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"the context". >> i think everyone can see we've had a difficult couple of years but we've really turned the corner now. inflation down, wages rising, the economy growing and the choice for the country now is do we build on that progress or go back to square one? >> this is an election that is all about change, turning our back on 14 years of chaos and division, turning a page and rebuilding our country with labor. so i'm really pleased that angela has been vindicated. >> across the country there are so many seats where it's the powerful vote to defeat the conservatives. ♪ christian: the conservatives of today promised a revamp of the triple lock for pensioners if they win the general election. not a tax cut so much as preventing a future tax rise. labor lays out its casto be the party of business, the

chancellor ruled out tax rises on labor's watch but what if they need more money? and the lib dem leader makes a splash. our regional editors with us tonight who have been watching the campaign judging the reaction. a very good evening. welcome to the program. after a weekend talking up a new policy on national service, another offer today from the conservatives. in staffordshir, the prime minister pledged pensioners would benefit if the conservatives are returned to government next month. it means that those on the state pension would not be dragged into paying tax in 2027 when under the existing policy government pensions will rise above the tax-free personal alowrns. the cost is put at $2.4 billion pounds. labor says the plan is not credible. the rolls-royce factory in dashy was telling her audience that labor is now the natural party for british business.

in her hand she had a list of 121 businesses who say they are supporting labour's plan for growth. there will be no tax rises in the next parliament says labour but if they stick by their pledge not to cut public services, where is the money coming from? we'll get to that very shortly with our panel. but let's begin with that conservative pledge on pensions. reporter: first, some context. the personal allowance is the amount someone can earn before they have to pay income tax and it's been frozen by hunt and sunak around 12,500 pounds. that's an effective tax rise because as people's wages increase over time, more of their income goes above the personal tax allowance and they pay more income tax than they would otherwise. one grawp who would have been set to be hit by this tax rise are the people receiving the new state pension. in 2027 that's currently expected to rise above the level of the personal alownls.

mean -- allowance. meaning people receiving the new state pension would pay income tax on some of it. the conservatives proposed to raise the personal allowance for just pensioners to more than 13,000 pounds per year. they say it would save some pensioners around 300 pounds per year by 2029, and prevent pensioners who rely solely on the state pension from paying income tax. although it would only save this this latter group around 29- pounds per year. but experts argue this isn't so much a tax cut as preventing a tax rise that this governmentf had already put in train and bear in mind this own personal allowance would only be for pensioners. everyone else would apparently be hit by the planned tax rise due to those frozen personal allowances. christian: let's bring in our panel. tim, political reporter for bbc radio. lester, political reporter for bbc news. and michael, political reporter for bbc radio. ken, lovely to see you all.

thank you for being with us. perhaps i could start with you and how the other parties responded to the conservative plan today. i know where you were up there in the northwest, you were following the lib dems. a few weeks ago they were highlighting hundreds of thousands of pensioners would be dragged into paying income tax under the conservative plans. so do they support what the conservatives have laid out today? >> it's quite interesting actually listening to their reaction to it. because they raised an eyebrow, they were sort of saying that it was hypocritical pointing to the conservatives' record. they were talking about their opinion that pensioners won't be convinced by this. but when i asked very directly would liberal democrat m.p.'s vote for this, they didn't really answer the question. repeatedly throughout today in various interviews they haven't said exactly yes or no as to whether or not if this was a position right now, if it was a

vote taking place tomorrow, what exactly his m.p.'s would do. what he has said is that he wants to see the income tax thresholds rise for all groups in society. not just for pensioners. that that is the liberal democrat position. and essentially that would amount to a tax cut for everyone. of course now i then suggested that's an easy position for a politician to take. everyone would love to hear about tax cuts that they might potentially get. but when i kind of said, ok, are you actually saying that you would do this for everyone, that you would raise the thresholds, effectively give everyone a tax cut, are you saying at's your policy, he smiled and said, let's wait for the manifesto. i think we will be waiting for that manifesto. we'll wait and see. but the kind of economic realities of it mean that i think the liberal democrats are perhaps quite cautious about committing to this at this pot and might say that pensioners' priorities in their view are more in relation to n.h.s.

