The Labour Party have launched their manifesto in which they are promising to “transform” the UK if elected into government at the UK general election on December 12.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has described the manifesto and its offering as ‘radical’. Included in the manifestos are policies to;
- Reduce the voting age to 16
- Deliver free broadband for all UK homes and businesses by 2030
- Introduce a second homes tax
- Introduce a ‘real living wage’ of a least £10 an hour
- Impose VAT on private school fees
- Increase the length of statutory maternity pay from nine months to a year
- Kick-start a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’
- Invest an additional £1.6 billion a year into Mental Health services
- Abolish prescription charges in England
The full manifesto can be found at labour.org.uk/manifesto.
On Brexit, the party is pledging to give the public a final say. The party says it will renegotiate a new Brexit deal with the EU and then would put this, and the option of remaining in the EU, back to the people in a legally binding referendum.
There have been questions over whether the pledges made by the party are credible and affordable. The party has insisted that all of their policies are fully costed, though the Conservatives claim that the policies don’t add up and would result in large increases in taxes.
Just days after the Conservatives were heavily criticised for rebranding their press account on Twitter to ‘Factcheck UK’, they have setup labourmanifesto.co.uk – the website itself does clearly identify itself to be from the Conservative Party, however, social media posts sharing the link have been less obvious and could still potentially mislead some members of the public. The website claims that Labour have no plan for Brexit, will enforce higher taxes and two referendums – referring to a vote on a Brexit deal and a potential Scottish Independence referendum.
Labour has repeatedly said they would not allow a second Scottish Independence referendum to be held within the early years of a Labour government.
Tweet us your thoughts about the Labour manifesto @speakerpolitics.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Corbyn via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
