UKIP manifesto summary: Key points at-a-glance

  • Published
Paul NuttallImage source, AFP

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

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  • 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

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  • 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

Image source, PA
  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

Image source, Getty Images
  • £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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

Image source, Reuters
  • 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

Image source, Reuters
  • 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

Image source, AFP
  • 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

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  • 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.