The Prime Minister and his Labour rival Sir Keir Starmer have announced their pledges ahead of the upcoming general election on July 4.

Before the publication of the election manifestos of the two major parties, Rishi Sunak wasted no time in making numerous promises to voters in order to close the significant gap in the polls.

After Sunak called the snap election last week, the latest YouGov poll showed Labour would receive 44% of the vote and the Tories 22% – a significant lead that Sunak is trying to make up for with early commitments to national service, a tax cut for pensioners and the fact that education has already attracted considerable attention.

Meanwhile, since the election was announced, Starmer has promised to reduce NHS waiting lists, and more promises are likely to follow in the coming weeks.

Yahoo goes through the most important promises made so far:

What did Sunak promise?

Pension ‘triple secured plus’

On Tuesday, the Conservatives announced a plan to strengthen pension protection through a “Triple Lock Plus”.

The party has agreed to a £2.4 billion a year tax break to prevent more pensioners being dragged into income tax liability. Sunak promised to increase the personal income tax allowance for pensioners, which would give them tax relief worth around £95 in 2025-26 and £275 in 2029-30.

This would mean that both the state pension and the allowance – the amount that can be earned before it is subject to income tax – would rise by inflation, the average wage or 2.5%, whichever is higher.

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Training

On Wednesday, Sunak pledged to create 100,000 extra apprenticeship places a year by scrapping some “rip-off” university degrees. He said a regulator would look at the progression and drop-out rates of university courses, as well as their future earning potential, to see if they were underperforming.

University representatives warned that the policy could “damage and undermine” the higher education sector and deter people from studying.

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Military service

Perhaps the most striking promise so far was Sunak’s announcement on Saturday 26 May that 18-year-olds would be forced into a form of military service if the Tories were re-elected.

Young people would have the choice between 12 months of full-time service in the armed forces or a year-long “weekend a month” spent as “volunteers” in their community, he said.

The Prime Minister said the policy would help unite society in an “increasingly uncertain world” and give young people a “common purpose in life”.

VAT

After the two major parties ruled out an increase in income tax and social security contributions, speculation arose that the lack of mention of VAT could be an indication of an impending increase.

In an article in the Telegraph on Wednesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt attacked the Labour Party and ruled out a raise if the Conservatives win the election.

He wrote: “Today we are ruling out a rise in income tax and VAT. If Labour doesn’t do the same, we’ll have a better idea of ​​how they’re going to collect £2,094 in tax from you.”

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What did Starmer promise?

NHS waiting list

Labour has set itself the goal of reducing the backlog of payments in the NHS, and Starmer outlined the party’s first steps to eliminate waiting times of more than 18 weeks within five years of taking office.

The party warns that the backlog of treatment, currently at 7.54 million, could rise to 10 million if the Conservatives remain in power for another five years.

The Labour Party, Starmer said on Wednesday, would take measures including creating 40,000 additional appointments, scans and operations per week on evenings and weekends, and doubling the number of scanners.

VAT

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves had already ruled out an increase in social security contributions and income tax, but responded to Hunt’s allegations on Thursday by promising that her party would not increase VAT either.

The party is pursuing a much-publicized plan to extend VAT on private school fees to the standard rate of 20%.

Helen Miller, deputy director of the IFS, told the PA news agency that excluding income tax, national insurance and VAT increases was “a major limitation”.

Ms Miller said: “Whoever wins the election will face difficult choices. To stick to their own fiscal rules, they will either have to raise taxes or cut spending. If the parties rule out tax increases, we can expect spending cuts.”

Teacher

Outside the NHS, Labour has announced limited new spending and promised to stick to its fiscal rules. One of the few areas where they have promised a spending increase is in education, where they plan to hire 6,500 new teachers. Reeves said the measure would be funded by increasing VAT on private schools.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News: “If you look at the work of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, they concluded that Labour’s policy would net £1.3-£1.5 billion and we would invest that directly into our state schools – we would make sure we got 6,500 extra teachers.”

Read more: Cutting waiting lists is ‘first step’ of Labour government’s NHS plan (phonophone)

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