Paying for social care improvements a knotty problempublished at 13:00 British Summer Time 10 June

13:00 BST 10 June

Alison Holt
Social affairs editor

Money is usually the knottiest problem that faces politicians when it comes to fixing the social care system that supports people who are disabled or older.

The Lib Dems say they will meet the £2.7bn cost of their plan for free personal care in England by reversing tax cuts for big banks.

Independent experts have already suggested that won’t be enough to stabilise a system with deep-rooted financial problems.

But the manifesto also proposes “a cross-party commission to forge a long-term agreement on sustainable funding for social care.”

That will be greeted with a groan from many working in social care who will view it as kicking funding issues into the long grass - again.

The idea of the parties working together to find a solution has been proposed many times – not least by Norman Lamb, who a decade ago was the Lib Dem care minister in the coalition government. So far it hasn’t happened.

Also worth noting over the last 25 years there have been numerous commissions and reports all looking at social care funding. That includes the Dilnot Commission, which reported in 2011 and proposed the cap on care costs which is currently sitting on the statute books.

We have been focused today on the Lib Dems launching their manifesto but there is plenty happening elsewhere too on the general election front.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed that he has not considered resigning following widespread criticism after he left D-Day events early last week. Sunak has since apologised.

Speaking today, he says he is "energised" about the vision the Conservative Party has for the country.

You can watch his response in full here:

We've been picking our way through the Lib Dems manifesto since it was published a little while ago. Let's look at where they're planning to spend money:

• NHS and social care: 8,000 more GPs and free personal care in England, at a cost of £8.35bn
• International, defence and borders: reversing cuts to army troop numbers and restoring development spending to 0.7% of GDP - £6.7bn
• Child poverty: scrapping two-child limit on claiming some benefits, and the benefit cap and bedroom tax - £4.1bn
• Childcare: extra free childcare available to disadvantaged children, boosting maternity and paternity pay and extra child benefit for one-year-olds - £3bn
• Schools: more money for schools, recruiting a mental health professional in every school, free school meals for children in poverty and teacher training - £2.2bn
• Students: reinstating student maintenance grants and the creation of a lifelong skills grants - £1.5bn
• Carers: increasing carers' allowance by £20 a week and changing rules on how much carers can earn - £1.45bn
• Farmers and rural communities: extra support, including expanding rural fuel duty relief - £1bn
• Transport: cutting transport costs, including reintroducing the plug-in car grant - £600m

• Devolved nations: additional funding for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - £2.9bn

Our chief economics correspondent Dharshini David looked at how they say they'd fund these pledges here.

Big plans for NHS and social care - but how would Lib Dems pay for it?published at 12:38 British Summer Time 10 June

12:38 BST 10 June

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

The Liberal Democrats are promising more NHS staff, quicker cancer care, speedier access to GPs and to tackle the hospital backlog.

To help pay for this, they say they will raise £9bn a year through reversing a tax cut given to big banks and loopholes in capital gains tax. But that is just a fraction of what goes on health and care.

The Department of Health and Care budget is £192bn in England alone. Most of that - £165bn - is going on the NHS with the rest paying for things such as training, public health and some social care.

In the past two years the budget has increased by more than £10bn in cash terms, but that has not even been enough to keep up with inflation.

What is more, the party has also promised to pay for free personal care for people who need help with daily tasks such as washing and eating. That sits outside the NHS and is instead provided through social care which is run by councils.

While some of their budget comes from the Department of Health and Care, the majority comes from wider council budgets - and it's not clear yet how they will pay for it given the spending constraints facing local government.

Lib Dems swerve toxic tuition fees issuepublished at 12:31 British Summer Time 10 June

12:31 BST 10 June

Branwen Jeffreys
Education editor

Tuition fees are utterly toxic politically for the Lib Dems, so it is no surprise the manifesto today pushes the issue down the road by promising a review of university funding.

Ahead of the 2010 election, the party promised not to vote for any increase in fees - only to join the coalition government and agree to fees going up to £9,000 a year in England in 2012.

There were huge student protests and the party became a particular target of student anger.

Nick Clegg, who was leader at the time, issued a frank public apology for making a promise and breaking it, saying: “When we are wrong, we hold our hands up."

It has become politically almost impossible to raise fees further, so 12 years on they have gone up by just £250.

Inflation has eroded the real value of the amount universities receive, leaving the university sector facing a brewing financial crisis.

