alison holt, bbc news.o as an incident, that they were having to deal with, now, greater manchester police have tweeted that it isa manchester police have tweeted that it is a serious incident at manchester arena. that is the tweet. local people are being told to avoid the area. we know from network rail that transport services out of nearby manchester victoria station have been badly affected and spero blockages there. this all ’ w ’ "2 ’ ’ % at ’ w ’ w; ’ ’ % at about ioas this evening. happened at about ioas this evening. —— and as they are blockages there. it was at the end of an ariane dirt grand a concert. —— ariana grande. there were reports of a loud bang coming from inside the arena and the pictures you are seeing is some of the footage shot by somebody on their phone on what is clearly panic and hysteria as people are concerned for their safety. those pictures are coming in in the last few minutes or so. coming in in the last few minutes or so. there are suggestions from eyewitnesses that they hav

alison holt, bbc news. there's a pledge to spend an extra £4 billion on schools in england.ersal free school lunches in the first three years of primary school. the conservatives will commit to replacing the lunches with free school breakfasts for every pupil in every year of primary school. 0ur education editor bra nwen jeffreys reports on the school lunch proposal. there we go, sweetie. waiting for a free hot lunch, but families could face charges for school dinners with parents of most infants asked to pay. it was his idea to give the youngest free meals. the lib dem policy meant lots of money on new kitchens. now the conservatives say most parents should pay with only the poorest families getting free school meals. it's estimated £650 million a year would be saved by ending free lunches for infants. that could go towards adding £4 billion cash in total for england schools. but that could still mean a 2—3% real terms cut per pupil by 2022. free lunches have been popular, with most parents and children happily gobbling them up. making more parents pay for school dinners is

alison holt, bbc news.as asked again to explain her thinking on social care, when she spoke to the bbc‘s andrew neil. we have not rewritten the manifesto. the principles on which we have based our social care policy remain absolutely the same. we need to ensure that we have long—term sustainability in social care. we need to be able to ensure we can fund social care for the future. we're doing the honest thing about putting a proposal to the british people. and they will make their choice on that. how could it be honest to reject a cap in your manifesto and four days later say, we are going to have a cap? that is honest about that? i set out in our manifesto was a series of principles to say to people, this is a big issue, will need to address it and we being honest that we need to fix it and thatis honest that we need to fix it and that is what i want to do. i will not bury my head in the sand play politics thatjeremy corbyn. i'm going to fix it. i'm going to fix it. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg,

alison holt, bbc news. let's speak to laura in wrexham, where theresa may has been speaking today. this peaceful evening in wrexham in wales is a real contrast to a very bumpy day for the prime minister and the tories. i think this has certainly been one of if not the most difficult days she has had in this campaign, choosing to clarify one of the main ideas from the manifesto, because in political speak, clarifying, well, that means changing your plans. and she did that without being able to tell us at what point this cap on social ca re costs at what point this cap on social care costs might be introduced. would it be £100,000? would it be £10,000? i asked that this morning, i wasn't the only one, and she was not able to give us wakeley answer. in the last couple of hours, the bbc‘s andrew neil has had another 90, bbc‘s andrew neil has had another go, and are not getting very far with getting an answer. what we're going to do, as we said in our manifesto, is publish... we refer to a green paper — of course, a green paper, many people may not realise, a green paper is a consultati

alison holt, bbc news. of thousands. and it proposes new measures — including a £2,000 annual charge on companies — for every skilled worker they employ — from outside the eu. so what does businesses think of that — and some of the other measures in the manifesto? here‘s our business editor simonjack. this is a new look for the conservative party. the old—fashioned tory relationship with business has had a makeover with this manifesto. for companies like this fashion technology firm, there was a new deterrent to hiring workers from outside the eu, a new attempt to bring down immigration. last year, 273,000 more people arrived in the uk than left. of that number, 164,000 were from outside the eu. 56,000 of them were classified as skilled workers. the conservative government would double the cost of employing them from a recently introduced £1000 to £2000 per employee, per year. a third of our employees are non—eu. this is something that is basically sending the wrong signals to the type of talent we want to

