2024 election supercycle
UK Election - Manifesto Comparison for Business 2024
This page sets out a high-level overview of the manifestos of the Labour Party and Conservative Party for the UK General Election which is due to take place on 4 July 2024.
This comparison is not exhaustive, instead we have chosen to cover some of the key policy commitments under each select area below as they are relevant to business and as such do not cover issues more relevant to individuals.
You can read the Conservative Party manifesto in full here and the Labour Party manifesto in full here.
Conservative Party
Business & The City incl. Financial Services
- The Conservative Party pledge to reduce national debt and borrowing.
- For business, they promise a competitive tax system (more below) and specific help for SMEs including (i) taking more companies out of the scope of reporting requirements by lifting the employee threshold, allowing more companies to be considered medium-sized; (ii) Improve access to finance for SMEs including through expanding Open Finance and by exploring the creation of Regional Mutual Banks; and (iii) Ensure that Basel III capital requirements do not inhibit lending to SMEs.
- Investment in national infrastructure also takes centre stage (inc. gigabit broadband and railways). The Conservatives also pledge to speed up the delivery of infrastructure through a series of reforms.
- AI (more below) and innovation get a particular mention including increasing spending on R&D and pushing forward with the Advanced Manufacturing Plan.
- Commitment to continue and build on the Edinburgh Reforms “so that the UK continues to be the world’s most innovative and competitive global financial centre”. Support for the City of London through measures such as the implementation of the Mansion House Reforms and a retail sale of NatWest shares. Commitment to maintain the highest standards of consumer protection and prudential regulation.
- Commitment to new Trade deals (more below) with international partners including India and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
- Creation of more Freeports and delivery of 1.6 million new homes in England during the next Parliament through a series of reforms.
- Further commitment to reform pieces of remaining EU law that remain on the statute book.
- Intensify fight to stop “money laundering and dirty money” and ensure all British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies adopt open registers of beneficial ownership.
Sustainability & Green
Commits to:
- continue 2050 net zero target
- cut the cost of tackling climate change for households and business (through policies aimed at energy bills)
- not introduce new green levies or charges, including a frequent flyer levy
- not set any new decarbonisation targets without subjecting them (and the plans/policies required to meet them) to a parliamentary vote
- implement by 2027 an import carbon tax on imports of iron, steel, aluminium, ceramics and cement from countries without an ETS/carbon price (like the EU’s CBAM)
Energy & Infrastructure
Commits to:
- facilitate development of new gas power stations
- treble offshore wind capacity in the next Parliament (note: 3x current capacity of ~14GW is 42GW, and current HMG policy target is 50GW by 2030. This policy actually appears to lower the commitment to offshore wind capacity)
- cut the average time to sign off a major infrastructure project from four years to one and halve the time for approval of new nuclear projects
- legislate to maintain North Sea oil and gas production, by requiring annual licensing rounds to continue
- continue policy of scaling up nuclear power including two new fleets of Small Modular Reactors and delivery of nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point, Sizewell and Wylfa (this is an existing policy)
- cut waiting times for grid connection of new power projects
- build the first two carbon capture and storage (CCS) clusters during the next Parliament (this is an existing policy)
- decarbonise transport through nationwide charging infrastructure, delivering the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, support for sustainable aviation fuel, future aviation technology and maritime sector decarbonisation
- invest £36bn in roads, rail and buses including setting up Great British Railways, a private-public partnership to deliver rail reform
- introduce a ‘Plan for Water’ including: holding companies to account (and banning executive bonuses if a company has committed a serious criminal breach); using fines from water companies to invest in river restoration projects; and, in the longer term, reforming the price review regulatory process for water companies
See the tax section for details on windfall taxes on oil and gas companies.
Labour & Pensions
- Introduce primary legislation to clarify that the protected characteristic of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 means ‘biological sex’.
