General election: What the major parties are offering employers

Published: 3 July 2024 | by Personnel Today

With the general election taking place on Thursday 4 July, workers will be heading to the polls to have their say on who should form the next government. If you are still undecided on who to vote for, here we round up the major political parties’ policies on work-related matters, from skills policy to labour supply.

Conservatives

Tax cuts are central to the Conservative Party’s manifesto, including an additional two percentage point cut to national insurance, a commitment to not increasing income tax or VAT, and abolishing the main rate of national insurance paid by the self-employed.

Other pledges include:

• Maintaining the national living wage in each year of the next parliament at two-thirds of median earnings.
• 30 hours of free childcare for parents of children aged nine months and older.
• Tightening the benefits system and fit for work process to tackle economic inactivity and long-term sickness absence.
• Creating 100,000 more apprenticeships in England each year in the next parliament.
• Replacing A-levels and T-levels with a new Advanced British Standard qualification.
• Increasing the skilled worker salary and family income thresholds with inflation, while requiring migrants to undergo a health check. It would also introduce a cap on migration that would be voted on in parliament every year.
• Recruiting 92,000 more nurses, 28,000 more doctors and 8,000 neighbourhood police officers.
• Changing the Equality Act to redefine ‘sex’ as biological sex.

Green Party of England and Wales

The Green Party’s manifesto pledges include proposals to increase personal taxes for higher earners, including extending the current 8% rate for employees’ national insurance contributions so it applies to income above the Upper Earnings Limit.

It also pledges to:

• Repeal “anti-union” legislation and replace it with a Charter of Workers’ Rights with a legal requirement for employers to recognise trade unions.
• Introduce maximum pay ratio and a £15-an-hour national minimum wage for all ages.
• Equalise employment rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including in the gig-economy.
• Boost pay for teachers and NHS staff, and introduce higher wages and a career structure for the care workforce.
• Remove minimum income requirements for spouses of those holding work visas, and allow people seeking asylum to work while their application is being decided.
• Encourage employers to adopt a four-day work week.

Labour

Currently leading in the polls, Labour has pledged no increases to income tax, national insurance or VAT, with its election manifesto promising to deliver a “New Deal for Working People”.

Its main work-related election commitments include:

• Banning zero-hours contracts and ending fire and rehire practices.
• Introducing day-one rights to parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal.
• Ensure the national living wage is a “genuine” living wage with no age bands, by ensuring the Low Pay Commission takes the cost of living into account when making its recommendations.
• Reforming employment support so that people who can work face consequences if they do not fulfil their obligations.
• Creating a National Wealth Fund to support job creation.
• Reforming the current points-based immigration system by linking immigration to skills policy.

Liberal Democrats

The Lib Dems’ manifesto promises to create good jobs in every region of the UK by launching an industrial strategy and encouraging organisations to invest in training and technology.

Pledges include:

• Replacing the apprenticeship levy with a broader skills and training levy and introducing lifelong skills grants for adults.
• Scrapping the lower apprentice minimum wage, ensuring people on zero-hours contracts receive a 20% uplift to the national minimum wage, and aligning sick pay with the minimum wage.
• Introducing a new dependent contractor employment status between employment and self-employment, with rights including minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday entitlement.
• Establishing an independent review to recommend a genuine living wage across all sectors.
• Making parental leave and pay a day-one right.
• Replacing the immigration salary threshold with a more flexible merit-based system and abolishing visa fees for those who arrive in the UK under the youth mobility scheme.
• Giving employees a right to request shares in organisations with 250 or more staff.

Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru’s manifesto states it wants to see higher national insurance contributions for higher earners and a reintroduction of the cap on bankers’ bonuses which was scrapped in 2023.

It has also pledged to:

• Introduce an apprenticeship living wage.
• Repeal “anti-strike” legislation.
• Devolve employment law to Wales.
• Abolish compulsory zero-hours contracts.
• Reform shared parental leave.

Reform UK

Income tax is also central to Reform UK’s policies, with its manifesto promising an increase to the threshold at which income tax is due and an increase to the higher rate threshold.

A Reform UK government would also:

• Introduce an employer immigration tax, charging 20% national insurance for foreign workers, compared with 13.8% for British nationals.
• Abolish IR35 rules and rescind more than 6,700 retained EU laws, including employment law.
• Replace the Equality Act 2010.
• Increase the VAT threshold to £120,000.
• Cut basic rate tax for frontline NHS and social care staff to zero for three years.
• Increase UK police numbers from 235 to 300 per 100,000 population, equivalent to 40,000 new front-line officers, over a five-year Parliament, and recruit 30,000 people into the army.
• Boost the number of technical courses and apprenticeships.
• Introduce a two-strike rule where benefits claimants would have to find employment within four months or accept a role after two job offers, or face their benefits being withdrawn.

SNP

The Scottish National Party has pledged to invest in the NHS and urge MPs in Westminster to back its Bill to keep the NHS in public ownership.

Employment-related policies include:

• Devolving tax powers to Scotland, including the devolution of national insurance.
• Scrapping zero-hours contracts.
• Increasing maternity pay and promoting shared parental leave.
• Rejoining the EU as an independent Scotland, giving it access to freedom of movement, and developing a bespoke immigration system.