Your Party v The Greens v The Worker’s Party

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So, the inaugural Your Party conference is over and the party has now officially launched, and like many members who have been watching the debates and participating in the voting, I’m feeling really inspired by what’s been achieved and I’m ready to get to work for a party that’s genuinely democratic, for the working class, by the working class, and clearly shares my values. So, here goes folks….

I’ve been taking a look at the 3 main left wing parties. I’ve trawled through manifestos and summarised them for you below (I’d recommend reading all 3 summaries as there are some great policy ideas that should be shared across all left parties). Of course we don’t currently have a Your Party manifesto, so I’ve opted to go with Labour’s 2019 manifesto, which I believe is the closest to the political ambitions of Your Party founding members, as well as a good proportion of its membership. It does of course include the odd pledge that appears to have been sneaked in by Labour centrists, like renewing Trident for example (Corbyn consistently voted against it in parliament), but surprisingly not as many as I had expected. I’ve also watched numerous speeches, interviews and campaign videos from the various leaders and can  confirm that their views largely remain consistent with their manifesto pledges.

What’s clear is that, while there are obviously some differences between the parties, the manifestos really do have a great deal in common. The reasoning might be slightly different at times but the conclusions and solutions are nearly always the same. This can make it hard for people to choose between parties, but, on the plus side, it also means that there is a great deal of fertile ground for collaboration on the left, and collaboration is crucial if we’re going to have any hope of winning seats at the next election.

So, let’s get real folks, Reform have led every single national poll for the last 7 months. We’ve had 158 polls in that time, including by YouGov, Opinium, Ipsos, Lord Ashcroft and Survation, and Reform have led every single one by an average of 8.39%. More worryingly, if you look at the monthly breakdown, you can see that they’ve been consistently growing that lead, month on month…

NOV 2025: Reform lead average: 12.00%
OCT 2025: Reform lead average: 11.04%
SEPT 2025: Reform lead average: 9.56%
AUG 2025: Reform lead average: 9.13%
JUL 2025: Reform lead average: 6.96%
JUN 2025: Reform lead average: 5.37%
MAY 2025: Reform lead average: 7.35%

Some of you will recall that I did some research into the 2024 General Election and produced a detailed report, breaking down where we could have won seats if left wing parties had collaborated. I discovered, amongst other things, that there were 154 incidents where Reform had split the right vote and denied the Tories a seat (i.e. the Tory candidates came second and would have won if Reform had not stood a candidate) and a further 13 examples of where the Tories split the right vote and denied Reform a seat (because Reform came second and could have won if the Tories had stood down). Similarly, there were 38 incidents where the Greens split the left vote and denied Labour a seat and a further 6 examples of where the Greens split the left vote and denied Independent candidates a seats (i.e. the Independent candidate came second but could have won if the Greens had not stood their candidate). Incidentally, I also discovered that there were 48 marginal seats with a vote difference of less than 1,000 votes.

It seems clear, therefore, that what is needed here is an alliance of the left. As a proud Your Party member myself, I  would like to advocate that we contact other left wing parties and propose setting up a joint working group with the specific task of identifying winnable seats and formulating a strategy of selecting and supporting the best, cross-party-nominated, candidates for each constituency. I propose they should be local candidates, nominated at branch level by all the local parties, who can then all work together on the same campaign, for a candidate officially endorsed by all three parties. Imagine what could be achieved by standing one socialist candidate in each of these constituencies, unchallenged, who has campaigners from all three parties working on their campaign.

Labour Party Manifesto 2019 (Likely foundation for Your Party policies)

• HOUSING: 1) Deliver a new social housebuilding programme of more than one million homes over a decade, increase housebuilding to an annual rate of at least 150,000 council and social homes per year by the end of the parliament. 2) Introduce a £1bn fire safety fund to fit sprinklers and other fire safety measures in all high-rise council and housing association buildings, enforce removal of Grenfell-style cladding on all high-rise homes and buildings, introduce mandatory building standards and guidance create a new Department for Housing and make Homes England a more accountable national housing agency. 3) Set up a new English sovereign land trust with powers to buy land more cheaply for low-cost housing, use public land to build this housing. 4) Introduce a new ‘use it or lose it’ tax for developers with stalled housing. 5) Keep the Land Registry in public ownership. 6) Make brownfield sites the priority for development, protect the green belt, introduce a zero-carbon homes standard for all new homes, upgrade millions of existing homes to make them more energy efficient and review the planning guidance for developments in flood risk areas. 7) Establish a new duty on councils to plan and build these homes in their area, review the case for reducing the amount of housing debt councils currently hold, give councils the powers and funding to buy back homes from private landlords. 8) Scrap Tory definition of ‘affordable’, which allows rents of up to 80% of market value, and replace it with a definition linked to local incomes. 9) End the conversion of office blocks to homes that sidestep planning permission through ‘permitted development’. 10) End ‘right to buy’, along with the forced conversion of social rented homes to so-called ‘affordable rent’. 11) Give tenants a stronger say in the management of their homes and make sure regeneration only goes ahead when it has the consent of residents. 12) Fund a new decent homes programme to bring all existing council and housing association homes up to a good standard. 13) Reform help to buy to focus it on first-time buyers on ordinary incomes. 14) Introduce a levy on overseas companies buying housing, while giving local people ‘first dibs’ on new homes built in their area. 15) Bring empty homes back into use by giving councils new powers to tax properties empty for over a year. 16) End the sale of new leasehold properties, abolish unfair fees and conditions and give leaseholders the right to buy their freehold. 17) Introduce equivalent rights for freeholders on privately owned estates. 18) Cap rent rises in the private sector with inflation, introduce open-ended tenancies to stop unfair, no-fault evictions, introduce new minimum standards for all properties, enforced through nationwide licensing. 19) Fund new renters’ unions in every part of the country. 20) Abolish rules that require landlords to check people’s immigration status or allow them to exclude people on housing benefit. 21) Give councils new powers to regulate short-term lets through companies such as Airbnb. 22) End rough sleeping within five years, with a national plan, driven by a prime minister-led task force, that will expand and upgrade hostels, make available 8,000 additional homes for people with a history of rough sleeping, raise the Local Housing Allowance in line with the 30th percentile of local rents, provide an additional £1bn a year for councils’ homelessness services, bring in a new national levy on second homes used as holiday homes to help deal with the homelessness crisis, ensure extra shelters and support are in place in all areas this winter, repeal the Vagrancy Act and amend antisocial behaviour legislation.
• JOBS: 1) Create one million green jobs. 2) Introduce a living wage of £10 an hour. 3) Deliver free and fast full-fibre broadband for all. 4) Create one million well-paid, unionised green jobs in the UK. 5) Make it easier for employers to spend the apprenticeship levy by allowing it be used for a wider range of accredited training. 6) Launch climate apprenticeships to enable employers to develop the skills they need. 7) Make bursaries available to women, BAME people, care leavers, ex-armed forces personnel and people with disabilities to encourage them to take up climate apprenticeships. 8) Increase the amount that can be transferred to non-levy paying employers to 50% and introduce an online matching service. 9) As part of the program to improve the National Health Service, we will establish a generic drug company and aim to increase pharmaceutical jobs in the UK. 10) Help disabled people back to work by bringing back specialist employment advisors, introduce a government-backed reasonable adjustments passport and review support for disabled people at work, including the access to work scheme. 11) Deliver year-on-year above-inflation pay rises for public sector jobs, starting with a 5% increase in April.
• PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: 1) Bring Royal Mail, railways, water and energy systems into public ownership. 2) Establish a new UK National Energy Agency that will own and maintain the national grid infrastructure and oversee the delivery of decarbonisation targets. 3) Set up 14 new Regional Energy Agencies to replace the existing district network operators and bring the supply arms of the Big Six energy companies into public ownership. 4) Commit to a £150bn Social Transformation Fund to replace, upgrade and expand our schools, hospitals, care homes and council houses. 5) Boost funding to rebuild our Public Services by reversing cuts to corporation tax (while keeping rates lower than in 2010), increasing income tax for £80,000+ a year earners, cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion, reforming the inefficient system of tax reliefs, introducing a presumption in favour of insourcing, taking back all PFI contracts over time, introducing maximum pay ratios of 20:1.
• NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE: 1) Increase expenditure across the health sector by an average 4.3% a year. 2) End and reverse privatisation in the NHS. 3) Repeal the Health and Social Care Act. 4) Free annual NHS dental check-ups. 5) Expand GP training places to provide resources for 27 million more appointments each year. 6) Ensure community pharmacy is supported. 7) Set aside an additional £1.6bn a year to ensure new standards for mental health are enshrined in the NHS constitution and implement the recommendations in the independent review of the Mental Health Act. 8) Set aside £2bn to modernise hospital facilities 9) end out-of-area placements. 10) Invest in eating disorders services and ensure NICE guidelines on eating disorders are implemented. 11) Improve access to psychological therapies 12) Ensure provision of 24/7 crisis services. 13) Implement £845m plan for Healthy Young Minds. 14) Introduce Open-access mental health hubs. 15) Recruit almost 3,500 qualified counsellors to guarantee every child has access to school counsellors and introduce a Future Generations Wellbeing Act. 16) Invest more than £1bn in public health. 17) Recruit 4,500 more health visitors and school nurses. 18) Increase mandated health visits, ensure breastfeeding support and introduce mental health assessments six weeks after birth. 19) Extend the sugar tax to milk drinks, ban fast-food restaurants near schools. enforce stricter rules around advertising of junk food and levels of salt in food. 20) Ensure families who lose a baby receive appropriate bereavement support and protections at work. 21) Urgently put in place a vaccination action plan to regain measles-free status. 22) Fully fund sexual health services and roll out PrEP medication. 23) Treat drug-related deaths, alcohol-related health problems and the adverse impacts of gambling as matters of public health. 24) Expand addiction support services. 25) Review evidence on minimum pricing. 26) Implement a Tobacco Control Plan and fund smoking cessation services. 27) Introduce training bursary for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. 28) Remove obstacles to ethical international recruitment. 29) Review tax and pension changes implemented by the Tory government. 30) Provide mental health support for staff. 31) Establish a generic drug company and aim to increase pharmaceutical jobs in the UK. 32) Progress clinically appropriate prescription of medical cannabis. 33) Abolish prescription charges in England. 34) End mixed-sex wards. 35) Free hospital parking for patients, staff and visitors. 36) Facilitate Joined-up Care. 37) Mandatory standards for NHS in-patient food.
