General Election: Campaigns focus on stamp duty and houses
22 November 2019, 06:44
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will urge millions of potential voters to register before the deadline as the Tories announce plans to raise stamp duty for people from overseas buying UK property.
Just one day after launching his party's manifesto, the Labour leader will be on the campaign trail in Stoke where he will urge people to register to vote before next Tuesday's deadline.
Applications to register to vote in the December 12 General Election must be submitted by 11.59 pm on Tuesday, November 26.
Mr Corbyn is expected to say: "To achieve real change, I'm calling on people to take just five minutes to get registered so they can make sure that their voice is heard.
"Over nine million eligible voters are still not registered to vote - that's one-sixth of the voting population.
"We want to make the next five days the biggest voter registration drive that our country has ever seen."
Labour is also pledging a 5 percent pay rise for nurses, teachers, doctors, firefighters, police and other public service workers in April if there is a majority government led by Mr Corbyn.
The Tories are rolling out their policy of raising the stamp duty rate for non-residents to help tackle homelessness and help more Britons get on the housing ladder.
Foreign individuals and companies buying properties in the UK will face a surcharge levied on top of all other stamp duty payable and charged at 3%.
The party estimates the measure will raise up to £120 million a year, which would be directed at programmes to tackle rough sleeping.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak said: "Evidence shows that by adding significant amounts of demand to limited housing supply, purchases by non-residents inflate house prices.
"That is why we are introducing a higher rate of stamp duty for non-UK residents that will help to address this issue and could raise up to £120 million."
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems have announced they want to see 300,000 new homes built a year.
A third of the homes planned by the Lib Dems would be social rented homes, with a £10 billion capital infrastructure investment to support this.
In the year to June 2019, a total of 173,660 house builds were completed, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Nigel Farage will launch the Brexit Party's policy platform for the General Election at a briefing in Westminister on Friday morning.
Mr Farage has said his party won't publish a manifesto but instead make a "contract with the British people".
The party has found itself squeezed in the polls since it announced last week it would stand aside in Tory-held seats in an attempt to not split the pro-Brexit vote.
