Labour Party election manifesto 2024: Key current policies at a glance

This piece was published in April. For the latest on Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto, read our coverage here.

The Labour Party has begun offering voters the chance to sign up to view its general election manifesto “at the earliest opportunity”, pledging that the document will include “detailed and fully-costed plans” to deliver the party’s missions and “change the country for the better”.

Much of the final wording of the party’s manifesto is likely to be a closely kept secret until the general election campaign, but a recent campaign document provides one of the clearest signals yet of what may be included.

The document – distributed to MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates earlier this year – sets out policy in eight key areas: five national missions and three subsequently announced “strong, stable and secure foundations” of economic stability, “strong national defence” and “secure borders”.

Below are some of the key policy highlights, illustrating current policies the party looks most likely to campaign on come the election.

You can read a more comprehensive overview here on the detail of current party policy signed off last year as part of Labour’s National Policy Forum and a LabourList tracker of many subsequently announced policies, albeit with less certainty about whether they will make the manifesto.

“The rock of economic stability”

Labour will:

• Stick to tough fiscal rules with economic stability at their heart.
• Introduce a new fiscal lock to bring economic security back to family finances by empowering the Office of Budget Responsibility. Never again will we allow a repeat of the devastation of Liz Truss and the Conservatives’ mini-Budget that crashed the economy and left working people worse off.
• Set up a new Office for Value for Money to ensure all taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.
• Halve government consultancy spending, by bringing in proper spending controls and having a long-term staffing strategy.
• Appoint a Covid corruption commissioner, equipped with the powers they need to chase down those who have ripped off the taxpayer, take them to court and claw back every penny of taxpayers’ money that they can.
• End VIP ‘fast lane’ procurement processes that allow party political cronies to make money out of contracts from their political friends.

“Strong national defence”

Labour will:

• Maintain an unshakeable commitment to NATO and our nuclear deterrent.
• Conduct a strategic defence and security review in our first year in government to fully understand the state of our armed forces, the nature of threats we face and the capabilities needed.
• Labour will tackle the poor state of service accommodation to ensure homes are fit for heroes, having commissioned the independent Kerslake review of military housing to help draw up plans in government.
• Legislate to establish an armed forces commissioner as a strong independent voice to improve service life.

“Secure borders”

Labour will:

• Smash the criminal gangs by using counter-terror style tactics – strengthening powers and using the full force of Britain’s
  intelligence and policing to destroy the evil business model of human trafficking.
• Deploy more police and investigators in a cross-border police unit to go after the smuggler and trafficking gangs who undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
• Set up a 1,000-strong returns unit to ensure failed asylum seekers and others with no right to be here are removed.
• End hotel use for asylum seekers by clearing the asylum backlog with more staff to process claims and return people to safe countries.

Mission one: “Get Britain building again”

• Putting economic stability first by introducing a new fiscal lock to bring economic security back to our national and family finances. Because we will never allow a repeat of the devastation of Liz Truss and the Conservatives’ mini-Budget that crashed the economy and left working people worse off.
• Getting Britain building again by reforming planning laws to kickstart 1.5 million new homes, transport, clean energy and new industries in all parts of the country. Because cheaper bills, the chance to own your own home and modern
  infrastructure are key to growth and the foundations of security.
• Backing British business with a new industrial strategy created in partnership with business to maximise Britain’s strengths in life sciences, digital, creative, financial industries, clean power and automotive sectors. Creating a national wealth fund to unlock billions of pounds of private investment, crowding in three times the amount of public investment. Because growing businesses are the best route to high-paid jobs everywhere.
• Kickstarting a skills revolution. A new generation of technical excellence colleges, offering more high-quality apprenticeships and training opportunities tailored to local jobs in all parts of the country. Because higher skills are good for growth and rising living standards.
• Making work pay by introducing a New Deal for Working People and delivering a genuine living wage, banning zero-hours contracts and ending fire and rehire. Because creating well-paid jobs across all parts of our country will make working people better off and more secure.

