We are pausing our live coverage after another busy day on the campaign trail. Here's the latest:

• Diane Abbott has been readmitted as a Labour MP, the BBC understands, but it is unclear whether she will stand for the party at the general election
• Angela Rayner will face no police action after an investigation into the Labour deputy leader's previous living arrangements
• The Conservatives promised to raise the tax-free pension allowance via a "Triple Lock Plus", and on education, said they would scrap some "rip-off" university courses in England and replace them with 100,000 apprenticeships per year
• Labour committed to a target of starting treatment within 18 weeks for most NHS patients in England within five years, and on tax, promised there would be "no additional tax rises needed" beyond those it has already set out

The campaigning continues tomorrow - see you then for more updates and analysis.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the Conservatives would scrap some university courses in England and replace them with 100,000 apprenticeships per year.

The party says it would replace the "worst performing" degrees that it considers a "rip-off" because of high drop-out rates and "poor" job prospects.

Labour criticised the government over a decline in the number of new apprentices. It said it would prioritise "gearing" apprenticeships towards young people.

The Liberal Democrats said the government had treated apprentices like "second-class workers".

You can read more about the plans here.

A target to start treatment within 18 weeks for most NHS patients in England will be hit within five years, Labour has promised.

The party made the pledge as it set out details of how it would start making inroads into the backlog. This includes getting the NHS to do more out-of-hours, and making greater use of the private sector.

Currently the waiting list stands at 7.5 million treatments.

Treatment is defined as an operation - if a patient requires that - or starting a drug treatment or any other kind of care. Patients can have scans and checkups before treatment starts and either be taken off of the waiting list for example if they require physio or remain on the list for further care.

Joe Pike
Political Investigations Correspondent

LBC presenter Iain Dale has quit his long-running talk radio show to launch a bid to become an MP.

Mr Dale, 61, unsuccessfully contested North Norfolk for the Conservatives in 2005 and in the same year was chief of staff to David Davis in his failed leadership campaign against David Cameron.

The author and former publisher has been broadcasting on LBC radio since 2010 and has presented the station’s evening programme since 2018.

Image source, Reuters

Diane Abbott has been readmitted as a Labour MP, the BBC understands.

But it is unclear whether she will stand for the party at the looming 4 July general election.

Why was the whip removed?

In April 2023, Abbott wrote a letter to The Observer, external responding to a comment piece.

In it, Abbott said Jewish, Irish and Traveller people did not face racism "all their lives".

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said "errors" arose in an initial draft that was sent, and she apologised "for any anguish caused" and withdrew her remarks.

The Labour party said her comments were "deeply offensive and wrong" and suspended the whip, pending an investigation - meaning Abbott was left to sit as an independent MP, and could not stand for the party in a general election.

The BBC understands that Abbott had the whip restored today, and that party officials had tried to broker a deal by which she would not run again in return for the whip being restored - but it is not known if she has accepted such an arrangement.

It comes after BBC Newsnight found the Labour investigation into Diane Abbott was completed in December 2023.

Image source, .

Adam Fleming is joined by Alex Forsyth and Dharshini David to discuss a Tory pension pledge, and the news that Angela Rayner will face no further police action over her council house sale.

Plus, Chris Mason has been to Dover to hear from Nigel Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK.

Listen to today's episode on BBC Sounds here, where we'll also be posting new episodes every day of the election campaign.

Does the Tory pension pledge amount to a £300 saving?published at 20:46 British Summer Time 28 May

20:46 BST 28 May

The Conservatives are saying from 2025 they'll keep increasing the amount of money pensioners can earn - without paying basic rate income tax.

At the moment, you don't pay any tax on the first £12,570 you earn from wages or pensions from the state or savings.

Government policy is to hold that steady for the next few years.

But the new state pension (currently around £11,500 a year) is forecast to rise above this £12,570 threshold in a few years.

The Conservatives are saying they’ll lift the tax threshold to £13,000 a year for pensioners from next year and raise it even further in subsequent years.

But independent economists say although that could mean a potential £300 a year saving by 2029 for the average pensioner, someone living on the state pension alone will benefit by less than £30 a year.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that a third of pensioners will not benefit at all because they get the old lower state pension, or haven't built up enough entitlement to a full state pension.

We've just had news that another MP is standing down at this general election - this time it's the MP for Swansea West Geraint Davies.

He is currently suspended from the Labour Party following allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies, and has been sitting as an independent.

Earlier today, two more MPs announced they will not be standing in July's election.

Labour's Lyn Brown, who has represented the east London constituency of West Ham since 2005.

