Summary

  • CPS: No charges over 2015 battle bus

  • One file, for Kent, still being considered

  • Tories: 'Politically motivated complaints'

  • Labour and Lib Dem education pledges

  • The election is on 8 June

Live Reporting

Martha Buckley and Jackie Storer

  1. CPS statement: 'No criminal charges have been authorised'

    In a statement, Nick Vamos, CPS Head of Special Crime, said:

    We have considered files of evidence from 14 police forces in respect of allegations relating to Conservative Party candidates’ expenditure during the 2015 General Election campaign. We considered whether candidates and election agents working in constituencies that were visited by the Party’s ‘Battle Bus’ may have committed a criminal offence by not declaring related expenditure on their local returns. Instead, as the Electoral Commission found in its report, these costs were recorded as national expenditure by the Party. We reviewed the files in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and have concluded the tests in the Code are not met and no criminal charges have been authorised."

  2. Corbyn: Corporation tax was 28% before 2010

    In his campaign speech Jeremy Corbyn says Labour would fund its education plans by raising corporation tax to 26% by the end of the next Parliament.

    He points out that it was 28% before the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition came into power in 2010.

    If Labour wins the election, the main rate of corporation tax would still be lower than under the last Labour government, he adds.

  3. 'No charges' over Conservative battle bus spending - source
    Breaking

    A source has told the BBC that they do not expect the CPS to announce charges today over Conservative election spending on battle buses in 2015. 

  4. UKIP will not contest North Norfolk seat

    Mariam Issimdar
    BBC News

    UKIP has decided not to field a candidate in North Norfolk where Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb is defending a majority of 4,043.

    Norman Lamb MPGetty Images

    The party is asking the 8,300 people who voted for them last time to "lend" their votes to the Conservatives in order to unseat Mr Lamb. 

    UKIP has announced "non-aggression pacts" against certain Brexit-supporting Conservatives like Stewart Jackson in Peterborough and Philip Hollobone in Kettering, but this is thought to be the first time it has decided not to stand in order to unseat an anti-Brexit candidate.

  5. Corbyn sets out 'National Education Service' plan

    Jeremy Corbyn

    Jeremy Corbyn is talking to supporters in Leeds, setting out Labour's election pledges on creating a National Education Service for 'cradle to grave' provision. 

    He says every child should be able to reach their potential in school. And that no-one should be held back in their job. 

    And he has encouraged people to register to vote in the election, to help to fight a "rigged" system in the UK.

  6. Labour education policy 'a big deal with a big bill'

    Victoria Derbyshire

    Norman Smith

    BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith says Labour's education policy is "a big, big deal and it comes with a big, big bill".

    The party is talking about it being free for adults to retrain and reintroducing student maintenance grants, though there is no confirmation of whether Labour would scrap university tuition fees.

    "Without out university tuition fees it will cost something like £37bn," Norman says. "Adding on university tuition fees that's another £20bn.

    "These are massive, massive bills... part of which Labour says they are going to raise by hiking taxes on business" - corporation tax will rise by almost a third under the Labour's plans.

    Meanwhile, the Lib Dems "want to raise £7bn, also to plough into schools, so a lot of money being talked about to be pumped into education".

  7. Free beer for some who register to vote!

    Watch: Some pubs are working to encourage young voters

    Some Bristol businesses are encouraging people to register to vote by offering free food and drinks.

    Several city pubs are offering the incentive for any 18-24 year-olds who can prove they've registered to vote in June's general election.

    Also, a takeaway in Fishponds says it will give free chips to any 18-24-year-olds who have registered to vote for the first time.

  8. Election expenses decision due

    Victoria Derbyshire

    We should find out soon whether or not any Conservative candidates or officials are to be charged over spending at the 2015 General Election.

    BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith says the timing is tight because candidates for this general election must register by tomorrow. 

    If anyone is charged - and they all deny wrongdoing - they may be likely to stand down, and that gives "Team May" just 24 hours to find new candidates, he says.

  9. Ruth Davidson 'open to reviewing' how 'rape clause' works

    BBC Radio 5 live tweets...

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  10. What matters to disabled voters?

