The prime minister, David Cameron, has launched the Tory party’s manifesto at an event in Swindon, Wiltshire. Following are the key points:
Health
- Increase NHS spending to £8bn a year by 2020.
- Provide seven-day-a-week access to NHS services.
Education
- Lift the cap on university places.
- Freeze the amount of government spending per school pupil.
Work
- Raise the income tax threshold to £12,500.
- Legislate so that nobody working 30 hours on the Minimum Wage pays Income Tax on what they earn.
- Reduce the benefits cap to £23,000.
Housing
- Extend the right-to-buy scheme to housing association tenants.
- Build 200,000 starter homes for first-time buyers under the age of 40, to be sold at 20% below the market rate.
Childcare
- Provide 30 hours of free childcare to working parents of three- and four-year-olds.
Tax
- Not raise VAT, national insurance or income tax, but raise the 40p income tax threshold to £50,000.
- Increase the inheritance tax threshold for homes to £1m.
Pensions
- Continue to increase the state pension by at least 2.5%.
Immigration
- Keep an ambition of delivering annual net migration in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.
- Control migration from the European Union, by reforming welfare rules.
