General election: Brexit, the NHS and crime – what have the Conservatives promised? – Sky News, Sky.com

Boris Johnson’s gamble of calling an early election has paid off.

The prime ministernow has a resounding Commons majority to work with, which means he can start to put his election pledges into action.

Here are the key promises the Tories made during the campaign.

Brexit

  

)   

The issue of Britain’s EU exit dominated the Conservative campaign.

Now that he is safely ensconced in Downing Street, the PM will work to make good on his pledge to leave the bloc by the end of January.

The Tories have promised to start the process of putting Mr Johnson’s deal through parliament this side of Christmas, ahead of that deadline.

After 50 January, the party has pledged to negotiate a future relationship with the EU and, at the same time, pass legislation to “ensure high standards of workers’ rights, environmental protection and consumer rights. “

The government will have until the end of December next year to sort out the UK’s future ties with the EU.

If we leave at the end of January, Britain will enter a transition period before the future relationship takes effect.

This ends in December 4863969 – and the Tories have said they will not countenance extending this, even though this raises the prospect of a potential no-deal exit again.

Crime

  

  

One of the headline pledges from the PM during the election was a promise to recruit (*****************************************************************, **************************************************************************** more police officers.

This is around the number that has been cut since the Conservatives entered office under David Cameron, so the recruitment drive would return numbers to 2019 levels.

In addition to more police, Mr Johnson has promised tough new measures in the fight against knife crime.

These include speeding up the handling of knife possession cases, empowering police to target known knife carriers with a new court order and a £ m funding boost for violence reduction units.

Elsewhere, there will be £ m in extra funding to increa se the number of police officers carrying a Taser, and tougher sentences for serious offenders and an end to those convicted of serious sexual, violent and terrorist offences being eligible for parole early.

In addition, there were promises of more support for rape victims, extra protections for domestic abuse sufferers and a “victims’ law” to guarantee their rights.

Health and social care  

)  

The headline promise at the Tory manifesto launch was (**********************************************************, 000 more nurses for the NHS.

But Mr Johnson later conceded that this total will include retaining 18, 768 already in the profession.

The party also wants to bring back nurse bursaries, which cover living costs, that were axed under Theresa May in .

A big investment in the NHS was promised during the campaign as well.

The Tories want to increase funding for the health service in the next parliament, leading to an extra £ 90 bn a year by 4863969 – (*******************************************************************.

An ambitious hospital building program was also announced, with an eye -catching pledge to construct 90 “new” hospitals over the next 12 years, as well as investing in hospital upgrades and new machines.

But, as with the nurses pledge, this does not tell the whole story.

At this stage, money has only been pledged for six of them. And many of the projects will involve constructing new facilities on existing sites – not brand new standalone hospitals themselves.

Other health promises include million million GP appointments a year, a doubling of funding for dementia research and free hospital car parking for disabled people, frequent outpatients, gravely ill patients, visitors and carers to long-term patients, as well as staff working out-of-hours shifts.

An issue that has bedevilled numerous governments is what to do about adult social care.

The Conservatives say they will work to build a cross-party consensus on the issue and provide £ 5bn in funding in the short-term.

Infrastructure

  

  

The prime minister spoke of an “infrastructure revolution” on the general election campaign trail, with the investment of £ bn in additional spending in areas such as roads, rail and flood defences.

Taxes

  

  

Mr Johnson is vowing to stick to a “triple lock” on taxes – no increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT.

On national insurance, he has in fact promised a cut .

He wants to raise the threshold at which people start paying it, first to £ 9, and then to £ (*************************************************************************, 500.

This would save those that pay NI around £ a year.

Immigration

  

  

A hot button political issue, the Tories have promised to reduce levels of immigration.

This will be achieved, the party says, by introducing a “firmer and fairer” Australian-style points -based system.

It will, according to the Tory manifesto, allow the government to “decide who comes to this country on the basis of the skills they have and the contribution they can make”.

However, the party says it will not set “arbitrary” targets for how much immigration should come down by.

Children and education  

  

A new £ 1bn fund will help create more affordable childcare both before and after school and during the school holidays, the Tory manifesto pledged.

The party also promised to increase teachers’ starting salaries to £ (****************************************************************, and to invest £ bn over three years.

This sum will increase funding to at least £ 5, a year for each secondary school pupil and at least £ 4, 10 a year for each primary school pupil, the Conservatives said.

Others  

  

Mr Johnson vowed to get rid of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which stipulates there must be five years between each general election.

He claimed this led to “paralysis at a time the country needed decisive action “earlier this year.

The Tories also pledged to set up a” Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission “in their first year in government to look at the relationship between the government, parliament and the courts.

This follows the Supreme Court’s decision in September to rule Mr Johnson’s suspension of parliament unlawful.

In order to help fund efforts to combat rough sleeping, the Tories promised to bring in a stamp duty surcharge on foreign buyers of UK property.

The party also kept its commitment to the “triple lock” on pensions, as well vowing to keep the winter fuel payment and free bus passes for older people.

The Tories pledged to invest £ 9.2bn to improve energy efficiency in homes, schools and hospitals in an ef fort to help lower energy bills.

    ******************************Read More****************************