General election news live: Tory manifesto aims to save ailing campaign with 2p national insurance cut

In his speech, he also criticised the Conservatives for damaging the UK’s relationship with its closest neighbours.

Norfolk said: “We should never have left the EU. Cameron made the first mistake, for something as important as the EU referendum should have required at least a two-thirds majority for approval to leave. Then Johnson fooled millions with his discredited promises of 350million/week extra to spend on the NHS, unilateral U.K. rights to fishing the U.K. waters, controlling immigration, and…..so the list goes on and on.”

But Benitas disagreed, adding: “I voted to remain but believe now isn’t the time to try to rejoin the EU. The EU is not in the strong, unified position it once was. Ed Davey is pitching the dream of returning to the regretters, playing to that gallery. Better imo now instead would be to strengthen relationships with EU countries. The break’s been made. Best to go forward, not back.”

Mel Stride has said the Conservatives are pledging “very bold moves” to cut taxes in their manifesto.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said the party has made “real progress” on cutting taxes, but Rishi Sunak will give more details when he finally unveils the expected document later this morning.

Mr Stride told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “We are making real progress now on getting taxes down but we are not going to stop there and what you are going to hear later on with our manifesto today are some very bold moves to further reduce tax because we think this really matters to families up and down the country.”

Conservative chairman Richard Holden has published a letter from Simon Case which claims that the Civil Service produced 21 of the costing used in the Tories’ tax attack on Labour.

The row started after Jeremy Hunt presented the “Labour Tax Rises” dossier after the secretary of the Treasury questioned the accuracy of the costings.

In response, Mr Holden wrote to Mr Case to confirm that the Treasury letter didn’t claim that the prime minister lied.

The Conservatives are attempting to draw dividing lines with the Labour party on tax.

Here are some of the pledges we can expect in the manifesto:

• Cutting the rate of national insurance by 2p in a bid to get rid of it entirely.

• Scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers by lifting the threshold of the tax on buying a home to £425,000.

• Implementing a Help to Buy Scheme to help people trying to pay for a deposit to buy a home. First-time buyers would be given 20% of government equity loan.

• Landlords offered capital gains tax relief if they sell their property to current renters.

Wes Streeting has claimed the Tory manifesto launch will be the “most expensive panic attack in history”.

The shadow health secretary said Rishi Sunak will be promise “all sorts of unfunded spending commitments” although the “money isn’t there” to pay for them.

A series of secret tapes have exposed the depth of the Tory civil war over ditching the European Convention of Human Rights(ECHR), our political editor David Maddox reports.

Rishi Sunak is expected to confirm in his manifesto today that he will leave the door open to leaving or trying to reform the ECHR, which was inspired by Winston Churchill after the Second World War, by vowing to put border protection ahead of foreign courts.

But a recording of justice secretary Alex Chalk speaking to Tory members at the Two Cities Conservatives reception on 20 February reveals he was opposed to the move.

Mr Chalk, who is also the lord chancellor and a lawyer, was defending the government’s Rwanda Bill to support deportations going ahead and making the case that the ECHR did not need amending.

Ditching the ECHR is being championed by Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, which is splitting the right-wing vote in British politics. But it has also become a cause of the Tory MPs on the right, led by former home secretary Suella Braverman and ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

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