Better chance for disadvantaged pupils a core Lib Dem themepublished at 12:25 British Summer Time 10 June

12:25 BST 10 June

Branwen Jeffreys
Education editor

Giving a better chance to disadvantaged pupils and students in England is the core theme of Lib Dem promises on education.

In schools this includes a tutoring guarantee for children from low income families who need extra help, and tripling the early years pupil premium to £1,000 to front-load support.

There is a bold and potentially expensive promise to increase school and college funding per pupil above inflation every year, after 14 years in which it’s stagnated.

A young person's premium would target 16 to 18 year olds.

Universities will welcome a review of their funding, although it pushes the issue down the road.

For students from low income families there is a promise to bring back maintenance grants, which were scrapped in favour of loans in 2016.

Image source, PA Media

Lib Dems pitching for youth vote with culture offerpublished at 12:19 British Summer Time 10 June

12:19 BST 10 June

Katie Razzall
Culture editor

There’s a perception in political circles that culture announcements don’t bring in a lot of votes. So the parties don’t habitually spend much time on them. But in the Liberal Democrat manifesto there are still some crowd pleasers.

Cracking down on ticket touts is one to put on that list. The party’s policy to expand free-to-air sport on TV flew around the internet and even led TalkSport’s bulletin when it was previously announced.

Sir Elton John will likely be pleased to see the Lib Dems championing free and simple travel arrangements for UK artists to perform in the EU. He warned after Brexit that the UK music industry could lose a “generation of talent”. Most EU countries do offer time-limited visa-free routes but making it all happen is still onerous.

On the media, there’s clear (orange) water between them and the Conservatives and Labour, with the Lib Dems promising to proceed with the second part of the Leveson Inquiry. That planned investigation into the relationship between journalists and the police has never happened and Labour has no intention of changing that.

Other parties might accuse some of the Lib Dems’ cultural offers as being in ‘pie-in-the-sky’ territory.

But there is a marker here, that’s likely traceable far wider than culture in the manifesto: of a party once more laying out its pro-Europe credentials, a party pitching for the youth vote (particularly in those Tory seats it’s targeting where it needs to persuade young Labour-minded voters to vote Lib Dem instead) and a party that wants to remind the electorate that it does place value on the creative industries and arts subjects in schools.

Lib Dem cancer target a huge challengepublished at 12:12 British Summer Time 10 June

12:12 BST 10 June

Hugh Pym
Health editor

A key cancer target is for most patients to begin treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral - specifically 85% within that time.

But that has been repeatedly missed in England and in the most recent year just 64% started treatment within 62 days with nearly 100,000 waiting longer for their cancer care - that was the worst since modern records began.

The Lib Dems say they not only want to get back to the 85% target but go even further and give all urgently referred patients the 62 day guarantee.

Given the scale of the backlog this will be a huge challenge and it’s not clear what timeframe the party have set for their pledge.

Lib Dems pledge free personal care in England - but it's not a silver bulletpublished at 12:06 British Summer Time 10 June

12:06 BST 10 June

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent

The Liberal Democrats want to introduce free personal care in England - similar to the system which operates in Scotland - where people needing help with daily tasks such as washing or eating do not have to pay for the support.

Currently it is means-tested in England with only the poorest receiving help.

The policy sounds attractive, but as has been shown in Scotland, it's not a silver bullet.

Much depends on who is eligible for free personal care. While anyone is entitled to ask for an assessment, that does not mean they will get support.

Only those with significant needs qualify - and there are signs in Scotland this has had to be more tightly rationed since it was introduced more than 20 years ago.

Constrained budgets means access has to be tightly-controlled. That results in some people still deciding they have to pay for their own personal care in some circumstances.

8,000 more GPs in England - but the details are importantpublished at 12:03 British Summer Time 10 June

12:03 BST 10 June

Hugh Pym
Health editor

The state of general practice has become one of the key health issues of the campaign. Frustration at delays getting through to surgeries to book GP appointments has been evident on the doorsteps.

The Liberal Democrats have promised 8,000 more GPs in England. But the detail here is important. Will these be fully trained GPs or doctors working in surgeries?

The latter are qualified doctors but still in training to do general practice - their number is already increasing and that has been highlighted by the Conservatives.

The number of fully trained GPs in England has fallen in recent years and it takes up to 10 years from the start of medical school to fully qualify for general practice.

How will the Lib Dems fund their plans?published at 11:55 British Summer Time 10 June

11:55 BST 10 June

Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The Lib Dems would spend almost £27bn more on priority areas per year by 2029. How would they fund that?

