General election 2024: manifesto comparisons

Conservative Party

Cut the cost of net zero for consumers by taking a more pragmatic approach, guaranteeing no new green levies or charges while accelerating the rollout of renewables

Mandatory National Service for all school leavers at 18, with the choice between a competitive placement in the military or civic service roles

Fund 100,000 high-quality apprenticeships for young people, paid for by curbing the number of poor-quality university degrees that leave young people worse off

Transform 16-19 education by introducing the Advanced British Standard, enabling young people to receive a broader education and removing the artificial divide between academic and technical learning

Will not raise corporation tax

Maintain the National Living Wage in each year of the next Parliament at two-thirds of median earnings

Put guidance on banning mobile phones in the school day on a statutory footing which will require all schools to operate a ban, as the best schools already do.

From this September, new teachers in priority areas and key STEM and technical subjects will receive bonuses of up to £30,000 tax-free over five years. Extend the payments to eligible teachers in our further education colleges. Support and celebrate our further education colleges.

Introduce the Advanced British Standard, a new approach to 16-19 education which will build on the best of A Levels and T Levels.

End the artificial and damaging divide between academic and technical education which has persisted for far too long. Every young person will spend more time in the classroom, learning more subjects, including English and maths to 18

Give young people the best possible start to their adult lives and going to university is not the only route to success.

Create 100,000 more apprenticeships in England every year by the end of next Parliament.

Change the law to close university courses in England with the worst outcomes for their students. Courses that have excessive drop-out rates or leave students worse off than had they not gone to university will be prevented from recruiting students by the universities regulator.

Work with universities to ensure students get the contact hours they are promised and their exams get marked.

Deliver the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, giving adults the support they need to train, retrain and upskill flexibly throughout their working lives. From the 2025 academic year, adults will be able to apply for loans to cover new qualifications. Continue to expand adult skills programmes, such as Skills Bootcamps which meet skills shortages.

Treble offshore wind capacity, to deliver low-cost, home-grown energy

As we achieve this transition to net zero, take steps to ensure the technology and infrastructure is made here in the UK.

Get to net zero on the fairest possible path and in a way that brings people with us.

Labour Party

Strike a balance between prioritising investment and the urgent need to rebuild our public finances. There will be no return to austerity.

Strengthen the role of the OBR. Every fiscal event making significant changes to taxation or spending will be subject to an independent OBR forecast.

Free breakfast clubs in every primary school.

Will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.

Act to increase investment from pension funds in UK markets. Adopt reforms to ensure that workplace pension schemes take advantage of consolidation and scale, to deliver better returns for UK savers and greater productive investment for UK PLC. Undertake a review of the pensions landscape to consider what further steps are needed to improve pension outcomes and increase investment in UK markets.

£1 billion to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture

£500 million to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen.

Cap corporation tax at the current level of 25 per cent, the lowest in the G7, for the entire parliament

Local leaders will work with major employers, universities, colleges, and industry bodies to produce long-term plans that identify growth sectors and put in place the programmes and infrastructure they need to thrive.

Establish a youth guarantee of access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds, to bring down the number of young people who are not learning or earning

Guarantee two weeks' worth of work experience for every young person, and improve careers advice in schools and colleges.

Work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030. We will invest in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and marine energy, and ensure we have the long-term energy storage our country needs. A new Energy Independence Act will establish the framework for Labour's energy and climate policies

Create higher-quality training and employment paths by empowering local communities to develop the skills people need.

Put employers at the heart of the skills system.

Guarantee training, an apprenticeship, or help to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds

Establish Skills England to bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver Labour's Industrial Strategy. Skills England will formally work with the Migration Advisory Committee to make sure training in England accounts for the overall needs of the labour market.

Committed to devolving adult skills funding to Combined Authorities, empowering local leaders to have greater control of skills development in their areas, alongside a greater role in supporting people into work.

Transform Further Education colleges into specialist Technical Excellence Colleges. These colleges will work with businesses, trade unions, and local government to provide young people with better job opportunities and the highly trained workforce that local economies need.

Reform the Conservatives' broken Apprenticeships Levy. The current rigid rules ignore vital skills and training needed to access apprenticeships. Create a flexible Growth and Skills Levy, with Skills England consulting on eligible courses to ensure qualifications offer value for money

Continue to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university.