• WELFARE & SOCIAL CARE: 1) Implement an emergency package of reforms to mitigate some of the worst features of universal credit until we can scrap it completely and replace it with a system that treats people with dignity and respect. 2) End the five-week wait by introducing an interim payment based on half an estimated monthly entitlement and suspend the vicious sanction regime. 3) Scrap the benefit cap and the two child limit. 4) Protect women in abusive relationships by splitting payments and paying the child element to the primary carer. 5) Introduce fortnightly payments, with the housing element paid directly to landlords. 6) End the digital barrier by offering telephone, face-to-face and outreach support. 7) Recruit 5,000 additional advisors. 8) Scrap the bedroom tax and increase the local housing allowance. 9) Stop work capability and PIP assessments. 10) Increase Employment and Support Allowance by £30 per week for those in the work-related activity group. 11) Raise the basic rate of support for children with disabilities to the level of child tax credits. 12) Ensure that severely disabled people without a formal carer receive extra support. 13) Increase the carers’ allowance to match the job seekers’ allowance. 14) Create and build a comprehensive a National Care Service, with free personal care for over 65s. 15) Introduce a lifetime cap on personal contributions to care costs. 16) More than double the number of people receiving publicly funded care packages. 17) End 15-minute care visits. 18) Provide care workers with paid travel time, access to training and an option to choose regular hours. 19) Increase Carer’s Allowance for unpaid full-time carers. 20) Design a system of recompense for the losses and insecurity WASPI women have suffered. 21) Legislate to prevent accrued rights to the state pension from being changed. 22) Abandon plans to raise the state pension age, leaving it at 66. 23) Review retirement ages for physically arduous and stressful occupations, including shift workers, in the public and private sectors. 24) Maintain the ‘triple lock’ on pensions. 25) Guarantee the winter fuel payment. 26) Free TV licenses and bus passes for pensioners. 27) Establish an independent pensions commission, modelled on the low pay commission, to recommend target levels for workplace pensions. 28) Create a single, comprehensive and publicly run pensions dashboard. 29) Legislate to allow the CWU-Royal Mail agreement for a collective pension scheme to proceed and allow similar schemes to proceed. 30) Stop the state taking 50% of the surplus in the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme and introduce new sharing arrangements so that 10% goes to government and 90% stays with scheme members. (This new sharing scheme will also apply to the British coal staff superannuation scheme.)
• EDUCATION: 1) Create a National Education Service, with six years of free adult education, no university tuition fees, bring back maintenance grants and develop a new funding formula for higher education. 2) Reverse cuts to Sure Start, create Sure Start Plus with services in all communities. 3) Extend paid maternity leave to 12 months. 4) Extend childcare provision for 1-year-olds. 5) All 2, 3 and 4-year-olds entitled to 30 hours of free preschool education per week within five years. 6) Improve child development by transitioning to a qualified, graduate-led workforce, with free training for current early years workers, increase funding and fund providers directly.  7) Recruit nearly 150,000 additional early years staff. 8) Maximum school class sizes of 30 for all primary school children. 9) Scrap Key Stage 1 and 2 SATs and baseline assessments. 10) Introduce an Arts Pupil Premium and review the curriculum. 11) Bring free schools and academies back under control of the people who know them best – parents, teachers and local communities. 12) Replace Ofsted and transfer responsibility for inspections to a new body. 13) Introduce a new teacher supply service. 14) End ‘off-rolling’. 15) Regulate all education providers and reform alternative provision (AP). 16) Free school meals for all primary school children. 17) Bring back School Support Staff Negotiating Body. 18) Close tax loopholes enjoyed by elite private schools and ask the Social Justice Commission to advise on integrating private schools. 19) Bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance. 20) Give everyone a free lifelong entitlement to: Training up to Level 3 and Six years training at Levels 4-6. 21) Introduce additional entitlements for workers in industries significantly affected by industrial transition. 22) Restore funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses. 23) Restore and expand the Union Learning Fund. 24) Transform Office for Students from a market regulator to a body of the National Education Service. 25) Introduce post-qualification admissions in higher education.
• GREEN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: 1) Create a Sustainable Investment Board. 2) Ask the OBR to include climate and environmental impacts into its forecasts. 3) Launch a ‘national transformation fund’ of £400bn and change Treasury rules to ensure the funds are spent in line with climate targets. 4) Set up a £250bn ‘green transformation fund’ to invest in renewable and low-carbon energy and transport, biodiversity and environmental restoration. 5) Establish a national investment bank, backed by a network of regional development banks, to provide a further £250bn of lending to enterprise, infrastructure and innovation over ten years while decarbonising the economy. Then make small loans available through a Post Bank based in Post Office branches. 6) Give powers to financial authorities to mobilise green investment. 7) Change criteria so companies that fail to show they are tackling the climate emergency are de-listed from the London Stock Exchange. 8) Set up ‘Local transformation funds’ in each region to fund infrastructure projects decided at a local level. 9) Set up regional development banks governed by boards made up of key local stakeholders, such as local chambers of commerce, trade unions and councilors, to set priorities for lending. 10) Establish a national transformation fund unit, as a key part of the Treasury, in the north of England. 11) Aim for a net-zero-carbon energy system within the 2030s, sooner if possible. 12) Deliver nearly 90% of electricity and 50% of heat from renewable and low-carbon sources by 2030. 13) Build 7,000 new offshore wind turbines and 2,000 new onshore wind turbines. 14) Build enough solar panels to cover 22,000 football pitches. 15) Build new nuclear power needed for energy and security. 16) Trial and expand tidal energy. 17) Upgrade almost all UK homes to the highest energy-efficiency standards. 18) Introduce a zero-carbon homes standard for all new homes. 19) Roll out technologies such as heat pumps, solar hot water and hydrogen. 20) Invest in district heat networks using waste heat. 21) Invest in grid enhancement and interconnectors and expand power storage to balance the grid. 22) Expand distributed and community energy. 23) Ban fracking. 24) Introduce a windfall tax on oil companies. 25) Instruct the committee on climate change to recommend policies to tackle emissions on UK imports as well as those it produces. 26) Aim for 3% of GDP to be spent on research and development by 2030. 27) Establish a Foundation Industries Sector Council to provide a clean and long-term future for our existing heavy industries. 28) Support steel through public procurement, take action on industrial energy prices, exempt new capital from business rates, build three new steel recycling plants and upgrade existing production sites. 29) Require all companies bidding for public contracts to recognise trade unions, pay suppliers on time and demonstrate equalities best practice. 30) Invest in three new gigafactories and four metal reprocessing plants. 31) Invest in a new plastics remanufacturing industry, end exports of plastic waste and reduce the UK’s contribution to ocean pollution. 32) Uphold the highest environmental and social regulations, never downgrading standards as barriers to trade. 33) Aim for net-zero emmissions in the NHS through an NHS Forest of one million trees; more efficient heating and insulation systems; greater reliance on renewable energy (including more solar paneling); transitioning to electric paramedic vehicles, NHS fleet cars and hybrid ambulances.
• TRANSPORT: 1) Allow councils to regulate and take public ownership of bus networks. 2) Free bus travel for under-25s where councils take control of bus networks. 3) Reinstate 3,000 bus routes that have been cut. 4) Bring railways back into public ownership, using options including franchise expiry. 5) Implement a full, rolling programme of electrification of the rail network. 6) Introduce a long-term investment plan, including Crossrail for the North. 7) Consult with local communities to reopen branch lines. 8) Complete full HS2 route to Scotland, taking full account of the environmental impacts of different route options. 9) Promote the use of freight and expand the provision of publicly owned rail freight services. 10) Increase funding available for cycling and walking, ensure street designs provide freedom for outdoor play and introduce measures to ensure areas around schools are safer, with cleaner air. 11) Invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and in electric community car clubs. 12) Accelerate the transition of public sector car fleets and public buses to zero-emissions vehicles. 13) Reform taxi and private hire services, including reviewing licensing authority jurisdictions, setting national minimum standards of safety and accessibility, and updating regulations to keep pace with technological change. 14) Adopt ‘vision zero’ approach to road safety, aiming for zero deaths and serious injuries. 15) Invest to make neglected local roads, pavements and cycle ways safer. 16) End nationality-based discrimination in seafarer pay. 17) Expansion of airports must pass tests on air quality, noise pollution, climate change obligations and countrywide benefits.
