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The Conservatives have vowed to increase defence spending above the rate of inflation for the next five years. 

The prime minister said she would "always put Britain's national security first" as she renewed the Tory pledge to spend 2% of national income on the defence budget. 

It comes after the government faced criticism from retired generals over its military funding. 

Theresa May said: "Under my leadership the Conservatives will ensure that the brave men and women of our armed forces have the equipment and resources they need to keep our country safe." 

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said Labour was committed to the 2% target, adding: "The Tories' hypocrisy on defence knows no bounds. Their cuts have left our forces more under-resourced and underpaid than at any time in the modern era."

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The BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith describes the draft document as "the most extensive we've seen in recent times - down to the minutiae such as free WiFi on trains and banning pesticides which harm bees".

"It's very much Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto, expressing the views and values he's espoused for more than 30 years."

He says the real "emblematic move" is the promise of nationalising rail and postal services. 

While the draft plan does include the renewal of Trident, it leaves the way open for a "wide-ranging defence review", he points out, and on immigration "there's nothing to suggest he wants to drive down numbers or introduce targets". 

The Times

The Times says relations between the chancellor and Theresa May’s team have "deteriorated" after Philip Hammond reportedly "infuriated senior Downing Street aides by effectively committing the prime minister to ditching a promise not to raise VAT, tax or national insurance days after she called the election".

The paper adds that both sides "denied reports that Mr Hammond had initially opposed Mrs May’s promise to cap energy bills". 

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Colin McLean from SVM Asset Management tells Today: "The City will be watching the opinion polls so I'm not sure they'll be too worried as to whether policies [in Labour's draft manifesto] will be implemented."

He acknowledges some of the ideas such as a ban on zero-hours contracts will "cut across a lot of companies" and cause "concern" for businesses.

Others, such as a pay ratio or pay cap, are "already being debates around the City and may gain traction".

BBC Breakfast

The leaked draft of the Labour manifesto continues to dominate this morning.

BBC political correspondent Eleanor Garnier says the leak is "not what they would have wanted and not what they would have planned - publishing the manifesto is meant to be a big event".

She suggests it indicates "a lot of division and not enough discipline" within the Labour Party.

She adds that "some Labour figures do see it as the most left-wing since Michael Foot" but it's also "the most detailed, with 20 points alone on workers' rights".

Labour will end the closure of Crown Post Office branches which play a major role in serving their communities. We will also setup a commission to establish a Post Bank, owned by the Post Office and providing a full range of banking services in every community.

Labour will give communities more power to shape their town centres, by strengthening powers to protect Post Offices, community pharmacies, high street banks, local pubs and independent shops, and promote measures to decrease high street vacancies.

The Conservative government’s privatisation of Royal Mail was a historic mistake, selling off another national asset on the cheap.

Labour will reverse this privatisation at the earliest opportunity, because it is a profitable company that should still be giving a return to the many not the few, and because key national infrastructure like a postal system is best delivered in public ownership.

A Labour government will prioritise public service over private profit. And we will start by bringing our railways back into public ownership, as franchises expire.

A Labour government will introduce a Public Ownership of the Railways Bill to repeal the Railways Act 1993 under which the Conservatives privatised our railways.

In public ownership, we will deliver real improvements for passengers by freezing fares, introducing free wi-fi across the network, ensuring safe staffing levels and ending driver-only operation, and by improving accessibility for disabled people.

A publicly owned railway system can be the backbone of our plans for integrated transport. It will be built on the platform of Network Rail, already in public ownership, and consider establishing a new public rolling stock company.

A Labour government will complete the HS2 high speed rail line from London through Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester, and then into Scotland, consulting with communities affected about the optimal route.

The next Labour government will bring in a 20-point plan for security and equality at work:

