GE2019: Conservative Party manifesto breakdown

We pull out the key policies from the Conservative Party manifesto, examining what they have to say on education, culture, young people and Brexit.

GE2019: Conservative Party manifesto breakdown

We pull out the key policies from the Conservative Party's manifesto, examining what they have to say on education, culture, young people and Brexit.

We have pulled out all the policies on Brexit, education, culture and young people, and detailed them below, along with the page numbers so you can check them for yourself and read additional context. 

These are just a few of many policies that the Tories are putting forward, and we encourage you to read the full manifesto to get a complete picture of what they are offering. You should also read the manifestos of the other parties – we have done the same breakdown and you can find links to all of them here.

If you haven’t already, please register to vote. The deadline to do so is 11:59pm on 26 November (17:00 if you’re registering for a postal vote). If you are looking for an explainer on the process of voting, we have a detailed guide here

This article is purely informative, and simply breaks down what the manifesto says. 

There will be no opinion provided.


Conservative Party manifesto: Get Brexit Done: Unleash Britain’s Potential

Brexit

  • ‘Get Brexit done’ (repeatedly, but p.5)
  • Start putting our deal through Parliament before Christmas and we will leave the European Union in January (p.5)
  • A new free trade agreement with the EU… based on free trade and friendly cooperation, not on the EU’s treaties or EU law (p.5)
  • No political alignment with the EU (p.5)
  • Keep the UK out of the single market, out of any customs union, and end the role of the European Court of Justice (p.5)
  • Negotiate a trade agreement next year, and not extend the implementation period beyond December 2020 (p.5)
  • Legislate to ensure high standards of workers rights, environmental protection and consumer rights (p.5)

Education

  • Already announced £14bn in funding, translating to £150m a week (p.13)
  • That figure includes £780m in new funding for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) next year (p.13)
  • Raising the starting salary for teachers to £30,000 (p.13)
  • Back headteachers to use exclusions (p.13)
  • Continue to help teachers tackle bullying… no child should be bullied on account of who their parents are or where they come from (p.13)
  • Create more great schools, expand ‘alternative provision’ schools for those who have been excluded, and deliver more school places for those with SEN (p.13)
  • Intervene in schools where there entrenched underperformance (p.13)
  • Continue to ensure parents can choose schools that best suit their children (p.13)
  • Continue to build more free schools (p.13)
  • Offer an ‘arts premium’ to secondary schools to fund enriching activities for all pupils (p.13)
  • Invest in primary school PE teaching, and promote physical literacy and competitive sport (p.13)
  • Establish a new £1bn fund to help create more high quality, affordable childcare, including before and after school and during school holidays (p.15)
  • Maintaining our commitment to free school meals (p.17)
  • Trialling new Secure Schools for offenders, and will legislate to require schools, police, councils and health authorities to work through Violence Reduction Units to prevent serious crime (p.18)
  • Back the National Citizen Service and promote it in schools (p.23)
  • Investing almost £2 billion to upgrade the entire further education college estate (p.36)
  • Will also have 20 Institutes of Technology, which connect high-quality teaching in science, technology, engineering and maths to business and industry (p.36)
  • Look at the levels of interest rates on loan repayments (p.37)
  • Address grade inflation and low quality courses, improve the application and offer system for undergraduate students (p.37)
  • Strength academic freedom and free speech in universities and continue to focus on raising standards (p.37)
  • Require the Office for Students to look at universities’ success in increasing access across all ages, not just young people entering full-time undergraduate degrees (p.37)

Culture

  • Review the Gambling Act, with a particular focus on tackling issues around loot boxes and credit card misuse (p.20)
  • Champion freedom of expression and tolerance both in the UK and overseas (p.23)
  • Maintain support for a memorial recognising the contribution of the Windrush Generation (p.23)
  • A new Towns Fund for ‘levelling up’ towns across the country. This will initially go to 100 towns to improve their local economy, and they have full autonomy over how it is spent (p.26)
  • £250m cultural capital programme to support local libraries and regional museums (p.26)
  • A £150m Community Ownership Fund to encourage local takeovers of civic organisations or community assets under threat, including pubs, football clubs and post offices (p.26)
  • Fan-led review of football governance which will include consideration of the Owners and Directors Test. They will also work to introduce safe standing at stadiums (p.26)
  • Support activities, traditions and events that bring communities together, as well as local and regional newspapers by extending their business rates relief (p.26)
  • Bring full fibre and gigabit- capable broadband to every home and business across the UK by 2025, and introduce £5bn of new public funding (p.28)
  • End the blight of rough sleeping (p.30)
  • Further reduce business rates for retail businesses, as well as extending the discount to grassroots music venues, small cinemas pubs (p.32)
  • The manifesto makes reference to The Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2022 (p.40)
  • Maintain support for creative sector tax reliefs and free entry to the UK’s national museums (p.42)
  • Support Welsh institutions such as S4C, the National Library and Museum, and the National Eisteddfod. They will also support the ambition of 1m people speaking Welsh by 2050 (p.47)

Young People

  • Prioritise stable loving placements for young people in care, with adoption where possible, or foster parents recruited by local authority (p.14)
  • Improve the Troubled Families programme (p.14)
  • Already announced an increase in the National Living Wage, currently forecast at £10.50 an hour, and widening it to everyone over 21 (p.14)
  • Already abolished employers National Insurance Contributions for under 21’s and apprentices under 25 (p.14)
  • Invest £500m in youth services (p.18)
  • Legislate to protect children from online abuse and harms, protecting the most vulnerable from accessing harmful content and ensuring there is no safe space for terrorists online (p.20)
  • The Youth Futures Foundation will invest at least £90m to improve employment outcomes for young people (p.23)
  • Long-term fixed rate mortgages which slash the cost of deposits (p.29)
  • Maintain the commitment to a Right to Buy, extend the Help to Buy scheme, simplify shared ownership products, and continue reforms to leaseholds that include implementing the ban on the sale of new leasehold homes, restricting ground rents and providing necessary mechanisms of redress for tenants (p.29)
  • Bring a Better Deal for Renters including abolishing ‘no fault evictions’ and requiring only one ‘lifetime’ deposit that moves with the tenant (p.29)
  • Commit to renewing the Affordable Homes Programme (p.30)

Read more

You can read the full Conservative manifesto for yourself, as it is available for download here.  

We have also pulled out the same policies from the other main parties, and you can find links to them all here.

Header Image Credit: Andrew Parsons/ i-Images // Flickr

Author

Tom Inniss

Tom Inniss Voice Team

Tom is the Editor of Voice. He is a politics graduate and holds a masters in journalism, with particular interest in youth political engagement and technology. He is also a mentor to our Voice Contributors, and champions our festivals programme, including the reporter team at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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