Jamie Whitehead
Live reporter

We’re pausing our live coverage of the general election campaign now, but don't worry, we'll be back tomorrow to bring you all the latest lines and updates throughout the day.

If you want more now, don't worry, we've got you covered:

• Has frantic election campaign actually grappled with massive issues UK faces, asks Laura Kuenssberg
• Reform UK has dropped three candidates over offensive comments
• And is this really the TikTok general election? BBC News finds out.

Thank you for joining us. Today's coverage was brought to you by Sean Seddon, Hollie Cole, Lana Lam, Alex Therrien and me.

It feels like a lifetime ago since a rain-soaked Rishi Sunak called the general election. So on this last Saturday of campaigning, here's a snapshot of what party leaders have been up to today across the UK:

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Harry Farley
Political correspondent, reporting from central London

Image source, Reuters

A room full of party members and activists willing to cheer and applaud every line. It felt buzzy, energetic and enthusiastic, topped off by the singer Lapsey performing her song Better Times.

That even prompted a bit of hesitant dancing from the shadow cabinet.

There was a serious point the party wanted to make. A warning against complacency: “Undecided voters – and there are millions of them – it [a Conservative victory] could happen,” Sir Keir Starmer said.

He also looked to counter the Conservative’s warning about a large Labour majority. Running through a list of Labour policies, he said: “We'll need a clear mandate for this change, don't doubt that.”

But as strictly as Sir Keir, and all the Labour representatives sent out to talk to reporters afterwards stuck to their message, it was difficult not to leave with a sense that this is a confident party heading into the final few days of this election campaign.

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock is urging his party to “combat the populist nationalism” of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in the final week of the election campaign.

Lord Kinnock, who was Labour leader from 1983 to 1992, told the Guardian, external “now” was the time for the party to start targeting Reform.

He said: "People like Farage, love the personal attention, like all narcissists, so we have to focus on explaining what they are, and all that inconsistencies and falsehoods, they plant and harvest lies".

Farage has been facing accusations Reform “attracts racists and extremists” but says support has been withdrawn from candidates who have made offensive comments. Three candidates have been dropped by the party.

He also repeated assertions yesterday that footage showing racist comments apparently made by a party activist was a “set up” by Channel 4.

Plaid Cymru’s leader says his party is the only one that will put Wales’ interests first in Westminster.

On the last weekend of general election campaigning, Rhun ap Iorwerth said the Conservatives would lose “heavily” on Thursday and “we know” Sir Keir Starmer will form the next government.

He says Plaid will “hold Labour to account” on Welsh issues in Westminster.

Plaid won four of Wales’ 40 seats in the 2019 general election, but boundary changes mean there are only 32 seats available this time around.

Elsewhere in Wales, Welsh Secretary David TC Davies says a Tory government will ensure “local consent” must be given before 20mph zones are implemented.

Wales has had a 20mph speed limit in largely built-up areas since September – a move that prompted the largest petition the Welsh Parliament has ever received.

Welsh Labour says it’s spending the weekend promoting its “message of change” to voters.

The BBC has refuted Nigel Farage's claim that the audience for his BBC Question Time appearance was "rigged".

The Reform UK leader claimed a "prominent pro-Palestinian activist" and a "BBC TV director" were among those who asked questions, adding: "These were not ordinary members of the public."

He faced questions from an audience in Birmingham during a leaders' special in which Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay also featured.

After being contacted by BBC News, a spokesperson for the BBC said: "Last night’s Question Time audience was made up of broadly similar levels of representation from Reform UK and the Green Party, with the other parties represented too.

"There were also a number of people, with a range of political views, who were still making up their mind.”

It's understood no BBC employees were in the audience.

Mr Farage said later on Saturday that he was boycotting the BBC until it apologised over the make-up of the Question Time audience. The BBC has not further commented.

Image source, Reuters

Starmer urges voters to deliver a "democratic reckoning" on the Conservative Party on Thursday, saying: "Don't forget what they have done."

Setting out his plans for "change", he tells the rally: "We'll need a clear mandate for this change, don't doubt that.

"And if you don't believe me, take a good look at the Tories. Chaos under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, two politicians who never had a clear mandate."

He says Sunak could still win if "we take our foot off the gas, if people think it's in the bag".

Starmer says the country would be left in a "doom loop", adding: "We cannot allow that to happen."

