and reach a collective agreement on pay and conditions for carers
Immigration
  • Create a Border Security Command with counter-terror style powers to tackle trafficking gangs and people smuggling
  • Cancel asylum seeker flights to Rwanda and hire new investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers
  • Set up a 1,000-person returns unit to remove failed asylum seekers more quickly, and clear the asylum backlog and end asylum hotels
  • Work internationally to address crises leading people to flee their homes and help refugees in their home regions
  • Reform the points-based immigration system and ban employers who break employment laws hiring foreign workers
  • Reduce net migration with workforce and training plans to end the long-term reliance on overseas workers in sectors such as health and construction
Housing
  • Reform the planning system and reinstate local targets to help build 1.5 million new homes over five years
  • Build a new generation of new towns, fast track the approval of brownfield sites and release some “low quality” green belt for housing
  • Prioritise the building of social rented homes and give first-time buyers the chance to buy homes in new developments before investors
  • Introduce a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme to help first-time buyers
  • Make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend leases and ban new leasehold flats, while tackling unregulated ground rent charges
  • Ban so-called no-fault evictions and empower renters to challenge rent increases
Environment
  • Set up the publicly owned Great British Energy, and invest in clean energy – almost all of the country’s electricity to be UK-generated and zero carbon by 2030
  • Upgrade the National Grid and reform the planning system to speed up clean energy projects
  • Make sure local communities benefit directly from hosting clean energy infrastructure
  • Refuse to issue licences to explore new North Sea oil and gas fields or new coal licences, while retaining existing licences, and ban fracking completely
  • End sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 and speed up the roll out of electric vehicle charging points
  • Make polluting water companies clean up rivers and seas and give the regulator powers to block bonuses for company bosses
Education
  • Recruit 6,500 more teachers in key subjects funded by ending tax breaks for private schools, and employ mental health support staff and careers advisers in every school
  • Set minimum qualification levels for teachers and review bursaries and other payments to improve staff retention
  • Reform Ofsted, with schools getting report cards instead of headline grades
  • Improve maths teaching across nurseries and primary schools
  • Review the curriculum to make it broader and give children more opportunities to study music, sport and the arts
  • Turn further education colleges into Technical Excellence Colleges and improve apprenticeships to boost skills
Foreign & defence
  • Remain committed to Nato and to the UK’s nuclear deterrent
  • Conduct a full review into global threats and the state of the armed forces within first year in office, and set out a path to raise defence spending to 2.5% of national income
  • Improve service accommodation and establish an armed forces commissioner to improve service life
  • Seek a new UK-EU security pact and improve trading with the bloc, while staying outside the customs union and single market and without reintroducing freedom of movement
  • Provide Ukraine with the support it needs following Russia’s invasion
  • Push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, unimpeded aid access to Gaza, and commit to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a peace process resulting in a two-state solution
Crime & justice
  • Put 13,000 more neighbourhood police and community support officers on the beat in England and Wales
  • Tackle antisocial behaviour with new Respect Orders - powers to ban persistent adult offenders from town centres
  • Build new prison places to end early releases due to overcrowding and improve co-ordination between services to cut reoffending rates
  • Put special rape units in every police force and fast-track rape cases with specialist courts
  • Tackle shoplifting gangs by allowing police to investigate thefts below £200
  • Crack down on knife crime, including tougher sanctions for possession and sale of machetes, zombie knives and swords
Transport
  • Set up Great British Rail to nationalise passenger railways as private company contracts expire
  • Create a new rail passenger watchdog to improve standards
  • Let local authorities take control of bus networks and remove the ban on publicly owned bus services
  • Give mayors powers to create more integrated transport systems and to promote active travel networks
  • Fix an extra million potholes in England every year and take action to reduce the cost of car insurance
  • Promote sustainable aviation fuels to support the UK aviation industry’s future
Democracy
  • Change the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years old in general elections
  • Create a new independent Ethics and Integrity Commission so government ministers are held to the highest standards
  • Modernise House of Commons procedures and ban MPs from taking second jobs that prevent MPs from serving their constituents or country
  • Reform and eventually replace the House of Lords, starting by removing hereditary peers and introducing mandatory retirement for peers over 80 when a parliament ends
  • Reset the UK government’s relationship with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
  • Devolve more powers over transport, skills, employment support, housing and planning from Westminster to local councils and mayors

Liberal Democrats

Party leader profile
Leader

Ed Davey

Top priorities
  • Introduce free personal care, such as nursing at home, in England and offer more support to unpaid carers
  • Give everyone the right to see their GP within seven days
  • Invest in renewable power and home insulation to cut bills and drive a strong economic recovery
  • Ban sewage discharges into rivers and seas
  • Repair the UK’s relationship with Europe
  • Introduce a proportional voting system to elect MPs
Economy
  • Launch an industrial strategy to give businesses certainty and encourage companies to invest in new technologies
  • Invest in green infrastructure, innovation, training and skills across the UK to boost economic growth
  • Reduce trade barriers and build stronger relationships with the UK’s closest trading partners, including the EU
  • Manage public finances responsibly - day-to-day spending not to exceed the money raised in taxes over the medium term
  • Reverse tax cuts for banks and reform capital gains tax
  • Replace business rates with a new “commercial landowner levy” to help High Street businesses
Cost of living
  • Cut energy bills with more renewable power and a 10-year emergency homes upgrade programme
  • Protect the state pension triple lock so it rises in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
  • Introduce a National Food Strategy to tackle rising food costs
  • Ensure all parents can access flexible and affordable childcare
  • Double statutory maternity and shared parental pay, and introduce an extra month’s leave for fathers and partners paid at 90% of earnings
  • Scrap the benefit cap and remove the two-child limit
NHS & care
  • Give everyone the right to see their GP within seven days - or 24 hours in urgent cases – with 8,000 more GPs
  • Bring in a 10-year plan to invest in and repair hospitals
  • Guarantee access to an NHS dentist for urgent and emergency care
  • Provide free personal care for people at home, covering nursing, hygiene and medication support
  • Offer more support for millions of unpaid carers, including an increased Carer’s Allowance
  • Improve early access to mental health services, including walk-in hubs for children and young people
Immigration
  • Remove the Home Office’s power to grant work and student visas and oversee asylum decisions and transfer to other government departments
  • Invest in police officers, training and technology to tackle smuggling, trafficking and modern slavery
  • Work with Europol and French authorities to stop gangs smuggling people across the Channel
  • Scrap plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees
  • Create a dedicated unit to speed up asylum decisions and tackle the backlog in cases
  • Allow asylum seekers to work once they have been waiting for a decision for more than three months
Housing
  • Build 380,000 homes a year across the UK, with at least 150,000 new social homes, with 10 new garden cities and community-led developments
  • Give local authorities powers to end Right to Buy in their areas
  • Abolish residential leaseholds and cap ground rents at a nominal level
  • Ban so-called no-fault evictions and make three-year tenancies the default
  • Introduce a 10-year emergency upgrade programme to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat
  • End rough sleeping by 2029 and scrap the Vagrancy Act that criminalises many forms of homelessness in England and Wales
Environment
  • End sewage discharges into rivers and seas by transforming water companies into public benefit companies and creating a new regulator
  • Invest in renewables so that 90% of UK electricity comes from renewable sources by 2030
  • Take action needed to reach net zero - to stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - by 2045
  • Make it cheaper and easier for drivers to switch to electric vehicles to cut emissions and air pollution
  • Set binding targets to reverse the decline of our natural environment
  • Increase the farming budget by £1bn a year to support nature-friendly farming
Education
  • Invest in new school buildings and clearing the backlog of repairs
  • Put a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every school
  • Extend free school meals to another 900,000 children living in low-income households, and aim to extend further to every child in primary school
  • Invest in high-quality early years education
  • Reinstate maintenance grants to cover living costs for disadvantaged students
  • Boost apprenticeship numbers by replacing the existing apprenticeship levy with a skills and training levy
Foreign & defence
  • Meet Nato commitments and maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent, while pursuing multilateral global disarmament
  • Cancel plans to cut 10,000 soldiers and aim to increase total army numbers
  • Provide Ukraine with the support it needs following Russia’s invasion
  • Call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and push for a two-state solution while recognising an independent Palestinian state with immediate effect
  • Reinstate the target to spend 0.7% of national income on international aid
  • Repair the UK’s relationship with Europe, improving trust, trade and co-operation and eventually aim to rejoin the single market
Crime & justice
  • Give a legal guarantee that police will attend and properly investigate all burglaries
  • Improve community policing, with officers focusing on preventing and solving crimes – especially rape and other violent crime
  • Invest in the criminal justice system to tackle the courts backlog
  • Improve rehabilitation in prisons and strengthen the supervision of offenders in the community
  • Ensure the criminal justice process supports survivors of violence against women and girls
  • Make misogyny a hate crime and give police the resources needed to prosecute all hate crimes
Transport
  • Freeze rail fares and simplify ticketing on public transport
  • Extend the electrification of Britain’s rail network, improve and reopen stations and deliver Northern Powerhouse rail
  • Improve the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles
  • Create new cycling and walking networks
  • Increase funding for councils to maintain and repair existing roads, pavements and cycleways
  • Let local authorities run bus networks
Democracy
  • Introduce a proportional voting system to elect MPs and local councillors in England
  • Change the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years old
  • Transfer powers from Westminster to UK nations and regions and give local authorities multi-year financial settlements
  • Cap donations to political parties
  • Reform the House of Lords
  • Enshrine the ministerial code, which sets out the standards government ministers should uphold, in legislation

Green Party

Party leader profile
Leader

Carla Denyer/Adrian Ramsay

Top priorities
  • Aim to reach net zero - to stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - by 2040, investing £40bn a year to move to a green economy
  • Introduce a wealth tax on assets above £10m and raise National Insurance for those earning more than £50,270
  • Provide 150,000 new social homes a year, end the Right to Buy and allow local authorities to introduce rent controls
  • Cut energy bills by improving home insulation and installing low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps
  • Bring railways, water companies and the big five energy firms into public ownership
  • Increase NHS budgets to cut waiting lists and guarantee access to GPs and dentists
Economy
  • Invest £40bn every year to move to a green economy paid for with a new carbon tax and wealth taxes
  • Nationalise the railways, water companies and the big five energy firms
  • Set up regional mutual banks to drive investment in decarbonisation and local economic sustainability
  • Set a minimum community ownership level for all sustainable energy infrastructure
  • Introduce a maximum 10:1 pay ratio between the best-paid and worst-paid people in private and public sector organisations
  • Move towards a four-day working week
Cost of living
  • Introduce a wealth tax on assets above £10m and reform capital gains tax so the rates match those paid on income
  • Remove the upper earnings limit on National Insurance that restricts the amount paid by those earning more than £50,270
  • Cut energy bills by spending £38bn over five years to improve home insulation and install low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps
  • Increase the minimum wage to £15 an hour for all ages, offset for small businesses with a cut in National Insurance payments
  • Give workers equal employment rights on day one, including those on zero-hours contracts
  • Increase universal credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week and abolish the two-child benefit cap
NHS & care
  • Increase NHS budgets by £8bn a year - rising to £28bn a year in 2030 - with a further £20bn over five years for hospital buildings
  • Raise NHS pay, including a 35% increase for junior doctors, to improve staff retention, and reduce waiting lists every year
  • Guarantee patients rapid access to GPs, and access to an NHS dentist
  • Increase mental health funding to allow people to access evidence-based therapies within 28 days
  • Provide free personal care for people at home, covering nursing, hygiene and medication support
  • Support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying for those with a terminal disease
Immigration
  • Replace the Home Office with a Department of Migration, separate from the criminal justice system
  • Simplify the visa application process, reducing application fees to just cover the processing cost
  • Scrap the minimum income requirements for spouses of those holding work visas
  • End detention for all migrants suspected of immigration offences unless they are a danger to public safety
  • Allow those seeking asylum in the UK to work while their claim is processed
  • Create more safe and legal routes for people seeking refuge in the UK
Housing
  • Provide 150,000 new social homes a year by building or refurbishing older housing while protecting the green belt, and end the Right to Buy
  • Give local authorities, social landlords and community housing groups the first option to buy certain properties at a "reasonable" rate
  • Insist local authorities spread small developments across their area and and that they are accompanied by investment for local services
  • Require new homes to be built to the highest energy efficiency standards
  • Fund a local authority-led programme to improve insulation and install low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps in homes
  • Allow local authorities to introduce rent controls and give tenants more rights, including an end to so-called no-fault evictions
Environment
  • Aim to reach net zero - to stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - by 2040
  • Produce 70% of the UK’s electricity from wind by 2030, generate more using solar power and invest in energy storage and more efficient electricity distribution
  • Phase out nuclear power, stop new fossil fuel extraction projects, end oil and gas subsidies and introduce a carbon tax for fossil fuel imports
  • Ban sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2027 and end their use on roads by 2035
  • End sewage discharges into rivers and seas by taking water companies into public ownership
  • Reform animal farming, stop the badger cull and extend the hunting ban to include simulated fox hunts known as trail hunts
Education
  • Increase school funding by £8bn, including £2bn to increase pay for teachers
  • Put a trained and paid counsellor in every school and sixth-form college
  • Free school meals for all children and free breakfast clubs for children up to Year 6 (age 10-11)
  • End “high-stakes” testing for primary and secondary schools and abolish Ofsted
  • Invest £5bn in Special Educational Needs provision in mainstream schools
  • Scrap university tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants
Foreign & defence
  • Push for the UK to sign the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons and then begin dismantling the UK’s nuclear weapons, including Trident
  • Work within Nato to increase its focus on global peacekeeping and commit to a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy
  • Rejoin the EU as soon as the political conditions are right - joining the customs union as a first step
  • Continue to support Ukraine’s resistance following Russia’s invasion
  • Push for an immediate bilateral ceasefire in Gaza, end arms sales to Israel, greater efforts to release hostages, to investigate and prosecute possible war crimes, to seek to secure a durable political solution, and recognise Palestinian statehood
  • Increase the international aid budget to 1% of national income by 2033
Crime & justice
  • End the routine use of stop-and-search and of facial recognition software to help rebuild trust in the police
  • Make misogyny a hate crime and increase the police’s capacity to deal with domestic violence
  • Replace most custodial sentences of under two years with alternative programmes such as community service
  • Take a public health approach to tackling violent crime - with different agencies working together in violence reduction units
  • Decriminalise personal possession of drugs with users given addiction treatment and other support
  • Invest £2.5bn to repair and renew the court system
Transport
  • Renationalise the railways and give local authorities control over and funding for improved bus services
  • Increase subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn by 2029, with free bus travel for under-18s
  • Spend £19bn improving public transport, including extending electrification of the rail network
  • Make 20mph the default speed limit on all roads in built-up areas
  • Invest in new cycleways and footpaths and aim for 50% of trips in English towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030
  • Introduce a frequent-flyer levy and ban domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train
Democracy
  • Introduce a proportional voting system to elect MPs and change the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years old
  • Replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber
  • Create a Digital Bill of Rights to safeguard elections from foreign interference and give the public greater control of their data
  • Change the law so no single individual or company can own more than 20% of any media market
  • Repeal anti-union and anti-protest legislation, defend the Human Rights Act and UK membership of the European Convention on Human Rights
  • Argue for the right of self-identification for trans and non-binary people