waiting times and into social care and things that need money that the money that could be spent rather than necessarily on giving a tax cut. christian: ok. it's tim that's been in market today with the prime minister. he's spoken to hit and he's been judging the reaction of local people in his area. >> another day of rain for the prime minister as sunak returned to the midlands and this time to a bowling club with a promise to pensioners. >> on a personal note, it's great to be back in les lesterscheyer. i'm here because this election is incredibly important. our country's at a pick of toll moment. i don't take anyone's vote for granted. so i'm going to go to every part of our country, talking about the future. i'm going to deliver a secure future for everyone and i can do that because i'm prepared to take bold action and i've got a clear plan. and after a difficult few years, it's clear that that plan is working. reporter: it might not have been the most difficult audience to win over here. but is the promise clear enough? that pensioners will never have

to pay tax on the state pension? >> being a pensioner, that is important because we're on a limited income and if this tax thing happens, it will help. >> he could have said it a couple of years ago and perhaps it would have been a little bit more meaningful then. because we don't know what's going to happen after july 4. but if he does get into power, i hope he lives up to that promise. reporter: most of lestershire has been tori whether you for years. so why return to an old battlefield to rally support? >> i think everyone can see we've had a difficult couple of years but we really have turned a corner now. inflation down, wages rising, the economy growing, and the choice for the country now is to rebuild -- do we build on that progress or go back to square one? my pitch to everyone is pretty simple. i'm the one that's prepared to take bold action, i'm the one that's got a clear plan and that's how we'll deliver a secure future for everyone. not just here but across the

east midlands and the country. reporter: the prime minister faces. tougher battles ahead and not just with the weather. tim parker. christian: love a bit of bowling. i know there's lots of politicking going on where my dad does it. hannah made a really good point. the liberal democrats are talking about raising the thresholds for all groups. one of the criticisms of the prime minister today is that by offering pensioners another boost, he's giving up onioninger voters -- younger voters after that policy about national service. is that something that is a fair criticism and has he responded to that? tip: yes, he has. i did ask about that today, bearing in mind sunak has two young daughterses himself. i asked him, would that be a service he'd push them into and he told me, yes, they're excited about it and other young people he's spoken to are excited about

this. can't say i've spoken to many young people myself yet who have said the same thing. but yes, he wanted to reflect today both the fact that young people, the younger vote is very much in the forefront of what he is and who he's trying to speak to, but also that key crucial demographic for him, the older people in parts of lestershire very traditionally tori voting in the past. but again now, perhaps questioning whether she thud stick with the conserve -- they should stick with the conservatives and sunak if they're going to get taxed more. so there's reassurance, real reassurance message today that he wants to ease that. christian: why would the shadow chancellor and sunak both in the midlands? is it -- obviously the battle in 2019 was in the red wall seats.

do you see some very close battles in your region? tip: i think so -- tim imlnch i think so. we've got seats that are in that category. mentioned the late leanderson, you're going to know the kind of area i'm talking about. even in places like rural lestershire, traditionally very tori and like some seats, likely to remain so, even under the kind of polling figures that we're seeing at the moment. but yet other parts of lestershire now really i think risk, where i was today, there's been a strong liberal democrat president. they've petroleumed the -- controlled the council there for many years. it's flip flopped tween the conservatives and the liberal democrats but northwest lestershire was v voted conservative. he may stand as an independent again. i believe he is. he's campaigning and ready to

go. that seat's another one. used to be, you know, fairly confidently conservative. could change. christian: yeah. so some very competitive seats. are there really two elements to this vote that will effect the tori's chances? the way people vote tactically, people vote for which ever party think they has the best chance of beating the conservative candidate. secondly, whether the conservatives lose votes on the right to reform. the party that backs brexit and wants more control of immigration. today the honorary president of reform hit the trail, nigel on the stage in doarveg with a -- dover with a sign behind him that said, sunak can't stock the votes. >> it was plucked out of the air by a desperate conservative government. launched just down the coast two years and one month ago. and sunak of course has inherited that from boris johnson and keeps making promises that planes will go to

rwanda. i am absolutely convinced that the overriding reason for calling a snap early general election is because he knows those planes in july, as he promised, would not be going to rwanda. christian: indeed that is the case. let's have a quick look at the figures. almost 10,000 people have crossed the channel in small boats this year. those figures to the beginning of may. last year there were 29,000 arrivals. that was down 36% on the record year, 2022, when we had over 45,000 arrivals. so on that evidence, despite the rwanda plan, the numbers are tick upwards again. here's our political editor, chris mason. reporter: maybe you love him. maybe you really don't. but make no mistake, nigel is one of the most influential politicians of his generation. he's never been an m.p., he's

