UKIP Interim Manifesto
UKIP Interim Manifesto September 2018 PDF Download
- UKIP Manifesto Gerard Batten Introduction
- UKIP Manifesto 1. Brexit
- UKIP Manifesto 2. NHS Policy in England
- UKIP Manifesto 3. Social Care and Mental Health in England
- UKIP Manifesto 4. Welfare and Disability Policy in England
- UKIP Manifesto 5. Immigration
- UKIP Manifesto 6. Housing
- UKIP Manifesto 7. Education and Training
- UKIP Manifesto 8. Transport
- UKIP Manifesto 9. Foreign Affairs and Overseas Aid
- UKIP Manifesto 10. Defence and Security
- UKIP Manifesto 11. Veterans’ Issues
- UKIP Manifesto 12. Police and Criminal Justice
- UKIP Manifesto 13. The Prison Service
- UKIP Manifesto 14. Agriculture
- UKIP Manifesto 15. Fisheries
- UKIP Manifesto 16. Economy and Trade
- UKIP Manifesto 17. Industry
- UKIP Manifesto 18. Energy
- UKIP Manifesto 19. Environment
- UKIP Manifesto 20. Small Businesses
- UKIP Manifesto 21. Taxation
- UKIP Manifesto 22. Children and Families
- UKIP Manifesto 23. Sexual Exploitation & Paedophile Gangs
- UKIP Manifesto 24. Animal Welfare
- UKIP Manifesto 25. Islamic Extremism
- UKIP Manifesto 26. Constitutional and Political Reform
- UKIP Manifesto 27. English Identity and Issues
- UKIP Manifesto 28. Free Speech and Political Correctness
- UKIP Manifesto 29. Cost Savings
- UKIP Manifesto 30. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
UKIP Manifesto Gerard Batten Introduction
UKIP Leader Gerard Batten MEP
Under my leadership I want UKIP to be a ‘populist party‘ in the real sense of the word – a party whose policies are popular with the voters. In recent times the word populist has been turned into a derogatory term. This is because the political and media establishments across the western world stand for and promote so much that is deeply unpopular with their own peoples. These unpopular policies include: government from Brussels by the EU, open-border uncontrolled immigration, and imposing an alien politically correct cultural agenda on their peoples.
This Interim Manifesto cannot possibly include every policy area or every detail, it represents a summary of where UKIP is now. It is a dynamic document, and policies will be developed further in the future.
UKIP is always at its best when it’s at its most radical. It is strongest when it is bold and leading the political agenda. We have done this on numerous occasions in the past. UKIP set the agenda on leaving the European Union, on introducing a limited and controlled immigration system, and opposing Islamic literalist and fundamentalist extremism. UKIP will set the agenda on going forward into a post-Brexit world. UKIP remains the only party willing to discuss the issues of real importance to most people. UKIP is the only real opposition.
UKIP will promote and defend our national and individual freedoms. We stand for freedom from the European Union and the right to live once again under our own traditional freedoms and liberties, together with the right once again to be proud of our great country. We are determined to protect our freedom of speech and the right to speak our minds without fear of the politically correct thought-police knocking on our doors.
UKIP has stuck to its principles year in, year out, in the sure knowledge that the solutions we offer are sound. We believe in Britain and we make no apologies to anyone for doing so. We say what we mean and we mean what we say. We ask you to support and join UKIP and to vote for us in local or Parliamentary elections whenever you have the chance. We need your support, and our country needs UKIP.
Gerard Batten MEP
UKIP Leader.
Comment on Gerard Batten’s Introduction
UKIP Manifesto 1. Brexit
UKIP Manifesto Brexit
UKIP stands for a complete and total withdrawal from the European Union. UKIP was the only party to publish a Brexit plan, entitled, ‘Brexit Must Mean Exit. Taking Control. The UKIP Plan for Leaving the European Union’ (July 2017). This is available to read or download from the UKIP website, www.ukip.org
• In short, UKIP stands for: no more money to be paid to the EU, no more EU laws imposed upon us, no more jurisdiction over us by the European Court and no more open-border EU immigration.
• Irrespective of whatever ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ HM Government agrees with the EU, UKIP will continue to fight for the UK’s total independence from the EU, and to fully restore the UK’s former status as an independent, self-governing, sovereign state.
• A clean exit from the EU will include withdrawing post-Brexit from PESCO (Permanent Structure Cooperation), the EU’s ‘Defence Union’, or nascent Army, which the Government agreed to prior to Brexit.
• Britain’s international standing will be enhanced by leaving the EU as it will be able to act independently, whilst retaining its membership of the UN Security Council, the World Trade Organisation, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and over 100 other international organisations of which we are a member.
• Outside the European Union Britain will be a more prosperous nation. It will regain control of its trade policy, free business from unnecessary regulation, regain control of its agricultural industry and restore its fishing industry. Increased prosperity will mean more jobs, and more tax revenue to pay for the things we all want for the British people.
Comment on UKIP’s Brexit Policies
UKIP Manifesto 2. NHS Policy in England
UKIP Manifesto NHS Policy in England
UKIP believes in an NHS free at the point of delivery. The NHS is in crisis, not just from a lack of adequate funding but because of the inefficient use of funds, Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract liabilities, and ever-increasing demand from foreign nationals who should have no entitlement to use its services free of charge.
• The current Purchaser/Provider purchasing system should be replaced wherever possible by more centralised purchasing systems designed to capitalise on cost savings.