alison holt, bbc news.out a number of key economic pledges today on pensions, tax and the deficit. 0ur economics editor, kamal ahmed has been taking a closer look at the possible costs of implementing the conservative manifesto. the target of balancing the books and eliminating the deficit has been pushed into the future. the triple tax lock has been abandoned. the promise on how much pensions will rise by, changed. theresa may laid out a new tory prospectus for the country, making it clear that the old approach of david cameron is history. let's start with the tory‘s attitude to borrowing, or "eliminating the deficit" — that's balancing the amount the government raises in taxes with what it spends. last autumn, the chancellor said he wanted to achieve this long—held tory goal "as early as possible in the next parliament". many economists took that to mean by 2022. today, the manifesto changes that target to 2025. theresa may has given herself room to borrow more if the economy needs it. 0n tax, there has a

with me is our social affairs correspondent, alison holt. how radical would they be?hey would get to grips with one of the biggest issues of oui’ with one of the biggest issues of our time. those in the social care sector, but i am hearing from them is there is concern, surprise and many feel it is a missed opportunity. because this is a huge issue with a great deal of increasing demand and growing pressure on the system. raising the threshold, the level of savings and assets can help, that is broadly welcomed. and there is the singular tale, which is the inclusion of the value of someone's house when you assess them for home care, which is quite a big change for people. and the impact that has depends on where you live because there is huge regional variation in the cost of somebody‘s home. so we expect that will mean that under that change, many more people will end up having to pay care. but the fundamental issues, the fundamental question which remains to be answered, is this a big enough change to deal with the ongoing pressures and help people plan for their fut

jane vass is head of policy and research for age uk — alison holt is our social affairs correspondent it is badly broken and has been under serious pressure, under huge demand and overstretched. in time. i think there was an appetite for something fairly radical but also something happening fairly quickly. their care cap idea introduced by the do not commission some years ago was already in there just are aged —— legislation. the cap limiting the highest care costs and a raising of the threshold. the cap has been scrapped. we have got this raising of the threshold. the key thing here is that the raising of the threshold to allow people to keep £100,000 in saving for assets is generous compared to what it is at the moment, which is £23,250. but, they are... it will particularly help people who might be in residential care. in terms of home care, at the moment, the value of someone‘s ‘s is not included in how you would calculate the assets. under these plans it would in the future. thank you very much. let‘s speak to sharon. hopefully you are hearing to what iain duncan smith was saying

let‘s bring in our social affairs correspondent alison holt in now.ason... it is not just about the money but bottom line and the reason... it is notjust about the money but is about not feeling on your rent it that was the point being made time and again on thursday, when it was said that without a cap, people would feel that they were being left on their road to cope until their savings and assets dropped to £100,000, which is where the conservative party is planning to put the amount you are allowed to keep. in terms of a cap, there is no indication as to what it will be. when is there likely to be clarity? this is part of the manifesto and the election is not far away now. this is part of the manifesto and the election is not far away nowm a manifesto you wouldn‘t expect to necessarily get all the nitty—gritty. there are certainly a lot of questions which remain, for insta nce lot of questions which remain, for instance what level would the b? the suggested level put forward by sir andrew deal not to let the report tea m andrew deal not to let the

alison holt is live in central london for us, and she has been looking in detail at the policies on social. can you talk us speaking about so far. can you talk us through what you make of them at the moment? giving with one hand but taking with the other? yes, generally i think these are plans greeted with a degree of surprise from many people working in the care sector. they were expecting one thing, possibly the confirmation of a cap on high care costs. but, that is not there. legislation was in place for that but that has been scrapped. instead, we have a raising of the threshold of money that people can keep if they have care costs. it is being raised from £23,250 to £100,000. it is complicated but basically the way that it works is that you would pay any ca re that it works is that you would pay any care costs until you are... your assets and savings of £100,000 are reached. then you would get help from your local authority to some degree or another. that is a significant increase in that baseline of savings you can keep. and it would help many people in residential homes. the sting i