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#5MillionVotes: Your weekly campaign round-up - week 3 and 4

• 03 Dec 2019
• Alasdair Hutchison

In IPSE’s weekly round-up of the 2019 general election, we will be looking back at the previous week’s campaign highlights affecting the self-employed and what’s coming up in the week ahead.

Over the past week

Week three of the campaign

saw IPSE’s packed-out husting event and some noises from all the main parties on IR35. Here’s our snapshot summary:

• Lib Dems come out on top at IPSE election debate: IPSE’s first election event tested speakers from all the main parties about their policies for the self-employed. After a heated discussion covering Brexit, IR35 and other issues, the Lib Dems’ Ed Davey was deemed the winner. Read the write-up in The Times here.
• IPSE launches manifesto tracker: We’ve combed through all the party manifestos to see what they are saying about the issues IPSE raised in our 5 Million Votes manifesto. Do the parties’ policies align with our recommendations? Find out here.
• Conservatives and Labour mull IR35 reviews: While neither the Conservatives or the Labour Party mentioned IR35 in their manifestos, both appear to have shifted their positions last week. Labour’s Bill Esterson said his party would review the policy before any roll-out to the private sector, while Chancellor Sajid Javid said IR35 would be looked at within his party’s planned review of self-employment. The Chancellor can be heard on BBC’s Moneybox programme here around the 6 minute mark.

The week ahead

• IPSE will be hosting our second husting – the Big Freelance Debate - in Glasgow on Wednesday, 4 December. Candidates from all the major parties in Scotland will be there, giving you the opportunity to ask them questions about how they will support you as a self-employed person. Sign up for free here.
• Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn go head-to-head for the second time in the campaign with the BBC Prime Ministerial Debate on Friday Dec 6 at 8.30pm (BBC One).

Have your say

Let your local election candidates know how they can best support you by tweeting them using the hashtag #5MillionVotes. You can find out your local candidates through Who can I vote for?