General Election 2017: Theresa May’s promises on security, finance, social care and housing market

The Conservative Party led by Theresa May published a manifesto on May 18, promising a mainstream government that will deliver for mainstream Britain. The Prime Minister said that the election is dominated by Brexit and her party will seek a new „deep and special partnership with the EU”. May also said that holding an early election on June 8 rather than waiting until 2020 would avert a situation where she would face a crunch time in EU talks and a domestic election at the same time. Here are her main promises.

Basically Theresa May wants to take Britain out of the single market and customs union, end free movement and replace EU laws and regulations with British ones. The Conservatives also promised control immigration and plan to secure the rights of EU nationals in the UK and those of Britons in the EU.

The Conservatives also promised to increase NHS spending by a minimum of £8bn in real terms over the next five years.

The party held 330 seats when Parliament was dissolved on May 3, and according to polls, this number could increase.

Theresa May could secure an additional 43 seats, giving her a total of 374, Martin Baxter of the Electoral Calculus, predicts. In comparison, David Cameron gained 38 seats and lost 10 others in the 2015 general election.

Security and defence

Theresa May said she wanted to keep a “deep and special” partnership with the European Union, responding to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s suggestion that the EU could no longer completely rely on Britain.

“We want to build … that deep and special partnership with the European Union that remains, because we’re leaving the EU but we’re not leaving Europe,” May said recently, when asked about Merkel’s comments.

“We will continue to co-operate on issues like security and defence because that’s important for us all.” Speaking at a campaign event ahead of Britain’s June 8 general election, May added that there were those in the EU who wanted to “punish the United Kingdom over Brexit” insisting that no deal was better than a bad deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron offered to help May marshal support in the fight against terrorism, days after a suicide bomber killed 22 people in Manchester.

On the other hand, David Cameron’s former policy guru Steve Hilton claims that Theresa May must resign for “security failures” that led to recent terror attacks – in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge.

Actually, May was set to urge the world’s major industrialised nations to encourage technology firms to stop militants moving “from the battlefield to the internet”. She pledged to create new powers allowing her to punish social media and communications companies that fail to look after users’ data, and to demand cash from firms to pay for policing the internet.

Also, Theresa May pledged to pass laws giving users new rights to access data held about them, and granting the government the power to enforce them with sanctions.

“The internet has brought a wealth of opportunity but also significant new risks which have evolved faster than society’s response to them. We want social media companies to do more to help redress the balance and will take action to make sure they do.” she said in a statement.

In this matter, the Conservative Party said it wanted to be able to tax the industry if it chooses to, citing similar plans already in force for the gambling industry.

“The Conservatives will also create a power in law for government to introduce an industry-wide levy from social media companies and communication service providers to support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms,” the party said in a statement.

Finance

Theresa May said she will commit to wiping out the country’s budget deficit by the middle of the next decade, allowing for greater borrowing to support the economy in the run-up to Brexit.

The reported pledge on the deficit would represent a slower pace of fixing Britain’s budget shortfall than implied by finance minister Philip Hammond in March when he said he would aim to cut the deficit to 0.7 pct of gross domestic product by the 2021/22 financial year. May will also pledge to ensure corporation tax falls to 17 percent by 2020.

Theresa May has ruled out increasing VAT for the next five years but has refused to reveal whether she will increase other taxes for higher earners.

The Conservatives consider an election agreement not to raise the total tax take, but are poised to let go of David Cameron’s commitment not to increase income tax and national insurance..

The Prime Minister has repeatedly refused to speak about her tax plans since launching the election campaign, but on Saturday she ruled out any rise in VAT. She once again refused to give a similar pledge on income taxes.

May pledged to target tax cuts at “working families” and may also introduce new tax breaks for those saving to cover the cost of social-care.

““We have absolutely no plans to increase the level of tax but I’m also very clear that we don’t want to make specific proposals on taxes unless I’m absolutely sure that I can deliver on those. But it would be my intention as a Conservative government and as a Conservative prime minister to reduce the taxes on working families. And if you’ve got strong and stable leadership that’s absolutely what you can do.” May said recently in a television interview.

There are speculation that capital gains tax might be levied on sales of main homes worth over £5 million.

Social care

The Conservative Party will change its policy pledge on transferring the cost of caring for elderly people, as former finance minister George Osborne said recently.

“U-turn coming on social care. There will be a cap,” Osborne, who was sacked as finance minister by May and who now edits London’s Evening Standard newspaper, said on Twitter.
Britain will cap the amount elderly people have to pay for social care, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday after a backlash against her election proposal to make more people contribute to the costs.

A cap on total contributions will be included from now on in the Prime Minister’s plans for social care. The policy will continue to offer protection for people with assets of £100,000 or less, a dramatic increase on the current threshold of £23,250.

“We want to make sure that people who have worked hard and saved up all their lifetimes do not have to worry about losing all their assets through a disease as random as dementia. That’s why we want to introduce and absolute limit on the amount of money anyone has to pay for their care.” said Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary.

This comes after the controversial plans suggested by Boris Johnson that would’ve forced pensioners to contribute to the costs of their care.

Housing

According to the white paper entitled Fixing our broken housing market released at the beginning of the year, the government will try to solve the problem through several measures to ensure planning for the right homes in the right places, building homes faster, diversifying the housing market, and last but not least – helping people to buy their own home.

Here are 5 of the most important measures announced by the government:

• Forcing councils to produce a realistic and up-to-date plan for housing demand so that local communities decide where development should go
• Making more land available for homes in the right places, by maximising the contribution from brownfield and surplus public land, regenerating estates, releasing more small and medium-sized sites, allowing rural communities to grow and making it easier to build new settlements
• Diminish the time between planning license and the start of building from three to two years
• Securing a £3bn fund to help smaller building firms compete against major developers
• A “lifetime ISA” to help first-time buyers save for a deposit

Scotland independence

May plans to block Nicola Sturgeon’s second independence referendum until after Brexit takes place, according to reports.

The Scottish Prime Minister announced her intention to hold another independence vote before the bill allowing May to trigger Article 50. Sturgeon said the British Government did not try to reach to an agreement with Holyrood after the referendum by which the UK will leave the EU.

The Scottish PM added that even what could be considered a good deal for her country would actually be “significantly inferior” to the status quo. Sturgeon called for a vote on Scotland’s independence to be held between Autumn 2018 and Spring 2019 – before it was “too late” but after “the terms of Brexit are known”.