The veteran MP, Diane Abbott, has just commented publicly after she told Sky News that the Labour Party is due to bar her from standing as their candidate at this election (read more here).

She said she is "delighted" to have had the party whip restored following her suspension over a year ago, and is now a member of the Parliamentary Labour Party once again.

"Thank you to all those who supported me along the way. I will be campaigning for a Labour victory."

But she went on: "I am very dismayed that numerous reports suggest I have been barred as a candidate."

Labour has been contacted for comment, but has not yet provided any clarity.

Labour is announcing a pledge to clear the backlog of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment within five years of government, if the party gets into power.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting explained to Sky News that they will deliver "40,000 more appointments every week, extra evening and weekend clinics - taking a reform we're seeing working spectacularly well in a small number of hospitals, rolling it out across the NHS".

Alongside "the investment needed" and new diagnostic scanners, Mr Streeting is confident he can "get more people through and start eating into the 1.6 million strong backlog".

He went on: "We're also going to use the spare capacity that exists in the independent sector because we're already seeing people who can afford paying to go private.

"And I'm not going to see working class people from backgrounds like mine left behind."

Asked how this will be paid for, he said cracking down on tax avoidance, along with closing non-dom loopholes, will raise £1.6bn.

"Labour's got a record - the shortest waiting times, the highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS.

"We did it before, we'll do it again if people choose change by voting Labour on  4 July."

As we've been reporting, veteran MP Diane Abbott is claiming that the Labour Party is set to block her from standing as a candidate for them at this general election.

But earlier this month, the Labour leadership welcomed Natalie Elphicke from the Tories, who was widely considered to have been on the right of the party.

Asked what qualities Ms Elphicke has that Ms Abbott doesn't, Wes Streeting noted that she is "is not standing for Labour at this general election either", and said both her and fellow defector Dan Poulter represent "millions of Conservative voters who can see the absolute chaos and incompetence of the Conservatives and are putting their faith in Labour".

Challenged again, the shadow health secretary reiterated that position, saying it "speaks volumes, actually, that the Conservative MP for Dover, who has been seeing the challenge of small boats arriving on the shores of her constituency, has said loud and clear that the Rwanda scheme won't work, and only Labour has a serious approach for tackling the challenge at our borders".

He went on to say Labour wants to "welcome millions of people who have seen the chaos and incompetence of the Conservative Party and are looking for change".

Asked if he is embarrassed by the way the Labour Party has treated Diane Abbott, he said he has "no authority over the decision", and is focused on his brief, which is the NHS.

A "more important problem" than the Diane Abbott situation is the state of the NHS.

We've just been speaking with Labour's shadow health secretary about the situation surrounding veteran MP Diane Abbott, who has told Sky News reports she won't be allowed to stand for Labour at this election are correct.

Labour has not confirmed what exactly the situation is, and Wes Streeting, a senior shadow cabinet member, said he only knows what is being reported in the news.

Asked Sky News' Kay Burley for clarity, he said: "I don't know. I've been relying on the news reports this morning in terms of the decision that may have been taken.

"I've seen what Diane Abbott said publicly, and I'm not involved in this process."

He went on to describe her as a trailblazer, saying: "Whatever our political disagreements we've had at times over the years, I have enormous respect for her and those achievements."

Challenged on reporting from Sky's Mhari Aurora that some Labour MPs are saying this situation has a "stench of racism", Mr Streeting replied: "I've got quite enough to worry about as shadow health secretary without being involved in those processes."

He explained that the disciplinary process is "rightly separate from the shadow cabinet" and is a matter for the party's National Executive Committee.

"I'm sorry this morning not able to shed more light on the decision. I'm sure further facts and statements will emerge from the party today, and no doubt Diane Abbott will make her voice heard too."

Mr Streeting added that he is "really proud" that the Labour Party is putting forward candidates at this election from "a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives".

