Image source, UK POOL

A few SNP big hitters are starting to arrive at the party’s manifesto launch in Edinburgh.

Westminster leader Stephen Flynn is here, accompanied by a number of his Westminster colleagues.

And some SNP Scottish government ministers have made the short jump over from Holyrood.

We’ve already been told "page one, line one" of the manifesto will be about independence. But the rest of it is under wraps until 11:00.

Until then, myself and fellow journalists will have to keep ourselves entertained with the pastries and coffee on offer.

SNP's hunger for independence will be top of mind - but is there an appetite for it?published at 10:35 19 June

10:35 19 June

Andrew Kerr
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Independence is going to feature on page one, line of this SNP manifesto. It’s what the leader John Swinney has been fighting for his entire political career.

I remember interviewing him on TV the morning after Scotland voted “no” in 2014. The devastation on his face was clear.

After that defeat, the SNP picked themselves up and stormed to victory in the 2015 election. There was still that hunger for independence.

There was a small setback for the party in the 2017 election and the referendum campaign was briefly paused. The bounceback came in 2019 and independence was very much on the agenda – particularly because of Brexit.

But the issue suffered another setback with a Supreme Court ruling in 2022 on the powers of the Scottish Parliament. That has really dampened down independence as an imminent, live possibility.

It’s not particularly featured in the SNP campaign and the audience response to talk of independence seemed a bit lacklustre in the BBC Scotland leaders’ debate last week.

Former first minister and Alba Party leader Alex Salmond has claimed the SNP “have hoisted the white flag on independence”.

The reality is the issue will feature prominently in the document presented by the SNP but perhaps voters have more immediate concerns on their minds – like the cost of living crisis.

While the SNP is preparing to publish its manifesto in Edinburgh this morning, the party has also been reacting to today’s inflation figures, which, for the first time in three years, fell to 2%.

David Linden, the party's social justice spokesperson, had this to say.

Independence will be page one, line one of SNP manifestopublished at 10:06 19 June

10:06 19 June

Andrew Kerr
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Image source, PA

We're now less than hour out from the SNP manifesto launch - but it's worth noting that this is not John Swinney’s first manifesto launch as leader of the party.

He’s published a few before as he was SNP leader from 2000-2004 and led the party in a general election, Scottish parliamentary and European campaigns.

It’s a big moment for the party boss - he’s only been in the job six weeks.

First and foremost with him it will always be independence.

You’ve heard it before - that issue will be page one, line one of the SNP manifesto.

Speaking before the launch, Swinney also made it clear that’s the golden thread that will be running right through it.

The essence of the argument - if you want a policy to work well, you need Scotland to be independent.

That applies to implementing a social tariff for vulnerable households or a better relationship with the EU.

In fact, it’s not so much a raft of promises - it’s a call to arms for the other parties.

There’s perhaps a sense that only the SNP can keep them in check and follow the values that they think the people of Scotland believe in.

A policy example of that is the demand for £10bn extra spending in the NHS and £6bn extra for NHS pay packets.

That would result in £1.6bn for the Scottish NHS.

So, clear demands made of the other parties - but will there be clarity from the SNP on what they really think about new oil and gas drilling?

Opponents have said they must “come clean” after appearing to distance themselves from a presumption against new exploration.

That will be one pledge that people in their key north-east constituencies will watch with interest.

As of 23:59 on Tuesday, the window for registering to vote in person for this year’s general election officially shut - although you’ve still got until 17:00 this evening to apply for a postal vote.

According to the latest government figures, some 632,863 applications to vote were submitted on Tuesday, making it the highest number in a single day so far this year.

Between 23 May - the first full day after Rishi Sunak called the general election - to June 18, more than 2.7 million applications to vote were submitted.

Over half were by people aged 34 and under, with 30% from 25 to 34-year-olds and 26% from those under 25.

As a reminder, to apply for a postal vote, you must already be registered to vote.

Check out our guide to the general election and voting here.

Image source, .

It has been a busy start to Wednesday, beginning with the news that inflation has hit the Bank of England's target for the first time in almost three years.

Prices rose at 2% in the year to May, down from 2.3% the month before, official figures show.

The economy is a key talking point in the run-up to the general election on 4 July, with all of the main parties debating how they would keep the cost of living under control. Here's what else has been happening:

• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been telling LBC his government "stuck to a plan" on inflation, adding: "It wasn't always easy, but we've got there"

• Responding for Labour, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says the cost of living crisis is not over and that "pressures on family finances are still acute”
• The PM has also spoken of his confidence that NHS waiting lists will fall (one of his five key pledges)

• A bit later, the SNP will launch its manifesto at 11:00 BST with a headline pledge of increasing the amount of money spent in Scotland on the NHS
• For their part, the Lib Dems' Munita Wilson says her party would spend £1bn a year on repairing "crumbling" hospitals, if they come to power
• Labour have suspended a candidate in the north-east of Scotland for social media posts including about the Salisbury poisonings

The political parties have spent the first four weeks of this election campaign battling it out on the economy.

