What General Election pledges have the Conservatives and Labour made so far?

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will take part in their first televised leaders’ debate of the election campaign on Tuesday.

But what policies have the Conservatives and Labour proposed so far on the campaign trail ahead of the General Election on July 4?

– Conservatives:

– Mandatory national service for 18-year-olds. Teenagers would choose between taking a 12-month placement in the armed forces or “volunteer” work in their community one weekend a month for a year under the proposals.

– A £2.4 billion tax break for pensioners. The party has promised to increase the income tax personal allowance for pensioners, giving them a tax cut worth around £95 in 2025-26, rising to £275 in 2029-30.

– Increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy, by 2030.

– Boost apprenticeships while axing “rip off” degrees which offer poor value to students.

– No increases to income tax, national insurance or VAT.

– Punish fly-tippers with points on their driving licences and kick anti-social tenants out of social housing after three strikes.

– An expansion of levelling up funding with a pledge to give 30 towns £20 million.

– Plans to boost community care by expanding Pharmacy First, building 100 new GP surgeries and modernising 150 more, and building 50 new community diagnostic centres.

– To amend the Equality Act to define the protected characteristic of sex as “biological sex”. The party argues the change will make it simpler for service providers for women and girls, such as those running sessions for domestic abuse victims, to prevent biological males from taking part.

– Labour:

– Focus on reducing treatment backlogs. The party has also pledged to send “crack teams” who are already running out-of-hours programmes into hospitals to help set up evening and weekend clinics in the rest of the health service.

– Revive plans to ban young people from ever being able to legally smoke.

– Put 13,000 more police and police community support officers (PCSOs) back into communities, costing up to £400 million.

– No increases to income tax, national insurance or VAT.

– Establish a new publicly owned company, Great British Energy, with the aim of investing in homegrown energy sources and providing cheaper prices to consumers.

– Reform employment support and welfare benefits in a bid to increase the employment rate from 75% to 80%.

– A decrease in net migration but no specific targets set. The party also believes reforming the apprenticeship levy to “tackle the skills gap” will help decrease migration numbers.

– The foreign aid budget would not be used to pay for asylum seekers’ hotel costs, although the party has cautioned this would not be immediate.

– Give coroners more powers to access information held by tech companies after a child’s death. The party says this would allow them to make sure data is retained and not deleted by tech companies.

– To increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. The party has so far declined to outline its timeline, only noting it would do so when economic conditions allow. There would also be a new strategic defence review within the first year of a Labour government.

– A “triple lock” for the UK’s nuclear deterrent. This involves a commitment to delivering four new ballistic submarines, maintaining the continuous at sea deterrent and providing all the necessary upgrades for the boats to continue their patrols.