As his right-hand man, John McDonnell, tweets, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been meeting supporters on a walkabout around Blackpool city centre during his campaign visit to the seaside town.

He was also pictured alongside Labour's Blackpool South candidate Gordon Marsden, who earlier made a speech at the party's event.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

With the Conservatives making their own claims about Labour's spending plans before the party has published its manifesto, shadow chancellor John McConnell is responding on Twitter.

He says the Tory figures are "fake news" and pledges that only the top 5% of earners would pay more to fund the parties spending increases. VAT and national insurance would not rise, he promises.

We're likely to get manifestos in the next week or so if previous elections are anything to go by.

Image source, PA Media

Let's take a breath for a moment as we chew our lunch. Floods in the Midlands and Yorkshire have been dominating the headlines for a few days and now they've become an election issue.

• The Liberal Democrats have pledged £5bn for flood prevention measures
• Their leader, Jo Swinson, called on the government to declare the floods a "national emergency"
• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn echoed the call, saying the government's response was "woeful"
• He blamed government cuts for the severity of the damage, and promised to put more funding into flood defences
• Boris Johnson is holding a COBRA meeting for emergency planning over the floods
• Mr Corbyn wrote to the PM calling for the meeting on Monday, but No 10 said the decision to hold one had already been taken
• Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has insisted his Brexit Party will stand candidates in Labour marginal seats targeted by the Tories
• Labour has faced a cyber attack on one of its campaign websites
• Politicians are paying tribute to former Labour Frank Dobson who died aged 79

The issue of cyber security and elections is at the forefront of our minds today after Labour revealed it had been targeted in an attack.

The party reported it to the National Cyber Security Centre which has now released a statement.

It says the party "followed the correct, agreed procedures and notified us swiftly".

"The NCSC is confident the party took the necessary steps to deal with the attack.

"The attack was not successful and the incident is now closed."

As a bit of extra information, the NCSC notes that "the mechanics of the UK electoral system do not lend themselves to electronic manipulation - voting and counting of ballots are manual processes conducted under the watchful eye of observers."

It’s a question that has been asked more than once already since even before the official start of this election campaign.

Speaking to the BBC's Chi Chi Izundu, Dr Colin Grant wonders: “We’re able to find water on Mars, we can take a picture of a black hole and we can see atoms. We’re approaching the 3rd decade of the 21st Century, but why can we still not vote online?”

He lives near the seat of Bishop Auckland and says he thinks the ability to online vote could increase voter engagement, it’s convenient and could increase turnout.

But Colin’s wife disagrees. She likes the walk with Charlie, their dog, to the polling station and says “this isn’t a Strictly vote”.

Estonia is one of the few countries in the world to permanently use online voting in nationwide elections. But one of the main reasons it hasn’t been adopted in the UK is security. Casting a vote and it not being tampered with by a foreign power is still not a certified thing.

And even getting that level of security, some experts have estimated, could cost more than a general election itself. Then there is also the issue of alienating people who may not have access to laptops, smartphones and computers.

So for now, Colin and Charlie will have to make the walk to the village hall to put an X in a box to cast his vote at a polling station, rather than the comfort of his living room.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Back to the story on the Labour Party experiencing a cyber attack, Emily Orton, the chief marketing officer for cyber security firm DarkTrace, says we know "relatively little" about it.

But she warns it may have just been carried out by a "have-a-go hacker".

On the type of attack - a DDoS - she tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "On the spectrum of cyber attacks, it is not very sophisticated and it is something we are quite used in the industry.

"It is seen as one of the lesser advanced attacks out there at the moment."

Ms Orton says such an attack can disrupt a website and "basically take down the content".

But she adds: "[while] it is disruptive... [it is] not getting access to any databases that might actually be quite interesting to a [cyber criminal]."

The prime minister's partner Carrie Symonds has been out and about campaigning for female Conservatives candidates.

Here she is accompanied by Dilyn - a Jack Russell-cross from an animal rescue charity in south Wales.

Kenneth John Luxton, a retired worker in Bishop Auckland's local hospital, says he is concerned about the future of healthcare in the area.

He wants to see political parties working to ensure that “elderly people are being well looked after in care homes” and that the development of the local NHS is “made the top priority.”

The BBC's Chi Chi Izundu meets voters with questions about online voting.

More from the Bishop Auckland constituency, where the BBC's Matt Murphy has been speaking to Claire Thompson - a cafe owner in the Four Clocks Centre.

For her, help for small businesses is essential and she is concerned about the prospect of an increase in the minimum wage.

"If your on the other side and earning the minimum wage it’s great but if you in business, small business especially we’re going to struggle," she says.

The Conservatives have promised to raise the minimum wage for workers aged over 25 from £8.21 to £10.40 by 2024, while Labour has said it would immediately lift the hourly rate to £10 for everyone aged 16 and over.

Here's some background on the area that explains why it's something of an election barometer.

Matthew Cole
BBC Westminster

Image source, NFU

The National Farmers Union says the floods currently hitting South Yorkshire and the East Midlands should be considered a “national emergency”.

President Minette Batters says almost nothing of its own 2012 manifesto on flooding has been implemented in the seven years since its publication.

She tells the BBC: “I think for the people of Fishlake and surrounding communities they absolutely deem it as a national emergency.

"It's unprecedented levels of water [and] obviously there’s been a tragic loss of life.

