Should I vote Labour? Where Ed Miliband's party stands on key issues for General Election 2015

An at-a-glance look at Labour's policies

Ed Miliband poses with Labour's 2015 manifesto

Labour has been surprisingly united as a party since 2010 considering it experienced its second worst performance in a General Election in the modern era and saw a bloody leadership battle between two brothers.

Ed Miliband became the youngest leader of the Labour party when he narrowly beat his brother David and has tried to use his youth to carve a new path for the party to move it on from the Blair and Brown years.

He has led campaigns against "powerful vested interests" in the banking, energy and media sectors, taking on Rupert Murdoch's following the phone hacking scandal and pledging radical policies such as freezing energy bills, building a brand of "responsible capitalism".

In recent months he has been forced to fight a backlash from those who have branded him anti-business and has tried to turn the threats of financial uncertainty on to the Conservatives over their pledge to hold an in-out referendum on the EU.

Mr Miliband is finally starting to improve his consistently negative personal approval ratings, with voters much more keen on the Labour party than the leader. This is why he was so keen to take on David Cameron in a head-to-head TV debate - to prove his many doubters wrong. Whether his late come-back is too little, too late is yet to be seen.

SPENDING

“The next Labour Government will balance the books.” Its budgets would cut the deficit every year, which the Office for Budget Responsibility will independently verify. National debt would fall and there would be a surplus on day-to-day spending on public services “as soon as possible” before 2020. Health, education and overseas aid budgets protected but others not.

“We will not make promises we cannot keep…. There is not a single policy in this manifesto that is funded by additional borrowing.”

Ed Miliband unveiled his party's manifesto at the Coronation Street set in Manchester

TAX

Labour would raise the 45p top rate on incomes over £150,000 a year to 50p. A new 10p starting rate would be introduced, funded by ending the marriage tax allowance. “We will not increase the basic or higher rates of income tax or national insurance.” Would not raise the rate of VAT or extend it to other goods and services.

A mansion tax on homes worth more than £2m would be introduced. Would end non-dom status.

LIVING STANDARDS

“We will raise the national minimum wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019.” This is further and faster than previously pledged. Labour would promote the higher Living Wage. People working regular hours on zero hours contracts for 12 weeks would have the right to a regular contract.

“Labour will freeze energy bills until 2017, ensuring that bills can fall but notrise, and we will give the regulator the power to cut bills this winter.”

HEALTH

“Labour will rescue our NHS, invest in its future and join up services from home to hospital”. Would pay for 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs and 3,000 more midwives and guarantee patients a GP appointment within 48 hours. Promises to cut waiting times for cancer test results. Would repeal the Government’s health reforms and stop the “drive towards privatisation”. Says the care system is “too fragmented” and Labour would create “a single service to meet all of a person’s health and care needs”.

EDUCATION

Committed to increasing education spending – including early years and post-16 – with inflation. Would scrap the “wasteful and poorly performing” free schools programme, cap class sizes for five, six and seven-year-olds at 30 pupils, require all students will to study English and maths to 18 and insist all teachers are fully qualified. Careers guidance would be overhauled.

Would cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 a year, funded by restricting tax relief on pension contributions for highest earners.

WELFARE

Social security spending would be capped. But tax credits would not be cut, rising in line with inflation from next year. Bedroom tax would be scrapped. Guaranteed, paid job for all young people out of work for one year, and for all those over 25 and out of work for two years. A higher rate of Jobseekers Allowance for those who have contributed over years.

Triple lock on state pension retained. But pensioners on the 40p higher tax rate would lose their winter fuel payment.

CHILDCARE

Labour would expand free childcare from 15 to 25 hours per week for working parents of three and four-year-olds, funded by an increase in the bank levy. A legal guarantee for parents of primary school children to access “wraparound childcare” from 8am to 6pm through their local primary school, through before and after-school clubs and activities. A new National Primary Childcare Service would be set up, a not-for-profit body to promote the voluntary and charitable delivery of activities outside the classroom.

IMMIGRATION

Promises to “respond to people’s concerns” by bringing in “proper controls” and “stronger borders”. Would recruit 1,000 more immigration officers, tighten the rules on short-term student visas and retain the cap on non-EU workers. Would tackle “pull-factors” by clamping down on “exploitation of migrant workers, which undercuts local wages and increases demand for further low-skilled migration”. Would “ensure Britain continues its proud history of providing refuge for those fleeing persecution … including working with the UN to support vulnerable refugees from Syria”.

CRIME AND JUSTICE

Central pledge is to bolster neighbourhood policing with an £800m commitment to “safeguarding” the jobs of 10,000 police officers. Would instruct police forces to co-operate more closely, but does not support merger of forces. Police and Crime Commissioners would be abolished.

Calls for prisons that “both punish and rehabilitate” and vows to bring in Britain’s first victims’ law. Says action to end violence against women and girls would be a priority.

TRANSPORT

Would increase public control over the rail network and review the franchising system to enable public sector operators to challenge private train operating companies.

Rail fares would be frozen next year. The £200 million cost will be met by delaying improvements to the A27 in Hampshire and the A358 in Somerset.

Promises “a swift decision on expanding airport capacity in London and the South East, balancing the need for growth and the environmental impact”.

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