Lincolnshire Talks: Who should you vote for in the general election?

With the general election just five days away now, residents in Lincolnshire will have to make up their minds very soon about who they will vote for on June 8.

To help you out, Lincolnshire Reporter has gone through the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and UKIP manifestos, picking out some of the key points and policies to give you a summary of where each party stands on the critical issues.

All the information is based on what the parties have provided in their manifestos.

This list is by no means exhaustive and does not cover all the policy areas. However, it is intended to give you a flavour of what to expect from each party were they to form the next government.

We would encourage you to take a read through all the manifestos which are accessible below:

• Conservative
• Labour
• Liberal Democrat
• Green
• UKIP

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Security & policing

Conservative

• Combine the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, the Ministry of Defence Police and British Transport Police into a “national infrastructure police force”
• Pledge to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence
• Maintain the overall size of the armed forces and retain Trident

Labour

• Recruit 10,000 more community police officers
• Support renewal of Trident
• Review counter-terror Prevent programme

Liberal Democrat

• £300 million for community policing in England and Wales
• Replace police and crime commissioners with police boards made up of local councillors
• Get rid of the so-called “Snoopers Charter”

Green

• Cancel Trident
• No more arms sales to oppressive regimes
• An ethical foreign policy

UKIP

• Fund 20,000 more police officers, 7,000 more prison officers, and 4,000 more border force staff
• Send as many as possible of the 13,000 foreign nationals in UK jails back to their home countries to serve sentences
• Keep Trident

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Economy & taxation

Conservative

• Pledge to eradicate the deficit by the middle of the 2020s
• Triple lock which guaranteed there would be no rise in national insurance, VAT or income tax, will be scrapped in favour of a general statement of intent to lower tax and simplify the tax system
• No increase in VAT

Labour

• New 50p tax rate for those earning over £123,000 and threshold for 45p rate of income tax to come down from £150,000 to £80,000
• Raise corporation tax from 19% to 26%
• Public ownership of Royal Mail, railways and energy

Liberal Democrat

• £100 billion package of additional infrastructure investment
• Eliminate the deficit on day-to-day spending by 2020
• Reverse cuts to corporation tax from 20% to 17%, capital gains tax, marriage allowance

Green

• Wealth tax on top 1% of earners
• A Robin Hood tax on high value transactions in the finance sector
• Create a network of local people’s banks for every city and region

UKIP

• No tax rises
• Raise threshold for paying tax to £13,500 and cut taxes for middle earners
• Proposals to eventually scrap inheritance tax altogether

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NHS & social care

Conservative

• A pledge to increase NHS spending by a minimum of £8 billion in real terms over next Parliament
• People with assets of more than £100,000 will have to pay for social care
• The value of an elderly person’s property will now be included in the means test for care in their own home

Labour

• Over £30 billion of extra funding for the NHS through increased income tax for top 5% of earners, increased tax on private medical insurance and halving management consultants’ fees
• Investment of £8 billion in care services over the next Parliament, including £1 billion in the first year
• Halt NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans

Liberal Democrat

• Raise income tax by 1p to pay for £6 billion increase in NHS and social care services
• Guarantee the rights of all EU nationals working in the NHS and social care to stay in the UK post-Brexit
• End the public sector pay freeze for NHS workers

Green

• Reverse NHS privatisation
• Bring mental health care in line with physical health care
• More funding for sexual health awareness campaigns

UKIP

• Invest an extra £11 billion every year into the NHS and social care by the end of the next Parliament through cuts to foreign aid budget
• Increase spending on mental health services by at least £500 million every year
• Lift cap on medical school training places from 7,500 to 10,000

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Education

Conservative

• Pump an extra £4 billion into schools by 2022
• Scrap free school lunches for infants in England, but offer free breakfasts across the primary years
• Create extra 100 free schools each year

Labour

• Abolish tuition fees
• Reintroduce maintenance grants for university students
• Introduce free school meals for all primary school children

