The Liberal Democrats have compiled the list of the biggest blunders of the Battle for Number 10 and the questions that May and Corbyn have failed to answer.

Jeremy Corbyn:

• Corbyn committed a whole new £3bn+ a year unfreezing working age benefits. There’s nothing in his manifesto costings to uprate benefits. How is he paying for it?
• He didn’t answer the question on why someone who is worried about Brexit should vote for Labour over the Liberal Democrats.
• Labour could have voted for unilateral rights for EU citizens to stay in the UK. They didn’t. They voted for Article 50. Why didn’t he stand up for the 3m EU citizens that call the UK their home?

Theresa May:

• Theresa May has completely changed her belief that we would be more safe, more secure, and more prosperous staying in Europe. She has refused to answer why she has changed her mind.
• The Conservatives are ruining the lives of the Just About Managing. She can’t and won’t say how many people her Dementia Tax will hit. She has repeatedly refused to come clean. What is she plotting?
• Theresa May is putting our security at risk by pursuing an extreme Brexit. She says the police need the power to do their jobs. But she is cutting their funding and stripping them of vital EU assistance, she is taking away their powers to search criminal records and find terror suspects. Does she still believe that we are less safe outside the EU?

Responding to May and Corbyn’s TV appearance Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “You don’t have to accept Theresa May and Nigel Farage’s extreme version of Brexit that will wreck the future for you, your family, your schools and hospitals.

“In the biggest fight for the future of our country in a generation, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has let you down by voting with Theresa May on Brexit – not against her.

“The Liberal Democrats want you to have your choice over your future. You should have your say on the Brexit deal in a referendum. And if you don’t like the deal you should be able to reject it and choose to remain in Europe.”

On May:

“Theresa May has had a car crash interview. She is pursuing Nigel Farage’s cold, mean-spirited, extreme Brexit agenda and starving our schools and hospitals with heartless cuts. Nigel Farage told you everything you need to know about Theresa May when he tweeted: “Theresa May is using the exact words and phrases I’ve been using for 20 years.”

“The Liberal Democrats will stand up to Theresa May on Brexit, the NHS and schools

“Theresa May’s extreme Brexit will be bad for you and your family. Bad for your job. Bad for your bills. Bad for the NHS. Bad for our schools.

“A brighter future is possible. We will stand up to Theresa May’s cold, mean-spirited Britain. We will stand up to a bad Brexit deal that will cost jobs and put up prices. We will stand up for your schools and hospitals. We will stand up for you.”

On Corbyn:

“In the biggest fight for the future of our country in a generation, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has let you down by voting with Theresa May on Brexit – not against her.

“Jeremy Corbyn ordered his MPs to vote in favour of Article 50 despite the Government making no concessions to them whatsoever. They failed to stand up for our membership of the Single Market, failed to stand up for the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and are refusing to give you the final say over the Brexit deal.”

The Tories seem to think – if we ignore any difficult question – we don’t have to tell the public the truth. If they cannot tell us even the most basic things why should we trust them at all.

Theresa May seems to be hiding their real agenda from the public.

The Tories cannot tell us anything about their plans and they are doing it on purpose. They hope to secure a colossal majority and then to take the country for a ride. We cannot let this happen – our schools, hospitals and social care are at risk

After the debacle on the Dementia Tax, the only policy they gave us detail on, it is no wonder they are trying to hide things from us. They need to come clean and tell us the truth.

These are the fifteen questions that the Conservatives must answer

Security

1. Why are the Conservatives insisting on a Brexit negotiation strategy that will automatically prevent access to the vital EU Schengen Information System – used 16 times a second by UK police forces to track terrorists and criminals?
2. Why has only one individual out of hundreds who have travelled to fight for ISIS in Syria been subject to the Temporary Exclusion Order powers introduced by the Coalition?
3. How will the Conservatives ‘ban encryption’ without weakening internet banking security for millions of British citizens?

Schools

4. How many children will lose their free school lunches?
5. How much money will the Conservatives spend on providing free school breakfasts instead of lunches?
6. Exactly how much money will the Conservatives give to schools to plug the the hole in their budgets, and why is their pledge unfunded?

Health and social care

7. How many people risk losing their house as a result of their social care policy?
8. At what level will losses be capped for people with long-term degenerative conditions like dementia?
9. How will the NHS cope with the loss of 26,000 EU staff who are planning to leave because of Brexit?

