General election 2019: Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto at-a-glance

General election 2019: What's in the Scottish Lib Dem manifesto?

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have unveiled their vision for Scotland ahead of the general election on 12 December. Many of the pledges relate to issues, such as education or health, which are devolved to the Scottish Parliament. This means the party would either need to the win the support of the Scottish government or win the next Holyrood election in 2021 before the policy could be introduced. Below are the main policies from the party's manifesto.

Key points:

  • Stop Brexit and stop Scottish independence

  • Invest the £50bn "Remain Bonus" in public services and tackling inequality

  • Generate 80% of UK electricity from renewables by 2030 and insulate all low-income homes by 2025

  • Provide money for free childcare from nine months and investment in Scottish schools and nurseries

  • Treat mental health with the same urgency as physical health

  • Introduce a written constitution for a federal United Kingdom

Brexit, independence and the constitution

The manifesto pledges to:

  • Stop Brexit by revoking Article 50 if the Liberal Democrats win the election

  • Failing that, work with other parties to secure another referendum on EU membership, with Remain as an option

  • Oppose Scottish independence and oppose another referendum on independence

  • Introduce a written constitution for a federal United Kingdom

  • Introduce proportional representation through the Single Transferable Vote for electing MPs and 16 and 17-year olds the right to vote in all elections and referendums

  • Reform the House of Lords with a proper democratic mandate

  • Extend the involvement of the Scottish government and Welsh government in the development of UK-wide policy frameworks

  • Extend the accountability of UK-wide bodies such as the BBC and Ofgem to the Scottish Parliament

Economy

  • Invest £130bn in climate-friendly infrastructure projects such as schools, hospital and homes across the UK, empowering Scotland and the other nations and regions of the UK

  • Use the £50bn "Remain bonus" to invest in services and tackle inequality

  • Introduce a wellbeing budget so government spending decisions are based on what will improve wellbeing as well as on economic indicators

  • Significant investment in public transport, including converting the rail network to ultra-low-emission technology (electric or hydrogen) by 2035

  • A programme of installing hyper-fast fibre-optic broadband across the UK with a particular focus on connecting rural areas

  • Restore corporation tax to 20% - reversing the cut by the Conservatives to 17%

  • An independent review to consult on how to introduce a genuine Living Wage across all sectors

  • Change the law so that flexible working is open to all from day one in the job

Education

  • Provide free, high-quality childcare for children of working parents from nine months

  • Invest in schools across the UK, with money going to the Scottish government to increase school budgets, recruit and reward teachers and support staff and raise attainment

  • Make the Pupil Equity Fund permanent, giving schools confidence to make long-term decisions to recruit additional teachers and support workers

  • Secure a better deal for teachers by commissioning a McCrone 2 independent expert review of teachers' terms, conditions and the demands being placed upon them

  • Protect free music tuition in schools

Environment

  • Work in partnership with Scottish government to insulate all homes by 2030, cutting emissions and fuel bills and ending fuel poverty

  • Invest in renewable power so that at least 80% of UK electricity is generated from renewables by 2030

  • Ban fracking for good

  • Plant 60 million trees a year across the UK to absorb carbon, protect wildlife and improve health

  • Invest in public transport, electrify Britain's railways and ensure that all new cars are electric by 2030

  • Require all companies registered in the UK and listed on UK stock exchanges to set targets consistent with the Paris Agreement on climate change

  • Establish UK and local Citizens' Climate Assemblies to engage the public in tackling the climate emergency

  • Remove distribution charges that see consumers in the Northern Isles and the North of Scotland pay additional infrastructure costs through their electricity bills.

Health and social care

  • Boost spending on the NHS in England, which would mean extra money coming to Scotland because of the Barnett formula

  • Invest £10bn in equipment, hospitals, community, ambulance and mental health service buildings, to bring them into the 21st Century

  • Treat mental health as seriously as physical health

  • Expand the mental health workforce, ending the waiting times scandal

  • Create new 24-hour mental health practitioner coverage in every A&E and police division

  • Develop a strategy to tackle childhood obesity including restricting the marketing of junk food to children

  • Enable the establishment of safe injecting services and heroin-assisted treatment in Glasgow and elsewhere in the UK

Welfare and benefits

  • Invest £6bn per year to make the benefits system work for people who need it and reduce the wait for the first benefits payment from five weeks to five days

  • Introduce a principle of universal access to basic services: starting by building more social housing in the UK, ending rough sleeping and bringing in a new legal right to food.

  • Tackle child poverty by removing the two-child limit and the benefits cap

  • Abolish the bedroom tax and introduce positive incentives for people to downsize

  • Retain the Triple Lock on the basic state pension and ensure that women born in the 1950s are properly compensated for the failure of government to properly notify them of changes to the state pension age

Freedom, rights and equality

  • Fix the immigration system by scrapping the Conservatives' "hostile environment", ending indefinite detention and taking powers away from the Home Office

  • Give asylum seekers the right to work three months after they have applied and resettling 10,000 unaccompanied refugee children in the UK over the next 10 years

  • Defend the Human Rights Act, resist any attempt to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and oppose any laws that unnecessarily erode civil liberties

  • Complete reform of the UK Gender Recognition Act to remove the requirement for medical reports, scrap the fee and recognise non-binary gender identities

  • Increase statutory paternity leave from the current two weeks up to six weeks and ensure that parental leave is a day-one right

  • Extend the involvement of the Scottish government in the development of UK-wide policy frameworks on work permits and student visas

What do the other parties offer?