The UK Independence Party’s 76 page manifesto, titled ‘Believe in Britain’, was revealed today by party leader Nigel Farage in Thurrock, Essex.
Here are the key points of the party’s manifesto.
Immigration
- The UK would leave the European Union
- An Australian-style points system
- Five year bans on unskilled immigration
- Migrants will only be eligible for benefits after paying tax and national insurance for five years
- Migrants must have approved health insurance
- Stop the granting of “permanent leave to remain” status
- Bring back the “primary purpose rule” to put a stop to sham marriages
Education
- Remove tuition fees for students studying approved degrees in science, technology, engineering, medicine and maths if they practise and work and pay tax in the UK for five years after graduating
- Enforce restrictions on class limits and decrease the amount of paperwork for teachers
- Abolish teachers’ performance-related pay
- Scrap key stage 1 SATs, set at the age of seven
- EU students will pay the same fees as international students
- Support “age-appropriate” sex and relationship education in secondary schools, but not for primary school pupils
- Support right of parents to home-school their children
- Funding for free schools
Health:
- Put an extra £3 billion into England’s NHS each year
- Open GPs’ surgeries at least one evening a week
- Start up programmes in English hospitals to put GPs on duty in A&E departments seven days a week
- Funding for 8,000 more GPs, 20,000 more nurses, 3,000 more midwives
- Fund a the construction of a dedicated, fully staffed military hospital
- Invest £130 million a year into researching and treating dementia by 2017
- Introduce a duty on all health service staff to report low standards of care
Housing:
- Create one million new homes by 2020 in a planned brownfield building revolution
- Removal of stamp duty on the first £250,000 for new homes constructed on these sites
- Stop non-British nationals from accessing Right to Buy or Help to Buy initiatives
Economy:
- Abolish inheritance tax
- Increase personal allowance to £13,000
- Axe the Barnett formula, replace it with a “needs-based” system
- Increase the transferable tax allowance to £1,500 for married couples and civil partners
- By leaving the EU, end the practice of businesses paying tax in whichever EU or associated country they choose
Business and employment:
- British citizens to be employed by British businesses first
- Create 6,000 new jobs in the police, UK Border Force and the prison service
- Decrease business rates for small businesses
- Keep zero-hour contracts but enforce a binding code of conduct
- Offer 30 minutes’ free parking in town centres, high streets and shopping parades
Law and order:
- Deport foreigners who commit crimes in Britain
- Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a “British bill of rights”
- Raise frontline personnel by 3,500 into the police and prisons services
- Remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European court of human rights
Welfare:
- Child benefit will only be paid to children who live in the UK permanently
- Limit future child benefit to the first two children only
- Ex-service personnel to have priority in social housing
Transport:
- Foreign trucks required to contribute to the maintenance of UK roads and fuel duty
- Remove toll roads and oppose “pay as you go” road charging schemes
Energy:
- Support the development of fracking
- Repeal the Climate Change Act
- Axe “green taxes”
- Withdraw from EU’s emissions trading scheme
- Establish a commission to investigate the rejuvenation of the coal industry
Political reform:
- National referendums to be held every two years on the most important issues to the public
- Campaign to introduce a new proportional voting system
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