The Conservatives promise a further 2p cut in employee National Insurance by April 2027, as they launch their election manifesto
The manifesto also pledges to scrap the main rate of self-employed National Insurance by the end of the Parliament
It promises a "regular rhythm" of asylum flights to Rwanda, and to "halve migration"
Labour's Rachel Reeves says it's a "desperate wish list", while Keir Starmer says it's a "Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto"
Sunak earlier announced a stamp duty cut for some first time buyers, a new Help to Buy scheme, and tax cuts for landlords who sell to tenants
Labour, who launch their manifesto on Thursday, earlier pledged an extra 100,000 dental appointments for children in England
Chris Mason
Political editor
The race track is out the window and the stage is set in front of us.
We are promised copies of the manifesto shortly.
Plenty of the cabinet are here — many on the same train out of London as us reporters first thing.
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
A manifesto launch is always a big moment in a party’s election campaign.
I think it’s fair to say, though, that for Rishi Sunak the stakes are especially high today.
His task, like every Conservative leader before him, is to lay out his programme for government – giving the public a sense of not only what they’d get from a full term of him as prime minister, but also more of a sense of who he is and what makes him tick.
But there’s an additional task.
Frankly, Sunak needs to find a way of turning his election campaign around. It’s no secret that the last few days have been torrid for Sunak, after his decision to leave the D-Day commemorations in Normandy early.
Today offers something of a chance for Sunak to draw a line under that row and shift the debate onto policy. He needs to seize it – because there aren’t many of those opportunities left
Emily Atkinson
Live reporter
Image source, PoolThe stage is set in Silverstone...
Good morning to those joining us for the Conservative manifesto launch - and, of course, to those who have stuck it out with us across the morning.
So - how are we planning to cover this?
The manifesto is due to be published at 11:30 BST on the Conservative Party website, external. As soon as that lands, we'll start combing through it and bring you the main pledges.
We've also got a team of correspondents on hand, from several departments across the BBC, who will provide analysis on those pledges.
Meanwhile, our own team of writers will fire out text updates from the launch event and any incoming reaction to the manifesto.
You will also be able to follow the launch live by clicking the Play button at the top of this page.
Got it? Got it (at least that's what we're telling ourselves).
We've got 10 minutes to go, so hang tight and stick with us.
Labour leader Keir Starmer is accusing the Conservatives of creating a "Corbyn-style manifesto".
Referencing the previous leader of his own party, Starmer says: "They're building this Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto, where anything you want can go in it, none of it is costed, it's a recipe for more of the same."
As a reminder - Starmer was part of Corbyn's team at the 2019 general election and campaigned for him to be prime minister.
Asked whether his party could match the Tories' expected pledge for a further 2p cut in employee National Insurance, Starmer says "the money's not there" - the same line Wes Streeting gave earlier.
Ione Wells
Political correspondent
Labour has pledged to ban under-16s from buying highly caffeinated energy drinks as part of a strategy to prevent poor health in children.
I asked the Labour leader here in Teesside why he would stop there - what about a sugar or salt tax or measures to tackle other things that might harm children’s health?
He didn’t explicitly comment on a further sugar or salt tax, ideas that have formerly been mooted in Labour circles in the last year or two
He said “we have to get the balance right” and while they want to be “taking action on junk food” and to introduce supervised teeth cleaning, the party wants to “make sure this is an affordable way forward".
Image source, PA MediaPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has just arrived at Silverstone racing track, joined by his wife, Akshata Murty.
They stepped out of their car and headed straight for a photograph with supporters, all holding campaign placards.
The Conservative Party manifesto is expected to be launched within the hour - stay tuned for more.
Image source, PA MediaOver to Scotland now, where Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross has denied giving himself "job insurance" by choosing to stay on as an MSP in Holyrood, if he fails to be elected to a Westminster seat.
Ross is running for the seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East at next month's election.
If he wins that seat, he says he will resign from the Scottish Parliament - where he is currently an MSP for the Highlands and Islands.
“I’m absolutely not saying that [Holyrood is less important than Westminster]. The two parliaments deal with very different things," he tells the BBC's Good Morning Scotland.
Ross also announced his intention to stand down from his role as leader of his party earlier this week, but insists he wasn't asked to do so by his Scottish Tory colleagues.
