Setting out his stall on the economy and Labour's spending plans, Mr McDonnell says Labour will deliver "investment on a scale never seen before in this country and certainly never seen before in the north and outside of London and the south east".

To do this will require "radical change" and "an irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people", he adds.

Mr McDonnell says there will be an additional £150bn invested in a new Social Transformation Fund, spent over the first five years of a Labour government.

The fund will be used to upgrade schools, hospitals, care homes and council houses, he says.

Part of this national fund will be carved out for a Local Transformation Fund in each of England's regions.

The shadow chancellor says the money will be "ring-fenced for infrastructure projects decided and developed at a local level, with decisions made transparently and democratically in each region about how their fund is allocated".

BBC Wales News

Following the resignation of Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns yesterday, the chairman of the Welsh Conservatives has said the party will apologise if it needs to over its handling of the row involving a former aide accused of sabotaging a rape trial.

Lord Davies of Gower was speaking about claims Mr Cairns knew Ross England had made allegations about a woman’s sexual history in the trial in April 2018, causing the case to collapse.

BBC Wales found Mr Cairns, who denies any wrongdoing, was sent an sent an email about the case over a year ago.

He said he had only heard about it last week.

Mr England was chosen as the Tory Vale of Glamorgan candidate for the Welsh Assembly in December 2018, four months after the email about him was sent to Mr Cairns.

The victim, who denies the claims Mr England made in court, has called for an apology from the Welsh Conservatives.

On Thursday, Lord Davies told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: “There will be an apology if I find out that one should be forthcoming.

“At the moment I deeply regret that this matter has arisen. I deeply regret that the whole trial had to take place a second time.

“In fairness, it’s not going to be a trial by media, it will be an investigation on behalf of the Conservative Party and if we find that we have to apologise, then we will apologise.”

Read our full story here.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is now beginning his speech in Liverpool, where he is setting out Labour's plans to invest in public services.

"It's good to be home," says Mr McDonnell, who was born in the city.

He says this election is the chance "to change things dramatically and permanently for the better".

"Because this election isn't just about the next twelve months of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, or even about the next five years. It's about the next ten years," he says.

It is "a once-in-a-generation chance to get back on track, remake this country and transform everyone's lives for the better," he says.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at an event in Liverpool, where the party is setting out its economic policies.

He says Labour wants to invest so no community is left behind. And address imbalance across the country.

His party, he says, will tax people fairly to fund public services.

And Andrew Haldenby, director of Leeds-based recruitment firm iSource Group says whatever happens, the country needs to "move forward".

"I think the stagnation that we've all experienced for the last three years and beyond is really the thing that we need to move on from," he said.

"We need confidence that's going to allow us to make decisions to plan and grow - trust and confidence has been really eroded."

Transport is also a priority for him - high speed rail line HS3, which would link cities in the North, is needed, he says, as "there's a sense of inequality and I think we need to feel like that is changing".

As the BBC goes out and about on the campaign trail, today we are in Leeds. Here, Labour's suggestion that part of the Treasury be moved to the north of England has been welcomed.

Amy De-Balsi, who runs a co-working space in the city, believes it could be the catalyst for boosting transport links in the north of England.

She said: "Transport in the north is a huge issue, we aren't seeing the same levels of investment as the south and possibly, by moving the Treasury up here, experiencing those problems themselves might actually stimulate some more investment."

When asked what the most important issues were at the general election, Ms De-Balsi said the Brexit debate had overtaken domestic issues but money was needed to help people create businesses.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Meanwhile, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg picks up on the "disquiet" among some Tories about the party's choice of candidate for the Broadland constituency in Norfolk.

Nick Conrad left his job as a presenter for BBC Radio Norfolk in a bid to become the Tory candidate for the seat.

However, he came under fire in 2014 when he said women should "keep their knickers on" during a live debate about a high-profile rape case. Mr Conrad later apologised for the comments.

A Tory insider says it is "mad and disappointing - he is not the type of person to gift a safe seat to", our political correspondent reports.

First up on the campaign trail this morning for Boris Johnson is a visit to the Tetley Tea Factory at Tata Global Beverages in Stockton-on-Tees, in north-east England.

The plant is in the Labour seat of Stockton South. It was held with fewer than a 1,000 vote majority and was a Labour gain at the last election in 2017.

Image source, Reuters

Prominent Conservatives continue to use social media to highlight the comments of former Labour MP Ian Austin, who encouraged voters to back Boris Johnson ahead of Jeremy Corbyn.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also wrote about Mr Austin on Twitter, saying, external the "passionate ex-Labour MP" articulated "the dangers posed by Jeremy Corbyn".

Chancellor Sajid Javid called Mr Austin "a brave man", tweeting: , external"Ian is Labour to his core, but knows that Jeremy Corbyn is completely unfit to lead."

Here is a little more on the 60 constituencies where candidates from pro-Remain parties will stand aside as part of the electoral pact between Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party.

The Lib Dems will get a clear run in 43 of the 60 seats in England and Wales, including a number of target seats like Cheltenham, Richmond Park and Cheadle.

The Green Party will get a clear run in 10, with Plaid Cymru in 7.

Green candidate Carla Denyer tweeted her delight at being selected to run in Bristol West.

Finishing his speech on the Conservative's economic approach, Mr Javid says his party has a “responsible but ambitious agenda”, pledging to "level-up across the country".

“Voting Conservative is the only way to end the double whammy of uncertainty that’s been posed by a prolonged Brexit and the prospect of the hardest left government of any major Western nation," he says.

Reality Check

Image source, Getty

Throughout the election campaign, our Reality Check team will be assessing the truth behind the comments, lines and pledges from the political parties vying for your vote.

When Labour launched its election campaign on Tuesday, party leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to end food-bank use within five years.

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Live programme afterwards, Paul Scully, Conservative Party deputy chairman and candidate for Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park, said: "There's more in Germany than there are in the UK."

So is that true?

At the Unite to Remain press conference, Green MEP Molly Scott Cato says that she hopes today will be seen as a "historic day", and she hopes the deal will "break the two-party stranglehold".

Commenting on the parties coming together, Plaid Cymru's Liz Saville-Roberts says the "easiest thing under the sun" for the parties to do would be to "go back to the comforts of tribalism".

Lib Dem president Sal Brinton tells the audience: "It's vital that we all work together." Ms Brinton said they are demonstrating that there is a "new way" of doing politics.

Full details of the pact they've agreed are here.

Mr Javid says the Conservative Party is the "party of businesses and the party of workers".

Attacking Labour's economic policies he says: “Labour believe that taxes should be as high as possible and people should be punished for doing well.

“Conservatives believe that you ultimately raise more by taxing less and that if you work hard… you shouldn’t be worse off."

Do you know how the UK's first-past-the-post voting system works?

Find out more in our handy video guide.

Mr Javid says now "is a responsible time to invest" in public services, pledging new hospitals, schools, railways and better broadband.

However the Chancellor says that "what we spend cannot exceed what we bring in" and his party will "maintain spending restraint".

"Debt will never be allowed to get out of control", he adds.

Mr Javid credits the Conservatives with transforming the economy for the better, saying it was "scarred by Labour's great recession".

He claims this success was not inevitable but down to "economic stewardship by successive Conservative governments".

Sajid Javid begins his speech by saying his party will "get Brexit done", adding that Brexit is "the most important thing for the economy right now".

He says the prime minister's Brexit deal is "good for democracy and it's good for the economy".