I do a roundup of the Liberal Democrats main policies, pledges and promises from their 100 page manifesto.

1. Charlie 27/11/2019
Liberal Democrat Manifesto Roundup
theweeklyrambler.com/liberal-democrat-manifesto-roundup/
The Liberal Democrats are one of three major national contenders in the 2019 General
Election, with a chance that they may pick up a number of seats in the election, possibly
even becoming a kingmaker alongside the SNP if a hung parliament is resultant,
although with the BREXIT Party having stood down in Conservative seats, the Lib Dems
may now struggle in a number of their Conservative target seats as the leave vote will be
more solidified, the party also threatens to split the Labour vote in a number of seats,
possibly allowing some inadvertent Conservative gains, which is why many voters have
pledged to tactically vote to try and prevent this from happening. The party released its
manifesto on 20th November and here I will outline some of its major pledges and
promises.
Currently in the polls the Lib Dems are keeping a solid third place with anywhere from
11-19% with it averaging out at about 15%. They were originally quite a lot higher in the
polls and a lot more of a threat to Labour, but they have seen a steady decline in their
support, mostly going to Labour, since the election was called.
The party is one of three involved in a Remain Electoral Pact alongside the Green Party in
England and Wales and Plaid Cymru in Wales as well as three Independent candidate
pacts to try and tactically maximize remain supporting candidate seat gains in the
election. The Lib Dems will stand aside in 9 seats in England and one in Wales for the
Green Party, and will stand aside in another 7 seats in Wales for Plaid Cymru. But the Lib
Dems will be free of the Greens in 40 seats in England and free of both the Greens and
Plaid Cymru in 3 seats in Wales. So, in total, Lib Dems will stand aside in 20 seats in
England and Wales and will be getting a cleaner run at 43 target seats & seats they want
to hold.
The Lib Dems main targets seats are mostly focused in the South-West of England while
in Wales, one of its target seats of holding is Brecon & Radnorshire which they took from
the Conservatives in a by-election earlier this year.
All and all, the Liberal Democrats major promise is to immediately revoke article 50 and
stop BREXIT from happening if they were to win a majority or if they are able to do it in
some kind of remain coalition, otherwise instead they would default to trying to hold a
2nd referendum on EU membership if they do not have the numbers on revoke.
Remaining in the EU is the parties signature promise and pledge. The Lib Dems have said
remaining in the EU would provide a £50bn “Remain Bonus” which they would invest in
schools as well as tackling in-work poverty and inequality. They also say that remaining in
the EU is best for the economy and for cooperation, such as on tackling the climate crisis
and cybercrime.
1/11

2. The Lib Dems also want to extend the right to vote in General, Local elections and to
stand in them as candidates as well as voting in UK referendums to all EU citizens who
have lived in the UK for at least 5-years.
Below I have split this blogpost into 4 main sectors, economy, business & infrastructure,
education, environmental and health & Social Care and then a further section for other
stuff, such as justice, electoral and anything else that doesn’t fit into the four other
categories. Each section I will handpick their more major pledges and promises as
mentioned, so there will of course be other stuff not mentioned here that can be found
in their manifesto.
Economy, Business & Infrastructure
The Liberal Democrats have plans to pump billions of pounds of investment into
infrastructure in the UK, which also includes local authorities having more of a say on
how it is used, as well as it being used on infrastructure projects in the North and
Midlands.
The Lib Dems have also pledged to work with major banks to fund creation of local
banking sectors to help out local, small and medium sized businesses and giving them
access to capital even when other commercial banking systems cannot provide it.
The Lib Dems have committed to converting railway networks to ultra-low-emissions
technology by 2035 as well as keeping the major HS2, Crossrail 2 and other major
strategic rail route projects going. They also commit to improving hyper-fast and fiber-
optic broadband across the UK with a focus on rural areas.
And the Lib Dems have pledged new direct spending to build 300,000 new homes per
year by 2024 which also include 100,000 new social homes. And a promise of capital
investment in schools and hospitals.
On the economy the Liberal Democrats have a plan of boosting funding into research
and innovation across the United Kingdom, including the increase of national spending
on research and development by 3% of GDP and increasing the Strength in Places Fund
to boost research and development outside of Oxford, Cambridge and London. The Lib
Dems will use changes and improvements to the education system it implements to
create a skilled workforce for this new growth.
They also want to continue support investment for UK digital start-ups and also
2/11