Now they are doing so armed with a new statistic: that inflation has fallen to 2%, the Bank of England’s target, for the first time in almost three years.

The political question is whether the Conservatives will get any credit for this. They certainly hope so. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, this morning argued that the fall in inflation was a result of the “difficult decisions” the Conservatives have made.

Labour dispute this vigorously – they say that the UK was especially exposed to the global inflationary shocks because of decisions the Conservatives have made.

There is a fine balance for both main parties to strike here. While talking up their work, the Conservatives will be wary of sounding too sunny about the state of the economy when many Britons are still struggling with the cost of living.

Labour will not want to sound like they are being churlish in denying that falling inflation is good news, while also maintaining their criticism of the Conservative record.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not expected on the campaign trail between now and polling day.

As first reported in The Times, his team insist he isn’t going on holiday instead of campaigning - insisting he has done what party headquarters have asked him to do - such as his social media videos.

His travel arrangements this month have been described as "long planned" to me.

Some Conservatives had hoped the deployment of Johnson, particularly in seats in the north of England and the Midlands the party won for the first time ever under his leadership, might help the party hold on in these areas.

But many Tories now fear these seats — often described as being in the "red wall" - are all but lost anyway.

The party appears instead to be focusing more of its efforts on seats in the south of England, where Johnson’s appeal to floating voters is thought to be smaller.

Image source, PA Media

It's just over 90 minutes to go until the SNP launch its manifesto from Edinburgh at 11:00 BST.

Ahead of the launch, we already know that first minister and SNP leader John Swinney will call for an "end to Westminster cuts" and urge the next UK government to increase NHS spending by a minimum of £10bn extra each year.

He will say that this will deliver a £1.6bn annual funding boost for the health service in Scotland.

The party manifesto will also include plans for investment in other public services, the reversal of the "damaging failure of Brexit" and support for families during the cost of living crisis.

The SNP will urge the incoming UK government to invest at least another £6bn in the NHS to match Scotland’s most recent pay deals for healthcare staff.

Healthcare is a devolved issue in Scotland, meaning the Scottish government runs its own NHS.

However, the overall budget is affected by spending by the UK government and the SNP has previously blamed this for limitations in the Scottish NHS.

Earlier this morning, we had the fresh reaction from Labour's Rachel Reeves on Scottish Labour moving to suspend a candidate in the north-east of Scotland. Some more details on that now.

Andy Brown had been standing for the party in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat.

However, social media posts have been uncovered which have resulted in his suspension.

A social media post from 2018 is said to have attempted to reduce Russia’s role in the Salisbury poisonings.

Another post is said to have downplayed allegations of anti-semitism in the party.

Scottish Labour confirmed Brown has been suspended – but his name will still be on the ballot paper next to the Labour logo as nominations have closed.

The BBC has attempted to contact Brown.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Labour’s Treasury spokesperson Rachel Reeves says the swift action means they’re “not willing to tolerate people who don’t share the values of the British public”.

This is embarassing for Labour as Brown appears to have stood for the party in council elections and the Scottish Parliament election in 2021.

This calls into question their vetting procedures.

Another Labour candidate in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy was replaced over social media posts – but fortunately for the party that was before nominations had closed.

In one of the last questions put to the prime minister on LBC earlier, a listener on email asked him about his flagship Rwanda scheme.

Why has Rishi Sunak failed with the hugely expensive Rwanda plan, when no one has gone there, the person asks.

Sunak says if you care about stopping the boats then he's the "only one" who has a plan to achieve it.

He concedes that while numbers are "up and down", they are down "by a significant amount" over a 12-month period.

He insists that the only way to solve this issue is to have a deterrence, claiming that "multiple other European countries agree with our approach".

For context: A BBC Verify investigation found that Sunak is correct in that the numbers in 2023 were a third lower than in 2022. But the number of people who have crossed so far this year is at a record high - up more than a third on the same period last year.

During his phone-in on LBC, a caller accused the prime minister of being anti-LGBTQ - citing his lack of support to extend same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland, not wearing an Aids ribbon, and the comment he made when the mother of transgender teenager Brianna Ghey - who was murdered in a premeditated attack in February 2023 - visited Parliament.

A reminder, Sunak accused Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of changing his position on "defining a woman" during PMQs on 7 February this year while Brianna's mother was watching from the public gallery.

Sunak tells host Nick Ferrari he was making a separate point about Starmer's track record on the issue.

