Image source, EPA

Last night, while watching England beat Slovakia in the Euros, the PM posted on X, external: “It’s not over until it’s over.”

Mason asks him now: Is there a Rishi Sunak of the Jude Bellingham kick?

Sunak replies with a cricket reference, saying his is “more a flashy cover-drive or off-drive”, before repeating the wording of his post.

“This is an important choice about the future,” he says of the election, adding that he feels strongly he can “provide the leadership that people want after a difficult few years”

“With me you know where I stand,” he says, accusing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of changing his mind on several issues.

“When you called this election, did you really imagine that with a couple of days to go you would be saying vote Conservative for a strong opposition?” BBC political editor Chris Mason asks the prime minister.

Sunak insists that’s “absolutely not what I’m saying”.

Mason interjects - you were talking this morning about being PM in the past tense.

Sunak again says no, then warns that a vote for any party other than the Conservatives “will be a vote to put Labour in power”.

Mason next asks why Sunak called an election six months earlier than he needed to when he’s spent the campaign warning about “the irreversible damage” a Labour government could do.

Because “people deserve a choice”, Sunak replies.

He says his government has delivered economic stability, “the foundation on which the country can now choose what it wants”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insists he hasn’t given up on his party’s election campaign in an interview with the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason.

The pair are speaking after Sunak took part in a Q&A with staff at a drug distribution facility in Staffordshire earlier.

“Listening to you talk to the workers, it sounded like you’d given up,” Mason says to the PM.

“No, absolutely not”, Sunak says, adding that he doesn’t want voters “to sleep walk into Thursday”.

He repeats his well-worn line that he understands people’s “frustrations” with the Tories, but warns that under Labour people’s taxes will go up, their pensions won’t be protected and migration will be uncontrolled.

Sunak again repeats that he doesn’t want people to “hand Labour a blank cheque”.

The Labour leader has just taken part in a huddle with the press after his stump speech in Buckinghamshire.

Keir Starmer is asked if he could work with a French National Rally government and he says he will work with any European government, but that it is important to make the "progressive case".

He also says he'd be open to bilateral as well as EU-wide agreements to smash small boat gangs.

Starmer is next asked if he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, stressing in response that there would be no change of policy towards Ukraine if there is a change of government this week.

Pressed on whether there is still room for diversity of thought in his party, he says Labour is still a "broad church" but adds he is focussed on winning elections - having been on the losing side three times as an MP.

Starmer was first elected in the 2015 general election, when the Conservatives won an overall majority.

One journalist asks why he took "free stuff" like Premier League football tickets, and if he would pay as prime minister.

He points to Parliament's Register of Members' Interests, where all political donations are declared.

There are growing concerns over delays to postal votes arriving in time for the election, with the SNP warning voters in Scotland risk being disenfranchised if votes cannot be returned before Thursday.

The Electoral Commission has responded with a statement, which says tens of thousands of postal votes were delivered over the weekend.

It stresses it's "not uncommon" for people to still be waiting at this stage and reassures voters they should receive their postal voting pack in the coming days.

But the statement also recommends that anyone who has not yet received theirs should contact their local authority to order a replacement - which can be done up until 17:00 on polling day.

Local authority details are available on the commission's website, external.

The commission also emphasises that people can go in person to their local polling station to hand their postal vote in (as long as they bring the now-required voter ID), if they are concerned the vote does not have enough time to be sent back.

Alternatively, if you're unable to go yourself, ask someone else to hand it in for you.

Voters can hand in a maximum of five additional postal ballots as well as their own. They will need to complete a form at the polling station when doing so.

Image source, Reuters

Reform UK says it has been "flooded" with £400,000 of donations over the last 24 hours and will spend £1m on advertising before polling day on Thursday.

The party says the donations came from "grass roots" support after its rally in Birmingham yesterday, despite two activists being secretly filmed by Channel 4 last week apparently making racist and offensive comments.

It says the money will be spent on advertising space in national newspapers and websites as Reform tries to drive its message that it could mount an effective opposition to a Labour government.

Leader Nigel Farage says he is "blown away by the generosity of so many ordinary people who are sick of what is happening to this country".

Image source, Reuters

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says Nigel Farage has not done enough to deal with allegations of racism within Reform UK.