Reform UK

Party leader profile
Leader

Nigel Farage

Top priorities
  • Freeze immigration except for those with essential skills
  • Stop illegal Channel crossings, including by returning migrants found in small boats to France if needed
  • Cut NHS waiting lists to zero by boosting staff recruitment and increasing the use of alternative health providers
  • Raise the minimum amount someone earns before paying income tax from £12,570 to £20,000 a year, and the threshold for the 40% rate from £50,270 to £70,000
  • Scrap VAT on energy bills and cut fuel duty by 20p a litre
  • End policies to reach net zero - the aim to stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
Economy
  • Raise the corporation tax threshold to £100,000 and cut the main rate from 25% to 20%, and to 15% from year three
  • Lift the amount businesses must earn before charging VAT to from £90,000 to £150,000 and end business rates for High Street-based small and medium sized firms
  • Stop the Bank of England paying interest to commercial banks on £700bn of bonds it holds after the post-financial crisis Quantitative Easing programme
  • Reduce red tape for businesses, including scrapping some employment laws
  • Nationalise 50% of the key utility companies, with the other 50% owned by UK pension funds
  • Reform benefits support and training to get two million people back to work, with tax relief for businesses offering apprenticeships
Cost of living
  • Raise the minimum amount someone earns before paying income tax from £12,570 to £20,000 a year, and the threshold for the 40% rate from £50,270 to £70,000
  • Allow married couples to transfer 25% of their tax allowance - so one person would not pay tax on the first £25,000 earned
  • Cut fuel duty by 20p a litre and scrap VAT on energy bills and environmental levies
  • Reduce and simplify residential stamp duty
  • Scrap inheritance tax on all estates under £2m, with a 20% tax above that and the option to donate to charity instead
  • Allow parents to front-load child benefits for children aged one to four
NHS & care
  • Cut NHS waiting lists to zero
  • Boost staffing with a basic income tax rate of zero for staff in the sector for three years and end caps on training new staff
  • Make greater use of independent providers and introduce a voucher scheme to let patients go private if treatment deadlines are not met
  • Offer 20% tax relief on private healthcare and insurance to encourage more people to use alternatives to the NHS
  • Hold a public inquiry into excess deaths and vaccines
  • Launch a royal commission to draw up a national plan on the future of the social care system
Immigration
  • Freeze immigration except for those with essential skills, mainly in the healthcare sector
  • Require migrants claiming benefits and NHS services to have five years residency and employment
  • Increase employer National Insurance contributions for foreign workers from 13.8% to 20% for most businesses
  • Deport foreign criminals immediately at the end of their sentence and withdraw citizenship from immigrants who commit significant crimes
  • Return migrants found in small boats in the Channel to France, after leaving the European Convention on Human Rights
  • Set up a Department of Immigration, with secure detention for all migrants who arrive by illegal routes and rapid processing of claims
Housing
  • Reform the planning system, with fast-track decisions and tax incentives to develop brownfield sites
  • Increase use of new construction technology such as modular construction
  • Prioritise local people and those who have paid into the system for social housing, not foreign nationals
  • Encourage more people to become landlords by scrapping tax changes introduced from 2017-21, known as section 24
  • Make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend leases and buy freeholds
  • Scrap the Renters (Reform) Bill and improve the monitoring, appeals and enforcement process for renters instead
Environment
  • End policies and subsidies aimed at reaching net zero – the aim to stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
  • Tax the renewable energy industry the full amount of the £10bn it receives in subsidies
  • Accelerate licences for North Sea gas and oil and grant two-year licences for shale gas fracking test sites
  • Fast-track nuclear energy with new small modular reactors, build combined cycle gas turbines and boost UK lithium mining for batteries
  • Increase the farming budget to £3bn and replace subsidies for solar farms or rewilding with direct payments to keep farmland in use
  • Support farmers to sell produce directly to the public and insist taxpayer-funded organisations source 75% of their food from the UK
Education
  • Introduce a Patriotic Curriculum, for instance balancing lessons about British or European imperialism with non-European examples
  • Ban “transgender ideology” from schools and insist schools have single sex facilities
  • Double the number of Pupil Referral Units to keep more disruptive students outside of schools
  • Scrap interest payments on student loans and extend the repayment period to 45 years
  • Make universities offer two-year degree courses
  • Cut funding for universities that allow political bias or undermine free speech
Foreign & defence
  • Scrap laws still based on EU regulations and abandon the new post-Brexit trade arrangements known as the Windsor Framework
  • Increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income within three years and to 3% within six years
  • Raise pay across the armed forces and aim to increase total army numbers
  • Create a Department for Veterans and protect service personnel from civil and human rights claims
  • Reduce the international aid budget by 50%
  • Police British territorial waters properly and ensure every foreign fishing vessel has to pay for a licence for access
Crime & justice
  • Increase police officer numbers by 40,000 over five years
  • Phase out police and community support officers (PCSOs) and scrap all diversity, equality and inclusion roles
  • Take a zero-tolerance approach to crime and antisocial behaviour
  • Review sentencing, with mandatory life sentences for those committing a second violent or serious offence
  • Build 10,000 new prison places over five years
  • Change the definition of a hate crime to raise the threshold needed to trigger an investigation
Transport
  • Scrap the rest of HS2
  • Ban all Ultra Low Emission Zones (Ulez) and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and scrap most 20mph zones
  • Scrap plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars
  • Accelerate building transport infrastructure focusing on coastal regions, Wales, the North of England and the Midlands
Democracy
  • Leave the European Convention of Human Rights
  • Hold a referendum on introducing a proportional voting system for the House of Commons
  • Limit postal voting to the elderly, disabled or those who cannot leave their homes, to reduce fraud
  • Replace the House of Lords with a smaller second chamber and end political appointees
  • Reform the Civil Service, with politicians appointing its leaders from the private sector
  • Guarantee freedoms with a British Bill of Rights, to prevent future lockdowns and protect data and privacy

Workers Party of Britain

Party leader profile
Leader

George Galloway

Top priorities
  • Redistribute power and wealth to working people
  • Give workers greater control and participation in the future of industry through trade unions
  • Support calls for a referendum on whether to continue trying to reach net zero (when greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere stop rising)
  • Raise the minimum amount someone earns before paying income tax from £12,570 to £21,200 a year
  • Hold a referendum on Nato membership and campaign to leave
  • Withdraw military support for Israel and Ukraine
Economy
  • Introduce a one-off 5% wealth tax on all estates valued at more than £10m to fund a national economic and social investment strategy
  • Allow workers and managers to take over companies that would otherwise close or be sold to foreign owners
  • Re-industrialise the country based on investment in new technology and infrastructure
  • Keep technology such as artificial intelligence under community control to protect the working class and the vulnerable
  • Ensure working class representation throughout the governance of the Bank of England
  • Consider nationalising utilities and strategic assets, such as arms and drug companies, and end the use of public-private partnerships
Cost of living
  • Raise the minimum amount someone earns before paying income tax from £12,570 to £21,200 a year
  • Launch a review of pensions policy, with aims including giving all workers the option of retiring at 60
  • Commit to the state pension triple lock so it rises in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest - or a similar arrangement
  • Offer free breakfasts and lunches during term time for all schoolchildren
  • Improve benefits, prioritising helping the poorest in society and those with mental and physical disabilities
  • Preserve the right to use cash
NHS & care
  • Increase health service capacity and integrate this with greater social care provision, including support for mental health
  • Fully renationalise the NHS and increase spending while implementing major efficiency savings
  • Increase NHS pay to retain and recruit the most qualified staff and cut the NHS management and administration structure
  • Regulate big food companies to cut out ultra-processed foods
  • Take a role in the pharmaceuticals industry, possibly by nationalising drug firms, to prevent profiteering and malpractice
  • Improve mental health by giving working households greater security
Immigration
  • End sanctions on developing countries and other actions that cause the conditions that prompt people to flee their countries
  • Divert resources from arms spending and Nato to invest in border security, with more patrols at sea and on the coast
  • Set up fair visa and citizenship arrangements to discourage criminal gangs exploiting those trying to reach the UK
  • Train refugees to fill gaps in the labour market
  • Discourage economic migration except in areas of clear labour shortages
  • Take migrant numbers into account when building social infrastructure, such as housing, schools and healthcare
Housing
  • Launch a social housing building programme, with fewer planning constraints and by taking control of all land being held back for future development
  • Give local authorities the right to buy sub-standard buy-to-let properties
  • Encourage those funding their retirement by investing in buy-to-let property to invest in British infrastructure and industry instead
  • Make it harder to evict tenants for reasons other than antisocial behaviour
  • Give tenants more control of council housing through a co-operative model to help communities improve estates
  • Guarantee the right to independent home ownership
Environment
  • Support calls for a referendum on whether to continue trying to reach net zero (when greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere stop rising)
  • Transition to a green economy only as quickly as the population can afford to
  • Demand proof that land held in the UK is being used for socially productive purposes
  • Commit to the preservation of national parks and woodlands on the basis of full public access
  • Use the tax system to encourage more local and national food production
  • Encourage the farming community to conserve renewable natural resources
Education
  • Offer free breakfasts and lunches during term time for all schoolchildren
  • Review the national curriculum
  • Return day-to-day control of education to local authorities
  • Replace Ofsted with a system to supervise and coach staff
  • Scrap university tuition fees, place the university sector under greater scrutiny and guarantee full academic freedom
  • Commit to apprenticeships and to free and affordable vocational education
Foreign & defence
  • Hold a referendum on membership of Nato and campaign to leave
  • Undertake a defence and foreign policy review, and focus on relations with Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) instead of the US
  • Give the armed forces high quality training and modern and reliable equipment
  • Recognise the contribution of service personnel with better pay, pensions and benefits, and more support for those injured in service
  • Withdraw military support for Israel and support the people of Gaza, while pushing for a single state of Israel-Palestine or Palestine-Israel or the Holy Land where everyone can live in peace with equal rights
  • Withdraw military support from Ukraine
Crime & justice
  • Overhaul laws that make it harder for police to protect the most vulnerable, while keeping appropriate civil liberties protections
  • Refocus policing on street safety and estate crime, increasing officer numbers in areas of high crime
  • Provide more funding and officers for operations targeting organised crime, including human trafficking and fraud gangs
  • Expand the social care system and NHS so police officers spend less time having to act as social workers
  • Change sentencing guidelines to target organised crime leaders and rehabilitate those lower down in criminal networks
  • Set up a fully funded national legal support service to help working households in disputes with service providers and deal with antisocial behaviour
Transport
  • Aim for universal access to a cheap or free, fully integrated, public transport system
  • Offer free public transport to children across the country up to the age of 16
  • Consider renationalising the rail companies as part of the wider overhaul of key infrastructure
  • Encourage neighbouring authorities to run transport services together to reduce administrative costs
  • Oppose Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) schemes
Democracy
  • Back moves to proportional voting systems but ensure party leaders cannot control the lists used to select representatives
  • Regulate political parties to prevent foreign influence and increase internal democracy, with higher penalties for corruption and easier recall arrangements
  • Reform the House of Lords to exclude professional politicians who have been MPs
  • Hold a referendum on the future of the monarchy
  • Uphold the right to peaceful protest and review legislation limiting free speech
  • Give workers greater control and participation in the future of industry through trade unions