And former Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards, who accepted a police caution for assaulting his wife. Edwards says he considered running against his former party, but has said on "deep reflection" he decided it was time for him to step down.

It means a total of 130 MPs have so far said they will not stand at the election. Here is the breakdown by party as it stands:

• Conservative: 78
• Labour: 29
• SNP: 9

• Sinn Fein: 3
• Green: 1
• Plaid Cymru: 1
• Independent: 9

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

I understand Diane Abbott was given the Labour whip back today.

She had been suspended as a Labour MP over comments she made about race in a newspaper last year.

The suspension made her ineligible to stand as a Labour candidate at this election.

Party officials had tried to broker a deal by which she would not run again in return for the whip being restored.

It’s not clear if she has accepted that arrangement, but for now she is once again a Labour MP.

Marianna Spring
Disinformation and social media correspondent

The TikTok election battle has been heating up - in particular over the Conservative Party’s pledge to introduce 12 months of mandatory national service for 18-year-olds.

The Conservatives' first video features Rishi Sunak explaining how he isn’t sending 18-year-olds to war and has racked up more than two million views.

Posts from Labour include a clip of the 1980s song Surprise Surprise by Cilla Black, with the caption "POV: Rishi Sunak turning up on our 18th birthday to send you to war". That's had more than three million views.

On TikTok, political advertising to target particular users isn’t allowed. So the way to reach voters is to create content you think they might like.

The social media platform was not nearly as popular during the last general election. It's now used by 10% of adults.

We know from media regulator Ofcom it was the fastest-growing source of news in the UK for the second year in a row last year. And one in 10 teens say it’s their most important news source.

Some other political parties, like the Greens and Reform UK, do have official accounts. But others don’t.

Either way it’s Labour and Conservative TikToks that seems to be having the greatest reach in these opening days. But there’s also lots of content coming from influencers, political activists and anonymous accounts.

It can make it trickier to figure out where content being recommended to us by algorithms is coming from - and why.

Joe Pike
Political Investigations Correspondent

Image source, PA

A white Labour candidate who publicly apologised after saying he had the “worst tan possible for a black man” at a Black History Month event privately dismissed criticism as being “part of a smear campaign” against him.

Despite apologising for what he called “extremely stupid and embarrassing” comments in 2022, a leaked email appears to show Barking candidate Darren Rodwell playing down the remarks when confronted by a constituent.

“What I can tell you [is] it was part of a smear campaign against me”, he wrote.

Rodwell is the leader of Barking and Dagenham Council and is standing to succeed Labour veteran Margaret Hodge as MP for Barking.

A Labour spokesperson said the party had "dealt with this matter at the time in line with its rules and procedures".

“Darren Rodwell offered an unreserved apology for these remarks when the video was first circulated in 2022," the spokesperson added.

Read more about this story here.

Fact checking Farage's claim on deportationspublished at 19:11 British Summer Time 28 May

19:11 BST 28 May

Earlier today Nigel Farage claimed the UK has "stopped deporting people who had arrived in the country illegally".

He said: “In the last year of the Labour government, leading up to 2010, 45,000 people who came to Britain illegally had been deported. But we’ve given up on that.”

It is true that in 2010 a total of 45,690 people were returned from the UK, according to the Home Office figures, external.

However, less than one third of them (13,928) were so-called “enforced returns” - people who refused to leave the UK voluntarily and whose departure was enforced by the Home Office.

Enforced returns continued after 2010, so Farage’s claim that the government "gave up" on this policy is not true.

However, after remaining fairly constant between 2010 and 2013, the number of enforced returns did sharply decline after 2016.

The numbers have risen again since the pandemic, although they remain lower than in 2017 and before.

Image source, PA Media

More now on the news that Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner will face no police action in the row over her council house sale.

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party says Rayner “still hasn’t provided an explanation” and they challenge Labour leader Keir Starmer to publish tax advice received by his deputy.

It comes after Starmer said Rayner has been "vindicated".

The Conservative spokesperson says: “Greater Manchester Police have said they’ve passed the findings of their investigation into Angela Rayner to HMRC, who do not comment on their tax probes."

“Sir Keir Starmer could easily clear this up by simply reading and then publishing the tax advice Labour claims will exonerate his under-fire deputy.”

Earlier several Labour sources told BBC News that Angela Rayner has already asked HMRC to look into the questions she was facing. The Labour sources say the tax authority confirmed she has no capital gains tax liability, and no further action will be taken.

HMRC cannot comment on personal tax affairs.

Labour has said they will consider giving votes to 16-year-olds, so BBC Radio 5 Live's Phone-in show has been speaking to teenagers to gather their views.

