Labour Party manifesto 2024: Keir Starmer’s election promises

Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer

The Labour Party’s blueprint for Britain promises tax increases of £8.3 billion and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Bearing the simple slogan “Change”, Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto included “no tax surprises” for National Insurance, VAT, income and corporation tax.

Labour is on course to win 410 seats in the general election as the Conservatives may be reduced to their worst ever result, the official election exit polls predicted after polls closed on Thursday.

The expected supermajority came after a month of frenzied campaigning by Sir Keir, who has attempted to position the party as one that is fiscally responsible and able to drive growth.

But concerns were raised about the extent of new taxation required to fund Labour’s plans.

Here The Telegraph sets out the pledges made by the party in its 131-page manifesto. 

NHS and social care

  • Hit 18-week waiting time target by end of first term

  • Two million more operations, scans and appointments in first year

  • Train thousands more doctors, nurses and midwives

  • Specialist mental health support in every school

  • Extra 700,000 dentist appointments and supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds

  • New “neighbourhood health centres” with joined-up services

Labour has pledged to put the NHS “once again at the cutting edge of healthcare” by reforming the health service rather than “pouring ever-increasing amounts of money” into it.

The party would tackle the “massive” waiting list backlog as an immediate priority by adding an extra two million operations, scans and appointments in the first year, achieved by paying NHS staff more to work overtime and boosting weekend availability.

These policies formed the basis of Sir Keir’s second key pledge to cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments each week. He also aims to hit the NHS target of treating patients within a maximum wait of 18 weeks by the end of his first term, meaning by 2029.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said a Labour government would get the NHS to buy thousands of beds from care homes, to “unblock” the system, while expanding use of private hospitals for state-funded operations.

In a shake-up of primary care, the party would trial “neighbourhood health centres” to bring together a wide range of services – including doctors, nurses, care workers and mental health specialists – to cater for millions of patients overloading A&E units.

Labour’s manifesto also includes a pledge to create “shared waiting lists” among neighbouring hospitals to “allow patients to be treated quicker” and use “spare capacity” in private hospitals to bring down waiting lists in the short term.

The party vowed to “bring back the family doctor” by paying GPs more to ensure patients can see a clinician of their choice and “end the 8am scramble” by better utilising the NHS app in a wider plan to modernise the health service.

The app will be upgraded for users to sign up for clinical trials, check local hospitals’ performance and receive notifications on health checks as the manifesto says “a system reliant on pagers and fax machines is not fit for this decade”.

Labour is also looking to provide an extra 700,000 urgent dentist appointments each year, introduce supervised tooth brushing in schools for three to five-year-olds, offering “golden hellos” of £20,000 to newly qualified dentists agreeing to work in understaffed areas.

To tackle the mental health crisis, the party would introduce specialist support in every school and open-access hubs for young people in every community. The number of CT and MRI scanners would also be doubled to reduce cancer wait times.

The party is committed to delivering on the Tories’ promise to build “40 new hospitals” – as set out in Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto – and conduct an assessment of all capital projects to identify inefficiencies.

Labour will double the number of medical school spaces to 15,000 – a target also proposed by the NHS and endorsed by the Government – and provide 10,000 extra nursing and midwifery placements.

To boost staff retention, the party would “consider the case for looking more broadly at how public sector pay is set” with the possibility of a “target scheme” to incentivise senior doctors to stay in work.

The Labour document includes a promise to “reset relations” with NHS staff following debilitating strikes by nurses, junior doctors and paramedics.

Contrary to reports, the manifesto does not include a pledge to lower the retirement age for ambulance drivers after GMB, a Labour-affiliated union, campaigned for the age to be reduced to 60.

Elsewhere, the manifesto says the party will end new HIV cases by 2030, halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between England’s richest and poorest regions, and reform gambling regulation to reduce “gambling-related harm”.

As part of a “prevention first” approach, Labour wants to ban the promotion of junk food to young people and energy drinks for under 16s, as well as back the Tories’ incremental ban on smoking.

The party would establish fully-funded breakfast clubs in every primary school in England and implement a compulsory “balanced and broad national curriculum with a wide range of physical activities”.