Scotland

Reform UK

Party leader profile
Leader

David Kirkwood

Top priorities
  • Stop more than six million people paying income tax and free up 1.2 million small businesses and self-employed people from paying corporation tax
  • Scrap net zero targets which are making people poorer while making renewable energy companies richer
  • End illegal immigration and balance legal immigration with emigration
  • Slash government spending by £5 in £100
  • All newly qualified frontline NHS and social care staff will pay zero basic rate tax for three years, to retain staff and attract some back
  • Prioritise the use of productive farmland to grow more food within the UK
Economy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • End the zero economic growth of the past 15 years
  • End net zero policies, which will lead to the industrial cost of electricity roughly halving
  • Raise the corporation tax threshold to £100k and reduce the rate to 20%, and later to 15%
  • Lift the VAT threshold to £150,000 and abolish business rates for small and medium businesses
  • Bring in a 4% online delivery tax for large multinational enterprises
  • Slash government waste as spending has increased by nearly £200bn per year since 2019
Cost of living

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Raise the threshold for paying income tax to £20,000 to take over six million people out of income tax, put money into people’s pockets to boost the economy, relieve fuel poverty, and attract people back into the workforce
  • Decrease energy bills by abolishing net zero targets and maximizing our reserves of oil and gas
  • Inflation will be reduced with cheaper energy, and net zero immigration will halt rising house prices and rents
  • Make central government savings which can be redirected to benefits and childcare
  • Encourage private sector landlords by ending punitive regulations, reversing the increased stamp duty surcharge and interest tax relief loss from recent years
  • Review the planning system to fast-track the development of brownfield sites, and to repurpose vacant high street properties for residential use
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Boost NHS and social care staffing with a basic income tax rate of zero for staff in the sector for three years
  • Increase doctor and nurse numbers by ending cap on numbers for all UK medical students
  • Writing off student fees pro rata per year over 10 years of NHS service for all doctors, nurses and medical staff
  • Make the NHS more efficient
  • Use private health providers to take the pressure off the NHS
  • Introduce a tax relief of 20% on private healthcare and insurance to incentivise people who can afford to pay more, bringing extra funds into UK healthcare and boosting capacity
Immigration
  • End illegal immigration by sending the boats back to France, ending the economic basis for people smuggling
  • Control legal immigration by balancing the average 450,000 people who leave the UK every year with a similar number entering, focusing on immigrants with the skills needed
  • Set up a new Department of Immigration to process asylum applications abroad and stop thousands disappearing into the black economy every year
  • Deport foreign nationals who commit crimes immediately after their prison sentence ends
  • Leave the European Convention on Human Rights
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Stop mass immigration to prevent house prices and rents rising faster than wages
  • Use modern modular construction techniques to provide housing on vacant ground in towns and cities, a modern high-standard version of the post-WW2 prefab initiative
  • Review the planning system to fast-track development of brownfield sites, and to repurpose vacant high street properties for residential use
  • Encourage private sector landlords by ending punitive regulations, reversing the increased stamp duty surcharge and interest tax relief loss from recent years
  • Local authorities and house builders must collaborate better to remove barriers which slow new house building
  • Central government must provide more funds for enabling infrastructure
Environment
  • End subsidies for renewable energy to stop this drain on taxpayer funds and tackle energy poverty
  • Fast track a "dash for gas", gas-powered power stations being the only reliable, affordable and flexible way of providing electricity to meet varying demand
  • Maximise North Sea oil and gas extraction and test for reserves of shale gas
  • Prioritise the use of productive farmland to grow more food within the UK
  • Support farms of under 500 hectares by reducing the red tape, recognising their value
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Retain VAT relief on independent schools
  • Ban “transgender ideology” from schools and insist schools have single sex facilities
  • Introduce a Patriotic Curriculum, for instance balancing lessons about British or European imperialism with non-European examples
  • Fund more vocational and on-the-job training
  • Extend the period for student loans to be repaid to 45 years
  • Introduce shorter university courses so more students can afford it
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income in three years' time and to 3% by six years' time
  • Instigate a pay review across the armed forces to improve recruitment
  • Set up a new Ministerial Department for Veterans to ensure that veterans are prioritised for healthcare, housing, education and training
  • Reject any proposals for a return of National Service
  • Support Nato and urge all members to contribute at least 2% of GDP
  • Concentrate international aid on those countries most in need
Crime & justice

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Increase the number of UK front-line police officers by 40,000 in five years
  • Focus police efforts on real crime, not "non-crime" hate incidents
  • Increase stop-and-search to deal with knife crime and drugs
  • Increase the UK criminal justice budget by £2bn to address the 75,000-defendant waiting list
  • Build 10,000 new detention places within the UK
  • Increase the budget of the National Crime Agency and the National Drugs Intelligence Unit to combat foreign criminal gangs involved in drugs and money laundering
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Ensure 50% of critical national infrastructure utilities are under public control
  • Remove low emissions zones and low traffic neighbourhoods which have a significant adverse effect on businesses and workers who have to travel
  • Focus resources on road improvements in the north of England and the north of Scotland such as dualling the A9 road to Inverness
  • End the enforced move to electric vehicles because consumers should have an affordable choice
  • Scrap HS2
  • Review Scottish water
Democracy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Keep Scotland in the UK and out of the EU
  • Introduce proportional representation for UK elections
  • Reform of the Scottish parliament
  • Introduce a better voting system for electing MSPs to Holyrood
  • Reform the House of Lords to prevent it being a repository of party donors and party-political acolytes
  • Bring in proportional representation for electing MPs to Westminster

Alba

Party leader profile
Leader

Alex Salmond

Top priorities
  • Deliver independence
  • Protect women’s rights
  • Save Grangemouth Oil Refinery
  • Protect North Sea oil and gas jobs
  • Support a referendum to give independence powers to the Scottish Parliament
  • Restore competence to government in Scotland
Economy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • A progressive tax system
  • Keep Grangemouth Refinery open
  • The dualling of the A9 and A96 as an immediate priority
  • A social energy tariff for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society is invoked as a matter of urgency
  • Scrap the two-child cap, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households
  • Unpaid Carers to receive the equivalent of the Real Living Wage
Cost of living

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Freeze council tax
  • Remove VAT from energy bills and fund a 50% reduction in household energy bills immediately
  • Reduce VAT to 10%
  • Make a £500 payment to all households in receipt of a council tax reduction
  • Bring in a Scottish Pension Triple lock to increase the state pension by £1,000 with independence
  • Universal free school meals
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Support for the legally enforceable right to recovery from addiction
  • A well-being fund, allowing for support at a local level for instance in the form of parenting peer groups
  • Opposed to privatisation of NHS Services in Scotland and any reductions to the Scottish budget as a result of privatisation of the English NHS
  • Free access to sports facilities for under-18s to tackle obesity
  • Local authorities to offer well-being (sleep, diet and exercise) psycho-education to be provided as part of the curriculum in schools, ensuring they are age and stage appropriate
  • A commitment to universal free access to health services at the point of use
Immigration
  • Scotland to become a member of EFTA
  • Scotland to rejoin the single market
  • Promote a positive attitude to net migration to support public services
  • Support for freedom of movement
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Create a publicly owned house building company
  • Ensure public housing is delivered by public bodies accountable to their tenants
  • Public housing should not be taken over by the financial interests of international capital
  • Introduce a statutory obligation on all property owners to satisfy to the Scottish Housing Regulator that they have exhausted all options other than demolition before this is recommended
  • Ensure that the Scottish Housing Regulator be elected by social housing tenants
  • Reinstate the entire Scottish affordable housing budget that was cut in order to fund active travel, such as cycling, walking or wheeling
Environment
  • Rapid deployment of carbon capture technology
  • A halt to the importation of any form of nuclear waste
  • Oppose any expansion of nuclear power in Scotland
  • A minimum 20% public share in all offshore wind energy projects administered by a public Scottish Energy Company
  • An industrial strategy which encourages the use of locally sourced goods and materials wherever possible to reduce carbon emissions and increase Scotland's domestic productive capacity
  • Oppose Highly Protected Marine Areas that are not evidence-based and do not have the support of Scottish fishing communities
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Continue free university access in Scotland
  • Abolish tuition fees in England which would create £1bn of extra consequential funding for Scotland
  • Double the Educational Maintenance Allowance
  • Parents have the right to prevent controversial or in appropriate material from being given to their children
  • An extension of SAAS payments over the summer months and an increase in monthly payments in line with other government support benefits
  • Free school meals for all primary and secondary students
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Have nuclear weapons removed from Scotland after independence
  • Keep an independent Scotland out of Nato
  • Have an army of 15,000 regular and 5,000 reserve personnel in an independent Scotland
  • Immediately cancel the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons
  • Reinstate historic units disbanded by the UK government such as the Royal Scots, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and Black Watch Regiments and battalions
  • Endorse the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons once Scotland is independent
Crime & justice

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Protect and maintain equality before the law in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and extant Equality and Human Rights statute
  • Scrap the Hate Crime and Public Order Act (Scotland) Act
  • The repeal of the Gender Recognition Reform Act
  • Pause steps towards removing jury trials
  • Enshrine the right to freedom of expression should be universal in a Scottish Constitution
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Establish a single Scottish Transport Authority with responsibility for road, rail, ports and airports
  • Establish a Highland and Islands road infrastructure program to upgrade all important single-track roads to double width
  • Dualling the A9 and A96
  • Upgrade the A82 Inverness – Fort William – Glasgow road
  • Introduce free public transport in Scotland
  • Bring ports and harbours on the river Clyde into public ownership
Democracy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Make Scottish independence an immediate priority
  • Hold a referendum on the independence powers of the Scottish Parliament

Welsh Labour

Party leader profile
Leader

Vaughan Gething

Top priorities
  • Kickstart the economy to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 – with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country
  • Build an NHS fit for the future that is there when people need it, in a fairer Britain where everyone lives well for longer
  • Make Britain a clean energy superpower to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030
  • Create a Border Security Command with counter-terror style powers to tackle people smuggling and trafficking gangs
  • Take back our streets by halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels
Economy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Provide economic stability with clear rules on tax and spending policies and more independent oversight
  • Cap corporation tax at 25%, replace the business rates system and publish a roadmap setting out future business taxes
  • Set up Great British Energy and a National Wealth Fund to invest in clean energy industries and create 650,000 jobs
  • Ban "exploitative" zero hours contracts; end fire and rehire; and introduce basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal
  • Strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through trade unions
  • Draw up an industrial strategy focused on the UK’s strengths and establish an Industrial Strategy Council, with representation from all nations and regions, business and trade unions
Cost of living

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Pledge not to increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT
  • Cut energy bills by setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy firm
  • Cut energy bills with a National Warm Homes Plan to upgrade five million homes in five years
  • Turn the minimum wage into a real living wage that takes the cost of living into account, and improve enforcement of it
  • Ban "exploitative" zero-hours contracts and the practice of "fire and rehire", and give workers more rights from the first day in a job
  • Protect the state pension triple lock so it rises in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Work with the Welsh government to cut NHS waiting times in Wales
  • Ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes
  • Ban the advertising of junk food to children
  • Build on the Online Safety Act and explore further measures to keep everyone safe online
  • Reform gambling regulation, strengthening protections, and work with the industry to ensure responsible gambling
  • Give coroners more powers to access information held by technology companies after a child’s death
Immigration
  • Create a Border Security Command with counter-terror style powers to stop trafficking gangs and people smuggling
  • Cancel asylum seeker flights to Rwanda and hire new investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers
  • Set up a 1,000-person returns unit to remove failed asylum seekers more quickly, and clear the asylum backlog and end asylum hotels
  • Reform the points-based immigration system and ban employers who break employment laws hiring foreign workers
  • Reduce net migration with workforce and training plans to end the long-term reliance on overseas workers in sectors such as health and construction
  • Reform resettlement routes and help refugees in their home regions
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Support warmer homes to slash fuel poverty
  • End the leasehold system, enacting the Law Commission proposals on leasehold enfranchisement, right to manage and commonhold
  • Take further steps to ban new leasehold flats and ensure commonhold is the default tenure
  • Tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rent charges
  • End "fleecehold" private housing estates and unfair maintenance costs
Environment
  • Set up the publicly owned Great British Energy, and invest in clean energy – almost all of the country’s electricity to be UK-generated and zero carbon by 2030
  • Upgrade the National Grid and reform the planning system to speed up clean energy projects
  • Make sure local communities benefit directly from hosting clean energy infrastructure
  • Refuse to issue licences to explore new North Sea oil and gas fields or new coal licences, while retaining existing licences
  • End sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 and speed up the roll out of electric vehicle charging points
  • Make polluting water companies clean up rivers and seas and give the regulator powers to block bonuses for company bosses
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Boost skills by turning the apprenticeship levy into a skills and training levy
  • End tax breaks for private schools to invest in our state schools
  • Act to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK
  • Work with universities to deliver for students and our economy
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Remain committed to Nato and to the UK’s nuclear deterrent
  • Conduct a full review into global threats and the state of the armed forces within first year in office, and set out a path to raise defence spending to 2.5% of national income
  • Improve service accommodation and establish an armed forces commissioner to improve service life
  • Seek a new UK-EU security pact and improve trading with the bloc, while staying outside the customs union and single market and without reintroducing freedom of movement
  • Provide Ukraine with the support it needs following Russia’s invasion
  • Push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, unimpeded aid access to Gaza, and commit to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a peace process resulting in a two-state solution
Crime & justice

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Put 13,000 more neighbourhood police and community support officers on the beat in England and Wales
  • Build new prison places to end early releases due to overcrowding and improve co-ordination between services to cut reoffending rates
  • Tackle antisocial behaviour with new Respect Orders - powers to ban persistent adult offenders from town centres
  • Put special rape units in every police force and fast-track rape cases with specialist courts
  • Tackle shoplifting gangs by allowing police to investigate thefts below £200
  • Crack down on knife crime, including tougher sanctions for possession and sale of machetes, zombie knives and swords
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Set up Great British Railways to nationalise passenger railways as private company contracts expire
  • Create a new rail passenger watchdog to improve standards
Democracy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in UK general elections
  • Create a new independent Ethics and Integrity Commission so government ministers are held to the highest standards
  • Modernise House of Commons procedures and ban MPs from taking second jobs that prevent MPs from serving their constituents or country
  • Remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords and reform the appointments process, seeking to improve its national and regional balance
  • Consult on proposals to replace the Lords with an alternative second chamber more representative of the regions and nations
  • Reset the UK government’s relationship with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Welsh Conservative Party

