As Rishi Sunak fires the starting pistol on the 2024 General Election, voters are starting to look at where the parties stand on the issues. While manifestoes are yet to appear, the Mail has got in early with an overview. Here’s an excerpt:
Immigration:
Tories: The PM has made the Rwanda deportation plan the key part of his efforts to tackle the small boats crisis in the Channel. He claims this will provide the deterrent effect needed to stop migrants making the perilous journey to Britain. But Mr. Sunak has been forced to admit the first deportation flights to Rwanda will only take off after the General Election. The PM has previously admitted the level of legal migration to Britain is “too high” and has taken action to crackdown on visas for dependants of students and social care workers. He is also said to be considering curbs on graduate visas amid Tory concerns these are used as a “backdoor” for migrants to remain in Britain.
Labour: Sir Keir has branded the Rwanda scheme a “gimmick” and vowed to scrap it if he wins power. Labour is instead promising to establish a new ‘Border Security Command’ to work with Border Force, MI5 and the National Crime Agency on prosecuting people-smuggling gangs operating small boat routes. The party is also vowing to clear the asylum backlog by recruiting more staff to process claims and return people to safe countries.
Lib Dems: Sir Ed’s party wants to scrap the Tories’ Illegal Migration Act and provide safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to come to Britain. It argues this will help prevent Channel crossings. The Lib Dems also want to lift the ban on asylum seekers working in the U.K. if they have been waiting on a decision for more than three months, which will enable migrants to “support themselves, integrate in their communities and contribute through taxation”.
Reform: Mr. Tice’s party wants to see “net zero” immigration, which means the number of people legally allowed to live and work in the U.K. each year equals the number emigrating, so the overall population remains approximately the same. It also claims Britain should be picking Channel migrants out of boats in order to return them to France.
Gender:
Tories: The PM has hailed new draft guidance for schools, published by the Government last week, that states the “contested topic of gender identity” should not be taught at all. Mr. Sunak has repeatedly tried to draw a dividing line with Labour on gender issues and accused Sir Keir of changing his position on “defining a woman”. The PM told last year’s Conservative Party conference: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t; a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.”
Labour: It has recently emerged how Sir Keir’s party wants to “simplify” the process for changing gender by making it “less medicalised”. Labour’s plans, which are expected to go to consultation if the party wins the election, could include allowing a single doctor or gender specialist to sign off on a decision over a gender recognition certificate. Sir Keir has previously faced intense pressure to clarify his personal views after saying in 2021 that it is “not right” to say that only women have a cervix. Last year, the Labour leader stated that 99.9% of women “of course haven’t got a penis” – which suggested he believed one in 1,000 women have male genitalia. Sir Keir later admitted he had U-turned on his past support for self-identification for trans people following the SNP’s meltdown over new gender recognition laws in Scotland.
Lib Dems: Sir Ed’s party is promising to “respect and defend the rights and identities of all LGBT+ people, including trans and non-binary people”.
Reform: Mr. Tice’s party want to ban “transgender ideology” in schools, with Reform stating “there are two sexes and two genders”.
Security and defence:
Tories: The PM recently pledged to boost defence spending to 2.5% by 2030, which marked a return to a promise first made by Boris Johnson. Mr. Sunak has also committed to at least £3 billion in military support every year for Ukraine until 2030.
Labour: Sir Keir has failed to match the Government’s pledge on defence spending. His party has said it is “totally committed” to reaching the 2.5% goal but not yet set a date for that target to be met, only saying they will do so “as soon as resources allow that to happen”. But Labour have backed the Government’s commitment on military support for Ukraine.
Lib Dems: Sir Ed’s party is promising to work “more closely” with NATO and EU nations in the “joint development of innovative defence technologies”. The Lib Dems have also said they will cancel “the Conservative Government’s cut to the Army”.
Reform: Mr. Tice’s party is promising to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP within three years, and then boost it to 3% within six years.
Worth reading in full.
Personally, I can’t shake off the feeling that however bad a Labour Government will be, the Tories have to be punished for spending 14 years in power and doing the utter opposite of what they promised to achieve: tax at record levels, immigration at record levels, debt at record levels, worklessness at record levels, a public sector as wasteful and inefficient as ever, wokery out of control and the unending growth of new laws in place of personal freedom – none of which helped by the 18 months of ruinous and pointless lockdowns. Plus a fanatical commitment to the utopian Net Zero project that will immiserate us all. I know I’m supposed to hold my nose and vote for them to keep the loony Left out. But this time I just don’t think I can do it. How about you?
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