Sir Keir Starmer serves ice cream to day trippers on Barry seafront in South Wales after launching Labour's six steps for change in Wales
Sir Keir Starmer serves ice cream to day trippers on Barry seafront in South Wales after launching Labour's six steps for change in Wales - Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

It would also introduce stricter legal targets on air pollution and oversee the retrofitting of millions of homes to help keep them free of damp, while guaranteeing the right to sick pay from day one to minimise the spread of illness in the workplace.

At the same time, Labour would work towards a locally delivered “National Care Service” and introduce a “fair pay agreement collectively negotiated across the sector” to tackle staff shortages in the sector.

To raise standards, it would require all providers to demonstrate financial sustainability and responsible tax practices, to value their staff, and to deliver high quality care before they are allowed to receive contracts from local authorities.

Sir Keir would also give care home residents a legal right to see their loved ones and support unpaid carers by offering them paid family carer’s leave.

Labour originally said that much of the health plan would be paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status, but the strategy was thrown into disarray when Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, announced the same move at the Spring Budget.

The party has since said it will pay for NHS improvements by going further than the Tories and closing an inheritance tax loophole for non-doms, while cracking down on tax avoidance.


Tax

  • Close inheritance tax loophole for non-doms

  • Crack down on tax-avoiders

  • Impose VAT on private school fees

  • No rise in income tax, national insurance or corporation tax

  • Overhaul business rates and review tax reliefs

Sir Keir’s first pledge featured a vow to keep taxes “as low as possible”, without committing to specific cuts. But the Labour manifesto includes £8.6 billion of tax rises.

To date, the party’s tax policy has been vague and this continues within the manifesto, in which only one year’s worth of policy costs are provided despite Sir Keir repeatedly insisting all his plans would be “fully costed”.

Labour defended the decision to provide just one year of numbers, saying it had chosen the point at which the spending required would be highest.

The party claims abolishing non-dom status and reducing tax avoidance will raise £5.23 billion, that forcing private schools to pay VAT will raise £1.5 billion and that closing a carried interest tax loophole will raise £565 million.

A further £40 million will come in from increasing stamp duty on house purchases by non-UK residents by 1 per cent, while a windfall tax on oil and gas will generate £1.2 billion.

It plans to “modernise HMRC and change the law to tackle tax avoidance”, stop offshore trusts being used to avoid inheritance tax and end performance-related pay in private equity being treated as capital gains.

Corporation tax will be capped at the current level of 25 per cent for the entirety of the next Parliament and the Labour Party says it will not “increase taxes on working people”.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, ruled out any new tax rises and promised never to “play fast and loose” with the country’s finances in May. She committed to not hiking income tax, National Insurance or VAT.

Tax increases already announced by Labour include extending the windfall tax on energy companies’ profits, imposing VAT on private school fees and ensuring that private equity bonuses are “taxed appropriately”.

As mentioned, Ms Reeves promised to scrap the “non-domiciled” regime allowing people living in Britain to avoid paying UK tax on money they make overseas for up to 15 years. After this policy was snatched by the Tories, she promised to close the inheritance tax loophole for non-doms.

Sir Keir has made clear his intention to reduce the tax burden on “working people”, while Ms Reeves has hinted at cuts for high earners, vowing to ensure “success is celebrated” under a Labour government.

She has said she has “no plans” for a wealth tax, but the party has explored closing a loophole for second homeowners.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir has come under increasing pressure to address a claim by the Conservatives that he is planning a £2,000 tax raid on British households.

Rishi Sunak used the figure, based in part on civil service workings, to attack the Labour leader in their first debate on ITV on June 4.

Treasury analysis, based on assumptions put forward by Tory special advisers, claimed Labour had made £38.5 billion in unfunded spending commitments, which would be equivalent to £2,094 per working household over the next four years.

Labour has rejected the analysis, claiming there were 11 errors in the assumptions, with Sir Keir dismissing the figures as “false”.

The party faced pressure in the days following the debate to raise money for public services, with Ms Reeves being pushed to increase capital gains tax and John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, refusing to rule out putting up property taxes.


Economy

  • Bid for highest sustained growth in G7

  • Tough new fiscal rules and enhanced role for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)

  • New Office for Value for Money

  • Invest heavily in green projects

  • New deal for working people

Sir Keir’s first pledge to keep taxes low was contingent on a promise to “deliver economic stability with tough spending rules, so we can grow our economy”.

The Labour manifesto claims that it is “the party of wealth creation”, in contrast with the Conservatives’ “miserable economic record” since 2010. It promises a “pro-business environment” and to support “innovation and growth” in financial services, which it says is “one of Britain’s greatest success stories”.