- Continue implementing the current Government’s Minimum Service Levels legislation, which aims to set minimum service levels in specific services during strike action. See our blog (here) for specific analysis on the trade union-related policies of both parties.
- Introduce the ‘Triple Lock Plus’ under which pensioners would benefit from a future increased tax-free personal allowance in order to ensure that the State Pension does not become subject to income tax.
See the tax section for more detail on employment taxes and social security.
Procurement, Government Projects & Investments
- Conservatives want small businesses to get a bigger share of public contracts and have improved the public sector procurement system to that end.
- To support SMEs, the Conservatives will work with public sector organisations including local authorities and NHS trusts and companies benefitting from government contracts to ensure that procurement opportunities are focused on SMEs in their local economies where possible and practical.
- The Conservatives will continue to invest in digital, transport and energy infrastructure needed for businesses to grow.
- The Conservatives have transformed the UK’s digital infrastructure by rolling out gigabit broadband to over a million hard to reach premises. Set to achieve at least 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025 and nationwide coverage by 2030. Ambition for all populated areas to be covered by “standalone” 5G mobile connectivity and to keep the UK at the forefront of adopting and developing 6G.
- The Conservatives will spend £36 billion of HS2 savings on transport projects. Every penny saved in North or Midlands will be spent there. Savings from new plan for Euston, which will see 10,000 new homes built, have freed up £6.5 billion for transport across the rest of the country.
- Transport investment to include:
- £4.7 billion for smaller cities, towns and rural areas in North and Midlands to spend on their transport priorities;
- £8.3 billion investment to fill potholes and resurface roads;
- Delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail between Manchester and Liverpool, electrification to Hull and new station in Bradford;
- Funding of Midlands Rail Hub;
- Additional £1 billion to support hundreds of new bus routes across North and Midlands.
- Further investment in England’s strategic roads in the next Road Investment Strategy, including the Lower Thames Crossing and the A303.
- The Conservatives will support people to choose electric cars by ensuring the UK’s charging infrastructure is truly nationwide, including rapid charging.
- The Conservatives will speed up average time it takes to sign off on major infrastructure projects from four years to one.
- Reduce the cost of infrastructure by allowing quicker changes to consented projects.
- £4.5 billion commitment to secure strategic manufacturing sectors including automotive, aerospace, life sciences and clean energy.
- The Conservatives have ripped Huawei from key parts of the UK’s telecommunications system and reduced Chinese influence in the UK’s critical infrastructure and sensitive technological sectors.
- By delivering the new Integrated Procurement Model, the Conservatives will make defence procurement faster, smarter and more joined up, boost private sector investment by confirming that ESG considerations are consistent with investment with defence industry and transform innovation.
- This will ensure the Conservatives achieve value for money from investment in defence alongside their procurement reforms.
- New gas power stations to maintain a safe and reliable power source for days when the weather doesn’t power up renewables.
- Will unlock more investment to secure energy supply, including:
- Trebling offshore wind capacity;
- Building the first two carbon capture and storage clusters;
- Investing £1.1 billion into the Green Industries Growth Accelerator to support British manufacturing capabilities and boost supply chains;
- Scaling up nuclear power: within first 100 days of the next Parliament, the Conservatives will approve two new fleets of Small Modular Reactors;
- Delivering new gigawatt power plant at Wylfa in North Wales and working with industry to deliver existing projects at Hinkley Point and Sizewell.
- Introduction of legally binding target to enhance food security, alongside the UK Food Security Index, helping to determine where best to concentrate farming funds. This will feed into development of the Land Use Framework.
- The Conservatives will improve public sector procurement to deliver the goal that at least 50% of food expenditure is spent on food produced locally or to higher environmental production standards.
Anti-trust, Competition and Trade incl. Foreign Investment
- Foreign investment / national security: a tougher and more targeted approach to protect the UK from hostile state actors. A particular focus on investors with links to China, Russia or Iran.
