Rushanara Ali welcomed the launch of Labour’s 2015 General Election manifesto, describing the Labour vision as “credible and aspirational” for both the country and the residents of Bethnal Green and Bow.

The manifesto included details of Labour’s plan to help working people succeed, as well as rules on its balanced plan to cut the deficit across the Parliament and ensure a recovery for everyone in the UK. Its main pledges included:

• Investing an extra £2.5 billion to save our NHS to provide 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more doctors.
• Funding for 25 hours of free childcare per week for parents.
• Tackling low pay, raising the minimum wage to £8 per hour, as well bringing an end to zero-hours contracts.
• Creating a Labour Youth Jobs Guarantee for all young people out of work for a year.
• Tackling the housing crisis by building 1 million houses by 2020
• Freezing gas and electricity bills until 2017 – so they can only fall not rise
• Ruling out a rise in VAT, as well as abolishing non-dom status in our tax system
• Cutting university tuition fees by £3,000 from £9,000 to £6,000.

 
Speaking after the launch of the manifesto, Rushanara said:
 
“I am delighted that this Labour 2015 manifesto does so much to address the major concerns of residents in Bethnal Green and Bow: it is both highly credible and aspirational. It offers a clear, balanced and fair vision of a better Britain, one which succeeds because it allows working people to succeed.”
 
 “The Tories have well and truly failed the East End. They’ve allowed child poverty to increase to record levels, pushed our NHS to the point of crisis, and failed to tackle scandalously high levels of youth unemployment. They simply have no plan for our next generation.”
 
“Only a Labour Government will unite our community for a fairer, safer and stronger East End – a place with better housing, greater opportunity and a reliable NHS.”