Nikki Fox
BBC News Disability Correspondent

For people with disabilities, there are some extra hurdles when it comes to voting. From getting your head around who to vote for, to putting your cross in the box.

Check out our full video on all the options available to disabled voters here.

Addressing a pensioner’s club in Dudley, where he is on a visit after unveiling the party's manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn says it has been immediately challenged by many in the media, who say it's “too expensive, it’s too big, it’s too demanding, it’s too radical.

Jeremy Corbyn touches on some of the proposals he covered in the manifesto launch, including on the NHS and education, and he urges his supporters to read the manifesto, understand it and campaign on it “because we’ve got the fight of our lives on to win this election”.

He says over the next three weeks they need to get the message out there that we have “a serious proposal here which has been fully costed”.

Labour was the second biggest party in the House of Commons during the 2017-2019 Parliament.

Here's what you need to know about the party as it launched its election manifesto today.

How many MPs did it have when Parliament dissolved?

There were 243 Labour MPs out of 650 at the dissolution of Parliament on 6 November.

This does not include a number of MPs who were previously Labour but have been suspended or left the party since 2017.

How is the party doing in the polls?

Support for Labour has been on the rise in recent weeks – although it has fallen overall since February, according to our poll tracker.

The party currently stands at 29%.

You can keep an eye on how the main parties compare here.

How did it perform in the last election?

Labour received 40%of the vote in the 2017 general election while the Conservatives had 42.4% and the Lib Dems had 7.4%.

The party took 262 seats in the House of Commons, gaining 30 from the previous election.

Image source, Getty Images

A number of business bodies have reacted to Labour's plans with cautious optimism.

Edwin Morgan, director of policy at the Institute of Directors, says most business leaders support the ambitions to tackle climate change and bring investment to various parts of the country.

But, he adds: "The next government must tap this resource, not alienate it.

"While new investment in infrastructure and the green economy is welcome, taken as a whole, Labour's measures on business risk being too much stick and not enough carrot."

Mr Morgan says many directors will have reservations that Labour's "state-first" plans for the economy could "crowd out" rather than crowd in private enterprise.

"Labour's approach on corporate governance is frequently insightful but almost always one-sided," he adds.

Dr Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, says Labour needs a "true partnership with business" to deliver "the prosperity that people and public services depend on".

"Businesses will welcome proposals to reform skills funding, upgrade our failing infrastructure and review business rates," he says.

"With more firms struggling to recruit, a more open and flexible approach to immigration would also be good news for the economy.

"But command and control isn't the way. Excessive intervention in business governance and sweeping tax rises would suppress innovation and smother growth."

Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, says: "There are welcome pledges within Labour's plans for the small business community, many of which we set out in our manifesto for the next government.

"However, we need to see more details around how the party would tackle the biggest challenges facing small firms."

Image source, PA Media

The director general of the CBI attacks a number of Labour's policies following its manifesto launch.

Carolyn Fairbairn, who runs the business lobby group, says the party's "default instinct for state control will drag our economy down, rather than lift people up".

She says policies such as renationalisation, a four-day week and the "ill-conceived plan" to remove 10% of shares from public companies will "hurt employers, employees, savings and pensions".

She adds: "It’s the most vulnerable in society who will pay the price for this economic experiment."

Ms Fairbairn also condemns "significant hikes in corporation tax, threats to important investment incentives and windfall taxes on oil and gas", saying the moves will "set alarm bells ringing for globally mobile businesses".

The director general did say business "shares Labour’s goals for a close trading relationship with Europe and a fairer, greener and more inclusive economy at home".

And companies also support the ambition to build more affordable homes, up-skill the economy with more apprenticeships and reform business rates.

"However," she concludes, "without business investment, insight and expertise, it won’t be possible to drive the economy forward or improve vital public services.

“The door is open for Labour to work with business. We urge them not to close it.”

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

The Conservatives are targeting some key seats in Wales that the party must win if it wants to achieve an overall majority in the 2019 election.

But, Lee Canning, the deputy chairman of the Tories in Wales has stood down over "serious concerns" about some candidates, and says recent scandals could "completely annihilate" their election prospects.

In Wrexham, former Conservative candidate Andrew Atkinson came within 2,000 votes of winning the seat in 2017. He has chosen not to stand this time. The constituency is one the Conservatives hope to win, but Mr Atkinson says he is not supporting the current Conservative candidate.

