As part of a new series you can ask our political correspondents any questions you have about the general election, and they will post their responses on the politics live blog between 12.30pm and 1.30pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until polling week.
On Monday, the Guardian’s deputy political editor, Rowena Mason, answered your questions about the Tory manifesto, campaign and policies. Here are some of your questions and her answers.
There have been trials of voter ID in local elections and the Conservatives have stated that they want to bring in some form of UK-wide ID requirement for voting in the future, but for this election there is no change to the current system.
You do not need to show ID to vote in England, Scotland and Wales in a general election. You don’t even need to bring your polling card. You just need to tell polling staff your name and address. They will then cross your name off the list and give you a ballot paper.
If you’re voting in Northern Ireland, you must show photo ID.
Only the following forms of ID will be accepted at polling stations in Northern Ireland:
- A UK, Irish or EEA driving licence (photographic part) (provisional accepted).
- A UK or Irish passport.
- An Electoral Identity Card.
- A Translink Senior SmartPass.
- A Translink 60+ SmartPass.
- A Translink War Disabled SmartPass.
- A Translink Blind Person’s SmartPass.
Your photographic identification does not need to be current, so even if it is out of date you can still use it to vote. The presiding officer will have the final say over whether or not the photograph matches that of the person intending to vote. Find out more about voting in Northern Ireland.
Martin Belam
Where will the 50,000 nurses come from?
Robert Footman, Hong Kong
Boris Johnson’s nurse numbers are as follows: 12,500 from abroad, 14,000 from the undergraduate route and 5,000 nurse apprentices. That leaves 18,500 who are not new nurses but nurses who would otherwise have left and have been retained in the profession by various incentives. The Tories argue improving retention rates is a way of boosting nurse numbers but Labour says the headline 50,000 figure is fake.
Is there five years’ worth of action in there? Is there a perception about where the Tories intend on going, as a country?
Anonymous, SW Scotland
Definitely not – although the manifesto does commit to repealing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, so it may not be five years until the next election. Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the manifesto was so empty that it would be thin for a budget, let alone a multi-year programme for government. It means Boris Johnson would undoubtedly come up with other plans for taxes, social care, and other big issues that are not in the manifesto. But in reality, a lot of a new Tory government’s time is still going to be spent on sorting out Brexit, including aiming for a trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020.
Does the manifesto mention whether the Conservatives support reform of the Gender Recognition Act to allow ‘self-identification’ of gender – as the Lib Dems and Labour do? By the way, what happened to the results of the 2018 consultation on this reform?
Anonymous, London
Johnson’s government has downgraded reform of the Gender Recognition Act as a priority, although it denies that it has been dropped altogether. There is no mention of either transgender rights or self-identification in the manifesto.
There has been no or little mention of Leveson 2 – has this been dropped by all the parties?
Anonymous, Pudsey
The Tories have said they will drop Leveson 2 and “repeal section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which seeks to coerce the press”. That is the clause that would force newspapers to pay both sides’ costs when losing defamation and privacy cases if they have not signed up to a royal charter-approved regulator. Labour says it would “address misconduct and the unresolved failures of corporate governance raised by the second stage of the abandoned Leveson inquiry”.
What plans do the Conservatives have to eliminate people’s reliance on food banks and when will they be gone?
Anonymous retired civil servant, East Yorkshire
There is no mention of food banks or eliminating their use in the Tory manifesto. The prime minister was asked about this by an audience member at Friday night’s Question Time debate. He said: “Of course we want to deal with not just the expression of poverty but also the causes of poverty. And that means dealing with educational standing. It means spreading ambition and hope around the country by investing in education and investing in social services.”
Does the Tory manifesto promise to address the Waspi women’s pension issue and if so what measures are envisaged and at what cost?
Anonymous, Carlisle
No, there is no promise to the Waspi women in the manifesto, unlike Labour’s promise to compensate them with £58bn for the rise in their pension age. Boris Johnson has said: “We have looked at it and looked at it and I would love to magic you a solution but it is very expensive to come up with the solution that you want.”
Have they outlined any details of how their Australian-style points-based immigration policy will work?
Robert Greasley, 63, retired police officer, living in Volkringhausen, Germany
In the party’s manifesto, the document said the new system would prioritise those who 1) have a good grasp of English; 2) have been law-abiding citizens in their own countries; 3) have good education and qualifications. It also said “most people coming into the country will need a clear job offer”. It does not explain how it would work to bring over family members to live in the UK, but says it would equalise the system for EU and non-EU citizens, so the best guess is that the rules applying to the rest of the world would apply to family members from the EU.
As the proposed increase in national insurance allowance will not be of benefit to pensioners, are there any tax incentives to encourage older people to vote for the Conservatives?
Anonymous, Lancashire
Not really. There is the so-called triple lock that guarantees that the basic state pension will rise by a minimum of either 2.5%, the rate of inflation or average earnings growth, whichever is largest. But there is not much else and no pledge to restore free TV licences for over-75s.
Share your questions
Next up will be the Guardian’s political editor, Heather Stewart. She will be answering any questions you may have about the Labour party’s manifesto, campaign and policies at 12.30pm on Wednesday. You can ask your question via our form here.