Speaking to reporters earlier in Staffordshire, Sunak said Farage described the derogatory comments made about the prime minister by a Reform campaigner as "inappropriate".

"They weren't inappropriate. They were racist and appalling," said Sunak.

"You've got now multiple Reform candidates and campaigners openly espousing racist and misogynistic views, seemingly without challenge, tells you something about the culture within the Reform Party."

For context: Secret recordings published by Channel 4 last week showed a canvasser, working to get Reform UK leader Nigel Farage elected as MP for Clacton, using a racial slur to refer to the prime minister - who is of Indian origin.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told broadcasters earlier that he worries about the UK's security under a potential Labour government.

He says the party has not committed to match his party's spending plans for defence, and notes that its deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy voted against renewing the UK's nuclear deterrent in 2016.

The Conservatives have promised to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030, while Labour has committed to the target "as soon as resources allow".

Sir Keir Starmer has said his party is committed to maintaining and updating the UK's nuclear deterrent and has dismissed concerns raised by the Tories about Labour's support for defence as "ridiculous" and "desperate stuff".

People who have signed up for a postal vote and have yet to receive their packs are being urged to contact their council.

Many of Scotland's local authorities said anyone who had not received their postal votes by Monday should get in touch to find alternative options.

Some councils opened emergency drop-in centres over the weekend, while others offered to send out replacement packs.

Most local authorities, including Aberdeen City, Angus and North Ayrshire, said the last remaining voting packs should have been delivered on Saturday. Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

We now cross now to the Lib Dem campaign where, after this morning's bungee jump, Sir Ed Davey's been taking a Zumba class in Wokingham, Berkshire.

Dressed in a bright orange T-shirt, Davey took part in a dance/exercise session led by an instructor.

He thanked supporters for turning out and, between breaths, called for the "blue wall" to come down - those traditionally Conservative-supporting seats in southern England his party has been targeting.

"You may be out of breath, you may be tired, don't care - keep going," he told the assembled Zumba dancers.

Taking aim at his rivals, Davey said Labour "can't win" in places like Wokingham or Newbury and urged people to vote Liberal Democrat to beat the Conservatives.

He repeated his campaign's core message by urging people to do something they "haven't done before" and vote for the Lib Dems, adding "I never thought I'd do a bungee jump".

• There's a full list of candidates standing in Wokingham here.

Who is right about Bangladeshi migrants?published at 13:48 1 July

13:48 1 July

By Lucy Gilder

Earlier this morning, Home Secretary James Cleverly criticised Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over a comment he made last week about failed asylum seekers when he said: "At the moment, people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed."

Cleverly said this was “not true and not relevant because the Bangladeshi community make up... less than a half a per cent of small boat arrivals”.

Home Office figures, external do show that Bangladeshi nationals have been removed from the UK - in small numbers.

In the 12 months to March 2024, 11 failed asylum seekers were forcibly removed to Bangladesh and 70 went back voluntarily. This places Bangladesh in the top 10 asylum-related removals ranked by nationality in this period.

He is also correct that they make up a very small proportion of recent small boat arrivals.

In the year ending March 2024, just eight Bangladeshi nationals were detected arriving on small boats - just 0.03% of the total number of arrivals, external in this period.

We've just heard from Sir Keir Starmer in Buckinghamshire, who was there to support Labour's candidate in Buckingham and Bletchley, Callum Anderson.

You can find the full list of candidates standing in the constituency here.

Starmer goes on to say Labour needs to redouble its efforts as the fight will go down to the wire, as he argues that "a few hundred votes will make the difference".

He then asks those listening to imagine "waking up on Friday morning to a further five years of Tory government" - saying a vote for another party will make that happen.

Starmer says his party can imagine a better Britain -as he delivers his stump speech pledges on the NHS and having a state-owned energy firm.

He ends the speech by saying the choice could "not be starker", saying it's either more "chaos and division" or time to "turn the page and start again with Labour".

Image source, Reuters

Labour's Sir Keir Starmer is on to his second campaign speech of the day, this time in Buckinghamshire.

After being welcomed first by the party's candidate in Buckingham and Bletchley, Callum Anderson, Starmer thanks him and the supporters around him for their "warm reception".