3. supporting the growth of creative industries such as gaming.
With the expansion of technology the Lib Dems want to make sure it is used in an ethical
manner and plans to introduce a Lovelace Code of Ethics that sets out rules on personal
data and artificial intelligence, making sure it is unbiased, transparent/accurate and that
privacy is respected, the power to call in products that break this set code, digital-
focused courses teaching on ethics and the Code, highlighting companies who reach the
highest ethical standards and convening citizen’s assemblies on the usage of algorithms
in decision-making by the government.
There are pledges to foster growth and start-ups for the self-employed and small,
medium sized businesses, which includes introducing a start-up allowance, mentoring
support for fast-growing businesses seeking to scale up, and offering forms of monetary
support to self-employed.
Further on businesses, the Lib Dems aim to give employees more rights within them, by
introducing rules for companies with more than 250 employees, that promotes a right of
fair pay, right to request shares to be held in trust for the benefit of employees, having at
least one employee representative on business boards with the same duties and
responsibilities as other directors and requirement of binding and public votes on
executive pay.
They also want to build further on worker rights by setting a genuine living wage by
independent review and implementing it across central government agencies and
encouraging public sector employers to do the same, establish a new Workers Protection
Enforcement Authority to protect employees in precarious work. They also want to
modernize worker rights in the “gig economy” such as a dependent contractor
employment status for rights on minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday
entitlement. Making tax fairer for them and reviewing rules on pensions.
The Lib Dems have a number of changes they want to make to tax, with the main ones
being restoring corporation tax to 20% (up from its current 17%) and keep the rate stable
with predictable future path. Simplifying Capital Gains tax and business taxes, ending
retrospective tax changes like the loan charge and scrapping Marriage Tax Allowance.
The Lib Dems have also pledged a crackdown on tax avoidance that includes introducing
a General Anti-Avoidance Rule, setting targets for HM Revenue & Customs to close the
tax gap, hiring more staff, reforming place of establishment, improving digital sales tax
and building on OECD proposals to give multinationals a level of tax more closer with
sales in every country they operate in. They also want to abolish the Bedroom Tax.
A focus on wellbeing will be made by the Lib Dems instead of it being fully focused on
GDP and other economic prospects, this would include introducing a wellbeing budget
and appointing a Minister for Wellbeing who would oversee the effects of policy on
wellbeing and giving an annual speech. Wellbeing improvement would focus on
3/11

4. improving jobs, schools, mental health services, other health services, community
services, environment and support for those at-risk, such as vulnerable children, the
homeless and trafficked, as well as focus on upbringing of children and welfare support.
When it comes to welfare, the Lib Dems plan to invest £6bn a year into the benefits
system and having the wait for first benefits reduced from 5 weeks to 5 days. The two-
child limit and benefits cap would be removed. The Lib Dems also want to reform
Universal Credit to be more supportive of the self-employed.
Education
The Lib Dems plan to boost and introduce changes to the education system to support
its investment and support of research, technology and innovation as well as training on
green changes to aspects of life to tackle climate change, bringing in a large and skilled
workforce to support UK business growth, with reform also promised to immigration
rules. Changes include introducing a 2-year visa to students who have graduated,
allowing them to enter into the workforce, and the Lib Dems will make a major
expansion of high-quality apprenticeships.
One of the Lib Dems signature policies is to introduce a Skills Wallet for adults in the UK
to use £10,000, given to them in instalments at certain ages, to spend on approved work
training and education courses to boost career and future work prospects and bring
them into the new technological working age.
When it comes to schools the Lib Dems plan to reverse cuts and also have a goal of
hiring 20,000 extra school-teachers, raise the teachers starting salary to £30,000 and
increase teachers’ salary by at least 3% per year and clearing a backlog of needed repairs
in schools and colleges. They also want to scrap mandatory SATs, replacing them with
teacher assessments and other lighter tests and replace school league tables with a
broader set of indicators and reducing class sizes back to 2015 levels per pupil.
Lib Dems also want to introduce a “curriculum for life” in all state-funded schools that
includes lessons on Personal, Social and Health education, financial literacy,
environmental awareness, first aid and other lifesaving skills for emergencies, mental
health, citizenship and age-appropriate lessons on sex and relationship education that
includes learning about sexual consent, LGBT+ relationships and issues involving around
explicit images and content.
4/11