• ENVIRONMENT: 1) Review and improve protected area designations. 2) Introduce a Climate and Environment Emergency Bill. 3) Maintain and continuously improve existing EU standards of environmental regulation. 4) Introduce a new Clean Air Act. 5) Commit £5.6bn to improving flood defences, prioritising North West England, Yorkshire and East Midlands. 6) Set legally binding targets to drive the restoration of species and habitats. 7) Start a programme of tree planting, with both forestry and native woodland species. 8) Fully fund the Environment Agency and other frontline environment agencies. 9) Create new national parks alongside a revised system of other protected area designations. 10) Establish a new environmental tribunal to ensure that administrative decisions are consistent with environmental and nature-recovery obligations. 11) Maintain agricultural and rural structural funds but repurpose them to support environmental land management and sustainable methods of food production. 12) Invest in more county farms. 13) Aim to achieve net-zero-carbon food production in Britain by 2040. 14) Make producers responsible for the waste they create and for the full cost of recycling or disposal. 15) Reintroduce bottle-return schemes. 16) Invest in three new recyclable steel plants in areas with a proud history of steel manufacturing. 17) Rebuild climate expertise within the Foreign Office and use the UK’s influence at the UN, EU, G7, G20, World Bank, the Commonwealth and other global institutions to promote policies to tackle the climate emergency. 18) Use UK diplomatic expertise to negotiate and deliver more ambitious global targets to deal with the climate emergency. 19) Create a climate sustainability committee within the Ministry of Defence. 20) Publish a strategy to accelerate the safe and sustainable recycling of our old nuclear submarines. 21) Introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
• FOOD POVERTY: 1) Introduce a ‘Right to Food’ scheme. 2) Halve food bank usage within a year and remove the need for them altogether in three years. 3) Establish a National Food Commission and review the Allotments Act. 4) Re-establish an Agricultural Wages Board in England. 5) Set maximum sustainable yields for all shared fish stocks, redistribute fish quotas along social and environmental criteria and require the majority of fish caught under a UK quota to be landed in UK ports.
• ANIMAL WELFARE: 1) Introduce an animal welfare commissioner. 2) Prohibit the sale of snares and glue traps. 3) End the badger cull. 4) Ban the keeping of primates as pets. 5) Work internationally to end commercial whaling. 6) Ban the importation of hunting trophies of threatened species. 7) Boost police funding to tackle rural and wildlife crime.
• POLICE, JUDICIARY, DEFENCE & SECURITY: 1) Re-establish neighbourhood policing, Recruit 2,000 more frontline officers than have been planned for by the Conservatives and reform the police funding formula. 2) Keep proportionate stop-and-search based on intelligence. 3) Better police training on domestic abuse, offences arising from coercive control and historical abuses. 4) Establish a Royal Commission to develop a public health approach to substance misuse. 5) Introduce minimum legal standards of service for all victims of crime. 6) Review the circumstances requiring judicial warrant. 7) Strengthen the powers of the Joint Intelligence and Security Committee. 8) Constrain the right of the Prime Minister to suppress publication of committee reports. 9) Review the Prevent programme. 10) Evaluate the mobile phone trials with the aim of introducing an emergency alert system. 11) Respect international law and avoid needless military interventions. 12) Prioritise agreement of a new UK-EU Security Treaty (post Brexit). 13) Overhaul cybersecurity by creating a co-ordinating minister and regular reviews of cyber-readiness and review role and remit of the National Cyber Security Centre to determine whether it should be given powers as an auditing body. 14) Review structures and roles of the National Crime Agency. 15) Review border controls to make them more effective. 16) Restore total prison officer numbers to 2010 levels, phase out dangerous lone working, bring PFI prisons back in-house and no new private prisons. 17) Tackle the prison maintenance backlog and develop a long-term estate strategy. 18) Set new standards for community sentences, introduce a presumption against prison sentences of six months or less for non-violent and non-sexual offences. 19) Invest in proven alternatives to custody, including women’s centres. 20) expand problem-solving courts and plug the funding gap in the female offender strategy. 21) Reunify probation and guarantee a publicly run, locally accountable probation service. 22) Recruit hundreds of new community lawyers, promote public legal education and build an expanded network of law centres. 23) Ensure legal aid for inquests into deaths in state custody and the preparation of judicial review cases. 24) Keep the right for workers to be represented and recover their costs in cases of employer negligence leading to injury at work. 25) Halt court closures and cuts to staff, and undertake a review of the courts reform programme. 26) Tackle the disproportionate levels of BAME children in custody, review the youth custody estate, strengthen youth courts and build on the Lammy Review. 27) Appoint a Commissioner for Violence against Women and Girls, establish an independent review into shamefully low rape prosecution rates, establish a National Refuge Fund, ensure financial stability for rape crisis centres, reintroduce a Domestic Abuse Bill, improve the safety of the family court system for domestic violence victims and prohibit their cross-examination by their abuser. 28) Introduce protections for victims of so-called revenge porn. 29) Introduce a no-fault divorce procedure. 30) Uphold women’s reproductive rights and decriminalise abortions. 31) Establish public inquiries into historical injustices including blacklisting and Orgreave. 32) Ensure the second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry has the confidence of all those affected. 33) Require judicial warrants for undercover operations and retain the Mitting Inquiry into undercover policing. 34) Release all papers on the Shrewsbury 24 trials and 37 Cammell Laird shipyard workers and introduce a Public Accountability Bill. 35) Ensure fair compensation for the victims of contaminated blood. 36) Enforce a legal duty of care to protect our children online, impose fines on companies that fail on online abuse and empower the public with a Charter of Digital Rights. 37) Increase funding for UN peacekeeping operations to £100m. 38) Maintain our commitment to NATO and close relationship with European partners. 39) Support the renewal of Trident. 40) Lead multilateral efforts to create a nuclear-free world. 41) Spend at least 2% of GDP on defence. 42) Scrap the public sector pay cap, which resulted in a real-terms pay cut for the armed forces. 43) Ensure decent housing for forces members and their families. 44) Guarantee better access for all forces children to good quality local schools. 45) Consult on creating a representative body for the armed forces, akin to the Police Federation. 46) Pay a lump sum of £50,000 to each surviving British nuclear-test veteran. 47) Ensure that black and Asian soldiers who fought in Britain’s colonial armies receive a full apology and look at ways to compensate them for the discriminatory demob payments they received compared to their white counterparts. 48) Procurement that supports UK defence manufacturing including aerospace and shipbuilding. 49) Publish a defence industrial strategy white paper.
• COMMUNITIES & LOCAL GOVT: 1) Bring local services (e.g: bin collections, management of local leisure centres) – back in-house. 2) Introduce a ‘rural-proofing’ process so that all our laws, policies and programmes consider their impact on rural communities. 3) Make council funding more reactive to changes in demand for local services. 4) Revive high streets by stopping bank branch closures, banning ATM charges and giving local government new powers to put empty shops to good use. 5) Review option of a land value tax on commercial landlords as an alternative to business rates. 6) Stop Crown Post Office closures and bring Royal Mail back into public ownership at the earliest opportunity. 7) A Business Development Agency will be based in the Post Bank, providing free support and advice on how to launch, manage and grow a business. 8) List pubs as Assets of Community Value so community groups have the first chance to buy local pubs when they are under threat. 9) Ensure libraries are preserved for future generations, updated with Wi-Fi and computers and reintroduce library standards. 10) Give a new Co-operative Development Agency a mission to double the size of the co-operative sector. 11) Give local government greater freedom to set planning fees. 12) Require the climate emergency to be factored into all planning decisions. 13) Build a properly funded, professionally staffed National Youth Service and guarantee every young person has access to local, high-quality youth work. 14) Launch a wholesale review of the care system, rebuild early intervention services and replace the Troubled Families programme with a Stronger Families programme refocused on long-term support. 15) Protect and build on Staying Put for over-18s in care and the Adoption Support Fund.
• FIRE & RESCUE: 1) Recruit at least 5,000 new firefighters. 2) Establish a broadly based implementation taskforce.3) Ensure dedicated fire controls under Fire and Rescue Service governance. 4) Provide resources for a public Fire and Rescue College. 5) Conduct a review of the Fire and Rescue Service. 6) Establish in law a standards body for fire prevention, protection and intervention, with trade union representation. 7) Reinstate separate governance arrangements for Fire and Rescue Service and police services.
• DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT: 1) Roll out free full-fibre broadband for all by 2030. 2) Establish British Broadband, with two arms: British Digital Infrastructure (BDI) and the British Broadband Service (BBS). 3) Bring the broadband-relevant parts of BT into public ownership, with a jobs guarantee for all workers in existing broadband infrastructure and retail broadband work. 4) Roll out the remaining 90–92% of the full-fibre network. 5) Taxation of multinationals, including tech giants, will pay for British Broadband operating costs. 6) Enforce a legal duty of care to protect our children online, impose fines on companies that fail on online abuse and empower the public with a Charter of Digital Rights. 7) £1bn Cultural Capital Fund to transform libraries, museums and galleries across the country. 8) Make distribution of National Lottery funding more transparent. 9) Maintain free entry to museums. 10) Launch a Town of Culture competition. 11) Review the copyright framework. 12) Protect free TV licences for over-75s. 13) Address misconduct and the unresolved failures of corporate governance raised by the second stage of the abandoned Leveson Inquiry. 14) Ensure Ofcom is better able to safeguard a healthy plurality of media ownership, put in place clearer rules on who is fit and proper to own or run TV and radio stations. 15) Establish an inquiry into ‘fake news’. 16) Review the ‘fit and proper person test’ for football club owners and directors and ensure that supporters’ trusts have a proper role. 17) Legislate for accredited football supporters’ trusts to be able to appoint and remove at least two club directors and purchase shares when clubs change hands. 18) Regulate safe standing in stadiums and ensure that a proportion of the Premier League’s television rights income is spent on grassroots football facilities. 19) Add ICC Cricket World Cup to the list of sporting events broadcast free-to-air. 20) Commission an independent review into discrimination in sport. 21) Introduce a new Gambling Act: gambling limits, a levy for problem gambling funding and mechanisms for consumer compensations.
