Liberal Democrat manifesto: The key pledges, quotes and analysis
The Liberal Democrats' 100-page general election manifesto makes its central pitch to voters clear with the title: Stop Brexit, Build A Brighter Future.
What are the manifesto's key pledges?
The Lib Dems argue keeping the UK in the EU would generate a “Remain Bonus” of £50 billion which can be invested in public services.
That means free childcare, money for adult education, more teachers and a reformed NHS, mental health service and prison service.
The party has also offered a commitment to generate 80% of UK electricity from renewables by 2030 to fight climate change.
Here's more detail on the manifesto's key measures:
Revoke Article 50 and stay in the EU
The central Stop Brexit pledge is a commitment to revoke Article 50 on Day 1 and ensure Britain stays in the EU if they were ever to lead a majority government.
They add in "other circumstances" they will continue to "fight" for a second referendum with the option to stay in the EU.
£10,000 'skills wallet' for every adult in England
Among the various pledges and priorities in their £130bn programme for government is a £10,000 “skills wallet” scheme for every adult in England to spend on education and training throughout their life.
There also a “wellbeing budget” which bases decisions for government spending on what will improve wellbeing – as well as on economic and fiscal indicators.
There's a continued commitment to HS2, plans to build 300,000 homes a year by 2024, including 100,000 social homes, and £5 billion of initial capital for a new Green Investment Bank to help attract private investment for zero-carbon priorities.
Raise corporation tax and review the living wage
Corporation tax would be restored to 20% (it currently stands at 19%), and the marriage tax allowance would be scrapped.
The Lib Dems would also want to establish an independent review to consult on how to set a “genuine” living wage across all sectors.
Help for zero-hour contract workers and the gig economy
They will also look at the gig economy with a new “dependent contractor” employment status to sit between employment and self-employment and come with entitlements to rights such as minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday entitlement.
They add they want to set a 20% higher minimum wage for people on zero-hour contracts “at times of normal demand to compensate them for the uncertainty of fluctuating hours of work”, while also providing the right to request a fixed-hours contract after 12 months for “zero hours” and agency workers.
Free childcare for working parents and 20,000 more teachers
A key plank of the manifesto is education, with free childcare for children from nine months for all working parents, reversing cuts to school funding, employing an extra 20,000 teachers, and clearing the backlog of repairs to school and college buildings are listed priorities.
Axe SATs, replace league tables and raise teacher salaries
The Lib Dems also pledge to scrap mandatory SATs and replace existing government “league tables” of schools with a “broader set of indicators”.
They add they want to raise the starting salary for teachers to £30,000 and increase all teachers’ pay by at least 3% per year throughout the parliament.
Renewed focus on solar and wind power to meet 2030 target
Climate priorities include insulating all of Britain’s homes by 2030, having at least 80% of UK electricity generated from renewables by 2030, banning fracking for good, planting 60 million trees a year, electrifying Britain’s railways and ensuring all new cars are electric by 2030.
Non-recyclable single-use plastics would be banned and replaced with “affordable alternatives”, adding they would aim for their “complete elimination within three years”. A £5 billion flood prevention and climate adaptation fund would also be established.
Freeze on commuter rail fares
On public transport, the Lib Dems pledge to “freeze rail fares for commuters and season ticket holders for a parliament”.
£7 billion a year more for the NHS
The first priorities are raising £7 billion a year extra by putting a penny on income tax, with this money to be spent on the NHS and social care, treating mental health with the same urgency as physical health, and reforming the Health and Social Care Act to make the NHS “work in a more efficient and joined-up way, and to end the automatic tendering of services”.
A compulsory levy on gambling companies would be introduced to fund research, education and treatment of problem gambling, while credit card use for gambling would be banned.
Minimum unit pricing for alcohol would also be introduced.
New approach on crime, more prison offers and raise police pay
The party says it will invest £1 billion in community policing and take a “public health approach” on violence by not “wasting money locking people up on short sentences that don’t work”.
An extra 2,000 prison officers would form part of a push to make prisons “places of rehabilitation”.
The manifesto also promises to fully fund an immediate 2% pay rise for police officers, “properly resource” the National Crime Agency, end the “disproportionate use” of stop and search powers and replace police and crime commissioners with boards of local councillors.
Reform Universal Credit and offer a 'legal right to food'
Reforming Universal Credit forms the heart of the Lib Dems’ welfare policy.
This includes reducing the wait for first payments “from five weeks to five days,” and also making the benefit “more supportive” of the self-employed.
A “legal right to food” would become law and public policy would be audited for its impact on food security.
The party would retain the so-called triple lock on the basic state pension – where it rises in line with the highest of wages, prices or 2.5%. Women born in the 1950s – the WASPI women – would also be “properly compensated” for the increase in the state pension age.
ITV News Analysis: What stands out from the Lib Dem pledges?
ITV News Correspondent Rebecca Barry has been with the Liberal Democrats on the campaign trail - here's what she makes of the manifesto:
The Lib Dems have unveiled their manifesto - and no surprise it’s big on stopping Brexit.
But the eye-catching promise is 20,000 new teachers and there’s tough talk on tackling climate change.
They're pledging 80% of UK electricity will be generated from renewables by 2030, plus a tax on international travellers who fly the most... that might not go down well with international businesses based in the UK.
Other pledges include free childcare from nine months, an extra 20,000 teachers and scrapping mandatory SATs.
They’ll pay for it with help of £50 billion from the so-called “Remain Bonus”.
But what if they fail to stop Brexit?
The Lib Dems will also introduce a legal, regulated market for cannabis, permitting it to be sold through licensed outlets to adults over 18.
It follows the lead of places like Canada... but there’ll be plenty who don’t approve.
Other measures will see ring-fence funding from a 1p Income Tax increase for mental health services and introducing further mental health maximum waiting times. Mental health and wellbeing features big in this manifesto.
ITV News Analysis: Lib Dems promise clean power, warm homes and end of fossil fuel subsidies
If voters are going cold on the major parties, the Liberal Democrats offered to warm them up a bit on Wednesday.
They're launching a pledge to insulate all Britain's homes by 2030.
It's a sensible policy and one they'd need to deliver in order to meet their other manifesto pledge of a net-zero carbon economy by 2045.
But with current projections suggesting only 50% renewables by 2030, they'll have their work cut out.
Hidden away in their manifesto is perhaps the most ambitious pledge of all - to take on the City over climate change.
ITV News Analysis: Eye-watering sums for young families but what about pensioners?
The most eye-catching spending commitment in the Liberal Democrat’s manifesto is probably about childcare, writes ITV News Business and Economics Editor Joel Hills.
Like Labour and the Conservatives, the Lib Dems plan to invest significantly in schools and the NHS.
But the pledge to provide free childcare to working parents from nine months and for all parents of children aged two to four years old will cost the state almost £14 billion a year by the end of the parliament.
This is an eye-watering sum.
Total spending on childcare in England last year was £5.4 billion.
The key quotes from the Lib Dem leadership
Leader Jo Swinson said: “This manifesto is a bold plan to build a brighter future for our country, and that starts with stopping Brexit.
“Labour and the Conservatives can’t offer the country a brighter future because they both want Brexit.
"We know that will be bad for our economy, bad for our NHS and bad for our environment.
“Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and invest in our mental health services, give free childcare to working parents, put 20,000 more teachers into classrooms and take ambitious action to tackle the climate emergency.
“Our politics has been dominated by the two, tired old parties for too long.
"This election provides an opportunity to change the future of our country and build a brighter future with the Liberal Democrats.”