- Trade: Commitment to new Trade deals with international partners including India and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Will build on TCA with EU but not agree to anything which impacts sovereignty of UK, submission to CJEU jurisdiction or dynamic alignment. Will also take a tough stance to ensure EU are meeting obligations under TCA and not discriminating against UK exporters.
Tax
- Commitment not to raise the rates of income tax or VAT or to increase corporation tax or CGT.
- Continued National Insurance contributions (NICs) reform:
- main rate of Class 1 employee NICs to be reduced from 8% to 6% by April 2027;
- main rate of Class 4 self-employed NICs to be abolished by April 2029; and
- longer term ambition to abolish NICs on workers "when financial conditions allow".
- Retention of existing tax incentives for businesses including R&D tax reliefs, business asset disposal relief, EIS and VCTs.
- Confirmation the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) will remain in place until 2028-29 (unless energy prices fall below levels set by the Energy Security Investment Mechanism before such time) and EPL investment allowances will be retained
- A business rates support package to support small businesses and the high street, including increasing the multiplier on distribution warehouses that support online shopping over time.
- Measures (unspecified) to address tax avoidance projected to raise £6bn a year by 2029-30.
See the Sustainability & Green section for details on green duties and carbon taxes.
Tech, Data & AI
- Urgently consult on further parental controls over access to social media.
- Ensure creators are properly protected and remunerated, whilst also making the most of the opportunities of AI.
- Double digital and AI expertise in the civil service and use AI to free up doctors’ and nurses’ time.
- Increase public spending on R&D, maintaining R&D tax reliefs and continue to invest over £1.5 bn in large-scale compute clusters.
Disputes
- Invest in court maintenance, continue to digitise court processes, and expand use of remote hearings.
- Support world class legal services sector, including through an Arbitration Bill.
- Help for individuals and small businesses to bring cases against wealthier opponents with legislation to support third party funding of litigation.
- End frivolous legal challenges that frustrate infrastructure delivery by amending the law so judicial reviews that don’t have merit do not waste court time.
- Establish a deterrent to illegal migration: if forced to choose between the UK’s security and the jurisdiction of a foreign court, including the ECtHR, the Conservatives will always choose the UK’s security.
Labour Party
Business & The City incl. Financial Services
- Business and the City – One of Labour’s first steps in Government would be to deliver economic stability, with tough spending rules, to grow the economy and keep taxes, inflation and mortgages as low as possible. Labour’s Government would be mission-driven and the key one of these is to kick start economic growth and have the highest sustained growth in the G7 – “we are the party of wealth creation”.
- Labour will support business through a stable policy environment.
- Labour will introduce a new industrial strategy. This will take a tailored approach by sector e.g. professional services and advanced manufacturing.
- Labour will ensure a pro-business environment with a competition and regulatory framework that promotes its central growth mission. Trade policy and procurement will be aligned with the new industrial strategy. See below for more on Trade / attracting investment into the UK.
- Labour will support innovation and make the UK the best place to start and grow a business.
- Creation of the National Wealth Fund to support growth and clean energy missions with the aim of “attracting three pounds of private investment for every one pound of public investment”.
- Increase investment from pension funds in UK markets.
- Labour will ensure economic regulation supports growth and investment, promotes competition, works for consumers and enables innovation.
- Planning / Economic Infrastructure: A ten-year infrastructure plan, linked to the industrial strategy. Appropriate changes will be made to the planning system to forge ahead with nationally significant infrastructure.
- Planning changes to meet needs of modern economy to allow easier construction of things such as digital infrastructure and gigafactories.
- Upgrades to the UK transport network through a series of measures including the creation of Great British Railways.
- Commitment to 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament. A series of changes to planning rules are proposed to achieve this including updating the National Policy Planning Framework.