Party leader profile
Leader

Andrew RT Davies

Top priorities
  • Invest £1bn to electrify the north Wales main rail line
  • Bring nuclear power back to north Wales
  • Introduce a National Service programme
  • Provide at least £1bn in continued levelling-up funding for Welsh communities
  • Require local consent for 20mph zones and give local communities the legal right to challenge existing zones
  • Cut National Insurance by another 2p and abolish the main rate of self-empoyed National Insurance, with the ambition of ending the double tax on work when financial conditions allow
Economy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Take another 2p off employee National Insurance, halving it from 12% at the beginning of this year to 6% by April 2027
  • Abolish the main rate of self-employed National Insurance entirely by 2029, with the ambition of ending the double tax on work when financial conditions allow
  • Abolish business rates for small business – where Wales has the highest in Britain – and support young entrepreneurs to set up a business
  • Enable micro businesses to grow with a "Jump Start Scheme", paying the employer's National Insurance for two employees for two years
  • Deliver 150,000 new apprenticeships over the next Senedd term and create a Local Business Kickstarter Scheme to support start-ups
  • Tackle Wales’ high rate of economic inactivity by creating an environment for businesses to invest and create jobs
Cost of living

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Cut tax, putting £700 back into the pocket of the average worker in Wales
  • Retain the energy price cap, lower energy bill levies and create a league table of energy providers
  • Introduce the "triple lock plus" so the personal allowance for pensioners rises with earnings, prices or 2.5% to ensure the state pension is always free from income tax
  • Reduce the age threshold for the main National Living Wage rate of £11.44 from 21
  • Deliver 30 hours of free childcare for working families with children aged between nine months and five years in England - the Welsh government will get more funding for this to happen in Wales
  • Uprate benefits in line with inflation
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Put in law a Welsh NHS Covenant guaranteeing that money the Welsh government receives from additional health spending in England is fully spent on health in Wales
  • NHS professionals to receive full pay recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body, improve staff well-being and tackle abuse
  • Guarantee the NHS remains in public hands and free at the point of use
  • Create an NHS Reservists programme for former professionals and the public to volunteer during periods of high demand
  • Establish "care hotels" to free up beds in hospitals for patients not able to go home, but no longer needing medical care
  • Introduce a new Mental Health Act to create 24/7 mental health crisis centres, away from A&E
Immigration
  • Prevent people who arrive illegally from claiming asylum in the UK and deliver flights to Rwanda to deter illegal migration
  • Strengthen enforcement and crack down on people smugglers by working with international allies and bolstering funding for the National Crime Agency
  • Increase the number of officers patrolling the French coast and work with northern European nations to disrupt people traffickers
  • Clear the asylum backlog and process all future claims within six months to end the use of hotels for migrants
  • Cap the number of migrant visas at a level approved annually by MPs, with the number falling every year in the Parliament
  • Raise the minimum earning level for skilled worker or family visas - set to reach £38,700 in 2025 - by inflation every year
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Create a joint action taskforce of planners to target the slowest performing local planning authorities, fast-tracking applications for affordable housing developments
  • Develop a support scheme to enable SMEs (small and medium sized firms) to build homes, while prioritising SMEs to build on publicly owned land
  • Establish a planner apprentice fund for each local authority
  • Conduct surveys on all public authority land to determine suitability for housing
  • Expand Help to Buy to include second-hand homes and those in need of renovation
  • Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use for social rent and rent-to-buy
Environment
  • Treble the UK's offshore wind capacity, to deliver low-cost, UK-generated energy and support the development of vibrant industrial clusters in places like the North East of England, Scotland and Wales
  • Deliver a new gigawatt nuclear power plant at Wylfa in north Wales
  • Build the first two carbon capture and storage clusters, based across north Wales and the North West of England, Teesside and the Humber, cutting carbon and creating tens of thousands of jobs
  • Create an Independent Office for Environmental Protection to hold the Welsh government and other public bodies to account on the environment
  • Increase the UK-wide farming budget by £1bn over the Parliament, ensuring it rises by inflation in every year
  • 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 £20m Farming Innovation Fund
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Recruit more teachers to reduce classroom sizes by refunding tuition fees for teachers who spend five years teaching in Wales
  • Guarantee all newly qualified teachers one year of employment in a Welsh school or college
  • Create a helpline for teachers to reduce violence in schools
  • Restore targets for reading, writing, numeracy and digital skills
  • Explore opportunities to introduce reforms including free schools and academies
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 and launch a campaign for all Nato allies to do the same
  • Maintain our support for Ukraine, where £7.6bn of military aid has been given since 2022
  • Build six new state-of-the-art warships
  • Boost the UK defence industrial base by giving industry multi-year certainty to produce the equipment we need, with at least £10bn of investment in munitions production, mostly spent in the UK, over the next decade
  • Accelerate the modernisation of our armed forces and investing in technology that is advantageous on the modern battlefield
  • Increase research and development funding to a minimum of 5% of the defence budget, with an additional 2% to exploit that R&D, accelerating investments in new weapon systems
Crime & justice

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Pass tough new laws to deliver justice, including ensuring the most serious criminals, such as child killers, spend their lives behind bars
  • Put an additional neighbourhood police officer in every community across Wales
  • Give police officers new powers and tools to catch criminals, including technology like facial recognition and powers to seize knives and track down stolen property
  • Back the police in the lawful and professional use of force, alongside a fair and proportionate accountability system
  • License police officers for specialist roles, as happens for firearms officers, with appropriate vetting and sacking those those who fail
  • Legislate to create new offences for spiking, the creation of sexualised deepfake images and taking intimate images without consent
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • 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
  • Provide funding to Monmouthshire Council to develop plans for a Chepstow bypass and prioritise the Pant-Llanymynech bypass
  • Commit £1bn for the electrification of the north Wales main rail line and ensure Wales starts receiving Barnett consequentials for the projects funded from HS2 savings in England
  • Prioritise development of the Pencoed level crossing and progressing work on the south Wales main line, to deliver new stations and services
  • Expand the Backing Drivers’ Bill to cover Wales, reversing the default 20mph speed limit by requiring local consent and giving local communities the legal right to challenge existing zones, and preventing any introduction of road charging
  • Allow the building of new roads in Wales, upgrading the A55, the A40 and create passing places along the A470
Democracy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Reverse the expansion of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members
  • Introduce a right of recall for constituents when their Senedd member falls below the standards expected of them

Plaid Cymru

Party leader profile
Leader

Rhun ap Iorwerth

Top priorities
  • Secure £4bn owed to Wales from HS2 to improve public transport and reverse local bus service cuts
  • Demand fair funding for Wales from Westminster to invest in the Welsh NHS workforce and recruit 500 GPs
  • Introduce a new cancer strategy to find and treat cancers earlier and end a treatment postcode lottery
  • Help 330,000 Welsh families with the cost of living crisis by increasing child benefit by £20 per week
  • Redress economic unfairness by increasing windfall taxes and devolving the Crown Estate to create green jobs and build prosperity
Economy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Push for the UK to rejoin the EU’s single market and customs union
  • Set new, ambitious targets for the Welsh economy to better understand the impact of policy decisions and investment choices
  • Reform business rates, creating an arms-length National Development Agency for Wales that prioritises growing, supporting and retaining Welsh-owned businesses
  • Reform the Development Bank of Wales so that it can take and profit from greater equity shares in emerging businesses and invest in infrastructure projects
  • Increase the Welsh government's borrowing powers and remove the constraints on its budget management
  • Support steelworkers, protect primary steel production in Wales and push for nationalising Tata’s steelworks in Port Talbot
Cost of living

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Devolve powers to set income tax bands, equalise capital gains tax with income tax, impose a windfall tax on energy companies and reinstate a bankers’ bonus cap
  • Push to expand the roll-out of free school meals to include all state secondary schools pupils
  • Scrap the two-child benefit cap, increase child benefit by £20 a week and introduce a new-child poverty strategy for Wales with clear, independently verified targets
  • Make it a legal requirement for universal credit to provide the minimum needed for individuals’ and families’ daily lives
  • Devolve powers over welfare benefits, improve take up of unclaimed benefits and create a Welsh Child Payment based on the one in Scotland
  • Introduce an energy social tariff for households spending a disproportionate amount on energy bills
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Work to ensure the NHS is properly funded through a new needs-based funding model for Wales – enabling full pay restoration for all NHS staff in Wales and opposing the privatisation of NHS services
  • Restore funding for GPs to 8.7% of the Welsh health budget, and recruit an additional 500 GPs across the country over two Welsh government terms
  • Review NHS governance in Wales, looking to strengthen oversight and accountability, and introduce reforms to ensure that health boards are not taken out of special measures for political reasons
  • Demand the establishment of a Wales-specific Covid Inquiry
  • Continue work to deliver an integrated Health and Social Care Service, including to tackle delayed transfers of care and "bed-blocking", and raise the living wage by £1 an hour for social care workers in Wales
  • Create a new "cancer contract" for Wales to catch and treat cancers earlier
Immigration
  • Scrap the Rwanda scheme, create safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to enter the UK and end the "no recourse to public funds" system
  • Wales and the UK remaining a member of the European Convention of Human Rights, being bound by the decisions of its associated court and upholding human rights
  • Retain the graduate route visa to encourage people to study, live and work in Wales
  • Devolve key immigration powers to Wales, including over the minority occupations list, allowing the Welsh government to issue its own visas
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Enshrine a right to adequate housing in law, ban no-fault evictions and enable progressive rent control measures
  • Develop a plan to deliver significant expansion in social housing in all parts of the country, accessing public and private funding streams and working with communities to provide the correct mix of housing
  • Create centres of excellence in new construction and retrofitting
  • Secure and improve Welsh local supply chains and labour so that the profits from the Welsh house-building industry can be kept within Wales
  • Support new measures to control the number of second homes and back the expansion of the Dwyfor Pilot Scheme that allows local authorities to buy back second homes and holiday lets
Environment
  • Reaffirm our commitment to reaching net-zero targets in Wales by 2035 and reverse biodiversity decline by 2030 -pursuing powers to introduce a carbon tax in Wales
  • Creating rewarding work in the emerging green and net-zero sectors, while re-skilling and supporting Welsh employees and apprentices
  • Devolve full powers over the Crown Estate so Wales and its communities benefit from new offshore renewable energy developments, through a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Wales
  • Support the development of a national energy company for Wales and deliver community ownership over renewable energy projects
  • Devolve full powers over water, strengthen Natural Resources Wales' powers of enforcement over sewage dumping and charge households a fair price for water
  • Give Wales a veto against trade deals that undermine Welsh agricultural communities and deliver a new Sustainable Farming Scheme that provides stability and sustainability for farm businesses
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Continue to build towards a national and free Welsh-medium early years education and childcare service, providing for children aged 12 months until they are eligible for full-time education
  • Ensure that all children leave school able to communicate confidently in both Welsh and English
  • Secure a new fair funding settlement for Wales, so that we can invest in our schools, including in additional learning needs provision and mental health support
  • Invest our workforce, ensuring both teachers and support staff are supported and valued in order to improve recruitment and retention
  • Conduct a skills audit to identify priority areas for investment in apprenticeships and further education and deliver a living wage for apprentices
  • Deliver a new funding settlement for Welsh universities, including by reviewing the current model of student finance and encouraging more students to study in Wales
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Pursue Welsh independence and Wales’ re-admittance to full EU membership, but until then, push for the UK to rejoin the EU’s single market and customs union
  • Call for a peaceful ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, a negotiated end to the conflict, and recognise Palestinian statehood as an essential step towards peace in the region
  • Support the right of the people of Ukraine to defend themselves and the territorial integrity of their nation from Russian aggression
  • Support Wales as a “nation of sanctuary” for all refugees fleeing conflict
  • Insist the Senedd be consulted before the UK government decides to engage in military action beyond the UK, and support a peaceful and negotiated solution to armed conflicts
  • Oppose the Trident nuclear weapons system and its renewal
Crime & justice

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Insist on the Demand full and immediate devolution of powers over justice and policing, and the creation of a cabinet secretary for justice in the Welsh government
  • Reverse funding cuts for Welsh police forces through by scrapping the Barnett formula and securing a funding model that reflects Wales' needs
  • Create a new office of Victims Commissioner for Wales, to represent victims of crime and stand up for their rights
  • Call for a full investigation into recent deaths at HMP Prison Parc, and an end to private prison provision
  • Review short sentences and support a decrease in the prison population in Wales and a restorative, community-based approach to justice
  • Tackle institutional racism and misogyny in the criminal justice system and ensure women and girls are believed, with an increase in convictions for domestic violence and stalking offences
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Ensuring that Wales receives the £4bn it is owed from HS2 – an England-only project – to invest in public transport
  • Nationalise and invest in our bus services
  • Reviewing and reversing cuts in subsidies, and providing support for flexible and "on demand" bus services where conventional bus routes are less viable
  • Keeping the Older People's Bus Pass in Wales and investigating a similar scheme for young people
  • Insist on the devolution of powers over rail services and infrastructure, as recommended by the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales
  • Support investment in active travel routes and ensure that changes to roads policy happen at the same time as increased investment in our public transport systems
Democracy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Create a new National Commission to improve the health of our democracy, research the full range of options for Wales' political and economic future and engage citizens in Wales in an ongoing discussion about these options
  • Prepare a green paper on the path to independence and continue to take the political, social and economic arguments for independence to every corner of Wales
  • Devolve the right to decide on Wales’ constitutional future – and to call a referendum on independence – to the Welsh parliament or Senedd
  • Introduce votes at 16 for Westminster elections, scrap new voter ID laws and continue to push for the single transferable vote for all elections
  • Ensure equality of gender representation in politics and encourage greater representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic individuals in politics

