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With just over three weeks to go until polling day, the battle for number 10 is well and truly on
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Today was the day that the Tories launched their manifesto, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wasn't bringing many fresh pledges to the table with his 76-page-long manifesto document
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Here are the top five things we learnt. Firstly, Rishi Sunak admitted that he hasn't quite got everything right
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But I'm not blind to the fact that people are frustrated with our party
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and frustrated with me. Things have not always been easy and we have not got everything right. But we are the only party
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in this election with the big ideas to make our country a better place to live
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Today Sunak also announced a suite of policies around housing, a core issue for his younger voters who have been deserting the party in droves
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especially with the party appealing towards an older audience with its pledges around national service and pensions
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Sunak pledged to abolish stamp duty entirely for first-time buyers on homes up to 425,000
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He also promised to introduce a new form of help-to-buy scheme to get a new generation onto the property ladder
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One thing made clear from today's manifesto is that lowering taxes is at the core of the Conservatives' campaign
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt slashed employees national insurance from 10 to 8 in the March budget following a similar cut in 2023 at an annual cost of almost 10 billion And the third 2P reduction pledged in this manifesto is being sold as a part
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of a drive to eliminate tax entirely to end the double taxation on workers who are already
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liable for income tax. The fourth thing we learnt from today's speech from Sunak was that he's
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making some striking promises on migration. It's something that has dogged his leadership
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ever since he last year pledged to stop the boats. The Prime Minister pledged that if re-elected
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his government will halve migration, as his party has halved inflation, and then reduce it
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every single year. His manifesto confirmed plans for a binding legal cap on work and family
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visas, which would fall every year of the next parliament and cannot be breached. But it's
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stopped short of saying the UK could leave the European Convention on Human Rights
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Lastly, the document from the Tories said that it would use the first King's speech to introduce
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a backing driver's bill. It says that a Conservative government will not introduce a pay-per-mile
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road pricing and will ban mayors and local councils from doing so. It also pledges to reverse
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the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone in London. Labor Party leader Sirke Estama is
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expected to reveal his party's manifesto at an event on Thursday. You can keep across
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that and all the rest of our coverage on cityam.com or by downloading our app
