What has happened to legal migration under the Conservatives?published at 19:18 British Summer Time 18 June

19:18 BST 18 June

By Anthony Reuben

The seven participants in the Channel 4 debate have been quoting the net migration figures – let's look into those figures further.

Net migration is the number of people coming to the UK and planning to stay for at least a year, minus the number of people leaving it for at least a year.

It reached a record high of 764,000 in 2022 and fell back slightly to 685,000, external last year.

The figure started rising in 1997 and, although David Cameron promised before the 2010 election that it would fall back to the “tens of thousands” – a pledge later reiterated by Theresa May - this clearly did not happen.

The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised that overall numbers would come down.

Net migration did fall considerably during the pandemic before rising to record levels.

We'll soon bring you the reactions from tonight's panel's about immigration.

Image source, .

Chris Mason and Isabella Allen
BBC News

Peeling away from the Channel 4 debate for a moment, a billionaire who gave the Conservatives £500,000 before the last general election has told the BBC he will vote Labour for the first time in his life next month.

John Caudwell, the founder of Phones 4U, described Rishi Sunak as an “absolute dud” and said the Labour leader Keir Starmer “just really hits the spot with a lot of issues with me”.

The businessman has been critical of Labour’s plan to charge VAT on private school fees and has said some of Reform UK's policies "sound sensible", although he ruled out backing Nigel Farage's party over its stance on climate change among other things.

He stopped short of saying he would donate money to Labour at this election.

• Read our full story here

The next audience question is about the safety of women and girls and how rates of violence against them can be reduced.

• Denyer says the Green Party wants to free up police so they have more time to deal with domestic violence matters and to make sure they are properly trained in this area and says her party would also make misogyny a hate crime
• Labour's Thomas-Symonds says the UK needs more specialist rape courts to speed up the processing of cases - as it takes an average of 400 days to get to the initial charge - and to make sure victims are at the "heart of the process" and get the support they need
• Brown, the SNP deputy leader, says there needs to be proper vetting within the police force as it's a "huge job" in rebuilding people's trust in the police
• The Lib Dems' Cooper says her party would ask social media companies to publish regularly what they are doing to tackle online abuse
• While Reform UK chairman Tice says trust in police is "woeful" and that the UK needs to have a proper criminal justice system
• Finally, Tory minister Philp says his party plans to make sure victims can give evidence quickly on videotape

Are £18bn of cuts planned?published at 19:00 British Summer Time 18 June

19:00 BST 18 June

Talking about the Conservatives and Labour in the Channel 4 debate, the SNP’s Keith Brown referred to “£18bn of cuts that they're both going to bring in”.

Labour has said it will stick to the broad outlines of the Conservatives’ current spending plans, which see an increase in spending on public services overall.

However, with a lot of this going on increased spending on health, education and defence, other unprotected areas of public spending face a squeeze in coming years, if the government is to meet its target of halving the national debt falling in five years.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that this could amount to £18bn a year by the end of the Parliament., external

That could mean cuts to services such as courts, further education and local government, but they are not inevitable.

An improvement in the economy could make these cuts unnecessary – or the government could find a way to raise more tax.

Image source, Channel 4

The debate kicks off with a question about victim-based crime and another on retaining police officers:

• For the Tories, Chris Philp says that since 2010 violent crime has come down by 44%, but says "we need to go further"
• Labour’s Thomas-Symonds accuses Philp of being "out of touch" with how people in the country feel, and says there needs to be a "restoration" of neighbourhood policing
• Brown, for the SNP, points out the election won't change the administration of police services in Scotland and claims the Tories and Labour will bring in £18bn of cuts which will also impact policing in Scotland
• For Reform UK, Tice says knife crime has almost tripled under the Conservatives, and says the Tories have presided over a "massive reduction" in police officers
• Denyer says the Green Party would stop the "routine use" of stop-and-search, calling it a "racist endeavour", but saying it's OK to search someone if there is a "reasonable suspicion"
• For the Lib Dems, Cooper talks about the need for youth services and community policing, and says there is a place for stop-and-search but it has to be based on intelligence and not profiling

• Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says his party is proposing establishing the role of a victims' commissioner for Wales.

The debate kicks-off with a question from an audience member about victim-based crime.

The panel are asked if they find current crime figures fearful and what proposals they have to tackle the issue.

We'll bring you the panel's answers shortly.

