Becky Morton
Politics reporter

Image source, Anya Rice

Stephanie Carlton applied for a postal vote on 3 June - well before the 19 June deadline.

But it didn't arrive before she went on holiday.

The 44-year-old, who lives in Diss in Norfolk, flew to Australia with her partner on 28 June and says she has been left "furious".

Her partner applied earlier and received his ballot.

But Carlton says she was told by her local electoral office that hers will be sent out in a second tranche and there is now nothing she can do to ensure she can vote.

It was too late to cancel her postal vote and apply for a proxy, while a replacement postal ballot would not have arrived until after she had gone on holiday.

“I do feel really strongly that my vote would count for once and I haven't been able to vote,” she tells the BBC, adding that her constituency is now considered a marginal.

“It just feels very disempowering.”

An update now from Royal Mail, which says it remains "confident" that postal votes received on time will be delivered before polling day, adding that there is "no backlog".

It welcomes a review into the "timetable for future elections with all stakeholders" so that the "printing and administering" of postal votes, before they are handed to Royal Mail, works "as smoothly as possible".

The statement comes as concerns grow over delays in voters getting their ballot packs before polling day - the government said it was urgently investigating the issue.

A spokesperson from the Electoral Commission says the "vast majority" of postal votes have been delivered - adding they are not aware of any "outstanding large-scale issues".

“If there are individual cases where a voter has not yet received their postal ballot pack, they should request a replacement from their local authority," it adds.

• For more details on what you can do if your postal vote hasn't arrived, click here

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent, reporting from the Conservative campaign

Speaking to reporters in Oxfordshire, the PM said: “I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I didn’t think we could. I’m interested in working hard for every vote."

Sunak added: “The poll that matters is the one on Thursday. Until the polls close, I will keep going, fighting for every vote. It would be very wrong not to."

Sunak was also asked whether his predecessors would be partly to blame for a Tory loss.

He said: “You’ve got to just play the cards that you are dealt. There’s no point sitting there, going well I wish someone had given me four aces.”

Tom Symonds
Political correspondent, reporting from the Lib Dem campaign

Sir Ed Davey’s been asked repeatedly about his time in the coalition government.

Today, he was defending his party’s decision to back the Conservatives in ramping up university tuition fees in the 2010s.

It comes after data obtained by BBC News revealed that almost 1.8 million people are now in at least £50,000 of UK student debt.

Davey says after the end of the coalition, the Conservatives “changed the system we put in place”, resulting in students facing more debt.

He pointed out the Tories had got rid of maintenance grants for poorer students and frozen the threshold for paying back student loans, meaning more graduates start paying earlier.

And he accused the government of mismanaging the economy resulting in all interest rates going up, including for student loans.

Blue dominoes toppling. Geddit?published at 11:39 British Summer Time 2 July

11:39 BST 2 July

Tom Symonds
Political correspondent, reporting from the Lib Dem campaign

Image source, UK Pool

The morning’s Lib Dem photo opportunity was strangely old school for a party which really discovered the potency of a stunt during the 2019 election.

Sir Ed Davey, now struggling with his voice having shouted “do something you’ve never done, vote Lib Dem” while bungee jumping yesterday, has more energetic “outward bound” activities planned later today.

But the Lib Dems believe the domino toppling is an apt image for the way they believe the campaign is going.

We’re in the seat of Taunton and Wellington, another of those constituencies created through boundary changes.

The Conservatives have a 10,000 “nominal” majority here but Lib Dems internal data suggests they are “edging ahead”, according to a party aide.

As we’ve been reporting in the last 48 hours on the yellow bus, the party is increasingly confident in a wider range of seats, places they didn’t think would go Lib Dem at the start of the campaign.

Examples being St Ives, Cornwall North, Devon North, Devon South, Torbay, Yeovil, Taunton and Wellington, Wells and Mendip Hills, Dorset West, Dorset Mid and Poole North, Cotswolds South, Cotswolds North.

As ever, head to the constituency pages for details of candidates in Taunton and Wellington and all of these seats.

Jennifer Clarke
BBC News

A replacement voting pack can be issued by your local council’s returning officer, external until 17:00 BST on polling day, Thursday 4 July.