This draws on existing policies, with Labour having already set an aim to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7. To do this, it would adopt a new approach it has coined “securonomics”, or “modern supply side economics”.

This would involve bringing in “tough” fiscal rules with a new “enhanced role” for the OBR and establishing a new Office for Value for Money to ensure taxpayer cash is being well spent.

The party originally pledged to invest £28 billion in the drive towards a low-carbon economy every year until 2030 but has since dramatically scaled down the spending plan following sustained criticism from the Conservatives.

The proposals include a £7.3 billion national wealth fund, which would aim to “unlock billions of pounds of private investment” to support both “growth and clean energy”. The manifesto says £1.8 billion would be spent on ports, £1.5 billion on new gigafactories, £2.5 billion on steel, £1 billion on carbon capture and £500 million on green hydrogen manufacturing.

The party would also reform the planning system to fast-track “priority growth” projects, such as battery factories, labs and 5G infrastructure.

The manifesto promises to introduce a “new industrial strategy” shaped by a new Industry Strategy Council featuring business leaders and union chiefs.

It will also “replace” the existing business rates system to “level the playing field” between high street shops and large online businesses, suggesting tax rises for companies like Amazon.

Labour has also vowed to improve “rail connectivity” in northern England and form a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority to deliver new infrastructure projects. The party also wants to roll out gigabit internet and 5G mobile phone networks across the country by 2030.

The manifesto also commits to “deepen devolution settlements” with combined authorities and introduce a statutory requirement for every town and city to have a “local growth plan”.

And Labour has vowed to deliver a “new deal for working people”, featuring a “genuine living wage”, a “right to switch off”, a ban on exploitative zero hours contracts and an end to fire and rehire.

The plan has been partially rebranded as a “plan to make work pay” in a bid to not spook business. A new pledge in the manifesto is the removal of age bands in the minimum wage, meaning “all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage”.


Environment, energy and net zero

  • Clean power by 2030

  • New publicly owned energy company, Great British Energy

  • End de-facto ban on onshore wind

  • Expand windfall tax on oil and gas producers

  • Upgrade five million homes in five years

  • Extra £23.7 billion spent on green projects over first term

  • End to trail hunting

Labour’s initial vow to borrow £28 billion per year for its flagship green prosperity plan has been significantly watered down in its manifesto, as Ms Reeves admitted the sum would not be hit until at least the second half of Labour’s first term.

In a major U-turn, Sir Keir’s document downgrades the spending commitment to just £4.7 billion a year after the Labour leader admitted it was unaffordable.

The green plan, which now amounts to £23 billion over five years, would be on top of £50 billion already committed by the Tories, which Labour has promised to match.

A new, slimmed-down blueprint for a home insulation drive sees public funding reduced by nearly 80 per cent for the scheme in the manifesto from a planned £6 billion a year to just £1.3 billion.

As a result, Labour said only five million houses would benefit over the course of five years, instead of the planned 19 million across a decade.

The party’s overarching aim is to turn the UK into a “clean energy superpower”, with a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.

To help achieve this, they would set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned body that would invest in green projects like wind farms using a budget of £1.7 billion a year.

The Labour manifesto includes a pledge to end trail hunting, which it claims is being used as a “smokescreen” for illegal fox hunting, and ban the importation of puppy farming, hunting trophies and the use of snare traps.

Sir Keir also wants to tackle one million potholes on British roads each year and says low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) are a “good idea” in certain areas, leaving it up to local authorities to decide where.

Elsewhere, the manifesto pledges to overturn the de-facto ban on onshore wind in England, set councils binding deadlines to approve green energy projects and establish a “British jobs bonus” to incentivise firms to build their supply chains in the UK.

The document also turns its attention to tackling pollution in Britain’s waters. It pledges to put failing water companies in special measures, give regulators new powers to block executive bonuses and bring criminal charges against “persistent law breakers”.

The manifesto says Labour will set a target for half of food purchased by the public sector to be “locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards” and says the party will “work with farmers” to eradicate Bovine TB so the badger cull can be ended.