“I have listened to concerns from colleagues that they want the leader of the Scottish Conservatives to be based in Holyrood,” he says.
You can find a full list of candidates for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East here.
Image source, Getty ImagesIan Paisley and Nigel Farage in 2019
A deputy leader of Reform UK has called his party leader Nigel Farage's endorsement of two Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidates an agreement between "beer buddies".
Reform UK had given its endorsement to Traditional Unionist Voice - a rival party to the DUP led by Jim Allister.
However, Farage has given his personal support to Sammy Wilson in East Antrim and Ian Paisley in North Antrim - the same constituency where TUV leader Jim Allister is running.
"New leadership brings change," said Farage. "I wish the TUV well, but I'm gonna stand up to support Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley as people I fought with all through the Brexit years."
Ben Habib from Reform UK said the party's alliance with the TUV "absolutely stands" and the party endorsed all the TUV candidates.
"They're all beer buddies, they tapped him [Farage] on the shoulder, he gave them his personal endorsement and that's the end of it."
Image source, PA MediaThe Conservative manifesto isn't the only campaign set-piece today. Ths evening, leaders of Scottish political parties are set to take part in a BBC TV debate.
The SNP, Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives, the Scottish Lib Dems and the Scottish Greens will go head-to-head at 20:00 BST in front of a live audience.
The debate will be broadcast on BBC One Scotland and we'll be running a separate live page bringing you all the key moments. We'll let you know where to find that later on.
In the meantime, you can find out more about the party leaders taking part here.
And for more information on the other debates coming up, head here.
Harry Farley
Political correspondent
Image source, PA MediaFrom what we’re hearing, housing is set to be one major theme in the Conservatives' manifesto later this morning.
It’s a topic you’ve told us matters a lot to you via the BBC’s Your Voice Your Vote.
We’re expecting to see a new version of the Help to Buy scheme to try to help those saving for a house deposit. And landlords would also get capital gains tax relief if they sold their property to their tenants.
But one of the big problems with the wider housing crisis is supply – there are not enough homes to go around.
Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary and a close ally of Rishi Sunak, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Conservative manifesto will have a target for building more homes - but didn't specify what it was.
Looking back at their track record, Stride insisted the Conservatives had met their target of building a million homes over this parliament.
That is true. But in 2019 the Conservative manifesto also set a house-building target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. The government has never met that target. On average, it has built 189,000 houses in each year it has been in office.
It’s worth pointing out that between 1997 and 2010, an average of 171,000 houses were built a year, external under the Labour government.
Housebuilding is difficult, often unpopular in local communities, and gets clogged up in the planning system. So we’ll be asking questions about how the Conservatives' plan to reach their housebuilding target, and whether it’s achievable.
We have been hearing a lot from all parties about "fully costed" manifestos - but what does that actually mean?
Christine Farquaharson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank says all parties work hard to come up with big spreadsheets of commitments which "almost to the penny match" the revenue needed to meet these pledges.
"And that’s good, it’s helpful to keep an eye on the numbers when you’re making policies, but there’s a lot of uncertainty in those figures," Farquaharson tells BBC Radio 5 Live.
"I don’t think anybody should really expect those numbers to be the precise numbers things actually end up costing or actually end up raising."
Farquaharson adds that - whoever forms the next government - it's going to be "really tough". The IFS has regularly warned the next government will probably have to cut spending or raise taxes to meet debt and borrowing targets.
Image source, .
Andrew Kerr
BBC Scotland political correspondent
Image source, PA MediaAs the Conservatives prepare to launch their manifesto, the SNP is continuing to argue the Tories and Labour are keeping a “conspiracy of silence” about public spending cuts.
Scottish First Minister John Swinney has been highlighting figures from independent economic think-tank the Institute of Fiscal Studies which he says indicates cuts of up to £20bn from the two biggest UK parties.
Swinney says Westminster has “caused misery for Scotland” and claims Labour has been evasive.
Tonight is the BBC Scotland Leaders’ Debate and Swinney says his Scottish Labour opponent Anas Sarwar must be “straight” with voters.