Current higher education funding settlement does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students. Act to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK. Work with universities to deliver for students and our economy.

Give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all elections

Strengthen the rules around donations to political parties

Liberal Democrat

Increase school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year, and end the scandal of crumbling school and college buildings by investing in new buildings and clearing the backlog of repairs.

Reinstate maintenance grants for disadvantaged students

Create new Lifelong Skills Grants, giving all adults £5,000 to spend on education and training throughout their lives. Aim to increase them to £10,000 in the future

Urgently establish a standing commission to build a long-term consensus across parties and teachers to broaden the curriculum and make qualifications at 16 and 18 fit for the 21st century. This will draw on best practice such as the International Baccalaureate and ensure children learn core skills such as critical thinking, verbal reasoning and creativity.

Improve the quality of vocational education, including skills for entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Strengthen careers advice and links with employers in schools and colleges.

Introduce a Young People's Premium, extending Pupil Premium funding to disadvantaged young people aged 16-18.

Review further education funding, including the option of exempting colleges from VAT.

Support science, research and innovation in universities, including continuing to participate in Horizon Europe and joining the European Innovation Council

Give higher education institutions a statutory duty of care for their students.

Establish a review of higher education finance in the next Parliament to consider any necessary reforms in the light of the latest evidence of the impact of the existing financing system on access, participation and quality, and make sure there are no more retrospective raising of rates or selling-off of loans to private companies

Increase investment in green infrastructure, including renewable energy and zero-carbon transport, industry and housing, and give a clearer zero-carbon remit to the UK Infrastructure Bank.

Work with partners in international forums, including the OECD and the UN, to tackle international corporate tax avoidance for the benefit of all countries and make the case for increasing the global minimum rate of corporation tax to 21%

Fix the skills and recruitment crisis by investing in education and training, including increasing the availability of apprenticeships and career advice for young people.

Replacing the broken apprenticeship levy with a broader and more flexible skills and training levy

Develop National Colleges as national centres of expertise for key sectors, such as renewable energy, to deliver the high-level vocational skills

Identify and seek to solve skills gaps, such as the lack of advanced technicians, by expanding higher vocational training like foundation degrees, Higher National Diplomas, Higher National Certificates and Higher Apprenticeships

Appoint a Chief Secretary for Sustainability in the Treasury to ensure that the economy is sustainable, resource-efficient and zero-carbon, establish a new Net Zero Delivery Authority to coordinate action across government departments and work with devolved administrations

Restore international development spending to 0.7% of national income, with tackling climate change a key priority for development spending.

Green Party

Committed to the public ownership of public services, so they are run to serve us all, rather than to increase the wealth of shareholders

£40bn investment per year in the shift to a green economy over the course of the next Parliament

£12.4bn investment in skills and training, equipping workers to play a full role in the green economy

A carbon tax to drive fossil fuels out of our economy and raise money to invest in the green transition

Wealth Tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1bn. Only a tiny minority of people would pay this tax.

A carbon tax set initially at £120 per tonne of carbon emitted and rising over ten years to a maximum of £500 per tonne, would raise up to an additional £80bn.

Push the Government to transition to a zero-carbon society as soon as possible, and more than a decade ahead of 2050

An investment in the next generation is the most important investment we can make

Supporting every higher education student, with the restoration of grants and the end of tuition fees

An end to VAT on cultural activities, lowering the prices of everything from museum tickets to gigs in local pubs and making these more accessible

Will not impose further increase on the main rates of corporation tax. Advocate for windfall taxes where there is evidence that market distortions are creating risk free additional profits. Initially retaining the levy on energy companies' windfall profits and applying another on Banks following interest rates rises. This could raise £9bn a year by the end of the Parliament.

Conservative Party

Continue investing over £1.5 billion in large-scale compute clusters, assembling the raw processing power so we can take advantage of the potential of AI and support research into its safe and responsible use

Labour Party

Will back what makes Britain great: our excellent research institutions, professional services, advanced manufacturing, and creative industries

Enhance the inspection regime by replacing a single headline grade with a new report card system telling parents clearly how schools are performing.

Liberal Democrat

Reform Ofsted inspections and end single-word judgements so that parents get a clear picture of the true strengths and weaknesses of each school, and schools get the guidance and support they need to improve.

Give power to Ofsted to monitor the curriculum so that schools continue to provide a rich curriculum including subjects like art, music or drama.