• The NHS is a national health service and not an international health service. The NHS is open to widespread abuse by non-UK citizens. We will end ‘health tourism’ by foreign nationals. An NHS Health Card will entitle British citizens to use the NHS, whilst foreign visitors, unless specifically provided for by reciprocal agreements, will be required to have private health insurance.
• EU open borders have created a major drain on resources by bringing in around 3.8 million additional people. Many of these people will have no history of contributing significant tax revenue to help pay for the NHS but have the same entitlement as British citizens. When Britain leaves the EU, this entitlement must not be extended to any new arrivals from the EU (unless national reciprocal agreements are negotiated with individual nations).
• The PFI scandal (introduced by the Tories and expanded by Labour), is draining much needed funds out of our NHS. PFI contracts financed £11.8 billion to build hospitals in England but will cost £71 billion to pay back over 31 years. UKIP will terminate these contracts by Act of Parliament where possible.
• American style litigation is out of control, with an estimated £78 billion worth of claims in the system with the potential to destroy the NHS.(1) UKIP would adopt the ‘no automatic lump sum’ compensation policy and only pay for criminal negligence, similar to the Australian system. Where applicable, support payments should be paid monthly.
• We will address the shortage of GPs, nurses and midwives by waiving tuition fees in exchange for a minimum five-year period to be worked in the NHS. This would dramatically increase the number of training places for British doctors, nurses and paramedics. British nursing applicants are being rejected because it is cheaper to recruit already qualified foreign applicants, and in some cases thereby lowering acceptable standards. We will prioritise training our own NHS workers, rather than relying on recruiting medical staff from abroad.
• UKIP will scrap hospital car parking charges wherever possible (as is currently being done in Wales); these are a tax on patients and visitors.
1 Estimated by Angus Dalgleish FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, Professor of Oncology, St George’s, University of London.
Comment on UKIP’s NHS Policies
UKIP Manifesto 3. Social Care and Mental Health in England
UKIP Manifesto Social Care and Mental Health in England
There is an increasing proportion of older people in the population whose care issues are not being addressed.
• UKIP will increase social care funding by £2bn per annum to pay for additional residential, nursing and home care services.
• An increasing number of younger people are suffering from mental health issues and this needs to be addressed. We will introduce practical policies to improve the delivery of mental health services and increase mental health funding by £500m per annum.
Comment on UKIP’s Social Care and Mental Health Policies
UKIP Manifesto 4. Welfare and Disability Policy in England
UKIP Manifesto Welfare and Disability Policy in England
UKIP is committed to maintaining a strong and robust supportive safety net for those in genuine need, but which will not be a soft-touch on welfare.
• UKIP will end the unfair ATOS-style work capability assessments and replace it with a system using qualified medical practitioners.
• UKIP is committed to protecting the rights of disabled people and we support their inclusion in the workplace whenever that is possible.
• UKIP would scrap the bedroom tax – which adversely affects many disabled people.
• UKIP will stop child benefit being paid for non-UK resident children of foreign citizens.
• UKIP would not pay benefits to foreign nationals resident in the UK until they have paid tax for 5 years.
Comment on UKIP’s Welfare and Disability Policies
UKIP Manifesto 5. Immigration
UKIP Manifesto Immigration
Mass uncontrolled immigration has been extremely damaging to Britain. We have imported cheap labour by the million. This not only exploits migrants but depresses the wages and living standards of those at the bottom end of the economic scale, and drives up property prices and rental costs. In 1997 the official British population figure was 58 million people. The figure in 2017 was 66 million. A recent report showed that the 6.6 million population growth between 2000-2016 was 80% due to migrants and births to migrants (2).
Such a rate of increase is simply unsustainable in one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
• UKIP believes that the age of uncontrolled mass-immigration must come to an end. We have open borders with the EU but successive British governments have also failed to control immigration from outside of the EU. UKIP will introduce a selective and limited Australian style points-based immigration system. Immigration for permanent settlement must be strictly limited.
• Temporary immigration for workers on work permits and students will be both strictly controlled and time-limited.
• UKIP will develop the UK Border Force into a Migration Control Department directly responsible to a Minister. This department will oversee the immigration system and border control.
• Migrants will not be able to claim public housing or benefits until they have been a tax paying resident in UK for a continuous five years.
• Workers on permits and students will be expected to possess private health insurance as a condition of entry to the UK (unless covered by a reciprocal medical treatment agreement).
• UKIP will rescind the UK’s assent to the Barcelona Declaration (1995) and the Marrakesh Declaration (2018). Both of these documents pave the way for yet more uncontrolled and unlimited immigration from Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
2 Migration Watch UK. Impact of Migration on UK Population Growth. MW 452. August 2018.
Comment on UKIP’s Immigration Policies
UKIP Manifesto 6. Housing
UKIP Manifesto Housing
The UK does not have a housing problem – it has a demand problem, with demand being fuelled by mass uncontrolled immigration. Supply of housing simply cannot keep up with demand. We cannot stabilise the housing problem until we have controlled immigration.
• One of the most significant problems has been that immigrants from the European Union have enjoyed access to social housing on the same basis as British citizens. Post Brexit, UKIP would end this.
• Overseas investors now purchase approximately 60% of residential new-build properties in central London, and around 30% overall,(3) thereby driving up property prices. These properties are often left vacant. UKIP will introduce a five-year residency qualification for any non-UK citizen buyer of residential property in designated areas in England. Rich foreigners will try to find loopholes no doubt, and government will have to try and close them.
