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The election campaign has really ramped up this week with the release of the party manifestos. We now have detailed plans of what all the parties are promising to do if elected. But given it looks highly likely Labour will form the next government, it’s worth spending extra time looking at its manifesto.
The biggest surprise was that there weren't any surprises. We've already heard a lot on the campaign trail about most of these proposals, from reforming the planning system, to building houses, to putting an age limit on the House of Lords.
Yet, as Despina Alexiadou argues here, the radical changes are not in the policies themselves, but in Keir Starmer's overall approach to more state-led economic growth, rather than relying solely on the private sector. She compares and contrasts this manifesto with New Labour's 1997 document and believes Starmer’s proposals to be even bolder.
For the Conservatives, this campaign has become a challenge to hang onto whatever seats they can manage. But a new YouGov poll suggests that may be getting more difficult – Reform UK is now apparently neck-and-neck with the Tories. Party leader Nigel Farage claimed in a triumphant press conference today that this means Reform is the “new opposition”. Is he right? Paul Whiteley explains what has actually happened, and what it might mean come election day.
We’ve also had a team of academic experts poring over the details of some of Labour's manifesto pledges, to explain where the party will deliver, where it will struggle and where it could go further.
One example is the promise to create Great British Energy, a national energy company that Labour says will help achieve net zero and create jobs through a programme of “green prosperity”. In this piece, Jamie Speirs digs more into the possibilities of Great British Energy, and looks at some lessons from similar projects in Scotland and Wales about timing and costs that Labour should pay close attention to. Labour is also looking at some not-so-great British energy – promising to ban the sale of energy drinks to under-16s.
Labour has gone big on education, proposing to recruit 6,500 new teachers, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools. But this, Joshua Fullard argues, misses the bigger picture of why so many teachers (43,500 in England during the last year alone) are leaving the profession.
On migration, a bit of a change from Rishi Sunak's “stop the boats” is Starmer’s “smash the gangs”. But as is the case with most pithy slogans, it’s not that easy. Smuggling researcher David Suber explains that the links between organised crime and smuggling aren’t as clear as politicians would have you believe.
We’ll have lots more analysis coming soon, but if you're enjoying this coverage, please share this newsletter with a friend – and tell them to sign up here. And to help us do even more, please consider making a donation to The Conversation.
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