this is bbc news. the headlines... the conservatives will pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or vat when they publish their election manifesto this afternoon. labour pledges to compensate nearly four million women who lost out when their state pension age rose from 60 to 66. voters in hong kong turn out in record numbers to cast their ballots in district council elections. five teenagers have been arrested after a large brawl at a cinema in birmigham last night which saw a number of police officers injured. great britain miss out on reaching the davis cup final, after a heartbreaking semifinal defeat by a rafael nadal—inspired spain in madrid. and coming up on ‘click‘ at 12:30 — will google‘s entry into gaming mean

the end of the console? plus, a british—designed hypercar. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. borisjohnson is preparing to launch the conservative manifesto in the next few hours — which will pledge not to raise the rate of income tax, national insurance or vat. the prime minister will also say he wants to bring his brexit deal back to the commons before christmas, if the conservatives are returned to power. our political correspondent, nick eardley reports. what would he do with power? this afternoon, borisjohnson will unveil the conservative manifesto. his basic message — deliver brexit and move onto domestic priorities.

he will pledge that the bill that will deliver brexit will be brought back to parliament before christmas if he wins the election. that, he says, would allow the country to move on. so what will the conservatives do on the home front? they will pledge today not to raise rates of income tax, national insurance, or vat. that'll make it harder for the government to raise money, but the tories are still pledging to spend. mrjohnson has already promised money for the health service, for more police, for education. today there will be costly pensioner family projects, too, like keeping the pension triple lock and winter fuel payments. as well as more money for childcare, to fix potholes, and for a skills fund. the manifesto will pledge to end car parking charges at hospitals for protected groups — nhs staff on night shifts, disabled patients, the terminally ill and their families. the conservatives say their plans are fully costed and affordable and they will spend the next three

weeks trying to persuade you that they've got the best plan on offer. nick earley, bbc news. our assistant political editor norman smith is in telford where the conservatives will launch their manifesto. this will launch their manifesto. is the last of the big pa to this is the last of the big parties to launch their manifesto, are you exciting big surprises? in normal times, this would be a big banana is moment, but to be honest, i can't really say that tension is growing because the signs are that this will because the signs are that this will bea because the signs are that this will be a deliberately cautious, risk averse manifesto. why? because so many tories were badly burned by mrs may's catastrophic manifesto last time. the shambles which crumbled. the tories have been over and over through the manifesto stripping out anything they think in anyway might cause any wrinkle of... added to

which, they want to simply keep the focus on brexit. so they are not in the market to change the narrative of this and —— of this election. why ta ke of this and —— of this election. why take a needless risk? we are going to get a fairly, shall we say, modest manifesto, i would say. we know they're big announcements are more police officers, more cash for schools, six more hospitals, a lot of the other nonsense we are expecting our relatively small and no doubt worthwhile. things like mending potholes or stopping nurses on night shift having to pay parking fees £250 million for wraparound school care. it is more money but it is not a humongous amount. instead it has been a defensive posture. they have sought to reassure pensioners that the triple lock pensioners that the triple lock pension rises, that stays and also

to reassure taxpayers that they will be no rise in income tax, vat or national insurance. that is a message hammered home this morning by sajid javid. well, we are very clear. we want to help people with the cost of living where ever we can. earlier this week, we set out our plans to cut taxes, cut national insurance for 31 million people, helping the lowest paid the most. it's not going to add up. well, if i answer the question about the tax lock, i will show you exactly how it adds up. we are also announcing today this, as you say, the triple tax lock which is our commitment, giving more financial security to hard—working people, that under a conservative majority government, the rates of tax and the three biggest taxes, national insurance, income tax and vat, will not rise and they can be absolutely certain of that. however, no matter how hard the conservative high command have tried to strip out any nasty surprises

from this manifesto, it can't stop noises off stage left occurring anyway. this morning we had one on the former tory mp keith simpson, long—standing veteran conservative saying in terms, basically, you cannot trust morris johnson. have saying in terms, basically, you cannot trust morrisjohnson. have a listen to what he said. i never voted for boris. i mean, the one thing you can always rely upon with boris is that he will let you down, at the end of the day, and he comes with a lot of baggage, but, you know, he was elected leader by the conservative party. we have already had a number of my colleagues lost the whip. i do find it incredible that two senior colleagues have left the commons without being members of the conservative party, ken clarke and philip hammond, and i think that is wrong. after all, many of the people who are in borisjohnson's government, ministerial positions, where serial rebels against theresa may.

