BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Government minister and Conservative candidate Jake Berry said this government has been the first in decades "to set out a positive programme about how we support communities in the North of England".

"I think the biggest challenge facing the high street is that retail has changed" he said, pointing to the rise in online retail.

"We need to re-purpose high streets to make them more of a community hub."

He also attacked Labour's plans on broadband as "much more expensive" and said that the party wants to "drive away online businesses".

BBC News Channel

The Conservative Party has "not explicitly targeted" any Facebook or Instagram advertising at Scottish voters, BBC digital elections reporter Joe Tidy says.

The party has put out 150 adverts on the platforms since 1 November.

"We've even seen a pledge about indyref2 [a second Scottish referendum] with pictures of Nicola Sturgeon - that only went to England and Wales," he says.

He says the Labour Party have made similar choices, with "hardly any targeting solely at Scottish voters".

The message the Labour Party is putting out on Facebook and Instagram is about having a second Brexit referendum.

Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are doing "some" targeting in Scotland and are sending the message that Brexit needs to be stopped, says our reporter.

The Brexit Party has three target seats in Scotland and they are using Facebook to help them, Tidy adds.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Both Labour and the Conservatives have made major spending promises in this election.

On Politics Live, the panel discussed how these commitments are playing out in the campaign.

Spectator journalist Cindy Yu said: "Both parties are spending lots of money, and the Conservative party's task now is drawing themselves apart from Labour spending and saying 'we're spending it in a better way'."

Polly Mackenzie, of the Demos think tank, said that beyond the attacks the parties have made on each other: "there's a lot consensus between the parties" on investing in public services and the economy.

Though she added that there were clear differences about "how far and how fast you go" between Labour and the Conservatives.

The SNP hits out at Labour's "pie in the sky" plans to roll out free full-fibre broadband by 2030 if it wins the election.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the BBC earlier that the "visionary" £20bn plan - paid for in part by introducing a tax on tech giants - would involve nationalising part of BT.

But the Justice Minister for Scotland, Humza Yousaf, tells the BBC: "I think it is a bit pie in the sky promises. I have seen some of their back-of-the-fag-packet calculations.

"I am not convinced they will be able to deliver on it, but what I would say is the Scottish government is just getting on with the job of actually delivering it."

He draws attention to Nicola Sturgeon's government's 2017 pledge to spend £600m to bring "superfast broadband" to everyone in the country., external

"All these things have to be realistically looked at and I think almost every service under the sun the Labour party are suggesting they would nationalise without actually giving detail," he adds.

Mr McDonnell says "British Broadband is not a return to the 1970s" - it is "public ownership of the future".

He promises alongside the infrastructure, a Labour government would create a "charter of digital rights", offering the "most cutting-edge protection of digital and data rights this country has ever seen".

Turning to the Conservatives plan for broadband, he calls is a "fat subsidy to existing operators" which will not give the public ownership of the infrastrcuture it is funding.

Mr McDonnell accuses the Conservatives of not understanding "the scale of the challenges our country is facing right now".

He says that means the "existential threat of climate change" highlighted by children who went on strike and the "human emergency" of nine years of austerity.

The shadow chancellor says 87 people die a day waiting for care and 726 people died in the last year because they were homeless.

"When I’m chancellor I will not allow or tolerate this to go on in our society," he says. "We’re not going to walk by on the other side."

Image source, PA Wire

The Green Party has pledged to introduce a universal basic income by 2025, which would see every adult receiving a minimum of £89 per week.

Additional payments would go to those facing barriers to work, including disabled people and single parents.

The party's co-leader Sian Berry said the proposal would cost an additional £76bn which would be funded through taxation.

She said the policy would create "more jobs than ever before".

"We want there to be this cushion for people on average incomes as well as for people who are falling in and out of work," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Read more about the proposal here.

Confused by the latest election developments? Got a question about polling or policy? Or is there anything else you'd like us to explain?

Send your questions to BBC News via the form on this page and we'll do our best to answer them.

Today we have been answering questions specifically about childcare and family benefits and finances, like this one from Emma Enefer in Barton-upon-Humber:

Q - Is any party going to lift the two-child limit on tax credits and benefits?

A - The two-child limit means that most parents can only receive the child element of Universal Credit and tax credits for the first two children they have. It does not apply if the third, or subsequent children, were born before April 2017.

