18/05/2017 The Election Wrap

Hello and welcome to The Election Wrap, your essential

guide to today's campaigning, right across the UK...

Theresa May puts her best foot forward at a factory in Bolton,

after unveiling her party's manifesto across the Pennines.

How do you feel it went Prime Minister?

The stage is set for the first televised leaders' debate

of the campaign tonight in Salford - but the two biggest

beasts in the political jungle are staying away.

Will voters care about the noticeable absentees?

If the campaign hasn't been enough of a roller-coaster for you so far -

there's the offer of cut-price entry to the rides at Thorpe Park

for young voters who register by Monday's deadline.

Does it matter to you whether your local MP is one

Where you are interested in politics when you were 16? No, just boys!

And should 16 year olds get the vote?

We ask shoppers in Carlisle to pop a ball into our general election

So lots to talk about with our panel...

The political journalist, Martha Gill, and George Eaton

Let's catch up on the latest developments

Theresa May has laid out her vision to tackle the "great challenges"

facing the UK - including Brexit, the economy and an ageing society.

The Conservative party's manifesto includes proposals to change the way

social care in England is funded, and to withdraw winter fuel payments

Mrs May outlined her policies on social care

The government that I lead would build a Briton in which the economy

is strong. To support world-class public services. With the most

ambitious programme of investment in technology and buildings that the

NHS has ever seen. Record and fair funding for schools. Real technical

education for young people. And, the first-ever proper plan to pay for

and provide social care. Strong public services do not just provide

security and enhance opportunity. They are vital institutions that

bring us all together. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn will be absent as

Britain's political leaders take part in a prime-time TV debate this

evening. The ITV event will see

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, Ukip's Paul Nuttall and the SNP's

Nicola Sturgeon lock horns. Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood and Green

co-leader Caroline Lucas will also take part in the two-hour show

being broadcast from Salford at 8pm. The Prime Minister has refused

to take part in TV debates and the Labour leader said

he would not participate A TV debate must include the Prime

Minister, the leader of the Conservative Party. That would be a

proper debate. I made the offer, many times, since the day the

election was called. The Prime Minister said in the last Prime

Minister's Questions time, this is the end of the debate, now it is the

election campaign. There has to be a debate with the leader's of the

party. I'm proud of the Labour Party and the manifesto for the many and

not the few. She should come along and have a discussion.

Alex Salmond spreads the love - the former SNP leader has been out

glad-handing supporters in Edinburgh.

And it turns out reporters as well. Listen to this exchange with the

BBC's Catreena Renton. Hello! Are you well? I'm very good. It feels

like a long time since I've seen you! I know, I've been missing you!

The Christian Peoples Alliance has launched

Among their policies are a grant of 10,000 pounds

to first-time married couples, and a further 5,000 pounds

But leader Sid Cordle says their flagship policy

Because we, as Christians, are running food banks, we understand

why people are going and what policies we need to stop it. We want

people on disability benefits to not have it taken off them unless they

have an alternative source of income. We want people who apply for

benefits, the day that they apply, to get benefits. At the moment

people have two weights and weeks and we want everyone who is sleeping

homeless to have a shot at ago too. We will have free night shelters for

all people as long as they are not on drink and drugs -- to have a

shelter to go to. So Theresa May has launched

the Conservative manifesto, with a promise to be "upfront

and straight" about There are measures to bring down

immigration, as well as proposals to increase charges for companies

who hire workers Let's take a look in more

detail at the figures, Chris Morris and the BBC's

Reality Check team have been taking a look at some

of the all-important numbers behind After weeks of hearing about strong

and stable leadership, we finally have some details to look out.

