Lib Dems aim to grab attention with campaign stunts
Emily Atkinson
Live reporter
It's a Tuesday, 05:00. You're the Liberal Democrat leader, sitting on the battle-bus, talking through the day's campaign plans with your advisers.
Take your pick, they say. Paddleboarding or water-sliding? A turn on an obstacle course? A spin on a rollercoaster?
For more than three weeks, Sir Ed Davey has rattled through all four and more as he took his pitch to voters.
So, why the stunts? He says that politicians can take people’s issues seriously without needing to take themselves too seriously. It's also a way for the party to get attention, and from there ensure their pledges get heard.
We'll take you through more of the latter shortly. For now, here's a look at some of his most eye-catching stunts:
Video content
Video caption: Sir Ed Davey fell into the water three times while paddleboarding, to highlight his policies around illegal sewage dumpingSir Ed Davey fell into the water three times while paddleboarding, to highlight his policies around illegal sewage dumping
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Davey hurtling down a "slip n' slide" in Frome, SomersetImage caption: Davey hurtling down a "slip n' slide" in Frome, Somerset
EPACopyright: EPA
The Lib Dem team went on the rollercoasters at Thorpe Park after launching their manifestoImage caption: The Lib Dem team went on the rollercoasters at Thorpe Park after launching their manifesto
EPACopyright: EPA
Davey tackling an obstacle course in Tunbridge Wells - a seat he's hoping his party will take from the ToriesImage caption: Davey tackling an obstacle course in Tunbridge Wells - a seat he's hoping his party will take from the Tories
Labour rule out capital gains tax rise in an attempt to shut down Tory attacks
Hannah Miller
Political correspondent
Capital gains is a tax you pay when you sell an asset which has
gone up in value.
You don’t pay it on your main home, as long as you’ve always lived
there - but the Conservatives had been claiming that might change under Labour.
Yesterday Keir Starmer explicitly ruled it out - he said it was never
the party’s policy and he could “absolutely” guarantee it wouldn't happen over the
next parliament.
Labour have previously ruled out increasing the rates of income
tax, VAT, and National Insurance - but they’ve often been reluctant to respond
directly on other taxes.
The Conservatives have been using it as one of their main lines of
attack – you might have heard them saying that Labour is going to ‘tax your
home’.
This is a clear attempt to shut that down.
Hunt accuss Labour of planning 'Taxtopia'
Meanwhile, the Tories and Labour are locked in a new clash over their tax
and spending plans this morning.
Speaking to the Sun, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has claimed Labour would
turn Britain into a so-called "taxtopia".
He said: "On tax, yes we put it up. But we started putting
it down with four pence off National Insurance.
"That's a tax cut for working people and we want to go
further in the next parliament.
"Compare that to taxtopia. Taxtopia is what we will get
under a Labour government."
In response, a Labour spokesperson called Hunt’s attack “desperate”.
"We are not going to spend the next two weeks responding to
whatever fantasy plans the Tories are making up,” they said.
"They would be better off considering how they were meant
to be the antidote to Liz Truss and ended up becoming nothing more than the
latest instalment of her disastrous approach."
What does Nigel Farage really want?
Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
This week, a much anticipated "crossover moment" arrived – albeit in a single poll, which put Reform UK one percentage point ahead of the Conservatives. Other polls have Rishi Sunak’s party still ahead.
Even if the first poll was right, it does not mean Reform are on course for more MPs than the Tories.
The most optimistic Reform politicians can’t name more than five or six seats where they reckon they could win.
But as polls suggest, Reform could have a big impact by guzzling up many of the Conservatives’ traditional supporters, making it harder for Tory candidates to hang on.
Does Farage really want to be an MP? Of course he would say yes. But one source says: "He’s just a reality TV star: going to the jungle wasn’t leaving the political arena, it was coming home," adding he’d be like a "toy dog, like a Yorkie catching his supposed prey" if he won.
Reform might claim they will become the real opposition in this election.
With our first-past-the-post voting system, that is simply not going to come true unless something completely astounding happens. But the party's influence could yet prove dramatic and deadly for the Tories.