- Financial services—Labour commits to:
- support new technology in Financial Servies, including Open Banking and Open Finance and a ‘pro-innovation regulatory framework’
- support diverse business models which bring innovation and new products to the market
- double the size of the UK’s co-operative and mutuals sector and work with the sector to address the barriers they face, such as accessing finance
- reform the British Business Bank, including a stronger mandate to support growth in the regions and nations, to make it easier for small and medium sized enterprises to access capital
- look for ways to strengthen the Post Office network and support the development of new products, services and business models, such as banking hubs
- create a new Regulatory Innovation Office
- work with allies and international financial centres to tackle corruption and money laundering, including in Britain, Crown Dependencies, and in British Overseas Territories
- make the UK the green finance capital of the world, mandating UK-regulated financial institutions – including banks, asset managers, pension funds, and insurers –to develop and implement credible transition plans
- General – Whilst not strictly business related, it is worth noting that Labour proposes some modernisation to Parliament and allowing 16 & 17 year olds to vote in future elections.
Sustainability & Green
Commits to:
- ensure the institutional framework for policy making reflects commitments to reach net zero and meet carbon budgets
- restore the 2030 phase-out date for petrol/diesel cars
- require Paris-aligned transition plans from UK-regulated financial institutions and FTSE 100 companies
- reinstate the requirement for the Bank of England to give due consideration to climate change in its mandates
- legislate its energy and climate policies through a new Energy Independence Act
- restore and protect the natural world and take action to meet Environment Act targets
- introduce a carbon border adjustment mechanism
Energy & Infrastructure
Commits to:
- maintain a strategic reserve of gas power stations
- quadruple offshore wind, triple solar power and double onshore wind by 2030
- create a 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy updating the planning regime to deliver nationally significant infrastructure projects faster and cheaper
- grant no new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences, but continue production from existing licensed fields for their lifespan
- support nuclear power by extending the lifetime of existing plants, delivering Hinkley Point C and backing new nuclear power stations including Sizewell C and Small Modular Reactors
- upgrade the power grid infrastructure
- support energy and infrastructure with a £7.3bn National Wealth Fund with £1bn for carbon capture and storage (CCS), £500m for green hydrogen and £1.8bn for port upgrades and supply chain
- decarbonise transport through accelerated roll out of charging points and promoting sustainable aviation fuels
- improve transport infrastructure by bring the railways into public ownership and renewing the road network
- create an international Clean Power Alliance to accelerate the energy transition and enhance supply chains
- put failing water companies under special measures, imposing automatic fines for wrongdoing, blocking executive bonuses for polluters and bringing criminal charges against persistent law breakers
See the tax section for details on windfall taxes on oil and gas companies.
Labour & Pensions
- Implement Labour’s ‘Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’ (the New Deal) in full, introducing legislation within 100 days and consulting before legislation is passed. The New Deal proposes wide-ranging reforms, including but not limited to: repealing and amending trade union legislation to give trade unions a wider remit within the workplace; creating a single status of ‘worker’ for all but the genuinely self-employed with ‘day one’ rights in relation to unfair dismissal, parental leave and sick pay; reforming fire and re-hire practices to provide ‘effective remedies against abuse’; and making ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting mandatory for employers with more than 250 staff. See our briefing (here) for more detail on the New Deal’s proposals and our blog (here) for specific analysis on the trade union-related policies.
- Introduce a Race Equality Act, to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority people and strengthen protections against dual discrimination, where people face prejudice because of a combination of protected characteristics. Also introduce the full right to equal pay for disabled people.
- Retain the Triple Lock for the State Pension.
- Undertake a review and adopt reforms to ensure that workplace pension schemes take advantage of consolidation and scale, to deliver better returns for UK savers and increase investment from pension funds in UK markets.
- Despite heavily criticising the abolition of the Lifetime Allowance by the current Government, Labour has decided to not move forward with its proposed re-instatement. There is also no mention of Labour’s approach to specific pensions issues that have been moving along under the current Government, notably on relaxing the rules around accessing defined benefit pension scheme surplus, which was the subject of consultation earlier this year.