Contact your council's electoral services team, external as soon as possible - replacement packs won’t be available at polling stations.

For your vote to be counted, you can hand in your completed form to your polling station before 22:00 on Thursday. Or you can take it to the address on your postal voting pack this week during office hours before 17:00 on polling day.

You don't need ID, but you must sign a form.

You can also drop off up to five completed postal vote packs for friends and family.

Political candidates and party campaigners are only allowed to handle postal votes for close family members, or someone they regularly care for.

Some Scottish councils have created emergency voting booths for people who will be on holiday.

In certain circumstances, voters in England, Scotland and Wales can nominate an emergency proxy, external to vote for them. However the non-arrival of a postal vote does not qualify.

• A simple guide to the general election

Starmer says he's concerned about reports of missing postal votes because "it is important that every single person has the ability to vote".

"We must do everything we collectively can to ensure that those ballot papers get to people," he says.

He's also asked about Conservative comments that his intention to try and spend time with his family on Friday evenings if he wins the election would make him a "part-time" prime minister.

"This is just increasingly desperate stuff" and "bordering on hysterical", Starmer says. He adds he can hardly believe that 48 hours before the election the Tories have "nothing positive to say".

Starmer takes a question on trade and says there needs to be a "clear framework".

He says we are “over reliant on the international market” and it’s one of the reasons people have paid “such high prices in energy”.

This is why, Starmer adds, Labour wants to set up Great British Energy, which he says will "lower bills" as well as provide more independence and security.

He references to the the war in Ukraine and the impact it has had on bills.

Now on to questions from the media, and the BBC's Jessica Parker asks Starmer what his first step would be if he becomes prime minister on Friday.

Starmer says his first move would be to "change the mindset of politics" to that of public service.

He says the country has seen 14 years of self-entitlement under the Conservative Party, citing questions around government PPE contracts during Covid and gambling allegations during this election campaign.

Starmer adds that Labour has its priorities planned, citing cutting NHS waiting lists, recruiting more teachers and police and protecting the UK's borders.

"Country first, party second," is his mindset, he concludes.

Starmer says Labour would rebuild the country and make the NHS "fit for the future".

He adds that Labour's plans for GB Energy - a publicly owned renewable energy company - would mean it will keep "bills down for good", and that if people "want change, you've got to vote for it".

Starmer says voters could wake up on Friday "with five more years of the same" if people don't vote for Labour on Thursday.

Criticising the Tory campaign, he says it has shown "chaos" and "negativity".

Forget the polls, he says, telling the crowd "every single vote counts" and that many constituencies will go down to just few hundred votes either way on the day.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has just begun a speech.

We'll be bringing you all the key lines here shortly - or you can press Watch live at the top of the page.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Reform UK have accused the Conservatives of offering their candidates “jobs and safe seats” to defect.

Richard Tice, Reform’s chairman and former leader, responded to Georgie David’s defection by writing on X/Twitter, external: “More desperate corruption by Tories. What jobs and safe seats have toxic Tories offered this candidate?

“As they have with many others. Note same press release language… coordinated by dirty tricks central, CCHQ”.

Image source, UK Pool

Sir Ed Davey has just weighed in on the reports surrounding missing postal votes, saying he's "really concerned", and that it needs to be looked into urgently.

Speaking on a visit to Somerset, Davey says some local authorities are opening their town halls to make sure people can get their postal vote.

Davey says Royal Mail should be "pushed" and there needs to be contingency plans.

As we've reported, Royal Mail has said it has "no backlog" of postal votes but the Electoral Commission has warned the UK’s postal voting system is facing “pressures” ahead of Thursday’s election.

As we've just reported, a second Reform candidate has disowned the party and defected to the Conservatives.

This comes just two days after Liam Booth-Isherwood, who is standing in Erewash, also defected to the Tories.

He cited "reports of widespread racism and sexism" among Reform candidates as the reason for leaving and said it was a "significant moral issue" in parts of Nigel Farage's party.

Reform UK’s chairman Richard Tice claimed Reform candidates were being offered jobs and inducements “to persuade them to talk badly of Reform, stand down and then endorse the Tory candidate".

Last week, the party distanced itself from two activists filmed by Channel 4 apparently making racist and offensive comments.