Support science, research and innovation, particularly among small businesses and startups, in universities and in zero-carbon, environmental and medical technologies

Aim for at least 3% of GDP to be invested in research and development by 2030, rising to 3.5% by 2034

Green Party

Ending high-stakes testing at primary and secondary schools and abolishing OFSTED.

Principle 3: Good working conditions result in excellent outcomes for staff and students

How should we do this?

• Repeal anti-trade union legislation
• Treat postgraduate researchers (PGRs) as staff
• End the endemic casualisation in post-16 education
• Eradicate zero hours contracts and introduce measures to make secure, permanent employment the norm.
• Replace the commissioning model in prison education with a longer term, secure offer, overseen by the Department for Education
• Introduce a national contract for prison educators with transparent pay and conditions that are in line with the wider further education sector
• Review safety and protections for those working in prison education

Conservative Party

Toughen up community sentencing by increasing the use of community payback and electronic tagging, so criminals pay their debt to society and communities witness justice being served.

Build four new prisons, completing our programme of 20,000 new prison places by 2030. Make it easier to build prisons in appropriate places by scrapping legacy EU rules and streamlining the planning system.

Maintain the ban on prisoners voting from jail.

Turn criminals away from the cycle of reoffending, investing in rehabilitative services such as drug treatment, education and employment. We will deliver our ten-year drugs plan to cut crime and help people rebuild their lives away from crime.

To limit the impact of industrial action on public services and balance the ability of workers to strike with the rights of the public, continue implementing our Minimum Service Levels legislation

Labour Party

Seek involvement from industry, trade unions, and civil society in our plans for growth, so they can contribute to building a stronger economy in all parts of the country.

Strategically use public investment where it can unlock additional private sector investment, create jobs, and provide a return for taxpayers.

Introduce a new industrial strategy.

End short-term economic policy making with the establishment of an Industrial Strategy Council, on a statutory footing, to provide expert advice.

Ensure representation on the Council from all nations and regions, business and trade unions, to drive economic growth in all parts of the country.

Scrap short funding cycles for key R&D institutions in favour of ten-year budgets that allow meaningful partnerships with industry to keep the UK at the forefront of global innovation.

Create a partnership between business and trade unions, by implementing 'Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People' in full - introducing legislation within 100 days. Consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed.

Ban exploitative zero hours contracts; end fire and rehire; and introduce basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal.

Strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through their trade unions, and create a Single Enforcement Body to ensure employment rights are upheld.

Remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of workers across the UK.

Work with prisons to improve offenders' access to purposeful activity, such as learning, and ensure they create pre-release plans for those leaving custody.

Support prisons to link up with local employers and the voluntary sector to get ex-offenders into work

Liberal Democrat

Establish a powerful new Worker Protection Enforcement Authority unifying responsibilities currently spread across three agencies - including enforcing the minimum wage, tackling modern slavery and protecting agency workers

Establish a new 'dependent contractor' employment status in between employment and self-employment, with entitlements to basic rights such as minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday entitlement

Set a 20% higher minimum wage for people on zero-hour contracts at times of normal demand to compensate them for the uncertainty of fluctuating hours of work

Give a right to request a fixed-hours contract after 12 months for 'zero hours' and agency workers, not to be unreasonably refused

Review rules concerning pensions so that those in the gig economy don't lose out, and portability between roles is protected

Shift the burden of proof in employment tribunals regarding employment status from individual to employee

Expand parental leave and pay, including making them day-one rights

Break the cycle of reoffending by improving rehabilitation in prisons and on release, and strengthening the supervision of offenders in the community

End prison overcrowding

Improve the provision of training, education and work opportunities in prisons.

Replace Young Offender Institutions with Secure Schools and Secure Children's Homes

Ensure that every prison has a 'through the gate' mentorship programme

Introduce a National Resettlement Plan to improve the rehabilitation of people leaving prison and cut reoffending

Green Party

Repeal of current anti-union legislation and its replacement with a positive Charter of Workers' Rights, with the right to strike at its heart along with a legal obligation for all employers to recognise trade unions.

An increase in the minimum wage to £15 an hour, no matter your age, with the costs to small businesses offset by reducing their National Insurance payments

Equal employment rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including those working in the 'gig economy' and on zero-hours contracts.

