Where Do The Main Parties Stand On 5 Issues Most Important To Voters?

With less than a fortnight to go until votersgo to the polls, it can be hard to keep track of where the main three parties are on the core issues.

And, though all the polls point to a very comfortableLabour victory, as ever, the final result is far from set in stone – especially as some pundits believe the Liberal Democrats could even beat the Tories to become the main opposition party in parliament for the first time ever.

This election is also notably different from the ones we have seen since 2016, as they have been dominated by Brexit. 

But the EU – and the UK’s relationship with it – has now slipped far down the list of the country’s priorities. 

According to a YouGov poll (conducted on June 10) voters now think the economy, health, immigration, housing and the environment are the most important issues facing the country ahead of this general election.

So, what do the three biggest UK-wide parties plan to do about these issues?

1. Economy and taxes

Labour

Labour wants to create wealth by being “pro-business and pro-worker”, and with a new industrial strategy to end short-term economy policy.

The party has promised to devolve power across local authorities in England to boost the local economy, and create a 10-year infrastructure strategy.

It has also vowed not to increase income tax, National Insurance, VAT and corporation tax – but it will introduce VAT for private schools.

Conservatives

The Tories want to boost the economy by cutting taxes by £17.2 billion a year by 2029-30.

They claim they will cut tax for workers by taking 2p off employee National Insurance – which they say works out to a total tax cut of £1,350 for the average worker earning £35,000.

The party also wants to cut taxes to support self-employed and pensioners, and has offered working parents 30 hours of free childcare a week.

It promises to sign more trade deals, too, while reducing borrowing and debt.

Liberal Democrats

The Lib Dems want to focus on the UK’s EU relationship to boost the economy, and has unveiled an industrial strategy focused on renewable energy.

It claims it will help with the cost of living through an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme.

The party also wants to raise personal allowance when the public finances allow, and reform capital gains tax to raise around £5billion.

The party would like to tackle rising food prices through a National Food Strategy and get mortgages rates under control, too.

It wants to push for investment in the Northern Powerhouse, Western Gateway and Midlands Engine, and claims it will work with devolved administrations to boost growth across the UK.

2. Health and the NHS

Labour

The party has promised nobody would wait more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment, and vowed to organise 40,000 more appointments every week with out-of-hours appointments – a plan it wants to fund by closing tax loopholes for non-doms.

It also wants to double the number of cancer scanners, a new dentistry rescue plan, introduce 85,00 additional mental health staff, and return the family doctor.

Resources and waiting lists will be shared across neighbouring hospitals, while utilising any spare capacity in the independent sector to help cut down waiting lists.

It will trial new Neighbourhood Health Centres too, with family doctors, district nurses etc under one roof.

Conservatives

The Tories want to increase NHS spending above inflation every year, and has promised 92,000 more nurses, 28,000 more doctors and 250 more GP surgeries.

It promises to send more patients to pharmacies too, while also modernising  GP surgeries and introducing more Community Diagnostic Centres.

The Tories say they would create 40 new hospitals by 2030 and unlock 2.5 million more NHS dental appointments.

It also wants to reduce the number of NHS managers by 5,500, which would release £550 million extra for frontline services.

It would then invest in new tech – including AI services – to help free up health workers’ time.

Liberal Democrats

The party has made £9 billion of commitments for health and social care, including more community doctors and higher pay for care workers.

It has promised to unveil free personal care in England rather than the means-tested option available at the moment, and claims it would increase GP numbers by 8,000 by recruitment and retainment. 

Under the Lib Dems, everyone would have the right to see a GP or staff member within seven days (or 24 hours if urgent).

All urgently referred patients would then be seen in a 62-day guarantee. 

Everyone over 70 and long-term health conditions would be given access to a named GP, while pharmacies would  get more prescribing rights.

There would be free NHS dental check-ups for those already eligible, and a guaranteed appointment for those who need a dental check.

3. Immigration

Labour

Labour would like to scrap the Rwanda scheme and prioritise border security with a new command group of specialist investigators and counter-terror powers to curb illegal migration.

This group would then report directly into the home secretary, while hundreds of specialist investigators would work across the UK and EU to share intelligence.

Criminal gangs would supposedly be approached with counter-terror style tactics, more police would be deployed, and a 1,000-strong returns and enforcement unit would be set up to ensure failed asylum seekers and others with no right to be here are removed.

With legal migration, Labour want stop support a points-based immigration system for workers and businesses, by introducing a restriction on visas and only training workers where there are domestic shortages.

The party wants to join up Whitehall system to identify and tackle skills shortages, too.

Conservatives

The Tories would introduce monthly flights for those arriving via small boats to Rwanda – even if it means choosing “our security” over the ECHR.

The party also pledges to crack down on organised immigration crime, including through National Crime Agency and intelligence services.

It aims to have claims processed in six months and end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

For legal migration, it would bring in a binding cap to guarantee the numbers fall each year, while also raising the skilled worker threshold and family income requirement with inflation automatically.

Visa fees would be increased too, and the migration health surcharge would go up to £1,035.

Liberal Democrats

The Lib Dems would tackle people-smugglers, drop the ban on asylum seekers working and the Rwanda plan.

NHS and care staff would be exempt from the £1,000 a year immigration skills charge too, and they would reverse the ban on care workers bringing partners and children.

There would be a merit-based system for work visas, focus on education and training, too.

It would protect the rights of EU citizens by automatically grant full settled status to those with pre-settled status. 

4. Housing

Labour

The party wants to launch a planning reform to build 1.5 million new homes, prioritising the development of previously used land and promising to preserve the green belt.

It said it would require all landlords to bring rental homes up to Energy Performance Certificate rating C by 2030, claiming that would save the average tenant £250 a year.

Conservatives

The Conservatives would abolish the stamp duty levy for first-time buyers purchasing homes up to £425,000.

It has re-iterated its promise to scrap Section 21 no-fault evictions, too.

It claims it would deliver 1.6 million well designed homes, too, and introduce a new Help to Buy scheme.

Liberal Democrats

The party said it would increase the building of new homes to 380,000 a year across the UK, including 150,000 social homes a year.

It promised to immediately ban no-fault evictions, making three-year tenancies the default.

It would supposedly end rough sleeping with the next parliament.

5. The environment

Labour

The party wants clean power by 2030, by doubling onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind.

There would be no new licences for oil and gas fields in the North Sea, and it would close the loophole in the windfall on oil and gas companies.

It would set up state-owned Great British energy too to cut bills, using £8.3billion over the next parliament.

Nuclear power plants would be extended, too, while there would be “a phased and reasonable transition: in the North Sea for gas power stations.

There would also be £6.6billion invested over the next parliament to improve energy efficiency and upgrade five million homes to cut bills, too.

Conservatives

The Tories want to reduce the cost of tackling the climate crisis but would still adhere to the 2050 net zero target.

It would treble offshore wind and scale up nuclear power – partly through small modular reactors – but would not introduce new green levies or charges.

It promised to accelerate the rollout of renewables, too, and try to halve nature’s decline by 2030.

The Tories would then use fines from water companies to invest in river restoration projects.

Liberal Democrats

The Lib Dems would aim to reach net zero by 2045 instead of 2050, while accelerating deployment of solar and wind power, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The party claims they would aim to have 90% of British power would be generated by renewables by 2030, through rooftop solar revolution, a new Net Zero Delivery Authority to co-ordinate climate action.

It also promised to 60 million trees each year to help the environment.