The Conservatives have come under fire on two fronts, after experts said their tax plans would mostly benefit wealthier people and a senior minister gave a interview claiming the government was "not to blame" for poverty.
Labour said the comments from Priti Patel, the home secretary, were another example of the "cruelty" of the Tory government.
As Jeremy Corbyn unveiled Labour's manifesto, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said a Tory pledge to raise the national insurance threshold would predominantly help middle and high-earners.
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Welcome to The Independent's politics liveblog, where we will be bringing you all the latest updates throughout the day.
Priti Patel under fire over claims government not to blame for poverty
Labour would "look at" reducing existing student debt
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said a government would "look at" ways to reduce the debt that students who pay £9,000 a year fees have accumulated. The party has already promised to scrap tuition fees.
Ms Rayner said:
"If I am education secretary on December 13 we will make sure there are no longer student tuition fees.
"When we are in government we will look at the debt that the Lib Dems and the Conservatives have landed on our students."
Commenting on Labour's new pledge to spend £75bn on building 150,000 new low-cost homes over the next five years, Angela Rayner insisted that the promise could be met.,
She said:
"It absolutely is deliverable in a five-year parliament.The reason why we believe it is is that the state is going to take more direct control. We've tried to get the private landlords and the people that own the land at the moment who are supposed to be making sure that we get affordable and social housing to do that and the market hasn't delivered."
She added:
"The Labour government in 1945, after the Second World War, had a real job on its hands. We created a welfare state, the National Health Service and council housing. The next Labour government will rebuild our housing stock by delivering council housing."
"Right decision" for Prince Andrew to step back from royal duties, Javid says
Prince Andrew has “made the right decision” to withdraw from his royal duties, Sajid Javid has said.
The chancellor told Today:
“Well my first thoughts are with the victims of Mr Epstein. Anyone, whether it is the prince or anyone else for that matter, that can help to end some of the suffering of those victims, they should do what they can.
“Looking at the prince's statement yesterday evening, I think it speaks for itself and I think he's made the right decision."
Asked why Boris Johnson had said during Tuesday's TV debate that the monarchy was "beyond reproach", Javid said:
“I don't think it's appropriate when someone is being accused of things just to sort of jump in and just start giving your views, particularly if you hold a very responsible position like the prime minister. It is for the monarchy to speak for itself and what we have heard from Prince Andrew in the statement is that he has obviously reflected on the situation in the last few days and I think
Boris Johnson blurts out Tory tax plans when challenged by worker during factory visit
The prime minister appeared to accidentally reveal a major Conservative pledge to cut national insurance for millions of workers.
Here is Andrew Woodcock's story.
Boris Johnson blurts out Tory tax plans when challenged by worker during factory visit
Prime minister says point at which workers pay National Insurance will be raised to £9,500 in next year's budget, but gives no timetable for final rise to £12,500Javid struggles to defend Johnson's national insurance claims
Sajid Javid struggled to defend the prime minister when challenged on the fact that Boris Johnson had told workers yesterday that, under Tory plans, they would be handed £500 in national insurance cuts, when the actual sum would be closer to £100 initially - with an ambition to raise it to £500.
The chancellor told the Today programme:
“He was asked the question at this event that he had in Teesside, and he's given a straight answer, which is we have a further plan, on top of everything else we've done to help working people by cutting their taxes, and in this case it's the National Insurance, which we want to raise the threshold [of] and today we're setting out the details of that.
“The first part of that will be that, if we're re-elected with a majority in our first year, so in my first budget, we will increase the National Insurance threshold from its current level of £8,632 to £9,500, which will be a saving of just under £100 per person for some 30 million people.”
Pressed on whether the PM had spun the figures with his £500 pledge, Javid said:
“I don’t think there's any spinning going on, he's just giving a straight answer...we're setting out the details today.
“The £500 figure is not exactly £500 - it'll be something just slightly lower than £500.”
Asked if the PM should apologise, he said: “No, I'm setting out the details today, the exact details will be set out."
The big policy revealed by Labour in advance of its manifesto launch this morning was a pledge to spend £75bn building 150,000 more low-cost homes a year. The party promised:
- To build 100,000 council homes a year by 2024 - a 3,500 per cent increase.
- To get housing associations building 50,000 additional genuinely affordable homes in the same period.
- To scrap the government's definition of "affordable" homes, which allows rents to be set at up to 80 per cent of market rates. Instead, the new homes would either be social homes (around 50 per cent of market rents) or "living rent homes" (with rents set at a third of the average income of people in the area).