Move to a four-day working week

In the long term, introduce a universal basic income to give everybody the security to start a business, study, train and live their life in dignity

Principle 4: Fairness and inclusion must be at the heart of our education system and our society

How should we do this?

• Commit to meaningful action on equality
• Implement all aspects of the equality act
• Make university admissions fairer
• Create a welcoming environment for international students and staff
• Take action to fully implement the recommendations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People
• Implement wider equality pay gap reporting
• Commit to a move to a post-qualification admissions for higher education entry
• Remove the requirement for educators to participate in visa monitoring
• Reduce the cost of visas and the Immigration Health Surcharge and reverse rises in minimum earnings thresholds
• Remove restrictions on students who wish to bring family members to the UK during their studies

Conservative Party

Protect female-only spaces and competitiveness in sport by making clear that sex means biological sex in the Equality Act.

Halve the amount of taxpayers' money spent on external consultants. Introduce controls on all 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' initiatives and spending.

Reform disability benefits so they are better targeted and reflect people's genuine needs, while delivering a stepchange in mental health provision.

Stop illegal migrants from bringing spurious challenges to block their removal by bringing our Illegal Migration Act into force and clearing the asylum backlog, with all claims processed in six months and the use of hotels ended.

Restrict visa access from countries that don't work with us on our national priorities, like illegal migration.

Attract the brightest and best skilled migrants to the UK to contribute to our businesses and public services. Bring migration numbers down to sustainable levels to reduce the impacts on public services and housing and to restore public confidence in the system

Raise the Skilled Worker threshold and Family income requirement with inflation automatically to make sure they don't undercut UK workers.

Require migrants to undergo a health check in advance of travel and increasing their Immigration Health Surcharge or requiring them to buy health insurance if they are likely to be a burden on the NHS.

Increase all visa fees and remove the student discount to the Immigration Health Surcharge to raise more money for public services.

Biological sex is a reality. The overwhelming majority of people in this country recognise that. It is right that we have in place provisions and protections for those whose sense of self does not match their biological sex. However, we will not allow the safety and privacy of women and girls to be undermined.

Will introduce primary legislation to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex.

On fundamental matters of personal identity there should be one approach across the country. Will legislate so that an individual can only have one sex in the eyes of the law in the United Kingdom.

Will pass legislation to ensure schools must follow guidance for teachers on how best to support gender questioning students in schools and colleges

Labour Party

Immigration system needs to be controlled and managed and we need strong borders.

Create a new Border Security Command, with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers, and cross-border police officers

Seek a new security agreement with the EU to ensure access to real-time intelligence and enable policing teams to lead joint investigations with their European counterparts.

Hire additional caseworkers to clear the backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.

Set up a new returns and enforcement unit, with an additional 1,000 staff, to fast-track removals to safe countries for people who do not have the right to stay here.

Negotiate additional returns arrangements to speed up returns and increase the number of safe countries that failed asylum seekers can swiftly be sent back to

Reform the points-based immigration system so that it is fair and properly managed, with appropriate restrictions on visas, and by linking immigration and skills policy.

Bring joined-up thinking, ensuring that migration to address skills shortages triggers a plan to upskill workers and improve working conditions in the UK.

Strengthen the Migration Advisory Committee, and establish a framework for joint working with skills bodies across the UK, the Industrial Strategy Council and the Department for Work and Pensions. End the long-term reliance on overseas workers in some parts of the economy by bringing in workforce and training plans for sectors such as health and social care, and construction.

The days of a sector languishing endlessly on immigration shortage lists with no action to train up workers will end.

Enact the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010.

Take action to reduce the gender pay gap, building on the legacy of Barbara Castle's Equal Pay Act.

Introduce a landmark Race Equality Act, to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority people, strengthen protections against dual discrimination and root out other racial inequalities

Introduce the full right to equal pay for disabled people. Building on gender pay gap reporting, will introduce disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers.

Deliver a full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices, while protecting the freedom for people to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Modernise, simplify, and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law to a new process. Remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance; whilst retaining the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a specialist doctor, enabling access to the healthcare pathway.

Proud of Equality Act and the rights and protections it affords women. Will continue to support the implementation of its single-sex exceptions.

Liberal Democrat

Introduce a statutory Student Mental Health Charter and requiring universities to make mental health services accessible to their students.

