UKIP manifesto summary: Key points at-a-glance
- Published
The UK Independence Party has launched its manifesto, "Britain Together". The full document is available online, external. Here are some of the main things you need to know.
Key message
A "patriotic agenda for defending our country and our way of life."
Paul Nuttall's foreword says: "We are the country's insurance policy, the guard dogs of Brexit. We have fought for Brexit all our political lives and we want to ensure that the people get the kind of Brexit they voted for on 23rd June last year."
Key policies
Reducing net migration to zero within five years
A ban on the wearing of face coverings in public places
Six Brexit tests
An extra £11bn every year for the NHS and social care by 2022
A rise in the threshold for paying income tax to £13,500
A cut in taxes for middle earners
Cut VAT on household bills
Axe tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine
Provide up to 100,000 new homes for younger people every year
Maintain the triple lock on pensions which sees them rise by the higher of prices, average earnings or 2.5%
Spend "a genuine" 2% of GDP on defence, plus £1bn every year
20,000 more police, 7,000 more prison officers, and 4,000 more border force staff.
Brexit
Repeal the European Elections Act (2002) to ensure no British national can stand for election to the European Parliament in 2019
Take back control of Britain's fisheries
End "the obscenity" of discarded fish, make best use of all fish caught and sell in the UK
Re-instate the classic blue passport when the British passport contract comes up for renewal in 2019
Stop businesses from paying tax in whichever EU or associated country they choose
Cut unnecessary EU regulation from the 88% of the UK economy not linked to trade with EU countries
Prioritise free trade agreements with non-EU countries.
Six key Brexit tests:
Free Britain from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and if desired, relinquish membership of the European Court of Human Rights
Full control of immigration and asylum policies, and border control
Control of Britain's 200 mile maritime exclusive economic zone, and no constraints on its fishing fleet
Retake seat on the World Trade Organisation and resume right to sign trade agreements with other entities or supra-national bodies
No 'divorce' payment to the EU or contribution to the EU budget. UK must be paid share of financial assets
Brexit must be done and dusted before the end of 2019.
Social care
Maintain the triple lock on pensions which sees them rise by the higher of prices, average earnings or 2.5%
Invest up to £2bn a year in social care
Continue to pay attendance allowance for over 65s who need help with personal care
Allocate £400m a year to dementia research and treatment each year over the course of the next parliament
Protect meals-on-wheels, luncheon clubs, day care services and home care
Abolish annual assessment for continuing healthcare funding for those with a degenerative, terminal illness
Fund a pro-active co-ordinating service for older and disabled people to combat loneliness
Introduce a legally binding Dignity Code to improve quality and standard of care for older people in hospital, care homes or their own home
Protect whistleblowers
Give carers an extra five days' paid holiday each year, increase carer's allowance to £73.10 a week
Scrap the bedroom tax
Improve carers' access to support by sharing information on benefit and social care entitlements
Exempt food banks and charity shops from local authority charges for disposal of unwanted food waste and other goods.
The economy
Remove VAT from hot takeaway food such as fish and chips, and from women's sanitary products
Raise the inheritance tax threshold to £500,000 per individual, transferable for a married couple or those in civil partnerships, so up to £1m in total
Eventually eliminate inheritance tax altogether
Scrap plans for new probate charges.
Business
Cut business rates by 20% for 1.5 million British businesses operating from premises with a rateable value of less than £50,000
Make HM Revenue and Customs investigate big businesses or public sector bodies that repeatedly make late payments to smaller customers
Levy fines proportionate to the amount of delayed payments - levels escalated for repeat offenders
Improve access to trade credit insurance to help firms struggling to secure loans
Press local authorities to offer at least 30 minutes' free parking in town centres and shopping parades
Freeze insurance premium tax.
Workers' rights
Raise the tax-free personal allowance to at least £13,500
Raise the 40% income tax threshold to £55,000
Restore the personal allowance to those earning over £100,000 when economic conditions allow
Introduce a flexible state pension "window" with an option to retire earlier, for a slightly lower state pension, or work longer for a slightly higher pension
Allow women to retire on this basis at 60
No quarterly tax returns and no increase in Class IV National Insurance or taxes for self-employed
Legislation requiring employers to advertise jobs to British citizens before they offer them overseas
Enforce the minimum and living wage and reverse government cuts to the number of minimum wage inspectors in England and Wales
Tighten up rules on zero hours contracts and severely limit their use
Encourage businesses to fund job placements for older people, and enforce laws protecting workers against age discrimination.
