The Labour event at Southampton Football Club begins with a speech from Alan Whitehead, who is the candidate for Southampton Test.

Jeremy Corbyn is then welcomed onto the stage by Labour's general secretary, Jennie Formby - who comes from the city.

BBC Radio 5 Live

BBC Radio 5 Live is in Cheltenham today, talking to people about the issues that matter to them ahead of the general election.

At a gym in the Brewery centre, reporter Phil Mackie speaks to Jack, Anth and Julie.

Jack runs Nutrition X, a local supplement company, Anth is operations manager for DW fitness and Julie is a maths tutor.

Jack says for him, the main considerations are around the impact of Brexit, as his company imports a lot of products from the EU: "There are concerns from a business point of view, what's going to happen from import taxes, will there be delays bringing our products into the country?"

Anth says in Cheltenham, "it's been a close call between Conservatives and Liberals... I personally voted for us to stay in Europe. I think we are European, we are part of a bigger picture but either way we need to get it sorted and it's just dragging on... how long is it going to take?"

Julie says: "I’ve got two teenage children. I've got a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old. My 17-year-old wants to go into nursing and I'm really concerned about the state of the NHS."

Nigel Dodds - the DUP's deputy leader and Westminster leader - has finished speaking.

Up next is party leader Arlene Foster, who says, external the "message at this election is clear. If you want to see Northern Ireland moving and want more done then you should unite around the strongest unionist party".

She adds that Jeremy Corbyn in government "would be bad for Northern Ireland and in a hung Parliament we would not support him to be prime minister".

No surprises there - the DUP have made it clear before that they would not support Mr Corbyn.

Image source, Reuters

All the leaders of main parties - except Boris Johnson - will be taking part in a TV debate on climate change for Channel 4 this evening.

The invite for Mr Johnson remains open, and his own father Stanley has decided to speak out about the significance of the discussion.

He says: "It is tremendously important that the whole climate and environment issue be fully aired during the general election.

"There is no doubt in my mind that this is a crucial moment for the environment, both nationally and internationally.

"So bravo and thank you to Channel 4 for hosting the climate, environment and nature debate."

You can tune in to that debate - with or without the PM - at 19:00 GMT. We'll also be covering it here on our live page.

The stage is set for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is about to give a speech in Southampton, setting out Labour’s environment policies.

It comes ahead of the Channel 4 TV debate this evening on climate change.

DUP officials and journalists are gathered in Belfast for the launch of the party's manifesto, which has just started.

"Northern Ireland has been the recipient of billions of pounds of extra investment as a result of the votes cast by the people of Northern Ireland in 2017," says Nigel Dodds, the party's deputy leader who is one of the first to speak.

Brexit has also already come up, with Mr Dodds taking aim at the controversial issue of the Irish border in the negotiations. The DUP has not given its backing to Boris Johnson's deal.

BBC Radio 5 Live

BBC Radio 5 Live is in Cheltenham this morning, a seat that has changed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in the last few elections.

It's one of 32 areas where both the Green Party and the Brexit Party have stood aside. So how much is "tactical" voting something people are thinking about here?

Demelza says she's supporting Labour but has "waivered" in the past, being a Green Party member and even a candidate for the local council.

She says she "went home" to Labour when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader: "That was the start of a Labour Party I could believe in again."

However in Cheltenham, she's facing the "dilemma of do I vote with my heart, with what I believe in or do I vote for the candidate who is most likely to oust the Tories and maximise the chances of denying Boris Johnson a majority, which I think is absolutely imperative for the future of our country?”

John says he used to be "instrumental" with UKIP, and in 2015 they were persuaded to stand down in favour of the Conservative candidate. "Our standing down allowed him to take the seat and we don’t regret that for one moment because he’s been a good MP.”

John says he doesn't know where else Leave voters can go.

"You’ve got the two extremes. You’ve got the Lib Dems who said they will just cancel Brexit all together, which is not democratic for sure. And you’ve got the Conservatives who are going to win and do have a deal on the table and that’s the one which we should go with.”

Have your say: Text 85058 / @BBC5Live, external

And listen on BBC Sounds.

Image source, @Safia4Falkirk

Earlier we brought you news that Scottish Labour candidate Safia Ali had been suspended.

She had been due to stand for the party in the Falkirk seat but has been removed over allegations that she made anti-Semitic posts on Facebook. That means Labour won't be standing a candidate in that constituency.

The Falkirk seat was won by SNP at the 2017 election by a margin of more than 4,000 votes ahead of second-placed Labour.

BBC Scotland has been unable to contact Ms Ali for comment. You can read the full story here.

Image source, PA Media

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has been in east London this morning, visiting the Skylight centre run by charity Crisis, which works to stop homelessness.

She met people affected by homelessness, telling them her party would scrap the Vagrancy Act and introduce a "somewhere safe to say" duty for councils to ensure they provide immediate emergency accommodation for people who need it.

Under the Vagrancy Act - which has been repealed in Scotland and Northern Ireland - police have the power to arrest people found in enclosed places or caught begging in public.

Conviction can result in a fine of up to £1,000 and a two-year criminal record.

Politics at times may seem divided, so it's heartening to know there's a bit of good news that seems to have been welcomed by those on all sides.

We mentioned earlier that Labour candidate Stella Creasy gave birth yesterday - and the announcement has been met with congratulations from colleagues on all sides.