Mission two: “Switch on Great British Energy”

• A proper windfall tax on oil and gas companies. It starts by tackling the cost-of-living crisis. That’s why we have fought for a proper windfall tax on the excess profits of oil and gas companies, so we can support families with the cost of living.
• Great British Energy. We will create a new publicly-owned champion – Great British Energy – to give us real energy independence from foreign dictators. It will be owned by the British people, built by the British people and benefit the British people. It will invest in clean energy across our country – for example by making the UK a world leader in floating offshore wind.
• National wealth fund. Alongside GB Energy will be a new national wealth fund that will invest in the jobs that can rebuild Britain’s industrial strength and crowd in private investment in our ports, gigafactories, hydrogen and protect our steel industry. Key to the success of our plans is upgrading the National Grid so that we have the infrastructure we need to move forward.
  This is a once-in-a-generation chance for Britain to lead again on the global stage, forging a clean power alliance with like-minded countries – to seize the opportunities of clean energy, tackle climate change and provide lasting benefits to the country and the generations to come.
• Warmer homes. Labour would upgrade Britain’s cold, draughty homes, cutting bills and creating thousands of good jobs for electricians, engineers and construction workers across the country.
• Clean power by 2030. A Labour government would:
  • Pioneer floating offshore wind, by fast-tracking at least 5 GW of capacity.
  • More than double our onshore wind capacity to 35 GW.
  • More than triple solar power to 50 GW.
  • Quadruple offshore wind with an ambition of 55 GW by 2030.
  • Get new nuclear projects at Hinkley and Sizewell over the line, extending the lifetime of existing plants and backing new nuclear including small modular reactors.
  • Double the government’s target on green hydrogen, with 10 GW of production for use particularly in flexible power generation, storage and industries like green steel.

Mission three: “Get the NHS back on its feet”

At the time of the campaign document’s publication, the first two points of Labour’s NHS plan were due to be funded using the revenue raised by scrapping the non-dom tax status, along with its plans to introduce free breakfast clubs in primary schools.

But the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the Budget in March that the government was abolishing the current tax system for non-doms and will use the money raised “to help cut taxes on working families”, forcing Labour to find new ways to raise cash.

Labour this week announced that it will plug the gap in its spending plans through a new crackdown on “tax dodgers” and by closing loopholes the party has claimed exist in the government’s proposed replacement to the non-dom rules.

• Ending unacceptable waits. Labour has a plan to drive down waiting times and get patients diagnosed earlier – with an extra two million operations, scans and appointments in the first year. We will pay NHS staff properly for overtime to work evening and weekend shifts to bust the backlog.
• Dentistry rescue plan. Labour will deliver a dentistry rescue plan to provide 700,000 extra appointments each year. We will introduce a targeted recruitment fund to get more dentists into the communities that need them most. And we will reform the NHS dentistry contract so that everyone who needs an NHS dentist can get one.
• A neighbourhood health service. At the heart of Labour’s reforms will be a plan to move care closer to communities. The NHS must become a neighbourhood health service as much as a National Health Service – supported by cutting-edge treatment and technology, to prevent illness. We will trial neighbourhood health centres bringing together family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists and mental health specialists under one roof.
• Technology and early diagnosis. Labour’s ‘fit for the future fund’ will double the number of state-of-the-art CT and MRI scanners to ensure early diagnosis. We will put technology at a patient’s fingertips so they can take control of their own medicine, appointments and health needs. At home tests for kidney disease that can send results to your smartphone; AI used to diagnose cancer from scans because we know it saves money and helps reduce missed cancer diagnoses.
• Better public health. We need proper public health measures to keep our children healthy, like banning the promotion of vaping and junk food to young people and supporting an incremental ban on smoking. Our children’s health is too important not to take action.
• Mental health. Labour will recruit 8,500 additional mental health staff to drive down waiting lists, funded through closing tax loopholes. Labour will make sure every young person will have access to a specialist mental health professional at school. With Labour’s Young Futures plan, every community will have an open access mental health hub for young people (11-24), providing early intervention through drop-in services. The schools’ element is paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools. The staffing is paid for by abolishing tax loopholes for private equity managers.

