Foreign and defence

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on aid
  • Commit to spending 2% of GDP on defence
  • Control arms exports to countries listed as human rights priority countries and suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia
  • Maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent
What the other parties say

Health and care

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Guaranteeing the rights of all NHS and social care service staff who are EU nationals to stay in the UK after Brexit
  • Using the extra resources from a 1p increase in dividend taxation to help deliver a step change in mental health in Scotland
  • End the public sector pay freeze for NHS workers and social care staff
  • Urge the Scottish government to produce a national workforce strategy to prevent shortages of doctors and nurses
What the other parties say

Housing

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Ensure more houses to meet local needs as well as good local services and community facilities such as schools, public transport, local shops, cultural venues and pubs
What the other parties say

Future of the UK

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ rule for each nation within a federal United Kingdom
  • Keep the Barnett formula for Scotland and Wales but seek to increase the Welsh block grant
  • 'Devolution on demand' for regions of England
  • Oppose Scottish independence
What the other parties say

Economy and taxes

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Reform the business rates system, "prioritising reforms that recognise the development of the digital economy"
  • Support the creation of a Welsh Development Bank
  • Give additional funding to bring more private investment into renewable energy, such as the creation of the world's first tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay
  • Put a penny in the pound on income tax, enabling Wales to spend an extra £300m on the NHS and social services
What the other parties say

Education and family

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Increase school budgets and the Welsh Pupil Premium to protect against rising costs and pupil numbers, and investing in cutting infant class sizes
  • Introduce new accreditation standards for teacher training courses to attract the best talent to the profession
  • Introduce a new curriculum for Wales
  • Increase the statutory duty on local authorities to provide a funded early education place for three-to-four year olds to 15 hours a week
What the other parties say

Transport and environment

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • An Air Quality Plan to prevent deaths by reducing air pollution
  • Ensuring British farming remains competitive and doesn't lose out in the event of Britain leaving the EU
  • A diesel scrappage scheme, and a ban on the sale of diesel cars and small vans in the UK by 2025
  • Ensure that new rail franchises include a stronger focus on customers
What the other parties say

Health and care

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Add 1p onto each rate of income tax and ring-fence the money for NHS and social care
  • Ensuring mental health care waiting time standards match those in physical health care
  • Ensure that there are more nurses on hospital wards and in the community
  • Introduce a Welsh NHS whistle-blowing hotline
What the other parties say

Economy and taxes

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Propose adding a penny on income tax in Scotland in order to invest additional money in education and mental health
  • End the 1% pay cap in the public sector to enable the lifting of the pay for 540,000 public sector workers in Scotland
  • Exempt Police Scotland and the fire service from VAT, which will give them £35m to spend on services. (VAT is a reserved matter)
  • Initiate a major £100bn programme of capital spending across the UK, that will have a share spent in Scotland
What the other parties say

Key priorities

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Hold a referendum on the final Brexit deal, with the option to remain in the EU
  • Add 1p to income tax to fund the NHS and social care
  • Rule out coalitions with the Conservatives or Labour – but want to make the Liberal Democrats the official opposition
  • Increase spending on early years, schools and colleges in England
  • Reverse some benefits cuts
What the other parties say

Housing

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Set target to build 300,000 new homes a year
  • Create 10 new garden cities in England
  • Stop right to buy for housing association tenants
  • Allow councils to charge 200% council tax on foreign-owned empty homes
What the other parties say

Brexit

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Maintain membership of the single market and support the principle of freedom of movement
  • Oppose any moves that risk making Wales a less prosperous nation or will see powers more concentrated in Westminster
  • Ensure any powers in devolved areas of responsibility that are repatriated following Brexit be "appropriately devolved"
What the other parties say

Key priorities

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Strongly oppose "another divisive referendum" on independence
  • Wants a referendum on the final terms of the Brexit deal
  • Propose adding a penny on income tax in Scotland in order to invest additional money in education and mental health
  • Pledge to keep the triple-lock on the state pension
What the other parties say

Economy and taxes

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Balance day-to-day spending while reducing national debt as a proportion of GDP
  • Add 1p onto each rate of income tax and ring-fence the money for NHS and social care
  • Borrow £100bn to invest in infrastructure, including housebuilding, broadband, schools, hospitals and transport
  • Reverse some planned cuts to corporation tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax
What the other parties say

Foreign and defence

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Commit to spending 2% of GDP on defence
  • Maintain 0.7% GDP commitment for international aid
  • Suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia
  • Maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent
What the other parties say

Welfare and pensions

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Keep the triple lock on pensions and free bus passes
  • Withdraw winter fuel payments for wealthy pensioners
  • Reverse cuts to Universal Credit
  • Uprate working age benefits in line with inflation
What the other parties say

