and first of two days of commemerations in europe to mark the 80 years anniversary of the normandy landings. good evening, a day is a long time in politics. this morning the front pages brough some brief respite to the conservatives. snap polls suggesting that it was rishi sunak who had come out on top in the first leadership debate of the campaign. the prime minister had referred several times in that debate to a so called independent assessment of labour s spending plans, which the tories suggest will mean every working family paying £2000 more in taxes. the prime minister said that was a figure that had been signed off by civil servants at the treasury. the only problem is it hadn t. the bbc has obtained a letter from the most senior civil servant in the treasury, the permanent secretary, james bowler who wrote to labour making clear the civil service had not been as involved as the conservativesclaimed. as you would expect, labour is furious. here s our political editor
treasury officials , labour s policies would result in a £2,000 tax rise for every working family. the conservatives say they stand by their figures. it has been confirmed as expected that narendra modi will becomes india s prime minister for a third time. the 73 year old found himself unexpectedly reliant on a number of smaller parties to reach a parliamentary majority, after his own party fell short of the 272 needed to form the next government. it may mean that in power he will need to be more concialatory than he has previously. a boeing spacecraft carrying two nasa astronauts is on its maiden voyage after a successful launch from cape caneveral this morning. this is starliners first crewed mission after years of costly setbacks. the astronauts, butch wilmore and suni williams, will spend one day in orbit before docking with the international space station. the first of two days of events have been taking place to mark the 80th anniversary of the normandy landings. k
i made that promise to myself that every opportunity i would go back and pay my respects and honours those guys. as they left portsmouth, their modern day counterparts flew overhead in a royal air force transport plane and stood to attention, saluting on the deck of the aircraft carrier hms prince of wales, respect between the generations. john dennis has been back to normandy before but never to the british memorial. it was very emotional and i am afraid that will probably be a bit emotional when we get there, to see the actual thing. we will rememberthem. as the ferry approached the french coastline, the engine slowed and the veterans paid tribute. so, a short, poignant, but highly symbolic ceremony as the wreath was thrown over the side of the ferry. the idea is to pay tribute to those who died before even reaching the french shores and beaches they had come here to liberate. and so to france and two full days of ceremonies and commemorations for those who can tell the sto
With this figure, £2094. now, that is over a four year period, so about £500 a year. the prime minister said last night that this was the work of independent treasury officials. it is true to say that treasury did most of the sums, but political advisors who work for the chancellor were the ones who set the terms of the calculations by making assumptions about labour s policies. now over here, we can show you, this is the policy list the conservative party produced and how much it would allegedly cost. but not all of it has been costed by the treasury. these three at the bottom that have been highlighted there, they come from other documents. for example, this one, the green prosperity plan, comes from a labour policy document, but labour insist this evening
£2,000 figure is misleading. let s have a look at how the conservatives reached their number, how they reached their calculations. it was this, £38.5 billion black hole is what they claim, and they have basically divided that by the number of working families in the country and come up with this figure, £2094. now, that is over a four year period, so about £500 a year. the prime minister said last night that this was the work of independent treasury officials. it is true to say that treasury did most of the sums, but political advisors who work for the chancellor were the ones who set the terms of the calculations by making assumptions about labour s policies. now over here, we can show you, this is the policy list the conservative party produced and how much it would allegedly cost. but not all of it has been