Welsh Liberal Democrats

Party leader profile
Leader

Jane Dodds

Top priorities
  • Invest in renewable power and home insulation to cut bills and drive a strong economic recovery
  • Ban sewage discharges into rivers and seas
  • Repair the UK’s relationship with Europe
  • Introduce a proportional voting system to elect MPs
Economy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Launch an industrial strategy to give businesses certainty and encourage them to invest in new technologies
  • Invest in green infrastructure, innovation, training and skills across the whole UK to boost economic growth
  • Reduce trade barriers and build stronger relationships with the UK’s closest trading partners
  • Work with the devolved administrations to develop joint policies and partnerships to boost growth across the whole UK
  • Manage public finances responsibly - day-to-day spending not to exceed the money raised in taxes over the medium term
  • Reverse tax cuts for banks and reform capital gains tax
Cost of living

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Cut energy bills with cheap renewable power and tax incentives to fit household energy saving measures
  • Tackle child poverty by removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap
  • Set a target of ending deep poverty within a decade, and establish an independent commission to recommend annual increases in universal credit to ensure that covers essentials, such as food and bills
  • Protect the state pension triple lock so it rises in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest - and ensure women born in the 1950s are treated fairly and properly compensated
  • Introduce a National Food Strategy to tackle rising food costs
  • Get mortgage rates under control through careful economic management
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Provide more support for millions of unpaid carers, including an increased Carer’s Allowance
  • Introduce a levy on tobacco company profits to help fund healthcare and smoking cessation services
  • Protect children from exposure to junk food by supporting local authorities to restrict outdoor advertising and restricting TV advertising to post-watershed
  • Extend the soft drinks levy to juice-based and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar
  • Free up police time, reduce court backlogs, prison overcrowding and the harms of drug misuse by diverting people arrested for possession of drugs for personal use into treatment where appropriate
  • Make care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010
Immigration
  • Remove the Home Office’s power to grant work and student visas and oversee asylum decisions and transfer to other government departments
  • Invest in officers, training and technology to tackle smuggling, trafficking and modern slavery
  • Work with Europol and French authorities to stop the gangs smuggling people across the Channel
  • Scrap plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees
  • Create a dedicated unit to speed up asylum decisions and tackle the backlog in cases
  • Allow asylum seekers to work once they have been waiting for a decision for more than three months
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Build 380,000 homes a year across the UK, with at least 150,000 new social homes, with 10 new garden cities and community-led developments
  • Abolish residential leaseholds and cap ground rents at a nominal level
  • Introduce a 10-year emergency upgrade programme to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat
  • End rough sleeping within five years and scrap the Vagrancy Act that criminalises many forms of homelessness in England and Wales
Environment
  • End sewage discharges into rivers and seas by transforming water companies into public benefit companies and creating a new regulator
  • Invest in renewables so 90% of UK electricity comes from renewable sources by 2030
  • Take action needed to reach net zero - to stop adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - by 2045
  • Make it cheaper and easier for drivers to switch to electric vehicles to cut emissions and air pollution
  • Set binding targets to reverse the decline of our natural environment
  • Introduce a deposit return scheme for food and drink bottles and containers, working with the devolved administrations to ensure consistency across the UK
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Boost apprenticeship numbers by replacing the existing apprenticeship levy with a skills and training levy
  • Report international student flows separately to estimates of long-term migration
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Work to counter the global rise in authoritarianism by championing the liberal, rules-based international order and supporting international institutions such as the UN, the Commonwealth, Nato and the International Criminal Court
  • Maintain UK support for Nato and increase defence spending in every year of the Parliament, with an ambition to spend at least 2.5% of GDP on defence
  • Reverse cuts to the Army, with a longer-term ambition of increasing regular troop numbers
  • Secure a fair deal for service personnel and veterans
  • Maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent with four submarines providing continuous at-sea deterrence, while pursuing multilateral global disarmament
  • Control arms exports to countries with poor human rights records
Crime & justice

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Give a legal guarantee that police will attend and properly investigate all burglaries
  • Improved community policing, with officers focused on preventing and solving crimes – especially rape and other violent crime
  • Invest in the criminal justice system to tackle the courts backlog
  • Improve rehabilitation in prisons and strengthen the supervision of offenders in the community
  • Ensure the criminal justice process supports survivors of violence against women and girls
  • Make misogyny a hate crime and give police the resources needed to prosecute all hate crimes
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Freeze rail fares and simplify ticketing on public transport
  • Extend the electrification of Britain’s rail network, improve and reopen stations and deliver Northern Powerhouse rail
  • Improve the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles
  • Create new cycling and walking networks and increase funding for councils to maintain and repair existing roads, pavements and cycleways
  • Invest in research and development to make the UK the world leader in zero-carbon flight, and take steps to reduce demand for flying
  • Reform the taxation of international flights to focus on those who fly the most, while reducing costs for ordinary households who take one or two international return flights per year
Democracy

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Complete the next stage of devolution in Wales by implementing the remaining Silk proposals, substantially reducing the number of powers reserved to Westminster, and increasing borrowing powers
  • Devolve responsibility for rail services and infrastructure to Wales, with fair funding and shared governance on cross-border services
  • Devolve powers over youth justice, probation services, prisons and policing
  • Devolve Air Passenger Duty to put Wales on a fair playing field with Scotland and Northern Ireland and allow Cardiff Airport to compete with regional airports in England
  • Introduce a written constitution for a federal United Kingdom with strong voices for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
  • Introduce proportional voting to elect MPs, give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote and scrap the voter ID scheme for UK general elections

Wales

Scottish National Party

Party leader profile
Leader

John Swinney

Top priorities
  • Deliver independence
  • End austerity
  • Reverse the damage of Brexit and rejoin the EU
  • Support people through the cost of living crisis
  • Protect our NHS from the twin threats of privatisation and austerity
  • Invest in a just transition, supporting people in the move towards a zero carbon economy
Economy
  • Mitigate the impact of Brexit on productivity by reviewing immigration rules and expanding shortage occupation lists
  • Fully devolve tax powers to Scotland
  • Invest in the green economy
  • Fully devolve energy powers to the Scottish Parliament
  • Scrap zero-hours contracts and ban "fire and rehire" practices
Cost of living
  • Devolve powers over regulation, pricing and production of energy sources
  • Deliver an essentials guarantee to ensure that, at a minimum, everyone can afford necessities like food and utilities
  • Scrap the two-child cap, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households, and the rape clause, which states mothers who have a third child as a result of rape can be exempted from the cap if they provide evidence they were raped
  • Create a social tariff for energy bills to help vulnerable people through the winter months
  • Remove standing charges for anyone with a prepayment meter
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Protect the NHS from the twin threats of privatisation and austerity
  • Call for an increase in health spending in England which would result in an increase to the amount of money available for the Scottish NHS
  • Match Scotland’s NHS pay deals
  • Devolve Misuse of Drugs Act to Scotland so drug harms can be treated as a public health issue
Immigration
  • Create a migration system for Scotland that values those who decide to live, work, study and invest in Scotland
  • Scrap the scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda
  • End the demonisation of migrants
  • Continue to oppose no recourse to public funds, which stops many immigrants claiming benefits or housing assistance
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Deliver a further 100,000 affordable homes by 2032
  • Call on the UK government to reverse the cuts to Scotland’s capital budget
  • Deliver a New Deal for Tenants, through the Housing (Scotland) Bill
  • Call on the UK government to scrap the Local Housing Allowance freeze
Environment
  • Devolve powers over regulation, pricing and production of energy sources to Scotland
  • Deliver fair funding for climate action
  • Establish a four nations Climate Response Group
  • Decarbonise the heating of one million homes by 2030
  • Deliver sustainable funding for rural industries
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Protect free university tuition at Scottish universities
  • Close the attainment gap between pupils from the least and most wealthy backgrounds
  • Ensure a fifth of students entering university to be from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland by 2030
  • Continue to provide greater opportunities for our young people through the Young Person’s Guarantee to employment, training or education
  • Re-enter the Erasmus Plus education scheme
  • Reverse the changes to migration rules for international students bringing dependents to the UK
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza
  • Scrap Trident and invest in conventional defence forces
  • Increase investment into the loss and damage fund - where richer countries who contributed more to climate change pay poorer countries facing worse effects of climate change
  • Increase funding for international aid
  • Raise the military recruitment age to 18
Crime & justice
  • Continue to urge the UK government to refund the £175m in VAT owed to Scotland's emergency services
  • Remove minimum service level requirements from police, fire and other public services
  • Work closely with police in the EU to help fight cross-border crime and threat
  • Continue to call for the UK government to devolve control over drug policy to the Scottish Parliament
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Fully devolve rail to the Scottish Parliament, including fares
  • Devolve powers on fuel duty so a new approach to funding roads to fit Scotland’s needs can be developed
  • Promote a fair and affordable transition to zero-emission transport fuels
  • Introduce a scheme similar to the Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme, to help those in rural areas with high road fuel prices
Democracy
  • Deliver the permanent transfer of legislative powers for the Scottish Parliament to hold an independence referendum
  • End Westminster’s "power grab" on the Scottish Parliament
  • Extend the voting age to 16, and eligibility to all residents including international students and refugees
  • Abolish the House of Lords
  • Scrap voter ID

Scottish Conservatives

Party leader profile
Leader

Douglas Ross

Top priorities
  • Fix and upgrade major and local roads across Scotland – including the A9 and A96
  • Recruit 1,000 extra GPs, deliver faster access to GP and hospital appointments and eradicate patient backlogs
  • Improve Scotland’s education system by increasing subject choice, reducing class sizes and backing traditional exams
  • Put 1,000 extra police officers on to Scotland's streets and put the justice system on the side of victims, not criminals
  • Lower the tax bill for ordinary Scottish workers, families and businesses
Economy
  • Taxes on individuals and businesses in Scotland should not be higher than the rest of the UK
  • Deliver a simplified structure for business support
  • Support the 100,000 jobs in Scotland’s oil and gas sector and new developments in the North Sea
  • Make achieving full employment the government's number one economic target and create a National Workforce Plan to build skills in Scotland’s economy
  • Pass on 75% business rates relief to shops, pubs, restaurants and hotels in Scotland
Cost of living
  • Lower income tax and National Insurance for Scottish workers.
  • Raise the minimum amount a pensioner receives before paying income tax in line with the pension triple lock of inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
  • Continue to increase the National Living Wage and Minimum Wage
  • Uprate benefits in line with inflation
  • Introduce a "help to renovate scheme" to upgrade homes and reduce family bills
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Recruit 1,000 additional GPs to increase the availability of GP appointments and guarantee an appointment within one week across Scotland
  • End NHS centralisation by banning the closure of local healthcare facilities and services
  • Introduce a My NHS Scotland App to allow for 24/7 booking of appointments, access to live waiting times and personal patient record
  • Improve staff conditions across the NHS and introduce a clear workforce plan
  • Oppose the National Care Service and reinvest the saving into frontline social care
Immigration
  • Begin regular flights to take asylum seekers to Rwanda from July until small boat Channel crossings stop
  • Crack down on organised immigration crime, including through the National Crime agency and intelligence services
  • Clear the asylum backlog and process all future claims within six months to end the use of hotels for migrants
  • Cap the number of migrant visas at a level approved annually by MPs, with the number falling every year of the Parliament
  • Raise the minimum earning level for skilled worker or family visas - set to reach £38,700 in 2025 - by inflation every year
  • Require migrants to have a health check and pay a higher health surcharge or have insurance if they are likely to need NHS care
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Reduce the tax on buying a home by raising the threshold for the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax to £250,000
  • Restore the Help to Buy Scheme
  • Support house building in rural areas
  • Oppose the cap on rents to increase the availability of rental properties
  • Deliver a national Housing First programme to end homelessness in Scotland
Environment
  • Deliver net zero in Scotland by 2045
  • Support the 100,000 jobs in Scotland’s oil and gas sector and new developments in the North Sea
  • Improve community benefit from wind farms and other energy infrastructure whilst ensuring they have community consent
  • Create a National Centre for Green Jobs in Aberdeen
  • Support a new generation of nuclear power stations
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Introduce a subject guarantee that all pupils across the country will be entitled to take at least seven subjects at S4
  • Increase school autonomy and give more responsibility to head teachers including over staffing and budgets
  • Create a Rural Teachers' Fund to attract teachers to work in rural areas
  • Create unlimited apprenticeships for young people by improving the funding system from government targets to employer demand and opportunities offered
  • Set up a virtual National College for Scotland to improve adult education across the country
  • Continue free university tuition
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Raise defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030 and seek to make that the new baseline for Nato members
  • Invest in the UK’s defence industry and aim to become the largest defence exporter in Europe by 2030
  • Accelerate the modernisation of the armed forces and improve accommodation for service families
  • Maintain the Office for Veterans Affairs, with further pledges including cheaper railcards and a Veterans’ Bill to set out key rights
  • Provide Ukraine with the support it needs following Russia’s invasion
  • Stand behind Israel’s right to defend itself, and support access to aid for those affected by the conflict
Crime & justice
  • Put 1,000 additional police officers on Scotland's streets
  • Introduce whole-life sentences for the worst offenders and end automatic early release
  • Improve the rights of victims across our justice system with a victims' law
  • Double the maximum sentence for attacks on emergency workers
  • Abolish the not proven verdict in Scots Law
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Upgrade major roads across Scotland, including the A9, A96, A1, A90, A83
  • Support councils with a Pothole Action Fund to fix local roads
  • Back drivers by opposing the workplace parking tax, opposing the rollout of Low Emission Zones and scrapping parking charges in public car parks
  • Reverse the Beeching cuts by reopening local rail lines and stations where there is an economic case to do so
  • Introduce a £2 cap on bus fares
Democracy
  • Oppose Scottish independence and a second independence referendum
  • Repeal the Hate Crime Act
  • Introduce a right to recall for MSPs who have committed gross misconduct or have been absent for an extended period
  • No prisoner voting
  • Reform the Scottish Parliament to make the Scottish government more accountable.