• TACKLING POVERTY & INEQUALITY: Eradicate in-work poverty within the first term. 1) Rapidly introduce a real living wage of £10 for all workers over the age of 16. 2) Require large companies to set up inclusive ownership funds (IOFs) – up to 10% of companies will be owned by employees with dividend payments distributed equally and capped at £500 (Any surplus from this will be used to top up the climate apprenticeships fund.) 3) Pilot universal basic income. 4) Support for self-employed people including: collective income protection insurance schemes, annual income assessments for those on universal credit, and better access to mortgages and pension schemes. 5) Tackle late payments, including banning late-payers from public procurement. 6) Establish a ministry of employment rights. 7) Roll out sectoral collective bargaining across the economy. 8) Give everyone full rights from day one on the job, strengthen protections for whistleblowers and rights against unfair dismissal, with extra protections for pregnant women, those going through the menopause and terminally ill workers. 9) End “bogus” self-employment and creating a single status of worker for everyone apart from those genuinely self-employed. 10) Ban overseas-only recruitment processes. 11) Introduce a legal right to collective consultation on the implementation of new technology in workplaces. 12) Ban zero-hour contracts and recognise a right for those who regularly work regular hours for more than 12 weeks to have a contract reflecting those hours. 13) Require breaks during shifts to be paid. 14) Require cancelled shifts to be paid and proper notice for changes in hours. 15) Give all workers the right to flexible working. 16) Extend statutory maternity pay from nine to 12 months, double paternity leave from two weeks to four and increase statutory paternity pay. 17) Introduce statutory bereavement leave. 18) Introduce four new bank holidays celebrating the four patron saints’ of the UK. 19) Review family-friendly employment rights, including rights to respond to family emergencies. 20) Require employers implement plans to eradicate the gender pay gap – and pay inequalities underpinned by race and/or disability – or face fines. 21) Require employers to maintain workplaces free of harassment. 22) Increase protection against redundancy. 23) Give statutory rights to equalities representatives. 24) Set up a royal commission to bring health (including mental health) and safety legislation up to date. 25) Toughen the law on abuse and violence towards public-facing staff. 26) Ban unpaid internships. 27) Allow trade unions to use secure electronic and workplace ballots. 28) Remove unnecessary restrictions on industrial action. 29) Strengthen and enforce trade unions’ right of entry to workplaces. 30) Ban union-busting, strengthen protection of trade union representatives against unfair dismissal and union members from intimidation, harassment, threats and blacklisting. 31) Repeal anti-trade union legislation including the Trade Union Act 2016. 32) Simplify the law around union recognition. 33) Give union reps adequate time off for union duties. 34) Introduce a maximum workplace temperature. 35) Bring UK law into line with the International Labour Organisation standards. 36) Reduce average full-time weekly working hours to 32 across the economy within a decade, with no loss of pay, funded by productivity increases. 37) End the opt-out provision for the EU working time directive. 38) Set up an independent working time commission to advise on raising minimum holiday entitlement and reducing maximum weekly working time. 39) Mandate bargaining councils to negotiate reductions in working time. 40) Keep restrictions on Sunday trading in place 41) review unpaid overtime. 42) Introduce a new, unified workers’ protection agency to enforce workplace rights. 43) Keep employment tribunals free and extend their powers. 44) Introduce new labour courts with a stronger role for people with industrial experience on panels. 45) Amend the Companies Act to require companies to prioritise long-term growth while strengthening protections for stakeholders, no quarterly reporting for businesses below the VAT threshold, one-third of boards reserved for elected worker-directors with more control over executive pay, Introduce a broader ‘public interest test’ to prevent hostile takeovers and asset-stripping, empower workers so they have a voice on public bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority, allow struggling companies to go into protective administration to be sold as a going concern rather than collapsing into insolvency, Separate auditing and accounting activities in major firms and impose more robust rules on auditors and Create a new business commission to tackle regulatory capture and streamline regulation. 46) Replace Social Mobility Commission with a Social Justice Commission, based in the Treasury. 47) Create a new Department for Women and Equalities with a full-time Secretary of State and establish a modernised national women’s commission as an independent advisory body for the government. 48) Close the gender pay gap by 2030, make the state responsible for enforcing equal pay legislation, make large companies (with over 250 employees) obtain government certification on gender equality or face further auditing and fines (lower threshold to workplaces with 50 employees by the end of 2020), Increase paid maternity leave to 12 months and paternity leave to four weeks and strengthen pregnancy protection by including a ban on the dismissal of pregnant women without prior approval of the inspectorate, force large employers to introduce flexible working hours (allowing workers to request flexibility over their hours from the first day of employment) and adopt a menopause policy, allow positive action in favour of diversity when recruiting staff, single-sex-based exemptions in the Equality Act 2010 to be understood and fully enforced in service provisions, introduce ten days of paid leave for survivors of domestic abuse, provide long-term sustainable funding to women’s refuges, Make misogyny and violence against women and girls a hate crime and force all political parties to publish diversity data about electoral candidates. 49) Commission an independent review into the threat of far-right extremism, extend pay-gap reporting to BAME groups, commit our National Investment Bank to addressing discrimination in access to finance, implement recommendations of the Lammy Review, create a new Trust to educate around migration and colonialism, amend the law so that attacks on places of worship are considered as a specific aggravated offence, review levels of funding for the places of worship protective security funding scheme as well as the access to that funding and maintain funding in real terms for the Community Security Trust. 50) Ensure that disabled people can be independent and equal in society through the new department for women and equalities, require training for all employers about how to better support disabled people, introduce mandatory disability pay-gap reporting for companies with over 250 employees, update the Equality Act to introduce specific duties including disability leave, paid and recorded separately from sick leave, recommend that the Equality and Human Rights Commission prepare a specific code of practice on reasonable adjustments to supplement existing codes, reinstate the access to elected office fund and adopt a British sign language (BSL) Act, giving BSL full recognition in law. 51) Reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to introduce self-declaration for transgender people, ensure public services are LGBT+ inclusive and delivering on the national LGBT Action Plan, take steps to safeguard LGBT+ rights, tailor strategies and services tackling homelessness and the rough sleeping crisis to needs unique to LGBT+ homeless people, provide funding for schools to deliver mandatory LGBT+ inclusive relationships and sex education, fully fund sexual health services and roll out PrEP medication, appoint a dedicated global ambassador to the Foreign Office on LGBT+ issues. 52) Scrap the 2014 Immigration Act, provide fair compensation to those affected by the Windrush scandal, end indefinite detention, review the alternatives to the inhumane conditions of detention centres, Close Yarl’s Wood and Brook House, establish a fund of £20m to support the survivors of modern slavery, people trafficking and domestic violence, restore the overseas domestic workers’ visa, post Brexit we will recognise the social and economic benefit of EU citizens here and UK citizens abroad and protect those rights, we will end the deportation of family members of people entitled to be here and end minimum income requirements separating families. 53) Work with others to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, co-operate with the French authorities to put an end to refugee camps, establish safe and legal routes for asylum seekers and give refugees in the UK the right to work and access to public services.
• CONSTITUTION & GOVERNANCE: 1) End the hereditary principle in the House of Lords and work to abolish the House of Lords 2) In its place, establish a Senate of the Nations and Regions. 3) Establish a UK-wide Constitutional Convention, led by a citizens’ assembly, on how the nations relate to each other, how power is distributed in the UK, and how best to put power in people’s hands. 4) Make directly elected mayors more accountable to local councillors and elected representatives. 5) Re-establish regional government offices. 6) Repeal the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011. 7) Maintain 650 constituencies and respond to future, independent boundary reviews. 8) Reduce the voting age to 16, abandon plans to introduce voter ID and give full voting rights to all UK residents. 9) Ban donations from tax avoiders and tax evaders close loopholes that allow the use of shell companies to funnel dark money into politics, repeal the Lobbying Act 2014 and overhaul rules governing corporate lobbying, introduce a lobbying register covering both in-house lobbyists and think tanks – extending to contacts made with all senior government employees, not just ministers, increase the financial penalties available to the Electoral Commission and require imprints for digital political adverts. 10) Stop MPs from taking paid second jobs, with limited exemptions to maintain professional registrations like nursing, replace ACOBA (the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments), with a resourced and empowered new body governed by a diverse and representative board and established in law. 11) Overhaul the system of ministerial appointments to public office. 12) Extend Freedom of Information rules to cover private providers of public services. 13) Ending the six-month time limit in which the Information Commissioner can prosecute the deliberate destruction of public records. 14) Secure the return of a genuine power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, invest an extra £1.9bn to end austerity and rebuild public services in Northern Ireland, fully implement new laws on equal marriage, implement a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland as outlined in the Good Friday Agreement, protect Northern Irish people in Brexit negotiations by ensuring there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or the creation of a regulatory border down the Irish Sea. 15) The new constitutional convention to include the Welsh Government’s 20-point plan for the future of the UK, invest an extra £3.4bn in Wales, create jobs in Wales through environmental energy schemes such as the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project, work with people in Ynys Môn (Anglesey) to maximise its potential for new nuclear energy, alongside investment in renewables, use the report from the Thomas Commission on Justice to ensure the justice system works in Wales. 16) Provide Scotland with around £100bn of additional resources over two terms, £10bn from the national transformation fund will be invested in the building of 120,000 council and social homes in Scotland over the next ten years and £6bn in retrofitting houses, a further £20bn of lending power will be provided to the Scottish national investment bank to deliver funds to local projects and small businesses.
