The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Earlier on Tuesday, Lord Hattersley told the BBC Labour was in a "far worse" shape than in 1983, when Margaret Thatcher won a landslide against the Michael Foot-led party.

Speaking to Martha Kearney on Radio 4's The World at One, the former Labour deputy leader called for up to 10 senior backbenchers to speak out against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and stop the party "imploding".  

Here's the Lib Dem leader's interview with the BBC's political correspondent Eleanor Garnier, in which he says he does not think gay sex is a sin.

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The former Lib Dem deputy prime minister has criticised Labour's Brexit strategy as "too little, too late and too muddled".

Nick Clegg, former leader of the Lib Dems, said shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer was "trying his best to make sense of a very messy Labour position", but even a pro-European like him could not understand it. 

He told BBC News: "They say they now don't agree with the government's negotiating strategy, yet they fatefully voted for it in the Commons. 

"They say they want to help the three million EU citizens in the United Kingdom, yet they didn't lift a finger to do so when they had the opportunity in parliament. It is a terrible muddle.

"In the white heat of a campaign, we need greater clarity than we have on Europe from the principal party of opposition." 

BBC News Channel

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron says he does not think gay sex is a sin - clarifying a question he has refused to answer several times during the election campaign. 

In an exclusive interview with BBC News, Mr Farron admitted the matter had become "an issue" for him over the last few days.

But he insisted: "I don't believe gay sex is a sin. 

"A week ago at the beginning of the campaign I got asked the question for the first time... ...my sense was, I'm careful how I talk about my faith, I don't want to get into the theological niceties." 

However, he stressed: "I don't think people want political party leaders telling them what is and isn't sin."

Mr Farron has been repeatedly asked for his opinion on sexuality - and has avoided answering the question in TV interviews. 

In a debate in Parliament last week he said that being gay in itself was not a sin, and that his party had been strong advocates of LGBT rights. 

Mr Farron denied that he had previously hidden his view on gay sex, saying he was disclosing it now only because it had become the subject of intense questioning.

Responding to Theresa May's speech in Wales, Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour’s Campaigns and Elections Chair, said a vote for the Tories was a "vote for the few, not the many".

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

If in years to come, students are asked an essay question - Is Nuance an Effective Weapon In Politics? - they might cite Labour's position on Brexit in 2017 in their answer.

As things stand, with the party trailing in the polls, it would appear that if it is a weapon at all, it's been decommissioned.

On the surface, Labour has a difficult task. It has to attract - or at least not repel - those Labour voters that backed Leave in last year's EU referendum, as well as those who backed Remain.

The Liberal Democrats - starting from a low base - need only to attract small percentage of the 48% who voted Remain to improve their representation in Parliament.

So campaigning to reverse the result of the referendum - by having a second one - carries little political risk for them.

The Conservatives can pretty much go hammer and tongs for the UKIP vote by saying they can deliver on Brexit -and achieve sympathetic headlines from some of the tabloids as a bonus.

Labour has a trickier balancing act to perform but some in the party's ranks wonder if their frontbench isn't making the issue more difficult for itself than it need be.

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BBC News Channel

Labour MP Seema Malhotra has defended her party's Brexit policy, which was unveiled on Tuesday, saying it is important to have more options on the table for negotiations. 

Ms Malhotra, who serves on the Commons select committee for exiting the European Union, told BBC News her party wanted to see more flexibility on rules governing the customs union and freedom of movement, during discussions over leaving the EU.

"What is very important about what [shadow Brexit secretary] Keir Starmer has said today is to put the economy back in the debate about Brexit," she said.

"It has got to be a Brexit that we work towards, that is right for Britain, that isn't going to make things worse for British businesses and families, and I think it is important to acknowledge that." 

The Conservative's Brexit secretary David Davis responded to the speech earlier with a repeated campaign line that Jeremy Corbyn is "too weak" to handle the negotiations. 

Image source, Getty Images

The prime minister has again refused to commit to retaining the government's existing pledge not to raise taxes if she wins the general election. 

Speaking at a campaign rally in South Wales, Mrs May would also not be drawn on whether a future Conservative government would cut taxes for working people.

Asked about her plans for taxation by the BBC's Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg, Mrs May said voters faced a "choice between a Conservative Party that always has been, is and always will be a party that believes in lower taxes" and "a Labour Party whose natural instinct is always to put up taxes".

Addressing party activists, the prime minister also warned against complacency, pointing out opinion polls had been wrong at the 2015 general election and the EU referendum last year.

She warned that Jeremy Corbyn himself had "said he was a 200/1 outsider for the Labour leadership in 2015 and look where that one went.

"So we must not be complacent and I'm not complacent," she added.

Chancellor Philip Hammond says official data reporting the lowest deficit since the crash in 2008 shows "what is at stake at this election".

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggest public sector net borrowing fell by £20bn to £52bn for the financial year ending March 2017 - the lowest net borrowing since the financial year ending March 2008.

Mr Hammond said it was only the Conservatives who could "lock in the economic progress we have made together".

However, he still faces questions over tax plans for the next parliament, after he argued chancellors needed "flexibility", casting doubt on the Tory's 2015 tax pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.

Earlier, Theresa May sidestepped questions about whether the party planned to scrap the pledge.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, PA

Labour's Lord Dubs has again called for the voting age to be lowered. 

He was speaking in the House of Lords after it was announced that ex-pats who have been living abroad for more than 15 years will be unable to vote in the 8 June general election. 

Lord Dubs said it was more important to give the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds "whose future is in this country, than to give it to people who have left this country, don't pay taxes and seem to have no interest in us". 

But Cabinet Office spokesman Lord Young said this idea had been repeatedly voted down in the Commons, adding that the UK was "in line with most mature democracies in having the voting age at 18". 

House of Lords
Parliament

Britons who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will not be allowed to vote in the June general election.

Legislation scrapping the 15-year rule is expected to be taken through parliament - but not before the deadline for the election on 8 June.   

Cabinet Office spokesman Lord Young of Cookham told the Lords:

Liberal Democrat Baroness Walmsley claimed ministers were worried about how they might vote, "given that the government has ruined the lives of many of them by choosing a hard Brexit".

BBC News Channel

The director of think-tank 'UK in a Changing Europe' says Labour faces a challenge when it comes to finding a balance between its supporters over Brexit.

Professor Anand Menon said shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer's speech on Tuesday offered a "softer" Brexit than Theresa May. But the split in the party, and its leadership, made things tougher. 

"In terms of Labour's position, this is hugely complicated, because what Keir Starmer is saying and what his leader is saying are slightly different," he told BBC News. 

"And, of course, Labour faces the dilemma that it incorporates, within its electorate, both staunch leavers and staunch remainers.

"They are trying to reserve a certain amount of ambiguity, whilst at the same time recognising the fact that they need to prioritise the economics."

The Daily Politics

The focus may have been on Labour shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer and his party's proposals for Brexit negotiations today, but there was still time for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to get in some jibes at one another. 

On the BBC's Daily Politics, this job went to Conservative Dominic Raab and Lib Dem Alistair Carmichael.

Police are investigating after a suspicious package was delivered to the constituency office of the SNP MP John Nicolson.

Police are at the East Dunbartonshire MP's office and it's understood part of the surrounding area has been cordoned off.