The Daily Politics

Labour's campaign chief Andrew Gwynne is on the Daily Politics and is quizzed about the party's opposition to means-testing the winter fuel allowance

He argues that the "progressive" way of dealing with the winter fuel allowance is for everyone to get it, but the rich to pay more through their tax.

He raises something that Mr McDonnell has mentioned - that many pensioners do not claim pension credit. Mr McDonnell says the 19-page form that has to be filled in puts people off.

Image source, PA

Plans to limit the number of pensioners who get winter fuel payments are "sick and sneaky", Labour has claimed.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said 10 million people would be hit by Tory proposals to means-test the allowance.

The current universal provision was the "basis of the welfare state" and moving away from it would hit the poorest and worsen fuel poverty, he told the BBC.

The Tories say help will be focused on those most in need and the savings directed at supporting social care.

Read the full story here.

Jo Coburn
Daily Politics presenter

Image source, Frankfurter Allgemeine

"Theresa May shakes off Thatcher’s legacy”, declares Philippe Bernard of France’s centre-left Le Monde.

He says the prime minister sees the Brexit referendum as a “call to protect voters” from the forces of globalisation, and so has “firmly repositioned the Tories as the party of ‘ordinary workers’… in a bid to “smother Labour”, he says, external.

Centre-right Le Figaro’s correspondent Florentin Collomp says Mrs May chose to launch the manifesto in “Labour’s heartland”, external constituency of Halifax, which voted heavily to leave the European Union.

He describes her as a "secretive and authoritarian leader, external…at the peak of her power, who has crushed the opposition to left and right, as well as in her own party”.

Christian Zaschke for Munich’s centre-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung also personalises the coverage with an unsympathetic profile of Theresa May as an “Ice Queen… who has mastered the art of cold revenge, and relentlessly repeats her ‘strong and stable’ message throughout the election campaign”.

Marcus Theurer of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, external also sees Mrs May campaigning on a “hard Brexit” platform, but warns her this "could reduce the scope for compromise in the complicated negotiations”.

Stefanie Bolzen of Germany’s centre-right Die Welt says Mrs May is trying to “put foreigners off Britain” by doubling fees to hire foreign staff and increasing the costs of accessing healthcare.

She also sees trouble ahead in the Brexit negotiations. “It doesn’t matter how big May’s majority is, as the 27 EU states have already made their conditions clear” - and these include free movement of labour.

Find out what's buzzing in the social media world today.

Some of Theresa May's plans have blanks to be filled in - and if the Conservatives won't, then others will.

The last question at the Labour press conference is from the Yorkshire Post - is Mr McDonnell worried about Labour losing seats in its northern heartlands, given the polls?

The shadow chancellor is bullish:

"I think it's turning, I think it's turning rapidly... the more people see what the Tories are all about... the more people are realising the threat of Theresa May going back into government and that's why I'm confident we will have a Labour government."

And just because Mr McDonnell mentioned it and the temptation is too irresistible - remember this classic 2001 campaign moment?

Image source, PA

Image source, PA

The shadow chancellor, who has framed much of the press conference around his concern for pensioners, is asked what pensioners who remember the IRA bombing the British mainland would think about his comments - made in 2003 - about the "bravery" of the IRA.

Mr McDonnell notes that he has already apologised for his choice of words, and had made clear that "no cause is worth an innocent life".

"I've apologised for my language but I have made it absolutely clear, everything I did was about securing peace."

His remarks were made at a gathering in London in 2003 to commemorate IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Mr McDonnell told the meeting: "It's about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle.

"It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table."

John McDonnell thinks he has found some rare common ground with Theresa May - following reports of rows between 10 Downing Street and the chancellor.

"The one thing that Theresa May and I have in common is that neither of us trust Philip Hammond," he says.

He believes the chancellor is behind the decision to means-test winter fuel allowance.

A bit of air boxing from Mr McDonnell as he's asked about Labour's "triple whammy" poster - with three boxing gloves.

He jokes that he thought, when he saw it, that former Labour deputy PM Lord Prescott was back.

Lord Prescott famously punched a protester on the 2001 election campaign trail.

Nick Robinson discovers a fascinating split among a group of Remain voters in the marginal Bedford constituency.

Mr McDonnell is questioned about his claim 10 million pensioners could be hit by the Conservatives' decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance - when in fact we don't yet know how many will be hit.

The shadow chancellor says the Conservatives have not yet given sufficient detail about the policy:

"This is the problem with having an uncosted manifesto, you send messages out that scare people."

He says getting information out of the Conservatives is "like extracting teeth".

He is asked again about why richer pensioners - including himself - need the winter fuel allowance.

He says he spends his "on winter fuel" but his tax will contribute to the overall exchequer "and that's the fairest way of doing it".

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has postponed a day of campaigning in Essex today after the party battle bus had a wing mirror knocked off over night.

Mr Nuttall was to join activists at two campaign events in the county, but the party's purple bus (pictured at a previous event) was clipped by a lorry in a coach park overnight, taking a wing mirror off and grounding the vehicle for a day while it is fixed.

Image source, Getty Images

A party spokesman said: "A lorry drove a bit too close on its way out early this morning or late last night and just knocked the wing mirror off.

"It's one of those rogue accidents you can't do anything about."

He said there was nothing to suggest the wing mirror had been knocked off on purpose, and the visit would be rescheduled.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says Labour's immigration policy "will be managed and fair" but will not include "unrealistic targets".

"We want a realistic immigration policy... based upon the needs of the economy," he says.

The Conservatives' manifesto repeated the party's as-yet-unrealised target to reduce net migration to less than 100,000 - a policy that has been criticised by some business groups who fear it will hit the economy.

On Heathrow, he says the Labour Party's position is that it supports the Airports Commission's recommendation that a third runway should be built - something he, as a local MP, has opposed.

Image source, ITN pool

Mr McDonnell says he is "angry" about the Conservative decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance - at the moment all pensioners qualify for one-off payments of between £100 and £300 each winter.

"This is a savage attack on vulnerable pensioners... it is disgraceful," he says.

"This is the fifth richest country in the world, we should be able to keep our pensioners warm in winter," he says.

In a Q&A afterwards, Mr McDonnell is asked why millionaires like Mick Jagger or Lord Sugar should get £300 a year from the taxpayer. He says the point of having universal benefits is that testing can lead to people not claiming because it can be "so complex".

"Universal benefits actually reach those who need it better," he says. Richer people pay more through their taxes and that is how fairness is introduced to the system, he says.

The two Labour ministers are taking it in turns to pick apart the Conservative manifesto.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is back on his feet and says that household incomes and wages are being squeezed and, under the Conservatives, "there are further tax rises in the pipeline".

He says the tax burden on families is set to reach the highest level since 1986/7 and attacks the Conservatives for not retaining a 2015 pledge not to put up income tax or National Insurance.

He says working people and pensioners are offered only "insecurity - and a huge question mark over living standards".

Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey says pensioners "must feel like they've been kicked in the teeth" by the Conservative manifesto.

She takes aim at the Tory manifesto for dropping the commitment to the "triple lock" on state pensions - pensioners would be £330 worse off since 2010 under the new Tory "double lock" policy, she says.

The Conservatives confirmed that the so-called "triple lock" on pensions would be reduced to a "double lock" if they win the general election, with the state pension to rise by the higher of average earnings or inflation - but to no longer go up by 2.5% if they are both lower than that.

Ms Long-Bailey also says "a substantial cut for millions of pensioners" is the result of the Conservative manifesto pledge to means test the winter fuel allowance - something she says is "morally wrong".