• It should be possible to build one million new houses on brownfield sites. We will offer grants to bring this land into use.
• We will increase the supply of housing by identifying long-term dormant land held by central and local government that can be released.
• To ease the immediate problem, we will encourage the building of modular housing, made by British companies, which is inexpensive to build and highly energy efficient.
• UKIP will abolish Stamp Duty (see section 21. Taxation) thereby saving house buyers £16.2bn per annum.(4)
3 The role of overseas investors in the London new-build residential market. Final Report for Homes for London. Keith Scanlon, Christine Whitehead and Fanny Blanc with Ulises Moreno-Tabarez. London School of Economics May 2017.
4 Office for National Statistics April 2018
Comment on UKIP’s Housing Policies
UKIP Manifesto 7. Education and Training
UKIP Manifesto Education and Training
• It is a matter of great concern that the state education system is turning out a large number of children who are functionally innumerate and illiterate.
• Teachers must be able to concentrate on what’s important by cutting down on bureaucratic assessments and appraisals. Education needs to re-focus on teaching children the basics.
• UKIP will encourage the establishment of new grammar schools, which are a proven path to social mobility for working class children.
• UKIP will push for a range of different types of school, including grammar schools, technical, vocational, general and specialist secondary schools within a geographical area. This will make our secondary school system more responsive to the differing aptitudes, capabilities and speed of development of our children.
• We will waive tuition fees for further and higher education in subjects vital to our national life: science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine subjects (STEMM) at university, dependent on graduates working in the UK for five years.
• UKIP will support real trade apprenticeships and apprentice degree courses.
• UKIP will drop the artificial target of 50% of people going to higher education.
• UKIP opposes gender confusion ideologies and the implementation of compulsory LGBT-inclusive relationships education in primary schools, due to be introduced from September 2019.
Comment on UKIP’s Education and Training Policies
UKIP Manifesto 8. Transport
UKIP Manifesto Transport
Britain is a nation of commuters, for work and for pleasure. Whether our journeys take us on the daily commute to work, on a cross country commercial delivery haul, or the school run, everyone needs a comprehensive and reliable transport network.
• UKIP will scrap HS2. At an estimated cost of £100bn this vanity project is not affordable (5). HS2 will destroy people’s lives and will have a huge environmental impact. UKIP will invest in the existing railways to improve capacity and journey times.
• The problem of failing rail operators could be solved by taking control by means of a new government owned company to run the franchises. All options would be considered.
• UKIP opposed the expansion of Heathrow Airport. UKIP will encourage investment in regional airports. The current Heathrow plan will destroy many villages and listed buildings as well as add to pollution in the locality.
• UKIP will scrap all road tolls. Tolling increases costs to business and the public. Road users are already overtaxed and should not be paying twice to use our roads. We will also block any introduction of payas-you-go road pricing.
• UKIP will abandon the current rollout of smart motorways and instead divert the funding to road maintenance with a priority for fixing potholes. Smart motorways are perceived by the public as being money-making scams, and removing the hard shoulder is dangerous.
• UKIP will stop diesel drivers from being penalised through discriminatory parking fees or zone charging. Modern diesels are far cleaner today and many people bought their vehicles in good faith on Government advice.
• UKIP supports the transition to electric vehicles, but the electric charging infrastructure is not keeping pace. We will support the installation of charging stations by diverting funds from the electric car subsidy. We will also encourage off-street parking and charging provision in all new housing and industrial developments through the local planning process.
• UKIP supports the development of driverless car technology.
• UKIP will scrap the EU derived law for the Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) which has been severely damaging to the UK haulage industry. This unnecessary qualification has led to a shortage of HGV drivers in the UK.
5 Estimated by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Comment on UKIP’s Transport Policies
UKIP Manifesto 9. Foreign Affairs and Overseas Aid
UKIP Manifesto Foreign Affairs and Overseas Aid
Post Brexit, Britain’s foreign policy no longer needs be linked to the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, which would inevitably involve us in the EU’s planned armed forces and embroil us in its foreign policy ambitions. We should put the needs of our own citizens first. Our foreign aid budget is often wasted on corrupt regimes, or given to countries that can afford their own atomic weapon and space programmes.
• Under former Labour and Conservative governments, we have been engaged in wars that have not brought peace, but instead have made the world a more dangerous place. Britain’s foreign policy should be strictly framed from the view-point of what is in the UK’s national interest. We should not allow ourselves to be swept into war on someone else’s coat tails.
• David Cameron committed the UK to 0.7% (currently £14bn) of GNI (Gross National Income) to Overseas Aid. This is a purely artificial construct and much of this money goes to corrupt governments and is lost in fraud. The Department for International Development (DfID) spends and wastes money, purely to meet its artificial target.
• UKIP will scrap the target of 0.7% GNI for Overseas Aid and return £14 billion to HM Treasury to assist our own citizens in our own country.
• UKIP supports government providing genuine disaster relief and humanitarian aid, as appropriate. UKIP would return to the old system in which DfID was a small directorate of the Foreign Office responsible for disaster relief on an ‘as and when’ basis.
• UKIP supports existing systems whereby citizens can donate to foreign aid charities and receive tax relief.
Comment on UKIP’s Foreign Affairs and Overseas Aid Policies
UKIP Manifesto 10. Defence and Security
UKIP Manifesto Defence and Security
UKIP believes that we should not get involved in international conflicts unless it can be clearly shown to be in the national interest.