The Labour leader takes to the stage with his wife Victoria and thanks supporters after finishing his speech.

Starmer tells supporters in London the "hardest mile" is still ahead as he urges campaigners to make a "last push" ahead of polling day.

The Labour leader says "hope has almost been kicked out" of people and that voters need to be convinced that "change is possible"

After four-and-a-half "long years", the party has left "gesture politics" behind and is "back in the service of working people".

Starmer adds: "Nothing has been decided - each and every vote is out there ready to be earned."

Harry Farley
Political correspondent, reporting from central London

Labour has just unveiled a series of high-profile backers, including Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish.

Deborah Meaden, Kit Harington, James Norton, Beverly Knight, and Georgia Harrison also appeared in slickly produced videos at the event tonight and longstanding Labour supporter Bill Bailey addressed activists from the stage.

Celebrity endorsements are a feature of all election campaigns.

In Sir Elton John’s case he was considered by Labour as a potential ally to fight against Margaret Thatcher as far back as 1979.

So do celebrity backers make a difference? It’s difficult to tell whether they persuade the wavering.

But they can enthuse the already convinced. And this event – which as I said earlier, Labour is insisting is not a rally – is mainly aimed at energising members and existing supporters before the final campaigning sprint to polling day on 4 July.

Speaking in London, Rayner thanks Labour supporters for their efforts over the past few weeks but says the campaign still has "a long way to go", adding: "Right now, we've won nothing."

She urges campaigners to keep working in the final days before the election, saying: "Next Friday we could all wake up to five more years of Tory chaos.

"Don't believe the hype - anything could happen if people don't go out and vote."

Setting out Labour's policy pledges, she told supporters "we're under no illusion about the scale of the challenge, we don't promise the Earth".

But she says the party will offer the stability needed to deliver a "radical and responsible future".

The event was introduced by TV presenter June Sarpong, while comedian Bill Bailey, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and London Mayor Sadiq Khan are also in attendance.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent, reporting from central London

I’m in a very sweaty, stuffy, buzzy hall in central London. People in red t-shirts, holding red signs, bearing the word ‘Change’, sit on tiered seating around a stage.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, appeared to whoops and applause, high-fiving people sitting in the front row.

This – Labour staffers insist – is not a ‘rally’.

A rally, they argue, is for protesters. And they don’t want to be seen as a party of protest.

So this ‘event’, this ‘occasion’, this ‘member mobilisation’ as one called it, is to try and dispel any presumptions about the result on Thursday.

The last few days of an election campaign is a lot about reminding your voters to go to the polls and vote. That requires your members to give up their time to knock on doors to cajole, persuade and prompt. And Labour is nervous about the numbers of people who still tell pollsters they are undecided.

So tonight is aimed at encouraging weary campaigners.

We are expecting celebrity endorsements as Labour tries to show it is confident – but not making any assumptions – about the outcome of this election.

Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner are about to address Labour supporters at a campaign event in London.

The Labour leader was joined by his wife Victoria as he walked into the hall with his deputy, to loud applause from dozens of Labour backers.

We'll be listening to what they have to say and bringing you updates.

Josh Parry
LGBT and identity reporter

Around a million people are expected to descend on the capital for Pride in London - and for one of the groups marching there, politicians' promises are at the forefront of their minds.

With party leaders focussing on veterans this weekend, campaign group Fighting With Pride - which represents LGBT+ veterans - say they’re marching to make sure plans to compensate people for years of mistreatment aren’t forgotten.

Before the year 2000, it was illegal to be gay in the British military. Thousands of people were thrown out for being gay, or being perceived as gay.

Last year an independent review recommended they receive compensation, capped at £50m overall.

Speaking at the march, Fighting With Pride's Craig Jones - a Royal Navy veteran - said the future government should “restore the values of today’s armed forces to those members of the LGBT+ community who defended peace and freedoms they themselves were denied”.

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Nearly there!

The battle buses have revved up for their final journeys. The set piece debates are all over. The parties’ manifestos almost seem like a distant memory.

It’s five days until polling day and this time next week, on Saturday 6 July, you can expect the occupant of Number 10 to be gathering together their cabinet.

Time to take stock then of the state of play after five frantic weeks.

The Conservatives have not managed to narrow the gap between them and Labour in the polls, which was their hope and expectation.

