Image source, PA

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted this morning that two key NHS waiting time targets were being missed and that the health service had faced "a very tough time" in the few years after the financial crisis. 

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, has pounced on those remarks with this response:

Joe Lynam
Business correspondent

While there’s no clear figure for how much tax the top 5% of earners pay, HMRC figures show that the top 1%, external of earners pay more than a quarter (27%) of all income tax in Britain and the top 10% pay three fifths (59%) of all income tax. The poorest half of the country pays 10% of all tax.  

But according to ONS data the less-well-off (the poorest fifth) pay a higher slice of their total income (38%), external in tax than the most wealthy (top fifth of earners) in Britain.

Then there’s the issue of whether increasing taxes would yield more money for the exchequer. Paul Johnson, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that the very wealthy might find new ways to avoid tax or they might even move away. He said that there was no big pot of gold out there that previous governments had overlooked.

He also added that it would make more sense for pensions to be set at a certain percentage of (eg 20 or 25%) of average earnings than the current triple lock which raises the state pension by an unknown amount each year.    

John McDonnell attempts to position Labour as on the side of business - talking directly to people running companies big and not so big.

"You're being held back too," he says, citing examples of firms struggling to pay green taxes, being denied credit and facing "punitive" business rates.

He talks about small businesses, as you'd expect, but also talks to the "CEO of a large enterprise" - and says he "recognises the immense responsibilities you carry every day".

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is having a busy Sunday. He's now giving a speech on his economic plans, underpinned by today's big announcement on tax.

With a grave tone, he tells the audience that the economy as it stands is "holding people back" - but life could be much better - a good job, a home of your own, a cut in carbon emissions, for example.

A Labour government would define itself by "upgrading the economy", he goes on.

"The economy should be what we want it to be. We should be its masters not its servants."

Earlier, Nigel Farage told Peston on Sunday that Theresa May is draping herself in UKIP's cloak. Well, that's exactly the sort of argument the Lib Dems have been making - although naturally, they see it rather differently from Mr Farage.

The party's foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake says:

BBC Sunday Politics

Moving on to Labour, the political commentator Isabel Oakeshott says talk of Marxism is damaging.

"I can just see all the Labour MPs with their heads in their hands."

Where Labour politicians win on 8 June, it will be despite the party leadership not because of it, she adds.

Janan Ganesh, of the FT, says the Corbynites' best chance of hanging on to control over the party after the election might be to point to the millions of individual votes for Labour and ignore the parliamentary performance.

That's what Tony Benn did when he said that there were 8m votes for socialism in the 1983 election - an election which gave the Conservatives a landslide win - notes Steve Richards.

BBC Sunday Politics

Do the Tories just carry on playing it safe and dull for the next four weeks?

Well, Steve Richards, from the Independent, above right, says Theresa May called this election to win her own personal mandate and she does need to define it.

What they say in the manifesto matters so she can set her vision apart from David Cameron's, he adds.

Janan Ganesh says it's in Mrs May's interests to be as non-committal as possible, but what interests him is how personal the whole thing has become.

Mrs May is referring to "my candidates" and that's a deliberate move, he says, arguing that much of the country now identify with her personally.

John McDonnell told Andrew Marr this morning there was "a lot to learn" from Das Kapital - Karl Marx's thesis.

He did, to be fair, say he'd also taken a bit of advice from Chancellor Philip Hammond when it comes to public borrowing.

Anyway, responding, International Development Secretary Priti Patelsaid:

BBC News Channel

The director of independent think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, believes there's little scope for raising significant sums from increasing tax on the highest earners.

He says Labour's suggestion is part of a "not entirely honest conversation politicians want to have" with voters - along the lines that, "someone else will pay for public services".

People earning more than £80,000 already pay a substantial amount of the total tax take, he continues.

BBC Sunday Politics

"We'll keep calm and carry on," says Neil Hamilton, UKIP's leader in the Welsh Assembly when asked about the party's very poor council election performance.

He says voters have "made up their minds that Theresa May needs as much support as she can get" in the Brexit negotiations.

"I think they're wrong," he adds, suggestion that a cohort of UKIP MPs would help.

Mr Hamilton adds that UKIP has plenty of other policies which voters like and "that no other party can match us on" - halving the foreign aid budget, for example.

BBC Sunday Politics

"I don't recognise that picture of despondency," says shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon when asked about negativity from voters towards Jeremy Corbyn.

"Most people are talking about Jeremy Corbyn's policies," he continues, referring to people he meets on the doorsteps - not about the party leader himself.

Mr Burgon makes sure he also gets in a mention of Theresa May's decision to "duck" the opportunity for a TV debate with Mr Corbyn.