Scottish Labour

Party leader profile
Leader

Anas Sarwar

Top priorities
  • Deliver economic stability with tough spending rules to grow the economy
  • Cut NHS waiting times and fund 160,000 additional appointments every year in Scotland
  • Set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power company, headquartered in Scotland, to create jobs and cut energy bills, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies
  • Ban zero-hours contracts, end "fire and rehire" and deliver a genuine living wage
  • Improve access to apprenticeships, support first-time buyers and create 69,000 Scottish jobs in the clean energy industries
  • Maximise Scotland’s influence using the UK's global trade networks to promote Scottish businesses, boost exports and attract investment to create jobs
Economy
  • Deliver economic stability, with clear fiscal rules and a fiscal lock to strengthen the role of the independent Office of Budget Responsibility
  • Give businesses certainty by not raising VAT, capping corporation tax at 25% for the whole Parliament and keeping full expensing
  • Establish a new National Wealth Fund that will invest in Scottish ports and industries and act as a catalyst for business investment
  • A new industrial strategy to back key sectors to help make them competitive on the global stage
  • GB Energy, headquartered in Scotland, will advance the planning of the UK’s energy system, support the delivery of new technology and help create 69,000 clean energy jobs in Scotland
  • Promote "Brand Scotland" on a global stage, using the UK's global trade networks to promote Scottish businesses, boost exports and attract investment to create jobs
Cost of living
  • Ban "exploitative" zero-hour contracts, end "fire and rehire" and deliver a genuine living wage that will deliver a pay rise for over 200,000 Scots
  • Cut energy bills by delivering cheaper clean energy with publicly owned GB Energy and insulate thousands of homes, paid for by a windfall tax oil and gas companies
  • Strong fiscal rules to deliver economic stability and keep inflation low
  • In Scotland, Scottish Labour will work with the childcare sector to build greater flexibility into the system so it works for working parents
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Cut NHS waiting times and fund 160,000 additional appointments every year in Scotland
  • Build an NHS fit for the future with a proper workforce plan and modernising services with new technology and treatments
  • Work collaboratively to ensure that patients can access specialist care and participate in cutting-edge clinical trials, regardless of where in the UK they live
  • Ensure a mental health professional is present in every GP practice so people can get the mental health support they need when they need it
  • Cut NHS bureaucracy by reducing NHS territorial boards from 14 to three and ensuring that resources are focused on the frontline
  • Create a National Care Service with non-residential care charges abolished without further delay, unpaid carers given a right to respite, and continue to campaign for social care staff to be paid at least £15 per hour
Immigration
  • Smash the criminal gangs profiting from the small boats crisis in the Channel, using counter-terror style tactics and the full force of UK’s intelligence service to stop human trafficking
  • End the Rwanda scheme, redirecting the resources into deploying more police and investigators in a Cross-Border Police Unit and clearing the backlog of outstanding asylum claims
  • Reform and strengthen the UK Migration Advisory Committee so it works in partnership with skills bodies across the country
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Support first time buyers with a permanent and comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme across the UK and reforms in Scotland to help support low income buyers
  • Ensure no-one loses their home in Scotland due to "soaring" interest rates by revamping the Mortgage to Shared Equity scheme
  • Reform the planning system to support more housebuilding across Scotland and tackle the housing emergency by increasing supply
  • Support renters with a fair deal for tenants and workable regulations in the private rented sector
  • Target empty and derelict houses that blight communities by introducing council tax surcharges and plans to turn neglected houses back into homes
Environment
  • Set up GB Energy, a publicly owned clean power company, headquartered in Scotland, to deliver clean power by 2030
  • A Warm Homes Plan to insulate hundreds of thousands of homes across Scotland, improving their energy efficiency to cut bills and tackle fuel poverty
  • Improved monitoring of Scotland’s waterways to tackle the rising levels of sewage and end the large bonuses and expenses claims of Scottish Water bosses
  • Support the delivery of agriculture support that encourages sustainable farming practices whilst also supporting jobs and championing Scottish food production
  • Improve Scotland’s resilience to changing weather and prioritising climate adaption, such as flood defences
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Raise standards of educational attainment and achievement in schools, especially in the core skills of literacy and numeracy
  • Create a national attendance register to help improve attendance and ensure no child falls through the gaps
  • End the VAT exemption on private schools to invest in the state school sector, delivering additional funding for Scotland
  • Support reform of the SQA and Education Scotland so that Scotland once again has an independent inspectorate and the system of curriculum development and assessments is fit for purpose
  • Continue to support free tuition for Scottish students attending Scottish universities
  • Reform the skills system so that it works for individuals and a modern economy with more flexible apprenticeships, clearing-style systems for apprenticeships and training that meets skills shortages
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Remain committed to Nato and UK’s nuclear deterrent
  • Conduct a review to fully understand the state of the armed forces, the nature of threats and the capabilities needed
  • Deliver an industrial strategy for defence, prioritising UK and Scottish businesses for defence investment and procurement
  • Work in partnership with employers in the defence sector to deliver the skills needed to make Scotland a first-choice location for investment in the sector and secure these jobs into the future
  • Conduct a review of Scotland’s international development spending to ensure that it is in line with strategic goals
Crime & justice
  • Rebuild community policing and introduce a police retention strategy and properly support Police Scotland
  • Tackle the increase in violent and sexual crime against girls and women through a comprehensive, evidence-led strategy
  • Improve local accountability for policing with a role for local councils and build relationships with under-represented communities
  • Create a more accessible, transparent system of redress for victims of historical injustices
  • Work to tackle reconviction rates through supporting ex-offenders back into society and establish a joined-up, whole government approach to crime prevention
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Nationalise the remaining rail routes as operator contracts expire so that all railways in Scotland are publicly owned
  • Create GB Railways, to work hand-in-hand with a publicly-owned devolved ScotRail to improve services for Scottish passengers
  • Work with local councils to deliver locally controlled and owned bus services, with capped fares and integrated travel systems across our towns and cities
  • Improve Scotland’s road network with long term plans to deliver the dualling of the A9 and upgrading other key roads
  • Provide real leadership for the lifeline ferry services with a long-term, strategic ferry procurement plan in Scotland to meet islanders’ needs and support shipyard worker jobs
Democracy
  • Reset devolution, with an approach based on co-operation not conflict
  • Reform intergovernmental relations across the UK and ensure Scotland’s view is properly represented in UK institutions
  • Bring high standards of behaviour back to public life, banning second jobs for MPs, enforcing sanctions for ministers who breach lobbying rules and modernising Westminster
  • Give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in UK general elections
  • In Scotland, clean up Holyrood by banning second jobs for MSPs and giving the public the right to recall their MSPs
  • Push power out of Holyrood and into communities with a Local Democracy Act that will allow for the creation of regional mayors and support greater regional co-operation

Scottish Liberal Democrats

Party leader profile
Leader

Alex Cole-Hamilton

Top priorities
  • Get everyone fast access to an NHS dentist and GP
  • Transform mental health services by taxing social media giants
  • Insulate and upgrade homes to cut energy bills
  • Fix Scotland's "broken" relationship with Europe
  • Stop sewage dumping
  • More money for care workers and for family carers
Economy
  • Responsible management of the public finances, ensuring all fiscal events are accompanied by independent forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)
  • Give HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) the resources it needs to properly tackle tax avoidance and evasion
  • Repair the "broken" relationship with Europe which acts as a brake on the economy
  • Reverse the Conservatives' tax cuts for big banks
  • Impose a proper one-off windfall tax on the super-profits of oil and gas producers and traders
  • Develop a new industrial strategy for the UK
Cost of living
  • Make homes warmer and cheaper to heat by introducing energy upgrades
  • Tackle child poverty by removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap
  • Protect the triple lock so that pensions always rise in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest
  • Ensure that women born in the 1950s who have been affected by a decision to increase the state pension age are "finally treated fairly and properly compensated"
  • More support for unpaid carers across the UK, and stop pursuing carers for old overpayments of Carer's Allowance
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Get everyone fast access to GPs and a wider range of skilled staff locally, including mental health and physiotherapy
  • Ensure everyone can see an NHS dentist by overhauling the SNP's Recovery Plan to prioritise workforce planning and boost the number of dentists taking on NHS patients
  • Fund the transformation of mental health services by increasing the tax paid by social media companies
  • Boost the minimum wage for care workers by £2 an hour to boost recruitment and retention
  • An NHS and Social Care Staff Assembly to put frontline staff at the heart of government decision-making
  • Treat drug misuse as a health problem rather than prosecuting those who experience it
Immigration
  • Replace the Conservatives’ salary threshold with a more flexible merit-based system for work visas
  • End the "hostile environment"
  • Scrap the Illegal Migration Act and Rwanda scheme and invest the savings in clearing the asylum backlog
  • Allow asylum seekers to work once they have been waiting for a decision for more than three months
  • Exempt NHS and care staff from the £1,000-a-year Immigration Skills Charge, and reverse the ban on care workers bringing partners and children
  • Expand the Youth Mobility Scheme to allow under-35s to live, study and work in the EU
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Establish social renting as a long-term option
  • Bring long-term empty homes back into use
  • Make homes warmer and cheaper to heat through energy upgrades
  • Remove dangerous cladding from all buildings
Environment
  • End the sewage scandal across the whole UK
  • £1bn more for agriculture across the UK, including £170m for Scottish farmers
  • Cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045
  • Create a new Net Zero Delivery Authority
  • Tackle the climate emergency with a green jobs revolution
  • New incentives for households to install solar panels
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Boost in-class support and give teachers proper stable contracts instead of short-term and zero-hours work
  • Invest in early years education to help close the attainment gap
  • Boost access to mental health professionals at every stage of education
  • Introduce a Service Pupil Premium to give extra help to armed forces families
  • Re-enter the Erasmus Plus education scheme
  • Guarantee apprentices are paid at least the National Minimum Wage
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Fix the UK's "broken" relationship with Europe
  • Reverse the Conservative government's cut to the Army
  • Stand with Ukraine and provide them with the support they need in the war with Russia
  • Restore international development spending to 0.7% of national income
  • Advocate for an immediate bilateral ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict
Crime & justice
  • Improve co-operation with Europe to tackle cross-border crime such as human trafficking, drugs, cyber-crime and terrorism
  • Ensure all victims of the Horizon Post office scandal receive compensation quickly
  • Get more mental health professionals working alongside the police and prison service
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Roll out more charging points for electric vehicles
  • Reintroduce the plug-in car grant and require every new car and small van sold from 2030 to be zero-emission
  • Move away from fossil fuels on the rail network and open more stations to connect communities
  • Reduce demand for flying through taxes
  • Invest in research and development to make the UK the world leader in zero-carbon flight
  • Expand rural fuel duty relief to help drivers in rural communities with the high costs of petrol and diesel prices
Democracy
  • Oppose independence and a second referendum
  • Work to reform the UK to a federal future
  • Introduce a proportional voting system to elect MPs
  • Reform the House of Lords
  • Give people the right to recall their MSP
  • Enshrine the ministerial code, which sets out the standards government ministers should uphold, in legislation

