Saturday 14th March 2015

Ed Miliband is today launching Labour’s fifth and final General Election pledge, and our 2015 pledge card. The pledge card is headed “A better plan. A better future.”

Labour has a better plan: putting working people first. We understand that it is only when working people succeed, that Britain succeeds. That idea is at the core of each of our pledges. 

Labour’s final pledge is:

HIGHER LIVING STANDARDS FOR WORKING FAMILIES

Freeze energy bills until 2017 and give the regulator the power to cut bills this winter, ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, raise the minimum wage to £8 and provide 25 hours free childcare a week.

The four other pledges are:

A STRONG ECONOMIC FOUNDATION

Balance the books and cut the deficit every year while securing the future of the NHS. None of our manifesto commitments require additional borrowing.

Freeze energy bills until 2017 and give the regulator the power to cut bills this winter, ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, raise the minimum wage to £8 and provide 25 hours free childcare a week.

The four other pledges are:

A STRONG ECONOMIC FOUNDATION

Balance the books and cut the deficit every year while securing the future of the NHS. None of our manifesto commitments require additional borrowing.

AN NHS WITH THE TIME TO CARE

20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs. We will join up services from home to hospital, guaranteeing GP appointments within 48 hours and cancer tests within one week. 

CONTROLS ON IMMIGRATION

People who come here won’t be able to claim benefits for at least two years and we will introduce fair rules making it illegal for employers to undercut wages by exploiting workers.

A COUNTRY WHERE THE NEXT GENERATION CAN DO BETTER THAN THE LAST

Tuition fees reduced to £6,000, an apprenticeship for every school leaver who gets the basic grades, and smaller class sizes for 5, 6 & 7 year-olds. 

Key messages

Labour has set out a better plan for Britain’s future, a plan that works for working families, rewarding the hard work they do and saving the NHS they rely on.

The Tories can’t build a better future for working people because they stand up only for a privileged few. With the NHS going backwards and a recovery which works just for a few, working families can’t afford five more years of David Cameron.

You can’t trust Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. They broke their promises and have been too weak to stand up to the Tories.

UKIP can’t stand for working people: they’re more Tory than the Tories, a party made up of Tory people, promoting Tory policies, bankrolled by Tory donors.