"We are seeing far more extreme weather events over a period of time now [so] yes, it is a national emergency and we need to see a change in how we manage water."

Ms Batters also says farmers are being badly hit.

"It’s a dire situation at the moment," she says. "We’re seeing a lot of potatoes left in the ground - we think probably only a third of the country has done the normal amount of planting that it would have done… and obviously a huge amount of farmland that is under water right now.

"So it is an absolute disaster out there for farmers and for every citizen living in these communities. It is time for real change in how we manage water and farmers want to be part of the solution."

She adds: "I hope now that this is the final wake-up call as we approach a general election.”

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Carole Foster, who lives in the village of Kirk Bramwith in South Yorkshire, says she has been stuck indoors for almost five days because of the floods.

She tells BBC Radio 4's World at One: "I've not been able to leave [my house] on foot and obviously can't take the car through.

"It is just a huge lake all around me. It will be four or five days now."

She adds: "I don't have any power, I only have a log-burning stove, so I have been heating pans of mile and water to wash in.

"It's been really back to basics."

Caole says the community "can't be praised enough", but the government needed to "without a doubt" take more action.

BBC Radio 5 Live

We're doing our best during this campaign to answer your questions and it's the turn of 5 Live to look at health and social care.

Listen in to hear more and hopefully be enlightened - or follow their Twitter feed for more.

Image source, Getty Images

Back to more traditional political territory... striking McDonald's workers are planning to make a delivery to Downing Street later today - but they're bringing demands rather than burgers.

They are taking part in an international day of action by fast food workers - involving France, Belgium, Brazil, Chile and New Zealand among other countries.

Among their demands are for £15-an-hour pay, an end to youth rates, the choice of guaranteed hours of up to 40 hours a week, four weeks' notice of shifts and union recognition.

Joining them on a picket line in Wandsworth, shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer says: "Low pay is completely unacceptable, insecure work is completely unacceptable, no union is completely unacceptable."

Labour is pledging a £10-an-hour minimum wage, so not quite what the strikers want.

"We need change right now, we have had enough of living in poverty and working for nothing," says one McDonald's employee, Melissa Evans.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Jeremy Corbyn has deliberately chosen to make the government's response to the floods an election issue after writing to the prime minister overnight to demand he convene Cobra - the government's emergency committee.

This morning, ahead of a scheduled speech on adult education, he went out of his way to criticise government cuts to flood defences.

Under the Tories, said Mr Corbyn, more than a fifth had been cut from the Environment Agency and a quarter from the Fire Service.

This at a time, he said, when climate change meant flood defences should be a priority.

And in some of his most pointed remarks, Mr Corbyn again questioned whether Boris Johnson's response would have been different if the flooding had been in Surrey, rather than Yorkshire and the East Midlands.

Senior Tories privately accuse Mr Corbyn of playing politics over the flooding.

They have defended the prime minister's decision not to call a national emergency at the weekend as the weather has deteriorated since then.

Image source, get

Roads remain closed and there's a big police presence on the outskirts of the village, partly to deter looters from trying their luck here.

Fire crews with large inflatable boats remain on the streets, regularly checking on people who've ignored advice from the authorities to leave their homes. Some residents say they feel as though Doncaster Council has turned its back on them, but it is clear it wants everyone out of here for their own safety.

Water levels seem to have dropped a bit but some roads remain covered in deep floodwater almost a foot deep.

Community spirit is strong and the Hare and Hounds pub and St Cuthbert's church remain a focal point, taking in donations of household items and clothes, and serving up food to those in need.

BBC Radio 4

Image source, AFP/Getty

Victims of flooding are writing into BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme to share their experiences.

One emailer, called Rachel, tells how her home was was flooded when she was 11

"My mum was out collecting my younger brother from school and my grandmother was upstairs with a broken arm," she writes.

"My neighbours came in to tell me we were going to be flooded. I moved what I could and stood and watched the water come down the road and flood our home. It was dreadful.

"I am now 62. I have lived at the top of a hill for over 30 years now as I am still mindful of those events 51 years ago."

Another listener, Jo Green, texts to say: "The rivers need dredging where I live near the River Severn. It has not been done for years.

"It used to be 40ft deep in places, now it is only 8ft deep in places."

A reminder, as we get to lunchtime, of what we're talking about when we're referring to flooding.

Downpours last week meant several areas were struck by a month's worth of rain in a single day.

About 400 homes have been flooded and 1,200 properties evacuated.

One of the worst affected places was Fishlake, near Doncaster, where residents have fled their homes after the village was submerged.

The Environment Agency still has 30 flood warnings in place as well as five severe warnings on the River Don in South Yorkshire.

A yellow warning for rain remains in place over parts of Yorkshire and the East Midlands for Tuesday and Thursday.

Latest updates on the situation on the ground are being handled by our colleagues over on this live page.

Image source, Reuters

Opposition parties are, as we've been saying, piling pressure on the government over its response to floods in northern England.

Now Liberal Democat leader Jo Swinson has touched on the sensitive area of EU funding, directly calling on the government to apply for cash from Brussels to repair the damage.

On a visit to affected areas, she praises the work of volunteers, calling it "the best of human spirit" but says that the government is not "taking this as seriously as it should".

"It should be declaring a national emergency so they can open up the ability to apply to the EU for the emergency funds that are available at times of extreme floods," she says.

"They are not yet doing that and they should be doing that."

The prime minister will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee today in response to the flooding.