5. They also plan to extend free school meals to all pupils in primary school. They also want
to extend free meals to all students in secondary school whose parents get Universal
Credit. The Lib Dems would also promote school breakfast clubs. On mental health, the
Lib Dems want to train all teaching staff to recognize it in pupils and students and have it
so schools can provide immediate access to support and counselling, as well as that,
there would be a specific person in schools who is responsible for mental health.
The Lib Dems also want to set up an independent body to make decisions on changes to
the curriculum to take it out of politician’s hands and prevent unnecessary and politically
motivated changes that can disrupt student learning and put pressure on teachers.
They also want to replace Ofsted with Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools, with a greater
focus on the wellbeing of both students and teachers and inspections set for schools
every 3-years. Lib Dems also want independent schools subject to the same inspection
regime.
There are also plans to oppose any future expansion of grammar schools and devolving
all capital funding for school spaces to local authorities.
For Higher Education the Lib Dems want to invest £1bn into it and would help poorer
families remain in education by introducing a Young People’s Premium, eligibility based
the same as the Pupil Premium, but with a portion of the money being paid directly to
16-18-year-olds as well as reinstating maintenance grants for the poorest students.
Environmental
The Lib Dems have pledged that the National Infrastructure Commission will take into
account the climate and environmental concerns of all national infrastructure decisions.
They also want to use £5bn of initial capital to set up a Green Investment Bank which
uses public money to attract private investment for zero-carbon priorities.
As a whole the Lib Dems have set a goal to insulate all Britain’s homes by 2030 cutting
emissions as well as fuel bills with a goal of ending fuel poverty by 2025 (the Lib Dems
have also pledged that all new homes will also have solar panels), all new homes and
non-domestic buildings to be net-zero carbon by 2021 with them rising to a more
ambitious standard by 2025, have at least 80% of the UK’s electricity produced by
renewables by 2030 which includes investment in tidal and wave power, ensuring all new
5/11

6. cars and small vans are electric by 2030 and a ban on fracking. The Lib Dems 10-year
emergency programme aims to cut out emissions from the remaining hard-to-treat
sectors, giving the country net zero carbon emissions by 2045.
The party will also be looking to introduce more sustainable and environment friendly
public transport, buses, trains etc and will also promote more healthier walking and
cycling, including building more cycling paths/lanes and also introducing more alternative
transport systems, such as trams.
The Lib Dems would ban non-recyclable single-use plastics and replace them with
affordable alternatives, with an aim to end plastic waste exports by 2030. The Lib Dems
would also extend food and drink bottle and container deposit return schemes, working
alongside devolved administrations.
The Lib Dems plan would require all companies in the UK and listed on UK Stock
Exchanges to set-out plans and targets consistent with the Paris Climate Accord on
climate change, reporting back on their implementation. They would establish a
Department for Climate Change and Natural Resources and appoint a cabinet-level Chief
Secretary for Sustainability in the Treasury, this department and position would
coordinate government-wide action to make the economy sustainable, resource-efficient
and zero-carbon as well as holding government agencies to account. An Office of
Environmental Protection that would be independent of government would also be
founded, which would hold powers and resources to enforce compliance with climate
and environmental targets.
Lib Dems would also establish UK and Local Citizen’s Climate Assemblies to help engage
the public in tackling climate change.
The party has set an aim to plant 60 million trees per year and will also invest in large-
scale restoration of peatlands, heathland, native woodlands, saltmarshes, wetlands and
coastal waters. They will also invest £5bn into flood prevention and climate adaptation to
improve flood defences and introduce high standards for flood resilience for buildings
and infrastructure in flood-prone areas.
Health & Social Care
6/11

7. A big pledge from the Lib Dems is to make childcare free for working parents for children
9 to 24-months and children aged two to four years-old, covering 35 hours a week for 48
weeks a year. They also want to invest £1bn a year into Children Centres to boost early
support of families, child health, development and life chance and they have said they
will triple the Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000 to improve early learning.
The Lib Dems plan to raise £7bn a year by putting 1p on Income Tax with the money
being spent on the NHS and social care. They would also use £10bn of their capital fund
to make needed investments in equipment, hospitals, community, ambulance and
mental health services buildings. The Lib Dems in the longer term would commission a
Health & Care Tax that is offset by other tax reductions, bringing together spending in
both services into a collective budget, setting out a transparent view on people’s payslips,
what the government is spending it on in health and social care. The Lib Dems also want
to make medication prescriptions for those with chronic mental health conditions free
on the NHS.
The Lib Dems plan to end the GP shortfall by 2025 by training and retaining more staff as
well as attracting talent from other countries and having people come in from the EU
again and also making better appropriate use of all NHS staff, and would have phone
and video appointments if clinically suitable.
The Party also wants to support unpaid carers by introducing statutory guarantee of
regular restpite breaks, have councils offer support regularly, providing a package
of carer benefits that include free leisure centre access, free bus travel for your carers, as
well as raising the amount that a carer can earn to £150 a week (from £123) before
losing Carer’s Allowance and also reduce the amount of hours’ care per week to qualify
for it.
On drugs, the Lib Dems want to remove imprisonment for those found to have drugs for
personal use and instead divert them to treatment and civil penalties will be given to
them. And legal and regulated market for cannabis would be introduced to tackle drug
gangs, allowing cannabis to be sold through licensed outlets to those 18 and over. There
would also be clinical trials for medicinal use of cannabis in the meantime.
Other (Electoral, Justice, immigration, equality, foreign affairs etc)
Housing
7/11