Lulu, who is 17 and chair of Harrogate Youth Council, says younger people should be given the vote and argues its wrong that they are not being consulted on matters that affect them.

"When I turn 18, laws don’t start magically affecting me. Decisions made by the government affect me now," she says

Sixteen-year-old Seren from Leeds agrees. She says it's "frustrating" that she's not able to vote on important things like climate policies, because her generation will be the most affected by climate change long-term.

But 19-year-old Charles in Winchester tells 5 Live he thinks 16-year-olds don't know enough to vote.

"Children need time to form their ideologies without the pressure of political parties pushing their agendas, especially when [teenagers are] so vulnerable and can be easily influenced."

Image source, PA Media

Returning now to something we were looking at earlier in the day - BBC Newsnight's report that the Labour investigation into Diane Abbott over comments she made on racism was completed in December 2023.

A source close to the veteran politician said despite that, she still had not been told whether she will be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in her Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency in London.

Asked about her situation by broadcasters this evening, Keir Starmer says: “The process overall is obviously a little longer than the fact-finding exercise.

“But in the end, this is a matter that will have to be resolved by the National Executive Committee and they’ll do that in due course.”

Have the Tories pledged £64bn in unfunded tax cuts?published at 18:16 British Summer Time 28 May

18:16 BST 28 May

Remember a little earlier we were wondering where Labour’s claim of £64bn of unfunded tax cuts promised by the Conservatives came from?

Well, Labour got back to us to explain their working.

It starts with the £46bn from the aspiration to abolish National Insurance, which we’ve already written about.

The next two “pledges” come from an interview Jeremy Hunt has given to the Telegraph., external

The chancellor described inheritance tax as “profoundly anti-Conservative”, but did not say whether abolishing it would be in the manifesto.

And he said that the distortions in the tax system for people earning between £60,000 and £125,000, such as the withdrawal of the personal allowance and child benefit, are “bad economically” and said a Conservative government would try to correct them.

Labour has costed those at £7.5bn and £6.5bn respectively, although we do not know what aspects of them are actually going to be Tory manifesto pledges for the next Parliament.

And the rest of the money comes from another Telegraph interview at the start of April, external, in which energy secretary Claire Coutinho said she was considering removing £4bn of green levies from household energy bills.

Remember, we only have a few weeks to wait until the Conservatives release their manifesto, together with how they plan to pay for the measures they include.

HMRC rules show criminal probe into Rayner was unlikelypublished at 18:08 British Summer Time 28 May

18:08 BST 28 May

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

The BBC has been told by a Labour source that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concluded Angela Rayner did not owe any Capital Gains Tax over the sale of her former council house.

The agency is unlikely to comment itself because of tax privacy rules - but we’ve asked it just in case.

What we can say for sure is that the threshold for the HMRC to begin a probe that could lead to prosecution is so high it was always unlikely it would go down that route, even if it had thought there was money owing.

"Criminal investigation will be reserved for cases where HMRC needs to send a strong deterrent message or where the conduct involved is such that only a criminal sanction is appropriate," it says in its public policy, external.

Examples include probes into organised crime and incidents linked to abuse of positions of responsibility, or deliberate deception.

Even when the HMRC suspects someone of really serious fraud, it will often make them a contractual offer: Promise to fully disclose what has been going on, and we will promise not to open a criminal file.

We've just heard directly from Angela Rayner, after Greater Manchester Police said it was dropping its investigation into the sale of her council house.

“I welcome the conclusion of the police investigation, and confirmation that no further action will be taken," she says in a statement.

We've just called the Conservatives to get their reaction to the accusations Rayner makes in her statement - we'll bring that to you when we get it.

More from Keir Starmer now, who has spoken to the press after his Q&A with workers in Hertfordshire.

He's asked about this afternoon's news that his deputy, Angela Rayner, will face no police action related to the row over her council house sale.

He says: “I’m obviously pleased that they’ve come to a conclusion.

“I never doubted that Angela hadn’t done anything wrong and now she’s been cleared by the police.

“And that means that Angela can be campaigning with us. This is an important moment for the country. This is an election that is all about change, turning our back on 14 years of chaos and division, turning the page and rebuilding our country with Labour.

“So I’m really pleased that Angela has been vindicated. I always had confidence in her."

Earlier in the day, Nigel Farage launched Reform UK's campaign at a yacht club on the Kent seafront (he is not standing as an MP himself).

At the event in Dover, Farage, who is Reform's honorary president, claimed the party are the "new Conservatives".

Sunak was asked for his thoughts on Farage's comments a little earlier - watch his reaction below: