Summary

  • 26 days to go until general election on 12 December

  • Senior Labour figures are in a meeting to finalise the party's manifesto - it has gone on since this morning and has yet to reach full agreement

  • While planting a tree in north London, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson says it is easy to see that Labour are divided

  • The Lib Dems say they will plant 60 million a year by 2025

  • The Conservatives promise 30 million trees a year by 2025

  • Boris Johnson breaks off from campaigning in Mansfield to travel up to Bolton, scene of a major blaze at a student apartment block

  • SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon says that a vote for the Conservatives "is a vote for Nigel Farage and his view of the world"

Live Reporting

Alice Evans and John Hand

  1. Labour in crunch manifesto meeting

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Jeremy Corbyn and Rebecca Long-BaileyEPA

    Senior Labour Party figures are today meeting to finalise the party's manifesto.

    The clause five meeting - named after a clause in the party rules that sets out the process for agreeing the manifesto - is intended to translate motions agreed by members at the party conference and pledges into firm policy to put before voters.

    Most of the manifesto will have been thrashed out beforehand by party officials. But what are the likely sticking points?

    BBC political correspondent John Owen tells the Today Programme that one of these is free movement.

    The party conference committed to maintaining and expanding the right of people to freely travel between the UK and EU. But it's unclear as to whether that pledge will actually make it into the manifesto.

    On Brexit, we know the party intends to renegotiate a new deal with the EU and put it to the public in another referendum, with the option to Remain.

    But there is some pressure within the party to commit to a more explicit pro-Remain position.

    One other issue that could be up for discussion is providing extra support to Waspi women - referring to the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign. They are women born in the 1950s who discovered they had to wait years longer to retire than they had expected because of changes in state pension rules.

  2. Tories and Lib Dems in rival tree-planting pledges

    TreesGetty Images

    The Conservative Party says it will plant 30 million trees a year by 2025 if it wins the election - as the Liberal Democrats pledge to plant twice as many trees in the same period.

    The Tories' £640m fund would be used to plant trees and restore peatland.

    Labour has dismissed the scheme, saying the PM has an "atrocious environmental record".

    The Lib Dems would plant 60 million trees a year by 2025, leader Jo Swinson said.

    Read our full story here.

  3. Good morning

    Christmas electionGetty Images

    Welcome to another day of live coverage ahead of the UK general election on 12 December.

    Parliament agreed to an election to break the deadlock in Westminster over Brexit.

    He hopes to increase the number of Conservative MPs, making his plans for UK's departure from the EU easier to achieve.

    But it's not just about Brexit. So far on their campaigns the major political parties have also unveiled plans on the NHS, education, and - most recently - planting trees.

    Stick with us throughout the day for all the latest updates.