Let's step away from healthcare for a moment, and Rishi Sunak has told the Sunday Times that his faith has been helping him through the election campaign, adding that he is “ultimately responsible” for the outcome.
The prime minister denied he was frustrated that the public had not rewarded him for his work after Liz Truss’s tenure in Downing Street.
"In Hinduism, there's a concept of duty called dharma, which is roughly translated as being about doing your duty and not having a focus on the outcomes of it,” Sunak told the newspaper.
“And you do (your duty) because it's the right thing to do, and you have to detach yourself from the outcome of it,” which he said wasn’t easy to do.
Sunak added that it was something he had been raised with and gave him “strength” because he got "fulfilment from just doing what I believe is right”.
NHS promises made by all parties criticised by the Nuffield Trust
Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent
The Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, says the main parties need to set out more credible plans
if they want the NHS just to be able to retain existing levels of service, let
alone improve things.
It says all have promised more spending, but none has
given an exact figure for the basic funding the NHS would get.
It believes
the extra investment the Conservatives and Labour are promising would still
leave the NHS facing funding constraints tighter even then during the recent
austerity years.
Under the Liberal Democrats funding would be only marginally
higher than then.
The Conservatives say they have a workforce plan to deliver
record numbers of doctors and nurses.
Labour says it will provide 40,000 appointments a week paid for by taxing non-doms and reducing tax
avoidance.
The Lib Dems say taxing big banks will mean they can increase GP
numbers by 8,000.
The Nuffield Trust says all need to be more
transparent.
What have the Lib Dems said on health?
Hugh Pym
Health editor
Later on the programme we'll also be hearing from the Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davey and his plans for health and social care. He's pledged an £8bn package for services in England in their election manifesto.
The Lib Dems have also promised 8,000 more GPs in England - but the detail here is important. Will these be fully trained GPs, or doctors working in surgeries? The latter are qualified doctors but still in training to do general practice - their number is already increasing, and that has been highlighted by the Conservatives.
The number of fully trained GPs in England has fallen in recent years and it takes up to 10 years from the start of medical school to fully qualify for general practice.
A key cancer target is for most patients to begin treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral - specifically 85% within that time. But that has been repeatedly missed in England.
The Lib Dems say they want to give all urgently referred patients the 62-day guarantee. Given the scale of the backlog, this will be a huge challenge and it’s not clear what timeframe the party have set to make good on their pledge.
What has Labour said on health so far?
Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent
As we wait to hear more from the shadow health secretary later this morning, let's have a closer look at Labour's NHS plans.
The party is promising to deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans and appointments a week in England - two million a year - by introducing more weekend services, as well as turning to the private sector. It says the money will come from cracking down on non-dom tax arrangements.
The plan represents an increase of less than 2%, but experts think it could be just enough to get waiting times back on track. Whether it will be achieved is another matter.
Despite receiving more money and employing more staff, the NHS is seeing around the same number of patients for planned care as it was before the last election. There are multiple reasons: the biggest two are perhaps more demand on emergency services and continuing problems with delayed discharges, whereby patients who are medically fit cannot leave hospital because of lack of support in the community.
Labour's manifesto says the budget will increase above inflation, but that does not tell us much. Traditionally the NHS has got about 4% extra a year above inflation and that has only been enough to maintain the status quo.
To make the improvements being proposed, some say even more money needs to go in or there will have to be trade-offs elsewhere in health. The Nuffield Trust think tank said not spelling this out represented a “stunning lack of detail”.
Lib Dems and Labour unveil cancer plans - but what are they?
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats will spend today highlighting their pledges to cut cancer waiting times if either are able to form a government after the general election.
So, what are their plans?
Liberal Democrats
The party has proposed a £1bn boost for radiotherapy equipment, saying an extra 200 machines would "put the NHS in England amongst the top of the league tables of the number of machines per million people".
The party also says every cancer patient should receive treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, and could reduce the distances that patients have to travel to access treatment.