Unlike Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives haven't

so far released overall costings in a single table. We are working on

those. But there are some headline numbers. The Tories say they will

balance the budget by 2020 to five -- 2025 and will increase NHS

spending by a minimum of ?8 billion over the next five years. Let's look

at it few more specific policies. Social care changes that we have

heard about will mean tens of thousands of more families have to

pay for social care at home. But everyone drove retain at least

?100,000 of their savings and assets, including value in the

family home. It is a policy designed to take account of the fact that we

are living longer. The Conservatives want to raise money by means testing

the winter fuel allowance. Ensuring payments only go to the least

wealthy pensioners. This scheme costs about ?3 billion per year at

the moment. Means testing could save about half of that. One revenue

raising measure that Labour and the Liberal Democrats have promised is

an income in -- is an increase in income tax but not the Tories. In

this manifesto while there is not an absolute promise in increasing

insurance and so on, there is a modest set of proposals which

probably will not require terribly much in the way of tax increases. A

big Conservative promise in the camera in years was the triple lock

on pensions. Under which the state pension rises by the rate of

inflation, average earnings, or 2.5%, which ever is highest. Theresa

May wants to scrap it, losing the 2.5% guarantee. That would give the

government more flexibility but it is impossible to say how much money

it could save. Moving to education, the Conservatives want to boost

school funding by ?4 billion in the next Parliament. One of the ways

they plan on raising that money is scrapping universal free school

lunches for infants. Replacing them with much cheaper free school

breakfasts in primary schools. Again, the manifesto contains no

precise costing for this. Immigration policy looms large in

Conservative plans. They plan to double from ?1000 to ?2000, the

amount that companies have few paid to import highly skilled workers

from outside of the EU. We don't really know how much it could raise.

The Conservatives have reaffirmed their target of cutting overall net

migration to less than 100,000 per year. But, there will be a cost

involved. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated

it could cost ?5.9 billion to cut annual net migration from about

273,000 now, to 185000 by 20 21. That is because of things like a

lower tax take a higher proportion of nonworking people in the overall

population. That is still a long way short of the ?100,000 target. -- the

100,000 target. It will be taken into account in the debate to come

and the emphasis is that this is an election taking place in the shadow

of the looming Brexit negotiations. The negotiations we are about to

begin with the EU will not be easy. They will be challenging and at

times, they will be tough. In Theresa May, Britain has a Prime

Minister with the strength to lead Britain through these negotiations,

and make a success of the future. But the outcome of those

negotiations over the next smack years is deeply uncertain. The

manifesto reasserts that no deal with the EU is better than a bad

deal -- the next two years. So EU negotiations will probably do more

than anything else in the next Parliament to determine the health

of the British economy and the chance for any political party to

put their promises into practice. Well Martha and George -

what are your first thoughts This manifesto seems to be a massive

display of confidence by Theresa May, with a big lead in the polls,

she knows the right wing papers like the Daily Mail are really on her

side. They will back her no matter how policies. What she has been able

to do is risk her core voters, the pensioners and people who want older

voters, by scrapping fuel payments, and by taking money away from

people's Estates to pay for social care. She is now reaching out to

other voters on the margins, both on the right, who want to control

immigration. And also on the left. George, how did you see it? What

struck me was that this is the most interventionist Conservative

manifesto we have seen in decades. Theresa May isn't seeking to

overturn the Thatcherite settlement in the way that Labour's manifesto

promised but she is taking a far more sceptical view of the markets

and a less hostile view of the state in any Conservative leader since the

1970s. The energy price cap, representation on company boards, a

new generation on council homes, borrowing for investment homes, it's

a sharp break from recent Conservative traditions. And it

struck me, the front cover of the manifesto. In 2015 it was the

Conservatives, this time it is the Conservative and Unionist party.

That is their fault title, which Mrs May emphasised when she became Prime

Minister, and is a helping hand to Ruth Davidson, currently presiding

over a big Tory revival there. And what do

the general public think on that proposed big change in social care

funding? We dropped into a day centre

in Suffolk, which is a popular meeting place for the over 60s,

who stop by for a chat over coffee and biscuits to see what they think

of the Conservatives plans. People who have worked all of their

lives are struggling. They are struggling more than ever. A lot of

people have had to dig into their savings in order to survive and pay

the bills. I cannot understand why all of these financial boffins at

the top cannot get it right! We paying a fortune abroad? Why did we

support the NHS and those in dire straits here who fought the country

-- who fought for the country? I've worked hard and I want to leave

something for my grandchildren and my children. I have four children

and I would love to do some thing for them. The

social care funding, how big a political risk are the Conservatives

taking here, do you think? The biggest risk would have been doing

nothing. Every analyst, every MP, perhaps only in private, agrees if

you do nothing you are heading for an almighty crisis. And the only way

to improve social care is to raise more money from voters. The

Conservatives are giving, in one respect, now you will no longer have

to pay any more after you are down to your last 100,000, after 23,000,

but they take with the other hand in that home owners and those who have

received care in their home will have to pay potentially a lot more.

