SDP vows to rebuild UK industry in first manifesto for 37 years

The SDP’s 36-page manifesto document, titled “Homecoming”, promises to put “family, neighbourhood and nation” front and centre.

At its launch, Mr Clouston spoke about the “epidemic of family breakdown” and said “a British 16-year-old is more likely to have a screen in their room than a father in the house”.

Mr Clouston said his party’s headline plan to allow a full sharing of tax allowances between couples raising children would mean they “wouldn’t pay any tax for the first £25,000”.

He described the Conservative and Labour dominance of Westminster politics as an “awful duopoly” and said his aim was to “give people something decent to vote for”.

“We’ve become a very fractious and divided society,” he said, “some get rich and some get hungry. It’s unacceptable.”

Major themes of the launch and the manifesto included reindustrialisation and renationalisation.

The party’s stance on sex and gender was also prominent throughout.

Mr Clouston said their policies in the area had consulted trans members of the party and that he believes gender dysphoria is real but that it “doesn’t mean that you can acquire rights and you can trample on sex-based rights”.