You can find a full list of candidates standing in Erewash, here.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Image source, Reform UK

A Reform candidate has suspended her campaign and defected to the Conservatives because the “vast majority” of her fellow candidates are “racist, misogynistic and bigoted”.

Georgie David, the Reform candidate for West Ham and Beckton, said she had been “frustrated and dismayed” by Nigel Farage’s failure to tackle concerns about Reform’s candidates, though she said she did not believe Reform’s “senior leadership” are racist.

It comes two days after Reform’s candidate in Erewash also defected to the Conservatives over racism concerns.

David said: “I am hereby announcing my decision to leave the Reform Party and stand down as their candidate for West Ham and Beckton, with immediate effect.

“I am in no doubt that the party and its senior leadership are not racist. However, as the vast majority of candidates are indeed racist, misogynistic, and bigoted, I do not wish to be directly associated with people who hold such views that are so vastly opposing to my own and what I stand for.

“I also have been significantly frustrated and dismayed by the failure of the Reform Party’s leadership to tackle this issue in any meaningful way, and their attempts to instead try to brush it under the carpet or cry foul play.

“As such, I have now suspended my campaign with Reform, and I am endorsing the Conservative Party – I would encourage all of my fellow patriots to do the same.”

A full list of candidates standing in West Ham and Beckton can be found here.

Image source, PA Media

Meanwhile, the BBC has learned Conservative candidate Miriam Cates was a trustee of a church while it promoted so-called conversion therapy.

An independent report has concluded that conversion practices - which seek to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity - were “endorsed and supported” by St Thomas Philadelphia church in Sheffield between 2014 and 2019.

Cates was a member of the church between 2003 and 2018 - and a trustee from 2016 to 2018.

She told the BBC she was unaware of the allegations and that she does not endorse gay conversion therapy.

Although the BBC has not found any evidence Cates had direct knowledge of gay conversion therapy taking place, the report found that it was openly discussed and part of the church’s culture during the time she was a member, and some of her time as a trustee.

You can see a full list of candidates standing in Penistone and Stocksbridge here.

Would pensioners face 'retirement tax' under Labour?published at 09:41 British Summer Time 2 July

09:41 BST 2 July

Earlier on BBC Breakfast, Rishi Sunak claimed “all pensioners under a future Labour government, would face paying a retirement tax on their state pension”.

Some context is needed here.

Pensioners relying solely on the state pension are on course to potentially pay income tax in 2027-28, because the state pension in that year (£12,578) is forecast to marginally overtake the tax-free personal allowance (£12,570).

The Conservative Triple Lock Plus - raising the personal allowance for pensioners only to £13,710 by 2027-28 - would remove that risk.

Labour haven’t said yet whether they would match it or not. But note the Conservatives only unveiled the policy within the last couple of weeks, so to present this as a planned Labour tax rise is a bit disingenuous.

And bear in mind that Triple Lock Plus would only save someone living solely on the state pension around £29 a year by 2030.

Image source, PA Media

It has been a busy morning already - while Rishi Sunak was speaking to BBC Breakfast, the co-leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, was talking to our colleagues on Radio 4's Today programme.

Quizzed on how the party proposes to pay for around £55bn in education reform and free tuition fees, he said the Greens were the only party setting out an alternative vision on tax.

He said the Greens would levy a 1% wealth tax on people with more than £10 million in assets (this would rise to 2% for billionaires).

Pressed on whether this was viable, Ramsay told the programme that Labour had been "too timid" to ask people with the "broadest shoulders to pay modestly more".

Streeting was also asked how Labour plans on raising £8bn to pay for its manifesto pledges, as the party insists it won't increase income tax, National Insurance, VAT, corporation tax, or change council tax bands.

So where's the money coming from?

He cited a range of measures, such as "closing down tax avoidance" and "ending the tax breaks enjoyed by private schools" (as a reminder, Labour plan to charge VAT at 20% on private school fees).

Are you being honest with voters?

"We are," Streeting said. He added that Labour has already made some tough choices, even before the election was called, when they said they couldn't commit to certain things.

What if Labour's "growth" plan doesn't work?

Streeting said shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was "prudent" but added that future growth is hard to predict. He said this is why Reeves was not spending future proceeds of growth before she has them.