Scottish Greens

Party leader profile
Leader

Patrick Harvie/Lorna Slater

Top priorities
  • Introduce a Green New Deal investment programme, including enhanced subsidies for renewable energy, home retrofitting, and battery storage
  • Phase out fossil fuels, no new North Sea oil and gas licences, and create a long-term plan for decommissioning existing oil and gas fields while guaranteeing jobs
  • Invest in rail connections, using taxes from flying to ensure rail is cheaper
  • A wealth tax on the top 1% of households in the UK, raising more than £75bn for public services
  • Grant the Scottish Parliament power to hold constitutional referendums
  • Stop deportations to Rwanda, close detention centres, and grant asylum seekers rights to work while claims are processed
Economy
  • Introduce a Green New Deal investment programme, including enhanced subsidies for renewable energy, home retrofitting, and battery storage
  • Close loopholes on business taxes and ensure profits earned in the UK are taxed in the UK
  • Support investment leading towards the green energy transition
  • Charge larger corporations higher rates of corporation tax, and offer incentives for socially responsible practices
  • Introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas sector profits, and close the loophole which provides relief for profits reinvested in drilling for new oil and gas
  • Repeal anti-trade union laws
Cost of living
  • Introduce an annual wealth tax for top 1% UK households, raising £75bn
  • Bring income tax rates across the UK in line with Scotland from 1 April 2025, raising more than £11bn
  • Cap price of food essentials during peaks of inflation, with measures targeted at distribution and retailers rather than producers
  • Abolish standing charges for domestic electricity customers
  • End the benefit cap and ban benefit sanctions
  • Provide additional leave to fathers
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Increase the number of funded university places for nursing students and create a bursary for student paramedics
  • Commit at least 11% of health spending to general practice by end of the next Parliament
  • Build the GP workforce to ensure 15-minute appointments are standard
  • Preserve the Public Dental Service, which provides oral care to groups with complex needs
  • Establish a mental health triage system in every community
  • Ensure social care workers are paid at least £15 an hour
Immigration
  • Repeal the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act, the Illegal Migration Act and the Nationality and Borders Act
  • Allow asylum seekers to work while their applications are being processed, and increase support payments in line with universal credit
  • Close detention centres and ban the use of accommodation such as barracks, hotels and barges
  • Grant the Scottish government powers to set its own priorities for immigration
  • Remove income requirements on spousal visas
  • UK remains a member of the European Convention on Human Rights
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Scrap the "bedroom tax" across the UK
  • Scale up energy efficiency and green heat programmes
  • Establish a Private Rented Sector Regulator to investigate tenants’ complaints and recommend reforms
  • Increase the role of councils in assembling land for housing and enhance their ability to buy properties to increase social housing
  • Ban winter evictions and end unfair evictions by making all grounds for eviction discretionary
  • End homelessness
Environment
  • Drop the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, revoke recently issued North Sea oil and gas licences, and prohibit licences for new onshore oil, gas and coal extraction/exploration
  • Establish a Four Nations Climate Response Group and deliver a UK-wide climate plan
  • Expand environmental taxation, such as a carbon land tax and an incineration tax
  • Invest in restoring the natural environment, including expanding native woodlands and restoring peatlands
  • Protect farmers by ensuring post-Brexit trade deals include high health and environmental standards
  • Give regulators more power to crack down on water companies
Education

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Tackle unnecessary school uniform costs
  • Raise the school starting age to seven and introduce a kindergarten stage for three to six-year-olds
  • Replace school inspections with peer review and self-evaluation
  • Resist the marketisation of higher education
  • Increase funding for colleges
  • Increase support for apprenticeships, ensuring payment of the living wage and promotion of diversity
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • End all financial and political support for the arms trade
  • Re-establish the Department for International Development
  • Reinstate the commitment to spend a minimum of 0.7% of national income on international aid and restore crisis reserves for emergency relief
  • Fight for Scotland to become an independent country in the EU, and advocate for an independence referendum
  • Formally recognise Palestinian statehood and support full UN membership
  • Support the work of human rights defenders
Crime & justice
  • Give access to an efficient police complaints procedure
  • Ensure those who need legal aid receive it, and expand legal aid to cover victims of domestic abuse in civil proceedings
  • Reform criminal justice system to work better for survivors, and create a Victims' Commissioner for Scotland
  • Introduce special provision for offenders who are mentally ill and women who are pregnant/have young children, so imprisonment is a last resort
  • Repeal the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act
  • Ensure funding is available to the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance who assist people who have been trafficked
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Review options for introducing road-user charging
  • Renationalise the West Coast Main rail line, and commit to making both East and West coast services permanently public sector operated
  • Make rail cheaper than flying, using taxation on aviation to subsidise rail tickets, and increase direct rail connections between English and Scottish cities
  • Implement a frequent flyer levy on those flying multiple times a year, while making exceptions for lifeline services to remote areas
  • Enable devolved governments to borrow for investment in capital rail projects, and speed up the current plan to decarbonise Scotland’s rail network by 2035
  • Renationalise bus services across the UK
Democracy
  • Grant the Scottish Parliament the power to hold constitutional referendums
  • Remove Section 35 from the Scotland Act, which grants a veto power to the secretary of state for Scotland
  • Repeal the Internal Market Act and replace it with legislation which takes a four-nations approach to economic and regulatory frameworks
  • Extend the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds in all elections, and base voting eligibility on residency not citizenship

Northern Ireland

Reform UK

Party leader profile
Leader

Caroline Jones

Top priorities
  • Raise personal tax allowance to £20,000 a year and the threshold for the 40% rate to £70,000
  • Raise the corporation tax threshold to £100,000 and cut the rate from 25% to 20%, with a reduction to 15% from year three
  • Scrap the net zero targets
  • Nationalise 50% of the key utility companies, with the other 50% owned by UK pension funds
  • Ensure police focus on preventing crime and catching criminals
  • Ensure the UK Border Force protects our borders
Economy
  • Raise the corporation tax threshold to £100,000 and cut the rate from 25% to 20%, with a reduction to 15% from year three
  • Scrap business rates for small and medium sized companies
  • Introduce a 4% online delivery tax
  • Lift the amount businesses must earn before charging VAT to £150,000 and bring back a VAT refund for tourists
  • Scrap laws that damage productivity, including some employment laws
  • Reform and simplify the tax system
Cost of living
  • Raise the personal tax allowance to £20,000 a year, and the threshold for the 40% rate to £70,000
  • Allow married couples to transfer 25% of their tax allowance so one person would not pay tax on the first £25,000 earned
  • Scrap VAT on energy bills and cut fuel duty by 20p a litre
  • Scrap inheritance tax on all estates under £2m
  • Give parents the choice to front-load child benefits for children aged one to four, giving parents the option of spending more time with their children
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Boost staffing with a basic income tax rate of zero for staff in the sector for three years and train new staff
  • Cut waiting lists by using independent and overseas providers
  • Introduce 20% tax relief on private healthcare and health insurance to encourage more people to use alternatives to the NHS
  • Bring in a patient voucher scheme, allowing people to go private if treatment deadlines are not met
  • Provide more beds in accident and emergency departments and the NHS in general
  • Launch a royal commission into the future of the social care system
Immigration
  • Freeze immigration except for those with essential skills, mainly in the healthcare sector
  • Require migrants claiming benefits and NHS services to have five years residency and employment
  • Increase employer National Insurance contributions for foreign workers from 13.8% to 20% for most businesses
  • Deport foreign criminals immediately at the end of their sentence and withdraw citizenship from immigrants who commit significant crimes
  • Return migrants found in small boats in the Channel to France, after leaving the European Convention on Human Rights
  • Set up a Department of Immigration, with secure detention for all migrants who arrive by illegal routes and rapid processing of claims
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Reform the planning system and fast-track new housing on brownfield sites
  • Prioritise local people for social housing not foreign nationals
  • Encourage more people to become landlords by scrapping tax changes introduced from 2017-21, known as section 24
  • Boost renters’ rights by improving monitoring of existing rules and with better enforcement and appeals processes
  • Encourage use of new construction technology such as modular construction
  • Make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend leases and buy freeholds
Environment
  • Scrap net zero targets
  • Tax the renewable energy industry the full amount of the money it receives in subsidies
  • Accelerate North Sea gas and oil exploration, restart opencast coal mines and unlock shale gas reserves
  • Build high-efficiency combined cycle gas turbines
  • Speed up commissioning of nuclear reactors
  • Build new reservoirs and stop release of sewage into rivers and seas
Education
  • Introduce a Patriotic Curriculum, for instance balancing lessons about British or European imperialism with non-European examples
  • Ban “transgender ideology” from schools and insist schools have single sex facilities
  • Double the number of Pupil Referral Units to keep more disruptive students outside of schools
  • Scrap interest payments on student loans and extend the repayment period to 45 years
  • Make universities offer two-year degree courses
  • Cut funding for universities that allow political bias or undermine free speech
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Scrap laws still based on EU regulations and abandon the new post-Brexit trade arrangements known as the Windsor Framework
  • Increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by the third year and to 3% within six years
  • Increase pay across the armed forces and aim to increase total army numbers
  • Create a Department for Veterans and protect service personnel from civil and human rights claims
  • Reduce the international aid budget by 50%
  • Police British territorial waters properly and ensure every foreign fishing vessel has to pay for a licence for access
Crime & justice
  • Increase police officer numbers by 40,000 over five years
  • Phase out police and community support officers and scrap all diversity, equality and inclusion roles
  • Take a zero-tolerance approach to crime and antisocial behaviour
  • Review sentencing, with mandatory life sentences for those committing a second violent or serious offence
  • Build 10,000 new prison places over five years
  • Change the definition of a hate crime to raise the threshold needed to trigger an investigation
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Scrap the rest of HS2
  • Ban all Ultra Low Emmission Zones (Ulez) and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
  • Accelerate transport infrastructure focusing on coastal regions, Wales, the North of England and the Midlands
Democracy
  • Leave the European Convention on Human Rights and reform the Human Rights Act
  • Replace the House of Lords with a smaller second chamber and end political appointees
  • Hold a referendum on introducing a proportional voting system for the House of Commons
  • Limit postal voting to the elderly, disabled or those who cannot leave their homes to reduce fraud
  • Reform the Civil Service by introducing political appointees from the private sector
  • Guarantee freedoms with a British Bill of Rights

Wales Green Party

Party leader profile
Leader

Anthony Slaughter

Top priorities
  • Prioritise action for climate and biodiversity recovery across our policies for a "Just Transition" approach, supporting people through change
  • Fair funding for the NHS in Wales, to protect and restore a fully public and properly funded linked NHS and social care system, including free personal care
  • Tackle profiteering, pollution and high bills in our utilities and public services by taking them back under state control or changing to a social business model with strong social and environmental requirements
  • Increase universal credit by £40 per week, abolish the third child cap, provide fairer benefits for those reliant on state pensions, restore the value of disability benefits, reform intrusive tests and end targeting of carers over benefits
  • Campaign for an independent Wales
  • Work for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, supporting South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice, a release of all hostages, an end to arms sales to Israel and full recognition of Palestinian statehood
Economy
  • Move from GDP measures of success to "Wellbeing Economy" priorities for health, happiness, more equality and prosperity with a thriving natural world
  • Tackle profiteering, pollution and high bills in our utilities and public services by taking them back under state control or changing to a social business model with strong social and environmental requirements
  • Borrow to invest in protecting climate, services to protect health, and green infrastructure for a prosperous future Wales, raising £40bn per year UK-wide through a Green Economic Transformation Fund, and supporting the development of community-led local banks
  • Make major investment in skills and training UK-wide, enabling workers to play a central role in a green economy, with a Charter of Workers’ Rights including mandatory recognition of trade unions
  • Make major changes to the tax system to tax "excessive" concentrations of wealth, including an annual wealth tax for the super-rich, and removing the upper earnings limit on National Insurance for highest earners
  • Develop a proper response to dangerous climate change impacts, including adaptation plans for industries and communities supporting a transition to a greener economy
Cost of living
  • Help people with the changes that are taking place in society in a "Just Transition", supporting everyone through the changes to a greener economy
  • Make the social security system adequate with an increase of £40 per week to universal credit, and fairer benefits for those reliant on the state pension
  • Address the record numbers of children in poverty by abolishing the third child benefits cap, and stop the state pension being taxed
  • Restore the value of disability benefits, reform tests like those for PIP (personal independence payments), and end targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits
  • Introduce a Universal Basic Income over the long term to give everybody the chance start or change a business, study, train and live their lives in dignity
  • Fair funding for Wales to enable local authorities to provide high quality childcare
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Fair funding for the NHS in Wales, to protect and restore a fully public and properly funded linked NHS and social care system, including free personal care
  • Immediately boost NHS staff pay, including the restoration of nurses’ and doctors’ pay to help recruitment and staff retention
  • Restoring public health budgets is key to early prevention, early diagnosis and improving quality of life, while also reducing the burden on the NHS
  • Access for all to NHS dentistry and funding for community hubs and primary dental care
  • Increased funding for mental health care and evidence-based mental health therapies that can be readily accessed within 28 days
  • Wales to participate in a UK-wide commission to agree an evidence-based approach to addiction support and to reform the UK’s drug laws
Immigration
  • Welcome and highlight the contributions that immigrants and refugees make to society
  • End the "hostile environment" and offer safe routes to sanctuary for those fleeing persecution
  • Allow those seeking asylum and protection to work while their applications are being decided
  • Replace the Home Office with a new Department of Migration separate from the criminal justice system
  • End detention for all migrants unless they are a danger to public safety
  • Defend the Human Rights Act, the UK’s membership of the European Convention of Human Rights and continued direct access to its principles in domestic courts
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Introduce a charter to protect green space for communities, reduce climate emissions and provide genuinely affordable housing, accompanied by the investment needed in local health, transport and other services
  • Build at least 12,000 new homes each year in Wales to solve the housing crisis, most will need to be social housing
  • Introduce rent controls in Wales to protect tenants and ensure housing is treated as a basic human need that is affordable to all, including the "Right to Rent" for those struggling with mortgage payments
  • Launch an immediate scheme for housing the homeless as successfully rolled out in Finland
  • Ensure all planning for new homes considers climate impacts such as future flooding, meets strong environmental standards and includes solar panels and/or heat pumps in all new homes
  • Major investment in energy efficiency and a green energy retrofit of older properties through a Green Transformation Economic Fund scheme
Environment
  • Establish a Food System Commission to produce healthy nutritious food at affordable prices with fair wages for growers
  • Work with farmers to design a payments system supporting transition to more nature-friendly farming, reducing pesticides and bringing in nature-based solutions for issues such as flooding and pollution
  • End depletion of nature in Wales by conserving and improving biodiversity and soil health for cleaner rivers and restored ecosystems
  • Create a new Commission on Animal and Habitat protection with controls on factory farming, routine use of antibiotics and animal mutilation
  • Remove oil and gas subsidies and cancel all new fossil fuel and new nuclear power projects
  • Communities to benefit from local renewable energy sources and devolution of Crown Estates supplying revenue to decarbonisation and sustainable production based in the local economy
Education
  • Reform education inspector Estyn to support every child to feel valued and reach their potential with the ending of high-stakes testing in schools
  • Massive investment in school buildingse, including retrofitted energy efficiency and renewable energy installation
  • Address widespread child poverty in Wales with free nutritious school meals for all children including holidays
  • Work towards a new university model UK-wide recognising higher and further education, and lifelong learning for all, as forces for social good essential for democracy
  • Support every student by restoring grants, abolishing tuition fees
  • Fair funding to ensure that people in Wales can live their lives in the Welsh language, from school, through to further education
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Rejoin the EU as our major trading and political partner when time and conditions are right
  • Work within Nato for greater focus on global peacebuilding necessary for climate agreements and a commitment to a "no first use" of nuclear weapons policy
  • Increase international aid to 1% of gross national income (GNI) by 2033 to help countries on the front line of dangerous climate change with severe storms, flooding, landslides and rising temperatures
  • Increase climate finance for the Global South to 1.5% of GNI by 2033 with a further £21.6bn a year provided by the newly established climate Loss and Damage fund
  • Continue to support Ukraine as it resists Russian invasion
  • Work for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, support for South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice, release of all hostages, an end to arms sales to Israel and full recognition of Palestinian statehood
Crime & justice
  • Full devolution of justice and policing to Wales with major investment to renew the court system and address backlogs in justice
  • Restore trust and confidence in the police with proper screening and training
  • Scrap the Prevent counter-extremism programme and tackle racist hate crime, misogyny, islamophobia and anti-semitism
  • Scrap the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act and other legislation that erodes the rights of protest and free expression
  • Carry out an Action Strategy to end violence against women and girls
  • Campaign for self-ID for trans and non-binary people
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Increase annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel with free bus travel for under-18s ensuring every community is connected
  • Bring rail infrastructure back into public ownership as an essential service, helping to decarbonise travel
  • Improve cross-Wales transport links and services and support electrification, including electric vehicle charging capacity using HS2 funding owed to Wales
  • Supporting safe streets and active travel with major investment UK-wide in new cycleways and footpaths
  • Halt the expansion of new airport capacity as a major contributor to climate change, plus a ban on domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train
Democracy
  • Green MPs will push for the UK to become a modern, functional democracy that represents the diversity of our societies
  • Replace first-past-the-post for Westminster and council elections with a proportional voting system
  • Replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber
  • End the need to provide ID for voting and stamp out political corruption
  • Wales Green Party campaigns for an independent Wales with its own democratic constitution and independent parliament or Senedd
  • Votes for 16-year-olds and residence-based voting rights

