Key policies from Conservatives’ election manifesto launch

Holly Patrick

11 June 2024 at 9:54 am

Rishi Sunak launched the Conservative Party’s general election manifesto on Tuesday, 11 June.

The prime minister put tax cuts and help for first-time buyers at the heart of his pledges, with a flagship policy of cutting national insurance by a further 2p.

The latter promise has been criticised by Labour, with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting saying Mr Sunak is “taking people for fools” with the cut.

Here, The Independent takes a look at the key promises announced in today’s launch.

The Telegraph
‘This wasn’t a debate, it was a medical emergency’: Our writers give their verdicts
Follow the latest reaction in our live blog
The Telegraph
Blair has raised the alarm over the flaw at the heart of the Starmer project
When it all starts to go wrong for Keir Starmer, Tony Blair will at least be able to say that he sounded the alarm early. “People are elected on the basis that they are changemakers, because they’ve articulated a general vision for change,” he complained in an interview this week. “But what does that really mean, in specific terms?... If you don’t do that hard work and really dig deep, what you end up with are just ambitions. They remain ambitions.”
HuffPost
'F**K': Jon Stewart Goes Ballistic With Unfiltered Live Reaction To Trump-Biden Debate
The "Daily Show" host said "this cannot be real life" after Thursday night's TV matchup between the current president and the former one.
The Telegraph
Labour will put your taxes up in four simple steps – and they’ve already told us how
Labour keeps nobly insisting that it won’t raise taxes for “working people”. Call me a pessimist, but I can’t help feeling this is a promise that won’t be kept.
The Telegraph
Keir Starmer is about to kill the Brexit dream for good
Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour team enjoy warm cuddly feelings about the European Union. Although Starmer has ruled out returning to the customs union or the EU’s single market, Labour says that it will improve the UK’s relationship with the EU by negotiating a veterinary agreement to reduce border checks and seeking mutual recognition agreements allowing touring artists and professionals to export their services to the EU.
HuffPost
Biden Campaign Has Just 3 Words After Trump Seems To Leak Debate Talking Points
The former president's post marked a change from his previous remarks about climate change.
The Telegraph
Who won the BBC general election TV debate? Our writers give their verdicts
How did Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer – the two men who could be prime minister at the end of next week – fare in their final face-to-face clash of the campaign? Our commentators Tim Stanley and Tom Harris give their verdicts.
Manchester Evening News
'Outrage' at Reform UK candidate's Falklands War comments
John Kelly is standing to become Hazel Grove's MP
The Independent
‘Are you two really the best we’ve got?’: Election summed up with excruciating question to Sunak and Starmer
Both leaders sheepish as audience loudly applauded question
HuffPost
Marjorie Taylor Greene Melts Down Over Australian TV’s Trump Question, Gets Cut Off
“What is this?” fumed the far-right Georgia Republican, who suggested the anchor was getting her “marching orders from the Democrat Party.”
Evening Standard
OPINION - Keir Starmer crossed a big line when he called Rishi Sunak a liar — he shouldn't have done it
Now, the issue here isn’t the truthfulness or accuracy of Rishi Sunak’s claims about Labour’s tax plans: I quite accept that those claims are, to put it mildly, debatable. There were a hundred circumlocutions you could use: if Sir Keir had spluttered, “that’s not true!” it would have meant exactly the same thing, but would have been entirely unproblematic. Once, scrupulous people would use the word “untruth” in denying the veracity of a statement and this too would lack the terrible force of the word “lie”, which implies a deliberate intention to deceive.
Bloomberg
China Miscalculated With Europe in Backing Russia, US Envoy Says
(Bloomberg) -- Beijing misjudged the impact on its relationship with Europe when it provided support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, America’s top diplomat in China said, as ties fray between the world’s No. 2 economy and Western democracies over the conflict.Most Read from BloombergSupreme Court Poised to Allow Emergency Abortions in IdahoSpaceX Tender Offer Said to Value Company at Record $210 BillionSupreme Court Ends OxyContin Settlement, Cracking Sackler ShieldChina’s Finance Elite Face $400,0
The Daily Beast
Trump Makes Bold Promise About War in Ukraine in Off-the-Rails Debate Rant
Donald Trump was back on his regular antics in Thursday night’s presidential debate, claiming Joe Biden was to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a war Trump promised he’d have “settled” as president-elect should he win in November. “I will have that war settled between [Vladimir] Putin and [Volodymyr] Zelensky as president-elect,” Trump said. “Before I take office on Jan. 20, I’ll have that war settled.”Trump, 78, didn’t specify how he’d bring the years-long conflict to a screeching halt, b
The Telegraph
Why the French state pension is about to bring down Macron
Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reforms have loomed over his second presidential term – and could now be his undoing.
The Telegraph
Biden is a danger to the West
We think we have problems in the UK with the apparent lack of statesmen or women to run this country, but Joe Biden’s abject performance last night in the “debate” with Donald Trump is a worry not just for the US and the UK but the whole planet. What on earth will Vladimir Putin and the other evil tyrants around the globe be making of the leader of the only global superpower? The US president struggled to string a sentence together despite days of preparation, and seems to want the golf course r
The Telegraph
Labour refuses to rule out scrapping tax-free pension allowance
Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary has refused to rule out launching a tax raid on pensions.
HuffPost UK
Gillian Keegan Suggests Sky News Presenter Doesn't 'Understand Economics' In Extraordinary Spat
The pair clashed over whether or not Liz Truss caused of the jump in inflation.
Manchester Evening News
Martin Lewis furious with Conservatives over campaign advert as he cries 'no where'
Martin Lewis had to correct the record after the Conservative Party used him in an attack ad
The Telegraph
Vladimir Putin’s latest escalation has hit far too close to home
Russian hackers have caused chaos in the NHS and put patients in danger. This month, one of the most serious cyber attacks we have ever faced hit London hospitals and GP surgeries by locking pathology service providers out of their own IT systems. This has forced more than 1,100 operations to be postponed, including cancer treatments and organ transplants. Thousands of outpatient appointments have been cancelled and vast numbers of patients’ records stolen, some of which have been published on t
HuffPost
Trump Did Say 1 True Thing At The Presidential Debate
The former president spoke about one simple, "immaculate" truth about his first term in the White House.

Latest stories