In the next few minutes, we'll hear from seven representatives from the main political parties participating in a debate on Channel 4.

The debate, starting at 18:30 BST from Colchester in Essex, will focus on immigration and law and order.

Here's who is participating:

• Conservative Home Office Minister Chris Philp
• Labour shadow cabinet office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds
• Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper
• Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer
• Reform UK chairman Richard Tice
• SNP deputy leader Keith Brown
• Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth

We'll be bringing you some of the key lines throughout, so stay with us.

Hannah Miller
Political correspondent

“The divide is stark” between the Conservatives and the Labour Party on farming, the prime minister has said.

Speaking to reporters on a farm in North Devon, he said: “They just do not understand rural Britain, and I just find it incredibly upsetting that lack of understanding of rural Britain. These are my neighbours, my communities in North Yorkshire".

He said the Tories will increase the farm budget by £1bn and will have a "legal target on food security".

"These are huge differences for communities that are incredibly important to our country," he added.

Sunak joked about why the sheep ran away from him while he was trying to feed them: “I think they thought we were their shearers.”

Image source, Reuters

Jordan Kenny
BBC Newsbeat politics reporter, in Bedford

More now from BBC Newsbeat’s Race Across the UK:

As we walk through Bedford, Ashley and Tom stop by to talk to us.

They have a young daughter, and say the cost of living is making things difficult to manage – despite Ashley working three jobs.

“I never thought I’d have to say to my daughter that something is ‘too expensive to buy'. We want to get married next year, and it’s been ridiculous,” Ashley says.

Ashley adds they “don’t splash our money,” but are still struggling.

The couple feel that political parties need to address prices, but are not doing a good enough job in informing voters correctly.

“What we’ve been told, and what they actually do… there’s no point in voting if we’re going to end up in the same situation,” Ashley says.

Tom delivers leaflets, including those from political parties, and says “they’re all the same”.

“It’s one party slagging another party off, basically," he adds.

Jordan Kenny
BBC Newsbeat politics reporter, in Bedford

Let's check in now with our colleagues at BBC Newsbeat, who have been continuing their general election Race Across the UK today:

We've been set the challenge of getting this microphone from one end of the country to the other before 4 July, speaking to young voters about the things that matter most to them. Today we’re in Bedford – our fourth checkpoint.

The catch? Newsbeat listeners have the chance to decide the points we have to pass through to unlock our next stop.

We meet 21-year-old Aisha, who says the structure of universities and fees are important to her.

“Increasing prices affects me. I’m just not getting enough out of it,” she says.

It’s why Aisha has now deferred.

“Teachers are sat reading me a PowerPoint. Why am I paying £10k a year for this? It doesn’t make sense," she says.

She hasn’t noticed parties campaigning much in her area, and wants them to show they care about issues – such as universities, including the "structure, what they are teaching us and making sure we have more opportunities once we graduate".

Image source, EPA

If you want to vote in the general election, the deadline to register is 23:59 BST tonight.

It only takes around five minutes online. And it’s the same process whether you plan to vote in person at a polling station, by post, or through a proxy voter.

Click here to fill in the form, external. You'll need your National Insurance number or another form of ID, and current address details to hand.

And if you want to do a postal vote, you've got until 17:00 BST tomorrow to apply for one, which you can do here, external online.

You can find out more about voting by reading the BBC's simple guide here.

With just 16 days to go until the general election, party leaders are out and about again today speaking to voters on the campaign trail. Here's a look at what's been happening so far:

• Keir Starmer took part in an LBC phone-in this morning, where he did not directly rule out a rise in council tax, saying none of his party's plans require a tax rise beyond those already set out
• Rishi Sunak, who has been campaigning in North Devon, said the support of Boris Johnson “will make a difference", as he confirmed his party is working with the former PM to send out letters of support for some candidates
• The two parties have been rowing over tax policy, with the Conservatives continuing to claim Labour could be secretly planning to put up some taxes, while Labour dismissed them as "fantasy claims"
• In Hampshire, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey claimed a “divided” Conservative Party would “fail in opposition” having “failed in government”
• Meanwhile, speaking to the BBC, co-leader of the Green Party Adrian Ramsay accused the Conservatives and Labour of carrying out a "conspiracy of silence" over investment he said the country needs
• The BBC has said it will allow Reform UK to take part in an extra Question Time leaders’ special on 28 June – the Green Party has also been invited to take part
• On a visit to Oban, SNP leader John Swinney urged Labour to commit to abolishing the two-child benefit cap

• And don't forget, 23:59 BST tonight marks the deadline to register to vote in person

There's plenty more to come today, so stay with us.

