Labour Party Manifesto 2010 Introduction

Labour Party Manifesto 2010 General Election Introduction

The argument of this Manifesto is that to deliver a future fair for all we need to rebuild our economy, protect and reform our public services as we strengthen our society and renew our politics. We, Labour, are the people to carry out this next stage of national renewal because of our values and our understanding of the role of government: to stand by ordinary people so they can change their lives for the better. It is our belief that it is active, reforming government, not absent government, that helps make people powerful.

We are proud of our country and the way it has changed since 1997. It is just too easy to forget. Our public services were a byword for decline; today they have been transformed. Our large cities were reeling from two savage recessions; today, despite the global economic crisis, they have a renewed prosperity and civic pride. People were paid £1 an hour; today the minimum wage and tax credits provide the dignity of a living income. The welfare state simply did not understand working women and families. Today, with family-friendly working and better childcare it has at last begun to do so.

These changes happened because we applied our values to the world as it was then. We changed our party so that it connected to the hopes and aspirations of the British people.

We changed our country because we rejected the philosophy of the 1980s which said that government should just get out of the way and that we were in it just for ourselves.

We are proud of our record but today we are running for the future. We have to address a world that is very different now, with major new challenges we must confront: fighting for our economic future in a tough competitive world, tackling climate change, improving public services amidst financial constraint, confronting the reality of international terrorism, adjusting to an ageing society so people can live longer and happier lives, and restoring trust in politics.

The global financial crisis shows we need to be bolder about reforming our financial markets and building our economic future on fairer, more solid foundations. To build on success in our public services, we need to protect investment in the front line and also be bold about putting citizens genuinely in control. And we must be bold reformers of our politics: seizing this once in a generation opportunity to make our Parliament properly accountable.

In all these decisions, we offer progressive solutions in tough times. We do not measure the boldness of our programme by how much we spend but the results we achieve. By taking hard decisions, being guided at all times by a sense of fairness, we believe that we can continue to advance towards the good society in which we believe.

There is a big choice at this election about whether we confront these challenges and build the kind of economy, society and politics we believe in, or duck them. But to be able to meet these future challenges, there are some immediate decisions we need to get right now. Above all, we need to secure the economic recovery.

Get it right and we can go on to build a strong economic future. Get it wrong and we will slip back into recession.

Labour believes we must not put the recovery at risk by reckless cuts to public spending this year.

From the autumn of 2008, big calls had to be made. We nationalised Northern Rock, protected people’s savings, cut VAT to stimulate our economy, put in place job guarantees to get people back to work, and stepped in to stop repossessions.

It is working. The banking system has been stabilised. Our economy is showing signs of returning to growth.

Unemployment has, so far, risen by over 500,000 less than people expected this time last year. Repossessions are at around half the level of the 1990s. The question at this election is whether people think the choice we made was the right one and whether we use the power of government to help sustain recovery, or allow it to be snuffed out. Every government of the major developed economies – of Left and Right – recognises the need to support the economy while growth is still fragile. We will not cut spending this year, but instead support the economy to ensure recovery is established.

Labour believes we should rebuild our economy in new ways: with more high-tech business, fairer rewards and responsibility from all, including at the top.

The world changed out of all recognition in 2007 with the onset of the global economic crisis. Major British banks, the custodians of our savings and livelihoods, ran out of money because of the recklessness of those in charge. This Manifesto makes the case that there should be no return to business as usual.

People have suffered too much with their jobs, livelihoods and confidence to allow a return to the same old ways. There is a desire not simply to correct for what went wrong, but to seize the opportunity to build anew.

Financial services have been an essential job creator in Britain and will continue to be so. But our financial institutions left to themselves have undermined our economy. We are enacting sweeping banking reform to prevent a repeat of the past; ensuring new support for the high-tech industries of the future, such as green industries; and taking action to forge a new culture of long-termism in business.

It isn’t markets or governments that create wealth – people do, through their own effort and hard work. So we will do more to support enterprise and to help those who want to build up a business and get on in life. Those who can work must do so and it needs to be properly valued. We will end for good the concept of a life on benefit by offering all those unemployed for more than two years work they must accept, and we will make work pay better with the goal of a minimum wage rising at least in line with average earnings and a guarantee that people will be better off in work than on benefit.

As we more than halve the fiscal deficit over the next four years, we will ensure that we do so in a fair way with a combination of a return to economic growth, cuts to lower priority programmes and fair tax rises. Responsibility at the top means people paying their fair share and we believe it is right that those with the broadest shoulders bear the greatest burden of paying down the deficit.

Labour believes we should protect frontline spending on childcare, schools, the NHS and policing, and reform our public services to put people in control.

