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The Labour manifesto at a glance

Ben Padley,Press Association
Monday 12 April 2010 14:45 BST
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Here are the key points from Labour's General Election manifesto 2010, A Future Fair For All.

* Secure the recovery by supporting the economy and halving the deficit by 2014 through growth, fair taxes and cuts to lower priority spending.

* Will not raise basic, higher and new top rates of tax in the next Parliament.

* No extension of VAT on food, children's clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares.

* Realise stakes in publicly-controlled banks, introduce a global levy and reform banking rules.

* Create UK Finance for Growth, bringing £4 billion together to provide capital for growing businesses.

* Up to 70,000 advanced apprenticeships a year and Skills Accounts for workers to upgrade their skills.

* Create one million skilled jobs and modernise infrastructure with high speed rail, a green investment bank and broadband access for all.

* No stamp duty for first-time buyers on all house purchases below £250,000 for two years, paid for by a 5% rate on homes worth more than £1 million.

* Require a super-majority of two-thirds of shareholders in corporate takeovers.

* Job or training place for young people out of work for six months but benefits cut at ten months if they refuse a place. Guarantee of work for anyone unemployed for more than two years.

* National Minimum Wage to rise in line with average earnings.

* Ensure excellence is spread across public services with 1,000 schools to become part of high standard accredited schools groups, every hospital a Foundation Trust and underperforming police forces or borough commanders replaced or taken over.

* Right to recall MPs, referendum on the alternative vote for the Commons, referendum on a democratic second chamber, free vote in Parliament on reducing the voting age to 16.

* Help for parents to balance work and family life, with a "Father's Month" of flexible paid leave.

* A new Toddler Tax Credit of £4 a week from 2012 to all parents of young children.

* National Care Service to ensure free care in the home for those with the greatest care needs, cap on the costs of residential care.

* Re-establish the link between the Basic State Pension and earnings from 2012.

* An expansion of free nursery places for two-year-olds and 15 hours a week of flexible, free nursery education for three and four-year-olds.

* Give parents the power to bring in new school leadership teams, through mergers and takeovers, with up to 1,000 secondary schools part of an accredited schools group by 2015.

* Every young person guaranteed education or training until 18, with 75% going on to higher education, or completing an advanced apprenticeship or technician level training, by the age of 30. "

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