For Labour the campaign has run more or less like clockwork. They didn’t have 4 July pencilled in as one of the possible dates for the poll but were long suspicious that the Tories would call a surprise spring election, so had spent months preparing.

Read more from Laura here.

And don't forget, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg will be on BBC One and iPlayer from 09:00 tomorrow.

Reform UK says it has reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission.

Earlier this week, the broadcaster released footage of Reform UK canvasser Andrew Parker using a racial slur to describe prime minister Rishi Sunak while campaigning for party leader Nigel Farage.

In a letter to the Electoral Commission, Reform UK's secretary Adam Richardson claims it was "entirely evident that Mr Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 news piece".

He adds: "The Channel 4 broadcast has clearly been made to harm Reform UK during an election period and this cannot be described as anything short of election interference."

Parker says he's "glad" the party had reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, but declined to say weather the broadcaster had paid him to appear in their footage.

"It'll all come out in the papers," Parker told the PA news agency, "what'll come out is the truth".

The leaders of the SNP and Liberal Democrats have both expressed their concerns over the thousands of people in Scotland who haven't yet received their postal votes.

Speaking in St Andrews, Sir Ed Davey accused Rishi Sunak of forgetting the Scottish school holidays when calling the election for 4 July, saying the last thing people going away needed was to worry about whether or their postal vote had arrived.

But he added he was "delighted" councils were "opening up their town halls to try to have emergency measures to make sure people don’t lose their democratic right".

School summer holidays in Scotland start at the end of June.

Concerns have already been raised in Scotland over delays to people receiving postal vote forms ahead of the general election next Thursday.

Speaking in Glasgow today, SNP leader John Swinney warned the public could become disenfranchised because of the delay, and said he expects an inquiry to be carried out.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged people to avoid "personal abuse" as the election campaigns come to an end.

Justin Welby has also encouraged voters to make sure they vote on Thursday.

"Let us encourage courteous and kind debate and not use personalised abuse," he says.

"Let us carefully consider issues and the common good, and above all vote."

The BBC and Snapchat have teamed up to make a special filter counting down to the election, letting you know all the key information on how to vote.

The Catch-Up’s Lola Schroer is giving it a whirl here - just scan the Snapcode to check it out.

Andrew Kerr
BBC Scotland political correspondent, reporting from Glasgow

A big crowd turned out to see the SNP leader John Swinney speak in the west end of Glasgow today.

The party's yellow battle bus stood behind him and he spoke to the people wearing a pair of the party’s yellow sunglasses.

At first, his speech focussed on the party's campaign - saying there was a lot of work to do.

But he said the polls showed "SNP support going up" and they would work hard for a successful result.

He then hit out at the Conservatives, saying that "people are hurting due to 14 years of austerity".

And he was also critical of Labour saying they were not doing enough to combat child poverty.

The leader claims the result of the election is a foregone conclusion with Labour in government, saying the Tories will be "well and truly beaten".

Speaking to Swinney afterwards, I put it to him that his party was in danger of being beaten in the central belt of Scotland by Labour.

He told me the election here in Scotland is on a knife-edge - with voters having a choice of a Labour party carrying on Tory austerity or the SNP railing against austerity and eradicating child poverty in Scotland.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent, reporting from the Labour campaign trail

Image source, PA

There was a cautiously buoyant mood among the Labour advisers with Sir Keir Starmer this morning.

Some of the nerves I’ve seen on visits earlier in the campaign seem to have eased a little.

And where they chose to take their leader on this final weekend before polling day tells a story in itself.

My colleagues Lauren Tavriger and Oscar Bentley have looked into the wider pattern of where party leaders have spent their time – with limited time and resources – in the short weeks before the election

Today, Starmer was in Aldershot in Hampshire, seen as the home of the British Army.

It has been a Conservative seat for the last 100 years. But in May Labour won control of the local council here for the first time, and party sources tell me they believe they have a chance of taking this seat on Thursday.

The official Labour message today is one I expect we will hear repeatedly over the next few days: “Change will only happen if you vote for it,” which is what Starmer said when speaking to reporters after his coffee morning with military victims.

He added many constituencies will be decided by “a few hundred” votes, saying “the numbers are really tight.”

Despite a more relaxed mood, there is a concern in Labour that their lead in the polls will mean some people think the result on 4 July is a foregone conclusion.