• They say they'd raise levies on banks, intended to net an extra £4bn. But like a reformed windfall tax on oil and gas profits, the amount such measures raise is uncertain.
• They also hope to raise over £5bn from reforming capital gains tax - that's tax paid on profits from selling an asset - by making the richest 0.1% pay more – but revenue there depends on the behaviour of a few tens of thousands of people
• A new aviation duty would penalise frequent fliers more heavily – but details aren’t finalised
• Like Labour and the Tories, the Lib Dems want to crack down on tax avoidance – but are more ambitious in their estimates of how much that could raise - £7bn - because of plans to invest £1bn in HMRC
• They also say they'll keep the freeze on tax thresholds - the thresholds are the points at which different rates of taxes on income apply. Current government plans have those frozen until 2028, the Lib Dems say they’ll raise the personal allowance when “finances allow”.

The leading economic research group, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has accused the major parties of a “conspiracy of silence” over the challenges facing tax and spending.

The Lib Dem plans would fill in some gaps on funding for public services but others, such as justice and prisons may remain. And these plans still potentially leave the tax burden, as most manifestos may do, on track for a post-Second World War high.

In his closing remarks, as he leaves the venue of his manifesto launch, Lib Dems leader Sir Ed Davey says: "I've been told that an election is a rollercoaster.

"So I'm going to go on a rollercoaster."

Will he? Stick with us as we bring you the latest from the Liberal Democrats and other political parties' campaign trails throughout the day.

BBC Newsnight's Nick Watt takes Davey back to the topic of the European Union - on suggestions of re-joining the European single market and potentially one day re-joining as a member.

Davey says there are four stages before the UK could begin to join the single market - "and that could take a long time".

He says it is better than the "disastrous deal that [Boris] Johnson" made.

"I think our approach will actually give us much more influence than the Conservatives have had," Davey answers.

He says the Lib Dems are keen for 18-to-30-year-olds to have some freedom of movement which he says is one of the four steps mentioned.

Davey is asked about tax - in particular Capital Gains Tax.

He underlines that plans around CGT will result in a tax cut for the "vast majority" of those who pay it.

He asks people to read the details in the party's manifesto - which includes an increased allowance for people and small business relief.

A question from a GB News reporter asks the Lib Dem leader about the party's ambitions and whether the ultimate goal is to re-joining the EU.

Davey says his party is the most pro-European and "you should work with your partners", something he says the Tory party won't do.

"Rebuilding relationships is going to take time, unfortunately". Crucially he doesn't say yes or no to question about re-joining the EU.

As Sir Ed Davey continues to take questions from journalists, the Lib Dems have just published their manifesto on their website.

We'll be poring through all 116 pages of it, and we'll bring you all the key lines from it, as well as analysis from our correspondents.

If you want to have a read of it yourself, you can do so here, external.

Davey is now being asked by Times Radio about how he will cost some of the Lib Dems policies.

He refers the broadcaster to the Lib Dems' costing document - which the leader says is now available. Davey says that, if his party were to win the next general election, it would be funding policies "wisely" and saving money in the long-term.

Pressed on whether the policies are ambitious, Davey says it is certainly ambitious but his team has been "cautious".

The leader goes on to say he challenges any of the other parties if they've taken his party's "cautious approach on costings".

Next, Davey takes a question from the Guardian who ask about reforming capital gains tax - is it a challenge to other parties to have tax plans and is it a wealth tax challenge to labour?

"Our whole manifesto is a challenge to other parties on healthcare and tax," Davey says.

The Lib Dem leader believes voters have become "disillusioned" and "don't trust politicians any more".

He feels the new manifesto goes some way to "rebuilding that trust".

Davey continues to answer saying he thinks the wealthiest in the UK should be paying more on capital gains tax, adding that some millionaire business owners pay less tax than those they employ.

He believes the Lib Dems' stance on capital gains tax is a sign of fair reform.

The next question for Davey is from Channel 4 who asks about his wish for a closer relationship with Europe in light of the weekend's European elections.

Davey says what is clear is that people in the EU and in the UK are unhappy and want change.

He underlines that the Lib Dems "want change too" and a better relationship with Europe just makes sense, he says.

He adds that he is a tough negotiator and would get the best deal for the country.

Davey is now asked what success looks like when it comes to policy.

He says getting lots of Lib Dem MPs as possible elected and he would like "the British people to take a chance on us".

"We are the party really offering change, with the most ambitious care package of any party".

He also adds that he is tired of Tory MPs saying that they've sorted issues in the NHS.