• UKIP is committed to NATO for our collective defence. UKIP expects all NATO members to honour their commitment to contribute a minimum of 2% GDP.
• UKIP will withdraw the UK from the EU’s attempts to create its own armed forces, e.g. through PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation), already committed to by the Conservative Government prior to Brexit, and from Mrs May’s proposed new EU Security Treaty.
• Britain’s Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force have been so reduced in size that they struggle to meet their commitments. UKIP is committed to adequately funding Britain’s armed forces.
• UKIP will initiate a defence review to consider our future defence requirements and the size and shape of our armed forces. UK manufacturers should get first call on providing our armed forces equipment.
• UKIP is committed to maintaining the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Comment on UKIP’s Defence and Security Policies
UKIP Manifesto 11. Veterans’ Issues
UKIP Manifesto Veterans Issues
Whenever HM Government calls on our brave armed forces to go into action on our behalf they never let us down. UKIP will not let them down, we will honour the military covenant.
• UKIP will establish a Veterans’ Administration Department, headed by a government minister, organisationally independent and financially separate from the Ministry of Defence. This Ministry will promote and protect the interests of veterans in a variety of fields: for example, housing, health care, education and training.
• We will bring forward legislation to prevent veterans from being pursued by police and prosecutors many years after the event, for actions they undertook in good faith whilst they were in the service of the Crown.
• We would seek to guarantee a job offer with the police, prison service or the UK Border Force, or emergency services, for anyone who has successfully served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of twelve years. Veterans would be prime candidates for jobs in the new Migration Control Department designed to control immigration (see section 5).
• Skills gained in the Armed Forces can be useful when running a small business. We will create a ‘Boots to Business’ scheme to channel loans, grants and access to free professional advice and mentors, to veterans who wish to set up and run their own businesses after leaving the forces.
Comment on UKIP’s Veterans’ Issues Policies
UKIP Manifesto 12. Police and Criminal Justice
UKIP Manifesto Police and Criminal Justice
The last Royal Commission into policing took place in 1962. Now is the time to conduct a root and branch review of policing, with a Royal Commission, which will establish what is required to ensure that the police deliver a service to the public that is fit for purpose, both now and in the future.
• The police should be adequately funded and paid. The entire police budget for 2018/19 at £7.3bn is half the Overseas Aid budget. The first priority of HM Government should be the protection of its own citizens.
• In 2013, David Cameron’s Coalition Government introduced direct entry to the senior ranks of policing, thus ending 180 years of tradition which holds that all recruits to the police start their careers as constables. UKIP will reverse this decision.
• The Crown Prosecution Service has consistently shown itself to be unfit for purpose. UKIP will abolish the CPS and return prosecutorial powers to police forces and their own prosecution lawyers.
• UKIP will scrap the Crown Prosecution Service’s guidelines on ‘hate crime’, which are purely subjective. Victims of crime should all be treated equally, irrespective of the motives of the criminal.
• UKIP will repeal all of the EU-inspired legislation that binds us to EU legal institutions and EU legal instruments, e.g. the European Arrest Warrant, and replace them with the pre-existing agreements on mutual co-operation, or new treaties that protect the fundamental rights of UK citizens under our laws. Likewise, UKIP would repeal the USA Extradition Treaty and negotiate a new treaty that protects the rights of our citizens under our laws.
• Police forces must be required to investigate real crimes against the person and property as a priority and not social media ‘hate speech’ accusations. London’s Metropolitan Police reportedly has 900 plus officers dedicated to investigating ‘hate-crime’ while the city endures a stabbing and acid attack epidemic.
• We will ensure that the police and relevant bodies take a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable ‘cultural’ practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Comment on UKIP’s Police and Criminal Justice Policies
UKIP Manifesto 13. The Prison Service
UKIP Manifesto The Prison Service
Our prison service is in disarray and close to meltdown. It is under-funded, under-resourced, privatised to make profits for private companies, and in some instances the prisoners are taking control of the prisons. Around 11% of the prison population are foreign nationals – over 9,000.(6)
• Currently, most prisoners usually serve only half of their sentence. Prison sentences should mean what they say, with 10% off for good behaviour subject to the discretion of prison governors and independent review.
• The prison service should be adequately funded and prison officers adequately paid. UKIP opposes the privatisation of the prison system and will reverse the process. All prisoners should be in the custody of officers of the Crown answerable to Ministers and not private companies.
• UKIP would seek to deport foreign criminals, and where possible to have agreements with foreign states whereby we pay them so that their citizens can serve their sentences in their own countries. It would be cheaper, and might also act as something of a deterrent. Such criminals would be have a life-time ban on re-entry to the UK.
• UKIP would build new prisons as necessary to accommodate the number of persons convicted of imprisonable crimes.
6 House of Common Library, UK Prison Population Statistics, Ref CBP-04334. July 2018.
Comment on UKIP’s Prison Service Policies
UKIP Manifesto 14. Agriculture
UKIP Manifesto Agriculture
Post Brexit, the UK will be free of the costs and impositions of the Common Agricultural Policy. We will move from a system which subsidises large landowners to one that supports food producers, environmental protection and food safety.
• Leaving the EU will enable UK to design a tailor-made agricultural policy, rather than a one-size fits all scheme, designed to benefit continental farmers.
