Side by side
The Conservative and Unionist Party and Reform UK across all ten areas, in their own stated terms. Open in full for the detail beneath any line.
Immigration & asylum
Conservative
Ban asylum claims from illegal entrants; remove 150,000 a year
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The Borders Plan would impose a total ban on asylum claims from anyone entering illegally and create a Removals Force tasked with removing 150,000 people a year. Indefinite Leave to Remain would require ten years rather than five, and would be refused to anyone who had claimed benefits, used social housing, or was not a net fiscal contributor.
Check itOur Borders Plan — ConservativesReform
Freeze non-essential immigration; abolish ILR; Deportation Command
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An immediate freeze on non-essential immigration and a new Deportation Command. Indefinite Leave to Remain would be abolished and existing grants rescinded, replaced by a five-year renewable visa carrying higher salary thresholds, mandatory English fluency and stricter good-character requirements.
Rupert Lowe left the party in part over his claim that Reform was "watering down" deportation policy — placing Reform to the left of Restore Britain on its own signature issue.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKTax & the economy
Conservative
Scrap stamp duty; £23bn of welfare savings
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A stated "fully funded" plan to scrap stamp duty, and £23bn of savings from welfare — framed as ending Britain's "welfare addiction" and building a high-growth, low-immigration economy in which reform expands the domestic workforce rather than immigration filling the gap.
Check itWhy only the Conservatives can fix Britain's problems — Conservative HomeReform
Around £70bn a year of tax cuts
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Around £70bn a year of tax cuts, with family-focused measures including a 25% marriage allowance and child benefit front-loaded into the early years.
Independent economists have repeatedly questioned whether cuts on this scale can be funded without deep spending reductions the party has not specified.
Check itReform UK manifesto: policy breakdown — London DailyNHS & social care
Conservative
92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors
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92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors in the NHS than in 2023 by the end of the Parliament.
From the 2024 general election manifesto, which remains the party's most recent full platform; Badenoch has not published a replacement, and has since abandoned the net zero target that manifesto contained.
Check itConservative manifesto summary — Local Government AssociationReform
Re-examine the funding model; tax breaks for NHS staff
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Re-examining the NHS funding model rather than the free-at-the-point-of-use principle. Specific pledges include temporarily zero-rating basic-rate income tax for NHS staff, tax relief on private health insurance, and independent reviews to train more staff and expand community services.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKHousing
Conservative
Scrapping stamp duty is the main housing measure
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Scrapping stamp duty is the party's principal published housing-market measure.
No detailed building or supply programme published under the current leadership.
Check itWhy only the Conservatives can fix Britain's problems — Conservative HomeReform
Restrict social housing and welfare access for migrants
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Housing policy appears mainly through immigration: restricting welfare and social housing access for migrants.
Little detail published on overall housing supply or building targets.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKCrime & justice
Conservative
8,000 more neighbourhood police; 20,000 prison places
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8,000 more neighbourhood police officers with a named officer for every community, mandatory whole-life orders for the worst murders including those involving sadistic or sexual conduct, full custodial terms served for rape and serious sexual offences, and 20,000 additional prison places.
Also from the 2024 manifesto rather than a new platform under the current leadership.
Check itConservative manifesto summary — Local Government AssociationReform
40,000 more police; mandatory minimums; more prison places
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40,000 more police officers, expanded stop and search, mandatory minimum sentences for serious and repeat offenders, and more prison capacity so overcrowding no longer forces early release.
Check itReform UK manifesto: policy breakdown — London DailyEnergy & net zero
Conservative
Repeal the Climate Change Act; net zero by 2050 unreachable
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Repealing the Climate Change Act. Badenoch argues net zero by 2050 cannot be reached "without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us".
Check itNet zero by 2050 'impossible', says Badenoch — BBC NewsReform
Scrap net zero targets; return to North Sea gas
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Scrapping net zero targets outright and "rehabilitating" North Sea gas as a primary energy source, framed as the fastest way to cut household bills.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKEducation
Conservative
Criticises VAT on school fees but will not reverse it
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The party has criticised the imposition of VAT on private school fees but has not committed to reversing it in government.
No broader schools programme published under the current leadership.
Check itVAT on private school fees — House of Commons LibraryReform
No current published position located. This may mean the party has said little on the subject, or that we have not found what it has said — we would rather show the gap than fill it with inference.
Defence & foreign policy
Conservative
Defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030
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Defence spending raised to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 on what the party called a fully funded path — presented as the largest sustained increase since the Cold War, keeping the UK the largest defence power in Europe.
2024 manifesto commitment; not restated as a costed pledge under the current leadership.
Check itConservative manifesto summary — Local Government AssociationReform
Little published beyond withdrawing from institutions
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Reform has published comparatively little defence policy. What exists is framed around withdrawal from international institutions and conventions rather than force structure or spending commitments.
Analysts characterise this as a foreign policy of withdrawal; the party has not published a defence spending target.
Check itReform UK: a foreign policy of withdrawal — Next Century FoundationEurope & the constitution
Conservative
Leave the ECHR; repeal the Human Rights Act
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Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and the anti-trafficking convention ECAT, and repealing the Human Rights Act. Badenoch has made this a condition of candidate selection: only those backing withdrawal from the ECHR and the scrapping of net zero are approved to stand.
Check itOur Borders Plan — ConservativesReform
Leave the ECHR immediately
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A Reform government would leave the European Convention on Human Rights immediately, which the party presents as the mechanism that would let it deport people without legal challenge. Farage has framed withdrawal as the natural sequel to Brexit.
Legal scholars dispute the premise: the Convention does not dictate a state's immigration policy, and states set their own. The UK would also become the only European country outside it besides Russia and Belarus.
Check itPolicies — Reform UKMedia & culture
Conservative
No current published position located. This may mean the party has said little on the subject, or that we have not found what it has said — we would rather show the gap than fill it with inference.
Reform
Abolish the BBC licence fee; scrap DEI rules
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Abolition of the BBC licence fee outright, and scrapping Diversity, Equality and Inclusion requirements across the public sector.
Check itThe future of the BBC licence fee — House of Commons Library
Positions are summarised from each party’s published material. How we place parties.
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