He adds that Labour is campaigning with a "smile" as the "only positive team left on the pitch".

Speaking from a pub garden, Starmer says this has to be a "summer of change" before listing some of the core messages from his campaign, including saying he will put "country first, party second".

He adds that the "last yards" of the campaign are the hardest and that every vote has to be earned.

We're about to hear from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer again, who is about to give another campaign speech - this time in Buckinghamshire.

We'll bring you the key lines here and you can follow along by hitting the watch live button at the top of the page.

Does Scotland have the best performing A&E system in the UK?published at 12:53 1 July

12:53 1 July

By Tamara Kovacevic

Talking earlier on the BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in, SNP leader John Swinney said: "We've got the best performing accident and emergency system...in the United Kingdom".

Since 2010, the A&E standard across the UK has been that 95% of people arriving at an A&E department should be admitted to hospital, transferred to a more appropriate care setting, or discharged home within four hours.

This target is currently missed in each country of Great Britain.

But Scotland has a lower proportion of A&E attendances waiting longer than four hours than England and Wales.

However, Scotland has missed the 95% target every month since July 2020.

The situation is worse in Wales, which has never met the target, and England, which has missed the target every month since July 2015.

Northern Ireland has a different A&E wait time data collection policy and cannot be directly compared with the other three UK nations, according to the Office for National Statistics, external.

Rishi Sunak has just given an interview to broadcasters, in which he was asked about his claims that a Labour victory would risk the UK's security.

The prime minister claims Labour would not boost defence spending to 2.5% of national income - or gross domestic product (GDP) - like the Conservative Party plans to.

Sunak says this sends a message to adversaries like Russian President Vladimir Putin that the UK isn't strong enough to protect itself.

He adds that both Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow foreign Secretary David Lammy have voted to scrap the UK's nuclear weapons programme in the past.

Asked if he was trying to use the war in Ukraine to garner votes in spite of the cross-party consensus over the war, Sunak says politicians have to back their up words with action.

The PM says that's why he can say the UK will support Ukraine, but Labour can't say because they are not prioritising defence spending.

As we approach lunch time, lets take a look at what's been happening so far today:

• Home Secretary James Cleverly spoke to the BBC this morning, telling the Today programme that "voting for Reform is more likely to get you a Labour MP". On Breakfast, Cleverly defended the government's record on inflation, employment levels and economic growth, adding Labour "will distort the political system"
• Labour's Jonathan Ashworth also called into Breakfast, and when asked about the IFS predicting Labour would require a spending increase of 3.6% above inflation to meet its manifesto pledges, he said closing the non-dom tax loophole would fund the gap
• SNP leader John Swinney made an appearance on 5 Live, where he said this election gives an opportunity to "intensify the pressure" in campaigning for a second Scottish independence referendum. When asked if the SNP was "mired in sleaze", he acknowledged the party "had difficulties"
• Over on Woman's Hour, Reform UK spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe criticised the party's candidates who it was revealed had made sexist and derogatory statements about women, saying they were "completely unacceptable"
• And as we reach the end campaigning we got another stunt from Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey who has done a bungee jump today. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper earlier told BBC Breakfast that all Davey's stunts came with a serious message

Stay with us for updates throughout the afternoon.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Hello from Staffordshire, where Rishi Sunak is giving a speech to staff at a warehouse.

I’m struck by how much of Rishi Sunak’s message isn’t about his party - but Labour and the potential size of majority on Thursday.

He’s just said a vote for the Tories is a vote to “stop a supermajority”.

The Tories aren’t conceding they won’t win in public (although some candidates do privately). Sunak still talks about what he’d do with power after Thursday.

But much of the language this morning - just days from the general election - sounds like damage limitation.

The last question put to Sunak is on ambulance waiting times – with a man in the audience saying some people are left waiting "hours and hours".

Sunak concedes his government has not made as much progress as he would have liked on ambulance waiting times and the NHS more generally, and notes the system is still recovering because of the pandemic.

Six million referrals didn't happen because of the pandemic, he says, adding "with the best will in the world, it's just going to take some time for that pressure to pass through the system".

He says they have made some progress on ambulance waiting times, and have put record funding into the NHS.

And with that, the Q&A wraps up and the prime minister leaves.