General election called for 4 July
- PM vows to introduce National Service| But no threat of jail time
- Labour pledges to reignite Sunak's proposed smoking ban
- Farage challenged on 'offensive' comments about British Muslims
- Starmer confirms support for extending voting age to 16
- PM agrees to take part in Sky News leaders' event on one condition
- Live reporting by Tim Baker andBrad Young
Expert analysis
- Tamara Cohen:Farage's incendiary claims a question for Reform
- Adam Boulton:Why PM's big bet on security likely won't pay off
- Tamara Cohen:What Mail's front page means for campaign
- Sam Coates:Gove stepping down shows political winds are shifting
Election essentials
- Trackers:Who's leading polls?|Is PM keeping promises?
- Subscribe to Sky's politics podcasts:Electoral Dysfunction|Politics At Jack And Sam's
- Read more:What happens next?|Which MPs are standing down?|Key seats to watch|How to register to vote|What counts as voter ID?|Check if your constituency's changing|Sky's coverage plans
Former Conservative strategy chief condemns National Service policy as 'sop'
As every, people from across the spectrum are commenting on the most recent announcements in the general election.
One interesting take comes from Chris Wilkins, who was a strategy director and speechwriter for Theresa May when she was in Downing Street.
Writing on X, he panned the National Service plan - saying that "the cynicism of selling a sop to older voters as some kind of pro young person policy is simply breathtaking".
Another gaffe will hand election to Starmer, senior Tory tells Sunak
A former Tory cabinet minister has warned Rishi Sunak he will hand the election to Labour if he makes "any more gaffes".
The senior Conservative told the Telegraph the prime minister needed to sharpen up and show "humility, not arrogance" on the campaign trail.
"We can't afford any more gaffes like the ones he's had, standing in the rain and getting in a muddle with the football," they told the newspaper.
"He's just got to sharpen up, his team has got to sharpen up."
The prime minister launched his campaign by calling an election in the pouring rain on Wednesday, leading him to joke he hadn't caught pneumonia and did not know what state his suit was in.
To make matters worse, protestors disrupted the announcement by blaring the D:Ream's hit single Things Can Only Get Better, widely associated with Labour's 1997 landslide victory.
The next day, Mr Sunak asked workers at a Welsh brewery if they were looking forward to "the football" - even though their team had not qualified for the European Championships.
A visit to the Titanic Quarter in Belfast invited a "sinking ship" comparison with his party's fortunes from a reporter.
And an image taken of him standing beneath his campaign plane's exit sign also drew derision from some commentators.
"We can't afford any more slip-ups, that's just handing it to Starmer," the Conservative minister told the Telegraph.
"He really needs to get out there, all guns blazing, very professionally but also get out and talk to real people, and not staged events. I want humility, not arrogance, and a sense that we're moving forward."
Poll suggests Britons would be more unhappy with Sunak victory than if Corbyn won in 2019
Since Rishi Sunak called the election on Wednesday, pollsters and surveyors have been taking the temperature of public opinion.
One example of this is by YouGov, who asked 2,072 people on Thursday and Friday for their thoughts on the upcoming vote.
They discovered that a greater proportion of people would be "disappointed" or "dismayed" with the prospect of a Conservative victory under Rishi Sunak than a Labour victory under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019.
Some 59% of those quizzed said they would be unhappy with Mr Sunak winning.
In 2019, 52% felt similarly about Mr Corbyn.
And in further bad news for the current prime minister, only 38% of people who voted Tory in 2019 would be happy to see them reelected.
More small boats arrive as Rwanda scheme draws dividing line
Once again, immigration was the subject of election debate this morning, with James Cleverly claiming Labour plans to scrap the Rwanda scheme were "reckless".
Millions of pounds has been spent on the Rwanda deal without any deportation flights getting off the ground – and Mr Sunak has admitted they won't before the election.
We've since had updated figures on people arriving on small boats, after they surpassed 10,000 this year on Friday.
Another 227 arrived yesterday on four boats, government data shows, bringing the total to 10,397.
Shadowimmigrationminister Stephen Kinnock has said ifLabourwas elected the party would "take the action required to tackle this chaos".
Amnesty International warned the figures were a "stark reminder that the government's flagrant attack on the rights to refugees is not only unlawful and immoral, it is ineffective even on its own terms", demanding the prime minister make safe routes available to tackle crossings.
