Election latest: 'This is not a cartoon election' - Sir Liam Fox comes to Rishi Sunak's defence over D-Day mistake (2024)

By Matthew Thompson, Sky News correspondent

The Liberal Democrats will launch their manifesto with a £9bn pledge to fix the health and care system.

The policy, which will be revealed by party leader Sir Ed Davey on Monday, includes plans to recruit 8,000 more GPs, boost cancer survival rates and introduce free personal care for the elderly and the disabled.

The total cost would be an extra £9.4bn a year, to be funded in part by reforming capital gains tax. CGT is paid on profits from the sale of assets such as shares or property and is set lower than the rate of income tax.

It is often argued this disparity means wealthy people, who often earn more from assets than from income, are able to pay less tax.

The Lib Dem manifesto will also promise not to increase income tax, VAT or national insurance.

Speaking to Sky News, Sir Ed Davey said: "This is the healthcare election for the Liberal Democrats.

"We've been listening to people around the country, and top of their concerns in so many areas is the health service.

"So we have absolutely made the NHS and care at the heart of our manifesto."

Read more below:

Former home secretary and Conservative candidate Suella Braverman has called for her party to enter into a pact with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage "in the future".

Mr Braverman, who is considered a likely candidate in any future Tory leadership candidate, adds that she would welcome the former UKIP leader into the Conservative Party.

Speaking to The Times, Ms Braverman says: "We need to, in the future, to find some way to work together because there shouldn't be big differences between us.

"I would welcome Nigel into the Conservative Party. There's not much difference really between him and many of the policies that we stand for.

"We are a broad church, we should be a welcoming party and an inclusive party and if someone is supportive of the party, that's a pre-condition and they want Conservatives to get elected then they should be welcomed."

Mr Farage has ruled out doing a deal with the Conservatives in this election.

In 2019, Reform - then known as the Brexit Party - did not stand in Tory seats.

The Conservative's line to take is to say that a vote for Reform would split Tory support and gift seats to Labour.

We're entering another week in the general election campaign - and this week it's manifestos.

Today is the Liberal Democrats' turn, tomorrow is the Conservatives, Wednesday is the Greens and Thursday is Labour.

These documents - upon which any new government bases its legislative agenda - can be dense and hard to understand, but we'll do our best to explain them all.

Stick with us this morning as we get the Lib Dems' policy platform and truffle through it for all the best bits that matter to you.

Meanwhile, coming up on Sky News this morning will be:

• 7.15am: Policing minister, Chris Philp;
• 7.30am: Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper;
• 7.35am: Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Overnight, Labour pledged to create 100,000 extra nursery places in schools.

And the Conservatives pledged they would add an extra 8,000 police officers.

You can read about their latest offerings below.

Labour has abandoned plans to bring back the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA), blaming the Tories "botched" handling of the policy.

The LTA put a cap of £1.07m on how much people could save, or benefit from investment growth, in their pensions before tax charges kicked in.

The limit was scrapped by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt last year - in a move branded a "tax cut for the rich" by Labour at the time.

Ms Reeves pledged to reinstate the cap, but has now U-turned on the £800m proposal, with allies telling the Financial Times it would add uncertainty for savers and be complex to reintroduce.

Insiders said the money it was due to raise was never allocated, so "there will be no black hole" as a result.

A Labour source confirmed to Sky News that the cap would not be reintroduced, blaming the Tories for their handling of the policy.

They said: “The Conservatives have botched their policy of abolishing the lifetime allowance, with thousands of people approaching retirement being left in limbo because of errors in legislation. "

The source claimed this had led to "the extraordinary situation where the current government advised some savers to delay retirement until after the election".

"Labour's priority is to bring stability and certainty back to the economy. That is why it will fall to a Labour government, if successful at the election, to sort out this mess and we are determined to do so.”

Sir Keir Starmer said he wants to "change the whole approach" to how students are charged for university, amid speculation he is considering a graduate tax.

The Labour leader has come under pressure to make the system fairer after rowing back on his pledge to abolish tuition fees last year.

Asked about rumours of some sort of graduate tax, the Labour leader told The Guardian: “The way the system works at the moment doesn’t work for students. It doesn’t work for universities.

"I think we should change the whole approach, and obviously we’re working on what that would look like, and there is a range of options.

"We will be looking at a fairer way overall, for students and actually for universities.”