he touches on that issue which has dogged borisjohnson he touches on that issue which has dogged boris johnson throughout he touches on that issue which has dogged borisjohnson throughout this campaign and throughout his political career. the issue of trust. meanwhile, on the labour side, the issue of credibility still rippling away over there, hugely ambitious spending plans, ? rippling away over there, hugely ambitious spending plans,? spring asked about how nerve you pay for any of this. this morning, another massive spending pledge to compensate the so—called wasp women, the women born in these 50s who lost out when the pension changes were exhilarated which meant many of them didn't have time to readjust their pension arrangements. some had to go back to work, others lost out on a lot of cash. labour say they will compensate them and that will cost more than £50 billion. a plan defended by the shadow cabinet member angela rayner this morning who also stressed that no one earning less than £80,000 will pay any more income tax under a labour

government. we have said quite clearly that the top 5% will pay a little bit more so anyone watching your show earning less than £80,000 a year will not pay a penny more. we have also said that corporations will have to pay a little bit more. and to put that into context, we are saying that corporation tax would be at 26% and under margaret thatcher, it was at 36%. and in your piece earlier, i think this is really crucial to say, in your piece earlier, you were talking about people being honest with the public — we have been incredibly honest with the public that in order to have a world—class system, public service and those jobs of the future, those at the top will have to pay a little bit more. it is curious, sean, how to large degree the parties almost got into a bidding war over spending. every policy seems to revolve basically around who is going to spend more money. this no doubt will raise? about how you pay for it. we know the tories have said they will not put up tax and labour have said they will only put it up on the most wealthy. that prompted pauljohnson,

the director of the institute for fiscal studies to raise a sceptical eyebrow this morning. there is really not an enormous amount there. i think the triple tax lock, as they call it, not increasing income tax, vat or national insurance, could come back to bite them, as it did actually before the 2017 election because they had a similar pledge in 2015 and that stopped even modest increases on some very low rates of national insurance. if we are going to undue austerity to any extent and indeed if we are going to cope with the fact we are going to need more money for the health service, need more money for pensions, at some point over the next decade, we are going to have to raise taxes or accept that we are going to have much less in the way of public services, the nhs and so on than we have got used to, and i think neither party really is taking that serious message to the electorate. if you want to better public services, you are going to have to pay. in labour's case, they are saying, "well, someone else will pay."

and in the conservative's case, they are saying, well, nobody needs to pay. it isa it is a funny old world. normally when you get a big manifesto launch you think the party wants to make a big splash and big impact, i get the feeling that it will all be —— if we all left telford and nobody knew we would have been here in the tory party would not be bothered. how different is this from other campaigns? we hearabout different is this from other campaigns? we hear about the importance of social media, telephone banks rather than door—to—door canvassing, you have covered an awful lot of elections over the years, i want to draw attention to it. do get a sense of this being a different sort of campaign or not? in some ways yes, i think what has impacted as much as anything on the traditional way of campaigning is the fact we are campaigning is the fact we are campaigning in the middle of a winter. that makes it hard to have bigger evening rallies and makes it ha rd to bigger evening rallies and makes it hard to get people coming out

evening. the traditional campaign becomes even less so. never mind the crucial role that social media and digital campaigning now has. i suspect we are gradually moving away from the familiar elections where we expect people to put leaflets through doors. now, campaigning is so through doors. now, campaigning is so carefully targeted on niche groups of voters in particular constituencies, it is almost micromanaged. that said, the big picture, the big appeal, i still think is the driving force in an election campaign. who can set that really, i think, election campaign. who can set that really, ithink, probably election campaign. who can set that really, i think, probably determines who wins. very clearly, team johnson wa nted who wins. very clearly, team johnson wanted to be about brexit, let's get brexit done, team corbyn wanted to be about real change, a moment in the history of this country when things suddenly did switch. we ended austerity and there was much more focus public services. so although