Liberal Democrat

• £7 billion boost in education spending
• Free school meals for all pupils
• Restore bursaries for student nurses

Green

• Bring academies and free schools under local authority control
• Scrap university tuition fees
• Restore Education Maintenance Allowance

UKIP

• Open a grammar school in every town
• Stop tuition fees for STEM subjects  (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)
• Scrap sex and relationship education for children under the age of 11

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Transport & environment

Conservative

• Continue investment in HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Heathrow expansion
• Review rail ticketing
• Make it easier to switch energy providers and introduce a “safeguard tariff cap”

Labour

• Borrow to invest £250 billion over 10 years on energy, transport and digital infrastructure
• Nationalise railways
• Introduce new Clean Air Act

Liberal Democrat

• Oppose expanding Heathrow or Gatwick
• Ban sale of diesel cars by 2025
• Generate 60% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030

Green

• Nationalise railways
• Cancel all airport expansion and end subsidies on airline fuel
• An Environmental Protection Act to safeguard environment, protect and enhance biodiversity, promote sustainable food and farming, and ensure animal protection

UKIP

• Scrap HS2
• Repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act
• Withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement

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Brexit & immigration

Conservative

• Exit the European single market and customs union but seek a “deep and special partnership”
• Increase the amount levied on firms employing non-EU migrant workers
• Objective to reduce annual net migration to the tens of thousands

Labour

• Accepts referendum result but wants to retain benefits of single market and customs union
• Guarantee existing rights of EU nationals living in Britain and secure reciprocal rights for UK citizens living in another EU country
• No commitment to reduce numbers of migrants but will not resort to “bogus” immigration targets

Liberal Democrat

• Second referendum on Brexit deal
• Retain membership of single market and customs union
• Keep freedom of movement

Green

• Referendum on the final Brexit deal
• Protect freedom of movement
• A humane immigration and asylum system

UKIP

• Government must not pay divorce bill and EU flags to be banned from public buildings
• June 23 to be renamed Independence Day
• Introduce a one in, one out immigration system and reduce net migration to zero in five-year period

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Housing

Conservative

• Meet 2015 commitment to deliver a million homes by the end of 2020 and half a million more by the end of 2022
• 160,000 houses built on government land
• A commitment to halve rough sleeping over next Parliament

Labour

• Invest to build one million new homes, including 100,000 council and housing association homes by the end of next Parliament
• Legal minimum requirements for rented properties
• 4,000 homes for rough sleepers

Liberal Democrat

• A Housing Investment Bank to generate funding for new homes
• Reinstate housing benefit for 18-21 year olds
• £2 billion on flood defence schemes to protect properties

Green

• Build affordable, zero carbon homes, including 100,000 social rented homes each year by 2022
• End council house sales and scrap Right to Buy
• Scrap bedroom tax

UKIP

• Roll out high quality, low cost, factory-built homes affordable on incomes of £26,000
• Establish a Housing Development Corporation to acquire primarily brownfield sites
• Review housing associations

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Pensions & welfare

Conservative

• Means test winter fuel payments for pensioners
• Maintain the triple lock pension guarantee until 2020, then replace it with a double lock – meaning pensions will rise in line with earnings or inflation, whichever is highest
• Tighten the rules against pension abuse and increase punishment for those caught mismanaging pension schemes

Labour

• Guarantee triple lock of increasing the state pension each year by the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or 2.5% for the next Parliament for pensioners
• Winter fuel allowance and free bus passes retained as universal benefits
• Scrap bedroom tax

Liberal Democrat

• Maintain triple lock for pensioners
• Reverse cuts to Employment Support Allowance
• Scrap bedroom tax

Green

• Redress pension injustice
• Introduce a social security system the public can have confidence in
• Reverse housing benefits cuts

UKIP

• Retain triple lock and benefits for pensioners such as free bus pass and winter fuel allowance
• Introduce a flexible state pension age with people able to retire earlier on a slightly lower state pension
• Protect disability and carer’s benefits