to increase the personal tax allowance for pensioners if they win the general election. they say the proposal would be worth £275 a year to each pensioner by the end of the decade. under the plans, the state pension would always remain below the tax free threshold. rishi sunak says the scheme shows the conservatives are on the side of pensioners but labour have called it desperate . rishi sunak will be out campaigning in the midlands today. let s get more on this with nick eardley. what do you love about it? how do you win over older voters? it s a question politicians ask themselves a lot. pensioners tend to get out and vote. so today, an offer from the conservatives, that the basic state pension will never be liable for income tax. the simple fact is that this tax change, this triple lock plus, will mean going forward that millions of pensioners, eight million pensioners, in fact, will be paying less tax than they would otherwise be paying. and that is clearly a tax cut
on, whether it is the nhs, more gps, more nhs dentists, things that people really carabao, our approach to getting the economy back on track or our campaign on the environment. we are here in the beautiful lake district to campaign on the issue of sewage, it has been the liberal democrats who have been campaigning hard to clean up our rivers and beaches and likes and it is the liberal democrats leading on that. so i am focused on getting more liberal mps elected and defeating the conservatives. can liberal mps elected and defeating the conservatives. liberal mps elected and defeating the conservatives. can i get a yes or no on whether the conservatives. can i get a yes or no on whether keir the conservatives. can i get a yes or no on whether keir starmer - the conservatives. can i get a yes i or no on whether keir starmer would make a good prime minister but which i am really focused on the labour campaign, ithink i am really focused on the labour campaign, i think peopl
are into the last four of the champions league. lucy bronze scores to book city s place in the semi finals after a 2 0 aggregate win over danish side fortuna hjorring. after the most challenging railway repair ever, today the settle carlisle train line reopens to customers. and matt has the weather. good morning. grey skies and rain might greet the day for many of you but things will brighten up quite nicely i have details coming up and a full weekend broadcast. good morning. first, our main story. patients will have to wait longer for routine operations, such as hip and knee replacements, as a trade off so improvements can be made in other areas, like a&e. that s according to the head of nhs england, simon stevens, who is today setting out a new strategy for the next two years. alexandra mackenzie has more. how have you been feeling? not too bad, thank you. iris ram is 96 and is recovering from a recent illness. you re doing really well. her gp called a local nhs service
we re live until ”am this morning. are you waiting for a non urgent operation? if so, we d love to hear from you this morning about how long you ve been waiting. are you one of the many people who ve arrived at hospital only to have your operation cancelled on the day? do get in touch on all the stories we re talking about this morning use the hashtag #victorialive. if you text, you will be charged at the standard network rate. we are going to go and live now to hear from donald we are going to go and live now to hearfrom donald tusk, the president of the european council. you can see the podium there, he is waiting to speak in malta in the next few minutes, he will of course be talking about those brexit negotiations, so we will go back to that live as soon as it happens, you won t miss anything at all. our top story today patients will have to wait longer for routine operations, such as hip and knee replacements as a trade off , so that improvements can be made in ot