Election 2015: Miliband says Tories ‘using SNP to distract voters’

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Ed MilibandEd Miliband has accused the Tories of using the SNP to distract voters from their record as he tries to kill off talk of post-election deals.

The Labour leader said the election was “not a clash of two nations but a clash of two visions”.

His party has been attacked by the Tories over potential alliances with the SNP in a hung parliament.

The Conservatives said it was a legitimate argument because Labour “can’t get a majority without the SNP”.

Labour has ruled out any coalition with the SNP, and Mr Miliband said on Thursday he would not lead a government if it involved any deal with Nicola Sturgeon’s party.

BBC political correspondent Eleanor Garnier said Mr Miliband was attempting to “redefine the election debate”.

In an interview with the Guardian, which threw its support behind Labour on Friday, Mr Miliband accused the prime minister of having “entirely withdrawn from the central issues facing the country… in a bid to distract voters from the big choices”.

The Labour leader also told the Guardian that 10 of his manifesto proposals would be introduced as bills by the end of May if he formed a government.

These include a “strong economic foundation bill” aimed at reducing the deficit, introducing a mansion tax and tobacco levy to fund the NHS; freezing energy prices until 2017; banning recruitment agencies from hiring only from overseas, and cutting university tuition fees in England to £6,000.

In other election news:

  • Prime Minister David Cameron is due to outline the Conservatives’ manifesto for pensioners
  • Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will set out plans for a new taskforce aimed at tackling youth unemployment aimed at helping 100,000 young adults
  • Labour and Plaid Cymru have clashed on whether the two parties could work together if the election results in a hung parliament in a BBC Wales’ televised leaders debate

‘Tortured trade-off’

On Friday, Mr Miliband urged voters in Scotland not to “gamble” with the SNP but the Conservatives insisted the SNP would be “the monkey on Labour’s back”.

In a speech later, Mr Miliband will say: “What this election really comes down to is not a clash of two nations but a clash of two visions.

“Two different plans ideas about how our country succeeds.”

He will say the Conservatives offer “huge tax cuts” for the “rich and powerful”, whereas Labour thinks “Britain succeeds when working people succeed”.

David Cameron in Leeds on 1 May 2015
The prime minister will outline his proposals to help pensioners

Mr Cameron is due to highlight his party’s commitment to the “triple lock” on state pensions, which means they rise by whichever is higher out of inflation, average wages, or 2.5%.

He will say the triple lock – which Labour says it is also committed to – would take the annual pension to £7,000 a year by 2020.

The prime minister will also outline other previously announced Tory proposals including the protection of benefits such as free bus passes and TV licences, and giving people more freedom to invest and spend their pensions.

He will suggest a Labour government “would mean a return to higher taxes, spending and borrowing and pensioners would be particularly vulnerable because many of them do not have the option of increasing their incomes”.

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Policy guide: Where the parties stand

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Eliminate the deficit and be running a surplus by the end of the Parliament
  • Extra £8bn above inflation for the NHS by 2020
  • Extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants in England
  • Legislate to keep people working 30 hours on minimum wage out of tax
  • 30 hours of free childcare per week for working parents of 3&4-year-olds
  • Referendum on Britain’s EU membership
 

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Balance the budget fairly through a mixture of cuts and taxes on higher earners
  • Increase tax-free allowance to £12,500
  • Guarantee education funding from nursery to 19 with an extra £2.5bn and qualified teachers in every class
  • Invest £8bn in the NHS. Equal care for mental & physical health
  • Five new laws to protect nature and fight climat

Green

Main pledges

  • End austerity and restore the public sector, creating jobs that pay at least a living wage
  • End privatisation of the National Health Service
  • Work with other countries to ensure global temperatures do not rise by more than 2C
  • £85bn programme of home insulation, renewable electricity generation & flood defences
  • Provide 500,000 social homes for rent by 2020 and control rent levels
  • Return the railways to public hands
 

DUP

Main pledges

  • Make Northern Ireland an economic powerhouse
  • Deliver world class public services
  • Create a society based on fairness and opportunity for everyone
  • Make politics and government work better in Northern Ireland and enhance British identity
 

Sinn Fein

Main pledges

  • End austerity – negotiate to “restore” £1.5bn for job creation and strong public services
  • Return economic powers for a fair recovery, including full control over income tax
  • Fully implement welfare protection in Stormont House agreement
  • Continue to campaign for border poll on Irish unity

SDLP

Main pledges

  • The SDLP has pledged a Scottish-style commission on devolving fiscal powers to Northern Ireland
  • It sets out the need for a prosperity process rather than continued austerity
  • It wants VAT in the hospitality and tourism industry reduced to 5%
  • On welfare reform, the party will oppose further cuts

Labour

Main pledges

  • Responsibility “triple lock”: fully funded manifesto, cut the deficit every year, balance the books as soon as possible in next Parliament
  • Extra £2.5bn for NHS, largely paid for by a mansion tax on properties valued at over £2m
  • Raise minimum wage to more than £8ph by 2019
  • No rise in VAT, NI or basic and higher rates of income tax
  • Access to childcare from 8am-6pm for parents of primary school children
  • Freeze energy bills until 2017 and give energy regulator new powers to cut bills this winter

UKIP

Main pledges

  • Rapid referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union
  • Control immigration with points system, limit of 50,000 skilled workers a year and a five-year ban on unskilled immigration
  • Extra £3bn a year for the NHS in England
  • No tax on the minimum wage
  • Meet Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, and look to increase it “substantially”

Respect

Main pledges

  • Fight discrimination and racism
  • Protect the rights of other cultures, religions and backgrounds in a multicultural Britain
  • An end to illegal war and occupation of foreign countries
  • A progressive taxation system which redistributes wealth more fairly
 

SNP

Main pledges

  • Spending increase of 0.5% a year, enabling £140bn extra investment
  • Annual UK target of 100,000 affordable homes
  • Increase in minimum wage to £8.70 by 2020
  • Restore the 50p top income tax rate for those earning more than £150,000; introduce a mansion tax and a bankers’ bonus tax
  • Build an alliance against the renewal of Trident
  • Retain the triple lock on pensions and protect the winter fuel allowance
 

Plaid Cymru

Main pledges

  • Living wage for all employees by 2020
  • Extra 1,000 doctors for Welsh NHS
  • Scrap Bedroom Tax
  • Transfer control of criminal justice system – including policing – to Wales
  • Oppose renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system
  • Wales to get same powers as Scotland. Also similar funding – additional £1.2bn each year
 

Alliance

Main pledges

  • Promote integration and a shared future – division costs over £1bn pa
  • Build a 21st century economy that can compete globally
  • Invest in public services, like schools and hospitals
  • Reboot NI political system: ensure openness about donations; create an opposition; push to lower voting age to 16

More parties: Parties with candidates in one sixth of constituencies or more

 

TUSC

Main pledges

  • Stop all privatisation and bring privatised services, industries & utilities back into public ownership
  • Support a free NHS under public ownership
  • Bring schools under local authority control. Student grants not fees
  • Bring banks into public ownership
  • Repeal anti-trade union laws, increase minimum wage to £10ph
  • Abolish the “bedroom tax”

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