General election 2017: Labour pledges in manifesto leak

[dutchman]

A draft of Labour's general election manifesto has been leaked, including plans to nationalise the energy industry and scrap tuition fees



The BBC has seen a copy of the document, which has not yet been formally signed off, after copies were leaked to the Mirror and the Daily Telegraph.

Policies include nationalising railways and bus firms and renewing the Trident nuclear weapons system.

Labour would not comment on the leak.

The document also suggests Labour will refuse to set a target on cutting immigration and will rule out leaving the European Union without a Brexit deal in place.

It also stresses that any leader should be "extremely cautious" about using Trident nuclear weapons, which leader Jeremy Corbyn opposes.

And there are measures to strengthen trade union rights - including increased unionisation across the workforce and repealing last year's Trade Union Act - and to scrap the public sector pay cap.

The manifesto will have to be approved by around 80 Labour figures, including the shadow cabinet and the party's National Executive Committee.

A spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "We do not comment on leaks. We will announce our policies in our manifesto, which is our plan to transform Britain for the many, not the few."

[rebbonk]

Their stand on immigration and brexit will be their undoing.- They still aren't listening to the people!

[Melisandre]

I doubt if May will either did nt Cameron say before he left there will alway be immigration makes me wonder when he said if plan A does nt work then we ll go to plan B is that May.

[dutchman]

Labour manifesto ‘would keep £7bn of planned Tory welfare cuts’



At least £7bn of George Osborne’s plan to slash welfare will go ahead after the election even if Labour wins power, an analysis of the party manifestos has revealed.

Three-quarters of the huge package of benefit cuts announced by the former chancellor in 2015 are yet to be implemented, including a major reduction in support given to the low-paid, and limiting payments to families with more than two children.

The Conservative manifesto suggested that the party would plough ahead with the cuts, should it win a majority. However, despite opposition to the cuts within Labour, the party’s manifesto only pledges to reverse £2bn of the £9bn cuts to come as part of a review, according to an analysis by the Resolution Foundation thinktank.

It comes despite the fact that Jeremy Corbyn was among 48 Labour MPs to rebel against the party whip in 2015 to oppose the cuts. Corbyn also criticised the decision by the party’s frontbench to abstain during his first leadership campaign.

There are three areas in which big cuts are scheduled to be made in the next parliament. A further two-year freeze to most working age benefits, which includes Jobseeker’s Allowance, housing benefit and child benefit, is expected to save £3.6bn a year by 2021.

Reductions in the payments given to people in work through the new universal credit system are set to save £3.2bn. Meanwhile, limiting support to two children per family and reducing payments to new families will save £2bn a year. Labour’s manifesto includes a pledge to hold a “review of cuts and how best to reverse them”. However, the Resolution Foundation said that the £2bn Labour has allocated for the review would reverse less than half of the £5bn cuts to universal credit and support for children.

It would also leave the benefits freeze intact just as inflation begins to bite. The foundation said that, under Labour’s proposals, 78% of the welfare cuts would still go ahead. It also said that neither party’s pledges to increase the minimum wage would come close to offsetting the welfare losses that low-income families face.

[rebbonk]

It strikes me that the elderly, the sick and the infirm are now seen as expendable by society. Once you are no longer an economically viable unit you are not wanted. - What a terrible reflection on a so called 'civilised' society.