maybe the style of campaigning has changed, the critical importance of dominating the field on which the con test is fought still remains. and we'll be bring you live coverage of the conservative launch here on bbc news from 1:45pm this afternoon — with norman smith live in telford. we'll also bring you analysis from our team of specialist correspondents — and our reality check team will try to cut through the spin and fact check the manifesto pledges. stay with us for all of that from 1:45pm. the liberal democrat leader jo swinson has said there has "been a squeeze" on her party during the campaign, but that she is "not conceding yet". speaking on the bbc‘s andrew marr show, swinson also attacked jeremy corbyn‘s neutral stance on brexit, and said the liberal democrats' priority was to stop brexit from happening. well, of course the liberal democrats want to stop brexit and we will be campaigning to stop brexit.

ok, if that is the case, jeremy corbyn is offering a referendum, you may not like every aspect of what he is saying but he is offering a referendum and borisjohnson very much isn't, doesn't that mean you are inevitably going to have to lean towards the labour party and help them form a government, vote things through for them, rather than the conservatives? well, first of all, as things stand, as things stand, borisjohnson is on course to get a majority and liberal democrats are the best party to stop it. oh, you think that is what is happening at the moment? if you look at the polls right now, that is what they say. there is, obviously, two and a half weeks to go in this campaign and i am working very hard to change that situation... you are not conceding it yet but you think that he is going to win? of course i am not conceding yet. liberal democrats are campaigning hard right across the country and we are making real inroads, but we need to make sure we win those seats from the conservatives and we are in a position to do that in a way that labour simply is not. if he doesn't win an overall majority and he comes to you saying, "listen, jo, i never thought... i don't want to do this, i am doing this through gritted teeth, jo,

but to get my deal through, to get my withdrawal agreement through, i am prepared to offer the liberal democrats a referendum on that deal afterwards," what do you say to him? look, i am not putting borisjohnson orjeremy corbyn into number ten, but if there is a law in parliament... the voters might. if there is a law in parliament that i can vote for that makes sure that the brexit deal is put to the public with the opportunity to remain, i will vote for that. we have always said we will vote for that. 0h, 0k. so if borisjohnson tries to do a deal with you whereby he gets his withdrawal agreement through the house of commons, he delivers his promise to quotes, "get brexit done," but in return for that, he gives you a referendum, you say yes? i am not doing a deal, andrew. i am going to vote for the things that i am standing up for, the things that i believe in, and i believe we should stop brexit and it may be that a people's vote is the best way to do that. we have campaigned for that for more than three years and so, as we have said, over the last year, if we can put a specific brexit deal to the british public

with the option to remain, liberal democrats will support having a people's vote. we will vote for that legislation. the snp say they will push the next uk government to lift financial restrictions on the scottish government's spending powers. the party claim it will unlock almost £3 billion over the course of the next parliament, which they plan to use to boost the economy and tackle climate change. in other news, police investigating the deaths of 39 vietnamese nationals in a lorry in essex have charged a man with human trafficking. the victims were found in grays last month. 23—year—old christopher kennedy from darkley in county armagh will appear before chelmsford magistrates‘ court tomorrow. five teenagers have been arrested after a large brawl at a cinema in birmigham yesterday evening which saw a number of police officers injured. fights broke out as police attempted to clear around 100 people from the star city leisure complex. two machetes were seized

in the incident. 0ne witness described it as one of the "scariest momemts" of their life. 0ur correspondentjenny kumah is at the scene. jenny, good afternoon to. do we have any idea what sparked this trouble last night? police say that those people that had come here to enjoy an evening out at the cinema were left s ha ke n an evening out at the cinema were left shaken and frightened. many of those were families with young children who had come here to this entertainment complex in birmingham to see the new frozen film. police report that there were groups of young people armed with machetes and they deployed dozens of officers and they deployed dozens of officers and those officers say they were met with hostility. they had tourist use tasers to restore order and they recovered to machetes during the trouble and later found a knife