• Offer a wide range of grants with tackling anti-microbial resistance as a major priority.
• UKIP would introduce a Modern Food Act to ensure traceability and origins of raw materials.
• Create a National Agricultural Council to ensure ‘joined-up thinking’ between different Government Departments for food, farming and environmental matters.
• We will re-establish the Agricultural Wages Board for England, which would protect the incomes and conditions of farm workers.
• Legislate for food labelling to show country of origin, method of production, transport and slaughter.
Comment on UKIP’s Agriculture Policies
UKIP Manifesto 15. Fisheries
UKIP Manifesto Fisheries
UKIP wants total withdrawal from the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy without the need for a transition period when we leave the EU.
• Post Brexit UKIP will take control of the UK’s full 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as is our entitlement under international law; allowing us to rebuild our fishing industry, its ancillary industries, and our coastal towns.
• UKIP wants a complete overhaul of our fisheries systems for a fairer allocation of post-Brexit fishing opportunities, with priority given to the low-impact, small-scale fishers.
• UKIP will end the discard system, with no fish going to waste.
• UKIP wants investment in British ports and fishing infrastructure, and to amend the Maritime Shipping Act with a view to limiting the exploitation of UK fishing waters by foreign vessels. These changes will provide opportunities for British business and career opportunities for British citizens.
Comment on UKIP’s Fisheries Policies
UKIP Manifesto 16. Economy and Trade
UKIP Manifesto Economy and Trade
Britain’s trade policy has been under the control of the European Union since we joined in 1973. Our businesses have been obliged to obey EU legislation, even when they do not export to the EU. Leaving the EU will free Britain to pursue its own trade and commercial policies, which offer enormous opportunity for increased trade and employment.
• Post Brexit, Britain will regain its independent seat on the World Trade Organisation and we will be free to decide our own trade policy and negotiate trade agreements, where appropriate, with other countries.
• Approximately 10% to 12% of the UK economy is concerned with exporting to the countries of the European Union, whereas 100% of businesses have to abide by EU laws. Outside the EU, a British government can reduce regulation to an appropriate level, which will aid economic growth, prosperity and employment.
• Brexit will allow the UK to strengthen its economic ties with our historical friends and allies in the Commonwealth. This could include a Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement.
• UKIP would seek to minimise the use of Zero Hour Contracts except where they are to the mutual benefit of employee and employer, and to ensure that everyone can earn a living wage.
Comment on UKIP’s Economy and Trade Policies
UKIP Manifesto 17. Industry
UKIP Manifesto Industry
Britain’s manufacturing has been in steady decline for many years. We now have a massive and growing trade deficit in goods with the EU. In the 25 years of membership of the EU Single Market the UK’s deficit in goods with the EU has grown remorselessly from £5 billion in 1992 to £96 billion p.a. in 2016. The deficit with the whole world totalled £134 billion (2016) or 6.5% of GDP.(7)
• Halving this deficit should be a 10-year priority in a 20-year programme of manufacturing expansion worth £90 billion of increased added value, costing around £50 billion of repayable public loans, paid for by cancelling HS2.
• On average UK manufacturing supplies only 12% of the UK market. This level of manufacturing capacity is dangerous for both economic stability and national security.
• Our national strategy has therefore to be to increase the range of UK products, with particular emphasis on Sustainable Design principles, namely the three Rs: reuse, repair, recycle.
• There are also pressing needs for new capital goods industries including: ship-building for a post Brexit fishing fleet and coastal protection vessels, and for a new generation of factory-built modular homes.
• Two new forms of manufacturing organisation will be needed to achieve these goals for virtually all product sectors with both public and private investment: (1) Existing companies prepared to expand and collaborate in consortia with specially recruited design and marketing staff; (2) New grant-aided companies set up on the co-ownership principle.
7 This section is provided courtesy of Professor Stephen Bush, as published in his paper ‘Produce & Prosper’. Stephen is Emeritus Professor of Process Manufacture and Polymer Engineering at Manchester University.
Comment on UKIP’s Industry Policies
UKIP Manifesto 18. Energy
UKIP Manifesto Energy
The UK needs a mix of energy sources comprising nuclear, conventional and renewable. Brexit will allow the UK to set its own future energy policy, with lower prices and more secure supplies.
• Outside the European Union UKIP will remove the 5% VAT levy on domestic fuel.
• UKIP will scrap the Climate Change Act (2008), which requires the UK to achieve annual decarbonisation rates of more than 5% – a figure no other country in the world has ever, or is ever likely, to attain. The total cost of this wildly unrealistic legislation has been calculated at an eyewatering £720 billion, over a period of 40 years.
• UKIP will end subsidies for wind turbines and solar voltaic arrays. We will support renewable energy where it can deliver electricity at competitive prices.
• UKIP would seek to rejuvenate the UK’s coal industry, wherever that is possible.
Comment on UKIP’s Energy Policies
UKIP Manifesto 19. Environment
UKIP Manifesto Environment
We should separate the dogma of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change from environmentalism – care for and protection of the environment.
• Post Brexit, UKIP would re-establish the successful local drainage supervisory boards run by those most affected by flooding. Farmers and riparian(8) landowners must be allowed to undertake the necessary work on their land to prevent flooding without penalties.
• The Green Belt must be protected in order to preserve our quality of life. The most significant threat to the Green Belt, and the UK environment in general, especially in England, is unsustainable population growth, which is predominantly fuelled by mass uncontrolled immigration.
