Sooner than expected, the nation is returning to the polls. Backed by Parliament, Theresa May has called a General Election for the 8th June 2017, three years earlier than anticipated under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.
We are therefore turning our attention to the parties’ manifestos, to see who is proposing what for science and the environment. In recent elections, environmental policy has been only a minor issue in the campaigns. As the UK prepares to leave the EU, vast quantities of environmental legislation and major schemes such as the Common Agricultural and Common Fisheries Policies will have to be reviewed, meaning that this is an extremely important election for the environment.
Soon after the election was called, the IES wrote to each of the major political parties, stressing the importance of strong environmental policies and protections in these dynamic political times, and urging them to include several environmental commitments in their manifestos. We are pleased to see that several parties have included some of the points we highlighted and hope these proposals will be debated and developed over the coming weeks.
As in 2015, we have returned to the manifestos, to see what the parties are proposing in a range of environmental policy areas. The inaccuracies of my 2015 pre-election predictions are a source of amusement to the rest of the IES staff team, so this year I’m keeping my thoughts on likely outcomes to myself. Instead I focused on producing policy factsheets with full details of the environmental pledges and proposals.
Click on the icons below to below to read up on the parties’ proposals in your areas of interest.
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The IES does not support or endorse any political party. These factsheets simply reflect a summary of the statements made in each party manifesto and are designed to be a useful resource for members and the public.
