The UK Election In 2024: Manifesto Promises For Job Seekers And Employees

The upcoming UK general election will be held on 4th July 2024. As voters head to the polls, job seekers and employees will be thinking about not only political leadership, but also what promises the major parties have made about employment, skills development and training, and green jobs.Using these three topics, let’s look at what the key political players – the Conservatives and Labour – have promised job seekers and employees like you.

Using these three topics, let’s look at what the key political players – the Conservatives and Labour – have promised job seekers and employees like you.

Conservative Party Manifesto

The Conservative party, run by prime minister Rishi Sunak, is our current government in the UK. Here are the main points from the Conservative party manifesto that concern job seekers and employees.

Employment

1. The reduction of national insurance contributions from 12% to 6% by 2027, with an end goal of abolishing national insurance altogether in the future. Income tax will remain at current levels.
2. Recruiting 8,000 additional full-time police officers.
3. Maintaining the National Living Wage in each year of the next Parliament at two-thirds of average earnings, with a forecasted rise to £13 per hour.
4. Tax free bonuses of up to £30,000 over five years for new teachers in priority areas and key STEM and technical subjects.
5. To train ‘the staff the NHS needs’. The manifesto equates this to ‘92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors in the NHS than in 2023’, with an increase in training places for midwives, dentists, and paramedics too.

Skills Development And Training

1. The introduction of a mandatory National Service for all school leavers at 18 to provide skills and training opportunities. Young people will have the choice of a military placement or a civic service role.
2. The funding of 100,000 high-quality additional apprenticeships for young people.
3. The introduction of the Advanced British Standard (ABS) as a new approach to 16-19 education. The aim is to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical learning, and provide students with a broader education.
4. The introduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, which will support adults to train, retrain, and upskill throughout their working lives.

Green Jobs

While the Conservative manifesto doesn’t directly mention green jobs, it does state that £1.1 billion will be invested in the Green Industries Growth Accelerator. This fund is designed to pay for the expansion of sustainable clean energy supply chains across the UK. This includes carbon capture, offshore wind farms, and nuclear power. This investment and ‘expansion’ hints at the creation of new green jobs.

Labour Party Manifesto

In the run up to the 2024 election, the UK government’s main opposition is the Labour party, led by Keir Starmer. Here are the main points from the Labour party manifesto for job seekers and employees.

Employment

1. Recruit 6,500 new teachers in key subjects.
2. Taxes won’t be increased for working people, including national insurance, income tax, and VAT.
3. Under ‘secure borders’, the manifesto promises the recruitment of 1,000 additional jobs and the creation of a new returns and enforcement unit.
4. Reform workplace pension schemes to provide better returns for pensioners and more productive investments for the UK.
5. Combine Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service to create a national jobs and careers service that works with local employers and government.
6. Support more disabled people and those with health conditions to find work, including changes to or the replacement of the Work Capability Assessment.
7. Introducing ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’. This will include banning zero hour contracts, ending fire and rehire, and providing basic rights from day one of employment.
8. Create a single enforcement body to make sure employment rights are upheld.
9. Reform the minimum wage by removing the range of age bands and making sure that the Low Pay Commission considers the cost of living. Removing the age bands will mean that all adults will have a right to the same minimum wage.
10. The training of ‘thousands of new doctors’.
11. The recruitment of 8,500 additional mental health staff within the NHS.

Skills Development And Training

1. The introduction of a youth guarantee of access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18 to 21 year olds. This includes two weeks work experience for every young person and improved careers advice in schools and colleges.
2. The establishment of Skills England. This new body will bring together businesses, training providers, trade unions, and national and local government to make sure that the UK has a trained workforce with relevant and needed skills.
3. The transformation of further education colleges into specialist Technical Excellence Colleges, working with businesses, trade unions, and local government to provide a highly trained workforce and better job opportunities.

Green Jobs

1. The creation of green jobs in the drive to make the UK a clean energy superpower. This will include the setting up of a new publicly-owned company called Great British Energy.
2. Invest £7.3 billion in the National Wealth Fund to aid the UK’s transition to green energy and create 650,000 jobs. It isn’t clear whether these are all green jobs.

What About The Other Political Parties?

So what manifesto promises are the other main political parties making that are of interest to jobseekers and employees?

