May 7th 2015 was the day of the 55th General Election in the UK, which saw Prime Minister David Cameron secure 331 of the 650 seats of the Parliament.
The Labour Party led by Ed Miliband won 232 seats, and the Scottish National Party was the third largest representation, winning 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland.
That was quite a surprise, with the conservative vote underestimated by opinion polls, and it is thought that some of the voters who helped Cameron get the majority probably didn’t reveal their voting intentions publicly before the vote.
This is the first conservative majority government since 1992.
The first 100 days will be crucial to outline the new policies that will shape the country for the five years ahead.
Cameron has based his campaign on economic competence, as the UK found a way out of the global economic crisis. If everything goes as planned, the nation’s borrowing should be reduced to £41 billion for the 2016-17 tax year, and to £14.5 billion for the following year.
Some of the intended policies include no taxation for employees working at minimum wage 30 hours a week, two million new jobs and three million apprenticeships over the course of the parliament spell, and an 8 billlion increase for the NHS budget, to help implement the 7-day free health care system.
The job policy has been called Blue-collar Conservativism, aiming for an increase in productivity to improve exports.
Cameron is also aiming for a 4 billion budget surplus by the end of the parliament term, 12 billion cuts in welfare spending, and 10 billion generated by the new Transatlantic Free Trade Treaty.
The benefit cap should also be reduced from £26,000 down to £23,000, in hopes to reroute the workers on benefits back to work. The money saved with that measure will be used to finance the creation of apprenticeships.
500 new schools are also to be built to make room for the increasing number of pupils.
Regarding foreign policy, we can expect a referendum within the next couple of years regarding the UK’s membership in the European Union. That vote will probably come sooner, maybe around September 2016, to avoid any clash with France and Germany’s general elections in 2017.
The Conservatives are aiming for the UK to remain part of the EU.
There is also the underlying problem of people’s free circulation inside the EU, which has brought a lot of European migrants to the UK, and the cabinet hopes to set a limit on the influx of migrants from new member states until they reach a similar level of economic health as the countries who have been part of the EU longer. The plan is also to deny migrants benefits and deport them if they don’t find a job within six months. That outcome is seen less likely to happen, but the UK will look into reducing the net immigration numbers in order to put less pressure on the communities. Last year, the net immigration was 318,000, the government is looking to reduce that under 100,000.
As Prime Minister Cameron gets parliamentary majority, he will maintain austerity measures and seek financial rigor. An ambitious plan that will hopefully improve the UK’s economic health.
Below is an infographic from Hantec Markets that goes into more details about the cabinet’s agenda. Enjoy!