They are means testing winter fuel payments quite aggressively. It

isn't a big political risk. They have a big lead in the polls,

especially among the over 65 's. It will be interesting to see if it is

dented at all, given that Labour is looking to maintain the double lock

-- the triple lock. If Labour cannot pick up more pensioners now, when

can they? Who are the winners and losers in that measure? In the

social care chain? It is people who have decided to pour all of their

money into homeowning, with the hope of handing it on to their kids. Now,

they are going to see that depleted to fund their care. Before, it hit a

point where once you have run through all of your cash, where you

get free social care, now it is going to kick in and cut into your

home as well. And a question that we posed a moment ago, when we all come

to vote for our potential MPs, does it matter on their gender? Mrs May

is our second female Prime Minister, many women in high profile positions

in other parties. In this election, there

are more women running Overall, about 30% of

candidates are women - up from the previous record

of 26% in 2015. After the last election, women

made up 30% of MPs in the Commons. The Labour Party, Lib Dems

and the SNP all approve. The Conservatives say

they don't see the need. The Women's Equality Party have been

telling us why they think female representation in the Commons

still has a way to go to achieve Some of the old parties, there are

senior people in those parties who grew up when there was no sex

discrimination act or no equal pay act, and think, what are you

complaining about? We passed those laws, or say you don't know, you

weren't born. Many of us have grown up where there were those acts, and

we expect to be treated differently. In many respects we still are not

and we want a parliament but represents us properly. How much

does it matter to voters, Martha? I'm not sure. I think that voters

are, sort of, riled up if they see that there is inequality within a

party, and they feel misrepresented. But within a constituency, I do not

think voters will particularly mind if they are voting for a man or a

woman, it depends on the individual's representation. --

reputation. And then you might have those. Violi method that is shown to

reliably improve representation is all women short lists. The

Conservative retorts, and Theresa May enjoys teasing. They have had

two female leaders. They have had acting with Harriet Harmon, for

Labour. But it is hard for the Conservatives, I think. If they're

female representation does not improve, I think there will be

questions. Theresa May, why aren't you looking at an all women short

list in a moderate form? Many of the leaders

will be sparring tonight as the leaders debate programme -

being broadcast on ITV - But, there are two

notable exceptions. In the blue corner, Theresa May has

refused to debate live on TV And in the red corner,

Jeremy Corbyn says he won't be there Now a lot is made of the adversarial

nature of politics, particularly if you watch

Prime Minister's So we thought we'd take it a step

further, and get four candidates to slug it out in the ring,

and fight for their own policies. Noel Phillips asked a couple

of voters if they landed In the red corner, hoping to land a

punch for his party is the former Labour MP and government minister

Jim Fitzpatrick. For Ukip, it is Daniel Wolfe, on a

mission to prove that his party is still an electoral force.

In the blue corner, Shaun Bailey, a former Downing Street adviser to

David Cameron. And on a campaign to overturn the

status quo for the Liberal Democrats, it is Keith Angus.

BELL Theresa May is calling the election

to gain more power and bring Brexit through but she is a remain MP. She

said she was and you cannot change this for political gain. If she

wants to give people a say, why when she and the Brexit deal? She gave

them a say in the referendum and she knows what they voted for. She is

going for a hard and divisive Brexit. Most people say that the

referendum was last year, they want to know... Why has ?3 billion being

wiped off the education budget? Why is the health service on its needs?

Why have we lost so many police officers? If you want to get

people... You want doctors and nurses in the NHS, if you want to

train home-grown talent, welcome them from the EU instead of telling

them that they are not welcome. Recruitment is at a crisis in the

NHS because EU workers will not come here now. Why is that? Are you proud

of that? Seven years you've been in power. Seven years! And the health

service is in crisis in every single year since you have been in power.

The last Labour government left to power, you left a note telling the

country that you spent all of their money. You are punching harder, pack

it in. None of what you are saying, you, Ukip, or the Liberal

Democrats... Your industrial policy are fantasy figures that will drive

us into the ground and it does not matter what you want, you cannot pay

for it if you don't run the economy well. Time is up! The candidates

have had their say, but it is about the voters like Natalie and is male,

who are yet to make up their minds. It was interesting to hear their

opinions. Seeing them in the ring individually fighting for their own

policies and what they believe them, and what they think they can bring

to the party, and why I should vote for them, it made it more

accessible. It was certainly different! Let's

talk about that debate. In Salford it has two notable absentees. How

strange is it going to be, Martha? It will be odd with empty podiums.

Without Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. But, I think it is a wise

decision by both Jeremy and Teresa. If you have ever seen PMQs, Prime

Minister's Questions times, neither of them can think on their feet. It

looks like... They have the structure but when you look at what

they say there is no content. I think that neither of them do

particularly well in debate. But, you know, that is what the voters

want to see. That is what Theresa May has been criticised for on the

campaign trail. She met one voter on the Trail and it went very badly.

