Labour election manifesto in full: Keir Starmer’s document has dearth of policies, but a blizzard of reviews… and room for 33 pictures of the leader

Work unveiled its manifesto for ‘change’ yesterday – but gave few details on how it would achieve its aims.

Sir Keir Starmer‘s blueprint was criticized as a “plan for a plan” that promises a “dizzying number of assessments and strategies.”

The Tories Despite Labor declaring that ‘the time for reviews is over’, it has announced 16 new reviews in its manifesto, bringing the total number of audits the party has called for in recent years to a staggering 103.

Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said: ‘This is a manifesto that promises a dizzying array of assessments and strategies to tackle some of the challenges facing the country.

‘That’s better than a shopping list with half-baked policy announcements. But achieving real change will almost certainly also require actual resources to be put on the table.’ Meanwhile, charity Age UK said Labour’s social care pledges amounted to ‘a plan for a plan’ as it called for fairer pay for care workers. And Kate Dove, chair of Momentum, set up to campaign for Jeremy Corbynsaid his vows ‘fall short of what is needed to fix the Tories’ broken Britain’.

Labor unveiled its manifesto for ‘change’ yesterday, but gave few details on how it would achieve its goals

Labour’s shadow cabinet at the manifesto launch yesterday. The 131-page document – ​​which included some 33 photos of Sir Keir – contains commitments on the economy, the NHS, immigration, crime, education, Lords reform, the environment, housing and transport

Sir Keir Starmer’s blueprint has been criticized as a ‘plan for a plan’ promising a ‘dizzying number of assessments and strategies’.

The 131-page document – ​​which included some 33 photographs of Sir Keir – contains promises on the economy, the NHS, immigration, crime, education, Lords reform, the environment, housing and transport. On the economy, the party has ruled out an increase in income tax, national insurance and VAT and promised to limit corporate tax to 25 percent. But it did not rule out revaluation of council taxes, raids on capital gains tax or easing fuel duty. It plans to collect £7 billion in taxes and has committed to imposing VAT on private school fees and abolishing non-domestic tax status.

In healthcare, it promises to reduce waiting lists by an additional 40,000 NHS appointments per week.

An additional 8,500 mental health staff will be recruited, funding for scanners will be increased and plans to recruit new dentists will be introduced. The party will also set up Great British Energy, a state-owned clean energy company funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies. It will invest in upgrades to five million homes to reduce bills, and in grants and loans to homeowners.

Labor has also pledged to build a further 1.5 million new homes and bring back a 2030 deadline for a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles. It has also pledged to fix a million potholes a year. Getting railroad contracts back into public hands is another promise.

Sir Keir has also set out plans to recruit 6,500 teachers and wants to ensure that all 18 to 21-year-olds receive training, an apprenticeship or help finding work.

The manifesto commits the party to increasing defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP if economic conditions allow. Labor will also back Ukraine against Russia and support the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Elsewhere, the party promises to introduce legislation to abolish hereditary peers and seek justice for victims of tainted blood.

Lowering the voting age is an ‘attempt to manipulate the system’

In an effort to ‘increase youth engagement in our vibrant democracy’, the voting age would be lowered for all elections

Labor will give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote, the party manifesto confirms.

In an effort to “increase youth engagement in our vibrant democracy,” the voting age would be lowered for all elections.

The Tories last night accused Labor of trying to ‘rig’ the voting system – and warned foreign nationals would be ‘next’.

Tory deputy leader Jonathan Gullis said: ‘Keir Starmer is trying to manipulate the voting system to give him a blank check to do what Labor always does: increase your taxes. Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to drink, serve on a jury or get married. Yet Labor is still happy to collect their votes.’

Changing gender becomes easier than ever

A promise to make changing genders easier was last night branded ‘harmful’ amid warnings it will undermine women’s rights.

Labor has pledged to ‘modernise, simplify and reform the intrusive and outdated Gender Recognition Act’.

Maya Forstater, boss of human rights group Sex Matters, said the plans were “deeply worrying” and “amount to self-identification through the back door”. Campaigners also warned that a pledge to ban ‘conversion therapy’ risked compassionately criminalizing those trying to treat children questioning their gender.

Kate Barker, chief executive of the LGB Alliance, said: ‘Therapists should not be criminalized for exploring why someone feels uncomfortable in their body.’

A promise to make changing genders easier was last night branded ‘harmful’ amid warnings it will undermine women’s rights. Labor has pledged to ‘modernise, simplify and reform the intrusive and outdated Gender Recognition Act’

Rwanda ax is confirmed

The Rwandan asylum program would be abandoned, Labour’s manifesto said.

Money earmarked for the program to remove illegal migrants, including small boat arrivals across the Channel, would be used to fund a new Border Security Command.

This unit will include ‘hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers’ and will cost £75 million a year.

The business community is responding to the uproar over labor rights

A law that will radically change workplace rights will be introduced within the first 100 days of a Labor government, the party manifesto promises.

It includes banning ‘exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending dismissals and re-employment, and introducing basic rights to parental leave, sick leave and protection against unfair dismissal from day one’.

But the business community last night joined the Tories in criticizing the proposals. A key business source told the Mail: ‘Labour enters a deteriorating labor market with no idea what to do other than pile costs and useless paperwork on companies.’

Conservative small business minister Kevin Hollinrake said “French-style trade union laws” will “undermine small businesses… and destroy jobs in addition to the £2,094 tax attack on hardworking families.”

Promise to halve violent crime

Labor pledged to ‘restore law and order to our streets’ by halving knife crime and violence against women within ten years.

Third among the ‘five missions to rebuild Britain’ is a pledge to ‘halve serious violent crime’, but the document appears to provide little detail on how this can be achieved. Labor is promising to restore ‘visible’ community policing and wants to recruit 13,000 extra officers, police and community support workers.

Equality plan dismissed as ‘bonanza for lawyers’

The Labor manifesto reaffirmed a commitment to ‘enshrining in law the full right to equal pay for black, Asian and other ethnic minorities’ [and] strengthen protection against double discrimination’

New racial equality laws would be introduced, first announced on the anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

The Labor manifesto reaffirmed a commitment to ‘enshrining in law the full right to equal pay for black, Asian and other ethnic minorities’ [and] strengthen protection against double discrimination’.

It promised to reverse a demotion for “monitoring anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hatred.”

Labor would also introduce ‘double discrimination’ under the plans, where workers could make a single claim of sexism and racism, for example, if they feel they have been subjected to both.

Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch branded Labour’s plans as ‘a boon for dodgy, activist lawyers’.