The Labour manifesto: transformation of the welfare system, fair conditions for workers, universal housing, home care for elderly, fully funded NHS, fair taxes for the rich

The Labour Party's 2020 Election Manifesto is out, and it promises a comprehensive reworking of the British state to benefit the vast majority of Britons, not the tiny minority who have waxed ever-richer through decades of neoliberalism and ten years of cruel Tory austerity.

The manifesto's pledges include:

* Scapping the Department of Work and Pensions and replacing it with a Department for Social Security, charged with a mission to "support people, not punish and police them." The new Department would scrap the "Work Capability and PIP Assessments, which repeatedly and falsely find ill or disabled people fit to work" as well as the practice of witholding benefits to sanction poor people who fail to comply with bureaucratic requirements. Labour will end the bedroom tax, lift the benefit cap and end the two-child limit.

* Support for parents of children with disabilities will be improved: disability benefits will be made level with the child tax credit, and the Carer's Allowance will be the same as the Jobseeker's Allowance

* Labour will ban zero-hours contracts and institute a minimum wage of £10/h. Firms will not be able to class their workers as independent contractors to evade these requirements, though the genuinely self-employed will still be able to enter into contractor relationships with their customers.

* Workers whose shifts are canceled at the last minute will be entitled to compensation; they will also be guaranteed breaks during their shifts.

* Labour will ban union-busting, scrap anti-union laws, and ensure that all workers have the right to join a union and participate in collective bargaining. Read the rest