Salient points of Conservative Party’s election manifesto

It reaffirms the prime minister’s earlier commitment to leave the European single market and customs union when Britain leaves the European Union. The manifesto commits to ending “vast annual contributions to the EU”, but says the party will agree a “fair settlement” on leaving the bloc. It repeats Prime Minister May’s determination to leave without an exit deal if the terms are disagreeable, deemed a disastrous “cliff edge” scenario by critics. The Conservatives reject Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a new vote on independence before Brexit. The manifesto renews a pledge to reduce net migration to under 100,000 a year, a promise that is popular with voters but which the party has failed to keep during seven years in government. It pledges to double to £2,000 a charge on companies hiring foreign workers, and cut immigration from outside the EU. Immigrants will be required to pay more for healthcare, with foreign workers required to pay £600 a year, or £450 for international students. The party also aims to reduce asylum claims made in Britain, while promising to help people in “the most troubled regions”. The Conservatives reaffirm their intention to lower corporation tax to 17 per cent by 2020, and promise to balance the nation’s books by the middle of the next decade. Existing plans to increase the threshold at which people pay income tax, and the higher rate, are maintained. The Conservatives promise not to raise sales tax, but abandon a previous pledge not to increase income tax, while stressing they remain “the party that keeps tax as low as possible”. The manifesto promises more money for schools, paid for by replacing free lunches for all children during their first three years at primary school, with free breakfasts. It promises to increase funding on the state-run National Health Service by £8 billion in real terms over five years. Winter fuel subsidies will be scrapped for wealthy pensioners. New rules to pay for an increase in funding for elderly social care will require people with significant assets to pay for their care, although the party says no-one will have to sell their home during their lifetime. May has promised lawmakers the chance to repeal the 2004 ban on fox hunting with dogs, which was introduced by Tony Blair’s Labour government. While fox hunting is pursued by only a minority of British communities, a small number of Conservative-supporting rural areas have fought hard to scrap the ban. —