Future of the UK

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Deliver more powers to Wales by implementing the remaining Silk Commission part one proposals on financial powers and the Silk part two proposals
  • Raise the status of the National Assembly, strengthening its capacity to scrutinise legislation and to hold the Welsh Government to account
  • Allow the Welsh Government to set its own bank holidays
  • Seek to increase the Welsh block grant to an "equitable level" over the five years of a parliament
What the other parties say

Brexit

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Hold a referendum on the final Brexit deal, with the option to remain in the EU
  • Unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU nationals in the UK
  • Stay in the single market and customs union
  • Support the principle of freedom of movement between the UK and EU - the right to work, travel, study and retire abroad
What the other parties say

Welfare and pensions

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Maintain the 'triple lock' of increasing the State Pension each year by the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or 2.5% for the next parliament
  • Pledge to scrap the two-child rule for tax credits - including the controversial "rape clause"
  • Uprate working-age benefits at least in line with inflation
  • Extend free childcare and encourage new fathers to take time off with an additional month's paid paternity leave
What the other parties say

Transport and environment

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Introduce a diesel scrappage scheme
  • Extend ultra-low emission zones to 10 more towns and cities
  • Set legally binding target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
  • Oppose fracking
What the other parties say

Immigration

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Continue to allow high-skilled immigration to support key sectors of the economy
  • Offer safe and legal routes to the UK for refugees, expanding the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme
  • Reopening the Dubs scheme to take 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children from Europe
  • Reinstate post-study work visas for graduates in STEM subjects who find suitable employment within six months of graduating
What the other parties say

Health and care

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Put a penny in the pound on income tax, enabling Wales to spend an extra £300m on the NHS and social services
  • End the public sector pay freeze for NHS workers
What the other parties say

Housing

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • New direct spending on house-building to help build 300,000 homes a year across the UK by 2022
  • £5bn of initial capital for a new British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank, using public money to attract private investment
  • Help young people in need by reversing cuts to housing benefit for 18-21-year-olds
  • Scrap the 'bedroom tax' across the UK, while seeking to achieve the aim of making best use of the housing supply through incentivising local authorities to help tenants 'downsize
What the other parties say

Brexit

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Wants a referendum on the final terms of the Brexit deal, with the alternative option of staying in the EU on the ballot paper
  • The UK must maintain membership of the European Single Market
  • Press for the UK to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU nationals in the UK
  • Any deal negotiated for the UK outside the EU must protect the right to work, travel, study and retire across the EU
What the other parties say

Immigration

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Support the principle of freedom of movement between the UK and EU
  • Allow high-skilled immigration to support key sectors of the economy
  • Remove students from official migration statistics
  • Welcome 50,000 Syrian refugees over five years and re-establish the "Dubs" child refugee scheme
What the other parties say

Education and family

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Spend £7bn extra on education, increasing school budgets and the Pupil Premium
  • Oppose grammar schools
  • End the 1% cap on teachers' pay rises
  • Reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students
What the other parties say

Key priorities

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • A second referendum on the Brexit deal before the UK leaves the EU, with the option to remain voters reject it
  • Give more financial powers to Welsh ministers and increase their funding
  • Seek to increase the Welsh Government's funding from the UK Treasury
  • Transfer powers over transport, all Welsh ports, energy, broadcasting, air passenger duty, youth justice, policing and other justice powers from Westminster to Cardiff Bay
  • An additional £7.5m for community policing across Wales
  • Add a penny in the pound to income tax, enabling Wales to spend an extra £300m on the NHS and social services
What the other parties say

Education and family

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Make the case for a "Penny for Education", putting 1p on the income tax rate to generate £500m for education
  • Work to secure the extension of early education and childcare to three and four-year-olds, all two-year-olds and the most vulnerable families with children of an earlier age
  • Support the establishment of a properly funded Pupil Premium
  • Protect universities from the impact of a hard Brexit and ensure that they are open to all
What the other parties say

Transport and environment

Lib Dems

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Devolve funding of Network Rail in relation to the Wales railway network
  • Electrify the north Wales main rail line and funding for a feasibility study into re-opening rail links between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen
  • Abolish tolls on the Severn Bridge, after the costs have been recouped in 2018
  • Invest in the South Wales Metro
What the other parties say

Future of the UK

Lib Dems

Main pledges

  • Strongly oppose "another divisive referendum" on independence
  • Create a better democracy with a fair voting system in local government and Westminster
  • Introduce votes at 16 for all elections and referendums across the UK
  • Develop federalism with Devolution on Demand, letting local areas take control of the services that matter most to them
What the other parties say