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  11. Labour voter on benefit cuts

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  12. Labour education plans should boldly go further, say Greens

    "Labour’s plans for education would simply pump more money into a broken system," according to the Green Party of England and Wales.

    Education spokeswoman Vix Lowthion said:

    There is no doubt schools need proper funding but on top of this the Green Party has bold plans to overhaul education so every parent can be sure their child will get the best start in life.

    Further, the Greens want to bring free schools and academies back under local authority control "so they can be held to account" and stop "relentless" teacher and pupil testing.

  13. Mays helped to boost One Show audience

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  14. Who is the most searched-for party leader?

    Redrawing the political map of the UK based around Google searches for the names of party leaders.

    Read More

  15. The verdict from the sofa, on the sofa...

    Alex Jones and Matt Baker with Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband PhilipPA

    How did the Mays' One Show sofa visit play out with the commentariat? 

    The New Statesman says it was a "snapshot of an entire marriage" from chit-chat over jackets and ties to hand-holding gestures recalling love at first sight.

    Patrick Kidd, writing in the Times, feels they neatly stepped over any interview pot-holes and managed to confirm one essential question - no, the UK is not leaving Eurovision.

    Mr May seemed a "decent egg", reckoned Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail, and the couple appeared "genuinely fond of one another".

    But in the Guardian, sketchwriter John Crace described the appearance as "pure TV valium" as "Theresa and Philip May take a seat on the green sofa to share ‘strong and stable’ anecdotes about life on the home front".

  16. Jeremy Corbyn 'hoping for Bernie Sanders endorsement'

    The Guardian

    Bernie SandersReuters

    Will former US presidential challenger Bernie Sanders endorse Jeremy Corbyn?

    "Jeremy Corbyn has said he is hoping for a last-minute endorsement from the US political maverick Bernie Sanders," according to the Guardian.

    Its article reads:

    The unsuccessful challenger for the Democratic nomination in the US is due in the UK a few days before the general election on 8 June, and Momentum activists are hoping to obtain a Corbyn endorsement from him at an event in Bristol on 3 June.

    In an interview with the Guardian, Corbyn said he had 'a lot of time for Bernie'. Asked if Sanders would endorse him when he visited Britain, the Labour leader said: 'I can’t say. I hope he will. I think he probably will, actually. But we mustn’t predict these things.'

  17. Has 'red Tory' encountered 'blue Labour'?

    Financial Times

    Lord Glasmanbbc

    Labour peer Lord Glasman has attended a meeting at Number 10 says the FT

    Earlier on Today, David Cameron's former policy adviser Camilla Cavendish described his successor Theresa May as a "red Tory".

    The Financial Times. reports on talks between Mrs May's top team and a Labour peer and former adviser to Ed Miliband - a move it thinks is "likely to further unsettle Thatcherite Tories".

    The talks between Maurice Glasman, a Labour peer and pioneer of the 'Blue Labour' project to reconnect his party with working-class voters, and Nick Timothy, Mrs May’s co-chief of staff and the man charged with drafting the Tory manifesto, suggest the former Labour leader’s ideas are being actively studied in Downing Street.

  18. Alex Salmond: 'This election will not decide independence'

    BBC Newsnight

    The former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond says there will be a second referendum on Scottish independence irrespective of the result of the general election.

    Speaking to BBC Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark, Mr Salmond said the mandate for a second referendum was given last year.

  19. Telegraph story is 'utter nonsense' says Lucy Powell

    Former Labour frontbencher Lucy Powell has dismissed a story in the Telegraph, which claimed 100 moderate Labour MPs could form a breakaway group in Parliament if Labour loses the election and Jeremy Corbyn does not step down.

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  20. Lib Dems 'could be decent opposition' says Farron

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron predicts a Conservative landslide and warns the worst governments "are the ones with the weakest opposition".

    He tells Today:

    The Liberal Democrats are the only opposition party basically left standing, with a decent result in the local elections last year and in a place with fire in our belly and a clarity of purpose to challenge for - well, what is really the real vacancy in British politics - and that's for there to be a decent opposition.

    He said there would be "no pacts, no deals" with the Conservatives or Labour to form a coalition.