Education and childcare

  • Overhaul childcare system

  • Delivery of ‘more effective’ Ofsted system

  • Recruit 6,500 more teachers

  • Review school curriculum and assessment

  • New register for children in home education

  • Reform student loan repayments

  • Ban energy drinks for under 16s

Sir Keir’s sixth pledge is focused on education, with the Labour leader vowing to “recruit 6,500 new teachers in key subjects to prepare children for life, work and the future, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools”.

Labour’s plan for schools will include scrapping single-word Ofsted judgments and replacing them with “report cards”, and commissioning an expert-led review of curriculum and assessment with an emphasis on “life skills”.

It will also force multi-academy trusts to be inspected and, as mentioned above, introduce free breakfast clubs to every primary school. The party will “support” children to make sure they study a creative or vocational subject until the age of 16.

In a head-to-head debate with Mr Sunak on June 4, the Labour leader said children must learn about D-Day, ahead of the Normandy landings’ 80th anniversary, so they will understand the sacrifices made for the freedom of modern Britain.

Meanwhile, the party has said it would give the regulator new powers to monitor pupil absence rates and legislate for a new register of children in home education. Elsewhere, it has pledged to overhaul Britain’s childcare system and rethink vocational education.

The aim is to ensure half a million more children hit the early learning goals by 2030, deliver a “sustained rise” in school outcomes over the next decade, and expand “high-quality” training routes.

To build capacity in the early years sector, Labour vowed to create an extra 100,000 childcare places in 3,000 new nurseries by turning empty primary school classrooms into nurseries, targeting areas of highest need.

The party has said it will not take away new entitlements granted by the Tories, which include 15 hours of free care per week for two-year-olds.

To support older students, Labour would train more than 1,000 new careers advisers and deliver two weeks of work experience for every young person at secondary school or college.

Its industrial strategy will aim to guarantee that all 18 to 21-year-olds have training, apprenticeships or help to find work.

It would also reform the student loan repayment system to make it “fairer”, with scope for a “month-on-month tax cut” for graduates.

On tuition fees, the manifesto says “the current higher education funding settlement does not work” and that Labour will “create a secure future” for universities. But it offers no further detail of how the party will do so.

Energy drinks would also be banned for under 16s because of their high caffeine content in new plans by Labour to outlaw “toxic products” to children and have a “far more interventionist” approach to their healthcare, according to Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.


Defence

  • Boost defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP

  • Commit to Nato and nuclear deterrent

  • Review defence and security to assess needs

  • Create new armed forces commissioner

In the Labour manifesto, the party declares: “No policy commitment in pursuit of Labour’s missions matters unless we uphold the first duty of any government: to keep the country safe.”

If it wins power, Labour has said it may boost the size of the Army following its defence review, which would be held in the party’s first year in government. But there is no commitment to do so in the manifesto.

Labour says it will aim to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, matching the Government’s existing target – but it has not offered a timeframe, unlike the Conservatives’ 2030 target.

In the manifesto, Labour says it has an “unshakeable commitment” to Nato and Britain’s nuclear deterrent, in a clear departure from the Corbyn years.

It has pledged a new “triple lock” commitment to build at least four new nuclear submarines at Barrow, keep the continuous at-sea deterrent and fund any future upgrades needed to the fleet.

Labour’s manifesto also pledges to recognise a Palestinian state before peace talks are over, saying “Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people”.

The manifesto states that a “neighbouring country” – a likely reference to Israel – must not have a veto over the granting of Palestinian statehood. But the party says it remains committed to a “two-state solution” and Israel’s right to exist.

Labour has also said it will conduct a 100-day review of the security threats facing Britain upon entering government.

The joint “security sprint” exercise will be conducted with the input of MI5, the police and the civil service, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has said.

It would legislate to establish an Armed Forces commissioner as a “strong independent voice to improve service life” while ensuring military homes are fit for purpose.

John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, has also said Labour would shift procurement onto an “urgent operational footing” to support Ukraine and replenish British stocks for any future conflicts.

Labour has wholly rejected the Tories’ plans to bring back national service, claiming the Conservatives have been driven to take “desperate” action because they have “hollowed out the Armed Forces to their smallest size since Napoleon”.


Pensions

  • Commitment to the triple lock

  • Pensions review to ensure best value for savers

  • New powers for regulator to tackle under-performing schemes

Labour’s manifesto commits the party to retaining the triple lock, which raises the state pension every year in line with whichever is highest out of wage growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent.

