Tories to make Brexit, income tax and childcare pledges in manifesto

  • ITV News Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen explains the pledges

"Get Brexit Done, Unleash Britain's Potential" the Conservative Party's manifesto will, not unexpectedly, declaim from its front page when it is released by the prime minister in the West Midlands on Sunday.

And some of it will look pretty familiar.

The Tory programme for Government will promise a recycled Christmas present to Brexit supporters; the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will return to Parliament before the holidays.

Although this time they're not trying to ram it through so quickly. A Conservative spokesperson tells me they don't expect it to be done by the New Year, there just isn't enough time.

Labour has brandished the manifesto "pathetic," and -apart from everything else - fixing the potholes will cost £10bn.

Read more: Tories pledge £1.6bn investment to help find dementia cure

The party's manifesto will be unveiled in full on Sunday. Credit: PA

Other big gifts looking familiar beneath the wrapping paper include:

  • A Triple Tax Lock - no rises in the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT (Disclaimer; there's nothing on thresholds. Boris Johnson wants to raise the National Insurance one but any thresholds that don't rise will gradually encompass more taxpayers).

  • The Triple Pensions Lock - this is more controversial because by guaranteeing pensions will go up by the greater of inflation, wage growth or 2.5% it shifts money from younger to older generations. Even the IMF has said we might be better putting the cash into the NHS instead. But Labour want to keep it too so Happy Christmas, pensioners, and well done for being reliable voters!

There are also treats aimed at fixing the things people really notice:

Read more: The future of the NHS: What are some of the key election pledges and issues?

The prime minister is set to reveal measures to fill pot holes and better childcare. Credit: PA

  • £1 billion for childcare providers - increasing after school and holiday provision for working parents.

  • £2 billion for potholes - the "biggest ever pothole-filling programme" apparently.

  • Free hospital car parking for some groups like disabled people, the gravely ill and staff on night shifts who can't easily use public transport.

  • Pensioners - hello, again! - will also keep the winter fuel payment and free bus passes.

  • The existing energy price cap also stays.

  • There will be a ban on exporting plastic waste outside the developed nations of the OECD.

Other measures (more money for the NHS and extra police officers) have been well trailed.

But the big message Boris Johnson wants you to take away will be the one about Brexit on the front cover.

Read more: Jeremy Corbyn issues tax warning to multinational companies

A Labour party spokesperson responded to the "pathetic" Tory election pledges with: "This is a no hope manifesto, from a party that has nothing to offer the country, after spending ten years cutting our public services to the bone. This pathetic offer from Boris Johnson’s Tories means more cuts, more failure and more years of Brexit uncertainty.

"Young people can’t afford to buy a home, older people are going without the care they need, our NHS is heading into the worst winter crisis on record and millions of children are growing up in poverty.

"The only people who benefit from this no hope manifesto are big business and the super-rich who don’t want to see the real change this country needs.

"This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to elect a Labour government that will transform our country, with a manifesto that offers real change, and take on the vested interests holding people back."