• Give all workers equal rights from day one, whether part-time or full-time, temporary or permanent – so that working conditions are not driven down
• Ban zero hours contracts – so that every worker gets a guaranteed number of hours each week
• Ensure that any employer wishing to recruit labour from abroad does not undercut workers at home - because it causes divisions when one workforce is used against another
• Repeal the Trade Union Act and roll out sectoral collective bargaining – because the most effective way to maintain good rights at work is collectively through a union
• Guarantee trade unions a right to access workplaces – so that unions can speak to members and potential members
• Introduce four new public holidays – bringing our country together to mark our four national patron saints’ days, so that workers in Britain get the same proper breaks as in other countries
• Raise the minimum wage to the level of the living wage (expected to be at least £10 per hour by 2020) – so that work pays
• End the public sector pay cap – because public sector workers deserve a pay rise after years of falling wages
• Amend the takeover code to ensure every takeover proposal has a clear plan in place to protect workers and pensioners – because workers shouldn’t suffer when a company is sold
• Roll out maximum pay ratios of 20:1 in the public sector and companies bidding for public contracts - because it cannot be right that wages at the top keep rising while everyone else’s stagnates
• Ban unpaid internships – because it’s not fair for some to get a leg up when others can’t afford to
• Enforce all workers’ rights to trade union representation at work – so that all workers can be supported when negotiating with their employer
• Abolish employment tribunal fees – so that people have access to justice
• Double paid paternity leave to four weeks and increase paternity pay – because fathers are parents too and deserve to spend more time with their new babies
• Strengthen protections for women against unfair redundancy – because no one should be penalised for having children
• Hold a public inquiry into blacklisting – to ensure that blacklisting truly becomes and remains a thing of the past
• Give equalities reps statutory rights – so they have time to protect workers from discrimination
• Reinstate protection against third party harassment – because everyone deserves to be safe at work
• Use public spending power to drive up standards, including only awarding public contracts to companies which recognise trade unions
• Introduce a civil enforcement system to ensure compliance with gender pay auditing – so that all workers have fair access to employment and promotion opportunities and are treated fairly at work

A leaked copy of Labour's general election manifesto is full of 'popular policies', according to the Daily Mirror political editor, Jack Blanchard.

Home is at the heart of all of our lives. It’s the foundation on which we raise our families, the bedrock for our dreams and aspirations. But for too many people, the housing pressures they face are getting worse not better. Britain has a housing crisis – a crisis of supply and a crisis of affordability.

After seven years of failure, the Conservatives have no plan to fix the housing crisis. Since 2010, housebuilding has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s, rough sleeping has risen every year, rents have risen faster than incomes, there are almost 200,000 fewer home-owners, and new affordable housebuilding is at a 24-year low.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Labour will invest to build over a million new homes. By the end of the next Parliament we will be building at least 100,000 council and housing association homes a year for genuinely affordable rent or sale.

Labour will establish a new Department for Housing to focus on tackling the crisis and ensure housing is about homes for the many, not investment opportunities for the few. Labour’s new housing ministry will be tasked with improving the number, standards and affordability of homes. We will overhaul the Homes and Communities Agency to be Labour’s housing delivery body and give councils new powers to build the homes local communities need.

We will prioritise brownfield sites, and protect the green belt. We will start work on a new generation of New Towns to build the homes we need and avoid urban sprawl.

We will make the building of new homes, including council homes, a priority through our [national infrastructure fund], as part of a joined up industrial and skills strategy that ensures a vibrant construction sector with a skilled workforce and rights at work.

Labour will not only build more, we will build better. We will insulate more homes to help people manage the cost of energy bills, reduce preventable winter deaths, and to meet our climate change targets. We will consult on new rules to prevent "rabbit hutch" homes.

Whether for rent or to buy, Labour will implement minimum space standards for new developments.

We will ensure that local plans address the need for older people’s housing, ensuring that choice and downsizing options are readily available.

Labour will commit to over £6 billion extra in annual funding through increasing income tax for the highest 5% of earners, by increasing tax on private medical insurance, and we will free up resources by  halving the fees paid to management consultants.

Labour will give boost capital funding for the NHS, to ensure that patients are cared for in buildings and equipment which are fit for the 21st Century. And we will introduce a new OBR for Health body to oversee health spending and scrutinize how it is spent.

Labour will halt the NHS “Sustainability and Transformation Plans” which are looking at closing health services across England and ask local health groups to redraw the plans with a focus on patient need rather than available finances. We will create a new quality, safety and excellence regulator - to be called "NHS Excellence".

The next Labour government will reverse privatisation of our NHS and return our health service into expert public control. Labour will repeal the Health & Social Care Act that puts profits before patients. We will reinstate the powers of the Secretary of State for Health to have overall responsibility for the NHS. We will introduce a new legal duty on the Secretary of State and on NHS England to ensure that excess private profits are not made out of the NHS at the expense of patient care.

BBC political correspondent Chris Mason takes a look at what's in the leaked draft Labour manifesto.

There is mounting evidence that workers are being forced into self-employment by unscrupulous employers to avoid costs and their duties to workers. Labour will clamp down on bogus self-employment by:

• Shifting the burden of proof, so that the law assumes a worker is an employee unless the employer can prove otherwise.
• Imposing punitive fines on employers not meeting their responsibilities, helping to deter others from doing the same
• Involving trade unions in enforcement, eg by giving them a seat on the executive board of the new Ministry of Labour
• Giving the Ministry of Labour the resources to enforce workers’ rights
•  Banning payroll companies, sometimes known as umbrella companies, which create a false structure to limit employers’ tax liabilities and limit workers’ rights
• Giving employment agencies and end-users joint responsibility for ensuring that the rights of agency workers are enforced
• Rolling out sectoral collective bargaining and strengthen trade union rights, because empowering people to claim their own rights in the workplace is the most effective means of enforcement.

