Election latest: Police respond to suspicious package at Tory's office - as Corbyn accuses Starmer of 'rewriting history' (2024)

First up on the show is Labour shadow minister Lisa Nandy.

Presented with analysis by oureconomics and data editorEd Conwaythat under its manifesto, Labour would preside over the highest tax burden in history, she says: "We don't accept that."

Ms Nandy calls the suggestion "misleading" and says Labour is making "fairer decisions on tax".

She added that it was also "rich" for the Conservatives "to be accusing Labour of making life harder for people".

Pressed on whether it's true the country would endure the highest tax burden in history under Labour, Ms Nandy says that would assume the party continues "with 14 years of Conservative failure".

"Labour does not intend to do that for one moment," she says.

The shadow minister said her party wouldn't "make promises that we can't keep" but insisted that its manifesto is "fully-costed and fully-funded".

Sophy questions Ms Nandy on a warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies today that the three main parties are involved in a "conspiracy of silence" with the public over the difficulties they could face under the manifestos that have been unveiled this week.

She questions whether Labour is being "deliberately evasive" on the issue.

"I'm certainly trying to answer your question now," Ms Nandy says, before saying that Labour "don't accept that we should have such low ambitions for our economy that in one of the largest economies in the world that we have high taxation and low growth".

"We think we can grow the economy," she adds.

But she evades a question on what growth target Labour is working towards.

Police are responding to a report of a suspicious package at a premises in Madeira Avenue, Horsham.

Horsham police have confirmed it is the West Sussex constituency office of Conservative candidate and former paymaster general Sir Jeremy Quin.

Police and an explosive ordnance disposal team are currently at the scene.

In a statement, Sir Jeremy said specialists were called in after the receipt of a suspicious parcel at his Horsham office earlier today.

He said it is still under investigation, but there is "no cause for alarm".

"It's a huge privilege to engage in public service, but sadly in the world in which we live incidents of this nature always have to be taken seriously," he said.

As Sophy outlined, we're opening tonight's programme with Labour's manifesto, which launched this morning.

Sir Keir Starmer outlined his vision for the country, though all of the various pledges - from setting up a state-owned energy company to lowering the voting age to 16 - had been revealed before.

You can swipe through them below:

But how about costings? It's a key part of assessing any party's plans for government ahead of an election.

And who better to do it than our economics and data editor Ed Conway, whose analysis you can watch here:

​Today was a big day - perhaps the most significant in the entire election campaign.

Labour manifesto day - when we got to see the policy platform of the party that will almost certainly form the next government.

If the aim is to win the election in 21 days time, then today was a success.

There was nothing in it to frighten the horses - nothing that could risk the commanding poll lead that Keir Starmer has built up. Nothing new at all.

It was fully costed. It was professional.

When asked if it was ambitious or exciting enough, Keir Starmer said he wanted to run the UK, not the circus.

Labour will win the election by not being scary, by not making people afraid to vote for them - and more than anything, by not being the Conservative Party.

So if you're judging the manifesto on whether it's an election winner - job done.

But I've got this nagging feeling that Labour is focused solely on the task of winning the election - and not the task of governing.

Because there was nothing in here about the reality that if you want debt to be falling by the end of the parliament - as both Labour and the Conservatives say they do - you need billions of pounds of cuts to public services.

It makes sense to not mention that if your sole aim is to win the election.

Our weeknight politics showPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgeis live now on Sky News.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Joining Sophy tonight Labour shadow ministerLisa Nandyfollowing her party's manifesto launch today, and responding for the Tories is former cabinet secretarySir David Davis.

On Sophy's panel tonight are:

• James Starkie, former chief of staff to Priti Patel;
• Matt Lavender, ex-Labour adviser.

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

WatchPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgefrom Monday to Thursday on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on theSky News websiteandappor onYouTube.

By Jennifer Scott, political reporter

After getting into hot water over a controversial childbirth policy last week, the Greens have found themselves under fire again - this time over their depiction of people with HIV.

The party has made a pledge in their manifesto to try to end HIV transmissions by 2030.

But an easy read version of the document illustrated the policy with the picture of a man looking visibly unwell and coughing.

Complaints started to grow on social media, claiming they had made people living with HIV look "sick" and "contagious".

Tweets shared with Sky News then showed a user flagging the issue to the party's deputy leader Zack Polanski, who replied: "On it. Thanks for alerting me."

The version of the manifesto has now been removed from their website.

A Green Party spokesperson told Sky News: "Soon after publication we were alerted to how an image we used in our easy read manifesto could be misinterpreted.

"For clarity we temporarily took the manifesto down to replace this image with a more suitable image that better communicates our policy to work towards no more HIV transmissions by 2030."

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused Sir Keir Starmer of "rewriting history" during Sky's leaders' event, saying it was "sad".

Sky's political editor Beth Rigby challenged Sir Keir last night on his support for Mr Corbyn in 2017 and 2019, and his subsequent attempts to distance the party from his predecessor.

Beth put it to him that he told the country Mr Corbyn would be a "great prime minister", then expelled him from the party.

Sir Keir replied he was "certain" Labour would lose the election but made "no apology" for backing Mr Corbyn at the time.

You can watch that exchange here:

Responding to Sir Keir's remarks, Mr Corbyn said: "He never said that to me, at any time. Rewriting history is no help."

He said it "shows double standards" that Sir Keir claimed to have "always thought" Labour would lose the elections under his leadership, only to never speak about it at the time.

"He was part of the campaign. He and I spoke together at events and I find it actually quite sad," Mr Corbyn added.

He said Sir Keir campaigned alongside him, and he should "own it".

Mr Corbyn is standing as an independent in the London constituency of Islington North, which he has represented for 40 years, after he was barred from standing for Labour.

The other candidates there are:

• Vikas Aggarwal, Lib Dems;
• Karen Anne Harries, Conservatives;
• Paul Dominic Josling, independent;
• Sheridan Kates, Greens;
• Praful Nargund, Labour;
• Martyn Nelson, Reform.

Our weeknight politics showPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgewill be live on Sky News from 7pm.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Joining Sophy tonight is Labour shadow minister Lisa Nandy following her party's manifesto launch today, and responding for the Tories is former cabinet secretary Sir David Davis.

On Sophy's panel tonight are:

• James Starkie, former chief of staff to Priti Patel;
• Matt Lavender, ex-Labour adviser.

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

WatchPolitics Hubfrom 7pm every night during the election campaign on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on theSky News websiteandappor onYouTube.

It was Labour's turn to launch its election manifesto today. It was a restatement of the party's main policies, with no surprise announcements in the 133-page document.

Sir Keir Starmer reiterated his key pledges including no new taxes on "working people" and a promise of "economic stability".

Niall Paterson digs into Labour's promise of economic growth with Ed Conway, Sky's economics and data editor, and speaks to political correspondent Serena Barker-Singh, who was at the launch in Manchester.

Plus, John McTernan, political strategist and former political secretary to Tony Blair, discusses the politics of their manifesto and whether it matters that there were no new announcements.

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Plaid Cymru have released their election manifesto - and we've scoured their policy pledges, so you don't have to.

Scroll to the right in the interactive tool below to find out what the party has promised to do if they win the election.

We will produce a breakdown of all the other parties' manifestos here when they are announced - you can find the ones we've done so far in the key points above.