Tuition fees rose to over £9,000 per year under the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Last year Sir Keir dropped his leadership pledge to abolish the fees, blaming the Tories' handling of the economy.

Labour said at the time it would set out another solution "in the near future", with shadow education secretary Bridget Philipson saying she would like to lower monthly loan repayments.

It is not clear if more detailed plans will be unveiled in the party's manifesto, expected to be launched next week.

Reports have previously suggested that members of Sir Keir's shadow cabinet are in favour of a graduate tax.

The general idea behind this is that graduates would pay for their tuition through a special tax on their income, rather than paying back the fees through a loan with high interest rates.

Reaction to Richard Holden's interview has already started trickling in.

One Tory candidate told our deputy political editor Sam Coates that the MP was a "disgrace to the Conservative Party".

"He's put himself over candidates. He's shown complete disdain for party members," they said.

They added that it's becoming a "running joke" among candidates that Basildon and Billericay - the constituency Mr Holden is standing in - will turn into a Labour seat.

"The only reason this fool won't be associated with this disastrous election is because nobody believes anyone thinks he is competent, capable or trusted enough to be involved in the day-to-day decision-making of this campaign," they said.

If you missed Mr Holden's interview, you can watch it below...

Back to the interview with former defence secretary Liam Fox now.

During the sit down with Ali Fortescue, he was asked about Nigel Farage's comments about Rishi Sunak.

The Reform UK leader said the prime minister didn't understand the UK's history and culture, and he has been accused of emphasising Mr Sunak's immigrant heritage.

Mr Fox told the Politics Hub that he was "disappointed" with Mr Farage's comments.

"It's disappointing and it's dangerous. It brings an element into our politics which we should not have in British politics," he said.

"I hope that Nigel Farage will reflect on it - because I think he's a decent person. And I think he owes the prime minister and the country an apology."

Labour's shadow environment secretary Steve Reed is next to appear on the show.

He starts by reiterating that his party has no plan to increase personal taxes, including income tax, VAT and national insurance.

"People are currently paying the highest rates of personal taxation for 70 years since the end of the Second World War, and we have a cost of living crisis. People simply can't afford to pay anymore," he says.

"Labour's been crystal clear about all the way through this. We have proposals to inject funding into public services where that is required, and we have identified specific tax loopholes that we will close in order to bring that funding in."

He says this includes changes to the nom-dom tax status and the VAT break on private school fees.

"There will be no increase in the taxes that working people are paying," he adds.

He is pushed on whether tax thresholds will change.

"There is no plan and there's no need to change those because everything in our manifesto... is fully costed," he replies.

Now to the world's second-biggest election.

Millions of people have taken part in elections to the European Parliament and the votes are being counted.

Full results are expected later this evening, with seven major parties vying for seats.

Here's their current share in parliament:

• The Europeans People’s Party currently holds almost 25%.
• Followed by the Socialist and Democrats at just shy of 20%.
• Renew Europe has 14%.
• With 'The Conservative and Reformists' and The Greens taking up around 10% of seats each.
• Identity and Democracy and The Left follow at nearly 7% and 5%.

Correspondent for Greece and Cyprus at the Financial Times, Eleni Varvitsioti, tells the Politics Hub that the balance of power is expected to shift on major issues like mass migration, and energy politics.

"We will see a shift to the right as I understand in the policies that will be taken in the next five years in the European Parliament," she adds.

She explains that the question is whether the right-leaning parties are going to be able to cooperate.

Next up in the studio is one of the original three Brexiteers - Sir Liam Fox.

The former defence secretary came to Rishi Sunak's defence as Ali asked him why the prime minister has decided not to talk to journalists this weekend.

He says Mr Sunak has been out campaigning and he will do more interviews as the election draws closer, adding that this is "not a cartoon election".

He also argues that people have moved on from the PM's D-Day mistake, but it's the media that is still talking about it.

"Out in the country, people are still talking about the issues that matter most to them," he says.

"The reason I wanted to come on here tonight was to say the real issue around defence is not around D-Day celebrations. It's around the fact that Vladimir Putin this week is threatening to give ballistic missiles to some of our country's enemies," he adds.

He says the election needs to focus on the "big issues", including the fact that "we are in a crisis".

"These are the serious issues. This is not a cartoon election, it is a real dangerous world we live in and the public want us to deal with the real issues," he adds.