not even standing himself at this election. but he's going to have plenty to say. >> welcome to dover, welcome to the front line of the great national debate on immigration. reporter: and is the front line of this campaign that mr. faraj is attempting to get on to, arguing he was first warned a few years ago about people krotion the channel in small boats. >> so i said that i thought unless something dramatic was done, that there would be an invasion. now of course, if you're using the word, i was called all the names under the sun. reporter: and he reck obs millions have been -- reckons millions have been let down. >> to brexit voters, whereas happing in the english channel is a series affront and -- serious affront and they see us allowing it to continue as being a betrayal. reporter: he claims immigration poses a national security emergency and he's been accused of islamophobia for saying war in the middle east is prompting a small but growing number of people to vote based on

religion. >> i never thought i'd seen sectarian voting in england. i saw it in northern ireland and i didn't like it much. it's happening because and they cry foul at me because labour started with this a completely irresponsible immigration policy and the conservatives have accelerated it. reporter: taken theory teak that says you're a -- critique that says you're ady vicive contributor. some say inflammatory. >> they find embarrassing. and difficult. and awkward. reporter: our viewer who think, one minute it seems that nigel is flirting with the conservative party, the next minute he wants to destroy it. >> i have not flirted with the conservative party. many of their m.p.'s and peers and members have flirted with me because they want the conservative party to have the same ideas as i do. reporter: nigel farage in the fray. the politics of small boat

crossings prominent. >> we have a bold plan, the rwanda scheme, to ensure that if you come here illegally you'll not be able to stay and you'll be returned. that's how you create a deterrents. >> i'm not going to comment on anybody else's campaign in this election. what we've got in the labor campaign is confidence, assurance. >> the lights are on. reporter: farage has made it his life's work to dismay, disrecipient, horrify -- disrupt, horrify. and he reckons he's not done yet. christian: let's bring in michael who has also been following this today. is reform the new conservative movement do you think? listening to some of that today. michael: it's really interesting, hearing the way the public perceived farage on the ground. there's a sense in the local area that the conservatives are defecting from the conservatives to labour, that the conservative party have lost their w somewhat locally. so hearing that farage was

trying to engage with the local vote, he was in dovinger, the first -- dover, the first place to enter the election campaign and launcht on an immigration policy, one he knows only too well, it's interesting. you can hear local conservatives that -- [indiscernible] -- in the room that would normally wear blue, listening to the message he had to say, then afterwards saying to me they would consider perhaps defection saying that would be the way to save their careers going forward. so a lot of interest not just from voters, but counselors too. trying to work out which way the public's blowing when it comes to first immigration and then mo importantly that vote on july 4. christian: the big news yesterday was lucy allen, she announced yesterday she's supporting allen adams. the next m.p. in her constituency. here's someone who has had the whip restored. diane abbott, news in the last few minutes that she has been given back the whip.

news night was reporting this morning, in fact, they have a report tonight, that her investigation, the comments she made on racism, was in fact completed in december, 2023. she was given a formal warning over a combat and required to complete an anti-semitism awareness course. let's ask why it's taken them so long and is the whip being restored, jack? because of the report news night is going run tonight. jack: let's remember, 13 months ago the longstanding labor m.p. diane abbott wrote an article for the observer in which she suggested that jewish, irish and traveler people had not been subject to racism all their lives. she was then suspended, pending an investigation. and we'd not heard an awful lot about that investigation for quite a long time. if she did not have the whip restored then she wouldn't be allowed to stand again as a labour m.p. at the election so time is of the essence. bbc news night this morning reports that that investigation concluded five months ago, but

diane had still not been told whether she would have the labor whip restored on the when she'd be allowed to stand again. this evening we understand that she has been offered the labour whip back. what's not clear this evening is whether diane abbott has accepted that offer of the labor whip back or whether she will be standing up the election. christian: interesting. been a lot of murmuring on the left of the party today with that report coming to light. jack, thank you very much for that. around the world and across the u.k., watching bbc news. let's take a quick look at some of the headlines making news here today. researchers at kings college in london say that given smooth peanut but ther to babies could help them lifetime protection against an allergy to the food. the study suggests that teens who ate it up to age 5 were less likely to develop an intolerance than if they had avoided the food.