• INTERNATIONALISM: 1) Introduce a War Powers Act to ensure that no Prime Minister can bypass parliament to commit to conventional military action. 2) Implement every single recommendation of the Chilcot Inquiry. 3) Conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy. 4) Invest an additional £400m in our diplomatic capacity. 5) Establish a judge-led inquiry into the UK’s alleged complicity in rendition and torture and the operation of secret courts. 6) Issue a formal apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and hold a public review into Britain’s role 7) Allow the people of the Chagos Islands and their descendants the right to return. 8) Uphold the human rights of the people of West Papua and recognise the rights of the people of Western Sahara. 9) Suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen. 10) Suspend the sale of arms to Israel for arms used in violation of the human rights of Palestinian civilians. 11) Conduct a root-and-branch reform of our arms exports regime. 12) Reform the international rules-based order to secure justice and accountability for breaches of human rights and international law. 13) Work through the UN and the Commonwealth to insist on the protection of human rights for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil and Muslim populations. 14) Appoint human-rights advisers to work across the Foreign Office and government to prioritise a co-ordinated approach to human rights and advocate for human rights at every bilateral diplomatic meeting. 15) Commit to peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution, with a secure Israel alongside a secure and viable state of Palestine, advocate a long-term multinational political strategy, led by regional actors, to tackle the spread of extremism, build support for UN reform, including assessing and developing democratisation initiatives, and improving the engagement of the General Assembly in decision-making. 16) Prioritise our responsibility to prevent conflict by investing in local capacities for peace-building in areas of conflict. 17) Act immediately to urge negotiations towards a political resolution to conflict wherever it arises, including in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. 18) Reset our relationships with countries in the Global South based on principles of redistribution and equality. 19) Commit to a standalone Department for International Development (DfID), with an aid budget of at least 0.7% of gross national income and give it a strong position in cross-government decision making, including a permanent seat on the export control joint unit responsible for licensing arms exports. 20) Uphold basic rights to education, health and clean water by establishing a new unit for public services within DfID. 21) Promote fairer international tax rules and help countries in the Global South build progressive tax systems. 22) Support trade unions internationally. 23) Support ongoing UN efforts to introduce a binding international treaty on business and human rights. 24) Triple funding for grassroots women’s organisations. 25) Establish an independent ombudsman to tackle abuse in the development sector. 26) Increase spending on international climate finance to £4bn a year and support calls for compensation to those nations already suffering loss and damage. 27) Stop all aid spending on fossil fuel production overseas, redirecting it towards clean, renewable energy, end all UK Export Finance support to fossil fuel projects, and reject any trade deals that conflict with government’s climate principles. 28) Transform the CDC Group plc (DfID’s vehicle for encouraging private sector investment) into a green development bank mandated to fight poverty, inequality and climate change. 29) Establish an aid-funded food sovereignty fund, support sustainable local food and agriculture markets. 30) Implement UK arms export controls to the highest standard, end exports that might be used in violation of human rights or international humanitarian law, ensure government procurement contracts are not granted to companies complicit in serious human rights abuses and require all UK trade agreements to be consistent with international humanitarian law. 31) Introduce legislation to ensure transparency and parliamentary scrutiny of trade and investment agreements, reject any trade agreements that undermine labour standards or environmental protections. 32) Rule out UK Export Finance support to companies engaged in bribery or corruption. 33) Promote fairer international patent regimes that do not prevent countries from accessing essential medicines, support efforts to increase the transparency of medicines pricing so governments can negotiate fair prices and ensure that all medicines developed with the support of UK taxpayer money are accessible to people in the global south.

Green Party Manifesto 2024

• HOUSING: 1) Working with local authorities to provide 150,000 new social homes every year (some new build + buying & refurbishment of older housing stock). 2) Build fairer greener more affordable homes that meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards and include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes, while also protecting valuable green space for communities, and providing extra investment in local health, transport and other services. 3) Introducing local ‘community right to buy’ scheme for certain types of properties… “to keep social homes for local communities in perpetuity.” 4) Also pledging to introduce rent control, a new stable rental tenancy agreement, and an end to no-fault evictions, as well as set up private residential tenancy boards… “to provide an informal, cheap and speedy forum for resolving disputes before they reach a tribunal.”
• HEALTH: 1) Committed to a fully public, properly funded health and social care system. 2) Guaranteed access to an NHS dentist, 3) rapid access to a GP and same day access for urgent cases, 4) increased funding for mental health care. 5) Boost NHS staff pay and restore junior doctors’ pay. To achieve this, they estimated spending £28bn by 2030, plus a further £20bn for hospital building and repair. 6) support legalising assisted dying for people suffering from terminal disease who wish to avoid prolonged unnecessary suffering 7) pledge to ending new cases of HIV by 2030.
• SOCIAL CARE: 1) Proposing a £20bn investment to cover free “personal care” for the elderly and disabled 2) pledge to “Increase pay rates and introduce a career structure for carers to rebuild the care workforce,” 3) £3bn commitment to local authorities to enable them to provide “high-quality children’s social care.”
• THE ECONOMY: 1) end costly privatisation that syphons profits into shareholder pockets instead of reinvesting into public services. 2) for “public ownership of public services.” 3) £40bn annual investment to “shift to a green economy,” 4) carbon tax on fossil fuels. 5) As well as bringing public services back into public ownership, they propose “bringing the railways, water companies and the Big 5 retail energy companies into public ownership.” 6) £12.4bn investment to help skill up and train the workforce to meet the needs of a green economy. 7) in favour of taxing the rich and borrowing to invest. 8) 1% annual Wealth Tax on assets above £10 million, and 2% on assets above £1bn. 9) Reform Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to “align the rates paid by taxpayers on income and taxable gains…. [align] the tax rates on investment income with the tax and National Insurance Contribution rates on employment income… [and remove] the Upper Earnings Limit that restricts the amount of National Insurance paid by high earners.” 10) In an effort to suppport SMEs, the Greens are proposing to set up “regional mutual banks… to drive investment in decarbonisation and local economic sustainability.” 11) putting aside another £20bn a year in grant funding for local authorities to help businesses decarbonise, with a preference toward community ownership.
• ENERGY: 1) Transition to a zero-carbon society by 2040 at the latest by moving us on to a zero carbon electricity supply that could provide sufficient electricity to power “all cars and vans… all homes and buildings” and most of our industry. 2) As wind power could cover 70% of our electricity needs by 2030. The plan is to invest in onshore as well as offshore wind farms, improve our energy storage capacity and also the efficiency in our energy distribution system. 3) Energy sources will be owned by local communities so any profits resulting from excess energy production can be ploughed back into the community or help reduce bills. 4) pledge to cancel any recent fossil fuel licenses, stop any new applications, bring in a carbon tax, remove all oil & gas subsidies and phase out nuclear energy, which they see as “unsafe and much more expensive than renewables… [as well as] inextricably linked with the production of nuclear weapons”
• WORKERS RIGHTS: 1) Bring in a 4 day working week, 2) “repeal of current anti-union legislation” and introduce “a positive Charter of Workers’ Rights, with the right to strike at its heart.” 3) Bring in legislation that forces employers to recognise trade unions, 4) a maximum 10:1 pay ratio, 5) reducing national insurance payments, 6) equal employment rights for all workers (inc. new employees, people working in the gig economy and people on zero hour contracts). 7) Additionally… “Gig employers that repeatedly break employment, data protection or tax law will be denied licenses to operate.” 
• SOCIAL SECURITY: 1) “increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week… 2) abolish the two-child benefit cap… 3) end the ‘bedroom tax’ 4) introduce a universal basic income” 5) lift disability benefits by 5%, 6) reform PIP eligibility tests, 7) end the “unfair targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits,” 8) force councils “to provide free transport for 16-18 year old pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.”
• ENVIRONMENT: 1) To protect our green spaces and stop sewage pouring into our rivers and seas, the Greens propose to bring in new legislation (The Rights of Nature Act) and to take water companies back into public ownership. 2) Introduce a ‘Right to Roam Act’ 3) “set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030” for priority and protection. 4) No emergency authorisation of bee-killing pesticides 5) introduce a new Clean Air (Human Rights) Act.
• ANIMAL PROTECTION: 1) Set up a new Commission on Animal Protection. 2) Ban all blood sports, 3) protect marine life, 4) end badger culls, 5) ban close confinement in cages, 6) ban deliberate and unnecessary mutilation of farm animals, 7) end factory farming with measures like enforcing maximum stocking densities and banning routine use of antibiotics in farm animals.
• FOOD & FARMING: 1) The “unhealthy food lobby” and “Poor diets are estimated to cost our NHS £6.5bn a year.” Some farming practices are damaging our natural world and our climate through greenhouse gas emissions, nature loss and pollution in our rivers. We are proposing to support farmers financially as they transition to ‘nature-friendly farming,’ including reducing pesticides and other agro-chemicals, plus conserving and boosting biodiversity and soil health to help clean up our rivers. 2) The Greens also want to teach school children how to grow, prepare and cook food “as part of the core curriculum.” They also want to “ensure that good quality surplus food is not wasted.”
• TRANSPORT: 1) The Greens want to introduce cheaper, more carbon friendly, public transport options. 2) will Increase annual public rail & bus subsidies to £10bn 3) Provide free bus travel for under-18s.
