How Ed Miliband's Labour manifesto became Tory policy
From the energy price cap, to increasing the minimum wage, to increasing council tax on empty homes, the Conservatives have enacted a remarkable number of economic policies from Ed Miliband's 2015 manifesto, says Ben Chu
The energy regulator Ofgem announced on Friday that it will lower the domestic price cap that energy firms can charge customers on standard variable rates.
The policy of a price cap on domestic energy bills was first proposed by the then Labour leader Ed Miliband back in 2015.
At the time the prime minister David Cameron dismissed the idea as a “gimmick” and said Mr Miliband was living in a “Marxist universe” for proposing price controls to protect less well-informed customers.
But the policy was implemented by Mr Cameron’s successor Theresa May in 2019 and there is little sign, at least so far, that it has had the damaging impact that critics claimed.
As some have noted, this is far from the only policy proposal that was proposed by the former Labour leader, condemned or dismissed at the time by Tories, which has subsequently been implemented by Conservative ministers, or which is now being seriously examined by the government.
Below The Independent examines Miliband ideas that have (or could become) government policy.
Minimum wage rise
The Labour manifesto in 2015 pledged to increase the National Minimum Wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019.
At the time the CBI and other business lobby groups warned against any “political interference” in the labour market and said the policy would put job creation “at risk”.
But in his July 2015 Budget – shortly after the election in which Labour was defeated – the Tory Chancellor George Osborne announced that the introduction of a new National Living Wage (a rebranded minimum wage) which would reach £9 an hour by 2020.
The employment rate continued to climb to record highs in the subsequent years, despite the increases in the statutory floor on hourly wages and the Government now plans to increase the wage to two thirds of median earnings by 2024.
Curbs on junk food
Under Ed Miliband’s leadership Labour called for a 9pm watershed on some types of junk food advertising to discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods.
The party’s manifesto also pledged to set a maximum permitted level of sugar, salt and fat in food marketed at children.
David Cameron said in 2015 that there were “more effective ways” of tackling obesity.
But in 2016 George Osborne unveiled a sugar tax on fizzy drinks, which ministers have since hailed as a great success in pushing drinks manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in their products.
When Boris Johnson came to power last year he railed against “the continuing creep of the nanny state” when it came to food.
Yet now the government is planning to implement a ban on junk food advertising as part of Johnson’s “summer of weight loss” agenda (though analyst are ambivalent about how effective such as restriction would actually be)
Ban on letting fees
The 2015 Labour manifesto pledged a ban on unfair letting agent fees, which it claimed could save many renters £600.
David Cameron suggested that it would be sufficient to order letting agents to publish a full list of fees for tenants on their websites.
In 2016 the Conservative chancellor Philip Hammond announced such fees by estate agents were “wrong” and would be banned “as soon as possible”.
The ban was introduced in June 2019 and there has been no sign of the sharp increase in rents that lobbyists warned would result
Tax on empty homes
In 2015 Labour proposed to give local authorities powers levy higher council tax on long term empty properties in order to help alleviate the housing crisis.
At the time the then local government minister Kris Hopkins said that “The government’s approach is working as the number of empty homes has fallen to a 10-year low.”
But In 2017 Philip Hammond announced that councils would be able to charge a 100 per cent council tax surcharge on empty properties saying “It cannot be right to leave property empty when so many are desperate for a place to live.”
Cut tuition fees
Under Ed Miliband Labour pledged to cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 a year to ease the debt burden on graduates.
George Osborne called it an “ill-thought out policy” that would ultimately impede the chances of poorer children from getting to university.
Last year the independent Augar review – commissioned by the government – recommended that fees should be cut to a maximum of £7,500 per year and that more funding for students should be made in the form of grants, rather than loans.
The 2019 Conservative manifesto said the party was looking at the “thoughtful” Augar proposals.
Gender pay gap reporting
In 2015 Labour proposed to require large companies to publish their internal gender pay gaps to help tackle pay discrimination.
After the election the Conservatives announced a new regulation that would force employers with more than 250 employees to disclose their gender pay gaps.
The Conservative’s Women and Equalities Nicky Morgan said the government was “going further than ever before to ensure true gender equality in the workplace”.
The regulations came into force in 2017 and are credited with increasing transparency around pay and giving employees the data to push for changes.
Increase the public sector workforce
The 2015 Labour manifesto pledged to hire 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs and to “safeguard over 10,000 frontline police officers”.
David Cameron defended his party’s record on NHS staffing, claiming “We got rid of 20,000 bureaucrats in the NHS and put that money into 9,000 more doctors and 7,000 more nurses.”
But from 2020 the Conservatives are planning to hire 50,000 more nurses and 6,000 more doctors in GP surgeries as well as 20,000 more police officers.
Boris Johnson said this month: “The fantastic teachers, police officers and NHS workers truly are the pride of the nation and embody the spirit of public duty that every one of us can aspire towards.”
And major policies from the 2015 Labour manifesto still to be implemented…
50p top income tax rate for those earning over £150,000
Ban zero-hours contracts
Mansion Tax on properties worth more than £2m
Establish a new British Investment Bank
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