Liberal Democrats

Headed by Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats (LibDem) promise to:

• raise the tax-free personal allowance
• help more people enter the job market through the use of technology and new ways of working
• help small businesses, for instance, by abolishing business rates, so that they can create new local jobs
• replace the apprenticeship pay rate with the national minimum wage
• introduce Lifelong Skills Grants for adults to spend on education and training
• solve skill gaps by offering more higher vocational training courses
• open an independent review to recommend a genuine living wage
• modernise employment rights to suit all workers
• invest in education and training to equip people with the green skills needed for a green future

Reform UK

Led by Nigel Farage, Reform UK promises to:

• raise the yearly tax-free personal allowance to £20,000 and the yearly higher rate to £70,000
• make sure that frontline NHS and social care staff pay zero basic rate tax for three years
• recruit 40,000 police officers over five years
• ‘motivate’ up to 2 million people back to work with a focus on 16-34 years old
• enforce a new rule for job seekers and ‘those fit to work’. If they don’t find a job within four months or accept a job after two offers, their benefits will be stopped.
• recruit 30,000 new candidates into the army
• replace the Equality Act and get rid of DEI rules. There is no mention of what will replace the Act.

Green Party

Led jointly by Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, the Green Party 2024 manifesto promises to:

• invest £12.4 billion in skills and training to make sure that workers have the necessary green skills
• replace ‘anti-union’ legislation with a Charter of Workers’ Rights
• increase the minimum wage to £15 per hour, regardless of age
• provide equal rights for all workers from day one of employment
• implement a four day week
• raise school funding by £8 billion, including £2 billion to increase teacher pay
• support students in higher education through grants and get rid of tuition fees

Scottish National Party (SNP)

Led by John Swinney, the SNP covers Scotland only. Much of what it mentions in its manifesto relies on achieving independence from the UK. The SNP manifesto promises to:

• scrap zero hour contracts, ban fire and rehire practices, and repeal the minimum service bill in Scotland
• protect pensions by maintaining the triple lock and delivering a wellbeing pension in Scotland
• increase maternity pay in Scotland
• maintain free university tuition in Scotland

Plaid Cymru

Led by Rhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru covers Wales only. Much of the manifesto calls for devolution from Westminster. The Plaid Cymru manifesto promises to:

• improve the apprenticeship system by making sure that apprenticeship opportunities match the skills needed by businesses, paying apprentices an apprenticeship living wage, and working with colleges to reduce apprentice poverty, for instance, by offering free travel and meals
• reverse anti-strike legislation
• provide paid bereavement and miscarriage leave as a day one right
• abolish fire and re-hire
• ban compulsory zero hour contracts
• implement the right to disconnect, that is, the right to not be contacted about work outside working hours
• reform shared parental leave
• amend the Carer’s Leave Act to include paid leave
• introduce a Business, Human Rights and Environment Bill
• recruit an additional 500 GPs in Wales
• increase the number of degree-level apprenticeships in the healthcare sector
• make employment contracts for nurses more flexible
• open a new dental school in Bangor to train more dentists
• make post-16 vocational learning just as important as academic learning
• work with universities to eventually make university education free for all (in Wales)
• offer a grant of £5,000 to people over 25 to train or retrain

Sinn Féin

Led by Mary Lou McDonald in Northern Ireland, the party’s manifesto promises to:

• abolish tax paid on the first €30,000 earned in a year
• return the retirement age to 65
• recruit 2,500 more nurses and midwives, and 1,000 doctors and consultants
• increase GP training places
• increase Garda (police) numbers to 16,000 and recruit 2,000 additional civilian staff
• provide an extra 26 weeks of maternity or paternity leave and increase maternity/paternity pay
• recruit an additional 750 social workers, 100 administrative support staff, and 125 aftercare workers
• create opportunities for people with disabilities as part of a new apprenticeship policy
• end mandatory retirement
• abolish the JobPath scheme
• legally require employers to pay the living wage if the business can afford to do so
• introduce the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill and fine companies who don’t try to reduce their gender pay gap
• amend the National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Act 2015 to allow the assessment of pay inequalities for women and in-work poverty
• legalise the right to disconnect outside work hours
• ensure workers receive their tips

Wrapping it up

While we haven’t covered the manifestos of every political party taking part in the 2024 UK general election, the main parties are represented in this blog post. Each party’s manifesto mentions much more than we’ve discussed above, but these are the main points of interest for job seekers and employees.