Kris Bramwell
BBC News

The UK’s housing situation is also a key issue for many voters - both for those struggling with rent and those hoping to buy a home.

Andy Brown, from Ripley, Derbyshire, said he feels part of a “lost generation” over housing and that politicians have failed to say how they plan to sort out the problems people face.

The 39 year-old, who lives with partner Francesca and four children, have a combined income of around £45,000 but say they cannot get a mortgage.

Andy says he and his partner would struggle in the rental market if their landlord of three years was ever to sell up.

Sherie Ryder
BBC News

First up is the rising cost of living in recent years, which consistently ranks as among the most important issues for voters.

Ian Hewlett, 55, from Merseyside, told us he is most concerned about the cost of his mortgage, which has increased by £100 a month. Ian said his family had downsized to one car to save on travel costs, stopped buying more expensive products, and were going out a lot less.

He also said his wife, who has worked as a nurse in the NHS for 35 years, has “had quite enough” with the “stresses and strains” of working in the health service.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Image source, .

Ahead of tonight's election debate featuring the seven biggest parties in Britain, the BBC has launched an initiative aimed at understanding the issues that matter most to you when casting your vote.

“Your Voice, Your Vote” is an open invitation to you to help shape our coverage of the election, by telling us what matters to you, where and why.

This helps frame how we tell the stories, and address the issues, you care about. It also helps us with the questions we put to those seeking your vote.

My day job is cover the twists and turns of personal finances and the cost of living – but with this project we want to hear about anything and everything you want to know about.

This is not a poll, not a focus group, not a scientific study – just a chance for you to use your voice.

To read more about this new initiative and to get in touch, click here.

But, now, we are going to look at what you’ve been telling us already.

The Labour Party also announced a new policy today - to make permanent a scheme which ensures low-deposit mortgages are available for first-time buyers.

It was introduced by the Conservatives in 2021 when Rishi Sunak was chancellor, under then PM Boris Johnson, and was extended until July next year by current Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said he wanted to "turn the dream of owning a home into a reality". The plan will help more than 80,000 young people get on to the housing ladder over the next five years, the party says.

Laura Trott, chief Secretary to the Treasury, said "only Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have a clear plan, backed by bold action, to strengthen the economy, bring mortgage costs down and help more people get on the housing ladder".

While SNP candidate for Airdrie and Shotts, Anum Qaisar, said Scottish households were "being punished by Westminster failures", adding that "the cost of mortgages and energy bills are too high and families need help now."

• Read more on this here

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a bit more on the latest Conservative policy that we mentioned in our last post, announced earlier today - before attention turned to Rishi Sunak apologising for leaving D-Day commemorations in France early.

The party says that if re-elected on 4 July, it would increase the income threshold at which someone starts to lose their child benefit from £60,000 to £120,000.

It has also re-committed itself to changing the rules so the threshold level takes into account a household's income, rather than an individual's.

The previous system of calculating the threshold based on one earner has been criticised for unfairly penalising single parents and families with one high earner.

The Conservatives say 700,000 families would benefit from the change, by an average of £1,500, while Labour says Rishi Sunak is "adding to his list of desperate and unfunded policies that he knows can't be delivered".

• Read more about the proposal here

Tom Symonds
News correspondent, reporting from Gloucestershire

Image source, PA Media

The prime minister has been visiting a new academy school in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, attempting to refocus his campaign on policies.

Dressed down for Friday, he joined children in a game of maths bingo - but the Conservatives’ attempt to win coverage of their new policy on child benefits today has been comprehensively overshadowed.

They're offering to increase the amount people can earn before losing their benefit - currently £60,000 for one person, it would go up to £120,000 for two. This would particularly benefit households with a single large income, or two not far below £60,000. The Conservatives say 700,000 families would be better off.

It’s a complicated message, pushed to the side by reaction to Rishi Sunak’s D-Day departure.

One veteran (see our last post) said the PM had put the election before those who lost their lives in Normandy. Simple and devastating.

Labour will continue to weaponize the issue, helped by the lack of a clear explanation as to why Sunak's planners decided it wasn’t worth him standing alongside other heads of state in France.

Jack Hemmings, 102, was a twin engine pilot in the RAF during World War Two and is a recipient of the Air Force Cross.

He made the journey to Normandy on Tuesday to honour former RAF Flight Lieutenant Stuart King, who he described as being "right in the thick of it" on D-Day, and who died during lockdown in 2020 and so couldn't be present at the services.

Speaking to the BBC on a boat back to the UK today, he says Sunak's choice to leave yesterday's D-Day commemorations early "seems like it was a wrong decision".

"He opted to put an election before the thousands who were killed," he adds.

