Image source, PA Wire

That's all from us today. It's been another busy day on the election trail.

If you're looking to catch up, here's a rundown of the main headlines this evening:

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government's emergency response committee Cobra is meeting to discuss the recent floods. He cancelled a planned visit to a bakery in Glastonbury due to protests, and went to nearby Wells instead
• Home Secretary Priti Patel said the government is in the "early stages" of discussions with Australian authorities about copying parts of its points-based immigration system. The Tory party promise to reduce "immigration overall" to the UK after Brexit if it wins the election.
• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has met supporters at the National Mining Museum in Scotland. Earlier, he called figures showing delays in A&E have hit their worst level since records began "disgusting".
• And in an interview with the BBC, Mr Corbyn ruled out an out "arbitrary" immigration target
• Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson pledged to revoke Article 50 "on day one" if she is elected to Number 10 during a visit to a Sikh temple in Glasgow. She weighed in on the immigration debate, external after Mr Corbyn said "not every dot and comma from conference" will be in its manifesto.
• The Brexit Party's prospective candidate in Dudley North announced he would not contest the election, despite party leader Nigel Farage's insistence it would contest every seat not held by the Conservatives.
• Nomination papers for candidates wanting to run for Parliament closed at 16:00 GMT.

Dominic Casciani
Home Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

As immigration is debated on the election campaign trail, a new report seeks to estimate the number of illegal immigrants living in the UK.

The attempt is in a fascinating paper on the European Union picture from the Pew Research Centre.

The Washington-based think tank has a global reputation for interpreting the trends that shape the modern world - and so its findings will always make headlines.

Pew's claim is simple: there may have been between 800,000 and 1.2 million unauthorised migrants living in the UK in 2017.

But how did it get that figure, and how does it compare to other estimates?

Read more from Dominic here.

You can watch BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg's full interview with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn here:

Earlier, before his interview with the BBC, Mr Corbyn told a heckler on a campaign visit to Scotland he didn't "want another independence referendum”.

As the Labour leader addressed a crowd in the West Lothian town of Linlithgow, the woman stopped to ask about reports he would work with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and help her secure the so-called indyref2.

Mr Corbyn attempted to reassure the heckler by saying he would not want another vote - contradicting a previous suggestion that he would consider one.

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

How did the Conservatives estimate how an open border policy would increase net migration?

First they assumed that Labour would open the UK’s borders to everyone in the world in its first year of government.

The evidence for this assumption is very limited.

Labour has not yet published its manifesto. A motion passed at Labour conference this year calls on the party to “extend” free movement, but doesn’t say whether that’s to extend existing rights to EU countries after Brexit or to extend it to everyone in the world.

In fact, in a BBC interview, leader Jeremy Corbyn hinted to the BBC that the plan to extend free movement would cover family reunions and filling skill shortages.

Even if you believe that the premise is fair, the Conservatives’ sums are still open to challenge.

They looked at what happened with countries that joined the EU in 2004.

For example, the Hungarian-born population in the UK increased from 15,000 to 27,000 in the five years after Hungary joined the EU - nearly doubling.

So, the Conservative analysis goes, the non-EU born population (currently six million) would also roughly double in the next five years. After that it would grow more slowly, in line with current trends.

Over 10 years that would be about 760,000 extra people a year on average.

Add unchanged EU migration of 80,000 a year – since that’s what free movement with the EU gives us currently - and you end up with 840,000.

But it’s another big assumption to say that what happened in a small number of European countries would be repeated with countries across the globe.

Jeremy Corbyn has refused to say if he wants the number of immigrants coming to the UK to rise or fall.

In an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour leader said people should be "realistic" about filling the jobs needed for the UK economy.

But he said: "Putting arbitrary figures on it as successive governments have done simply doesn't work".

It comes as the Tories pledged to reduce "immigration overall" if they win the 12 December election.

Mark Easton
Home editor

The government’s immigration strategy fell into the Parliamentary dustbin when the election was called.

We still await the party manifestos but today the home secretary said in a press release: “We will reduce immigration overall.”

Asked to repeat this for the TV cameras later in the afternoon, she repeatedly refused, speaking only about “controlling” immigration.

