What you’ll be voting for… and against

Whether or not you trust them to deliver, the three biggest UK parties are promising very different futures at this election

THE ROAD TO BREXIT

On few issues are the three main parties so clearly divided as on our departure from the EU. The Conservatives are effectively committed to a hard Brexit: they pledge to leave the EU single market and its customs union. They want a “deep and special” future partnership with the EU, but insist “no deal is better than a bad deal”. Labour, by contrast, wants to start the negotiations anew, with “a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the single market and the customs union” (though, perhaps implausibly, also wishing to end the free movement of people), and rejects outright the option of a “no deal”. The Liberal Democrats want to give voters another referendum on any Brexit deal (with the option of remaining in), and aim to retain membership of the single market, as well as free movement of pp people.

WHAT’S THE LINE ON MIGRATION?

All three manifestos are strikingly vague on the issue, but have very different emphases. The Tories want “to reduce and control” the numbers coming from the EU after Brexit, and have retained their oftencriticised target of reducing net migration to the “tens of thousands” (last year, it was 248,000). Labour, however, aims to prioritise “growth, jobs and prosperity” over “bogus immigration targets”. The Lib Dems want to make “the positive case” for immigration and asylum, and to seek “the migration necessary to meet the UK’S needs”. Both Labour and the Lib Dems want to lessen the strains placed on public services with a “migration impact fund”.

SPENDING PLANS… ON HEALTH

Everyone wants to spend a lot more on the NHS. Labour proposes a generous £30bn of extra funding over the next five years, promising a big reduction in waiting lists and an end to the pay cap for NHS staff. It also wants to raise the social care budget by £8bn and to “lay the foundations” for a National Care Service. The Lib Dems would use a dedicated tax increase to raise funding for NHS and social care by £30bn over the next parliament. The Tories are offering a more modest extra £8bn for the NHS. They had also pledged that pensioners should meet their own care costs, however high, protecting only £100,000 in assets (the value of their house included). But the outcry that greeted this proposal led to a hasty retreat: they will now reinstate the idea of placing a cap on care costs – at a level yet to be specified.

… AND ON SCHOOLING

The Lib Dems are offering an extra £7bn for education over the next parliament, the Tories just £4bn – hardly an increase in real terms. But Labour wants to spend a vast deal more: its proposal to scrap university tuition fees would alone cost up to £11bn a year. Labour also wants to end the pay cap for teachers and to restore the education maintenance allowance for poorer 16- to 18-year-olds. The Tories want to see at least 100 new free schools built each year; and they’d end the ban on new selective secondary schools (but allow pupils to join at other ages besides 11). They’d also abolish most free school lunches for the first three years of primary school, offering free breakfasts instead.

… AND ON BUILDING HOUSES

There are optimistic pledges all round on this front. The Tories promise to build a million new homes by 2020, the Lib Dems 300,000 a year (up from today’s 100,000), Labour to build at least 100,000 council and housing association homes every year. Labour would also suspend the right-to-buy policy for affordable homes (unless councils can show they’ll replace them like-for-like). The Lib Dems would end right-to-buy for housing associations. Labour and the Lib Dems would reverse the abolition of housing benefit for 18- to 21-year-olds.

WHO’LL PAY? THE TAX BURDEN

Labour, which pledges to spend a whopping extra £49bn every year, aims to raise this mainly from corporation tax (which would rise from 19% to 26% by 2020) and income tax. Only the top 5% of earners would “be asked to contribute more in tax”, with the rate rising to 45p in the pound for earnings above £80,000, and to 50p over £123,000. The Tories could also raise some personal taxes through modest rises in tax thresholds. And Theresa May wants to scrap David Cameron’s “tax lock” pledge not to raise in income tax, national insurance a and VAT: Only VAT would now be protected. The Lib Dems, who pl pledge £14bn of extra spending, wo would raise income tax by 1p in the pound, to be ring-fenced for NH NHS and social care spending; and they would reverse planned Tory cuts to corporation tax.

WHO’LL PAY? DOING WITH LESS

After years of placating older voters, the Tories have changed tack, promising to end the pension “triple lock” (which ensures the state pension rises annually by whichever is highest: inflation, average earnings or 2.5%) and replacing it with a less generous “double lock” (which scraps the 2.5% minimum rise). Winter fuel payments for the elderly would also be meanstested, not (as now) universal. Labour would keep both the triple lock and universal winter fuel allowance; the Lib Dems would keep the former, but meanstest the latter. Labour and the Lib Dems would reverse many of the welfare cuts of the Cameron years (such as the “bedroom tax”) and increase working-age benefits.

DEFENCE OF THE REALM

All three parties have pledged to continue to meet the Nato commitment of spending 2% of GDP on defence. Both the Tories and Labour have committed to keeping Trident; the Lib Dems want a “minimum” nuclear deterrent. The Conservatives want to raise the defence budget by at least 0.5% above inflation every year. Both Labour and the Lib Dems aim to cease arms exports to countries violating inter national law. All three would continue to spend 0.7% of GDP on international aid.