• UKIP seeks to develop policies that address excessive packaging and the use of plastics where they are detrimental to the environment. For example, the 5p cost of plastic bags is just another money-making racket. UKIP would legislate to bring about the use of biodegradable carrier bags and packaging.
8 Land next to riverbanks.
Comment on UKIP’s Environment Policies
UKIP Manifesto 20. Small Businesses
UKIP Manifesto Small Businesses
Britain’s 5.7 million small and medium sized businesses make up around 50% of the jobs in the UK. They are the lifeblood and the backbone of the British economy. Many a young person’s first job is with a small or medium sized business.
• It is vital that they have a trading environment that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses, to recruit staff, to attract investment, and to have fair access to UK Government markets.
• UKIP will ensure that HMRC thoroughly investigates big business or public-sector bodies that repeatedly make late payment to smaller customers, and we would create an anonymous reporting system. Fines proportionate to the amount of delayed payments will be levied. And will escalate for repeat offenders.
• UKIP will improve access to trade credit insurance especially as it relates to exports, to remove the drag on growth for businesses struggling to secure loans and give small traders the confidence to expand their businesses.
• We will encourage local trade by pushing local authorities in the country to offer at least 30 minutes free parking in town centres and shopping parades.
• We will also freeze Insurance Premium Tax. Previous governments have raised this tax as an easy way to generate extra revenue, yet it cannot be claimed back by businesses, so increases have been especially tough on smaller traders.
Comment on UKIP’s Small Businesses Policies
UKIP Manifesto 21. Taxation
UKIP Manifesto Taxation
UKIP believes in allowing people to keep as much of their own income and wealth to spend according to their own needs and priorities.
• UKIP will raise the personal tax allowance to £13,000. This will help those on low earnings.
• UKIP will legislate to change the BBC TV licence from a tax to a voluntary subscription. The licence fee currently costs the holders £3.7 billion per annum. The licence fee is an outdated, regressive tax, which unjustly criminalises those who don’t wish to watch the BBC, particularly the poor. The BBC World Service could be retained under Government control.
• Channel 4 is a publicly owned entity under the control of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Although funded by advertising, any potential liabilities fall to the taxpayer. UKIP would sell it off on the commercial market.
• UKIP will abolish inheritance tax (currently £5.2bn per annum).(9) Assets purchased out of taxed income should not be taxed again when their owners die. UKIP will kill this ‘death tax’. It hits the middle classes hardest, those who have worked to provide for their dependants, because the wealthiest can often manage to avoid paying it.
• UKIP will abolish Stamp Duty. This is a tax on people moving house, which very often affects people struggling to accommodate a growing family, and currently costs house buyers £16.2bn per annum.(10)
• We will ensure that all businesses and multi-national corporations pay the appropriate taxes to HM Treasury. Post Brexit, these companies will not be able to take advantage of EU tax avoidance schemes.
• Once outside the EU, the UK will have control over VAT. UKIP will take the opportunity to zero-rate certain goods, such as domestic fuel, sanitary products and repairs to commercial, residential buildings and historic and listed buildings.
• Council tax as it currently stands is outdated and needs to undergo a full and thorough review.
9 Office for National Statistics figures for 2017-2018. Published July 2018.
10 Office for National Statistics April 2018
Comment on UKIP’s Taxation Policies
UKIP Manifesto 22. Children and Families
UKIP Manifesto Children and Families
Stable, active and intact two-parent families are the bedrock of a robust society, whereas broken families are much more likely to be dependent on the state, have poorer physical and mental health and contribute less to wider society.
• Family breakdowns may occur for a variety of reasons, but whatever the reasons the cost to the taxpayer of family breakdown is estimated to cost some £50 billion a year. UKIP policy is to use the taxation and benefits system to help families without disadvantaging others.
• UKIP opposes the disempowerment of parents by the state, whereby its institutions are increasingly dictating the norms and values children learn and supplanting the role of parents. For example, the education system is being used more as a means of indoctrination than education.
• We will introduce further safeguards into the operation of the Family Courts to ensure that injustices are not perpetrated on parents.
Comment on UKIP’s Children and Families Policies
UKIP Manifesto 23. Sexual Exploitation & Paedophile Gangs
UKIP Manifesto Sexual Exploitation and Paedophile Gangs
The systematic and industrialised sexual abuse of under-age and vulnerable young people is one of the greatest social scandals in English history. A scandal not just because it happened but because the responsible authorities swept it under the carpet for decades.
• It is now accepted that one of the key factors that drove the cover up of this phenomenon was adherence by the authorities to political correctness and the fear of identifying the vast majority of the perpetrators as Muslims.
• An independent national enquiry into local authorities and police forces’ historical failure to protect children from rape gangs should be set up in order to bring them to account. Where found to be in dereliction of duty those responsible should be prosecuted and or sacked, as applicable.
• UK laws to protect children must be implemented fully and impartially, irrespective of the culture, ethnicity or religious beliefs of the perpetrators. There are issues to be addressed, such as the failure to prosecute cases of female genital mutilation and forced marriages.
Comment on UKIP’s Sexual Exploitation & Paedophile Gangs Policies
UKIP Manifesto 24. Animal Welfare
UKIP Manifesto Animal Welfare
Animal welfare standards in the UK are some of the highest in the world. Much of the current EU legislation relating to welfare for pets, farm animals, wild animals, and animals used in research, has been drawn from the UK. When we leave the EU, we will be able to take back control of animal health and welfare legislation, and to update and improve our laws to ensure that animals in the UK have the most robust protections.
