Peter Barnes
BBC political analyst

The threshold for NI payment is currently £8,628 - i.e. you have to pay it once you earn more than that figure. The rate is then 12% on all earnings over the threshold.

My calculation is that raising the threshold to £12,500 - as Boris Johnson pledged during the Conservative leadership contest - would save people earning more than that £465 a year.

Raising it to £9,500 - the amount we're hearing it could be raised to initially - would mean a much less impressive £73.

There’s also an issue that people in receipt of universal credit may not get the full amount if their benefit payments are cut as a result.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

As we mentioned in our recap a few posts ago, the complaints keep coming about the whole CCHQ Twitter "rebrand" - read our story if you need a refresher on the detail.

Ex-Tory cabinet minister David Gauke, who is standing as an independent parliamentary candidate, says he doesn't believe it would have happened under Theresa May or David Cameron.

"It was a blatant attempt to mislead people. The casual viewer would easily be taken in that this was some impartial expert website declaring what was true and what was not true," he told The World at One earlier.

"I think it's pretty outrageous and I'm afraid it reflects a culture that exists at the moment in the Conservative party which is about win at all cost.

"I'm afraid it's sort of the Vote Leave culture we saw in 2016, and it does nothing to restore trust in our political system."

The FT's political editor is suggesting the prime minister may thrown his own team something of a curveball with that announcement - perhaps we weren't the only ones who didn't know it was coming.

A quick post-lunch recap for you:

• Just breaking in the last 15 minutes or so, Boris Johnson has told workers at a campaign event in Teesside he plans to cut National Insurance for employees. The details aren't clear yet, but he suggested he wanted the threshold for payment to rise from the current £8,628 to £12,000.
• The Lib Dems have unveiled their manifesto with a whole host of commitments in areas like education, the environment and transport. Our experts have broken down all the detail on the 10 key policies for you.
• Criticism continues to be levelled against the Conservatives after their press office rebranded its Twitter account as a fact-checking body during Tuesday's TV election debate. Twitter itself has promised tough action if the move is repeated, but senior Tories have defended it.

Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

This pledge from the Lib Dems is part of a planned overhaul of the UK's asylum system to help more people fleeing war and persecution.

Since 2015, about 16,000 refugees have found sanctuary under the Vulnerable Person's Resettlement Scheme, which was set up for those affected by the conflict in Syria.

In June, the government announced that in 2020 it would replace the programme with a global resettlement project for 5,000 refugees each year.

The Lib Dems' proposal, therefore, would double the number taken in by the UK, with an extra 1,000 unaccompanied children allowed to settle each year.

The practical difficulties associated with the idea include finding enough local authorities prepared to house the refugees and ensuring that they're not exploited once they're in the UK.

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

It's worth saying that this policy rather slipped out unexpectedly - well, unexpected by us anyway - in the middle of that Q&A.

We're all beavering away here to find out more and will bring you the detail as soon as we can.

Peter Barnes
BBC political analyst

During the Conservative leadership election, Boris Johnson said he wanted to raise the National Insurance threshold for employees to £12,500, to match the income tax threshold. The independent think tank the IFS estimated that would cost £17bn.

It hasn’t previously been officially confirmed that the party would make this commitment.

Image source, PA Media

Factory workers are still questioning Boris Johnson - and it looks like he has dropped a big policy announcement in answer to one of them.

Mr Johnson is asked: "You said you want low tax - do you mean for people like you or people like us?"

He replies: "We are going to be cutting National Insurance up to £12,000 [and] cut business rates for small business. We are cutting tax for working people," the Conservative Party leader replies.

For the 2018/2019 tax year, employees must pay National Insurance if they earn more than £8,628 in a year, external.

Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter

Many people say we face a housing "crisis", and the Liberal Democrats aim to tackle it with tax changes, government-backed loans, and a housebuilding programme.

A total of 300,000 new homes a year is the current official target for England, but governments have consistently struggled to meet it - England gained only 220,000 last year. This is due in part to the whims of builders and planning factors.

More striking are tweaks to the tax system.

These include permission for local authorities to levy up to six times the typical council tax fee on homes left empty for more than six months a year, and basing stamp duty on a property's energy rating.

For tenants, there are plans to help with up-front deposit costs through a Help to Rent loan for all first-time renters under 30. UK nations have control over their own housing policies so Liberal Democrats would need to co-ordinate with the devolved administrations.

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

The Liberal Democrats are positioning themselves as the most fiscally virtuous of the major parties, with the toughest rule on borrowing.

That means they've raised taxes, and are going to be the only party promising a basic rate tax rise. However, the message is that each tax rise has a purpose.

Many of the tax rises are specifically earmarked for spending commitments. Known as hypothecation, this is very much out of fashion at the Treasury which prefers everything to go into a central pot, but helps sell tax hikes to the public.

The manifesto says an air passenger duty rise will go to the fight against climate change, business taxes will pay for an increase in free childcare and an extension of free school meals.

The problem is that if any of these sources of funding falls short individually, will they really defund the spending promises associated with it? Do police receive less, if the country buys less cannabis? If the £50bn "Remain bonus" is not as bountiful as predicted, will there be fewer teachers?

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

All of these newly-announced Lib Dem policies will be working their way into our comprehensive guide to where the parties stand on key issues.

It looks at all the major parties and what they're promising on everything from Brexit and the NHS to education and the environment.

Read more here.

Reality Check

The Lib Dems have pledged to set a 20% higher minimum wage for gig economy workers "at times of normal demand". They say this will help compensate for the uncertainty of having work hours that fluctuate.

The number of people describing themselves as on a zero-hours contract more than quadrupled between 2011 and 2016, although many may have been unaware they were on one. It's since tailed off slightly, but still stands at almost 900,000 people, or 2.7% of the workforce.

