The Liberal Democrat general election manifesto, launched in the City of London, is built around "four steps to a fairer Britain".
These are:
- Fair taxes, including the promise to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 paid for by closing loopholes exploited by the wealthy;
- A shake-up of the education system, cutting class sizes and targeting £2.5bn at struggling pupils;
- Economic reform, including breaking up the giant banks, separating their investment and High Street operations, investment in infrastructure and "honesty" about the "tough choices" to cut the deficit;
- Constitutional change including the power to sack corrupt MPs, reform of the voting system, an elected House of Lords and a Freedom Bill to restore civil liberties.
Other key pledges include:
Economy
- Tax-free earning threshold to rise to £10,000, paid for by a "mansion tax" of 1one per cent on properties worth over £2m applicable to value of property over that figure
- Annual savings totalling £15bn, including scrapping ID cards and not renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent.
- Cap pay rises at £400 for all public sector workers, initially for two years
- Banking levy to pay for the state support they have received. Break up banks into retail and investment sections.
- Set up UK Infrastructure Bank offering stable long-term returns on savings and private finance. Encourage regional stock exchanges to help business access equity. Turn Northern Rock into a building society.
Schools and Families
- Replace national curriculum with "minimum curriculum entitlement" in state-funded schools and scale back tests at age 11. More freedom for school management .
- Phase out university tuition fees within six years. Scrap fees for final-year students immediately. Scrap target of 50% of people going to university.
- Twenty hours free childcare for every child, from the age of 18 months. Keep commitment to end child poverty by 2020. End detention of child immigrants.
Health
- Payments to health boards and GPs to be linked more directly to illness prevention measures [England only].
- Cut size of the Department of Health by half, abolishing or cutting budgets of quangos, scrapping Strategic Health Authorities and seeking to limit pay of top NHS managers to below level of prime minister [England only].
- Scrap Labour's personal care at home and divert cash to give one week's respite for one million carers [England only].
Crime, Justice and Immigration
- Put 3,000 more police on the beat, paid for by spending cuts elsewhere. Direct election of police authorities with powers to sack chief constables [England and Wales only].
- Focus on treatment, rather than imprisonment, of drug addicts. Drug policy based on independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs advice .
- Make prisoners work, contributing from prison wages to compensation fund for victims. As resources allow, increase number of hours prisoners spend in education and training [England and Wales].
Political Reform
- Introduce a "single transferable vote" system of proportional representation, where candidates are ranked in order of preference, and reduce the number of MPs by 150.
- Replace the House of Lords with a fully-elected chamber that has "considerably fewer members" than at present and require all parliamentarians to be resident in Britain for tax purposes.
- Introduce voting rights from age 16. Give powers for electorate to sack MPs who break rules. Require all MPs, Lords and parliamentary candidates to pay UK tax.