Mission four: “Take back our streets”

• Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. Labour will put police back in towns centres and neighbourhoods to make our streets safe again, with increased patrols and 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs. There will be guaranteed police patrols in town centres, zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour, and we’ll give every community a named officer they can get in touch with, to ensure a swift response to crime. We will also clamp down on shoplifting and violence against shopworkers, making it easier to take action against repeat offenders and creating a new specific offence of assault against retail workers.
• Tackling violence against women and girls. Labour will halve levels of violence against women and girls within a decade because everyone has the right to live free from fear. We will introduce new specialist domestic abuse workers in 999 control rooms and put specialist rape investigation units in every force across England and Wales – so that early opportunities for prevention and protection are not missed. We’ll require police forces to target dangerous repeat offenders with the tactics and tools normally reserved for counter-terror and serious organised crime investigations, to get serious perpetrators off our streets. And we’ll put specialists in the court system to support rape and domestic abuse victims and ensure that justice is done.
• Preventing youth crime. Labour will introduce a new ten-year Young Futures programme, bringing together services and communities to support our young people, including a new national network of Young Futures hubs, with mental health workers and youth workers, to tackle the crisis in youth mental health, to give teenagers the best start in life and to stop the knife crime that is killing our young people.
• Police and criminal justice reform. Labour will rebuild public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system. We’ll turn around the collapse in the proportion of crimes solved by fast-tracking the recruitment of detectives who can solve more complex crimes like fraud, dramatically increasing the pool of prosecutors who can bring criminals to justice, and by building the prisons the Tories promised and failed to deliver. We’ll reform the police, overhauling vetting and training processes and introducing new powers to compel failing forces to comply with recommendations from the police watchdog.

Mission five: “Break down barriers to opportunity”

• Early years: the best start in life. Childcare is important not just because it helps parents to work, but to give every child the best possible start in life. That is why Labour will improve the quality of provision, and work with local authorities to boost the availability of childcare in places where provision is inadequate. At the same time, we will develop vital communication and maths skills early so that every child can find their voice and build the foundations for a brilliant education.
• School: Preparing young people for work and life. Evidence shows that improving teacher quality is the most significant factor to improving children’s outcomes. To ensure rising standards in all our schools, we will tackle the chronic staffing crisis in schools by recruiting thousands more teachers particularly in shortage subjects like science and maths.
  We will reform Ofsted so it gives parents better information, with a scorecard that values breadth and not just a single headline grade. At the same time, we will reform the curriculum and assessment system so that speaking skills are taken as seriously as reading and writing, creativity and problem-solving are woven throughout and young people have the digital skills needed to thrive.
  We will tackle the attendance crisis, ensuring children enjoy and want to be in school again. We will provide the mental health support to back this up and to boost the wellbeing of young people, many of whom still suffering the effects of lockdown. We will ensure all primary children have free breakfast clubs that set them up for the day – so that no child starts the day hungry and there is a safe space to be supported with friends.
• Further education and lifelong learning. Retraining and up-skilling will need to be locally based and tailored to the needs of each community – plumbers to fit new heat pumps, engineers to lead the application of AI, solar power fitters to harness renewables. That’s why we are setting up new technical excellence colleges in all parts of the country so people have the specialist skills local businesses need. And it’s why we are transforming the apprenticeship levy to give employers the flexibility they need to train their workforce in new and relevant skills.

Find out more through our wider 2024 Labour party manifesto coverage so far:

READ MORE: Labour manifesto launch: Live updates, reaction and analysis

READ MORE: Full manifesto costs breakdown – and how tax and borrowing fund it

READ MORE: The key manifesto policy priorities in brief

READ MORE: Labour vows to protect green belt despite housebuilding drive

READ MORE: Watch as Starmer heckled by protestor inside with ‘youth deserve better’ banner

READ MORE: GMB calls manifesto ‘vision of hope’ but Unite says ‘not enough’

READ MORE: Manifesto commits to Brexit and being ‘confident’ outside EU

READ MORE: Labour to legislate on New Deal for Working People within 100 days – key policies breakdown 

READ MORE: Labour to give 16-year-olds right to vote

READ MORE: Starmer says ‘manifesto for wealth creation’ will kickstart growth

READ MORE: Dodds: ‘Our manifesto is a fully funded vision, while Tories offer a Christmas tree of gimmicks’

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