"I hope that on 4 July, people can see a changed Labour Party from the one that went down to its worst defeat since 1935 in 2019."

MSP Michael Matheson is facing a 27-sitting day suspension from Holyrood and could lose his salary for 54 days over his £11,000 iPad data roaming bill (more here).

We asked the SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn about the case, and he said the MSP "made a significant mistake, and he's recognised that".

"But ultimately, I think all of us in life do make mistakes, it's due [that] process has to be followed. And that's what's happening this week."

He added that Mr Matheson has fully repaid the money.

Polls in Scotland show that the SNP faces a real challenge at this general election, with some suggesting they could lose half their seats.

But the party's Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, told Sky News that this is "the exciting thing about an election".

"Polls swing one way, they swing the other way. And what we know as the most important poll is on the 4th of July."

The SNP, he said, wants to be talking about the cost of living crisis, energy bills, and economic growth.

The most important priority for the SNP is to "see an end to Tory austerity", and hit out at both parties for what the Institute of Fiscal Studies has called a "conspiracy of silence" around the real sums of money required for the public sector in the coming years.

But more broadly, Mr Flynn said: "What we would ultimately like to see Scotland become that independent nation so that we don't have to rely upon Westminster to try and improve the lives of people."

Asked what the SNP's mandate would be if they lose half their seats, he replied that it would come from "winning the election".

He hit out at Labour in Scotland, saying they are taking their poll lead "for granted", and said: "We have of course taken a slight dip in the polls, but I'm very confident that with that positive message we have put in Scotland first we can get over the line and deliver for the people of Scotland again."

Pushed by Sky's Kay Burley, he said they are "looking to retain every single seat that we have and also looking to win all the seats from other parties."

"Bacon, prime minister," said the political editor of the Times.

File that one under sentences you only hear on the campaign trail.

Rishi Sunak had just got off the overnight sleeper train from London to Penzance when he headed immediately into the tiny Sullivan's Cafe outside the station to pick up breakfast for the travelling media pack.

Making a spectacle of feeding the press is something of a campaign ritual.

But it's unlikely to produce more sympathetic coverage, especially when the sausage sandwiches are as lacking in ketchup as they were this morning.

Next with the SNP's Stephen Flynn, we ask how the party's election campaign is going amid reports that one MP, Tommy Sheppard, had only raised £70 for his campaign by last Sunday.

The Westminster leader replied: "I bet you any money in the world that Tommy Sheppard will have one of the best funded and most exciting campaigns in Edinburgh."

He said crowdfunding campaigns are just one stream of income, and candidates get donations from people "on the side", and from others who want to remain anonymous.

Mr Flynn also explained that the party itself will give money to candidates for their campaigns.

"Our party in particular relies upon our members to donate.

"We don't have the unions. We don't have big business, like the Conservative Party do.

"So our membership donates to the party and our party makes sure that candidates are supported."

He added he is "very confident that right across Scotland we'll be in a position to fund our campaign and to take forward our positive message of putting Scotland first".

We've just been speaking with the SNP's Westminster leader, and we started with the claim from veteran MP Diane Abbott that Labour will be blocking her from standing at this election (more here).

Stephen Flynn said it is a "pretty sorry state of affairs".

"Natalie Elphicke [who defected from the Tories] is obviously welcomed with open arms, the right wing populist, into the Labour Party."

He went on: "I'd just like to thank Diane for everything she's done as a trailblazer for women in parliament, but also as the first black female in parliament.

"She's a phenomenal individual and her legacy is going to be long-lasting."

Mr Flynn added that it is "a pretty sorry reflection of the Labour Party and where it stands, what its values are, and what its principles are at the moment".

What are the rules on voter ID?  How does tactical voting work? In what different ways can you cast your ballot?

The countdown to the election is on - and already the amount of information can seem overwhelming. 

We cut through the noise to bring you what you need to know, from registering to vote, to election day and what happens next.

Read on here...