We would also extend the rights of employees to all workers – something that will make a substantial and immediate difference to the quality of life of people in insecure work. But there are real concerns that rapid changes to the world of work are rendering existing employment categories outdated.

Labour recognises that the law often struggles to keep up with the ever-changing new forms of employment and work, so will set up a dedicated commission to modernise the law around employment status. New statutory definitions of employment status would reduce the need for litigation and make improve compliance.

The commission will be led by legal and academic experts with representation from industry and trade unions.

In a draft of Labour's manifesto is a long, long list of plans - some new, some predictable, some rather more surprising.

Labour’s energy policy is built on three simple principles:

• To ensure security of energy supply and "keep the lights on"
• To ensure energy costs are affordable for consumers and businesses
• To ensure we meet our climate change targets and transition to a low carbon economy

The UK energy system is outdated, expensive and polluting. Privatisation has failed to deliver an energy system that delivers for people, businesses or our environment.

One in ten households are in fuel poverty, yet according to the Competition Markets Authority customers are overcharged an enormous £2bn every year.

Labour understands that many people don’t have time to shop around, they just want reliable and affordable energy. So the next Labour government will:

• Introduce an immediate emergency price cap to ensure that the average duel fuel household energy bill remains below £1,000 per year, while we transition to a fairer system for bill payers.
•  Take energy back into public ownership to deliver renewable energy, affordability for consumers, and democratic control. 

The new public system will include three key elements:

• Central government control of the natural monopolies of the transmission and distribution grids, and of responsibility for the policy and information functions of the regulator.
• At least one publicly owned energy company in every region of the UK, that is a locally run, democratically accountable energy supplier, working to tackle fuel poverty, return profits to customers via reduced tariffs, support community energy projects and drive larger energy companies to lower their prices in the area.
• A new Local Energy Task Force will provide help and advice for local people and businesses to start up Community Energy Cooperatives.

Taxation is what underpins our prosperity. All of us, including business, benefit from a healthy, educated and skilled population with access to basic services and secure housing.

We believe in the obligation to contribute to a fair taxation scheme – and will come down hard on those who seek to avoid their responsibilities.

A Labour government will guarantee to rule out rises in income tax for those earning below £80,000 a year, on personal National Insurance Contributions, and on VAT.

Under Labour’s plans 95% of taxpayers will be guaranteed no increase in their income tax contributions and everyone will be protected from any increase in personal National Insurance contributions and VAT.

Only the highest 5% of earners will be asked to contribute more in tax to help fund our public services that have suffered at the hands of seven years of Tory austerity.

To date too many cuts have fallen on those with least – and we have seen child poverty rise to over 4 million, homelessness rise, and the queues grow at food banks. This cannot continue.

Corporation tax in the UK is the lowest of any major developed economy, and so we will ask large corporations to pay a little more while still keeping UK corporation tax among the lowest of the major economies.

Businesses tell us that they need a more skilled workforce to boost productivity and growth – and so extra corporate tax revenues will contribute to education and skills budgets.

We will also protect small businesses by reintroducing the lower small profit rate of corporation tax. We will also exclude small businesses from costly plans to introduce quarterly reporting – and take action on late payments.

Labour accepts the referendum result and a Labour government will put the national interest first. We will prioritise jobs and living standards, build a close new relationship with the EU, protect workers’ rights and environmental standards, provide certainty to EU nationals and give a meaningful role to Parliament throughout negotiations.

We will end Theresa May’s reckless approach to Brexit, and seek to unite the country around a Brexit deal that works for every community in Britain.

We will scrap the Conservatives’ Brexit White Paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities that have a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the Single Market and the Customs Union – which are essential for maintaining industries, jobs and businesses in Britain. Labour will always put jobs and the economy first.

A Labour government will immediately guarantee existing rights for all EU nationals living in Britain and secure reciprocal rights for UK citizens who have chosen to make their lives in EU countries. EU nationals do not just contribute to our society: they are our society. And they should not be used as bargaining chips.

Labour recognises that leaving the EU with "no deal" is the worst possible deal for Britain and that it would do damage to our economy and trade. We will reject "no deal" as a viable and negotiate transitional arrangements to avoid a cliff-edge for the UK economy.

We will drop the Conservatives’ Great Repeal Bill, replacing it with an EU Rights and Protections Bill that will ensure there is no detrimental change to workers’ rights, equality law, consumer rights or environmental protections as a result of Brexit.