Labour
Labour has claimed 700,000 cancer patients will wait too long for treatment if the Conservatives are given another five years in government.
The party has proposed delivering an extra 40,000 appointments, tests and scans a week at evenings and weekends, doubling the number of CT and MRI scanners, with new AI-enabled scanners, and the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history.
A look at today’s newspapers
BBCCopyright: BBC
The majority of Sunday's newspapers lead with Catherine, Princess of Wales, attending yesterday’s Trooping the Colour parade, marking her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis.
Writing in the Telegraph, former Cabinet Minister Robert Jenrick says he "shares the frustrations" of traditional Tory voters defecting to Reform UK, but warns that a vote for Nigel Farage's party would lead to a Labour "elective dictatorship".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has given an interview to the Sunday Times in which he says that he draws strength from his Hindu faith to cope with "pressure of the bruising general election campaign”.
The Observer says that Labour and the Conservatives would "both leave the NHS with lower spending increases" than during the years of Tory austerity, according to an independent analysis of their manifestos by leading health thinktank, the Nuffield Trust.
Before we get into this morning’s political interviews, let’s have a look at the latest pledges and promises from the parties trying to win voters over with their pitches.
Labour is turning its focus to its plan to diagnose and treat cancers quicker - saying the plan will get the NHS meeting its cancer targets by the end of a first term in government.
After Sir Keir Starmer ruled out raising capital gains tax on people's main homes if his party wins the election, the Conservatives today are challenging Labour to “rule out other new taxes on peoples’ homes”.
The Liberal Democrats are presenting a £1bn plan which they say would cut cancer treatment waiting times with a major expansion of radiotherapy treatment, as part of their pledge that patients who have been urgently referred can start cancer treatment within 62 days.
The SNP’s John Swinney says its party’s Westminster election manifesto - due to be unveiled next week - will offer “hope against Westminster despair”.
Away from campaigning, Rishi Sunak is among several leaders at a two-day summit in Switzerland to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Hello and welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage as we enter another day on the general election campaign trail.
At 09:00 this morning we’ll hear from a host of political figures on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Facing Laura’s questions will be Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Transport Secretary Mark Harper, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and the leader of Plaid Cymru in Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth.
And on the panel are Labour’s Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the actor Brian Cox and former Tory MP Nadine Dorries.
We’ll also hear from politicians who are campaigning around the country ahead of the 4 July general election.
Stick with us as we bring you updates and analysis from our correspondents.
Live Reporting
Edited by Aoife Walsh
All times stated are UK
Lib Dems aim to grab attention with campaign stunts
Emily Atkinson
Live reporter
It's a Tuesday, 05:00. You're the Liberal Democrat leader, sitting on the battle-bus, talking through the day's campaign plans with your advisers.
Take your pick, they say. Paddleboarding or water-sliding? A turn on an obstacle course? A spin on a rollercoaster?
For more than three weeks, Sir Ed Davey has rattled through all four and more as he took his pitch to voters.
So, why the stunts? He says that politicians can take people’s issues seriously without needing to take themselves too seriously. It's also a way for the party to get attention, and from there ensure their pledges get heard.
We'll take you through more of the latter shortly. For now, here's a look at some of his most eye-catching stunts:
Video content
Labour rule out capital gains tax rise in an attempt to shut down Tory attacks
Hannah Miller
Political correspondent
Capital gains is a tax you pay when you sell an asset which has gone up in value.
You don’t pay it on your main home, as long as you’ve always lived there - but the Conservatives had been claiming that might change under Labour.
Yesterday Keir Starmer explicitly ruled it out - he said it was never the party’s policy and he could “absolutely” guarantee it wouldn't happen over the next parliament.
Labour have previously ruled out increasing the rates of income tax, VAT, and National Insurance - but they’ve often been reluctant to respond directly on other taxes.
The Conservatives have been using it as one of their main lines of attack – you might have heard them saying that Labour is going to ‘tax your home’.
This is a clear attempt to shut that down.
Hunt accuss Labour of planning 'Taxtopia'
Meanwhile, the Tories and Labour are locked in a new clash over their tax and spending plans this morning.
