Labour manifesto: Brown unveils election programme
Gordon Brown has insisted Labour has a "plan for the future" as he unveiled manifesto pledges not to raise income tax and reforms to "renew" Britain.
They would be "relentless reformers" of financial markets and public services if they won a fourth term, he said.
Pledges include minimum wage rises, extending paternity leave and a £4-a-week "toddler tax credit" from 2012.
The Tories say Labour is out of ideas and the Lib Dems say they cannot be trusted to reform tax and politics.
In a speech to unveil the manifesto in Edgbaston, Birmingham, Mr Brown said Labour was facing "the fight of our lives" adding: "The future will be progressive or Conservative but it will not be both.
"We are in the future business, we are building a future fair for all."
MANIFESTO PLEDGES
No rise in income tax rate
New global banks levy
No stamp duty for first time buyers on homes below £250k
Raise minimum wage in line with earnings
Right to recall MPs
Referendums on democratic House of Lords and changing voting system
He dismissed "empty slogans about change" from the Conservatives and pledged a "realistic and radical plan for Britain".
He said he wanted to create a "bigger middle class than ever before" and, in the wake of the expenses scandal, pledged to replace "discredited and distrusted politics with one where you, the people, are the boss".
He pledged to spread excellence across public services - with every hospital a foundation trust, more power and responsibility for "strong school leaders" and for underperforming police forces to be taken over and chief constables replaced.
"Labour will be restless and relentless reformers. Reformers of the market and reformers of the state," Mr Brown said.
Cabinet minister Lord Mandelson described it as a "Blair plus" manifesto and denied Mr Brown had had to be converted to his predecessor's public service reforms: "He invented New Labour with Tony Blair and myself and others."
'Tough choices'
Among Labour's manifesto commitments are not to raise income tax rates in the next Parliament and not to extend VAT to items like food and children's clothes.
Asked for a firmer commitment to rule out a rise in VAT, Mr Brown said:
"We have not raised VAT since 1997, the only party that has raised VAT in the last 25 years is the Conservative Party."
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the manifesto specified the need for "tough choices" but did not appear to give much detail about them.
But Mr Brown said: "We've done more than any other country to set out out plans in detail, the tax changes, the public spending reductions and the growth we will achieve to make that possible."
Other pledges include
raising the minimum wage in line with average earnings, a right to recall MPs,
a referendum on changing the voting system and on removing the last hereditary peers from the House of Lords, and a free vote in Parliament on lowering the voting age to 16.
Paternity leave
There was also a "father's month" of four weeks' paid paternity leave and a new toddler tax credit of £4-a-week from 2012 is also promised for families with young children who earn less than £50,000.
The manifesto also pledges that patients in England will get a one-week guarantee to get results from a test for cancer.
There were further pledges to push for an international bank levy and work guarantees for the long-term unemployed.
Jeremy Paxman will question Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg in a special programme on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday
Labour promised not to raise income tax in its 2005 manifesto, but went on to introduce a
new 50p tax rate for incomes over £150,000.
Mr Brown said he did not want to take that measure but "had to" because of the banking crisis and had decided that those with the "broadest shoulders" should bear the biggest burden.
He also said he had been personally affected by the Fiona Pilkington case - the woman who killed herself and her daughter after years of bullying from local youths.
Royal Mail plans
He said he wanted a Britain where anti-social behaviour and crime were "dealt with quickly" and those who did not get redress would be able to take out an injunction at the expense of their local authority.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson denied that Labour had dropped its commitment to part-privatise Royal Mail, plans which were unpopular with some Labour backbenchers and the postal workers' union.
The manifesto says "for the future, continuing modernisation and investment will be needed by the Royal Mail in the public sector".
Lord Mandelson told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "We are not resiling from the legislation that we introduced originally." He said it had been shelved because of "market conditions" and they could return to it if they changed.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said Labour had promised "fairness and new politics" in 1997, 2001 and 2005: "They are doing it again. If they haven't managed to do it in 13 years, why would anyone believe they are going to do it this time?"
Conservative frontbencher Chris Grayling told the BBC the manifesto was "a series of reheated promises that Labour have already broken once, we had a series of ideas that had been taken and we had a number of big promises that had absolutely no costing attached to them at all".
He said the pledge not to raise income tax was not believable as Mr Brown had already increased tax rates and was planning to increase National Insurance next year, which was a "jobs tax".
Conservative leader David Cameron has been visiting a builders' merchant in the Reading West constituency in Berkshire and to a brewery in west London to talk to staff about his party's plans to block the bulk of the National Insurance rise.
The Conservatives will unveil their manifesto on Tuesday, the Lib Dems on Wednesday.
Source:
BBC
I forgot to say, let me know what you make of this? I'll be posting the Conservative and Liberal Democrat ones when they come out.
Also highlight any important bits including the BBC interview tonight with the Liberal Democrat leader.
