Speaking to the BBC after her speech at the CBI, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said her party's plans to scrap business rates will mean firms won't have to pay more because they have invested in their property.

Business rates are currently based on the rental value of the property that a firm occupies.

Instead, Ms Swinson said her party would introduce a commercial landowner levy - based on the value of the land and paid by the landowner.

“This is going to save 92% of businesses money, they’re going to be paying less under these plans," she insisted, adding that business rates had contributed to the problems faced by struggling high streets.

Challenged over whether landowners would simply pass on these costs to businesses through higher rents, Ms Swinson said rents would be based on market value so the move would still help businesses.

The director of ITV's Good Morning Britain offers a sneak peak at the set for Tuesday's debate - but it could all be thrown into doubt if the High Court rules against the broadcaster.

The Lib Dems and SNP are demanding they be included.

Image source, Getty Images

Chancellor Sajid Javid says it is "sensible" for the Conservatives to put on hold plans to cut corporation tax, and "recycle that into our great public services, into further tax cuts".

He accused Labour and the Lib Dems of wanting to increase corporation tax and "make our businesses uncompetitive".

"We’re going to keep it at 19% which is the lowest corporation tax rate of any major advanced economy," he said.

The Lib Dems have announced plans to scrap business rates, while Labour plans to raise corporation tax to 26% - the 2011 level - which it says will generate billions to be spent on its priorities, including health and education.

Business has been the focus of the electioneering day so far:

• We are awaiting a decision from the High Court over whether ITV's decision not to include Jo Swinson or Nicola Sturgeon in its TV debate on Tuesday was lawful
• ITV lawyers told the court the debate would be cancelled if the ruling went against them
• Meanwhile, the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem leaders have been addressing business lobby group the CBI at its annual conference
• Boris Johnson shelved plans to cut business rates, arguing it was better to spend money on the NHS and other public services
• Jo Swinson pledged to scrap business rates altogether - replacing the tax with a commercial landowners' levy
• And Jeremy Corbyn promised he would invest billions in the nation's infrastructure, education and skills training
• Lastly, in the ongoing story about the PM and Jennifer Arcuri, the businesswoman accused Mr Johnson of "ignoring and blocking" her

Image source, PA Media

Candidates for the seat once held by murdered MP Jo Cox have signed a cross-party pledge for an election campaign free of abuse and intimidation.

The 41-year-old Labour politician was killed in the lead up to the 2016 EU referendum.

Candidates running for the seat met outside Jo Cox House - a short distance from where the attack happened - to sign an agreement to set the appropriate tone when campaigning.

Mrs Cox's sister, Kim Leadbeater, said she hoped that political parties at a national level would sign up to similar pledges.

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford says his party's legal team has made "a strong case" as to why Nicola Sturgeon must be included in tomorrow night's election debate on ITV.

BBC political correspondent Tom Symonds, who's been listening, says ITV’s barrister at the High Court has been working away at convincing the judges that the commercial broadcaster - primarily funded by advertising - is not "amenable" to being judicially reviewed.

A judicial review is a process by which anyone can test whether decisions and actions taken by government departments, local authorities and other public bodies are lawful.

As we mentioned, a decision from the court is expected after 16:00 GMT. Stick with us and we'll let you know as soon as we have it.

It also matters because the BBC and Sky News also want to hold head-to-head debates between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, so the result today could have implications for them.

Len McCluskey, Unite union leader and Jeremy Corbyn ally, has told a conference in Brighton Labour is "in the fight of our lives".

"Our big task now is to ensure that the Labour vote holds. In striving to do that, never has the need been greater to take the debate beyond Brexit, to start dealing with the issues that affect the lives of ordinary people every day," he said.

Mr McCluskey said this election was ultimately about trust.

“Who do we trust to charter our communities out of the troubled waters, to a better future?"

"Is it Boris Johnson, a man whose privileged upbringing has given him such an arrogant sense of entitlement to rule, and would appear to be prepared to stop at nothing to keep the keys to No 10 - Eton's answer to Del Boy?

"Or is it Jeremy Corbyn, the only leader able and determined to speak for our whole nation, on Brexit as on other issues."

Image source, PA Media

More on the online battle for votes. The BBC's Digital Election team has found that the Lib Dems bought 2,000 ads at the weekend - and almost all of those were targeted at fewer than 1,000 people.

Our team says these seem to be constituency specific - adding that other parties do not yet appear to be doing this kind of micro-targeting.

There were also constituency-related ads from the Brexit Party, but not in such volume.

Ever heard of Working4UK, or Parents' Choice, or Right to Rent, Right to Buy, Right to Own? Probably not, but they're all posting anti-Corbyn pro-Brexit campaigns. Read more.

Image source, Getty Images

Jo Swinson has left the stage at the CBI conference.

Here is a quick summary of some of the things she said a Lib Dem government would do:

• Replace business rates with a new commercial landowner levy
• Introduce a "general duty of care" requiring businesses to consider their environmental impact
• Ask large UK companies to have at least one employee representative on their boards
• Offer adults a £10,000 "skills wallet" to spend on education and training

The Lib Dem leader takes questions from the audience after her speech.

