extreme heat across large parts of the uk is expected to last into early next week. the met office issues an amber weather warning. drivers at eight rail companies vote to strike in a dispute over pay, but scotrail drivers accept an improved pay offer of 5%. the president of sri lanka says he will resign after thousands of demonstrators stormed his official residence in protest at the state of the economy. the composer monty norman, whose works include the james bond theme tune, has died at the age of 94. and still to come in sportsday, england and northern ireland are an action at euro 2022 and we will have all the latest. hello and welcome to bbc news. so far, all 11 mps are in the running to replace borisjohnson. the tories aim to reduce that number to two over the next ten days. boris johnson has refused to endorse any candidate. you he said he didn t want to damage anybody s chances. ros atkins is at westminster. let s head there now. you thank you forjoining us on coueg
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