LIVE: Parties focus on energy as general election campaign enters second day

Speaking to Emma Corr in Surrey on Saturday morning, Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey said Alan Bates deserves his knighthood. 

"I think he's taking it not just for himself but on behalf of all sub-postmasters and I think everyone's hearts have gone out to the subpostmasters who've been affected by this appalling scandal, miscarriage of justice, Alan Bates fought the system and he won and that's just really incredible. 

"He's fought it for decades and he was a victim of the lies of the Post Office as were all those subpostmasters, ministers of all political parties and the courts and the judges - and at long last they're being found out."

When asked whether the Liberal Democrats could be pushed into third place at the general election by Reform UK, Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey told LBC that he will continue to push for the party.

Speaking to Emma Corr in Surrey on Saturday morning, he said: "You're seeing our polls go up a little bit but I don't necessarily believe the polls to be honest, I believe the votes, we're gonna work until 10pm on the 4th of July and in this Parliament we've just gone by, despite the polls, we won four historic by-elections in Tory heartlands, we won huge numbers of councillors, we pushed the Conservative party into third place in the local elections in May. 

"Liberal Democrats share no values with Reform, they have a right to stand - of course they do - but I'm going to push the Liberal Democrat ideas and values."

When speaking on consequences for politics as a whole in that scenario, David Gauke said: "I would worry then about the balance of our politics because I think we do need a credible opposition, and although I'm very critical of a lot about the Conservative party, where you have got Conservative candidates prepared to stand up to the move towards populism, I very much hope they will do well in this general election."

Regarding the cause of the apparent drift of Tory support, he expressed further concerns. 

"There has been the emergence of a larger part of the electorate that are susceptible to voting for populist candidates from the right, there's no doubt Brexit has had a huge impact, the divides that were created by the referendum, there's been a step away from a focus on competence and ability to deliver things in government, instead to leaders who are better at posturing and blustering and are ineffective as administrators. It's a long and sorry tale and this isn't quite the culmination of it".

Ex Conservative Minister David Gauke has spoken to LBC about the upcoming possible historic Tory defeat, which is on the cards if the polls are correct.

Speaking on Saturday morning, he said: "It would by some distance be the worst result in the Conservative party's history and it does raise big questions as to how it comes back - and part of the challenge for the Conservative party is that in recent years, it hasn't really known what it wants to be. 

"Is it a mainstream party of the centre-right or a populist party of the right? And the fear is that - following a defeat that looks inevitable - will it decide that the answer is "we've got to reunite the right, we've got to go in with Nigel Farage and we've got to turn ourselves into a fully-fledged populist party?

"I think that would be very bad news for the Conservative party and the country."

To pay for its policies, Reform UK plans to scrap Net Zero. 

Ben Habib said: "The ditching of Net Zero...which by the treasury's own admission would cost the Exchequer, 1.4 trillion pounds between 2019 and 2050. That works out about 50 billion a year in savings, we've assumed 30 billion a year.

"It's not sacrificing the planet. Anthropogenic climate change and Net Zero are not synonymous. You don't protect the planet by going bust, by turning your back on abundant North Sea gas that is available to the British people, and instead importing liquified natural gas from the United States of America. 

"We've turned ourselves from energy independent, to energy dependent, which is an extremely vulnerable position."

Ben Habib, deputy leader of Reform UK, has said the party aims to cut the rate of tax paid by NHS frontline staff to retain more people. 

Speaking to LBC on Saturday morning he said: "Our principal policy is to remove from the basic rate of tax frontline NHS staff...so that, first of all you retain more people.

"15 - 20,000 doctors every year leave the NHS. And if you reduce the burden of tax on them day to day, it should also attract more staff who have left frontline services, back in to frontline servies.

"They can come back out of retirement. A lot of doctors took early retirement, because of the way it worked for their pension schemes. It's all about getting people back on the frontline."

Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions told LBC's Matthew Wright: 'It was a Tory policy and we voted against it...we do have in our manifesto a bold commitment to an ambitious strategy across all government departments to tackle child poverty. 

'We're going to  be reviewing universal credit so it tackles poverty and makes work pay, we're going to be bringing in a genuine living wage. 

'I understand what (charities) are saying but it also the case that far more children now are growing up in poverty where households where somebody works, so we have to improve pay and get bills down'.

Veterans Affairs minister Johnny Mercer told LBC's Matthew Wright: 'There's lots of worries in all directions, what you've got to do is be true to what you believe and what you're doing, 

'I think government's tough, we've actually started to bend the curve of some of these difficult challenges around migration, inflation...

'If you vote for Reform, I totally understand that people are frustrated and they want to go somewhere like Reform, the truth is you will get a Labour government with massive unchecked powers.'

David Cameron has warned that Nigel Farage is trying to destroy the Conservative party.

He also accused Mr Farage of 'inflammatory' language on immigration.

The Foreign Secretary in an interview with the Times: 'I think there’s room [in the Conservative Party] for people who care about immigration.

'I think there’s room for people who want to stand up for strong defence. But the other baggage you get, which can be incredibly divisive, we don’t want that.'

He added: 'My point is what I want is robust policy and measured language. 

'I think with these populists what you get is inflammatory language and hopeless policy.'