General election 2017: Labour's draft manifesto at-a-glance

  • Published
Draft Labour manifesto

A draft of Labour's 51-page general election manifesto has been leaked. You can read the whole thing here, external - or, below, are some of its key policies.

Renationalisation

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  • Bring the railways back into public ownership as franchises expire and repeal the Railways Act 1993 which privatised the network

  • Freeze passenger rail fares, free wi-fi across the network, an end to driver-only operation of trains and improved accessibility for disabled people

  • Reverse the privatisation of Royal Mail "at the earliest opportunity"

  • Create at least one publicly-owned energy company in every region of the UK, with public control of the transmission and distribution grids

  • Repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012 - which restructured the NHS in England - and "reverse privatisation" of the health service

Defence

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  • Support the renewal of the Trident submarine system

  • Work with international partners and the UN on multilateral disarmament "to create a nuclear-free world"

  • Commit to the Nato benchmark of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence

  • Insulate the homes of disabled veterans for free

Migration

Image source, PA
  • Labour believes in the "reasonable management of migration" but "will not make false promises on immigration numbers"

  • Replace income thresholds for bringing family members to the UK with "an obligation to survive without recourse to public funds"

  • Uphold responsibilities under the Refugee Convention and offer a safe haven to those fleeing from persecution and war

Brexit

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  • Accept the EU referendum result and "build a close new relationship with the EU" prioritising jobs and and workers' rights

  • Guarantee the rights of EU nationals living in the UK and work to "secure reciprocal rights" for UK citizens elsewhere in the EU

  • A "meaningful" role for Parliament throughout Brexit negotiations

  • Negotiating priorities to have "a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the single market and the customs union"

  • Negotiate transitional arrangements "to avoid a cliff-edge for the UK economy" if no deal is reached

  • Keep EU-derived laws on workers' rights, equality, consumer rights and environmental protections

Workers' rights

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  • A 20-point plan for security and equality at work, including an end to zero-hours contracts and equal rights for employees

  • Repeal the Trade Union Act and roll out sectoral collective bargaining, whereby industries can negotiate agreement as a whole

  • End the public sector pay cap.

  • Guarantee trade unions a right to access workplaces

  • Enforce all workers' rights to trade union representation at work

  • Use public spending power to drive up standards, including only awarding public contracts to companies which recognise trade unions

  • Shifting the "burden of proof" in the so-called "gig economy" so that the law assumes a worker is an employee unless the employer can prove otherwise

Education

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  • Reintroduce maintenance grants for university students and abolish university tuition fees

  • A National Education Service to provide "cradle-to-grave learning that is free at the point of use" from early years to adult education

  • Reduce class sizes to under 30 for all five, six, and seven-year-olds

  • Free school meals for all primary school children, paid for by removing the VAT exemption on private school fees

Health and social care

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  • An extra £6bn annually for the NHS, funded by increasing income tax for the highest 5% of earners and increasing tax on private medical insurance

  • An Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for health to scrutinise spending

  • An additional £8 billion over the lifetime of the next Parliament for social care

  • Look into creating a National Care Service for social care "rooted in the traditions of our National Health Service"

Social security and pensions

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  • An end to benefit sanctions

  • Scrap the so-called "bedroom tax"

  • Reinstate housing benefit for under-21s

  • Guarantee the state pension "triple lock" throughout the next Parliament so that pensions rise by at least inflation, earnings or 2.5% a year, whichever is higher.

  • The winter fuel allowance and free bus passes guaranteed as universal benefits

  • A commitment to "protect the pensions of UK citizens living overseas in the EU or further afield"

Energy

  • Nuclear power "will continue to be part of the UK energy supply"

  • A ban on fracking

  • Introduce an immediate emergency energy price cap to ensure the average dual fuel household energy bill remains below £1,000 per year

  • Maintaining access to the EU's internal energy market and retaining access to nuclear research programme Euratom will be a priority in Brexit negotiations

Economy

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  • No rises in income tax for those earning below £80,000 a year on personal National Insurance Contributions and on VAT

  • A National Investment Bank as part of a plan to provide £250bn of lending power over the next decade for infrastructure

  • A claim the manifesto commitments are "fully costed" with all current spending paid for out of taxation or redirected revenue stream

  • The current spending deficit eliminated on "a forward-looking, five-year rolling timescale"

Housing

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  • At least 100,000 council and housing association homes built a year by the end of the next Parliament

  • "Thousands more low-cost homes" reserved for first-time buyers

  • Make new three-year tenancies the norm for private renters, with an inflation cap on rent rises

  • An additional 4,000 homes reserved for people with a history of rough sleeping