Return to the Erasmus Plus programme as an associated country

Report international student flows separately to estimates of long-term migration

Ensure all universities work to widen participation by disadvantaged and underrepresented groups across the sector, prioritising their work with students in schools and colleges, and requiring every university to be transparent about selection criteria

Fix the work visa system and expand the Youth Mobility Scheme to help address the labour shortages that are an outcome of the Conservatives' botched deal with Europe

End the Conservatives' Hostile Environment and invest instead in officers, training and technology to tackle smuggling, trafficking and modern slavery

Transfer policy-making over work visas and overseas students out of the Home Office and into other departments

Replace the Conservatives' arbitrary salary threshold with a more flexible merit-based system for work visas, with the relevant department working with employers in each sector to address specific needs as part of a long-term workforce strategy that also focuses on education and training to address skills gaps from within the UK

Exempt NHS and care staff from the £1,000-a-year Immigration Skills Charge, and reverse the Conservatives' ban on care workers bringing partners and children

Expand the Youth Mobility Scheme by increasing the age limit from 30 to 35, abolishing the fees for these visas and extending the length of visas from two to three year

Reverse the Conservatives' unfair increase to income thresholds for family visas, so that no more families are torn apart

Overhaul the Immigration Rules to make them simpler, clearer and fairer, and ensure greater parliamentary scrutiny of future changes

Respect and defend the rights of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, including trans and non-binary people

Scrap the Conservatives' draconian anti-protest laws, restoring pre-existing protections for both peaceful assembly and public safety, and immediately halt the use of live facial recognition surveillance by the police and private companies

Uphold the UK's commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights and resisting any attempts to withdraw from it

Uphold the Equality Act 2010

Reform the gender recognition process to remove the requirement for medical reports, recognise non-binary identities in law, and remove the spousal veto

Require large employers to monitor and publish data on gender, ethnicity, disability, and LGBT+ employment levels, pay gaps and progression, and publish five-year aspirational diversity targets.

Provide additional support and advice to employers on neurodiversity in the workplace, and developing a cross-government strategy to tackle all aspects of discrimination faced by neurodiverse children and adults

Incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into UK law

Tackle the disability employment gap by implementing a targeted strategy to support disabled people into work, with specialist disability employment support

Take big money out of politics by capping donations to political parties

Bring into force Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010, requiring political parties to publish candidate diversity data

Green Party

A trained and paid counsellor in every school and sixth-form college.

Readily available tailored provision to meet the needs of communities of colour, children and adolescents, older people and LGBTIQA+ communities

Make it mandatory for councils to provide free transport for 16-18 year old pupils with special educational needs and disabilities

Reform intrusive eligibility tests like PIP and the unfair targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits

Defend the Human Rights Act, the UK's membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and continued direct access to Convention rights in the domestic courts

Votes for 16-year-olds and residence-based voting rights.

Scrap the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act, the Public Order Act and other legislation that erodes the right to protest and free expression

Campaign for the right of self-identification for trans and non-binary people

Scrap the Prevent programme and tackle hate crime, misogyny, Islamophobia and antisemitism

An end to arms sales to Israel

An urgent international effort to end the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

Increase international aid to 1% of gross national income (GNI) by 2033.

An end to the hostile environment.

An end to the minimum income requirements for spouses of those holding work visas.

The dysfunctional Home Office to be replaced with a new Department of Migration, separating this function from the criminal justice system

Those seeking asylum and protection to be permitted to work while their application is being decided.

Principle 5: Professional autonomy in the education sector must be supported and respected

How should we do this?

• Ensure robust protections for academic freedom, including to prevent government interference
• Build a culture of staff and student engagement in policy decisions at all levels and require the same of institutions.

Conservative Party

Unveiled a new extremism definition under which certain groups that promote an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance will be blocked from government funding and meeting officials

Strengthen police powers to prevent protests or marches that pose a risk of serious disorder, by allowing police to consider the cumulative impact of protests.

Place a duty on the police and prosecutors to publish regular guidance on the statements, chants or symbols, for example, the swastika or the term 'jihad', that in the context of political protest may constitute an offence. Explore ways for the police to recover some of the costs of policing disruptive protests from the groups that organise them.

The Conservative Party is a strong defender of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Proud to deliver the Freedom of Speech Act to protect free speech and open debate in our universities.

Labour Party

-

Liberal Democrat

Decentralise decision-making from Whitehall and Westminster by inviting local areas to take control of the services that matter to them most

Green Party

-