See the tax section for more detail on employment taxes and social security.
Procurement, Government Projects & Investments
- Conduct a Strategic Defence Review within first year in government, setting out the path to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.
- Introduce a new industrial strategy with the establishment of an Industrial Strategy Council on a statutory footing to provide expert advice.
- Take a sectoral approach, backing research institutions, professional services, advanced manufacturing, and creative industries.
- Procurement will be aligned with Labour’s industrial strategy priorities.
- Capitalised with £7.3 billion over the course of the next Parliament, the National Wealth Fund will have a remit to support Labour’s growth and clean energy missions, making transformative investments across every part of the country.
- Plan to allocate:
- £1.8 billion to upgrade ports and build supply chains across the UK;
- £1.5 billion to new gigafactories so the UK’s automotive industry leads the world;
- £2.5 billion to rebuild the UK’s steel industry;
- £1 billion to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture;
- £500 million to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen.
- Development of a ten-year infrastructure strategy, aligned with Labour’s industrial strategy and regional development priorities, including improving rail connectivity across the north of England.
- Creation of a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, to set strategic infrastructure priorities and oversee the design, scope and delivery of projects.
- Changes to current planning regime to forge ahead with new roads, railways, reservoirs, and other nationally significant infrastructure.
- Update of national planning policy to ensure the planning system meets the needs of a modern economy, making it easier to build laboratories, digital infrastructure and gigafactories.
- Renewed push to fulfil ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030.
- Labour will maintain and renew the road network and fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next Parliament, funded by deferring the A27 bypass.
- Support the transition to electric vehicles by accelerating the roll out of charge points.
- Overhaul of Britain’s railways, bringing them into public ownership. Great British Railways will deliver a unified system and will be responsible for investment, operational delivery and innovations.
- Long-term strategy for transport, ensuring transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time.
- Reform of procurement rules to give small and medium sized enterprises greater access to government contracts.
- Partnership between public and private sectors to make Britain a clean energy superpower, using public investment to crowd in private funding.
- Under the Green Prosperity Plan, in partnership with business through the National Wealth Fund, Labour will invest in the industries of the future.
- Labour will work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and marine energy to ensure long-term energy storage.
- Ensure long-term security of nuclear power sector by extending the lifetime of existing plant and getting Hinkley Point over the line. New nuclear power stations such as Sizewell C and Small Modular Reactors will play an important role in achieving energy security and clean power.
- Creation of Great British Energy, a new publicly owned company which will co-invest with industry in leading technologies and help support capital-intensive projects. Labour will capitalise Great British Energy with £8.3 billion over the next parliament.
- Great British Energy will partner with energy companies, local authorities and co-operatives to install thousands of clean power projects, through a combination of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower projects.
- Labour’s National Wealth Fund will directly invest in ports, hydrogen and industrial clusters.
- A new Police Efficiency and Collaboration programme for England and Wales will set nation-wide standards for procurement.
- Labour is committed to delivering the New Hospitals Programme.
- An NHS innovation and adoption strategy in England will include a plan for procurement, giving a clearer route to get products into the NHS.
- Prioritising of UK businesses for defence investment and reform of procurement to reduce waste.
Anti-trust, Competition and Trade incl. Foreign Investment
- Foreign investment / national security: protecting national security is the “first duty of any government”. In its first year, a Labour Government would conduct a Strategic Defence Review to ensure the UK is prepared to deal with growing threats from hostile states or state-sponsored groups, including risks from advanced technologies and supply chain dependencies – signalling more scrutiny of deals where such risks could arise.
- Labour would conduct an “audit” of the UK’s bilateral relationship with China to improve the UK’s capability to understand and respond to challenges and opportunities.
- Competition policy: as part of its commitment to be pro-business, a Labour Government would ensure the competition and regulatory framework “supports innovation, investment and high-quality jobs”.
