General election 2019 latest: manifestos and 'contracts with the people'

It’s less than three weeks to go until the 12 December general election, and voters are being absolutely spoiled rotten by parties publishing manifestos.

Labour’s manifesto launch managed to knock the Andrew formerly known as Prince off the front pages, with promises of higher NHS spending, a second Brexit referendum and the biggest house-building programme since the Second World War.

The Brexit Party will unveil its policies later today, with Nigel Farage saying he will not publish a manifesto but will instead make a “contract with the British people”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Plaid Cymru aren’t a party for such stunts, and will publish their manifesto later today. Leader Adam Price will call for a £20bn “green jobs revolution” in Wales and back a second EU referendum.

The Tories are yet to publish their manifesto, but that hasn’t lost them the backing of donors. The party has raised £5.7m in the first week of the official election campaign, well ahead of Labour’s £218,500, the Lib Dems’ £275,000 and the Brexit Party’s £250,000. The figures only include donations over £7,500.

The Conservative government ran the highest October budget deficit in five years, borrowing far more than was expected. Spending jumped to £11.2 billion last month, £2.3 billion higher than October 2018, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The former SNP leader Alex Salmond has appeared in court charged with 14 sexual offences, including an attempted rape and 10 sexual assaults.

Google has banned highly targeted political advertising from all of its platforms, limiting targeting to age, gender and general location.