• Labour is launching its election manifesto at 11am, which it says will be "radical and responsible". The party has said it will be fully costed but this morning shadow chancellor John McDonnell would not specify how it would pay for water nationalisation.
• Plaid Cymru is also launching its manifesto, which places an emphasis on advocating for Wales in Brexit negotiations. This morning party leader Leanne Wood said they hoped to replicate the SNP's success. 
• The Lib Dems are promising budding entrepreneurs an £100-a-week allowance to help with living costs as part of their election offer for businesses.

Politico Europe

Politico has a story, external that MPs could form a group called “People’s Labour” if Jeremy Corbyn leads the party to defeat in the general election, according to a senior MP.

Frank Field, a party veteran and chair of the parliament’s work and pensions committee, told Politico MPs should be prepared to “remake” the party.

He put forward the idea that if enough MPs backed a parliamentary leader, the group should seek to declare that person the official leader of the opposition and apply for public funding for opposition parties, known as short money.

Victoria Derbyshire

More from Labour's Rebecca Long-Bailey, who spoke to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire a short time ago. She's asked if it's fair for Labour to levy higher taxes on teachers or doctors earning over £80,000?

Ms Long-Bailey says "what's fair is to have a fair taxation system".

"We aim to protect 95% of middle- and low-income earners" she adds, at the same time as reducing the deficit over the next Parliament.

She declines to specify when it will be eliminated. 

Victoria Derbyshire

Neil Coyle, Labour candidate in Bermondsey and Southwark and a vocal critic of Jeremy Corbyn, says some of the policies his party is focusing on "are actually what people raise as their primary concerns and want to see addressed".

For example, rising knife crime in his borough. The blame for that, he says, lies in one place alone - the former home secretary turned prime minister, whom he says brought about significant cuts in police numbers.

"That is a fundamental failing and Theresa May is totally repsonsible."

Victoria Derbyshire

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey describes Labour's plan as a "transformational manifesto for building a fairer Britain" and providing an alternative to "disastrous policies from the Tories".

She says she won't comment on specific figures regarding the cost of their policies ahead of the manifesto launch in an hour, but stresses "we need infrastructure, skills, research and for that we have to invest". 

Pressed for a number she tells Victoria Derbyshire, "I don't want to ruin the surprise." 

BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed has carried out some analysis, external of whether an increase in the number of people between 18 and 24 voting could be enough to swing the election. 

Spoiler alert: the answer is no. 

On the calculations they've used: "You'd need two and half times as many young people as actually exist in the country in order for them to change the result."

The Huffington Post

Image source, AFP

Lib Dem former minister Sir Vince Cable has said the creation of a new political party in the UK depends on how the Liberal Democrats perform at the general election.

He told HuffPost UK, external that “politics after the election may be more interesting than before it” if Jeremy Corbyn refuses to quit and the Labour Party “fragments”.

Sir Vince said it was “possible” a new party could emerge from the ashes of a left-wing collapse at the hands of the Tories as the structure of politics was now extremely “unpredictable”.

Away from the election, the work of one politician on the day of the Westminster terror attack is remembered.

The Guardian

Andrew Sparrow, writing for the Guardian, , externalsays the fact that John McDonnell was unable to put any figures on the cost of his plan to renationalise the water industry may be a sign that it was included in the manifesto at the last minute.

He says it might be the result of "pressure from unions or others attending Labour’s Clause V meeting last week, without much preparatory work having been done on it it advance".

The Clause V meeting was where the final contents of the manifesto were decided.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron is in Bath talking about his party's plans to help businesses, including a plan for a start-up allowance for entrepreneurs.

He's asked about the impact of Brexit on international staff working in the UK. 

Mr Farron says the eventual Brexit deal is unknown "and if it's unknown it shouldn't be imposed on us", but subject to a second referendum instead. 

BBC Radio 5 live

Image source, Getty Images

Former Labour advisor John McTernan isn't impressed with Jeremy Corbyn's plans for the country.

"It's a complete fantasy that the Labour Party manifesto launch today means anything at all," he told 5 live earlier.

"Labour are heading for losing 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 seats. The problem is the total lack of credibility. 

"This is a pile of spending promises and a pile of tax increases that are not large enough to pay for the spending plans, but are large enough to make sure that everybody is punished."

Higher taxes for business ultimately means ordinary people lose out, he said, because companies either increase their prices, cut wages or reduce pensions to make up for them.

A little earlier Today presenter Nick Robinson suggested John McDonnell might have been handed a piece of paper with the deficit figure on it (which he denied). 

The political editor of the Sun made a further claim and one of Mr McDonnell's advisers then weighed in with clarification:

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

There were a couple of tricky moments in that John McDonnell interview. Labour has promised again and again that everything will be fully costed, but on water renationalisation, he couldn’t confirm the mechanism, let alone how much he would spend on it.

And you'd think that at this stage of an election campaign, the shadow chancellor would know the precise figure for the UK's deficit.

But in the big picture, what matters is that Labour under Jeremy Corbyn is distancing itself from the model all other centre-ground parties have taken in recent times - one focused on lower taxes and more flexible markets. 

Indeed, the last couple of elections have been characterised by promises not to raise taxes, but now, for Labour and the Lib Dems at least, tax rises are back in fashion.

Today, Labour will also be turning up the criticism of the Tories, calling them nasty, mean and tight-fisted. That's a move away from what Jeremy Corbyn has done to date, generally steering away from personal attacks.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Leanne Wood says: "Plaid Cymru accepts the referendum result but we have a positive plan for Brexit."

She points out that there are 200,000 jobs reliant on EU trade in Wales and Plaid has placed an emphasis on local procurement.

There are opportunities to seize as we leave the EU, she continues, but only if we avoid an "extreme Brexit" and retain access to the single market. 

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood predicts "an emboldened Tory party" with a bigger majority after the election. 

She describes some of their changes to benefits as "really cruel" and set to become "even more cruel" if their hand is strengthened.