An update now on a story that we brought you yesterday - that the Conservative Party accepted a further donation from Frank Hester, after he had been accused of making racist comments about Labour's Diane Abbott.

Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said yesterday that the news proved Rishi Sunak "is a man with no integrity", while a Conservative Party spokesman said Hester had "rightly apologised" for the comments he made "and shown contrition and we consider the matter resolved".

Today - following the row about Sunak's decision to leave D-Day commemoration events in France prematurely - the Liberal Democrats are calling on the prime minister to donate the money that Hester gave the Conservatives to a veterans' charity.

Sunak apologised earlier for leaving Normandy, saying it was a "mistake".

Image source, .

Iain Watson
Political correspondent, reporting from central London

I'm still at a "secret" central London location, where the Labour leadership, big unions and members of Labour's National Executive Committee are discussing the draft manifesto.

So what are the arguments going on behind closed doors?

Workers’ rights is a key area of interest for the big unions. One union source tells me "we go in to the meeting with open hearts but girded loins".

The public service union Unison wants to ensure commitments to improved pay and wage bargaining are there in black and white in the document.

Unite wants various caveats on, for example, ending zero hours contracts taken out - and a complete ban on the practice of "hire and fire", for instance taking workers back on with worse pay and conditions.

Unite is the biggest trade union funder of Labour and I am told their donations may be less generous if the party isn’t strong enough on employment rights.

As you no doubt mull over your Friday night plans this lunchtime, here's a reminder that the BBC's first TV debate of the election campaign will kick off at 19:30.

Above you can watch the BBC's chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman explain what to expect in tonight's seven-way election debate.

How to watch: Tonight from 19:30-21:00 BST on BBC One and BBC News in the UK - you'll also be able to listen on local radio across the country. We'll be playing it on this page too, you'll just need to tap the Play button at the top of the page.

The format: Anchored by the BBC's Mishal Husain, questions will be taken from the audience and there'll be some sent in by the public too. These seven political leaders will debate the issues surrounding the campaign:

• Leader of the House of Commons, Conservative candidate Penny Mordaunt
• Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner
• Deputy Lib Dem leader Daisy Cooper
• Scottish National Party Westminster leader Stephen Flynn
• Green Party's co-leader Carla Denyer
• Reform UK leader Nigel Farage
• Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth

Andrew Kerr
Scotland political correspondent

Earlier today the Scottish Green Party announced they would stand a total of 44 candidates across Scotland in the general election.

There are a total of 57 constituencies.

The announcement was made at a campaign event in Glasgow by the co-leader, Lorna Slater.

She called on people to “vote like your future depends on it” as she praised the candidates which she said were standing the “length and breadth of the country.”

Image source, PA Media

Elsewhere in political news, the Green Party says it is still investigating a number of its election candidates over previous social media posts, hours before a nomination deadline.

Four of the party's candidates are not running after it launched an investigation into reports of antisemitic or extreme comments.

Co-leader Adrian Ramsay told the BBC on Thursday a "small number" were still being investigated.

It comes as the Times reports party officials were examining nearly 20 candidates over online material ahead of a 16:00 BST registration deadline this afternoon.

Ramsay has confirmed four candidates are "no longer standing," without specifying whether they had been dropped or pulled out themselves.

It is understood investigations into election candidates are ongoing, although the party has not confirmed exactly how many are being looked at, or who they are.

• Read more about this here

Image source, Getty Images

Some more remarks to bring you from the Veterans' Affairs Minister who has admitted to the BBC it is "a bit crushing" to hear the PM apologise for returning early from the D-Day event in France.

Johnny Mercer says veterans "will feel pretty raw" about the prime minister's early departure, but adds it was right for Rishi Sunak to apologise and he vows to stand by him.

"It is a mistake," Mercer tells the BBC. "It shouldn't have happened."

"Obviously people will want to turn this into a political issue and jump all over him. I'm not going to join that crowd. I think people do make mistakes; this was a mistake."

Mercer says it is not a fair reaction as he adds he has "spent hours with him and his wife" who he explains have been "deeply committed" to veterans over many years.

"No-one has allowed me to do more in the veterans' space than this prime minister."

The Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron has praised Rishi Sunak for admitting he made a mistake when he returned early from the D-day commemoration event in France.

Speaking on camera in Oxfordshire, Cameron said "it is a credit to him that he has been so frank about it".

He went on to say that instead of the prime minister digging in and defending himself, he came straight out and said on reflection he wished he'd stayed in France longer. That is a "tribute to the way he is", Cameron said.

The foreign secretary emphasised that "to be fair" Sunak was at the Portsmouth veterans event and the British veterans event in Normandy and had a longstanding plan to return to the UK after that.

Sunak attended the events for UK veterans but left before the one with world leaders on Omaha Beach in Normandy.

Watch below as Sunak defends leaving the D-Day anniversary events early:

Labour can't believe their luck with Sunak's D-Day slip uppublished at 13:05 British Summer Time 7 June

13:05 BST 7 June

Iain Watson
Political correspondent, reporting from central London

The sun is shining over the "secret" central London location (which quite a few people have rumbled) where the Labour leadership, big unions and members of their National Executive Committee are discussing the draft manifesto.

But what has really brought smiles to their faces is not the summer weather, but Rishi Sunak’s D-Day slip up. They can’t believe their political luck.

One Labour figure wonders "if we have secretly recruited Rishi Sunak to the Labour Party" while another says "it was extraordinary".

I'm told as the day goes on that Labour will frame the argument thus: "Rishi Sunak demands national service from young people but ducks out of a service for veterans."

They are not going to let this go.

We've another caller's response to bring you from Radio 5 Live now - Muriel from Carlisle tells Nicky Campbell's programme that she feels "absolutely disgusted" with the prime minister for leaving D-Day commemorations early.

"I’m a 90-year-old lady who lived through the war," she says. "My father was still fighting in Italy. And this man represents me and he left. He left. He’s our prime minister, he was representing me. I just think it’s so wrong."

She continues: "I sat and watched it from 07:30 and I was in tears for a lot of the time. And I just think it was dreadful."

Muriel, who says she’s been a Conservative all her life, tells our colleagues on Radio 5 she's now "thinking twice about voting for that man". She adds: "If he expects me to vote for him again, he can forget it. He’s just let me down, he’s let the country down ... I really don’t know who else to vote for."

Over on Radio 5 Live, Nicky Campbell's been taking calls from listeners across the UK asking whether they accepted the prime minister's apology. Here's a round-up of some responses, as the backlash over Rishi Sunak's premature exit from D-Day events in France continues:

• Ex-serviceman Mark, from Reading, says he feels it's "a story being created out of nothing"
• Jim got in touch from France to say he's been walking the length of Normandy beaches to raise money for charity: "People have come from all round the world to commemorate and he just went home - he completely misread it"
• Helen, in Edinburgh, feels Sunak skipping the later D-Day event was "pretty awful" - "you might think it doesn’t matter but every part of what Britain is proud of was representing there yesterday," she tells the programme
• Finally, Vix in Milton Keynes comments on the PM's national service policy announcement - "Rishi Sunak’s telling young people they’re going to have to give up a year of their lives and do national service, yet he can’t stay for a single afternoon for a D-Day commemoration. It’s quite shocking," she says

Image source, The Telegraph/PA

Some more reaction from within the Conservative Party now - following Rishi Sunak's apology for leaving D-Day commemorations in Normandy prematurely.

Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer has told the Sun's Election Countdown programme that Sunak's decision was "a significant mistake".

He says he's spoken to the prime minister and "he knows this is a mistake, right, and he takes responsibility because he is the prime minister" - adding that he gets "the outrage and it's a mistake, it's a significant mistake, for which he has apologised".

"But I'm also not going to join the howls of fake veteran supporters, suddenly upset that he doesn't treat veterans correctly, because that's not the case", Mercer says.

He also urges people to remember the progress that's been made on veterans' issues, such as Northern Ireland prosecutions, claiming headway had stalled until Sunak - "someone who actually believes in it" - assumed office.

The final lines we'll bring you from this interview with the prime minister (check our last few posts) focus on a denial that he had considered not attending the D-Day commemorations in France at all.

He says the rumours are "simply not right" and that the D-Day itinerary was set weeks ago, before the general election campaign began: "Of course I was always scheduled to participate."

"I was proud and privileged" to meet veterans and their families, Sunak says, expressing his "personal gratitude for everything that they've done for our country". He repeats that he made a mistake leaving the events early.

While Sunak's been speaking, a No 10 spokesperson has released a statement that says:

Image source, UK Pool

It's put to Sunak that he seems more exasperated than apologetic, and he's asked why he couldn't "give up an afternoon" for people who "gave up their lives".

The prime minister says he attended various D-Day events, both in Portsmouth and France, and that he should be judged on his record supporting the Armed Forces: "In this campaign, it's the Conservative Party led by me which is increasing the amount of investment that we're putting into our Armed Forces to 2.5% of GDP."

"I care deeply," Sunak goes on to say, when it's suggested he doesn't. He also repeats that his itinerary was set weeks ago.

"I stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as prime minister weeks ago, before the election, fully participated," he says. "As I said, on reflection it was a mistake not to stay longer and I've apologised for that, but I also don't think it's right to be political in the midst of D-Day commemorations."