nearby. in terms of injury, they say seven police officers received minor facial injuries and today, we have received more details about those people who were arrested, the five young people. they include a 13—year—old girl who was arrested on suspicion of assaulting police, alongside a 14—year—old boy and a 14—year—old girl and a 19—year—old man. a 14—year—old boy was also arrested on suspicion of obstructing the police. now, the police say they are trying to understand the reason for the trouble and they are asking for the trouble and they are asking for people who took video or photos of what happened last night if they haven't already sent them on, to forward them on so they can make more arrests. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here'sjohn. england's cricketers are in big

trouble in the first test in mount manganooee, having fallen well behind on day four. they'll need to bat out the final day tomorrow to force a draw, with only seven wickets in hand. bj watling continued his brilliant innings, making 205, alongside mitchell sa ntner who hit a century, as they declared on 615—9 — their highest score against england. santner then took three england wickets for just six runs, leaving joe root‘s side on 55—3 at the close — that's 209 runs behind. they'll struggle to recover after that impressive display from the kiwi batsmen. it was a terrific partnership that has put new zealand in a fantastically strong position to dominate this game. england now, there are only thoughts of trying to save it. unfortunately they have lost three wickets towards the end of the day, so with one day to go england have it all to do. rangers are bidding to go back level with celtic at the top

of the scottish premiership. they're at home to hamilton — no score yet but the game is only a couple of minutes old. manchester united will attempt to haul themselves up from tenth in the premier league table this afternoon, when they face sheffield united, who're two places above them. a win for united would still leave them seven points adrift of the champions league places. it is a clear gap in the league between the top four and i don't know how many teams within a range of three or four points. for us it is about consistency now and getting as many points on the board as we can. we turned a corner, we felt, performance—wise and results—wise, after the last international break. but then again, it is so tight, as you say, i'm just looking forward to this game. we need to have a good performance and results. we want to push them all of the way and will not be arrogant,

we know we have to play well and work extremely hard, have a balance of the ball in the game. we are in good nick and we are enjoying life in the premier league and we want this to continue and not take a backwards step and certainly don't want to take a backward step on sunday afternoon. spain'sjon rahm has won the final event on the european tour — the world tour champuionship and in doing so finishes as europe's number one golfer. he was vying with tommy fleetwood for the victory, and needed a big finish, birdieing the last to finish on 19 under for the torunament, which sees him top the tours overall standings. the race to dubai — which replaced the tours old order of merit — has only ever been won by one other spanish golfer and that was seve ballesteros, so he is in esteemed company. great britain's davis cup captain leon smith said they should be excited about their chances of future success, despite an agonising defeat by spain in the semi—finals. after winning one singles match each in madrid, it came down to the doubles, with rafael nadal and

feliciano lopez beating jamie murray and neal skupski in two tie—break sets. so an encouraging display from great britain but a frustrating outcome. we are hurting now. but we have seen an amazing tie here against spain, the strongest team argued that in the strongest team argued that in the competition. we have pushed them within a couple of points of going toa within a couple of points of going to a final set and deciding who gets to a final set and deciding who gets to the final. to reach the semifinals as a preventative. —— is a brilliant achievement. overall it was a positive week for us on the team did great and won a lot of good matches and we have given ourselves to come back in play. tyson fury will get his rematch with deontay wilder in february, after wilder beat luis 0rtiz to retain his wbc world heavyweight title for the tenth time in las vegas. it was a shaky start

for the champion, who was out—boxed by 0rtiz for six rounds. but in the seventh, wilder's devastating right hand left 0rtiz on the canvas, unable to beat the count. afterwards, he said tyson fury was definitely next, and then he wanted a unification bout with whoever wins the rematch between anthonyjoshua and andy ruinunior. that fight is in saudi arabia on december the 7th. britain's dave ryding has given himself an excellent chance of winning a world cup slalom race for the first time. he's in second place after the first leg of the season's opening event, at levi in finland. he's come close in the past, finishing second twice and over a decade in the sport, he's improved his ranking each year to now sit in the top ten. britain has never had a winner at an alpine skiing world cup event. the second leg isjust getting underway. that's all the sport for now.