  4) Invest another £19bn, over five years, to “improve public transport, support electrification and create new cycleways and footpaths.” 5) Support bringing railways back into public ownership 6) will give “local authorities control over and funding for improved bus services.7) Commit another £2.5bn a year to fund new cycleways and footpaths, which will also help reduce traffic. 8) to further reduce carbon emissions they propose to introduce a “frequent-flyer levy,” ban short distance domestic flights where trains are an alternative option, and halt airport expansions.
• EDUCATION: 1) The Greens will introduce free school meals and free breakfast clubs for primary school kids 2) increase school funding of £8bn, of which £2bn will be used to uplift teacher’s pay. 3) restore grants and get rid of tuition fees 4) get rid of “high-stakes testing at primary and secondary schools,” and abolish OFSTED.
• ARTS, SPORTS, CULTURE, MEDIA: 1) Commit £5bn for community sports, arts and culture to help keep local sports facilities, museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving. 2) End VAT on cultural activities, and reduce costs on museum tickets and local pub gigs etc. 3) “change the law so that no single individual or company can own more than 20% of any media market” 4) push through “all the reforms proposed in the second part of the 2012 Leveson Report.”
• HUMAN RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY AND JUSTICE: 1) The Greens are for defending the Human Rights Act and the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and are for continued direct access to Convention rights in the domestic courts. 2) They want to “replace the first past the post system for parliamentary elections with a fair and proportional voting system [and] the House of Lords with an elected second chamber.” 3) The Greens say they are for “votes for 16-year-olds… residence-based voting rights” 4) They support standing up against hate crime, misogyny, violence against women and girls, Islamophobia and Antisemitism. 5) They pledge to “campaign to end violence against women and girls… 6) Scrap the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act, the Public Order Act and other legislation that erodes the right to protest and free expression… 7) Campaign for the right of self-identification for trans and non-binary people… 8) Scrap the Prevent programme and tackle hate crime, misogyny, Islamophobia and antisemitism.” 9) set aside £2.5bn to “repair and renew our crumbling court system” 10) try to restore trust and confidence in the police. 11) support “national self-determination [for] Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
• FOREIGN POLICY: 1) The Greens pledge to uphold “the right to self-determination and the enforcement of international law.” 2) They also pledge to “support Ukraine as it resists Russian invasion” 3) and to “re-join the EU as soon as the political conditions are right.” 4) The Greens favour a ceasefire in Gaza and call for an immediate release of Israeli hostages, as well as “an end to arms sales to Israel.” 5) They also call for an “end the illegal occupation of Palestinian land” and a solution that ensures “security and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.” 6)The Greens are also for “reinstatement of funding for UNRWA” and have pledged “support for South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice.” 7) The Greens want the UK to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and dismantle our nuclear weapons. They would also cancel the Trident programme and remove all foreign nuclear weapons from UK soil, 8) but the Greens support NATO and believe that NATO provides member states with a way to respond to threats to their security and allows them to achieve “a greater focus on global peacebuilding and a commitment to a ‘No First Use’ of nuclear weapons.” 9) To support the Global South in its efforts to decarbonise, the Greens propose to increase international aid to 1% of gross national income (GNI) and climate finance for the Global South to 1.5% of GNI, by 2033. 10) They also propose an additional contribution to a newly established Loss and Damage Fund.
• IMMIGRATION: 1) Greens welcome migrants and don’t support the hostile environment policy. 2) They want to end minimum income requirements for spouses of migrants who have work visas. 3) They want safe routes for refugees and they want a new ‘Department of Migration’, separate from the criminal justice system, to replace the Home Office. 4) Greens are against detaining migrants who do not pose a danger to public safety 5) want to abolish the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition that “exacerbates social, economic, and racial inequalities.” 6) They also want asylum seekers to be able to work while their applications are being decided.

The Workers Party Manifesto 2024

• JOBS: The Workers Party 1) is committed to reversing deindustrialisation & exploring innovative demands for workers control and participation in the future of industry through our trade unions. 2) will end the deskilling of the NHS workforce, which it sees as a fake solution to a workforce crisis engineered by the very people claiming to resolve it (the aim is to reduce staff wages). Deskilling is a material threat to the safety of patients. We will restore decent pay levels to help retain and recruit the most qualified staff. 3) will legislate to support workers and managers in the acquisition of productive enterprises and their assets in the event that a company is either intended to be sold to a foreign owner or closed in order to export production overseas. 4) will invest in new technology and infrastructures to provide future wealth. 5) will continue to support workers struggling for their immediate interests, better wages and conditions. Our track record on this speaks for itself. We have always been first in line to back lawful strike action including those by ambulance workers and transport workers. 6) will encourage community-directed initiative and entrepreneurialism in the working class. 7) will support techno-innovation of all types, and the service sector, to help rebuild our industrial base, and this development does not need to be concentrated in cities. 8) will encourage the further unionisation of the services economy and the regulation of the gig economy to ensure increased worker choice and security. We will create the regulatory structures that ensure that exploitation comes to an end and personal choice maximised. 9) Special attention will be given to the rights and working conditions of farm, forestry, fishing and related workers including migrant workers employed on a seasonal basis. We will encourage more local and national food production through tax incentives and will consider a negative VAT rate on unprocessed natural foods and their priority supply to our schools, care homes and hospitals. We will support our fishing fleets. We will also crack down on the cruelty of factory farming and the import of foodstuffs that do not meet our ethical standards in regard to processing. We will encourage the farming community to conserve renewable natural resources and participate in educational projects for urban workers.
• ENVIRONMENT: The Worker’s Party 1) is for a referendum on Net Zero targets and wants to have a national debate on who profits from these targets and on what terms. 2) oppose ULEZ initiatives because they believe they impose a cost on working households and small businesses.
• PENSIONS: The Worker’s Party 1) will undertake a major review of pensions policy with the ultimate aim of restoring a life-long commitment through earnings to adequate pension provision 2) are committed  to a process of reducing the pensionable age over time with all workers having the option of retiring at 60. 3) will commit at once to the triple lock or similar arrangements designed to maintain pensioner purchasing power and increase these provisions as growth strategies start to bear fruit. and making pensions eventually tax free. 4) support the ‘Back to 60 Campaign’ in order to rectify a fundamental injustice regardless of the recent court judgment, as well as supporting the efforts of WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality).
• ECONOMY: The Worker’s party 1) is for digital currency, fintech and other technologies, including blockchain and artificial intelligence, but wants to preserve the right for the working class and the vulnerable to be able to use cash as well. 2) will immediately increase the personal tax threshold for the poorest paid, removing tax entirely from the first £21,200 of wages for two million low-paid workers. This alone would increase take-home pay for a worker on the threshold rate by £1,700 per annum. 3) will commit to a one-off 5% wealth tax on all estates valued fairly at over £10 million to make a start on redressing the colossal gap between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. These funds will be used to kick-start a national economic and social investment strategy with an estimated £17bn windfall. 4) will ensure working class representation throughout the governance of the Bank of England. The Bank will be instructed to meet working class priorities with mandatory working class representation throughout the governance structures of the Bank not excluding the Monetary Policy Committee. 5) will build regional and infrastructural banking support structures to provide credit on sustainable terms to socially useful productive capacity. 6) will take a far more critical approach to corporate ownership of information and common artistic heritage through investor exploitation of intellectual property and copyright legislation whilst supporting the struggling individual or co-operative creative in their fight to get fair recompense.
• PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: The Worker’s Party 1) will end the public-private partnerships (called the Integrated Care Systems) and will fully renationalise the NHS and commit to significant spending on social and economic infrastructure and implement major efficiency savings. 2) will undertake an investigation into PFI contracts (not only in the health service but in other sectors) and legislate if necessary to change the terms and conditions. 3) aims to reduce waiting lists by increasing health service capacity and integrate this with increased social care provision. We will also initiate a massive reduction in the scale of the administrative and management structure of the NHS which has increased from 4% of budget to 14% of budget over the last seventeen years and is heading higher. 4) will take a decisive role in the pharmaceuticals industry, on which our NHS depends, proposing close monitoring and significant control as a means to reduce profiteering and dangerous malpractice. 5) will nationalise dysfunctional utilities and for strategic assets. 6) will end the dangerous practices of public-private partnership and ensure best value for the public whilst recognising the reasonable rights of private producers, manufacturers and productive businesses. 7) also proposes that anything that is a monopoly or essential to the functioning of the country, especially those businesses strategically required in times of crisis, should be considered for re-nationalisation or nationalisation. 8) will build the capacity for a national contracting agency integrated with the national economic plan. From there we will review all candidates for nationalisation with priority given to monopoly and public service entities such as Railtrack, the electricity grid and the water companies. Other candidates for ‘consideration’ may include the military-industrial complex, national food logistics, ports and airports. The ‘de minimis’ requirement can be expected to be worker participation on Boards of Directors as well as worker-directors with specific veto and report-back powers.
