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Brown launches UK election manifesto

13 April 2010 03:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. British prime minister Gordon Brown has unveiled his party’s election manifesto, seeking to seize back the initiative after a first week of campaigning dominated by economic squabbling, APA reports quoting â€œABC Newsâ€.
The Labour party leader set out "a plan for national renewal" after the May 6 polls, vowing to rebuild the recession-battered economy, cut the giant deficit while protecting public services, and shake up the political system.
In office for 13 years, Labour hopes the manifesto will help it overturn opinion polls that have consistently put the party trailing the main opposition Conservatives.
"The forward policies we set out today are rooted in the day-to-day concerns of the British people," Mr Brown said at the launch, held at a new hospital in Birmingham, central England.
Mr Brown fired the poll race starting gun last Tuesday and the economy has dominated campaigning so far, with the Conservatives and Labour arguing over whether the prime minister’s payroll tax rise plans would help or hinder the recovery.
Britain’s budget deficit is 167 billion pounds ($277 million) according to government estimates.
The manifesto promised not to raise the basic rate of income tax, though it does not say the same of the UK’s value added tax (VAT), a levy on goods and services.
It set out plans to modernise Britain’s infrastructure with a high-speed rail network and widespread broadband internet access.
The manifesto pledged to invest in high-tech and environmental industries and reform financial institutions so that banks "pay their fair share to society".
On political reform following last year’s row over lawmakers’ expenses, it pledged referendums on switching to the alternative vote system for general elections and on an elected upper House of Lords.
It laid out plans to give people the right to recall lawmakers and a vote in parliament on whether to reduce the voting age to 16.
"This is the first post-crisis vote for our country, and the most important in a generation. Get the big decisions right now ... and we not only renew our economy but renew our politics and society too," Mr Brown said.
But, acknowledging that his party risks being ousted on May 6, he admitted: "New Labour is in the fight of our lives."
The Conservatives’ manifesto, to be unveiled Tuesday, will include pledges to scrap a planned rise in payroll taxes, give married couples a tax break and introduce a young people’s community service program.
The Liberal Democrats, the centrist third-biggest party, unleash their manifesto on Wednesday.