"I care very much about making people, whatever their backgrounds, are respected and treated with compassion and sensitivity," he says.

When asked if he is a friend of the LGBT community, he says "Of course I am".

But he says it is "reasonable" to protect same-sex spaces and women's rights, which is why he is advocating reform for the Equality Act - one of the Tory manifesto pledges.

He says he would have supported same-sex marriage had he been in Parliament when it was introduced by the coalition government in 2014.

He says he does not wear ribbons of any kind, though he does wear a poppy around Remembrance Sunday.

Rishi Sunak's hour-long phone-in on LBC has now wrapped up, during which he was pressed on inflation, the NHS and Nigel Farage.

We've still got a couple of questions from listeners to catch you up on, so stay with us.

One LBC listener asks: What makes you think you can win in a general election when you didn't beat Liz Truss?

A reminder, Truss beat Sunak in the Conservative leadership race in the summer of 2022. She resigned after the fallout of her mini-budget in October 2022.

"I know people didn't want to hear what I had to say at the time," Sunak says, "but ultimately I was proved right."

"What Labour and Keir Starmer is offering will take us backwards," he adds.

More on the NHS now, as Rishi Sunak is asked about waiting lists. As a reminder, reducing waiting lists was one of Sunak's five pledges set out at the start of 2023.

Host Ferrari puts to the PM that waiting lists have actually risen since he made the pledge - 7.2m at start of 2023 and 7.57m at the end of April this year.

Sunak has previously said that industrial action in the health service "has had an impact" on cutting NHS waiting lists in England.

Ferrari says there was no industrial action in April and asks whether it shows Sunak's policy is not working.

The PM says his party has not made as much progress as he would have liked but they are now coming down from the peak of just below 8 million in November 2023.

He says he is "confident they will keep coming down over time".

Image source, .

Image source, LBC

Back over to Rishi Sunak's phone-in on LBC - the next question comes from Theresa, who says the "the NHS has gone from five stars to one star".

She shares that her partner who had cancer received care that was "second to none" and that she was later diagnosed with breast cancer, which she then describes the treatment as being "horrible".

Sunak begins by saying he's sorry to hear about her partner and her diagnosis, adding that the pandemic caused "enormous disruption" to cancer treatments.

He says specifically on breast cancer, his government is rolling out community diagnostic centres across the country and hiring more oncologists and radiologists.

Theresa says she has a fear of going into the hospital and just being left there, given a lack of staff.

Sunak closes by promising to get Theresa's details to ensure she's getting the care that she needs.

Asked whether a vote for the SNP is also a vote for higher taxes across the UK, the SNP's Fiona Hyslop tells the Today programme that her party "[believes] in public services [and] believe we have to pay" for them.

The Scottish income tax system is different than the rest of the UK, with anyone earning more than £28,867 paying more income tax than someone with the same earnings elsewhere in the country.

"The UK could benefit from the experience we've had", she says, and people "should pay slightly more if they earn slightly more".

A headline pledge in the SNP's manifesto - set to be launched later this morning - is an increase in the amount of money spent on the NHS in Scotland.

Healthcare is a devolved issue in Scotland, meaning the Scottish government runs its own NHS, but the overall budget is affected by spending by the UK government.

Asked about why the health service has longer waiting times for patients in Scotland, Fiona Hyslop - an SNP cabinet member in Holyrood - tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "Brexit hasn't helped", but says Scotland has the "best waiting times in terms of A&E" than the rest of UK.

Pressed on those statistics - which show the A&E wait times being the longest in Scottish history - Hyslop says "we've had challenging times everywhere", but are "investing more" to help the health service.

More from Munira Wilson now, who is asked by BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the Lib Dems' plan to increase the NHS budget by 1.5% in real terms is enough.

Wilson says the manifesto is "much bolder and much more ambitious" than other parties, when it comes to the health service.

The rise would help address the shortage of GPs and NHS dentists, she says.

Wilson adds that the Lib Dems' manifesto pledges are "fully costed", with an increase in NHS spending funded by raising taxes on "big banks and billionaires".

Image source, PA Media

While there's a break on LBC, let's bring you some comments from the Liberal Democrats' Munira Wilson about her party's pledge to spend £1bn a year on repairing "crumbling" hospitals, if they come to power after the election.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme a little earlier, Wilson says it is an "absolute scandal" that some patients are being treated in "potentially unsafe" buildings.

An "urgent plan" is needed to start fixing these hospitals, she says, citing some which have been found to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) - a cheaper alternative to standard concrete that was used decades ago, but now leaves building roofs liable to crumble.

Pressed on whether £1bn a year is enough, Wilson says it is a "first step forward", adding that the current Conservative government have "left us with very little money".