Ahead of the next general election, Labour has created a bold and ambitious policy platform that they will use to build their next manifesto. We have poured through National Policy Forum documents, analysed all the speeches delivered by Keir Starmer and his shadow cabinet and examined Labour’s press releases to distill the most important policies for Labour’s next manifesto.

We have assessed these policies against Labour’s five national missions, which will act as the organising framework of the manifesto. Alongside, we have written an explainer of Labour’s policymaking process here.

Growth: secure the highest sustained growth in the G7, with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

1. Fiscal credibility is the bedrock of Labour’s plans. The party have published iron-clad fiscal rules- which all spending decisions will have to abide by- and pledged to set up an Office for Value for Money to ensure public money isn’t ever wasted. Labour’s spending rules prohibit borrowing for day to day spending, but do permit borrowing for capital investment to create growth and for a future return on the investment.
2. Climate investment is how Labour hopes to turbocharge the economy, with Rachel Reeves aiming to be the ‘first green chancellor’ and pledging investment in green industries and ‘shovels in the ground’ across the country. The green prosperity plan will ramp up investment over time from a 2024 election win, reaching £28bn a year by 2027, if the fiscal situation allows. This figure was revised downwards by the shadow chancellor in light of the economic backdrop.
3. Pro business pro worker is the mantra for Labour politicians. Alongside a transformative plan for workers’ rights, Labour has been on a charm offensive with business and published a widely welcome Industrial Strategy which has four central goals; delivering clean power by 2030, caring for the future, harnessing data for the public good and building a resilient economy.
4. Devolution plans are developing and the Party has promised a Take Back Control Act which will give English towns and cities the power to develop their own growth plans, along with a raft of other new powers such as the power to franchise bus services.
5. Getting people in to work is another major focus, with promised reforms to Jobcentre Plus to ensure it becomes more responsive to local economic needs and making it more actively engaged with the needs of people looking for work.

Health: build an NHS first for the future that is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer

1. Prevention is the underlying thread that runs through the health mission, with Labour calling for a ‘prevention first’ revolution in order to keep health and care services sustainable. For public health, this involves a commitment to bring together services in the community and to encourage Integrated Care Systems to join up providers in local areas. In order to prevent ill health from a young age, Labour would implement the 9pm watershed for junk food advertising and ban vapes from branded and advertised to appeal to children.
2. NHS training expansion is at the centre of Labour’s commitment to prepare the NHS for the future and decrease waiting times through doubling the number of medical school places to 15,000, training 10,000 new nurses and midwives and training 5,000 new health visitors. This plan will also include a strategy for addressing retention issues amongst the current workforce.
3. Primary care is the front door of the health service so Labour have focussed on  reforming it to lead to earlier diagnosis and to speed up patient access. This involves a plan to bring back the family doctor to improve continuity of care, leading to better health outcome and fewer hospital admissions.
4. Mental health treatment is placed on an equal footing with physical health, with a specific emphasis placed on suicide prevention. This pledge would be supported by the recruitment of 8,500 new mental health professionals allowing guaranteed treatment within a month for anyone who needs it, including mental health professionals in every school.
5. Technological advances are being described by Labour as a ‘revolution’ that can deliver a completely different type of healthcare for the future. This is seen as the route to the NHS offering shorter waiting times, better treatment, early diagnosis and meaningful prevention. Labour’s route to harnessing this benefit is through the creation of a plan for procurement, adoption and spread of new technologies so that the NHS can acquire the tech it needs by giving innovators a clearer route to get their product into the NHS.

Crime: make Britain’s streets safe by halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels

1. Bringing back neighbourhood policing is a key building block in their plan to reduce crime. Labour has committed to putting 13,000 more neighborhood police officers and PCSOs back on the streets with the aim of repairing the vital community connection between police and local people.
2. Reducing violence against women and girls is a central target for Labour, with the party taking both a preventative approach by targeting factors that lead to violence such as misogyny and improving access to justice for victims. This involves putting domestic abuse specialists and specialist rape units in every police force.
3. Halving knife crime is a further goal and Labour will tackle it holistically through focusing on wider gang crime, drugs crime and antisocial behaviour amongst young people. They have pledged to make grooming and criminal exploitation of children illegal and also to tackle online sites selling machetes and dangerous knives.
4. Reverse the collapse in the charge rate to ensure that individuals feel secure in reporting crimes and have confidence that the criminal justice system works in a fair and effective way. They have announced plans to tackle the courts backlog by allowing legal specialists to serve as Crown Prosecutors and creating new joint arrangements for the police and CPS to tackle bureaucracy.
5. Raising standards that will lead to greater confidence in the police force by introducing mandatory national vetting, training and misconduct standards.

Energy: make Britain a clean energy superpower to create jobs, cut bills and boost energy security with zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero

1. Home-grown energy is the primary route to Labour’s commitment to delivery clean electricity by 2030. This involves the creation of GB Energy, a new publicly-owned national champion in clean power generation based in Scotland with the aim of providing the UK with the economic benefit from the increase in renewable energy.
2. Shift to renewables by greatly increasing the UK’s renewable energy capabilities by doubling onshore wind, tripling solar and quadrupling offshore wind. This investment outlines Labour’s path to running a reliable UK electricity system on virtually 100% clean power, creating a fully decarbonized grid.
3. Industrial investment is at the core of Labour’s green industry strategy with plans to build green British industries in every region of the UK through the creation of a National Wealth Fund that will invest alongside the private sector in gigafactories, clean steel plants, renewable-ready ports and green hydrogen, as well as in at least four industrial clusters in Scotland, Wales and England.
4. International alliances are being touted as the best way to ensure a cross-country approach to tackling the climate crisis. Labour have pledged the creation of a Clean Power Alliance, a coalition of nations committed to achieving 100% clean power by 2030, with the additional aims of bringing down energy prices and promoting clean technology.

Opportunity: break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage for every child, by reforming the childcare and education systems, raising standards everywhere, and preparing young people for work and life

1. Skills reform is a central tenet of this mission. In order to create a ‘world class’ training programme, Labour would reform the apprenticeships levy into a ‘growth and skills’ levy and establish a new expert body- Skills England- to oversee the English national skills effort of the coming decade.
2. Childcare overhaul is being discussed, with the shadow education secretary describing their plans as a ‘bold and ambitious vision’. As a first step Labour has committed to introducing funded breakfast clubs for every primary school child. Longer term, Labour has a vision for a childcare system that encompasses from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school.
3. Education reform is currently being considered by launching a review of the current school curriculum, encouraging children to study a creative arts subject or sport until 16 and a focus on oracy as a way of removing the ‘class ceiling’.
4. More teachers are seen as key in order to fill the vacancies and skills gaps in the education sector. Labour have pledged to recruit thousands of new teachers and to drive ‘high and rising standards’ across all schools in the country through an ambitious school improvement plan.

If you’d like to know more about Labour’s policy offer, get in touch. We’re keeping a spreadsheet which tracks all of Labour’s nearly 400 policy commitments to date