Policy positions in their own words
Most voters don't read manifestos. This page is a short-form everyman summary of selected UK party positions, with each cell linking to the primary source. The reader is invited to read the source for themselves.
The page will not tell you which party is right. That is what dossiers, debates, conversations, and your own reading are for. What the page does is reduce the friction of finding what each party has actually said in writing.
How to read it. Each policy area below opens with the question voters often ask. The cards beneath are the parties' answers in compressed form. If you want to see what a party actually wrote in their 2024 manifesto, click "Show source quote" inside any card.
Bias disclosure. I am the named communications officer for the East Lindsey Green Party. That shapes what I can honestly do on this page: I can record what the parties have written and link to the source, and I can apply the same discipline to the Greens that I apply to every other party. I cannot, and will not, use this page to advocate for a particular vote. Where the parties' wording is summarised in the cells below, the original wording is one click away in the linked source. If a summary feels off to you, click through and check.
How this page is ordered
Columns are ordered by current Westminster voting intention from YouGov, highest first. The snapshot date is shown below the party name in each card. When YouGov publishes a new wave that materially changes the ordering, the page will be re-ordered and the snapshot date updated. The choice of YouGov over other pollsters is a consistency choice (one source over time tells a cleaner story than rotating sources); the same column order would hold within a small margin under Opinium, Ipsos, or Survation as of the snapshot date.
Cells cite each party's 2024 general election manifesto as the canonical source. Where a party leadership has publicly shifted position since the manifesto, the cell carries an italic divergence note. Manifestos are the most stable, citable record of what each party committed to; current leadership statements are noted only where the divergence is reported and material.
[INSERT: current YouGov Westminster VI snapshot, e.g. "YouGov, 28-29 April 2026: Reform UK 29%, Labour 22%, Conservative 19%, Lib Dems 14%, Greens 10%."] [SOURCE: link to YouGov tracker page]
Will the cost of living come down?
The single largest concern of working-age voters across the polling. Each party offers a different mechanism: tax cuts, wage floors, asset-side taxation to fund services, targeted support, market regulation. The mechanisms are genuinely different and have different incidence. The cells below summarise the headline mechanism only; the manifesto chapters contain the detail.
Reform UK [VI %]
Raise the income tax personal allowance to £20,000, scrap VAT on domestic energy, freeze fuel duty.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: short verbatim phrase from the Reform UK 2024 Contract, cost-of-living chapter]
[LINK: Reform UK Contract 2024 cost-of-living section]
Labour [VI %]
Maintain the National Living Wage, support energy bills via publicly-owned GB Energy, pledge no rise in income tax, VAT, or National Insurance for working people.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: short verbatim phrase from the Labour 2024 manifesto, economic stability / cost of living section]
[LINK: Labour Party 2024 manifesto economic chapter]
Conservative [VI %]
National Insurance reductions, growth-driven tax cuts, Triple Lock Plus on the state pension.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: short verbatim phrase from the Conservative 2024 manifesto economic section]
[LINK: Conservative Party 2024 manifesto]
Liberal Democrat [VI %]
Free school meals for all primary children, energy-efficiency upgrades to cut bills at source, social tariffs on essential utilities.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: short verbatim phrase from the Lib Dem 2024 manifesto cost-of-living chapter]
[LINK: Liberal Democrats 2024 manifesto]
Green [VI %]
Wealth tax on assets above a high threshold to fund public services and reduce cost-of-living pressure structurally rather than through one-off rebates.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: short verbatim phrase from the Greens 2024 manifesto economic / wealth-tax chapter]
[LINK: Green Party 2024 manifesto economic chapter]
Does the voting system need to change?
The voting system used to elect MPs to Westminster. Currently first past the post (FPTP), in which the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins regardless of national vote share. Proportional representation (PR) is a family of alternatives in which seats roughly track national vote share. The choice of voting system shapes which parties can win seats and how much each vote actually weighs.
Reform UK [VI %]
[VERIFY: position on PR as stated in the Reform UK 2024 Contract or subsequent leadership statements. Reform's 2024 vote share to seat ratio was the worst of any major party, which gives them a structural reason to favour PR; verify whether they have committed in writing.]
Show source quote
[QUOTE if committed; or note "no manifesto commitment" with a leadership-statement link]
[LINK]
Labour [VI %]
No manifesto commitment to proportional representation. Conference has passed motions in favour but the leadership has not adopted them.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: relevant phrasing or omission from the Labour 2024 manifesto democratic-reform chapter]
[LINK: Labour 2024 manifesto democratic-reform chapter]
Conservative [VI %]
Opposed. Defend first past the post.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: Conservative 2024 manifesto position on FPTP / electoral reform, or a clear leadership statement]
[LINK]
Liberal Democrat [VI %]
In favour. Long-standing flagship policy. Single Transferable Vote for general elections.
Show source quote
[QUOTE: short verbatim phrase from the Lib Dem 2024 manifesto democratic-reform chapter]
[LINK: Liberal Democrats 2024 manifesto]
Green [VI %]
In favour. Replace first past the post with a fair and proportional voting system.
Show source quote
"Replacing the first past the post system for parliamentary elections with a fair and proportional voting system."
Green Party 2024 manifesto, Defending Human Rights, Democracy and Justice chapter
What this page is not
It is not a verdict on which set of policies is better. It is not a tactical voting guide. It is not a complete summary of any party's manifesto, and reading the cells above is not a substitute for reading the manifestos themselves. Where the parties have similar positions on an issue, that issue is not on this page; the page is for areas with meaningfully distinct counters.
What is missing, and what comes next
Areas not yet covered, in rough order of how often they come up in voter conversations: housing, NHS funding and reform, immigration policy, defence and foreign policy, climate and energy, education, criminal justice, devolution, agriculture and rural policy. Adding each one is the same exercise as the two above, and each addition will be source-checked the same way. Reader suggestions of policy areas to add, or corrections on the cells above, are welcome at the corrections email below.