• WELFARE & SOCIAL CARE: The Worker’s party 1) commits to full access to the NHS. 2) commits to full access to benefits and pensions that wipe out poverty (especially child poverty and poverty for the elderly) 3) will declare war on ultra-processed food, improve the standard of school meals and invest in health education. 4) Big Food and Big Pharma will be regulated to ensure positive outcomes at every level of national health. 5) commits to investing in an integrated health and social care system to help support the mentally ill, as well as providing decent housing provision, raising greater mental health awareness, and a drive to improve the nutritional, exercise, sleep and other health aspects of the mind. 6) believes that identity politics has a big part to play in the deterioration of mental health in this country. They believe that the collapse of community, the insecurities created by neo-liberalism and the hysteria of university-based cultural engineering is to blame and that a malign alliance has emerged between increasingly unhinged identity politics and the neo-liberal elite, with identity politics now partially controlling capitalism. As such, the Worker’s Party says it will not support identity politics, or non-jobs for middle class graduates to support the NGO-industrial complex. The Worker’s Party proposes to encourage students to ‘be their own person’ and to be personally proud of their lifestyle choices, “instead of depending for their worth on the weird theories of university theoreticians and the neuroses of American progressivism.” 7) Additionally, arts spending will be on national and working-class culture and public money will not be wasted on sectional interests. We will be one nation where class or interest is the key factor in politics. 8) We will ensure a minimum decent income both for those who can work and those who provenly cannot. 9) We will continue to uphold access provisions for the disabled and invest in technology to enhance their capacity. 10) will undertake a review of the tax system to stop the penalisation of single earner households which drives parents into two low wage jobs simply to keep the labour force cheap for business. The tax system as it is currently constructed deliberately discourages working class commitment to taking on social burdens and build a healthy society and it deters working class aspiration. 11) will invest in the continued education and training of mothers or fathers or other carers during the vital early years of family life and while caring for elderly relatives. We will bring back workers into the economy without them being disadvantaged in their careers by their absence from the work force. 12) is committed to properly funding social services so that they are able to deal with those cases where families are truly dysfunctional.
• HOUSING: The Worker’s Party 1) commits to guaranteed housing for every citizen of the country by beginning a programme of social housing that will over-ride all unnecessary planning constraints. 2) commits to the compulsory expropriation of all unused land banks and the fast-tracking of permits. 3) will end the scandal of sub-standard buy-to-let as the default policy of a failed political class by ensuring the right to buy or transfer of such assets to local authorities. 4) will make sure that it is safer and more profitable for investors to invest money in British infrastructure and industry, which will free up land and property for social development. 5) will also encourage opportunities for workers and trade unions to acquire collectively-owned land and property in the countryside and on the coasts for the rest and relaxation of the working class while being mindful of a prior commitment to affordable housing for rural and coastal workers. 6) will tighten up further on any eviction action that is not based on anti-social behaviour towards neighbours and the community. 7) will also get tough on noise pollution, anti-social behaviour in general and use of property for criminal purposes. 8) We will continue to democratise the ownership and responsibilities of multi-ownership dwellings. 9) will guarantee the right to independent home ownership and social mobility that can release social housing stock for those starting out on the housing ladder. 10) support increased tenant control of council housing (the Tenant Managed Housing Co-op model) to empower communities and develop the will and capacity, supported by local authorities, social care and police, to turn our remaining and new estates into havens instead of abandoned territories prey to exploitation. 11) will ensure financial support to assist the vulnerable to participate in the community and for tenants to have the tools to maintain and develop their communities.
• TRANSPORT: The Worker’s Party 1) will commit to free public travel arrangements for children around the country, mirroring those that currently exist for children in London.
• EDUCATION: The Worker’s Party 1) will support the provision of free good quality and nutritious breakfast and lunch meals during term time to all children in school without means testing, and the introduction of access to low cost but nutritious meals out of term time in targeted deprived areas. 2) is committed to the extension of the free public travel arrangements for children from London to the rest of the country, extending the current age restrictions from 11 to 16 3) commits to life-long educational opportunity. The party commits to those that want to get on by actively encouraging them, at any time in their lives, to learn and apply their skills. 4) believe that education is a key social infrastructure. This means small class sizes, teachers being trusted to teach without administrative nonsense, investment in extra-curricular subjects like the arts and music as well as sports, an atmosphere of equitable encouragement of all according to their abilities, increased safe online learning and zero tolerance towards bullying and abuse. 5) also commits to guaranteeing a right to a free tuition first degree that could be taken at any time during one’s life so as to end the pressure for young people to take on debt before they have an idea what they want to do with their lives. Tuition fees will be a thing of the past and debt for low income graduates increasingly remitted. 6) would financially support vocational education, apprenticeships and trades education that met the aspiration of any worker to get employment that could allow them to live a better standard of living in an economy that may require frequent changes in skills. 7) cultural policy proposes a radical overhaul of the funding of the arts, the charitable sector and the educational system to re-emphasise critical thinking, free debate, free speech and mutual respect. 8) will prioritise state education, with particular emphasis on early stage educational childcare provision, which has to be more than ‘child minding’. We will also remove the charitable status of all private educational establishments.
• POLICE, JUDICIARY, DEFENCE & SECURITY: The Worker’s Party 1) are committed to a review of policing priorities, supporting a refocus on street safety and estate crime and a move away from policing by Twitter and criminalising speech and thought. 2) will enshrine the right to dissent and enjoy a private life and lifestyles that harm no other in employment law and we will restrict the ability of private wealth, directly or through the increasingly sinister international NGO-industrial complex, to engage in cultural engineering. We will ban foreign interests from interfering in British culture untowardly while encouraging the free flow of foreign creativity into the country. 3) Is against the slaughter of innocent civilians in Palestine & Gaza, facilitated by Labour & Tories alike, and is for a single state solution in which all those born in Palestine-Israel can live in peace with equal rights. 4) will undertake a thoroughgoing review of our defence and foreign policy. 5) will campaign for Britain to leave NATO, which it views as a clear and present danger to the security of the British population, but will also commit to a a national debate on all our collective security arrangements, as well as a referendum on membership of NATO. 6) will seek new collective security arrangements centred on the protection of peoples and not of states or industries. 7) supports multilateral disarmament and will lead the world in the call for the eradication of nuclear weapons.
• COMMUNITIES & LOCAL GOVT: The Worker’s Party 1) supports elected mayors but they must be given the tools of the job and get better quality support from executives and elected officials and access to funding. 2) Supports the decentralisation of power to our towns and cities, the ability of men and women from working households to participate in local government and lose no income or family life by it, adequate authority over executive officers and a return to the ethos of municipal socialism represent the Workers Party of Britain’s policy for local government. 3) supports putting senior council executives on five year rolling performance-related contracts. 4) supports establishing whistleblower hotlines to report bullying, corruption and mismanagement to a level above middle management 5) supports increased control of the terms of local taxation including the implementation of tourist taxes for re-investment in city and town centres. 6) advocate for increased selective regional delivery of services with neighbouring authorities to reduce administrative costs in favour of front-line services especially in education, transport and economic development. 7) is opposed to the type of management that answers to a special interest that is not the interests of the people and will support good managers who act in the interests of the workers and the country and not those of profit-takers or their political lackeys. The party will aim to help workers become managers through education and training while stopping those who ‘make it’ from pulling the ladder up behind them. The party favours a socialist commitment to management in the interests of the working class with accountability to the working class both through legislation or regulation and the trades union movement. The party will specifically target 4 areas of management: finance, marketing, public affairs and human resources. 8) will put in place legislation to offer free speech and lifestyle protections for workers and stop corporate interference in private lives. 9) will ensure management will work in the interests of, and be accountable too, the working class, through legislation or regulation and the trades union movement. 10. will require demonstrable proof that all land held in the UK is being used for socially productive purposes – agricultural production, housing or infrastructural development, shared heritage, natural wilderness or parkland with easy access for workers and their families and so forth. We commit to the preservation of national parks and woodlands as well as meadows and other ecological treasures on this basis of full public access. Closed lands in excess of reasonable family or productive requirement will come under review for directed use and public access if they are left idle. 11. will end the grandstanding projects of dubious value to meet liberal political needs. This will be replaced by investment in clean water, efficient sewage, working roads, safe access for women and the disadvantaged and local specialist retail. There will be no neglect of small town or rural infrastructural needs. The import of identity politics into our small towns will no longer be financed by rates.
• POLICE, JUDICIARY, DEFENCE & SECURITY: The Worker’s Party 1) pledges to support free speech by tackling buro-fascism, a distinctive type of fascism of legislation, regulation, lawfare, cultural engineering and attempting to ‘chill’ dissent through police action. The party will undertake a review of all legislation and regulation to define only what is strictly harmful speech (intimidation and bullying rather than robust opinion) as well as all the emergency powers and related regulation that the State has provided itself with in order to repress any attempt at a fundamental change in the capitalist system. We will make it a criminal offence to deny a political organisation or individual a platform. 2) while determined to weed out organised crime infiltration, corruption and incompetence in our police service, also recognises the frustration of many police officers that bureaucratic systems and political decisions are weakening their ability to function and their relationship with working class communities. We will overhaul liberal laws that weaken the ability of the police to protect the most vulnerable while continuing to ensure appropriate civil liberties protections. 3) will increase police capacity in high crime areas, increase funding and capacity for operations targeting organised crime (including human trafficking and fraud gangs and witness protection arrangements) and seek to shift sentencing guidelines to target organised crime leaders and rehabilitate ‘soldiers’ trapped in their system. 4) will work to expand the social care system and integrate it with national policing (as well as with the NHS and educational system) precisely in order to relieve police officers of having to become social workers in default of sufficient resources. 5) will also give the police greater statutory independence from political interference or by the security services in their lawful enforcement operations, while making greater statutory demands on their own ethical conduct in office with non-political community scrutiny in selected crime hot spots. 6) promises to monitor the effects of AI, institute a national debate on risks and benefits, and develop policies that ensure that AI products and services and block-chain based cryptocurrencies, and contract systems, operate wholly in the interests of the working classes. 7) upholds the right to peaceful protest, free speech and resistance to attempts by authority to ‘chill’ legitimate opposition through surveillance, fear and misuse of the law. 8) are committed to an independent but also a wholly de-politicised judiciary and to the democratisation of access to justice through a fully funded and independent national legal support service for working households in their disputes with service providers and in dealing with anti-social behaviour. We want to see more magistrates of working class origin. 9) will endeavour to have open diplomatic relations with all countries regardless of their traditions or values. Whilst we are not pacifists, we are peaceable. Diplomacy and negotiation will be the first resort on every occasion that the potential for conflict arises. 10) will also ensure that we are prepared for conflict should it arise. Our armed forces will be highly trained and equipped with modern, reliable weaponry and equipment. Any threat to our country or our interests will be met with a highly effective military response. The Workers Party will carry out a top-down review of the Royal Navy, Army, and Air Force to ensure that their structures are lean and efficient. Any savings made from restructuring the leadership and administration of our armed forces will be spent on delivering weaponry and equipment for personnel on the front line. 11) oppose the senseless slaughter of working class soldiers and oppose the conscription of the working class for war with Russia or China. They believe that Service personnel should be held in high regard for their service, both in government and society, and this should be reflected in the pay, pension, and benefits they receive. All military personnel who are employed by the UK government will receive the same pay, pension, and benefits for their rank regardless of their country of origin or the regiment or service they are in. These same personnel will have the right to reside in the UK if it is their wish to do so. 12) The way that our armed forces procure weapons, equipment and uniform will undergo a comprehensive review, putting an end to the misuse of public money. Legislation will be passed to allow procurement from UK manufacturers as a priority, of the best most up-to-date equipment and uniform, whilst delivering the best value for money. 13) Service personnel who have been injured through fighting for our country should and will receive free care for the time that it is needed. Injured service personnel will have priority access to NHS services when discharged. Our service personnel will not be forgotten. 14) If a new fully-funded Veterans Administration is required, we will create it.
• DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT: The Worker’s Party 1) disapproves of financial institutions, particularly from overseas, focused on making ever increasing profits by leaching billions out of our proud football clubs, exploiting the traditions that uphold the beautiful game, pricing working class fans out of the game and, often, leaving our clubs burdened with debt, backed by the land assets that really interest foreign investors. The party propose instead to introduce a fan-owned model for football clubs. Fan owned clubs would make clubs sustainable as they would re-invest money for further development. This would have an additional benefit of creating a more democratic, transparent and accountable structure that would deliver greater social value for the local communities in which they operate. We will also encourage local community engagement to discover new sports talent (and not only in football) and restore playing fields to local communities. 2) will also undertake a review of media ownership with a view to banning foreign ownership of the means of communication and information where it is clear that owners are interfering directly or through algorithms in free debate, or are acting as agents under the instructions of foreign interests.
• MONARCHY: The Worker’s Party 1) Sees the Crown is a problem. They see it as the heir to feudalism and is used as cover for maintaining the capitalist structures that exploit and manipulate the population. But we also recognise that the identity of many British workers, including many who see it as guarantor of an ethos of service to the community, is bound up with tradition and that this tradition includes allegiance to the Crown. This is sincere and to be respected. Consequently, they want to the British people to have a referendum on the future of the monarchy. The precise question will be informed by rational public debate. 2) believe, in the event the public are persuaded to vote against keeping the monarchy, that we should not  have a form of Republic that simply replaces the Monarch with a billionaire or ex-Prime Minister whose sole purpose is to maintain the current system in aspic. Instead, we should work towards creating a collective socialist democracy. Across the board, we will widen and deepen democracy and transfer as much of the royal prerogative back to the representatives of the people as is possible. We reject the State’s misuse of the Crown to give itself excessive powers at our expense. We will ask those questions once asked by Tony Benn of every person with power at hand: What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you? These are questions we want everyone to ask about their situation and the WPB exists to ask those questions on behalf of the working class.
• ELECTORAL REFORM: The Workers Party 1) back proportional representation but only if it can be structured to ensure that political parties cannot ‘fix’ their lists under the control of their own elites. They believe that there is a democratic deficit in our country, which they see as a con job in which populations get one chance every few years to choose between professional politicians who have more in common with each other than they do with us. 2) will introduce a new Act regulating political parties to ensure no foreign influence, but supporting stronger internal democracy, higher penalties for corruption and easier recall arrangements. 3) will reform the House of Lords to exclude professional politicians who have made a career in the Commons 4) will introduce more regional, trades union and technical expert voices able to scrutinise legislation swiftly and knowledgeably who are wholly unconnected to the Executive. 5) will explore measures to increase working class representation not only through the Workers Party of Britain but through increased political education initiatives directed at working class communities encouraging wider community participation enabled by social incentives such as adequate child care and earnings support. 6) rejects opportunists or careerists in favour of responsive and accountable representatives who are capable and committed and who can be recalled if they fail in their task.
• FOREIGN POLICY: The Workers Party 1) will reverse British foreign policy which has been dynastic and then capitalist for centuries. 2) rejects a foreign policy that invariably ends up with us either bombing or supporting the bombing of the innocent in defence of so-called liberal and democratic values. Most of this is just cover for the profits of bankers and arms dealers. 3) is unashamedly anti-imperialist and is in favour of a foreign policy that does the right thing in the interests of ordinary British people and their counterparts across the world. 4) oppose all war that is not defensive in purpose and deplore all forms of racist discourse but especially, at this moment in history, an ignorant Islamophobia as well as the whipping up of hysterical Sino- and Russophobia. 5) deplores the global misbehaviour of American imperialism, but recognises that the American people are as trapped as we are by corrupt systems of party and corporate control. 6) will undertake a thoroughgoing review of our defence and foreign policy and we will definitely re-orient Britain away from Washington especially where we are placed in constant confrontation with the enemies of US corporate interests, like the profit-seeking international military-industrial interests with a stake in war. 7) We will become independent trading partners developing friendly relations with the BRICS, the rising powers of the world who are building a new multipolar world. 8) Will continue to support liberation movements. 9) is for all peace-loving nations having the right to create their own path towards democratic socialism, without foreign interference. 10) will seek radical reform of the United Nations to empower it as genuine representative of the global community and help it to resist the domination of Washington which only undermines its prestige and influence. 11) On Ukraine, we condemn the expansionary provocation of NATO in alliance with another ethno-nationalist government that throws its own people into a perpetual meat grinder. We will withdraw all military support from war zones and work for a negotiated and peaceful settlement whenever and wherever war breaks out. 12) unapologetically supports Palestine and the people of Gaza during the brutal onslaught carried out by Israel with full support from the US and Britain, politically backed by Labour and Tories alike. Thousands of children have been killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced. Your Party is clear that these actions amount to ethnic cleansing and brutal treatment of the Palestinian people. The party also believes that powerful forces, chiefly the US and Britain, have brought about, sustained and nourished the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the denial of Palestinian statehood despite every international plan and UN resolution, and believes that the United States is the chief beneficiary of the current chaos engulfing the Middle East, and of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Consequently, the Workers Party believes that the future is now One State: Israël – Palestine or Palestine-Israël or the Holy Land and support the right of return for all those Palestinians ethnically cleansed over many years, as well as an immediate end to Israeli settlement on the West Bank.
• IMMIGRATION: The Workers Party 1) agrees that migration does place some undue burdens on local services, especially where we see a disproportionate herding of migrants into poorer parts of the country, and recognises there is there is also the additional cost of hosting escalating numbers of asylum seekers, but makes a distinction between refugees and migrants. Migrant workers fill gaps in the labour market e.g. inadequate numbers of trained nurses. However, believes that there is an issue over immigrants depressing wages and proposes to address this through ‘long term labour reforms’ in the interest of all, not by immigration quotas. 2) believes that refugees, (i.e. those claiming asylum), while representing only about 10% of inflow, pose greater immediate challenges in terms of ‘publicly funded’ absorption. The party blames British imperialism for the flow of poor people into our country, repressing wage rates, and unable to deal with the consequences of its own warmongering. Most asylum seekers come from countries that have been impoverished by US, EU and British sanctions, often following Western military action against them or their use of proxy militias to destabilise these countries. As such, the Workers Party are in favour of ending wars of aggression, lifting all sanctions on developing countries, ending funding of proxy militias, removing unfair trading practices which hamper economic development in poorer countries. 3) will undertake a major diversion of resources from the military-industrial complex and from inappropriate investment in NATO towards domestic defence and security structures, national social infrastructure and targeted international development. 4) will undertake investment in border security, including heightened sea-going and coastal patrols, but also in fair and equitable visa and citizenship arrangements that discourage organized crime and help the most vulnerable to a new life as well as ensuring that migration flows are matched to the ability of local communities to absorb new entrants. 5) will make a regular calculation of the sustainable levels of migration with entry directed primarily at the protection of those most placed at harm by the operations of foreign state terrorism and war and discouraging economic migrants except in areas of demonstrable labour shortage. 6) will rebuild social infrastructures to match the requirements not just of the working class as a whole but to take account of migrants and refugees who meet legislated status requirements – housing, schools, healthcare, social care. This will mean a commitment to the full funding of local authorities in their efforts to provide a wide range of high-quality services for everyone in the community, including refugees as soon as their status is accepted, with follow up fast tracking to citizenship that screens out criminals. 7) will invest in training for refugees to fill gaps in the provision of services to the wider population as respected members of the working class and in technical skills to support the use of new technologies for all workers rather than be complicit in driving down wage rates. 8) will divert a significant portion of the funds saved from the excessive scale of the military-industrial and oppressive security structures to development projects that target the most vulnerable populations in the rest of the world. 9) will challenge global neo-liberalism and global debt and free trade agreements that impoverish overseas working populations while building local middle classes at their expense. Under the WPB, the UK will cease exploiting the world and work with the BRICS to share resources and skills for the betterment of humanity.

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