- Priority sectors in a new industrial strategy to support innovation and growth include financial services, automotive, life sciences and creative industries.
- Sector regulation: a Labour Government would create a new Regulatory Innovation Office to ensure a more joined up approach to new technologies and help drive innovation across sectors.
- Energy: a Labour Government would strengthen regulation to drive investment in the sector and reduce the cost of energy.
- Trade: UK will remain outside the EU under Labour. Manifesto commitment to no return to single market, customs union or free movement of people. Labour will work to improve relations with EU with series of measures including (i) removing unnecessary barriers to trade; (ii) negotiate a veterinary agreement, and (iii) a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications. To further its central growth mission, the global diplomatic mission will be put to work to attract foreign direct investment. Labour will target trade agreements with countries that are aligned with its industrial strategy and the UK’s strengths. Labour will publish a trade strategy and use “every lever” to ensure business has access to international markets. Alongside more fulsome trade deals, standalone sector deals such as digital or professional qualifications will be pursued to help the UK’s services exports. UK will play a leading role to modernise trade rules and agreements so they work for the UK including through the WTO. Labour will seek a free trade agreement with India and wider co-operation with the Gulf.
Tax
- Commitment not to increase NICs or VAT, the main rate of corporation tax or the existing rates of income tax (noting the latter commitment leaves scope for measures to increase income tax revenue or reform aspects of the existing regime);
- Confirmation of proposals to:
- reform the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), including increasing the rate by 3% (currently 35%), extending the sunset date to the end of the next Parliament (subject to the Energy Security Investment Mechanism which Labour has committed to retain) and removing "unjustifiably generous investment allowances" - with these changes the EPL is expected to raise an annual average of £1.2bn;
- reform the tax treatment of carried interest - no further details have yet been published, but these reforms are expected to raise £565m a year;
- introduce additional changes to the existing government's proposed replacement of the tax regime for "non-doms";
- remove the VAT exemption for private school fees and business rates relief for private schools – projected to raise £1.5bn a year;
- hold one major fiscal event a year (to be subject to an independent OBR forecast where there are significant changes to taxation or spending); and
- publish a roadmap for business taxation.
- Further commitments to:
- retain a permanent full expensing system for capital investment and the annual investment allowance for small business;
- increase the rate of the non-resident SDLT surcharge from 2% to 3%
- replace the business rates system in England with a new system that seeks to level the playing field between high street and large online retailers; and
- tackle tax avoidance, including by strengthening HMRC’s powers, investing in new technology and building capacity within HMRC and a focus on addressing tax avoidance by large businesses – combined with the changes to the “non-dom rules”, this is projected to raise over £5bn a year.
See the Sustainability & Green section for details on carbon taxes.
Tech, Data & AI
- Further laws to address online harms. Related plans to work with tech companies to stop their platforms being exploited by fraudsters and give coroners more powers to access information held by technology companies after a child’s death.
- An industrial strategy to support the development of the AI sector and remove planning barriers to new datacentres. Harness the power of AI in the NHS.
- Binding regulation on the ‘handful of’ companies developing the most powerful AI models and a ban on the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.
- A Regulatory Innovation Office to help regulators update regulation, speed up approval timelines, and co-ordinate issues.
- A National Data Library to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, while maintaining strong safeguards. Ten-year budgets for key R&D institutions.
- Update planning policy to make it easier to build digital infrastructure, and a renewed push for full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030.
- Support new technology in Financial Servies, including Open Banking and Open Finance and a ‘pro-innovation regulatory framework’.
- Support international efforts to make sure multinational tech companies pay ‘their fair share’ of tax.
Disputes
- Labour will once again be a defender of the international rule of law. Labour values international law because of the security it brings.
- Britain will unequivocally remain a member of the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Fraud accounts for almost two in five crimes. Labour will introduce a new expanded fraud category to tackle the full range of threats, including online, public sector and serious fraud.