- To create a new tenure of housing for sale, where mortgage costs would be capped at a third of average local incomes.
The new homes would be paid for largely through borrowing. Labour promised to deliver the biggest housebuilding programme since the years after the Second World War.
A bit more from Sajid Javid's morning media round...
Questioned over Conservative parliamentary candidate Anjana Patel (Brent North) sending a tweet to Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai demanding that she help after two Hindu girls were allegedly "molested and forcibly converted" to Islam, Mr Javid said all Tory candidates must uphold the party's values.
He said:
"We've always got to make sure that everyone that is standing as a Conservative upholds our values where we respect everyone regardless of their race or religion, whether they have a faith or none, we respect them all."
On whether Ms Patel should remain a candidate, Javid said:
"I'm sorry but I don't know the details, but I think that is why we have the chairman's office and others to look into these, and I would expect every candidate that we have to uphold these values, and if they don't, we would take action."
More trolling from Guy Verhofstadt, who has tweeted a difficult interview that Michael Gove did with with Channel 4 yesterday, calling it "one of the most painful political interviews I've ever watched".
The Liberal Democrats were the first of the main parties to launch their manifesto, beating Labour to it by one day.
Here's a summary of what was in it, and all you need to know about what Jo Swinson's party is promising voters.
What's in the Lib Dem manifesto?
The IndependentAll you need to know about what Jo Swinson’s party is promisingWe're ten minutes away from the launch of Labour's general election manifesto.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, posted this video from Euston on his way up to Birmingham for the event.
Labour's manifesto launch is about to get underway. My colleague Ashley Cowburn will be bringing you minute-by-minute updates here. Meanwhile I'll be keeping you updated on all today's other news.
Tories accused of kicking social care plan into long grass
Tories criticised for kicking social care plan into long grass
Vital overhaul of social care has been repeatedly delayed by government
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Labour ditches commitment to extend free movement and make UK carbon neutral by 2030
Follow all the updates here.
Labour drops plans to keep free movement after Brexit and 2030 climate pledge, manifesto reveals
Jeremy Corbyn hails document as 'most radical' in decades, including a pledge to build 150,000 low-cost homes for rent every year
Jeremy Corbyn is now taking questions from the media. My colleague Ashley Cowburn has everything you need to know about the manifesto that the Labour leader has unveiled this morning. Follow minute-by-minute updates here.
Tories' national insurance plans would barely benefit low-earners, think tank says
The Conservatives' promise to cut national insurance for employees would mostly benefit middle- and high-earners, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
The respected think-tank said the policy would cost at least £2.4bn a year but that only 3 per cent of the benefits would go to the poorest fifth of households.
Xiaowei Xu, a research cconomist at the IFS and an author of the research said:
“Successive governments have fixated on income tax at the expense of NICs, for example by raising the personal allowance while doing nothing to NICs thresholds. The attention to NICs is therefore both welcome and overdue. That said, if the intention is to help the lowest-paid, raising the NICs threshold is an extremely blunt instrument.Only 3 per cent of the total gains from raising NICs thresholds accrues to the poorest fifth of all households – and only 8 per cent to the poorest fifth of working households. The government could target low-earning families much more effectively by raising in-work benefits, which would deliver far higher benefits to the lowest-paid for a fraction of the cost to government – but at the expense of expanding means-testing.”
There is some confusion over Labour's policy on existing student debt. Asked about the issue during the Q&A, Jeremy Corbyn said Labour was "looking at ways in which we can stabilise it and bring about some relief to those who have incurred an enormous debt while they have been at university". However, this was not included in the party's manifesto.
Jeremy Corbyn: 'The rich and powerful don't own the Labour Party'.
Tory national insurance plans 'would mostly benefit wealthier families'
The Conservatives' pledge to raise the threshold at which employees pay national insurance would barely benefit the poorest fifth of households, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Here's Lizzy Buchan's story.
Boris Johnson's pledge to cut national insurance will benefit wealthier families, says think tank
Prime minister promises to raise threshold to help 'working people'Social media is an increasingly important battle ground in elections - and home to many questionable claims pumped out by all sides. If social media sites won't investigate the truth of divisive advertising, we will. Please send any political Facebook advertising you receive to digitaldemocracy@independent.co.uk, and we will catalogue and investigate it. Read more here.