the owners of royal mail are expected to recommend accepting a $5 billion pound takeover offer on wednesday. the government would have to approve that deal from a czech billionaire who plumessed the company would remain -- promised the company would remain based in the u.k. a survey carried out by a team at oxford university suggests that very few people are using a.i. products on a regular basis. only 2% of people in the u.k. said they used apps like chatgpt each day. there was a similar pattern in five other countries around the world. point to our regular series, a.i. decoded. let's talk about labour. labour, because the labour party has been out and about today in the midlands. there will be no budget they say until september if they win the election t next month. the shadow chancellor was in

darby at the rolls-royce factory. they won't announce tax measures beyond what's already in the public domain. they've ruled out increases to income tax or any form of wealth tax. and rachel said there would be no new measures proposed or black holes to fill. >> i want to lead the most pro-grow, the most pro-business treasury that our country has ever seen. with a laser focus on delivering for working people. christian: the other big news on labor today, deputy leader has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, claims she avoided tax on the sale of a home. she's welcomed the decision while criticizing what she called the desperate tactics of conservative m.p.'s who urged police to investigate. in the statement, greater manchester police said any allegations that she should have paid capital gains tax would not fall under their jurisdiction. that was a matter, they said, for hmrc. they'll not be taking the matter

any further. so you've been out in the midlands. i don't know if you got some response from labour to that today. but positive news for angela reiner. that that investigation has gone away. tim, can you hear me? tim: yes, absolutely. this is something i think that labour are going to draw a huge sigh of relief over. it wasn't something raised by mr. sunak today on his visit to lestershire and it will be interesting to know how he reacts to this news in the coming days. and it does reflect the fact that already, and this is from the pre-election period, but already that personality politics is going to be coming to the fore, we know it's coming in the next 5 1/2 weeks or so, that we have left before polling day. christian: a lot of questions over the cting of the two main policies we've had from the

conservative party in the last few days. the big question overhanging labor at -- labour at moment and we await the details of the manifesto is if there are no tax rises and they are committing to no public spending cuts, then where is the money going to come from? what are they saying about that? >> that's the one thing people are waiting to hear the answers for. the manifestwill be the devil in the detail. when you speak to people about what they're looking for when it comes to july 4, the one thing you hear is the meang of hope or change -- message of hope or change and that delivery they're looking for from a party going forward. tim: the costings and how they'reoing to pay for it, that will be a manifesto issue for labour. however what we're see something clearly a blue line drawn between the two. for conservatives, you say, stick to this plan, we fully costed this and we can understand the economy and turn that corner. labour, perhaps you're making promises. i was out yesterday with someone who was talking about a whole

new g.b. energy saying they weren't making huge promises but what they were promising was fully costed but we have yet to see that detail. christian: there was some news today from the rnli that they're spending more time going out to save people paddle boards. this is perhaps why. christian: that's the liberal democrat leader in a lake. he mansioned to capsize his paddle board no fewer than five times. that aside, he said he had a serious message to bring about water quality, pledging to scrap the current regulator and hold water companies to account for dumping sewage. i don't know about the other policies and how they poll but i'm guessing that that policy is pretty popular and particularly where they were today.

hannah: and it's exactly that that makes it such a key policy for the liberal democrats. they really think that this issue about water quality, about sewage being illegally dumd into rivers and lakes by water companies, is something that really hits home with exactly the kind of people and the types of areas where they are hoping to pick up votes. it's not necessarily hugely controversial to say you want clean water, but to kind of outline how you're planning on doing that, talking about the sewage tax as they do they talk about wanting local environmental groups to hold water companies to account, they talk about water bosses potentially facing criminal sanctions, it's something that they are putting front and center of their campaign. as you saw there with the paddle board on a lake that this has been an issue. christian: down in the southwest, lots of lib dem conservative battlegund seats is. water a key issue?

michael: huge. make no bones about it water pollution is a huge issue. businesses complain being the quality of water and it affecting the kind of summer they can expect and equally politicians off the back of that saying they hear the concerns. it's a huge issue in kent. christian: fan as it tifnlgt lovely to have our regional correspondents with us. tim, hannah and chael. thank you very much for your time. we'll do that every tuesday and thursday, try to get out and about in the regions. the other side of the break, we're going to talk about another election which is pending. next week, the european particle metropolitanry elections, we'll bring -- parliamentary elections. we'll bring you our series about the votes in 2024. do stay with us. tay with us. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james.

cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you,