Most parties haven't released their manifestos, which outline their plans for the country.

But, at the SNP's election campaign launch, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would end the two-child limit, external.

Labour has previously said it would end it too. The Conservative Party has previously claimed that ending the benefit cap would cost £190m a year. But this figure is sourced from a parliamentary report, which says this is "likely to be an overestimate", external.

Regarding child benefit, there is no limit to how many children for whom parents can claim.

You can read more questions on childcare and family benefits here.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is up next in Lancaster. He opens his speech with a tribute to the enthusiasm of campaigners, despite the dark and wet conditions outside.

Then he imagines Jeremy Corbyn “taking off his bicycle clips” and entering Downing Street, saying he will be a “principled prime minister” and that Labour is running a "disciplined" campaign.

He says they are costing every announcement and explaining in detail what they will do - "just contrast that with what our opponents are doing".

Mr McDonnell accuses the Tories of "scattershot attacks" and "scaremongering".

Boris Johnson promised fibre broadband across the country in July but it was another "broken promise", says Mr Corbyn.

He says the Conservative plan is a "low-budget option with old copper cables that are already out of date",

And he says it is another "billionaire wealth grab" giving money to companies like Richard Branson's Virgin Media, instead of creating a public asset.

He compares British Broadband to the 19th century public water works and the 20th century NHS as "our treasured public institution for the 21st century".

In September, BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones took a look at Tory broadband pledges to see if they added up.

Mr Corbyn says public ownership has national security benefits and says corporations have been "unable or unwilling to roll out full fibre fast enough".

He says they don't have incentives to invest in rural and remote areas where infrastructure is hard to build.

But he says a Labour government's priority will be "those with least connectivity", such as rural areas and deprived inner cities.

Mr Corbyn says many people complain about internet failures and "an hour spent on hold listening to Vivaldi" and waiting to speak to an "underpaid and overworked" customer service representative.

He says fibre broadband will improve reliability and adds "British Broadband will be properly staffed with guaranteed jobs for everyone currently working in broadband".

Mr Corbyn says the internet is a "central part of our lives" and Labour's plan will offer "opportunities for work, community, entertainment and friendship".

"What was once a luxury is now an essential service," he says.

Free fibre broadband will "fire up the economy, give massive boost to productivity and bring half a million people back into work", he says.

It will also "make country fairer, more equal and more democratic".

He promises it will be the “gold standard of broadband", putting an end to "patchy and slow coverage once and for all".

The average household will save £30 a month, he claims.

"It's core infrastructure for the 21st century and I think it's too important to be left to the corporations," he says.

Read our explainer: What is full-fibre broadband and how does it work?

Jeremy Corbyn has begun his speech in Lancaster, saying he has promised the "most radical and exciting plan for real change this country has ever seen".

He promises the manifesto next week will "knock your socks off" and says he doesn't want people thinking politicians are all the same.

He says today's announcement of free broadband for everybody as a universal public service is a taste of the manifesto.

And he says taxing the big internet companies "fairly" will cover the cost.

Earlier in our live questioning of the prime minister, Boris Johnson defended the government’s record on mental health and education, saying it was “investing massively” in both.

But what are the concrete figures behind that? Under current plans, the government has earmarked an extra £2.3bn for mental health services.

Research by the charity Mind suggests that funding varies widely across the country, however, with some areas spending twice as much per person as others.

In education, the government has already announced a three-year plan to increase school funding by £7.1bn. But it’s only a first step in reversing cuts under successive Conservative prime ministers and headteachers have said it is “significantly short” of what is needed.

Victoria Derbyshire

Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe, who is standing as a candidate in the general election, says “somebody at No 10” offered her “a role in the negotiations” [with the EU].

When asked about who had made the offer, she would only say it was not the prime minister or his senior advisers, Sir Edward Lister and Dominic Cummings. She did say that the two conversations she had were with the same person.

She said the “behaviour” of the Conservative Party had put them “in a difficult position” and was a “complete waste of time” and that “as a practising Catholic” she was “prepared to put her hand on the book over this”.

Political parties have been making all sorts of promises ahead of the general election.

To help you decide who you might vote for, the BBC has put together a handy guide to where the parties currently stand on the key issues.