8. The Lib Dems want to introduce a new Rent to Own scheme, allowing tenants in social
housing have rent payments give them an increasing stake in the property, eventually
owning it outright in 30 years.
An ambitious plan has been set by the Lib Dems to end rough sleeping within 5 years,
including exempting the homeless and those at risk of being homeless from the Shared
Accomodation Rate, introduce “somewhere safe to stay” legal duty that ensures that
everyone who is sleeping rough will be provided with emergency accommodation and an
assessment of their needs and sufficient financial resources to councils to deal with
homelessness.
Criminal Justice
When it comes to crime and justice, the Lib Dems want to invest £1bn into restoring
community policing, which they say would be enough for two new police officers per
ward and also want to fully fund an immediate two-percent pay rise for police officers,
supporting future pay rises as well as recruitment and retention. They also want to
provide £500m to local authorities to invest in youth services as well as improving youth
worker training, to reduce crime among younger people.
The Lib Dems also want to create a new Online Crime Agency to tackle things such as
personal fraud, revenge porn, as well as threats and incitement to violence on social
media. Another pledge is to replace police and crime commissioners with Police Boards
made up of local councillors.
The Lib Dems want to increase rehabilitation and recovery in prisons, starting by hiring
2,000 more prison officers to staff many prisons that are understaffed, and improve
training, education and work opportunities in prisons. They also want to reduce the
amount in prison by introducing a presumption against short prison sentences, ending
prison sentences for those who possessed drugs for personal use and increasing tough
community sentences and restorative justice.
The Lib Dems also have a goal of reducing the overrepresentation of blacks, Asians and
other minorities in prison, which includes recording data on ethnicities in the justice
system for analysis and scrutiny and introducing an explain or reform stance on ethnic
disparities. The party also wants greater diversity in the justice system by ensuring
services adopt targets for improving on diversity in their workforce, including reports on
progress to parliament.
In an attempt to reduce re-offending, the Lib Dems want to ensure prison-leavers are
supported with suitable accommodation, a bank account, employment, training and also
being registered to a General Practitioner (GP). The party also want to change criminal
record disclosure including not having to declare irrelevant old or minor convictions as
well as removing questions on criminal convictions from initial application forms for all
public-sector jobs.
8/11

9. They also want to stop the disproportionate use of Stop & Search and has a large focus
on preventing domestic abuse that includes ratifying the Istanbul Convention into law
which classifies domestic abuse as a human rights violation, as well as that they want to
expand refuges and rape crisis centres, sustainable grant-funding for independent
support services and establishing a rape crisis helpline among other things.
The Lib Dems want to establish a right for affordable and reasonable legal assistance,
including investing £500m to restore Legal Aid.
Diversity & Equality
The Party when it comes to equality and diversity would make all hate crimes aggravated
offences and would provide funding for protective security to places of worship, schools
and community centres that are vulnerable to hate crime and terror attacks. They would
also reform the Gender Recognitions Act to remove requirement for medical reports and
to recognize non-binary gender. They would also introduce an X gender option on
passports. They would also include sexual orientation and gender identity in the 2021
Census, including a question on LGBT+ status. Requirement for organizations to publish
parental leave and pay policies, diversity in business leadership, including a push for at
least 40% of board members to be women in FTSE 350 companies, as well as
implementing recommendations from the Parker Review, to increase representation of
minorities. Companies with 250+ employees would need to publish data on gender,
black, Asian, minority and LGBT+ employment and pay gaps.
Immigration
The Lib Dems want to decrease detention time for immigrants to a maximum of 28-days
and also close 7 of the 9 detention centres in the UK. They would repeal the immigrant
exemption from the Data Protection Act, they would also move policymaking on student
visas and work permits out of the Home Office and into the Business and Education
Departments and would also establish a non-political agency to process applications. Tier
2 Work Visas would be replaced with a merit-based system that is more flexible and
would introduce a 2-year Student Visa to work in the UK after graduation.
When it comes to refugees and asylum seekers, the Lib Dems want to allow asylum
seekers to be allowed to work in the UK for 3-months after applying for asylum. The Lib
Dems have a goal of resettling 10,000 vulnerable refugees each year as well as a further
10,000 unaccompanied child refugees from across Europe over the next 10-years. The
Lib Dems would also offer asylum to those fleeing violence due to their sexual
orientation or gender identity. Would also move asylum policymaking from the Home
Office to the Department for International Development and work to speed up decision-
making. The party would also introduce free English lessons for refugee and asylum
seekers.
Electoral System
9/11

