The UKIP Manifesto 2015

UKIP leader Nigel Farage introduced his party's "gold standard" manifesto "Believe in Britain" by claiming it was the only one that had been "fully costed". UKIP claim that politics has been dominated UKIP leader Nigel Farage introduced his party's "gold standard" manifesto "Believe in Britain" by claiming it was the only one that had been "fully costed". UKIP claim that politics has been dominated by giant corporate business interests and that they wish to make working people better off. Judge for yourself as we summarise UKIP's policies on employment below.

The EU

• Hold an in/out referendum on EU membership as soon as possible.


• Assuming a yes vote activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to trigger a mechanism for a negotiated British exit over a 2 year period.

Jobs and pay

• End EU relocation grants of €1,000 paid to assist EU nationals to find work in other member states.


• Permit British businesses to prefer British workers ahead of non-British workers.


• Increase the number of National Minimum Wage inspectors in both England and Wales.


• Amend the Working Time Regulations 1998.


• Limit the number of highly paid council employees and abolish non-essential council jobs.


• A guarantee of a job offer with the police, Prison Service or border force for those leaving the armed services after serving for a for a minimum of 12 years.


• Older workers will be able to select when they retire, from the age of 65 and still draw a state pension, albeit discounted to take account of retirement before the state retirement age.


• Ensure homecare workers are paid for their travelling time between home visits.


• Introduce a new Licence to Manage certificate for NHS managers similar to the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council vocational registrations, to ensure incompetent, negligent or bullying NHS managers are held to account.

Zero hours contracts

• Introduce a legally binding Code of Conduct for zero hours contracts.


• Employers of 50 or more people must grant part or full time contracts of employment to employees with a year or more of zero hours service, if so requested.


• No exclusivity clauses in a zero hours contract.


• Workers must be given at least 12 hours' notice of work and once notice has been given whether work is available or not they must be paid for that work.


• A complete prohibition on the use of zero hours contracts for home care workers.

Equality and multiculturalism

• End the use of multi-lingual formatting of official forms.


• Uphold freedom of speech within the law and challenge the "culture of offence".


• Protect freedom of religion unless it is intolerant of the human rights of others.


• Introduce mandatory reporting of suspected female genital mutilation by teachers, police, social services and healthcare professionals.


• Impose a requirement that faith based tribunals must inform those attending before them that they cannot be forced to attend before them and that the tribunal's rulings may be contrary to British law.

Family friendly

• Honour the current Government’s commitment to provide a new tax-free childcare scheme, worth up to £2,000 for children under twelve.


• Amend the voucher scheme in order to address the shortage of places and cut the cost to both parents and the state, by de-regulating childcare provision.


• Place a statutory duty on all primary schools to offer before and after-school care from 8am to 6pm during term time, with the option to extend this to all-day provision throughout the school holidays.

Apprenticeship

• Permit young people to start an apprenticeship in place of 4 non-core GCSE subjects.

Immigration

• Introduce a five-year moratorium on immigration for unskilled workers (including those from the EU).


• Assuming an EU exit, introduce an Australian-style points based system to manage the number and skills of people coming into the country, treating all citizens of the world on a fair and equal basis, establish a Migration Control Commission to oversee operation of the points based system.


• The Commission to operate under a strict mandate to significantly reduce the numbers of people migrating to the UK and determine Britain’s economic and social needs annually and then recommend how many immigrants, with what skills the UK requires.


• Five new visa types to be introduced to include those for students, visitors, asylum seekers, family reunion and work visas - workers under the latter visa will be required to have medical insurance to cover both themselves and any dependents for five years’ duration.


• EU workers in the UK when it leaves the EU to be permitted to remain and work in the UK.


• Increase the number of immigration compliance and enforcement teams.

Tax

• Increase the tax-free personal allowance to at least £13,000.


• Raise the 40p Income Tax threshold to £55,000.


• Introduce a new intermediate tax rate of 30% on earnings between £43,500 and £55,000.


• After EU exit zero rate VAT for a variety of goods and services including repairs to listed buildings and sanitary products.


• Those in the armed services on operational duty will not pay income tax whilst serving overseas.