Theresa May has promised to ditch right-wing, free-market dogma and return to “true Conservatism”, as she launched a general election manifesto heavy on philosophy and light on costed giveaways.
Brandishing the slim navy volume, entitled Forward, Together, at a launch event on Thursday in the Labour-held marginal constituency of Halifax, the prime minister promised to use Brexit as an opportunity to reshape the nation.
The manifesto drew a line under the legacy of David Cameron and George Osborne with promises for more state involvement in the economy and an emphasis on wealthier pensioners paying more for their care – as opposed to a focus on cutting inheritance tax.
Its most striking passage appeared to be a rejection of laissez-faire capitalism: “We do not believe in untrammelled free markets. We reject the cult of selfish individualism. We abhor social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality. We see rigid dogma and ideology not just as needless but as dangerous.”
May told her audience of party activists and journalists that her government would tackle what she called the five “giant challenges” of modern Britain – a strong economy; Brexit; healing social divisions; the ageing society; and technological change. She promised to be “upfront and straight” about the difficulties ahead as Britain leaves the European Union.
How much will the average person pay for social care under Conservative proposals?
It costs around £150,000 for four years in residential care on the outskirts of London, or £109,000 in Lancashire. Someone who needs 14 hours of care a week at home could pay £45,000 in London over that period and £34,000 in Lancashire. Under the Conservative proposals, anyone with assets worth over £100,000 will pay – but the payment can be deferred until after death and deducted from their estate. Averages are tricky, but the situation is getting worse. The number of people in England and Wales dying from dementia are expected to almost quadruple to 160,000 by 2040. Philip Inman
But asked if the manifesto set out her own “ism”, the prime minister said: “There is no Mayism – there is good, solid Conservatism.” She also tried to brush off any comparisons between herself and Margaret Thatcher, and added: “Margaret Thatcher was a Conservative, I am a Conservative, this is a Conservative manifesto.”
Unlike Labour’s manifesto, published earlier this week, there was no accompanying costings document and Labour quickly accused the Conservatives of publishing an “84-page blank cheque,” identifying what it said were 60 uncosted spending commitments. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said the document “contains more questions than answers”.
Where there were spending pledges, there were only relatively modest sums for schools or the NHS, in contrast to Labour’s manifesto, which promised a significant boost to spending on public services.
The manifesto promises an additional £4bn to head off rumblings about school underfunding coming from Tory MPs, especially in light of the new national funding formula that was under development before the election was called – although £2.8bn of the extra money was due to projected increases in the size of the school population. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Unfortunately the Conservative pledge of a £4bn boost includes a large element of sleight of hand.”
On health, the manifesto resets the 2015 pledge to increase spending by £8bn a year by the end of this parliament and also promises that spending per patient will not fall as had been projected. But Prof Anita Charlesworth, director of research and economics at the Health Foundation and former director of public spending at the Treasury, said: “Under the Conservatives’ manifesto plans, healthcare funding would not match the demand and cost pressures on the health service.”
The raid on pensioners’ finances – already trailed – sees the winter fuel allowance removed from all but the poorest households and the triple-lock guarantee for the basic state pension replaced by a somewhat less generous double lock, as well as many paying more for elderly care. It suggested that with a commanding lead in the polls, May is sufficiently confident of victory on 8 June that she can risk antagonising a key source of support – older voters, who overwhelmingly backed the Conservatives in 2015.
Sir Andrew Dilnot, the economist who reviewed social care for the coalition government in 2011, added that May’s social care plans would leave families “completely on their own” to cope with the costs. Under the scheme, people with more than £100,000 in assets would have to pay for their own care out of the value of their homes rather than relying on the council to cover the cost of visits by care workers.
The manifesto appeared to bear the hallmarks of one of May’s close advisers, Nick Timothy, with some of his favourite themes, including an emphasis on community and meritocracy, running through the document. Its preparation was closely guarded and even cabinet ministers knew little of its wider contents outside their immediate areas of responsibility until this week.
Other policies set out in the document include:
- An increase in the target of building 1m homes by 2020 to 1.5m by the end of 2022 despite slow progress towards that aim so far and little detail about how it will be achieved.
- A review of the honours system to better reward public service in a move that appears to mark a shift away from Cameron’s habit of rewarding donors and advisers, which drew accusations of cronyism.
- The repeal of the five-year Fixed-term Parliaments Act, allowing prime ministers to call an election whenever they like instead of formally having to ask parliament’s permission
- A decision not to proceed with the second part of the Leveson inquiry into relations between the media and police, following the phone hacking revelations and subsequent trial of executives from the News of the World.
With the Treasury anxious about the potential economic impact of Brexit, the manifesto also creates wriggle-room for Philip Hammond – or his successor – by ditching Osborne’s “tax lock” pledge not to increase national insurance or income tax.
Several other pledges made in the Conservative manifesto on which May herself was elected just two years ago were also absent or watered down. While aid spending will still rise to 0.7% of GDP, a May government would legislate to widen the scope of what could count as aid, instead of using internationally accepted definitions. Cameron’s promise to eliminate child poverty is replaced with a promise to reduce it.
Even largely supportive commentators were struck by the lack of detailed costings. Ryan Shorthouse, of liberal Conservative thinktank Bright Blue, welcomed the manifesto as “conservatism at its best: compassionate and patriotic”. But he added that “a big failing is the lack of costings around a comprehensive suite of new policies. It is no good insulting the Labour party for reckless spending plans if the Conservatives fail to deliver costings for its plethora of policies”.
Cabinet ministers were in the audience for the launch event at a former carpet factory in the West Yorkshire town but with May’s personal brand the centrepiece of the Tory campaign, only the Brexit secretary, David Davis, took to the stage briefly to introduce the prime minister.
Earlier a group of protesters disrupted the buildup to the stage-managed event by succeeding in unfurling a large banner in front of May’s bright blue battlebus, calling for an end to zero-hours contracts.
But Labour seized on the change of tack by the Tories, with Jeremy Corbyn accusing them of “hitting older people with a classic nasty-party triple whammy”.
Business groups reacted with concern to what they saw as the interventionist tone of May’s policies – and in particular to the restatement of the commitment to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands and to press ahead with leaving the single market.
Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said: “Firms will be heartened by proposed targeted R&D spending, planned corporation tax reductions and a commitment to act on business rates. But the Conservative manifesto has an achilles heel – in a global race for talent and innovation UK firms risk being left in the starting blocks because of a blunt approach to immigration.”
By including a promise to leave the single market and the customs union in the manifesto, May could also make it harder for the House of Lords to oppose a future Brexit deal, because peers usually do not oppose policies that have been put to the country in a party manifesto.