The party has also pledged to conduct a review of the pensions system to ensure best value for savers, while giving new powers to the regulator to consolidate schemes where they are under-performing.

However, Labour has also refused to match the so-called Tory quadruple lock which would automatically raise the threshold at which retirees start paying income tax each year so that it stays ahead of the state pension.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, accused the Conservatives of “making pounds worth of commitments in this campaign out of desperation”.

“Day after day they are splurging out desperate commitments with no explanation of where the money is coming from, no explanation of how they will fund these commitments,” Mr Ashworth said.

The party has also abandoned plans to reinstate the lifetime allowance, which capped the amount that people can save into their pensions tax free, in a U-turn estimated to be worth £800 million.


Policing and crime

  • Halve serious violent crime in 10 years

  • Extra 13,000 bobbies on the beat

  • Reintroduce strengthened anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos)

  • Scrap £200 rule on shoplifting

  • New bravery medal for police killed in line of duty

  • Deliver 14,000 additional prison places by 2030

For his fifth pledge, Sir Keir vowed to “crack down on anti-social behaviour, with more neighbourhood police paid for by ending wasteful contracts, tough new penalties for offenders, and a new network of youth hubs”.

The Labour manifesto continues that theme, promising to halve serious violent crime and raise confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels, all within a decade.

Specifically, it wants to halve the level of violence against women and girls and incidents of knife crime.

To protect women and girls, the party would put rape units in every police force and domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms, as well as specialists in the court system. It would also introduce a new domestic abuse register.

To tackle knife crime, it would put youth workers into A&E departments and custody suites and set up 90 new youth hubs to give teenagers the “best start in life”.

The manifesto also says it will hold “those companies and executives personally cashing in on knife crime to account”, ban machetes and ninja swords, and create a new “criminal exploitation of children” offence to crack down on gangs who lure children into crime.

And to raise confidence in the police, Labour has pledged to recruit an extra 13,000 neighbourhood and community support officers, which it says is the “cornerstone of the British consent-based model” of policing. It would also introduce compulsory anti-racism training and a new standards regime.

Meanwhile, the party has vowed to bring back anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) to crack down on persistent offenders as part of a revived Blairite approach to tackle street crime.

Ms Cooper, a minister under Tony Blair, is set to take charge of the effort to reduce street offences and give police the power to use “respect orders” – a revamped form of Asbos – against adults for harassment, intimidating behaviour, drug use, littering and street drinking. These will ban persistent offenders from town centres.

Labour would also scrap the current £200 threshold to ensure all shoplifting crimes, no matter how small, have to be investigated by police. It will also make “fly-tippers and vandals” clean up “the mess they have created”.

And it would introduce a new bravery medal for officers who are killed in the line of duty.

To ensure more criminals are brought to justice, Labour would boost the number of crown prosecutors and force the police to recruit detectives directly from industry.

Ms Cooper has also said Labour would come up with a new strategy to fight anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Labour has also announced plans to deliver 14,000 additional prison places by 2030 if it wins the election. In its manifesto, the party describes prisons as “a breeding ground for more crime” and says it will conduct a “strategic review of probation governance” to reduce re-offending.

Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said the party would overrule local opposition from Nimbys and build more prisons to tackle the overcrowding crisis.

The party’s manifesto also vows to introduce a Hillsborough law to impose a “legal duty of candour” on public servants and authorities, as well as a new Windrush Commissioner to oversee the compensation scheme for victims of the Windrush scandal.


Migration

  • Treat people smugglers like terrorists

  • New cross-border police unit

  • Extra 1,000 caseworkers to cut asylum backlog

  • Possible returns deal with EU

  • Repeal Rwanda Bill

  • Train unemployed Britons

Sir Keir’s third pledge is to “launch a new Border Security Command with hundreds of new specialist investigators, and use counter-terror powers to smash the criminal boat gangs”.

It draws on Labour’s plan to address the small boats crisis, which has two main planks: cracking down on people-smuggling gangs, and reducing the asylum backlog.

The Labour manifesto says the British economy is “overly dependent on workers from abroad” and includes a commitment to reduce net migration – but there is no specific target.

It adds that dependence on overseas workers “in some parts of the economy” will be ended by bringing in training plans for homegrown labour in health, social care and construction.

Sir Keir has also indicated that he would be prepared to do a deal with the EU that would involve taking a quota of migrants who arrive in the bloc in exchange for the ability to return those who illegally cross the Channel to England.