Ellie Price reports from Cardiff and Wrexham.

A full list of candidates in Wrexham

Image source, PA Media

The Conservatives raised £5.7m in registered donations during the first week of the official campaign.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg tweets that the gap between their funds raised and the other parties' is "astonishing".

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

The Lib Dems say "the maths in [Labour's] manifesto simply do not add up" if Jeremy Corbyn continues to pursue his Brexit policy.

Labour wants to renegotiate a deal with the EU within three months of winning an election, then put it to a referendum versus Remain within six months.

But the Lib Dems' deputy leader, Sir Ed Davey, says energies need to be focused elsewhere.

"The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and use the £50bn Remain bonus to invest in public services and build a brighter future," he says.

"We'll prioritise tackling the climate emergency and investing in housing, education and welfare, while Corbyn would embark on yet another Brexit renegotiation.

He adds: "Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party has put forward a manifesto which is filled with uncosted, undeliverable promises and fails to address Brexit.

"Only the Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and build a brighter future."

Following on from launching Labour’s manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn has stayed in the West Midlands and is now making a speech at a pensioner's club in Dudley.

He is introduced as the next prime minister by the Labour candidate for Dudley North, whose name happens to be Melanie Dudley.

Colletta Smith
Radio 5 Live presenter

Anyone over the age of 25 earning the minimum wage, known as the National Living Wage, is paid £8.21 an hour at the moment. The Conservatives had already announced that will gradually increase to £10.50 over the next six years.

Labour's manifesto is promising more and faster, with all workers over 16 years old getting £10 an hour within the next year. It is an attempt to tackle the growing issue of in-work poverty. Last year, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said one-in-eight workers were classed as living in poverty.

It won't cost the government a penny as it's employers who pay wages, but it's a big jump for them to swallow in a very short time-frame.

Labour is also promising extra measures to boost workers' rights, including longer maternity and paternity pay, and guaranteed bereavement pay.

Simon Browning
Transport producer

Under Labour proposals, the bus system will fall under council control again and thousands of former routes will be reinstated. Free bus travel is also promised for under-25s. The costs for this are not provided in the manifesto.

Labour says it will bring the railways back into public ownership when the current rail franchises expire. The party says that means there will be no cost to the government as the contracts will have ended.

However, it is unclear who will then own the trains and the associated costs.

The use of driver-only operated trains will also be stopped, having caused years of disruption because of industrial action by disgruntled staff. Industry estimates this would cost more than £200m a year.

Labour also promises a £250bn green transformation fund which will pay for huge infrastructure projects; HS2 will be built and extended into Scotland and long-suffering train passengers in the north of England will get "Crossrail for the North".

Image source, Getty Images

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The Conservative election campaign bus was left stranded in Bedfordshire this afternoon.

An electric mirror developed a fault - leaving Tory officials and journalists stranded for around 45 minutes.

The driver managed to fix the fault and the bus is now back on the road.

And Boris Johnson wasn’t on board.

But elections - they never really go according to plan, do they?

Image source, PA Media

Jeremy Corbyn got a standing ovation during his manifesto launch when he confirmed a Labour government would scrap university tuition fees - and now the manifesto has been broadly welcomed by the National Union of Students (NUS).

The president of the NUS, Zamzam Ibrahim, said it would "transform opportunities for students" and was "a truly progressive vision for the country".

She said the proposal to provide free education for all students was "absolutely essential", as was the reintroduction of maintenance grants for "the poorest students".

However, she added that it was "a great disappointment" that the manifesto didn't tackle "the spiralling costs" of student accommodation.

The NUS also praised Labour's commitment to reducing the voting age to 16 and introducing a system of automatic voter registration.

This morning the Conservatives set out their pledges on housing, including measures to help first-time buyers and deliver a million homes over the next five years.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss was challenged over her party's record on housing on BBC Politics Live earlier.

Asked how many of the 200,000 new homes promised as part of a government schemes announced in 2014 were actually built, Ms Truss said she didn't have the exact numbers.

But the BBC's Andrew Neil pointed out it wasn't difficult to remember the figure - as it was zero.

You can watch the full exchange below.

BBC News Channel

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), an independent economic think tank, has been looking at some of the costs behind Labour's manifesto.

Paul Johnson, IFS director, says it would be the biggest set of spending increases, tax increases and borrowing increases that the UK has seen "in peacetime history".