Speaking to the Sun, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has claimed Labour would turn Britain into a so-called "taxtopia".
He said: "On tax, yes we put it up. But we started putting it down with four pence off National Insurance.
"That's a tax cut for working people and we want to go further in the next parliament.
"Compare that to taxtopia. Taxtopia is what we will get under a Labour government."
In response, a Labour spokesperson called Hunt’s attack “desperate”.
"We are not going to spend the next two weeks responding to whatever fantasy plans the Tories are making up,” they said.
"They would be better off considering how they were meant to be the antidote to Liz Truss and ended up becoming nothing more than the latest instalment of her disastrous approach."
What does Nigel Farage really want?
Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
This week, a much anticipated "crossover moment" arrived – albeit in a single poll, which put Reform UK one percentage point ahead of the Conservatives. Other polls have Rishi Sunak’s party still ahead.
Even if the first poll was right, it does not mean Reform are on course for more MPs than the Tories.
The most optimistic Reform politicians can’t name more than five or six seats where they reckon they could win.
But as polls suggest, Reform could have a big impact by guzzling up many of the Conservatives’ traditional supporters, making it harder for Tory candidates to hang on.
Does Farage really want to be an MP? Of course he would say yes. But one source says: "He’s just a reality TV star: going to the jungle wasn’t leaving the political arena, it was coming home," adding he’d be like a "toy dog, like a Yorkie catching his supposed prey" if he won.
Reform might claim they will become the real opposition in this election.
With our first-past-the-post voting system, that is simply not going to come true unless something completely astounding happens. But the party's influence could yet prove dramatic and deadly for the Tories.
Read more about Reform and its possible impact on the election here.
Sunak discusses 'dharma' on election campaign
Let's step away from healthcare for a moment, and Rishi Sunak has told the Sunday Times that his faith has been helping him through the election campaign, adding that he is “ultimately responsible” for the outcome.
The prime minister denied he was frustrated that the public had not rewarded him for his work after Liz Truss’s tenure in Downing Street.
"In Hinduism, there's a concept of duty called dharma, which is roughly translated as being about doing your duty and not having a focus on the outcomes of it,” Sunak told the newspaper.
“And you do (your duty) because it's the right thing to do, and you have to detach yourself from the outcome of it,” which he said wasn’t easy to do.
Sunak added that it was something he had been raised with and gave him “strength” because he got "fulfilment from just doing what I believe is right”.
NHS promises made by all parties criticised by the Nuffield Trust
Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent
The Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, says the main parties need to set out more credible plans if they want the NHS just to be able to retain existing levels of service, let alone improve things.
It says all have promised more spending, but none has given an exact figure for the basic funding the NHS would get.
It believes the extra investment the Conservatives and Labour are promising would still leave the NHS facing funding constraints tighter even then during the recent austerity years.
Under the Liberal Democrats funding would be only marginally higher than then.
The Conservatives say they have a workforce plan to deliver record numbers of doctors and nurses.
Labour says it will provide 40,000 appointments a week paid for by taxing non-doms and reducing tax avoidance.
The Lib Dems say taxing big banks will mean they can increase GP numbers by 8,000.
The Nuffield Trust says all need to be more transparent.
What have the Lib Dems said on health?
Hugh Pym
Health editor
Later on the programme we'll also be hearing from the Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davey and his plans for health and social care. He's pledged an £8bn package for services in England in their election manifesto.
The Lib Dems have also promised 8,000 more GPs in England - but the detail here is important. Will these be fully trained GPs, or doctors working in surgeries? The latter are qualified doctors but still in training to do general practice - their number is already increasing, and that has been highlighted by the Conservatives.
The number of fully trained GPs in England has fallen in recent years and it takes up to 10 years from the start of medical school to fully qualify for general practice.
A key cancer target is for most patients to begin treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral - specifically 85% within that time. But that has been repeatedly missed in England.
The Lib Dems say they want to give all urgently referred patients the 62-day guarantee. Given the scale of the backlog, this will be a huge challenge and it’s not clear what timeframe the party have set to make good on their pledge.