Helen Catt
Political correspondent, reporting from Labour's campaign trail

Among the Labour activists gathered at a cricket club in a leafy bit of Berkshire to listen to Keir Starmer, there was quiet excitement.

As one put it to me: “We were cautiously optimistic, now we’re starting to lose the caution”.

Some were telling us it felt like nowhere was out of the question for Labour anymore.

One experienced activist said he’d campaigned in 12 elections and this was the first time that he’d felt the party could win in some of the surrounding constituencies.

For all that, their leader was keen to remind them in a speech otherwise designed to rally the troops that they had “still got a long way to go; not a single seat has been won”.

Image source, Getty Images

Millions of people not yet registered to vote are being urged to sign up ahead of the deadline later.

Tuesday is the last day for voters to register in time for the general election, with the deadline 23:59 BST on 18 June.

More than 2.1 million people have registered since the election was called in May, government data shows.

The figures also showed last Thursday was the busiest day for people registering to vote this year – with 330,621 applications submitted. This included 75,605 people aged 18 to 24.

But the Electoral Commission says young people, private renters and those who have recently moved house are less likely to be correctly registered to vote.

Registering takes about five minutes, and you can do so online here., external

Image source, POOL

We can bring you the latest now from Labour's campaign trail, as Keir Starmer has just been speaking to supporters on a visit to Berkshire.

The Labour leader says he hopes this will be a "summer of change", saying the campaign "feels good" and that his party has "got a positive spirit, a good case to tell to the country".

But he adds there is "still has a long way to go", saying: "Every fight is an individual fight in an individual constituency where every single vote matters".

He goes on to say the election race is a "straight choice" between Labour and the Tories.

Katie Hunter
Scotland reporter, reporting from Oban

Eating in front of the cameras can be risky on the campaign trail.

On a visit to a seafood shack in Oban, SNP leader John Swinney mentioned the former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s infamous bacon sandwich photo.

But it was Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party in the SNP’s sights today.

Swinney said Labour must commit to abolishing the two-child benefit cap, adding that maintaining it would prolong child poverty.

Helen Catt
Political correspondent, reporting from Labour campaign trail

Labour may be concentrating on small businesses today, but Sir Keir Starmer had a big business endorser in tow while campaigning in Basingstoke.

Retailer Theo Paphitis, one of the famous “dragons”, said he’s backing Labour because he’s “fed up with the chaos” and because Labour was now the party for ”stability for business, growth and wealth creation”.

He tells me this was the first time he’d actually met Starmer in person and he was “pleasantly surprised”.

As a businessman, does he back everything in Labour’s deal for workers?

He says you wouldn’t find “anyone who backs everything in every plan” but he does back “the outcome”.

Paphitis has supported the Conservatives in the past, although he has been very critical of them in recent years. He says he hasn’t changed, but the Tories have “gone away” from him.

So has he put his money where his mouth is and made a donation to Labour? He told reporters “lots of people can just give money” but that “actions speak louder than words” and he had given his time.

We can bring you a little more now from Rishi Sunak's visit to a farm in north Devon, where he has been speaking to farmers about the Conservative's plans to enshrine the government's food security target into law.

He says his party has reoriented farming schemes to increase productivity and will continue to support the community with "anything you need".

He also takes aim at Labour's manifesto, which he says contains "87-words" about British farming and "no commitment to food security".

For context: Labour's manifesto has a section titled "Supporting British farmers" which says the party will set a target for half of all food purchased across the public sector to be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards.

Hannah Miller
Political correspondent

They say never work with children or animals. Rishi Sunak has done both in the past two days.

The children, no problem. They were at a nursery in Grantham yesterday, where the Prime Minister happily tied shoelaces.

The animals, well that’s a different story. On a visit to a farm in north Devon, Rishi Sunak was firmly rejected by the sheep as he tried to feed them.

"They don’t want to play ball do they", joked the farmer, as the sheep backed away.

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has also just turned up, and a Q&A session on farming is about to get underway.

The Conservatives will be hoping their voters are a little more forthcoming, as the battle to be ‘herd’ continues.

Let's take a look now at some of the latest pictures coming in from today's campaign trail:

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media