i'll have more in the next hour. there's been a record turnout for the district elections in hong kong, which will give an indication of levels of support for the government, after months of pro—democracy protests. 0pposition parties hope the results will reflect public anger about how the chief executive, carrie lam, has handled the demonstrations. from hong kong, our correspondent jonathan head reports. the queues formed early and ran long right around the block in taikoo shing. just a local ballot, true. but the significance of this first

full test of public opinion since the crisis began five months ago was not lost on these voters. there are so not lost on these voters. there are so many people here. many people are actually waiting for this opportunity to say something. actually waiting for this opportunity to say somethingm actually waiting for this opportunity to say something. it is like approving or disapproving of the legitimacy of the protest. like approving or disapproving of the legitimacy of the protestm like approving or disapproving of the legitimacy of the protest. it is an election one way or the other, so it shows that people in hong kong believe in elections. that is very important. it is not long since the police were doing a likely battle with black cloud protesters. today they were deployed to secure the polling stations. but there was no sign of trouble here. the opposition wa nts sign of trouble here. the opposition wants this election to go smoothly, in the hope that a decisive swing in its favour might force chief executive carrie lam here casting her vote to make the concessions she steadfastly refused to make in the face of protests which have brought hong kong to its knees. it is

already eight hours since voting started and still there are these impressive lines of voters at polling stations. everyone here knows this is about a lot more than just local councils. they also know that whatever the result of this election, everything depends in the end on whether china can be moved to support concessions. yet still, you can see how important it is for them that their voices are heard. the university campus which saw such dramatic confrontations only a week ago is quiet now. ringed by police, the last few determined activists are hiding on its upperfloors refusing to surrender. this stage of the protest is all but over. but once the election is done, the anti—government campaign will surely resume. somewhere else. doctors say people need to take extra precautions, in order to stop the spread of the winter vomiting bug, norovirus.

public health england says there's been a big increase in the number of reported cases, compared to the last five winter seasons. this week, pupils in around 60 schools across the north east of england were sent home with symptoms. two people are missing in southern france, where heavy rain has caused serious flooding. several roads and railway lines have been cut off and flights from nice airport have been disrupted. president trump's lawyer — rudy giuliani — has said he's not concerned about being indicted for crimes now being investigated by the impeachment inquiry. this is after the us state department released records relating to the trump administration's dealings with ukraine which show repeated contacts between secretary of state mike pompeo and mrgiuliani. are you afraid, mr mayor, that you could be indicted? oh, wow. how long have you know me? i've known you several years. you think i'm afraid? i don't know. you think i get afraid? well... i did the right thing, i represented my client ina very,

very effective way. i was so effective that i've discovered a pattern of corruption that the washington press has been covering up for three or four years. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise. good morning, it has been a rather grey and gloomy start to our sunday morning, but it is predominantly dry and it will be a quieter theme of weather for many. so if we take a look at why, we have got this frontal system that is moving its way through scotland for much of the night. that still has to clear away but we have this brief ridge of high pressure dominating the story today before the next low waiting in the wings to arrive a little later on. the rain sitting across the far north and east of scotland and will gradually drift northwards and ease away. elsewhere, we keep cloudy skies for much of the day, early morning hill fog slowly lifting but the cloud thick enough for the odd spot or two of drizzle.

the wind direction is from a south easterly so it is a mild source, noticeably different feel to the weather in comparison to of late, highest values of 9—12d. through this evening we keep that cloud across england and scotland, and down into the south—west we will have a fair amount of rain pushing into south—west england, wales and eventually northern ireland. it will stay mild through the night, 5—9d, maybe double digits, into the far south—west but that frontal system will push its way steadily north and east through monday. first thing monday morning, we have rain around, not especially heavy but a nuisance for many, heading off across northern ireland, north—west england, down through the midlands towards the london area. showers following on behind. the best of any drier, sunnier weather is likely to be into the far north of scotland. still mild, 9—13 degrees. not bad really for the time of year. there is another area of low pressure waiting in the wings

and it arrives on tuesday. this has the remnants of what was storm sebastien, a little bit more energy, could bring some heavier rainfora time. that is going to sweep in from the south—west and push north. showers, some of them heavy and thundery, could be a windy day at times, especially down towards the coast and then in terms of the feel of things, it will stay on the mild side, 8—11; degrees. if you are fed up with this rain and want something quieter, drier, fingers crossed that is on its way for the weekend but it will again get colder.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the conservatives will pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or vat