Millions of people working in our public services embody the best values of Britain, helping empower people to make the most of their own lives while protecting them from the risks they should not have to bear on their own. Just as we need to be bolder about the role of government in making markets work fairly, we also need to be bold reformers of government.

For a decade we have combined investment and reform and improved our public services. Now we need to rise to the challenge of achieving even higher standards in a period of constrained resources. We will drive forward our programme to strip out all waste, improve efficiency and get the most out of every pound spent. We recognise that investing more in priority areas will mean cutting back in others. Above all we will build public services that are more personal to people’s needs: with clear guarantees about standards, the best providers taking over others where they don’t make the grade, and with new ways of organising services such as mutuals.

In health, this means if we don’t meet our guarantees, for example on waiting lists, the NHS will fund you to go private. In education it means that if the local school is underperforming it will be taken over; and parents who believe their school is not good enough can trigger a ballot to change the leadership. And in policing, where communities are being let down by forces we will enable them to be taken over by others.

Labour will strengthen our society, by protecting the things people value and demanding rights and responsibilities from all.

Our society is not broken; it is strong in many different ways. But it is changing fast. Changing with immigration, changing as people move more frequently, as young people grow up more quickly and older people live longer.

We will protect the things people value: families, strong communities, local institutions.

We will create a new settlement in our country on how we care for the elderly through the creation of a National Care Service, and fathers will have more time off to spend with their kids. There will be greater protection for the local institutions people value, like local post offices and pubs. In everything we do, we will demand the responsibilities that must come with rights: to work when you can, not to abuse your neighbour or neighbourhood, to show respect for Britain as a newcomer, to pay your fair share of tax.

Labour proposes radical reform of our democracy to reconnect politics to the people it should serve. Just as the global economic crisis was a shock to our economic system; the expenses crisis created turmoil in our political system. It revealed not just unacceptable behaviour by some MPs but also that our closed political system had lost touch with people. Once again, the response cannot be to try and return to business as usual.

We need fundamental reform of our politics to make it more accountable. We will let the people decide how to reform our institutions and our politics: changing the voting system and electing a second chamber to replace the House of Lords. But we will go further, introducing fixed-term parliaments, banning MPs from paid second jobs that pose a conflict of interest, and providing for a free vote in Parliament to widen the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds.

In 1997 New Labour met the call of national renewal. In our politics and economy over the last 18 months, we have witnessed seismic events. In this election, the first of the post-crisis era, we stand as the people with the experience, values and ideas to help our country through the next phase of national renewal. This task has always relied on optimism. Our principle opponents, the Conservatives, offer a fundamentally pessimistic vision of national decline: about Britain today and in the future.

Their only real prescription for the good society is a smaller state and the decisions they seek to make for our country would favour the privileged few over the many. They would isolate Britain, cutting us adrift from the alliances and influence that will enable us to succeed as a country.

This is a Manifesto that is idealistic about what is possible but realistic about how to achieve it. This is not a conservative moment. It is a progressive moment. We speak for the ordinary people of this country who work hard, want their kids to do better than them, and worry about the economic, environmental and social challenges we face. We are on their side, it is their voice, needs and hopes that shape this programme.

Securing Britain’s future

The plans set out in this Manifesto take full account of the fiscal position we face. We will protect frontline public services while meeting our commitment to halve the deficit over the next four years.

We are now emerging from the global financial crisis. It has had a lasting effect on tax receipts, here in the UK and across the world. We are sticking to our spending plans this year so that support for families and businesses remains as we secure the recovery. But from 2011-12, as growth takes hold, spending will be tighter.

The Manifesto reflects the tough choices that we will make to secure Britain’s future in a way that is fair to all:

* Tough choices for £15 billion efficiency savings in 2010-11.

* Tough choices on cutting government overheads: £11 billion of further operational efficiencies and other cross-cutting savings to streamline government will be delivered by 2012-13.

* Tough choices on pay: action to control public-sector pay including a one per cent cap on basic pay uplifts for 2011-12 and 2012-13, saving £3.4 billion a year, and new restrictions on senior pay-setting. Tough decisions on public sector pensions to cap the taxpayers’ liability – saving £1 billion a year.

* Tough choices on spending: £5 billion already identified in cuts to lower priority spending.

* Tough choices on welfare: our reforms will increase fairness and work incentives, including £1.5 billion of savings being delivered.

* Tough choices on assets: £20 billion of asset sales by 2020.

* Tough choices on tax: a bonus tax, reduced tax relief on pensions for the best off, a new 50p tax rate on earnings over £150,000 and one penny on National Insurance Contributions.