What is a manifesto?
The nutshell
A manifesto is a party's list of promises. Before an election, each party writes down what it would do in power. That list of promises is the party's manifesto.
Every fact on this page comes from UK Parliament and non-partisan explainers. Each source tag — like Parl — opens where a fact comes from.
The basics
What a manifesto is
A manifesto is a party's plan for power. Before a general election, each party publishes a document that sets out the policies it would bring in if it won.Parl A policy is a plan for how to run something, like schools, hospitals or tax.
When a manifesto comes out
A manifesto is published during an election campaign, before voting day.IfG That timing lets a voter read what each party is offering and compare the plans before making a choice. Each party writes its own manifesto, so the promises are different from party to party.
Are the promises kept?
A manifesto is a set of promises, not a law. The Institute for Government says a government has no legal duty to carry out every manifesto pledge.IfG A pledge is a firm promise. Even so, a party often faces strong pressure to keep those promises, because voters remember what was promised.
Who checks a manifesto?
After an election, groups outside government check whether the promises are being kept. Full Fact, a non-partisan fact-checker, tracks the promises in the winning party's manifesto and rates how much progress has been made.FF That helps a voter judge the record without taking sides.
- A manifesto puts a party's main plans in one place, so a voter can read the plans before an election
- The House of Lords does not usually vote down a law that a winning party promised in its manifesto
- Because a manifesto is public, a party can be held to the promises it made
- A manifesto is not a legal contract, so no court can force a government to keep a promise in it
- A party that loses the election cannot carry out its manifesto
- A promise can be worded in a vague way, which makes it hard to tell if it has been kept
The deep end6 min
What a manifesto contains, and when it appears
A manifesto is a document that a political party publishes before a general election. UK Parliament's glossary defines it as a publication that contains the set of policies a party stands for and would put in place if elected to govern.Parl The Institute for Government describes a manifesto as the policies a party would deliver if it were to win, published during the campaign so voters can weigh the offer.IfG
The idea of a mandate
A party that wins a general election is often said to have a mandate to carry out its manifesto. That idea has real weight in Parliament. Under the Salisbury convention, the House of Lords does not vote down at second or third reading a government bill that was promised in the winning party's election manifesto.HoL The House of Lords Library records that the convention dates from an understanding reached during the Labour government of 1945 to 1951, between the leader of the House of Lords and the leader of the opposition there.HoL
Not a legal contract
A mandate is a political idea, not a legal one. The Institute for Government states that a government has no statutory obligation to fulfil its manifesto commitments, though there may be strong political reasons to keep those pledges.IfG No voter can take a government to court for dropping a manifesto promise. The pressure to keep a promise is political, through debate, the media and the next election, rather than legal.
How promises are held to account
Because a manifesto has no legal force, accountability comes from scrutiny rather than the courts. Full Fact, a non-partisan fact-checking charity, runs a Government Tracker that goes through the winning party's manifesto pledge by pledge and rates the progress made on each.FF Full Fact reports that some pledges are hard to score because the wording does not say clearly how delivery should be measured.FF Tracking of this kind lets a voter check the record against the promises without any party doing the judging.