What has Labour said on health so far?
Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent
As we wait to hear more from the shadow health secretary later this morning, let's have a closer look at Labour's NHS plans.
The party is promising to deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans and appointments a week in England - two million a year - by introducing more weekend services, as well as turning to the private sector. It says the money will come from cracking down on non-dom tax arrangements.
The plan represents an increase of less than 2%, but experts think it could be just enough to get waiting times back on track. Whether it will be achieved is another matter.
Despite receiving more money and employing more staff, the NHS is seeing around the same number of patients for planned care as it was before the last election. There are multiple reasons: the biggest two are perhaps more demand on emergency services and continuing problems with delayed discharges, whereby patients who are medically fit cannot leave hospital because of lack of support in the community.
Labour's manifesto says the budget will increase above inflation, but that does not tell us much. Traditionally the NHS has got about 4% extra a year above inflation and that has only been enough to maintain the status quo.
To make the improvements being proposed, some say even more money needs to go in or there will have to be trade-offs elsewhere in health. The Nuffield Trust think tank said not spelling this out represented a “stunning lack of detail”.
Lib Dems and Labour unveil cancer plans - but what are they?
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats will spend today highlighting their pledges to cut cancer waiting times if either are able to form a government after the general election.
So, what are their plans?
Liberal Democrats
The party has proposed a £1bn boost for radiotherapy equipment, saying an extra 200 machines would "put the NHS in England amongst the top of the league tables of the number of machines per million people".
The party also says every cancer patient should receive treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, and could reduce the distances that patients have to travel to access treatment.
Labour
Labour has claimed 700,000 cancer patients will wait too long for treatment if the Conservatives are given another five years in government.
The party has proposed delivering an extra 40,000 appointments, tests and scans a week at evenings and weekends, doubling the number of CT and MRI scanners, with new AI-enabled scanners, and the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history.
A look at today’s newspapers
The majority of Sunday's newspapers lead with Catherine, Princess of Wales, attending yesterday’s Trooping the Colour parade, marking her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis.
Writing in the Telegraph, former Cabinet Minister Robert Jenrick says he "shares the frustrations" of traditional Tory voters defecting to Reform UK, but warns that a vote for Nigel Farage's party would lead to a Labour "elective dictatorship".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has given an interview to the Sunday Times in which he says that he draws strength from his Hindu faith to cope with "pressure of the bruising general election campaign”.
The Observer says that Labour and the Conservatives would "both leave the NHS with lower spending increases" than during the years of Tory austerity, according to an independent analysis of their manifestos by leading health thinktank, the Nuffield Trust.
What’s happening on the campaign trail today?
Before we get into this morning’s political interviews, let’s have a look at the latest pledges and promises from the parties trying to win voters over with their pitches.
Labour is turning its focus to its plan to diagnose and treat cancers quicker - saying the plan will get the NHS meeting its cancer targets by the end of a first term in government.
After Sir Keir Starmer ruled out raising capital gains tax on people's main homes if his party wins the election, the Conservatives today are challenging Labour to “rule out other new taxes on peoples’ homes”.
The Liberal Democrats are presenting a £1bn plan which they say would cut cancer treatment waiting times with a major expansion of radiotherapy treatment, as part of their pledge that patients who have been urgently referred can start cancer treatment within 62 days.
The SNP’s John Swinney says its party’s Westminster election manifesto - due to be unveiled next week - will offer “hope against Westminster despair”.
Away from campaigning, Rishi Sunak is among several leaders at a two-day summit in Switzerland to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Hello and welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage as we enter another day on the general election campaign trail.
At 09:00 this morning we’ll hear from a host of political figures on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Facing Laura’s questions will be Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Transport Secretary Mark Harper, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and the leader of Plaid Cymru in Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth.
And on the panel are Labour’s Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the actor Brian Cox and former Tory MP Nadine Dorries.
We’ll also hear from politicians who are campaigning around the country ahead of the 4 July general election.
Stick with us as we bring you updates and analysis from our correspondents.