materially, that didn t happen. nobody came to me and said, you know, if that said agreed to restart work on independence, that would mean something much more than that it does. there was not a process of consideration of that then saw somebody come to me with a proposal to restart work on independence. i m sorry, i am genuinely sorry if it sounds like i m dancing on the head of a pin, i sounds like i m dancing on the head ofa pin, i don t sounds like i m dancing on the head of a pin, i don t mean to. but the key point here is that we did not restart work on independence at that point, oranywhere restart work on independence at that point, or anywhere near that point. if it were to be decided on the basis if it were to be decided on the basis of if it were to be decided on the basis of the evidence before this inquiry basis of the evidence before this inquiry that there was a politicisation of the pandemic, and that you politicisation of the pandemic, and that you had u
craig williams and laura saunders, on the date of the general election. on the campaign trail, labour is setting out changes to the process for someone to legally change their gender. the party is also offering to provide hundreds of thousands more dental appointments on the nhs. the lib dems release their analysis on hospital waiting times. leader sir ed davey claimed the country has ten days to save the nhs. the snp sjohn swinney will give a speech on brexit. while the dup is launching its manifesto in northern ireland. so it is a busy day for all of the parties today. we ll touch on all of the above in this programme, but let s start with the election betting investigation. here s tobias elwood speaking to the bbc radio 4 today. this betting saga has been deeply unhelpful, self inflicted distraction, and in what world they thought this was acceptable is beyond belief. the prime minister has expressed his anger, he said that at the leaders s question time debate. it has bee
we will bring you more from our correspondent outside a hospital in a moment. a leading think tank, the institute for fiscal studies, has accused the main political parties of a conspiracy of silence over the economic reality behind plans set out in their election manifestos. the ifs analysed how the policies could impact the public finances and what that could mean for household incomes, public services and taxation. in its scathing assessment it said the parties were ducking the issues, by relying on faster growth to deliver more tax, which it said was far from guaranteed. it also warned the next government faced having to find new ways to raise taxes, or leave some public services exposed to billions of pounds worth of cuts. this a flavour of what the director of the ifs, pauljohnson, had to say. low growth, high debt, high interest payments mean we need to do something quite rare over the next few years just to stop debt spiralling ever upwards we need to run primar
tricky for labour. something they would rather not be talking about because of sir keir starmer s shifting stance within this issue and conservatives have certainly frequently criticised the labour leader saying it is evident he is fickle with certain things and changes his mind. he insists the record of his party on women s rights is good and they would do more if they were to get into government. more if they were to get into government- more if they were to get into government. more if they were to get into covernment. ., ~ government. good to see you. thank ou ve government. good to see you. thank you very much government. good to see you. thank you very much indeed. as the last full week of campaigning gets underway, the dup has launched its manifesto this morning. at the last general election, in 2019, it won eight seats more than any other party in northern ireland. in the manifesto, the party set out more ways it wants to remove trade barriers between great bri