The Labour leader has said he would treat people smugglers like terrorists by giving the National Crime Agency expanded powers to freeze their assets and place restrictions on their movement. He would also work more closely with Europe, creating a new cross-border police unit to “tackle gangs upstream”.

Meanwhile, Labour would recruit more than 1,000 caseworkers to cut the asylum backlog, fast-track decisions on applications from “safe” countries, namely Albania and India, and create a new returns unit, again backed by 1,000 staff, to speed up removals.

The party has vehemently opposed the Rwanda deportation scheme and vowed to repeal it.

But Sir Keir has indicated he would be willing to consider other options to divert migrants abroad. In December, he said he would look at offshore processing, used by countries such as Australia, in a significant hardening of his stance on border controls.

In his first major election speech, Sir Keir ruled out giving votes to EU citizens, in a U-turn on a previous pledge from his 2020 leadership campaign.

Labour has also ditched plans to allow asylum seekers to work six months after reaching the UK, a policy previously outlined by Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, in December 2022.

Sir Keir will stick with the current one-year time limit in line with the Tories after which asylum seekers can apply to work but only in shortage occupations.

Unemployed Britons will also be trained to do jobs normally taken by migrant workers to cut net migration, under Labour’s plans to curb Britain’s reliance on foreign labour in sectors such as care, construction and engineering.

Ms Cooper said that the current system, which gives businesses a 20 per cent discount for overseas recruitment, “basically incentivises” employers to recruit from abroad rather than up-skilling domestic workers, despite the nation’s worklessness crisis.

On June 2, Sir Keir unveiled further plans to curb net migration, promising voters: “Read my lips – I will bring immigration numbers down”.

Labour proposals include a ban on “bad bosses” who break employment law by failing to pay staff minimum wage from hiring workers from abroad, while also forcing industries applying for foreign worker visas to train British people to do the jobs first.


Housing

  • Build 1.5 million homes

  • Utilise “poor quality” green belt land

  • Set home ownership target of 70 per cent

  • New mortgage guarantee scheme

Labour’s manifesto vows to make “housing more affordable” by building 1.5 million new homes within its first five years in power, underpinned by a “blitz of planning reform”.

The central policy is to rip up “restrictive” laws to allow construction on “poor quality” green belt land. Dubbed the “grey belt”, this would include areas such as “disused car parks” and “dreary wasteland”.

The document promises to give locals “first dibs” on new homes and make permanent the Government’s mortgage guarantee scheme, which helps people buy with 5 per cent deposits.

The party will require developers to advertise new houses to locals first in a bid to curb mass purchases by foreign companies.

In its manifesto, Labour has pledged to fund more planning officers on councils, prioritise the development of “brownfield” sites, and release land from the green belt “in the right places”.

It also says Labour will build “the next generation of new towns” across the country, devolve power to local mayors to kick-start development and “deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation”.

The manifesto also vows to make “exemplary development” the “norm not the exception”.

Sir Keir has set a home ownership target of 70 per cent and promised to get more people on the housing ladder with a new mortgage guarantee scheme.

The party has also pledged to deliver the biggest boost to affordable housing “in a generation” by strengthening existing rules to prevent developers “wriggling out of their responsibilities”.


Constitutional Reform

  • Peers required to regularly turn up for work

  • Members must retire at the age of 80

  • New legislation to strip hereditary peers of their seats

  • Improved vetting of new peers

  • Streamlined process for kicking out disgraced members

Peers will be required to regularly turn up for work to keep their place in the House of Lords, according to the manifesto, and will be forced to retire at 80.

The party’s manifesto includes a commitment to “modernise” the upper chamber through methods such as stripping hereditary peers of their seats.

But it stops short of Sir Keir’s previous vow to abolish the Lords entirely, instead committing to consult the public on a potential replacement for it.

Labour would improve the vetting of new peers following a series of scandals and to streamline the process for kicking out disgraced members, under the belief that “too many peers do not play a proper role in our democracy”.

The dossier states: “Hereditary peers remain indefensible. And because appointments are for life, the second chamber of Parliament has become too big.

Almost one in five current members of the Lords are over the age of 80 – with the most elderly making up 154 out of the 795 sitting peers.

Of the rest, the bulk – amounting to 297 – are between the ages of 70 and 79.