The BBC's Simon Jack asks whether her plan to replace business rates with a tax on landowners would inevitably feed through to businesses in the form of higher rents - as the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

Jo Swinson replies that some of the cost "may be passed on but it will not all be" and defends her policy as "innovative and bold".

"Business on the High Street have been struggling," she says, adding that the cost of business rates "can be crippling", especially for small firms.

Reality Check

Business rates are a tax based on rental values of the property that businesses occupy. They are typically 50.4% of the market rent - but there are lots of complex reductions, while smaller businesses pay a bit less.

Business lobby groups often complain about the complex system, and that rates have gone up faster than inflation since the current regime was introduced in 1990.

A recent Parliamentary inquiry found the UK had the highest level of this kind of tax in the OECD group of wealthy nations, more than double the average.

However, it is one of the biggest sources of government revenue, raising £31bn in the UK in the last financial year. If the next government were to cut rates back to 1990 levels, it would cost about £10bn, says Jerry Schurder, head of business rates at property consultants Gerald Eve.

Retailers complain that business rates are a factor in the closure of small shops. But economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies has argued that cutting business rates would only give retailers short-term respite, as landlords would then increase rents.

Jo Swinson says her party would scrap business rates altogether and replace them with a commercial landowner levy.

She says the Lib Dems are committed to helping small businesses, calling them "the engine of our economy", and argues that scrapping business rates would "breathe more life into our high streets".

"We've seen enough of reviews of business rates," she adds - by the way, a review is what the Tories have promised if they're in government.

Image source, AFP

Jo Swinson started her speech to the CBI by joking that if she lost her High Court challenge over ITV's election debate, her appearance at the CBI might be closest she got to sharing a platform with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

Lord Justice Davis and Mr Justice Warby have indicated they will give a decision on the legal challenge by the Lib Dems and the SNP after 16:00 GMT today.

Jo Swinson attacks the Conservatives for "hiding behind" employment numbers and balance sheets "to paint a picture of a good economy".

"The image is not as rosy as they would have us believed," she says.

She points to falling business investment and productivity, arguing: "That is not what a healthy economy looks like."

She argues that the vote to leave the EU has distracted the government from "the very real issues in our economy".

The Lib Dem leader goes on to talk about the benefits cancelling Brexit will bring - her promise is to cancel it outright if she wins a majority t the election, and to press for another referendum if she holds some sway over the Westminster arithmetic short of that.

"We believe any Brexit - blue or red would be bad for jobs, bad for business, and bad for our public services," Ms Swinson tells the hall.

"Boris Johnson talked about a Brexit boom - but it is more likely to be a Brexit bust."

She adds that "the Conservatives are in the pocket of Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn is stuck in the 1970s".

Jo Swinson begins her speech by paying tribute to one of her heroes, the founder of Body Shop - Anita Roddick.

She recalls not only buying "strawberry and banana-shaped soaps" for her friends, but also seeing petitions in the shop calling for better recycling or animal rights protections.

She says the Body Shop's ethos that "business must be part of the solution" is a belief that runs through the Liberal tradition.

CBI director Carolyn Fairbairn introduces Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson to the stage.

Ms Swinson begins by telling the audience that the CBI does "an amazing job" of representing business leaders.

The Electoral Commission has warned that one in four eligible black and Asian people are not registered to vote.

That compares with 17% not registered across the rest of the population.

The commission estimates that between 8.3 and 9.4m eligible voters in all are not correctly registered.

Click here for information on how to vote.

Lunch over, ready for the afternoon. This is where we are right now.

• The Tories, Labour and Lib Dems are talking business today at lobby group the CBI
• Boris Johnson told those gathered he was shelving plans to cut corporation tax next April by 2%, instead spending the £6bn of taxes on the "nation's priority" - the NHS.
• Jeremy Corbyn insisted it was "nonsense" to say he was anti-business - and firms would have "more investment than they had ever dreamt of" under a Labour government. He also made much of a plan to create 320,000 "climate apprentices".
• Last but not least Jo Swinson will speak at the same event shortly. She'll talk about her party's desire to cancel Brexit and all the investment in business she says could happen with the money that would save.
• Elsewhere, the High Court is considering appeals from the Lib Dems and SNP over their exclusion from ITV's general election debate, due to take place on Tuesday. ITV says it'll cancel the whole thing if it loses.
• And Jennifer Arcuri - the businesswoman at the centre of a misconduct controversy involving Mr Johnson - has attacked the PM for "ignoring and blocking" her.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has reacted on Twitter to Boris Johnson's tax move, describing it as "a temporary pause in the Tories’ race to the bottom on corporation tax".

"This pale attempt to mask the Conservatives' history of handing out tax giveaways to big business shows they are in chaos, but when the election is over we know they’ll soon revert to type," he writes.