"The scale of this is enormous – and the Labour Party is entirely open about that," he said.

He says the two really big challenges are deliverability and the scale of the tax rises – more than half of which would come from companies.

He also says the big question over Labour’s re-nationalisation plan is what are they trying to achieve which they couldn't do by changing the regulations within the current ownership structure.

"All of the things they are looking to nationalise are private at the moment but they are fairly heavily regulated and the government has a lot of say over that regulation," he says.

Simon Jack
BBC Business Editor

Further Labour party manifesto analysis

Labour's manifesto is one of the most radical proposed overhauls of the way companies are owned and run in decades.

The party will nationalise the so-called big six energy firms, National Grid, the water industry, Royal Mail and the broadband arm of BT.

It would mark the biggest ownership takeover by the state since the nationalisations that occurred after the outbreak of World War Two.

Those companies that Labour does not want to own and operate themselves will also face a huge change in the way they are supervised by government.

The current inhabitants of company boardrooms are very aware life would be very different under a Labour government.

Reality Check: How much could Labour's nationalisation plan cost?

Image source, Getty Images

Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter

Further analysis of the Labour manifesto

Not long ago, the government's Actuary's Department's number-crunchers suggested workers under 30 may not receive a state pension until they turned 70.

So Labour's plan to freeze the state pension age at 66 for the foreseeable future, and review it for arduous jobs, has been called a "gargantuan promise" by one analyst.

It would cost billions of pounds more than the most recent government plan to raise the age for men and women to 68 by 2039. Yet, it would clearly be popular among middle-age voters.

There are also pitches to specific groups. The so-called Waspi women - born in the 1950s and furious with "surprise" pension age changes - are promised compensation.

Greater access to automatic pension saving for the self-employed and those on the lowest incomes would be relatively cheap for a government which carries little of the financial burden.

Read more here: Labour Party manifesto - key policies explained

Image source, Getty Images

The SNP is making fresh claims about the negative effect of Brexit - saying it could push 130,000 Scots into poverty.

They claim the Conservatives' pledge not to extend the transition period past December 2020 - the time allowing for a trade deal to be negotiated with the EU - presented a "very real prospect that we eventually crash out without a permanent deal", even if Parliament backs Boris Johnson's plan for withdrawal from the EU.

First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon says: “Scotland didn’t vote for Brexit - and we shouldn’t have to pay the price in jobs and household incomes.

“People like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg don’t have to worry about the impact their Brexit chaos will have on the cost of living.

“The biggest impact will be borne by those who can afford it least."

She adds: "If Boris Johnson is re-elected, that wouldn’t be the end of Brexit – it would only be the beginning."

Image source, Reuters

As well as the headline pledges which have been announced with fanfare, the 105-page manifesto includes a huge number of other, lesser-known policies:

They include:

• Creating a "Crossrail for the North" as well as completing the HS2 route to Scotland
• National minimum safety standards for taxis and private hire cabs
• New national parks as well as legally binding targets for the restoration of species and habitats
• Halve food bank usage within a year, with the aim of removing the need for them in three years.
• Set up the role of an animal welfare commissioner in England
• End the badger cull and ban keeping primates as pets
• Renew the Trident nuclear deterrent and maintain the UK's commitment to NATO
• On the topic of the environment, any company listed on the London Stock Exchange must meet climate change criteria - and any that fail would be delisted
• Build 7,000 offshore wind turbines, 2,000 onshore wind turbines and 22,000 football pitches-worth of solar panels
• Upgrade almost all of the UK's 27 million homes to highest energy efficiency standards
• Repeal the Health and Social Care Act ending competitive tendering of NHS contracts to external providers
• Extend the sugar tax to milk drinks and ban fast food near schools
• Allow the "clinically appropriate" prescription of medicinal cannabis
• New statutory bereavement leave
• Misogyny and violence against women and girls will become hate crimes, while attacks on places of worship to become a specific aggravated offence
• "Use it or lose it" taxes for developers sitting on land
• Work towards abolishing House of Lords
• End rough sleeping within five years, by creating more hostel places and building 8,000 additional homes for people with a history of rough sleeping. A pledge of £1bn a year for councils’ homelessness services, paid for by a national levy on second homes used as holiday homes
• £50,000 given to each surviving British nuclear-test veteran

Read our full round-up of what's in Labour's manifesto here.