Education
Abolish Key Stage 1 SATs' tests for seven-year-olds
End sex education in primary schools
Require primary schools to nominate a science leader to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers
Open a grammar school in every town - giving pupils up to age 16 an opportunity for a place
Introduce a German-style dual vocational training system, giving students on-the-job training at a company
Abolish tuition fees as soon as economic conditions allow
Restore maintenance grants now
Abolish tuition fees for undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students
Cover the cost of all tuition fees for medical students
Introduce "employability" lessons
Give disabled learners the choice to attend mainstream courses or schools
Integrate mental health training into the teacher-training syllabus and develop a national school-based counselling strategy for England
Specialist counselling services in all secondary schools
Introduce emotional health and wellbeing into the Ofsted inspection framework
Consider whether new legislation is required to address the problem of online abuse
Put into special measures schools found to be exposing children to Islamism.
Health and social care
£9bn a year for NHS England by 2021/22
£2bn for social care
Lift the cap on medical school training places from 7,500 to 10,000 and make sure no "suitable" 'A' grade student fails to get a place
Tuition fees funded for medical students committed to working within the NHS for at least 10 years after they qualify - delivering 10,000 new GPs by 2025
New funding arrangements to incentivise doctors to work in geographical areas most in need
Encourage retired GPs or GPs with small children to work part-time or in job-share schemes
Make re-registering with the UK GMC easier for doctors who have worked overseas
lncrease the number of nurse training placements
Reinstate funding for bursaries for nursing, midwifery and allied health professions' tuition and accommodation costs
Cover the cost of re-training for nurses who have taken career breaks
Discontinue the 1% pay increase cap for frontline NHS workers earning less than £35,000
Establish a Department for Health and Care, and create a sustainably funded social care system assimilated into the NHS
Restrict non-urgent NHS care to British citizens or foreign nationals who have paid UK taxes for at least five consecutive years
Limit spending on external management consultancy contracts to £50,000
Guarantee rights for EU healthcare workers
Scrap hospital car parking charges in England
Abolish the care quality commission
Scrap EU Legislation such as the clinical trial directive and the working time directive
Increase planned spending on mental health services by at least £500m a year
Cut waiting times to 28 days maximum.
Migration
Establish a migration control commission and set a target to reduce net migration to zero, over a five-year period
Moratorium on unskilled and low-skilled immigration for five years after Brexit
New international visa system with visa categories for highly skilled workers, tourists, students and family reunions
Honour obligations to bona fide asylum seekers
New migrants to Britain expected to make tax and national insurance contributions for five years before eligible for benefits and NHS treatment
No visas for foreign criminals
Migrants who commit crimes resulting in prison will have their visa revoked and be detained until they are deported
Law-abiding EU citizens living in the UK before Article 50 was triggered have right to stay indefinitely
EU nationals arriving after 29 March 2017 will not have the automatic right to remain and will lose access to all benefits, including non-urgent healthcare on Brexit.
Culture and media
Abolish the TV licence, saving households £147
Expect the BBC to retain a core free-to-air offering on Freeview, maintain the World Service, and its local radio network
Grants from a new public service broadcast fund available to any broadcaster for specific programmes or projects
Review advertising, broadcast and editorial codes to ensure men and women are treated with dignity and promote healthy body images.
Crime and Justice
Make failure to report Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) a criminal offence
Implement a screening programme for girls at risk of FGM from birth to age 16, with annual non-invasive physical check-ups
Additional check-ups on girls at risk when they return to the UK from trips to countries where FGM is known to be customary
Make FGM an indictable offence with a minimum sentence of six years
Prosecute all cases of child and forced marriage
Ban wearing of the niqab and the burqa in public places
Send "as many as possible" of the 13,000 foreign nationals in British jails back to their home countries
Refuse admission to prisons to imams or preachers known to promote views contrary to British values
Prevent foreign criminals from entering the UK
Fast-track deportation system for those convicted of crimes in the UK
Prosecute all cases of adult sexual behaviour with under-age minors
Update licensing laws to limit the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2.