• When we have left the EU, we will be able to end the export of live animals for slaughter – an inhumane practice made possible by EU legislation.(11) UKIP would end the export of live animals for slaughter.
• The general population is already consuming ritually slaughtered, non-stunned meat unknowingly and by default because its use is now commonplace in schools, restaurants, works canteens etc. Killing animals without first rendering them unconscious causes unnecessary suffering. The percentage of non-stunned meat is at least 25% of the total, if not more.(12)
• Current UK law states all animals must be stunned prior to slaughter – unless it is for a religious purpose. UKIP will repeal the law allowing exemptions for ritual non-stun slaughter. This is an animal welfare issue and we should all abide by the same laws. Legislation banning non-stunned slaughter already exists in some European countries, for example, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.(13)
• Those wishing to eat non-stunned slaughtered meat can continue to do so as World Trade Organisation rules allow the importation of such meat; but UKIP would require this meat to be clearly labelled, so that consumers may make an informed choice.
11 Exemptions would be the export of live animals from Northern Ireland across the border to the Republic of Ireland, or for racehorses internationally, or rare animals for breeding etc.
12 The Barbarity of Ritual Slaughter of Animals in the European Union. Gerard Batten MEP. Page 7. Jan 2018
13 Such a ban is supported by such animal welfare bodies as the RSPCA and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, as well as Governments Farm Animal Welfare Committee.
Comment on UKIP’s Animal Welfare Policies
UKIP Manifesto 25. Islamic Extremism
UKIP Manifesto Islamic Extremism
The worst excesses of a literalist interpretation of Islamic doctrine has seen unprecedented acts of terrorism in Britain and across the world. This can only be countered with practical measures.
• UKIP will legislate to ban the overseas funding of mosques and imams. A large proportion of UK mosques are funded from countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who export their extremist ideology to the UK.
• UKIP will end mass uncontrolled immigration, and under a security-based screening policy we restrict any limited migration from Islamic countries to those people we can be sure, as far as possible, do not follow a literalist and extremist interpretation of Islam.
• Islamic extremism is actively fostered in HM Prisons at state expense. Islamic gangs hold sway in some prisons and non-Islamic prisoners are converting for their own protection. UKIP would introduce the separation of prisoners or prisons exclusively for Islamic prisoners who promote extremism or try to convert non-Islamic prisoners.
• UKIP would repeal the legislation that gives legal recognition for Sharia law courts.
• Islamic extremism is an on-going problem that will take generations to resolve, and effective policy ideas will have to be developed whoever is in power.
Comment on UKIP’s Islamic Extremism Policies
UKIP Manifesto 26. Constitutional and Political Reform
UKIP Manifesto Constitutional and Political Reform
Constitutional and political reform is a pressing issue if we are to restore faith in our democratic system. Under the first-past-the-post voting system MPs are usually elected on a minority of the votes cast. Most votes don’t elect anyone. In the General Election of 2015 UKIP achieved 3.8 million or 12.6% of the vote. This was exactly the same percentage as the combined vote of the Liberal Democrat and the Scottish Nationalists, and yet they won 62 seats compared to UKIP’s single seat.(14) The Electoral Reform Society calculated that under one of the proportional voting systems available UKIP would have won between 54 to 80 seats in the 2015 election.(15) Meanwhile, the unelected and appointed members of the House of Lords represent no one but themselves.
• UKIP would convene an all-party constitutional convention, charged with addressing the many anomalies in our political system that need to be corrected if we are to be a modern democracy. The convention will report and table legislation within the life of a parliament.
• The first-past-the-post local and parliamentary voting system is not fair and does not deliver what the voters vote for. Many local authorities are effectively ‘one-party states’, e.g. the London Borough of Newham which currently has 100% Labour councillors. Most Members of Parliament are elected on a minority of the vote in their constituencies.
• Mrs Thatcher in 1979 achieved only 44% of the vote, and likewise, Tony Blair introduced the most far-reaching legislation on 43% or less of the vote.
• UKIP wants to see a Proportional Voting system introduced for local and parliamentary elections that would deliver results in accordance with how the voters voted. A number of options for how this could be done are available for discussion.
• The House of Lords is now an affront to democracy. It consists largely of political appointees who represent no-one but themselves. UKIP favour a Second Chamber elected on some form of proportional representation.
• We will end postal voting fraud by restricting postal votes to those with a valid reason for needing one. We will reinstate the system that operated prior to the Labour government’s changes.
14 In the 2015 General Election UKIP received 3,881,129 votes compared to the combined Scot Nat and Lib-Dem vote of 3,870,324. UKIP received the same percentage vote but 10,805 more votes.
15 The Electoral Reform Society. The 2015 General Election, A Voting System in Crisis.
Comment on UKIP’s Constitutional and Political Reform Policies
UKIP Manifesto 27. English Identity and Issues
UKIP Manifesto English Identity and Issues
The UK population in 2017 was estimated by the Office for National Statistics at 66m. England makes up the vast majority of the population at 55.6m (84.2%), with Scotland at 5.4m (8.2%), Wales at 3.1m (4.7%), and Northern Ireland at 1.8m (2.8%). Although England is the largest constituent part of the UK, with the largest population, English identity has been all but airbrushed out of our national life.
