UKIP have launched their manifesto which they hope will win votes from the three main parties. Here are its key points:

The main thrust of UKIP's manifesto remains withdrawal from the European Union, membership of which they say costs the UK £120bn per year.

Along with that would go scrapping EU fishing quotas, withdrawal from the Common Agricultural Policy and much tighter controls on immigration.

However, they insist they are not simply a one-issue party and other proposals include a tax-free earnings threshold of £11,500, followed by a blanket 31% tax rate - with National Insurance scrapped.

Electoral reform proposals include the creation of "county boards" to oversee policing, education and health. Separately, they are throwing their weight behind one Labour and six Tory candidates, who they say share their scepticism on Europe.

• Maintain business links to Europe through Swiss-style free-trade agreements
• Raise tax-free threshold on income to £11,500, followed by a flat rate of 31% to replace current income tax and employees' National Insurance (NI)
• Phase out NI for employers over five years, recouping revenue through PAYE tax, corporation tax, sales tax revenue, or lower spending on welfare
• Replace VAT with a Local Sales Tax, a proportion going directly to councils. Normally pay 50% of uniform business rate to local authorities. Abolish inheritance tax at "earliest opportunity"
• Reduce public sector to 1997 size, diverting two million jobs to manufacturing and industry
• Bank of England to regulate banks, which must leave deposits at central bank when lending beyond approved limits

• Leave EU. Award only temporary work visas, using points-based system
• Immediate five-year freeze on immigration for permanent settlement, future limit on gross immigration of 50,000
• EU citizens who arrived in UK after January 2004 treated as non-EU immigrants. Non-UK citizens to have entry and exit recorded. Triple UK Border Agency staff to 30,000
• Illegal immigrants automatically deported. Those given leave to stay must sign legal "undertaking of residence" which, if breached, would allow deportation
• Hold asylum seekers in secure centres while applications processed. Repeal Human Rights Act and end government promotion of multiculturalism
• Double number of prison places and end early release, ensure life sentences are served totally in prison and set up "boot camps" for young offenders
• Abolish Crown Prosecution Service and put police in charge of taking offenders to court

The manifesto does not specify whether these policies apply across the UK or will be devolved.

• Offer all parents school vouchers, useable for state, private or faith schools
• Schools and colleges franchised to charities, parental co-operatives and businesses, governed by County Election Boards.
• Encourage new grammar and specialist schools. Introduce "Comprehensive Test" to assess merit across academic and non-academic abilities. More powers for governors and favour home education.
• More on-the-job teacher training and insistence on higher qualifications for aspiring teachers
• Scrap 50% target for young people going to university. Allow universities to choose on academic merit alone and change some back to skills and vocational colleges
• Replace student loans and tuition fees with grants.

As with education, the manifesto does not specify whether these policies apply across the UK or will be devolved.

• NHS to remain free at point of delivery. No cuts in frontline services but waste and bureaucracy reduced, with matron in charge of hospital wards and nurses trained on-the-job, rather than at universities
• Revamp NHS management structure, introducing elected County Health Boards made up primarily of healthcare professionals
• Key NHS services put out to tender, with charities and businesses taking franchises on key services with fixed budgets
• Introduce Health Credit Vouchers, allowing people to opt-out of the NHS if they want private insurance
• Restore free eye tests and dental check-ups

• Roll current state pension, Pensions Credit and Winter Fuel Allowance into a flat-rate, non-contributory Citizen's Pension worth at least £130 a week for all people aged 65 and over
• Freeze public sector pensions, bringing them "back into line with typical private sector pension provision".
• Roll benefits into a single, flat-rate Basic Cash Benefit, set at the same weekly rate as Jobseeker's Allowance or Income Support, which could be claimed by part-time and temporary workers until they earn £11,500
• Benefits are only available to UK citizens or those who have lived here for at least 5 years

• Hold referendum where 5% of local or national electorate demand one
• Retain national assemblies but replace representatives with Westminster MPs from those areas; MPs to spend one week a month on devolved business and rest of time at Westminster; English MPs meet in Westminster for English-only days
• Public right to recall MPs in exceptional circumstances, such as abuse of expenses
• Introduce "Alternative Vote Plus", with 450 MPs elected after earning at least 50% of constituency preferences, with 200 MPs elected by PR system

• Increase nuclear power to up to 50% of energy needs. Support efficient UK coal extraction for use in cleaner coal power stations
• Repeal Climate Change Act and allow wind farms to be constructed only off-shore, abolishing EU carbon cap schemes, emissions trading, landfill taxes and renewable subsidies
• Support use of electric cars, ensure "comprehensive electrification" of rail lines and introduce three high-speed lines linking London to the Midlands, northern England and Birmingham
• Invest in roads, new bypasses and widening major roads
• Introduce a "Britdisc", payable by foreign lorries using British roads,
• Incentivise use of 800,000 empty homes
• Prevent foreign interests "gaining control of strategic British companies"
• Safeguard British weights and measures and provide "proper support" to the Royal Mail and Post Office

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version