Immigration, hospitals: what other manifesto promises have Tories broken?

From doctor numbers to Northern Powerhouse Rail, the 2019 manifesto is full of unfulfilled pledges, says John Rentoul

Boris Johnson enjoys his 2019 election manifesto (Getty)

On immigration, the 2019 Conservative manifesto promised “overall numbers will come down”. Now we know net immigration last year hit a record high.

Nick Timothy, chief of staff to Theresa May in No 10, revealed this week that Boris Johnson only agreed the manifesto pledge “under pressure from his advisers, and when the manifesto was published he called ministers telling them not to repeat the promise because he disagreed with it”.

The manifesto also pledged: “We will build and fund 40 new hospitals over the next 10 years.” On Thursday afternoon, health secretary Stephen Barclay announced in the Commons that not all the projects will be completed by 2030, which has long been the government’s flexible interpretation of the 10-year timeframe.

Barclay tried to obscure the shift by adding five hospitals to the list, including the rebuilding of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn – for which local MP Liz Truss campaigned, but about which she did nothing in her seven weeks as prime minister. The five new hospitals will be rebuilt by 2030, Barclay insisted, while being less specific about eight projects on the original list now expected to miss the deadline.

Later, farming minister Mark Spencer confirmed that the Kept Animals Bill “would not progress”. Among other things, the bill would have enacted the manifesto promise of “abolishing the cruel live shipment of animals”. Spencer insisted that anything that had been promised in the manifesto would be made law through private members’ bills, which is an odd way of getting the government’s business through parliament but means that we cannot write off that promise yet.

Here are six more manifesto promises that have been broken:

National insurance

“We will not raise the rate of … national insurance.” That went up last year – although it came down again when Kwasi Kwarteng became chancellor, and Jeremy Hunt then raised a range of other taxes instead.

State pension

“We will keep the triple lock.” The promise to raise the state pension by the highest of price inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent was broken when lockdowns distorted earnings figures. Most people agreed the decision was sensible, but it was still a promise broken.

Social care

“Nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it.” Despite Boris Johnson claiming to have a social care plan ready when he won the election, it turned out he hadn’t, and some people still have to sell up to pay for care.

Rail

“We will build Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester.” No, we won’t, said Grant Shapps, transport secretary, in 2021.

Foreign aid

“We will proudly maintain our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of [gross national income] on development.” Until Sunak as chancellor cut it to 0.5 per cent as an emergency measure after coronavirus, and much of that is now spent on asylum seekers in the UK.

Doctor numbers

“Delivering 50,000 more nurses and 6,000 more doctors.” The nurses target has been met ahead of schedule, thanks to recruitment abroad which helped to push up this week’s immigration numbers, but the target for doctors is unlikely to be met until 2028, and Sunak has admitted: “We’re not there yet.”