The Liberal Democrats would seek to bring the UK back into the European Union’s single market, the party says in its manifesto.
While policies on health and social care have been front and centre of their election campaign, the 114-page document also includes an aim “to place the UK-EU relationship on a more formal and stable footing by seeking to join the single market”.
The party also has a “longer-term ambition” to rejoin the EU.
This is a more muted commitment than their policy to “stop Brexit” in 2019 – a slogan emblazoned on the front of their manifesto that election year.
Like the other main parties, the Lib Dems have been relatively quiet on Brexit since then.
However speaking during the manifesto launch, leader Sir Ed Davey called the Lib Dems “the most pro-European party in British politics”.
“We’re proud of that”, he added.
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Asked if re-joining the EU is something he wants to see in the next parliament, Sir Ed said it “is going to take time, regrettably because the Conservatives have done such damage”.
“We believe in the long term we need to be back in the heart of Europe, but we aren’t going to pretend that is going to be easy”, he said.
The pledges on Europe come on top of a £9bn package of commitments to fix the health and social care system.
This includes plans to recruit 8,000 more GPs, boost cancer survival rates and introduce free personal care for the elderly and the disabled.
The money will in part come from reforming capital gains tax, which is paid on profits from the sale of assets such as shares or property and. It is currently set lower than the rate of income tax, something seen by many as unfair.
The Lib Dem manifesto also promises not to increase income tax, VAT or national insurance.
Other pledges announced on Monday include:
• A plan to tackle the sewage crisis, ban bonuses for water company CEOs, and put environmental experts on company boards.
• A Burglary Response Guarantee to ensure every burglary is attended by a police officer.
• Free school meals for 900,000 more children living in poverty, and an ambition to extend this to all primary school children whenever the public finances allow.
• Scrapping the First Past The Post voting system and replacing it with proportional representation
Sir Ed Davey called it “a manifesto to save the NHS”.
The Lib Dems are targeting traditional Conservative voters in the so-called “blue wall”, with polls projecting they could quadruple their current number of seats in a parliament expected to be dominated by a huge Labour majority.
Asked how his ideas could have any impact on the next five years if Labour does win a landslide, Sir Ed said success, “results in lots of Lib Dem MPs getting elected”.
He sad: ” I want (voters) to see that we’ve got great ideas, great candidates. And the more of us they vote for, the more we can get real change because we are the party really offering change, whether it’s in the political system or on health and care.”
He added that his manifesto was fully costed and the costings had been done “cautiously”.
“An election should be about ideas. And we’ve got the best ones.”
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