Some form of pay bonus for insecure work has been suggested before. Matthew Taylor, who led a review into UK working practices, suggested a 15% minimum wage boost, echoing a similar policy in Australia whereby a 25% pay premium is added to casual work.

Jonathan Cribb, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says the proposal is interesting for two reasons.

"It's likely to reduce the number of firms who want to hire people on zero-hours contracts and incentivise them to move people on to a regular contract.

"It also means people in regular employment might seek out a zero-hours contract because they like the flexibility. So essentially, there could be fewer opportunities for these contracts and more people searching for them."

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

Image source, Getty Images

Back in Teesside, Mr Johnson has moved on to an engineering factory where he takes questions from workers.

He tells them his Brexit deal is “oven ready” - fast becoming a favourite phrase - and can be implemented within a few weeks if he wins the election.

He is asked about social care and replies that his government is investing in the area, but to pay for things like that you need to have a “dynamic economy” - and the best way, he says, is to “get Brexit done”.

In response to a question about immigration - whether foreign workers will take new jobs a future government helps create - Mr Johnson says: "We will make sure if we get Brexit done, we can take back control of our immigration system."

He says there will be an Australian-style points-based system - one based on skills and need - but this doesn't mean the country will be "hostile" to immigrants.

Instead, it will "make sure we don’t have large numbers of unskilled people come here without a job to go to", the Tory leader adds.

Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Science Photo Library

Legalising the recreational use of cannabis for adults is one of the most radical of the Lib Dems' proposals, having first appeared in its 2017 manifesto.

The emergence of regulated cannabis markets in Uruguay, Canada and some US states has fuelled calls for change in the UK. A number of high-profile politicians and police figures are backing the move, along with an increasing proportion of the public, according to a recent opinion survey.

The Lib Dems believe it would help "break the grip" of the criminal gangs that profit from the lucrative trade in illegal drugs - and it's a powerful argument.

But evidence suggests legalisation would not end the cannabis black market for under-18s, nor for those wanting more potent strains.

There is also concern it could encourage greater use of the drug and act as a gateway to more harmful substances - which is why most of the other political parties will not make the same, bold commitment.

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

Tom Burridge
Transport correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Alamy

Too many commuters in too many parts of Britain have suffered an unreliable service for too long. So a fare freeze for all peak-time and season tickets seems… fair!

The Liberal Democrats say the taxpayer would foot the bill. They reckon it will cost £1.6bn over five years.

For context, operating and maintaining the UK's rail infrastructure costs about £6bn a year. When you consider inflation, the policy in effect makes rail travel cheaper. The more intractable issue is how to make it better.

Our railways are bursting at the seams. In places you simply can't fit more trains on the tracks. The Liberal Democrats are committed to completing the HS2 high-speed railway, which would create extra capacity.

They say they would also spend £15bn on enhancements to the existing rail infrastructure over five years. That's above recent rates of spending. In 2018-19 Network Rail spent £1.8bn of government cash on upgrades.

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

Image source, PA Media

Boris Johnson is at washing machine manufacturer in the north-east of England today, meeting workers and trying his hand at moulding parts.

The prime minister also placed "Made in Britain" stickers on new machines as he toured the Ebac factory in Newton Aycliffe - the UK's only washing machine manufacturer, in fact.

Meanwhile, a handful of protesters outside the factory were shouting "liar" and holding a sign saying "stop lying Boris".

Branwen Jeffreys
Education Editor

The promise of another 20,000 teachers in England's schools and falling class sizes may be deceptively hard to deliver.

Schools in England decide how to spend their own budgets. Many of the posts that have disappeared have been support staff, such as counsellors or librarians.

Head teachers may restore these posts first. There is so much pressure to get results that teachers' jobs are often the last to go - although some are quietly not replaced.

Image source, Getty Images

The Liberal Democrats' funding offer means that by 2023, schools in England will be back to where they were in 2010 once costs are taken into account. After that it would grow further.

There are 453,400 teachers already in England but there is also a population bulge hitting secondary schools, which is due to continue until 2025. So while primary class sizes might shrink, secondary classes could grow.

Education is fully devolved to each part of the UK.

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

Hugh Pym
BBC News Health Editor

The Liberal Democrats want to raise £35bn over five years by adding a penny to the current rate of income tax.

The one penny in the pound extra will, according to the manifesto, be ring-fenced to be spent on the NHS and social care.

But this is a vague concept, and simply means the party has promised £7bn a year more for health and social care and identified how the revenue might be raised. It will be hard to track precisely how the money is spent.

Image source, EPA

Longer term, the party wants to move to a dedicated Health and Care tax. This is called "hypothecation" and has been advocated in the past to reassure voters their money is key to public services.

The big problem is that in an economic downturn the tax receipts might fall, and, if so, would the government feel obliged to cut health and care spending?

If the Treasury was obliged to top up funding from the central pot, the benefits of hypothecation would be lost.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all run their own health services, but they will also benefit from any extra funding.

Read more: 10 key policies of the Liberal Democrat manifesto explained

One more from Nicola Sturgeon's press questioning in Dundee, the SNP leader was asked whether stopping Brexit would mean she loses her justification for another independence referendum.

In a word, no.

"Brexit is the most extreme example of the broken nature of the Westminster system for Scotland, but it is only one example," she said.

"Even if Brexit is stopped and the UK remains, there is no guarantee that down the line, we’re not back there.

"People like Nigel Farage are not simply going to just pack up and go away, there’s no guarantee that we’re not going to have other policies imposed on us by a Tory government we don’t vote for."

In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP said they would push for another referendum "if there is a significant and material change in the circumstances that prevailed in 2014, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will.", external