the 2017 uk general election was held almost three years earlier than scheduled under the fixed-term parliaments act 2011 in an attempt to increase the government's majority to facilitate the brexit process. the conservative party manifesto pledged to eliminate the deficit by the "middle of the next decade", an aim which the institute for fiscal studies (ifs) said would "likely require more spending cuts or tax rises even beyond the end of the next parliament". the labour party manifesto proposed increasing the treasury's income by £49 billion per year as a result of taxation rises and increasing public expenditure "to its highest sustained level in more than 30 years". the ifs said that labour's proposals "could be expected to raise "at most" £40 billion" and that labour was planning to maintain a majority of the cuts to working-age benefits proposed by the conservatives. as a result of the election, the conservative party lost their parliamentary majority, but remained in government as the largest single party in parliament. gavin barwell, theresa may's downing street chief of staff, blamed anger over brexit and austerity for the loss of seats. the labour opposition announced a plan to challenge further austerity measures and vote against them in the house of commons. a labour spokesman said: "we will be using the changed parliamentary arithmetic to drive home the fact that the tory programme for five more years of austerity will not go on as before."