Energy and environment
Remove VAT from domestic energy bills and scrap green levies that subsidise renewable energy schemes - cutting household energy bills by £170 a year
Promote inclusion of trees and open space into new developments
Prioritise brownfield rather than greenfield or agricultural land for new housing
Support farming and wildlife though grant schemes, prioritising the preservation of natural habitats
Match fund grants made by local authorities for rural capital projects which enhance the local environment or help recovery from environmental disasters
Protect dolphins by banning the use of pair trawling for sea bass
Offer local referenda to overturn unpopular development approvals
Continue to make available to farmers the agriculture sector funds that would normally be paid to them via Brussels
To qualify for subsidies, land must be used for genuine agricultural purposes and managed to certain environmental standards
Organic farms will be paid 25% more, with additional support given to hill farmers
There will be no set-aside, cropping or rotation restrictions
Ban the export of animals for fattening and slaughter
Tightly regulate animal testing, and continually challenge companies concerned regarding its necessity
Install CCTV in every abattoir and deal severely with any animal welfare contraventions
Forbid Jewish and Muslim methods of slaughter being carried out by unqualified individuals in unregulated premises, and deal severely with such transgressions
Insist all meat labelling identifies the method of slaughter
Triple the maximum jail sentences for animal cruelty
Impose lifetime bans on owning and/or looking after animals on any individual or company convicted of animal cruelty
Keep the ban on animal testing for cosmetics
Repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act and support a diverse energy market based on coal, nuclear, shale gas, conventional gas, oil, solar and hydro, as well as other renewables when they can be delivered at competitive prices
No drilling for shale in national parks or other areas of outstanding natural beauty
Prevent energy companies charging extra for customers who use pre-payment meters, who do not pay by direct debit, or who require paper billing
Remove taxpayer-funded subsidies from unprofitable wind and solar schemes as soon as contractual arrangements expire.
Housing and coastal towns
Coastal towns taskforce will raise funding for new arts and heritage facilities in coastal towns
Give local authorities powers to access low interest government loans to buy up and renovate poor housing stock or empty commercial properties, to create quality residential accommodation
Issue compulsory purchase orders for poor quality houses in multiple occupation
Introduce minimum standards for properties in receipt of housing benefit
Refuse housing benefit payments to landlords in breach of planning legislation
Roll out of high quality, low cost factory-built modular (FBM) homes, affordable on the national average wage of £26,000
The homes would be sold on a freehold basis to first time buyers up to the age of 40 who are British citizens and who have a 10% deposit.
Utilities installation covered by a 1% energy bill levy, and stamp duty would not be applied.
Transport
Scrap HS2 and invest in upgrading existing main line services to create additional capacity, expand electrification, and improve east-west rail services and connections across the north of England
Oppose the new Thames Crossing in Thurrock and look to re-open a consultation for a new crossing further east
Support the installation of rapid charging stations in towns and cities for electric vehicles
Freeze air passenger duty at current levels with the long term objective of scrapping it
Exempt vehicles over 25 years old from Vehicle Excise Duty
Do not allow speed cameras to be used as revenue-raisers for local authorities
Scrap the driver certificate of professional competence for professionally licensed haulage drivers.
Foreign policy and defence
Integrate mental wellbeing monitoring into existing medical examinations for serving armed forces personnel in potentially traumatic or "at risk" roles
Retain Britain's independent nuclear deterrent
Spend "a genuine" 2% of GDP on defence, and scale up defence spending by an additional £1bn per year by the end of the parliament
Build eight halfway house veterans' hostels and assign 500 affordable rent homes every year to ex-forces personnel
Close down the Department for International Development and repeal the law requiring the UK to spend 0.7% of national income on foreign aid
Commission a new ocean-going hospital ship
Families and communities
Offer swift access to vital mental health services for patients diagnosed with debilitating long-term conditions and terminal illnesses
Provide direct access to specialist mental health treatment for all pregnant women and mothers of children under 12 months of age
Offer wrap-around childcare from 8am to 6pm in primary schools during term time
Require local authorities to keep a register of childcare providers for short notice cover
Make play spaces compulsory in housing estates and promote nursery or crèche provision in shopping centres, office blocks, hospitals, airports, and railway stations
Create an £80m a year fund to help childminders and smaller childcare providers open their doors to more children with special needs
Legislate for an initial 50-50 presumption of shared parenting when couples break up
Allow media reporting of placement and adoption proceedings
Require expert witnesses to list previous court cases in which they have given evidence
Promote a more extensive use of special guardianship orders so children can retain links with their birth family
New legislation to reduce the density of alcohol outlets and restrict trading times.
Democracy
Bank holidays for the saints' days in England and Wales
End the use of multi-lingual formatting on official documents
A proportional electoral system that "delivers a parliament representative of the number of votes cast"
Scrap postal votes unless there is a genuine need
Abolish the House of Lords
Halve the number of MPs
National referendums every two years on issues gaining the highest numbers of signatures on approved petitions.
Personal pitch
Paul Nuttall launched his party's manifesto in central London with a pledge to "cut out the cancer of Islamic fundamentalism", accusing the other parties of "brushing the problem under the carpet". He said the suicide bomber responsible for the atrocity at the Manchester Arena - who had recently returned from Libya - should not have been allowed back into Britain.