• In a recent lecture for the BBC former Labour MP Professor John Denham referred to a survey on British and English identity and to the emergence of a minority who are antipathetic to the English.
This segment amounted to only 7% of the sample, but this anti-English minority is over represented in the institutions of government, politics, the leadership of the public sector, the media, corporate capitalism and academia. Exactly the kind of people prominent in the Remain campaign.
• The English taxpayer meanwhile subsidises the other constituent parts of the United Kingdom, with a higher per head tax spend in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland than in England.
• While the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are rightly proud of their national identities the English are deemed not to exist. UKIP asserts that English identity is something to be proud of, and anyone who wishes to embrace that identity should do so, whatever their ethnic origins may be. English identity resides in the heart and mind not on the skin.
• To redress this democratic imbalance UKIP would reform the Westminster Parliament to adopt a system whereby only MPs representing English constituencies would vote on laws exclusively affecting England.
• The funding of the other constituent parts of the United Kingdom needs to be reviewed so that it is fair for all taxpayers, particularly with regard to the Barnett Formula for Scotland.
Comment on UKIP’s English Identity Policies
UKIP Manifesto 28. Free Speech and Political Correctness
UKIP Manifesto Free Speech and Political Correctness
UKIP believes in allowing our people their traditional rights of freedom of conscience, liberty and speech.
These rights have been eroded over recent decades by the burgeoning concepts of so-called ‘hate speech’, driven by the political doctrine of Cultural Marxism, which seeks to close down discussion and alternative views, so that only one extreme left-wing ‘politically correct’ viewpoint is allowed.
• UKIP will repeal hate speech guidelines because pre-existing laws are more than adequate to deal with ‘insulting or threatening behaviour’ or ‘behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace’, etc.
• UKIP will repeal the Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) introduced in 2014 which have been abused by local authorities to curtail lawful protest and criminalise speech.
• UKIP will repeal the Equality Act 2010 which gives special rights and privileges to certain groups with ‘protected characteristics’ and revert to pre-existing equality laws. For example, it allowed the BBC to advertise BAME (Black Asian Minority Ethnic) only internships and training schemes – thereby discriminating against white youngsters. Our people should be treated equally under the same laws.
• UKIP will shut down the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (£20 million pa)(16) and the Government Equalities Office (£47 million pa)(17) and end their politically correct social engineering of society – with the added benefit of saving about £67 million per annum.
16 https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/annual-report-and-accounts-2017-2018.pdf
17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Equalities_Office
Comment on UKIP’s Free Speech and Political Correctness Policies
UKIP Manifesto 29. Cost Savings
UKIP Manifesto Cost Savings
The national debt currently stands at £1.78 trillion or 86.58% of GDP. The annual cost of servicing this debt (paying interest) is currently around £39.4 billion per annum, approx. £108m per day.(18) Every area of spending should be scrutinised. UKIP believes in small government and low taxation, and unnecessary spending must be cut to help pay for those services we need.
Some of the policies itemised above will save money, some will cost money. UKIP does not intend to raise taxes but wants to reduce taxation wherever possible. Therefore, where expenditure is indicated above we would look to save money in other areas to pay for it.
• Leaving the European Union will save about £13.9 billion per annum (if we stay in the EU the cost of membership will rise). The ONS figures for 2016 show that we paid £18.9 billion gross, less the £5 billion rebate which equals £13.9 billion – this however includes Public Sector Receipts (our money spent in the UK by the EU) of £4.4 billion. Less the PSR, and rounded down, this leaves an absolute minimum saving of £9.4 billion per annum.
• Abolishing the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Overseas Aid Budget would save the taxpayer in the region of £14 billion per annum.
• The Tax Payers’ Alliance think tank calculated in 2017 that there are 1,148 Quangos (Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations) costing the taxpayer £90 billion per year. The Tory/Lib-Dem Coalition Government of 2010-2015 promised a ‘bonfire of the quangos’ but only managed to abolish 192 and merge another 118. UKIP will conduct a comprehensive audit of quangos leading to abolition wherever possible. An estimated 400 of these (35% of the total) could be disbanded. If this achieved only a 25% reduction in overall expenditure this would save £22.5 billion.
• On the basis of the previous three bullet points alone a minimum potential saving of £46 billion could be made.
• In addition to the savings above there is enormous scope for cutting government expenditure (and therefore borrowing). For example, abolishing HS2 would save an estimated cost of £100 billion – £2.3 billion has already been spent without a yard of track being laid.
• Scrapping the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport offers potential savings of £6 billion.
• Abolishing the Foreign Office quango, the British Council would save £182 million per annum.
• Scrapping the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the Government Equalities Office we can save £67 million p.a. (see Section 28 last bullet point).
These are just a few examples, and there are a host of other areas where cost savings can be made in order to pay for public services in health, education, defence, policing etc. When the full UKIP Manifesto is published before the next General Election we will give more details of cost savings that can be made.
18 Office for National Statistics, Public Sector Finances.
Comment on UKIP’s Cost Savings Policies
UKIP Manifesto 30. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
UKIP Manifesto Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Many of the above are national policies that would apply to the whole of the UK. However, UKIP in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will publish their own Manifestos at the appropriate times.
Comment on UKIP’s Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales Policies
Don’t just hope for a better future. Vote for one!
Copyright UKIP:: Telephone – 0333 800 6 800 :: Email – mail@ukip.org :: Website – www.ukip.org :: Twitter – @UKIP