The reason this is difficult territory for the Conservatives is that in some part of the UK, migrant workers are desperately needed to keep public services going.

The prime minister is known to favour a policy that works for the needs of the economy, even if that means migration numbers remain broadly where they are.

Immigration is not the electoral issue it once was – pollsters say it is at its lowest level of concern for almost two decades. But some communities remain concerned that foreign arrivals put extra pressure on public services and jobs - and those voters are often in Labour seats that the Tories are looking to take.

Dominic Casciani
Home Affairs Correspondent

As part of the Conservative's immigration push today, this banner graphic has appeared on Priti Patel's Twitter account.

It predicts that Labour's purported "open borders" policy - which the party says is not true - would lead to a "huge strain on the NHS and schools".

So what's the evidence of the strain caused so far by open borders and freedom of movement with the rest of the EU? Ms Patel's expert advisers, the Migration Advisory Committee, say there is little or no evidence of strain.

Migrant workers tend to be younger and fitter and less likely to go to hospital.

Evidence from education research shows that the presence of children who speak English as a second language improves the results of other children in the schools (the reason being they are highly motivated - and that motivates other kids).

It's all in a high-profile report commissioned by the Home Office, external last year as part of the plans to devise a new post-Brexit immigration system.

Image source, Conservatives

Image source, PA Wire

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has weighed in on the immigration debate after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said "not every dot and comma from conference" will be in its manifesto.

Ms Swinson pledged to revoke Article 50 on the first day of her leadership if she is elected to Number 10 during a visit to the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Glasgow.

She said remaining in the EU would free up money for the health service, childcare and tackling climate change.

"There's a huge amount of priorities we want to be getting on to dealing with and of course, Brexit makes all of those things harder," she said.

She added she is opposed to a second referendum on Scottish independence for the same reason that she is opposed to Brexit, saying: "We work better when we are [close] together with our nearest neighbours."

Speaking about the Lib Dems' decision to take take legal action against ITV over its exclusion of her from a televised leaders' debate, she said: "It's not a debate if you just have Leave debating Leave."

The Brexit Party's prospective candidate in Dudley North, Rupert Lowe, has announced he will not contest the election.

Mr Lowe's decision goes against the insistence by Nigel Farage, the party's leader, that it would contest every seat not held by the Conservatives.

Mr Lowe says his candidacy could split the Leave-supporting vote and therefore facilitate a Labour victory in the constituency.

The move could be significant as the Tories are aiming to take Leave seats in the Midlands and northern England, which have traditionally voted Labour.

The constituency's previous MP, Ian Austin, quit the Labour Party over its handling of anti-Semitism and is not running again.

Image source, PA Wire

The government is in the "early stages" of discussions with Australian authorities about using parts of their points-based immigration system as a blue-print for the UK, says Home Secretary Priti Patel.

She says the election limits what she can say about the policy development, but claims an equivalent of Australia's points-based system will give "control back" to the government.

"We can ensure that the brightest and best people with the right skills and our economy and our Labour market needs are prioritised from the entire world, so we're not discriminating, and it's not about putting EU citizens first and closing off other parts of the world," she says.

Ms Patel says Labour has "serious questions to answer" about its immigration plans after shadow home secretary Diane Abbott tweeted that the party "is committed to maintaining [and] extending Freedom of Movement rights".

Earlier today, she said the Tories would reduce "immigration overall" to the UK after Brexit.

You can read where the different parties stand on immigration and other issues here.

Nick Eardley
BBC political correspondent

This evening Jeremy Corbyn will wrap up his trip to Scotland with a rally in Edinburgh. Labour are expecting hundreds of supporters to turn up.

Winning seats in Scotland could be crucial to Mr Corbyn’s hopes of getting into No 10. And long gone are the days when Labour could rely on definitely returning a healthy number of MPs from Scotland.

Despite recent disasters at the polls - including coming fifth in the European elections - a number of candidates I’ve spoken to are upbeat and say they’re getting decent a reception from voters.

But this trip has not gone according to plan for Mr Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn has - not for the first time - been unclear about Labour’s position on a second independence referendum. Yesterday, he said he wouldn’t allow one for in his first term (five years). He then said not in the “formative years” of a Labour government. This morning he suggested not in the first two years.