10. The Lib Dems have an aim to make all votes count by replacing the First-Past-the-Post
System (that allows candidates to win with a simple majority) to a proportional
representation system (that gives seats to parties, taking into account all votes, rather
than discarding votes of the 2 or less placed parties, EU Parliament elections use a PR
method for example). The PR system that the Lib Dems support is the Single
Transferable Vote system, to be implemented for General and England Local elections
(local elections in N.Ireland and Scotland already use this method). An STV system lets
you vote for a preferred candidate and then give preferences for other candidates, so
2 preference, 3 preference etc, used to eliminate candidates until a candidate gets a
50% majority. Currently UK General Elections and England and Wales local elections use
a Single non-transferable vote.
Note: In Wales, it will be up to the devolved assembly to introduce an STV system or
another system for local elections. Just like it is in Scotland and N. Ireland.
The Lib Dems also want to allow 16 and 17-year old’s to vote in UK General Elections,
England local elections and also national referendums. They also want to allow EU
citizens who have lived in the UK for 5-years+ to stand and vote in UK General Elections,
England local elections and national referendums. They also want to have authorities
make people more informed on the steps of registering and also introduce an automatic
system of inclusion in elections. And the Lib Dems want UK citizens living abroad to be
able to vote in separate overseas constituencies, as well as allowing them to vote in UK
referendums.
The Lib Dems would also scrap plans for voter ID introduction and also want to reform
the House of Lords (upper house of the UK parliament) with a proper democratic
mandate.
In other electoral related pledges, the Lib Dems want to cap donations to parties and
introduce citizens’ assemblies to have the public engaged in finding solutions for things
such as the climate crisis and the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms by the
state.
For Scotland the Lib Dems oppose a 2 independence referendum and Scottish
independence itself. In England the Lib Dems support devolved governments for the
implementation of things such as a Cornish Assembly or a Yorkshire Parliament.
Foreign Affairs
The Lib Dems have pledges to go against the rising tide of nationalist, authoritarian and
isolationist trend across the world by supporting and promoting liberal ideals through
organizations such as the EU, UN, Commonwealth and NATO, as well as promoting the
climate emergency and helping to fight it. They would suspend providing firearm exports
to countries with poor human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia. Would increase
financial aid to countries experiencing refugee crisis. Work to introduce a Europe
Magnitsky Act, to sanction corrupt individuals and human rights abusers.
nd
nd rd
nd
10/11

11. The Lib Dems want to use armed intervention as a last resort and would have a
parliamentary vote on any kind of armed intervention.
When it comes to Israel and Palestine, the Lib Dems support a two-state solution with
independence for Palestine, while respecting Israel’s right for security.
And the party would reopen the British National Overseas Passport offer to the people
of Hong Kong, allowing the right to abode for all holders.
The Lib Dems want to also work on abolishing the use of the death penalty worldwide
and making a way forward for nuclear disarmament.
Costing
The Liberal Democrats have set out how they will pay for their manifesto promises and
pledges in a 9-page summary.
They will fund their promises through the Remain Bonus that would be got from staying
in the EU, raising Income Tax by 1p, returning corporate tax back to 20% and abolishing
the separate Capital-Gains Tax-free allowance, reformation of air passenger duty,
Cannabis duty and savings, funding that has been committed in the September spending
review by the government, anti-tax-avoidance measures, increasing Digital Services Tax
and abolishing the Marriage Tax Allowance.
The Lib Dems say that the above will provide the money they need to pay for their
pledges and promises in their manifesto.
Thank you for reading this post, if you have any queries please Email me, you can find
my Email in the Contacts & Community section. Please also follow The Weekly Rambler
on Twitter and Facebook which you can access through the buttons at the bottom of this
website. You can also use the social media buttons under each blogpost to share with
your family, friends and associates. You can also subscribe to Email notifications at the
right-side of this website to know whenever a new post goes up (you can easily
unsubscribe from this at any time through a button in each Email notification), or
alternatively you can use an RSS Feed Reader. Please also join my FB Group The Weekly
Ramblers Readers Group where readers can more easily talk with each other and also
with me whenever I am on, you can also find it in Community.
11/11