As we bring you all the details of the analysis from Institute for Fiscal Studies on the parties' manifestos, here's a reminder that you can see what each party is offering here.

And we'll be adding to it today, as the DUP is about to launch its manifesto at a science centre in Belfast...

Hugh Pym
BBC News health editor

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was on the BBC talking about nurse targets this morning. Vacancies for nurses in the NHS in England have increased over the past 12 months.

There were around 43,600 vacancies in the three months ending in September compared with just under 42,700 in the same period a year earlier.

The vacancy rate, as percentage of the overall workforce, remained the same at 12.1%.

The workforce and the need to boost recruitment has been a key issue in the election debate about the NHS.

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

Image source, Getty Images

The IFS says neither Labour nor the Conservatives' fiscal plans are "a properly credible prospectus".

The group's main criticisms of Labour include the party not being able to deliver investment spending increases on the scale they promise.

It also says it would be highly likely that Labour, at least over the longer-term, would need to implement other tax raising measures in order to raise the £80bn of tax revenue they want.

On the party's promise to compensate those women hit by changes to the pension age, the IFS says most in the group are relatively well off and that "to believe the whole group should receive compensation is a recipe for complete stasis in policy.”

On the Conservatives, the IFS says their “die in a ditch” style promise to exit the transition period by the end of 2020 could mean something like “no deal”, which could harm economy and increase debt.

It also says the party failed to come up with any kind of plan or money for social care - and that the promise nobody would need to sell their house is an uncosted aspiration.

On spending, the IFS says Conservative plans, if delivered, would leave public service spending outside of health still 14% lower in 2023-24 than it was in 2010-11.

No more austerity perhaps, but an awful lot of it is baked in, the group says.

Image source, Reuters

Now let's have a look at what the Institute for Fiscal Studies says about Lib Dem spending plans.

IFS director Paul Johnson says that compared with the Tories and Labour, the Liberal Democrats are "the most fiscally prudent" in terms of the public finances.

However, he says that given the uncertainty around Brexit, it's very difficult to say whether the Lib Dems or any other party would be able to deliver their plans.

The Lib Dem manifesto plans would ordinarily be seen as "radical", with big spending increases, and big tax increases, but the plans are "very much dwarfed" by what's in the Labour manifesto, he adds.

We've heard about the Institute for Fiscal Studies' analysis of Tory spending plans, so now it's time for Labour. He are director Paul Johnson's main points:

• Much of Labour’s manifesto should presumably be seen as a long-term prospectus for change rather than a realistic deliverable plan for a five-year Parliament
• Its promise to abolish in-work poverty within a five-year Parliament is not achievable. It would spend considerably more on the so-called Waspi women, a group who are relatively well off on average, than the additional sums it would give to the much bigger group of much poorer, working-age benefit recipients
• Labour’s proposals on working-age welfare spending are relatively modest, undoing only just over half the cuts implemented since 2015
• Labour say that it would abandon Universal Credit altogether and replace it with a new benefit system, but provide no details or costings. Whatever the merits of Universal Credit, another complete redesign of the working-age benefit system would be unwise
• While much has been made of Labour’s proposals to increase income tax for those on high incomes this is set to raise only a small fraction of their overall proposed increase in tax. The biggest proposals are for increases to corporation tax, which would take corporate tax revenues to their highest ever in the UK and to among the highest in the developed world

The IFS's conclusion: "Labour want to change everything. Their vision is of a state with a far greater role than anything we have seen for more than 40 years.

"For good or bad, five years of Labour government would involve enormous economic and social change."

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has been giving more detail about the independent research group's analysis of the Tory's spending plans. Here are some of his key points:

• Tory plans would leave public service spending - outside of the health service - still 14% lower in 2023-24 than it was in 2010-11
• The risk for the Conservatives is that their “die in a ditch” style promise to exit the Brexit transition period by the end of 2020 could mean something rather like a “no-deal” outcome. That would harm the economy and of course increase the debt and deficit
• The Conservatives have failed to come up with any kind of plan or any kind of money for social care
• On tax, there is little to say about Tory proposals. They have very few beyond a small cut in National Insurance Contributions and an ill-advised promise not to raise rates of income tax, NICs or VAT

The IFS's conclusion: "The implication of the Conservative manifesto is that they believe most aspects of public policy are just fine as they are.

"Little in the way of changes to tax, spending, welfare or anything else. Yes, there are some spending increases for health and education already promised, but essentially nothing new in the manifesto."

"Neither is a properly credible prospectus", the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has said as it releases its analysis of Labour's and the Tories' spending plans.

But there are differences between Labour's and the Tories' offering, it adds - and says which party appeals depends on whether you like the status quo.

You can read the analysis in full here., external

BBC News Channel

Image source, PA Media

"The Liberal Democrats have in the last month spent £380,000 on paid-for digital election ads," says the BBC's digital elections reporter Joe Tidy "That is now the same amount they spent entirely in 2017."

"With two weeks to go, the Lib Dems have already spent the same they did in 2017.

"So we are potentially looking at the Lib Dems spending an incredible amount more than they did in 2017."

Meanwhile, the Conservatives haven't yet spent 10% of what they did in 2017, our reporter adds.

"So we are now going to see, I imagine, probably in the last week, the Conservatives are going to flood Facebook and Instagram with the sort of spending we saw in 2017 - and perhaps surpass it."

To read about the rules parties must follow on spending, click here.