Looking for somewhere to watch the results come in with a drink or three? Here's our roundup of watch parties.
All five main English parties have launched their manifestos, so we thought we'd scan them for London-specific pledges.
What do the five main parties have to say about London? Not an awful lot, it turns out. Their manifestos are mostly broad-brush overviews of their competing visions for Britain. And rightly so. But dig deep (i.e. hit CTRL+F) and you may find the odd capital cameo. Here, then, in alphabetical order, are the London-specific pledges from the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and Reform.
Conservatives
Mentions of London: 15
Link to manifesto
The Conservatives have put forward a very traditional manifesto with lots of bulleted lists and intrusive Union Flags. Of all the manifestos, theirs contains the most London-specific promises.
"We will complete HS2 between London Euston and the West Midlands and support the growth of the freight rail sector." - Rishi Sunak put plans for the Euston terminus of HS2 on ice in October last year pending private sector funding, but the tunnel-building will go ahead anyway. (Yes, it's a big mess.) This pledge appears to be a new commitment to get the ruddy station built as well.
"Improve accessibility at 100 train stations, starting with the 50 stations announced in May."
- That announcement in May was only for feasibility studies, not actual construction work. But it did include eight London stations: Bushey, Dalston Kingsland, Gunnersbury, Kew Bridge, Kidbrooke, Raynes Park and South Croydon. The wording of the pledge implies that accessibility works would now be funded at these stations (and more), even though we don't yet have the feasibility reports.
"Back drivers by stopping road pricing, reversing the London Mayor's ULEZ expansion and applying local referendums to new 20mph zones and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods."
- This is a similar stance to that taken by Susan Hall in the recent London Mayoral elections. It did not work for her. The Tories also pledge to NOT introduce road pricing (i.e. pay-per-mile tolls), which Susan Hall repeatedly accused Sadiq Khan of favouring. Khan disputes this, and is on record as saying "As long as I am Mayor, we are not going to have pay-per-mile".
"Moving 25,000 more civil servants outside of London, building on successes like the Darlington Economic Campus and hubs in Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton."
"Raising density levels in inner London to those of European cities like Paris and Barcelona. We will ensure the London Plan delivers more family homes a year, forcing the Mayor to plan for more homes on brownfield sites, like underused industrial land. We will regenerate major sites like Euston, Old Oak Common and Thamesmead."
- The Tories are adamant about not building on the Green Belt, even on low-grade sites. This pledge includes another nod to Euston HS2 station getting built.
"Launch a new design competition for urban greening, focused on the new quarters we want to develop in Leeds, Cambridge and sites in inner London."
- The sites are not specified.
"... launching a review of the nighttime economy in England, looking at how to reverse the decline in pubs and clubs and how to make our towns and cities great places to go out."
- London's night economy has been in decline for some time, with late night venues now a scarcity.
Green Party
Mentions of London: 0
Link to manifesto
Slim pickings from the Green manifesto (called Real Hope Real Change) if we're looking for London-specific pledges. Many of their polices touch on issues that Londoners have strong views about, such as advocacy of a 20mph speed limits in built-up areas and low-traffic neighbourhoods, and giving local authorities the power to introduce rent controls. But these are hot issues in many cities, not just London.
Labour
Mentions of London: 1 (incidentally, in a video embed)
Link to manifesto
The Labour manifesto is called "Change." (with the full stop). It is a slick, multimedia publication with a whole gallery of photos of Kier Starmer looking serious, even at the seaside. Like the Green manifesto, it is light on specific projects (with the exception of deferring the A27 bypass, but that's in Sussex), and instead focuses on universal themes like defence, clean energy, NHS reform and economic growth. We're not criticising — just saying that there's nothing London-specific to say about it.
Liberal Democrats
Mentions of London: 5
Link to manifesto
Titled "For a Fair Deal", the Lib Dem manifesto does have a few proposals specific to the capital.
"Requiring the Home Secretary, the Mayor of London and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to draw up an urgent plan to implement the recommendations of the Baroness Casey Review and tackle sexism, racism and homophobia [in the Metropolitan Police]"
- The Baroness Casey Review, you'll recall, was a damning report into the culture and standards of behaviour within the Metropolitan Police. More than a year on, most of its recommendations have yet to be adopted.
"Placing a moratorium on net airport expansion until a national capacity and emissions management framework is in place, and opposing the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted or London City airports and any new airport in the Thames Estuary."
- Wait, what? Nobody's mentioned a Thames Estuary airport since Boris Johnson was Mayor, have they? Expansion of City Airport (or, at least, its operating hours) has been a hot potato for some time. Newham Council blocked the plans last year, but an appeal remains undecided at time of writing. Talk of expanding Heathrow never really goes away, though it's died down somewhat in recent years.
Reform
Mentions of London: 1
Link to manifesto
Reform doesn't have a 'manifesto'. Instead it calls its pledge document a 'contract'. Its only mention of the capital is preceded by the words "out-of-touch", and followed by the word "elite". Even so, it does contain a couple of points of particular note to the London voter:
"Scrap HS2... save £25 billion by scrapping the rest of this bloated vanity project."
- Merits of the scheme aside, simply scrapping it now would itself be a costly endeavour, untangling contracts, laying off staff and safeguarding the significant infrastructure that has already been built.
"Stop the War on Drivers... Legislate to ban ULEZ Clean Air Zones and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods."
- Heaven forfend that we should breathe clean air and let our kids play safely in the street.
