On Tuesday, Theresa May stood outside Downing Street and said that she was calling an early election so that she could get the ‘job done’ and take Britain out of the European Union. The Prime Minister claimed that without a snap vote, opposition parties would try to change Britain’s course because ‘the Government’s majority is so small’.
But this doesn’t mean the Tories will stick with the 2015 Conservative manifesto. Both May and Philip Hammond have offered a glimpse of what old election promises they may bin in the 2017 manifesto. In an appearance in Maidenhead, May said that the government’s commitment to spending 0.7pc of national income on foreign aid ‘will remain’ – although it must be spent ‘in the most effective way’. In order to prevent this pledge coming back to haunt her, May will have to put a stop to embarrassing slips like sending millions of pounds in aid to North Korea.
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