Side by side
The Liberal Democrats and The Conservative and Unionist Party across all ten areas, in their own stated terms. Open in full for the detail beneath any line.
Immigration & asylum
Lib Dems
Safe and legal routes, and faster decisions
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Emphasises safe and legal routes and faster decision-making, arguing deterrence-first policy has repeatedly failed to reduce crossings.
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 — ConservativesTax & the economy
Lib Dems
£9.4bn for care and the NHS from bank and capital gains taxes
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A £9.4bn package for social care and the NHS, funded by higher taxes on banks and tighter capital gains rules for the very wealthy.
Check itLib Dem social care proposals examined — The ConversationConservative
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 HomeNHS & social care
Lib Dems
Free personal care for everyone who needs it
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Free personal care for everyone who needs it, costed at £2.7bn a year by 2028–29 and funded by reversing tax cuts given to the large banks since 2016 — so that nobody has to sell their home to pay for personal care. Alongside it a Carer's Minimum Wage set £2 above the minimum wage, a Royal College of Care Workers, and Carer's Allowance raised by £20 a week with eligibility extended to anyone earning under £183 a week.
Analysts have welcomed the seriousness of the reform while questioning whether the funding stream covers the long-run cost.
Check itEd Davey launches plan for free personal care — Liberal DemocratsConservative
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 AssociationHousing
Lib Dems
Council-led building; empty homes back into use
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Expanding council-led housebuilding, bringing empty homes back into use, and requiring developers to deliver the affordable homes they have been permitted to build.
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 HomeCrime & justice
Lib Dems
Restore community policing; scrap Police and Crime Commissioners
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Restoring community policing, and scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners in favour of local Police Boards made up of councillors and local representatives, with the savings put into frontline policing. Recent party papers also defend trial by jury against proposals to restrict it.
Check itStronger Communities, Safer Citizens — Liberal DemocratsConservative
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 AssociationEnergy & net zero
Lib Dems
End sewage discharges by water companies
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Ending sewage discharges by water companies has been the party's most prominent environmental campaign.
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 NewsEducation
Lib Dems
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.
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 LibraryDefence & foreign policy
Lib Dems
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.
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 AssociationEurope & the constitution
Lib Dems
Repair the relationship with Europe; a new Magna Carta
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The most consistently pro-European of the six: repairing what Davey calls Britain's "broken relationship" with Europe, tearing down trade barriers and fixing the "botched" Brexit deal. Domestically he has called for "a new Magna Carta" to constrain executive power.
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 — ConservativesMedia & culture
Lib Dems
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.
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.
Positions are summarised from each party’s published material. How we place parties.
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