She certainly will get some flak on this but I doubt it is going to

cause a dent in her polling. Because Jeremy Corbyn is in a more

vulnerable position and has criticised Theresa May for not

debating, he will probably get a bit more damage. We will see five people

behind the podium, and not two others. What do you make of it? They

need a good night. For a long time journalists said the error of two

party politics is over. An opinion poll gives a combined vote share

over 83% for Labour and the Conservatives.

Ukip down that 2%, Lib Dems on 7%, the SNP are strong in Scotland but

are in danger of losing seats to the Conservatives.

It interesting that they can capture the imaginations of voters. They are

all squeezed by the big two. They will not be tonight. We will keep an

eye on that. It's not just the Conservatives who

have launched their manifesto today. The Yorkshire Party have been

launching theirs - in Wakefield. The party is calling for greater

powers for Yorkshire. And a halt to the high-speed rail

line, HS2 and their leader, Stewart Arnold thinks they could be

the local alternative There is obviously something going

on here. I like to think that we are part of the process of putting

pressure on them. Let's see. I'm hopeful that we can make a

breakthrough. Up to the North West of England now

and there is one issue which has dominated the agenda for the last

couple of years - fracking. Annabel Tiffin has spent

the afternoon in Lytham St Annes finding out if fracking is a big

election issue. Fracking, is that a big one for you?

It does not matter to you. I think it is a good idea. Really? How would

it influence, would it influence, how you vote? It won't influence me,

I'm not going to vote. We all need this energy from somewhere, don't

we? Ladies, hello. Sorry to interrupt, I know you are having

your ice creams. Will this possibly influence your voting? Possibly. I

don't really mind. The people do not want the fracking. The council don't

want it. They've been to court and they just overall does and said it

does not matter. We will carry on anyway. I think people will vote

against the Conservatives in this instance because they are

pro-fracking and are not listening. For a list of all of the candidates

in your constituency, go to the website.

Will we see different areas doing different things? You have different

voting patterns but at the moment, the Conservatives are doing

remarkably well everywhere. I think part of the problem for those with a

regional agenda is that issue of Brexit, that is the defining one bit

is edged out somewhat by the NHS. There is the argument that Theresa

May will say put your country first, and I think it appeals to a more

national view rather than a regional view. I think it will be quite hard

for the smaller parties to achieve cuts in this election. Is it right,

we would see too much of that? The Tories like to believe that people

don't care so much about local issues. They ran the local election

campaign a national one. Theresa May at the forefront and the Brexit

message at the forefront, Labour like to believe it is local issues

that matter and not the leadership. They are not doing very well at the

moment. The Lib Dems have not really decided whether they are running a

national anti-Brexit campaign or a local one. I think that they are

muddled and that is where they are going wrong. She is not only the

voice of the balls. Ali Price has been taking her election road show

on a tour of the UK, asking voters to put one in the box to register

their views. She has been asking people in Carlisle if the voting age

should be reduced to 16? When I was 16, I knew that I wanted

to vote, and why. Because old people are going to die. Do you think

16-year-olds should have the vote? No, I don't. Why not? I don't know,

when I was 16 I was not mature enough to do anything. You are

knowledgeable enough at that age to know what is going on and have a say

around the country and the world. I think it is fair. 18, how come? I've

a 12-year-old daughter and I find it hard to imagine by the age of 16 she

will be ready to make a decision like that! I'm from Scotland, I did

polling there Q times and a lot of the younger ones are coming in with

their parents now. It is encouraging to see younger ones and coming in

voting. Where you interested in politics

when you are 16? No, just boys! If they are allowed to do a lot of

other things at the age of 16, why not vote? They are eligible to get

married... We went to Gretna Green, actually! I think they mature a lot

between the ages of 16 and 18, a lot. And between 18 and 21 even

more! That is when you got the vote? Yes. Do 16-year-olds eat a lot of

cheese? Yes, it is surprising what children do eat! Do you think that

16-year-olds should have the vote? No. We shopped around for people's

opinions here in the market, and it seems that if you are 16 going on 17

and wanting a say in the general election, tough. People here think

you need to be 18 to have the vote. Thank you Carlisle!

Ali Price there. Their recent time for me to ask you what you were both

like at the age of 16! Thanks very much to George Eaton and Martha

Gill, that's it from the Election Wrap. More from the campaign trail

again tomorrow night at 7:30pm. We have had some outbreaks of rain

around today, but they have been pretty hit and miss with some areas

seeing longer spells of sunshine. Now we have low pressure that has

been moving in from the south. Bursts of rain in