Here is your guide to the main developments in the General Election campaign on Sunday:Labour has pledged to crack down on the antisocial use of off-road bikes and relieve pressure on overstretched prisons.
Classifying prisons as sites of national importance so ministers can take control of planning decisions would stop the “powder keg waiting to explode” behind bars, shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said. But the Cabinet minister will likely also face questions about his boss’ early return from D-Day commemorations as the fallout from Rishi Sunak’s decision rumbles on.
Measures that have already been floated by the party include a £700 million investment in NHS mental health treatment, a pledge to reform the disability benefits system and a tightening of the criteria for work capability assessments. And the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the Tories’ claim that the measures would help to save some £12 billion a year by the end of the next parliament “looks difficult in the extreme” as they were previously announced and have therefore already been incorporated into the Budget forecasts.Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has warned that Sir Keir’s pledge to convert Britain to clean power by 2030 will put energy security in jeopardy.
The Lib Dems’ manifesto pledge features an upfront capital investment of £280 million to expand urgent treatment centres and A&E wards, and an additional £400 million a year to add an extra 1,000 staffed beds in hospitals.The King’s Fund said “it is a plan for incremental improvement, not rapid recovery” as the “amounts of money set out in this announcement are relatively modest and wouldn’t ‘fix’ the urgent and emergency care crisis in isolation”.