Democratic Unionist Party

Party leader profile
Leader

Gavin Robinson

Top priorities
  • Promoting the union and removing barriers within the United Kingdom
  • Delivering fair and equitable funding for the NHS and other public services
  • Campaigning to protect family incomes and increase farm support
Economy
  • Seek UK-wide reductions in corporation tax and VAT for hospitality
  • Increase the VAT threshold for SMEs (small and medium sized firms) to £100,000
  • Develop a dedicated Hydrogen Innovation Strategy and green hydrogen apprenticeship programme
Cost of living
  • Increase the tax-free childcare allowance from 20% to 35% and remove the £2,000 cap per child per year
  • Ensure the standard allowance of universal credit cannot fall below a legal minimum amount required to afford basic essentials
  • Oppose the freeze on the personal tax allowance and ensure it is always above the amount of the state pension
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Deliver fair and equitable funding for the NHS and other public services
  • Drive waiting lists down with large-scale partnerships between health and social care in NI and national independent providers or not-for-profit organisations
  • Help attract, recruit, train and retain frontline staff, including GPs, through fellowships and practitioner health schemes
Immigration
  • Fight to ensure national immigration and asylum policy applies equally across the UK
  • Support speedier and more efficient processes for dealing with asylum claims
  • Ensure rules for skilled overseas workers coming to the UK protect food production, manufacturing, hospitality and the provision of health and social care
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Invest in new social and affordable housing
  • Deliver energy efficiency schemes to support better insulated homes in public and private housing
  • Support financial help for small-scale energy generation for householders, for example solar panels and heat installation measures
Environment
  • Press for a fair transition for the UK’s long-term ambitions to reach net zero - when the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stops rising - which recognises food production as a strategic national asset
  • Promote a multi-agency response, and approach, to addressing water pollution and the ecological crisis in Lough Neagh
  • Push back a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles to at least 2035
Education
  • Deliver educational opportunities for young people, and a joint approach to tackling under-achievement, through the UK East-West Council
  • Incentivise youth apprenticeships and promote them as part of a strategy to support young people leaving care
  • Establish an Independent UK Skills Commission with representation for NI
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Commit to spending 3% of national income on defence by 2035, with increased Ministry of Defence expenditure in NI defence industries
  • Greater integration of NI into national defence structures including an increased RAF and Royal Navy presence
  • Restore the UK foreign aid budget to 0.7% of national income
Crime & justice
  • Repeal the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which changes the way Troubles-era crimes are treated, within the first 100 days of the next Parliament
  • Seek additional funding to recruit more police officers, fight terrorism and tackle paramilitarism
  • Establish a royal commission into the effectiveness of the criminal justice system across the UK
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Seek a strengthened National Infrastructure Commission, ensuring fairer access to its skills and expertise for NI
  • Boost connectivity between GB and NI through improvements to the A75, A77 and connecting with the M6 toward Cumbria
  • Support the electrification rail in NI from Belfast to the border, the reopening of the Antrim-Lisburn rail line, with an additional stop at Belfast International Airport, and the reinstatement of Portadown to Armagh railway line
Democracy
  • Close the foreign political donation loophole in NI
  • Ensure MPs who do not attend Parliament do not receive expenses and allowances
  • Regulate data and emerging technologies to crack down on those who spread misinformation and disinformation

Sinn Féin

Party leader profile
Leader

Mary Lou McDonald

Top priorities
  • Continue to lead positive change on the island of Ireland at every level including MPs, MLA, TDs, Seanadóirí, MEPs and councillors the length and breadth of Ireland
  • Continue direct discussion with the British Treasury to end the underfunding of the Executive
  • Protect public services and support fair pay for public sector workers
Economy
  • Implement a plan for the economy which supports local business, promotes regional balance, creates good quality jobs, develops the all-Ireland economy, improves productivity and increases decarbonisation
  • Bring forward strong legal protections for workers and the right to join a trade union
  • Take forward the planned expansion of Magee University through the work of the UU Magee Taskforce
Cost of living
  • Accessible and affordable childcare - including for those with Special Educational Needs
  • Legislation to make school and PE uniforms more affordable
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • A health and social care workforce plan to recruit and retain more doctors and nurses
  • A plan to tackle unacceptably long waiting lists
  • Fair pay and conditions for all health and social care workers
Immigration
  • A well-managed and fair immigration system which is effective, enforced, compassionate and compliant with human rights standards and international law
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • A housing strategy to deliver more social and affordable homes
  • Further protections for private renters such as tackling unfair letting fees
  • Improved standards of housing
Environment
  • Fair and just transition to net zero, when the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stops rising
  • Establish structures provided for in climate legislation such as a Just Transition Commission and Climate Change Commissioner
  • Address the environmental challenges facing Lough Neagh and the surrounding communities
Education
  • Meet the needs of those who want their children educated in Irish medium or integrated education
  • Address the crisis facing Special Educational Needs placements including exploring an SEN First approach for admissions and enrolment
  • End academic selection and tackle academic underachievement
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Protect Ireland’s policy of neutrality
  • Oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Continue to support Palestinian people, call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, more humanitarian aid, and a free and independent Palestinian state
Crime & justice
  • Implement the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy
  • Hate crime legislation to protect minorities
  • Repeal of the Tories Legacy Act
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Deliver the A5 and A6 upgrade to improve road safety and connectivity
  • Invest in sustainable public transport and infrastructure for active travel, such as cycling, wheeling and walking
  • Building the new Narrow Water Bridge
Democracy
  • Continue to campaign for votes at 16
  • Work for the devolution of fiscal powers to better equip the Assembly to target resources and develop progressive policies to improve public services and improve people's lives

Alliance Party

Party leader profile
Leader

Naomi Long

Top priorities
  • Building a shared future and an integrated society for Northern Ireland
  • Reforming the Assembly and Executive so no one party can hold us all to ransom
  • Securing a better financial settlement for Northern Ireland that properly reflects its relative need and allows investment in its public services and economy
Economy
  • Investing in skills through a new Skills Strategy for NI and expanded apprenticeships and further education pathways
  • Promoting dual market access for goods
  • Driving economic prosperity for all, by unlocking significant investment in green initiatives to safeguard our environment and improve standards of living
Cost of living
  • Retrofitting and investing in energy efficiency to tackle fuel poverty
  • Supporting families with childcare costs by demanding more generous tax relief and the creation of a new childcare strategy for Northern Ireland
  • Introduce an Essentials Guarantee in the social security system so that people’s incomes cover the cost of living
NHS & care

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Implement the recommendations of the Bengoa Review to transform our healthcare system
  • Tackle waiting lists and invest in the NHS workforce
  • Focus on early intervention and prevention, such as addressing deprivation which leads to illness and disease and introducing cost-effective screening
Immigration
  • Abolish the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda
  • Create safe routes for asylum seekers to reduce exploitation and trafficking, so that no-one is forced to make treacherous journeys to the UK
  • Overhaul the visa system to make it more affordable and remove of minimum threshold salary requirements for family visas
Housing

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Retrofit homes for renewable energy sources and insulation
  • Place an emphasis on shared, mixed tenure developments, to build sustainable and inclusive communities
  • Legislate so the construction sector builds long-life, green projects
Environment
  • Deliver a Green New Deal to create at least 50,000 sustainable jobs by 2030
  • Implement an immediate statutory ban on all current and future fossil fuel exploration, including fracking
  • Invest in public transport and active travel, such as cycling, walking and wheeling
Education
  • Continue to promote and improve Integrated Education provision, building on our Integrated Education Act
  • End the use of academic criteria for post-primary transfer
  • Prioritise and invest in Special Educational Needs provision
Foreign & defence

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Support for the rules-based international order, including the work of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, Nato and the United Nations
  • Support a two-state solution in the Middle East, based on international law, including the recognition of a Palestinian sovereign state and an end to the occupation of Gaza and persecution of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
  • Support Ukraine’s fight for freedom against Russian aggression and for the ongoing provision of aid to Ukraine
Crime & justice
  • Speed up the criminal justice system to reduce delays in the courts
  • Strengthen protections for victims of crime
  • Improve rehabilitation and reduce reoffending
Transport

This issue is devolved or partly devolved.

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  • Invest in public transport and active travel
  • Review how the planning system can incentivise the greening of our towns and cities
  • Develop a modern, all-Ireland rail network through a new five-year plan for rail investment
Democracy
  • Openness and transparency in public life, with accountability for elected representatives and officials who fail to meet the highest standards
  • A fairer electoral system for the House of Commons, and a directly-elected House of Lords
  • Votes at 16 for all elections and referendums
Choose an issue that interests you
Select parties to compare what they say

A manifesto is the list of pledges parties make to voters, explaining what they would do if elected.

This interactive has been put together by the BBC's Visual Journalism team, the BBC's political research unit in London and BBC journalists in Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow.

Its aim is to summarise where the parties stand on key topics to help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box.

How were the issues chosen?

We have selected issues highlighted in polling company Ipsos Mori's Issues Index, a monthly survey that measures the things the public believe to be the most important facing the country.

We analysed surveys from the twelve months before the election was called and selected the issues based on their aggregate score over that period.

In some cases we have combined similar issues for simplicity. For example, "NHS, hospitals, healthcare and social care" are included under the one category of "NHS and care".

"Democracy" was added as an issue on the editorial grounds that it help fulfil the BBC's public service commitments.

How have parties been chosen and ordered?

In order for a party to be included in the guide it must be standing candidates in at least one sixth of seats in the nation it is campaigning in as well as meeting one of the following criteria:

  • Had been represented by at least one MP when Parliament was dissolved in June 2024

  • Has at least one elected representative in a national assembly

  • Won more than 1% of the vote share in the previous general election, national assembly election or the 2019 European Parliament elections

Parties are ordered by their vote share in the 2019 general election - and then alphabetically.

You can see a full list of all parties standing at the general election here.

How are the policies selected and summarised?

This is an editorial process overseen by BBC journalists. All parties included in the guide have contacted by the BBC and given the opportunity to identify their key policies in each area.

What about issues that are devolved from the UK parliament?

Because of devolution, the UK parliament cannot rule on, or has limited powers over, some of the issues highlighted in the guide. For example, "health" is devolved to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Parties do still campaign locally on these devolved issues in the run up to a general election.

For this reason, the guide highlights issues that are devolved or partly devolved to acknowledge that these policies may not become law in that nation even if they are passed in Westminster.

Produced by Chris Clayton, Dominic Bailey, Tom Finn, Claire Diamond, Luke Sproule, Chris Andrews, Adrian Browne, Tomos Livingstone, Dorian Morgan, Peter Barnes, Lauren Tavriger, Oscar Bentley, Beta Yee, Zoe Bartholomew, Matthew Taylor, Preeti Vaghela, Adam Allen, Scott Jarvis, Grace Richardson, Assiz Pereira, Holly Frampton and Mike Hills.

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