The debate will also provide an opportunity for the SNP to highlight chaos in the Scottish Conservative campaign – with party leader Douglas Ross saying yesterday he would resign after the election.
This was due to internal criticism that he was “double-jobbing” – hoping to continue as an MP and as an MSP.
Harry Farley
Political correspondent
I’m on board the Conservatives' battle bus, which is just setting off from central London.
We’re heading to Silverstone racing circuit, home to the British Grand Prix, for the Conservatives' manifesto launch.
Cue puns about dramatic overtakes, or pile-ups at turn one - depending on your perspective.
My colleagues and I have been following the Tory campaign as it travels around the country for almost three weeks. Today feels particularly significant.
Manifestos are always big moments for political parties.
But this one even more so because it is one of the last big set piece events before polling day the Conservatives have to persuade you - the public - that they have the best plan for the country.
Emily Atkinson
Live reporter
With the media round now over, we'll be turning our focus shortly to the wider campaign trail.
Before that, here's a quick catch-up on this morning's key lines - and a look at what's still to come:
We can now bring you more from the Conservatives' Mel Stride, who says he is "all revved up and ready to go" ahead of his party's manifesto launch at Silverstone racing track later this morning.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he is asked about his party's claim that it will lower immigration, despite current net migration levels being three times higher under this government than they were in 2019.
He says "migration is too high" but it has "reduced in the last year by 10%", and says Conservative plans will decrease that even further.
And on his party's newly unveiled pledge to help first-time buyers, Stride says there is a "clear commitment" to increase house building in the Conservatives' manifesto.
Asked if this manifesto is their last roll of the dice, Stride says "anybody who pre-judges the result needs to look at the history books", and claims that "half" of voters are yet to make their mind up.
Chris Mason
Political editor
The Conservatives are trying to draw some classic dividing lines with the Labour Party today over tax.
Among the promises we expect in the 70-ish-page document are:
Stride is now asked about this morning's announcement of a rise in the unemployment rate - from 4.3% to 4.4% - the highest level in more than two years.
He says that it is only a "slight" increase, and remains at a "historically relatively low level".
On welfare, he says spending "needs to be brought under control", and that is something his party "can make savings" on.
Stride says this is in contrast to Labour, who he claims would let it "spiral completely out of control".
Stride is asked if it's the wealthiest people, in London and the south-east of England, who stand to benefit most from the 2p National Insurance cut - and if most people will actually pay more, because of frozen income tax thresholds.
He replies that, with the combination of measures the Conservatives are bringing in, taxes will actually be at the lowest level for the average earner in half a century.
That's because Conservatives are "on the side of hard-working people" and "cutting their taxes really matters", he adds.
Stride says the tax burden increased as a result of supporting the economy through Covid, including with the furlough scheme.
This led to a £400bn bill that has to be paid down, but Stride says that "what matters now is, going forward, we have started to get taxes down".
He says the Tories "will still go further today", with "exciting and very meaningful" further tax cuts.
"We are going to be cutting taxes," Mel Stride says as he begins his interview on BBC Breakfast.
When pushed for more details Stride answers: "We will have to just wait another few hours [until the manifesto launch]. I can't tell you anything in advance."
As a reminder, the BBC understands the Conservatives' manifesto will include a pledge to cut employees' National Insurance by another 2p.
Presenter Jon Kay asks whether another tax cut matters to voters - Stride says the Tories want to get taxes low to support "hard working families".
And when pressed on opinion polls (see previous post), Stride adds "the only poll which matters is general election day".
We're still waiting for Mel Stride - so in the mean time, let's get some lines from an opinion pollster.
Scarlett Maguire, director at opinion research policy JL Partners, has been on Radio 4's Today programme, where she was asked if the Tories' tax attacks on Labour were having an impact.
"It's a mixed picture," she tells host Amol Rajan. There's some cut-through, with a poll out yesterday showing the issue of taxes is starting to emerge as a "prime hesitation" for people thinking of voting Labour.
That's generally balanced out with other negative things though, including "their sense that Rishi Sunak isn't telling the truth about taxes", says Maguire.
The fall-out from the row over Sunak leaving D-Day commemorations early "may have left a bigger impact on the polls", she adds.
And as a reminder, you can keep an eye on the overall picture using our general election poll tracker here.