Shadow chancellor rules out income tax and National Insurance rises under Labour
Rachel Reeves, who is Labour's shadow chancellor, has ruled out increasing the two main levies on income.
Speaking to the BBC, she says that everything in her party's manifesto will have an explanation for where the money to pay for it will come from.
Ms Reeves added: "What I want and Keir [Starmer] wants is taxes on working people to be lower and we certainly won't be increasing income tax or national insurance if we win at the election."
The Labour Party has said it will raise some tariffs, with Ms Reeves saying: "We've made those commitments so VAT and business rates on private schools, private equity bosses being taxed properly on their bonuses, an extension of the windfall tax so the energy profits are properly taxed, ensuring non-doms pay their fair share of tax in the country they live in, and also cracking down on tax avoidance – which is costing our economy billions of pounds every year."
Analysis: Farage's incendiary claims now a question for Reform leadership
Our political correspondent Tamara Cohenhas been giving her reaction to Nigel Farage's appearance on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
He was challenged by Trevor about his comments about British Muslims, having suggested there's a "growing number" of young people in the UK who don't subscribe to British values.
He pointed to pro-Palestine protests as an example.
You can read more of the pair's exchange in our 9.42 post.
Tamara says there will be "a lot of pushback" against Mr Farage's "highly incendiary claims" this morning.
But she says it's also a question for the leadership of his party, Reform.
Mr Farage isn't standing in the general election but has said he will campaign for the party, led by Richard Tice.
Sky News will be asking the leadership if Mr Farage's position is one it agrees with.
How are the smaller parties faring? Latest polling from Sky News tracker
With the general election campaign officially under way, what better time to keep a close eye on the latest polling?
Trevor ends his show with his panel by discussing how parties like the Greens and Reform are faring.
As you can see, Reform is currently polling higher than the Liberal Democrats.
Meanwhile, the Greens have stayed pretty much level for the past view years.
Of course, it is hard to use these headline figures to projects seats won due to the quirks of our first past the post system - but it does help paint a broader picture.
The Sky News live poll tracker - collated and updated by our Data and Forensics team - aggregates various surveys to indicate how voters feel about the different political parties.
See the latest update below - and you can read more about the methodology behind the trackerhere.
Peers brand Farage comments 'race-baiting' and 'dangerous'
Nigel Farage has revealed his "true colours as a nasty, race-baiting character", says Labour's Baroness Hazarika, following his interview withTrevor Phillips.
"I am a proud Indian, Scottish, British, Muslim. I just swore my allegiance to King and country on the Quran.
"The idea that he perpetuates that Muslims can't be trusted, that Muslims are somehow dangerous, is so divisive."
She says he doesn't want to run for parliament because he would get called out.
"Nigel Farage is a political influencer. He has got no political solutions."
She says he got everything he wanted in Brexit and "things have only got worse".
The Conservative Lord Finkelstein says that as the son of a refugee family, he is "very nervous about people who think that they are in charge about what the values of the country are, rather than something that is subject to an argument".
"Dismissing an entire ethic group or religious background as being un-British is a really dangerous thing to do."
He said it is "good for the debate" that Mr Farage's impact has been "massively reduced" by the election being called before he could run.
Farage 'wrong-footed' by PM's election announcement
Trevor Phillipsasks Nigel Farage why the Reform UK director is not running again to be an MP.
Mr Farage says he had a "six-month plan" to come back and campaign "full-time".
But the announcement of an election left him "wrong-footed" - and he came to the decision that he could not start from scratch and campaign in the six-week period allowed.
Mr Farage denied he would need to back one of the two main party leaders, and instead wants to reshape the "centre right" of the UK's political scene.
He claims while Labour will end up in government, the Tories will not be the true opposition - instead pointing to Reform.
'Absolute rubbish': Farage denies responsibility for rise in non-EU migration
Trevor Phillipsputs migration figures to Nigel Farage, and the fact that people are increasingly travelling to the UK from non-EU countries, such as India and Nigeria.
"You're the father of the policy that produced this - that made EU migrants leave and increased the number of non-EU migrants," Phillips puts it to Mr Farage.
The Reform UK president says that is "the biggest load of cobblers I have heard in my life," before blaming Boris Johnson for the levels of migration.
Phillips: "Are you essentially denying that you have anything to do with the change in immigration even though the point of your whole [Brexit] campaign was to put it under our control?
"Boris Johnson used it."
Mr Farage says "that's absolute rubbish".
