The former Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett says that today's meeting to agree the new Labour manifesto has been "very productive" and that an "exciting document" is emerging.

Mr Trickett, who left the meeting just before it concluded, told waiting reporters that the document would "speak to the whole country" and "for the many not the few".

He said: "We anticipate the manifesto will be the basis of our new government which will take the whole country in a new direction."

Railways, education, social care and defence - BBC correspondents unpick Labour's pledges.

Image source, Channel 4 News

The prime minister tells Channel 4 News the leak of Labour's draft policy programme is "pretty shambolic and shows the chaos we would see from a Labour government".

The policies would be "taking us back to the past", she says, whereas she is committed to "building a better future, that's why we need strong and stable leadership". 

Image source, Reuters

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has made a rallying call for Labour supporters not to abandon the party.

He argues that politics goes in cycles, stressing: "You can be up in 1997 and down by the 2010s.

"You can be the darlings of the media, as Labour was for some time, and yet the very same media is now telling you you're the enemies of the people.So yes, politics goes in cycles."

Mr Brown, who did not mention Jeremy Corbyn in his speech in Coventry, added:

Gordon Brown says the UK needs tariff-free access to the EU otherwise the British car making industry risks being "less competitive and perhaps uncompetitive".

Speaking at Coventry University, he says if tariffs are imposed they "will be 10%", pushing up the price of a car by £2,000-£3,000.

He argues that half the cars produced in the UK are sold into mainland Europe  - and most are sold to other countries and exported abroad.

Friction-less access is also needed for car parts and components going back and forth between the UK and Europe, he says.

He adds that Mrs May cannot fight the election on a single issue - Brexit - and asks what her policies are on security, defence, public services, education, NHS, poverty and inequality.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Christian Wolmar, a transport specialist and former Labour candidate, says the idea of nationalising the railways is "perfectly sensible".

"The franchise system is in trouble and most franchises are in the hands of foreign government," he says, but bringing it into public ownership would "take some time to bring about".

Richard Wellings from the Institute of Economic Affairs responds that the management of track by Network Rail is "far from a success story" and has been characterised by "endemic mismanagement".

What we need is "proper privatisation", according to Dr Wellings. 

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Analysis carried out by the World At One finds 25% of Conservative candidates are women, 41% for Labour, around a third for the SNP and just under a third of Lib Dem candidates.

Conservative Maria Miller says her party has made "significant progress because of Theresa May and the work she's done with the Women2Win campaign". 

The SNP's Kirsty Blackman stresses the snap election has meant "less time to reach out to candidates from non-traditional backgrounds".

Lib Dem Daisy Cooper acknowledges there is room for improvement but estimates the party has selected women in the 50 to 60 most winnable seats. 

The future of jobs, manufacturing and the car industry must be on the ballot paper for the 8 June general election, former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

He said there were 45,000 people employed by Jaguar Land Rover in the West Midlands, 170,000 employed in the car industry throughout the UK, nearly 800,000 people dependent on jobs in the supply and servicing industry and 2.7m employed in manufacturing.

"They need to have answers before this election about what is to happen to manufacturing in these European negotiations," he told Labour supporters at Coventry University.

He argued that whether a person voted leave or remain, "it's in the interest of Britain to negotiate free trade with the EU" so cars, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing products can be sold without taxation as they enter the EU.

He said nobody in Coventry can afford to give the prime minister "a blank cheque" when the jobs of car workers, the future of manufacturing and prospects of young people were at stake during the election.

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has accused Theresa May of asking voters to give her a "carte blanche" to negotiate the UK's exit from the EU.

He said manufacturing, the car industry and jobs will all be at risk "if we are not told what we are voting for on 8 June".

Speaking at a campaign event in Coventry University, he said: 

Mr Brown also said the only way to end pensioner poverty is vote Labour.

If Mrs May is re-elected, the prediction is another 400,000 elderly people will be "pushed into pensioner poverty" by 2022, he said.

Image source, BBC Parliament

The EU's chief negotiator in the Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier has told Irish politicians that he will do everything he can to avoid a "hard border" between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Addressing a joint session of the Irish parliament this morning, Mr Barnier renewed his pledge to make border negotiations one of the three main priorities in forthcoming talks, alongside the safeguarding of the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and the financial settlement which had to be agreed. Ireland's interests would be treated as the EU's interests.

He said that people living in the border area with Northern Ireland, and in Ireland generally, had concerns about the affect Brexit would have on exports to the UK, with 14% of goods and 20% of services going to the UK alone. But there was also the issue of border checks themselves which had to be addressed and the "fear [of a] return to the instability of the past". Mr Barnier said that nothing "should put peace at risk".

Image source, PA

The PoliticsHome website reports, external that the Unite union "has agreed to give Labour up to £4.5 million to fight the general election - with the possibility of more cash if required".

The decision to release the cash from the union's political fund was taken at a meeting of its executive council on Monday, according to PoliticsHome, and an initial payment of just under £2m has already been donated to Labour

The Daily Politics

Lib Dem Tom Brake has defended his party's plans to allow 50,000 Syrian refugees into the UK over five years.

"We will ensure that it's properly funded," said Mr Brake, but sidestepped questions by BBC2's Daily Politics about how the party will pay for the policy.

The candidate for Carshalton and Wallington said many local authorities were prepared to take in refugees, adding that the borough of Sutton had accepted over 20 people.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said the government's 20,000 figure for refugees has yet to be met.

But she said it was not fair that countries surrounding Syria, that are often poor, should take the biggest share of the burden so far.

The former Labour MP has said he will stand against the party's official candidate in Rochdale.