This might all sound a bit like splitting hairs, but some candidates here are worried that not being clear on independence is harming their chances of winning votes from unionists, who helped the party do well in 2017. One candidate told me earlier that Mr Corbyn’s comments had been a “bloody disaster”.

The fear is those who oppose independence will side with the Conservatives or the Lib Dems - while independence supporters will vote SNP.

There’s another school of thought though. The Labour leadership in Scotland doesn’t think independence will be a key issue on 12 December. They’re confident that - over the next month - their focus on ending austerity, investing in the economy and tackling climate change will cut through.

Mr Corbyn said this morning in Midlothian that voters make their decision based on a number of issues. Some in Scottish Labour are desperately hoping independence isn’t the main one.

BBC News Channel

Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Chuka Umunna says today's NHS figures are a "damning indictment" of the Conservatives' handling of the health service.

It came after data showed hospital peformance in England was at its worst level on record.

Umunna says stopping Brexit would help NHS recruitment. "Now is not the time to be ending free movement on the EU when we are so reliant," he says.

He adds the Lib Dems want to add 1p on every £1 in income tax to fund improvements to care.

"It won't provide us with all the money that we need," he says, adding that anyone claiming that only money will make a difference to problems in the NHS is "lying".

Image source, PA Wire

The Ulster Unionist Party will run in 16 constituencies across Northern Ireland, despite previous suggestions that it would put forward candidates in all 18.

Leader Steve Aiken says the party will no longer run in North Belfast, after coming under pressure over standing against Democratic Unionist deputy leader Nigel Dodds, nor in West Belfast, a seat which has traditionally been dominated by Sinn Fein.

"The future direction of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland's place within it is at stake," he says.

"We want to offer pro-Union voters a choice. A choice between Ulster Unionist candidates who will offer a positive, progressive vision for unionism, protecting our place within the United Kingdom and the DUP who have dropped the ball, allowing a border to be put up the Irish Sea and dragged the reputation of unionism into the gutter."

All nomination papers for candidates wanting to run for Parliament close at 4pm today.

This means they will also have submitted their £500 deposit, which they do get back if they secure more than 5% of the votes in their seat. This is designed to prevent people from running as a joke, but candidates from established parties have occasionally lost their deposits.

Once nominations are closed, local authorities will publish lists of candidates running in their area. The Electoral Commission will also publish lists for all constituencies.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the government's emergency response committee Cobra is to meet shortly to discuss the recent floods.

Mr Johnson says in a tweet that 818 properties have been flooded and that troops are handing out over 20,000 sandbags to help protect more properties near the River Don, which crosses Yorkshire.

The floods have been one of the unexpected events to hit the general election campaign, with more rain expected in affected areas today.

Image source, PA Wire

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage says he does not think he will vote in the election.

Speaking on a trip to Grimsby Seafood Village, where he was photographed eating cheesecake, Mr Farage says: "I doubt I'll vote. I very much doubt I'll vote."

His party has stood down candidates in all 317 constituencies won by the Tories in 2017, including his own in Kent. On the notion of voting for the Tories, he says: "It's this very narrow party interest, that's all they care about."

He adds that his last Conservative vote was in 1987, and that he spoiled his ballot paper in 1992 because he "couldn't vote for John Major".

Image source, PA Wire

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage showed "leadership" when he stood down candidates in constituencies won by the Tories in 2017, says Michelle Dewberry, winner of the second series of The Apprentice and the party's candidate for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle.

"Whether you agree or not, I think that it shows leadership and I think what we need to do now is unite around the party, and around the seats where we are standing to give us the best chance possible to get a decent number of seats in Westminster so that we can make a difference," she says.

With four weeks to go until polling day, we have produced guides to some of the parties taking part in the election.

You can read them below:

Conservative Party

Labour Party

Liberal Democrats

Scottish National Party

Green Party

Brexit Party

Plaid Cymru

Image source, UK POOL

More reaction to this morning's A&E waiting time figures from shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth, who has branded them "absolutely appalling".

"So many patients will be languishing on trolleys waiting longer and longer for treatment and care in our overcrowded hospitals," he says.

He says additional funding promised by Labour is required to "rescue" the NHS, which he says is in "crisis".