Welfare

10. How many people will lose their winter fuel payments?
11. How many lives will be lost as a result?
12. Will the coldest areas of England and Wales be exempted, as Scotland has been?

How will they pay for their manifesto policies?

13. Why should anyone vote for a manifesto without costings?
14. How many billions will be lost to the public finances as a result of the Conservatives’ plan to reduce net immigration to the tens of thousands?
15. How much will they raise taxes and national insurance by in order to pay for their pledges?

It comes after Amber Rudd said the Conservatives did not know what a future cap on social care costs would be, while refusing to rule out that it could be as high as £200,000 or £300,000.

The analysis reveals that:
• If a cap was introduced at £200k, the costs of care for those with long-term conditions could wipe out over half of the value of an average family home

• If a cap was introduced at £150k, the costs of care for those with long-term conditions could wipe out around a third of the value of an average family home

• In Theresa May’s constituency of Maidenhead, the dementia tax could wipe out 40% of the value of an average home if a cap of £200k was introduced.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said:

“These figures show Theresa May’s dementia tax could devastate hard-working families, with a cap on costs in the hundreds of thousands.

“Across the country, people risk seeing over half the value of their homes taken to pay for care costs.

“Theresa May’s stubborn refusal to set out the full details of the dementia tax shows she has no plans to ditch it.

“She is showing contempt for vulnerable older people who have developed a condition like dementia through no fault of their own.”

The Schengen Information System (SIS II) is an EU-wide database on organised criminal and terrorist suspects across 28 countries, including 35,000 people wanted under a European Arrest Warrant. It includes alerts on suspected ‘foreign fighters’ – people who have travelled to Syria and elsewhere to fight for ISIS.

• UK police and security services queried the database over half a billion times in 2016 – equivalent to 16 checks a second.

• 53 people are detained and questioned under anti-terrorism laws at ports and airports every day, where they can be checked against the database by UK Border Force officers.

• In April 2016, the UK received 25 hits on alerts issued by other participating countries in relation to individuals who could pose a risk to national security.

• The UK would lose access to the database under Theresa May’s plans to leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Unless this position changes, UK authorities will see their access to the database cut off on 29th March 2019.
Nick Clegg has challenged Theresa May to answer three vital questions:
1. How will we maintain access to SIS II without accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice?

2. What contingency plans has she put in place to mitigate the loss of this information on the movement of terrorist suspects across the continent?

3. How will we issue instructions to other EU countries to stop and question terror suspects if we are no longer part of this system?
Nick Clegg commented:
“Theresa May’s extreme approach to Brexit will have the direct consequence of severing our ties to a fantastically useful weapon in our armoury against terrorism.

“By refusing to accept a role for the European Court of Justice in policing this European-wide database, she has ruled out our future participation it.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of this database. We check it 16 times a second, looking for security threats that have been flagged to us by other European countries. And we use it to tell other countries to stop and question people who we think are potential terrorists.

“This is euroscepticism gone mad. If she fails to back down, Theresa May’s approach to Brexit poses a direct threat to our national security.”

Today, we have challenged Theresa May to answer ten pressing questions on the Dementia Tax and to come clean and give the voters the facts before the election takes place.

It is simply not good enough to dodge difficult questions and proper scrutiny during the campaign over an issue that will have such a huge impact over people’s lives.

Under Theresa May’s proposals, many would end up paying far more for their care.

Families deserve to know now what the Dementia Tax will mean for their homes, finances and relatives.

We have set out a clear set of questions Theresa May must answer in order to come clean to the British public and address their concerns.

The Liberal Democrats will keep campaigning to scrap the Dementia Tax and ensure no-one has to worry about catastrophic costs to pay for their care.

10 Questions Theresa May must answer on Dementia Tax

1. At what level will the cap on care costs be set?

Just this morning Amber Rudd said that there would be a cap -but that she didn’t know at what level it would be set. That contradicted both Theresa May and the Conservative manifesto. It’s time for Theresa May to come clean – at what level will the cap on care costs be set?

2. How will it be uprated?

Will it be in line with house prices? Inflation? Some other measure? The British people deserve to know.

3. Who does the £100,000 floor apply to?

Does the £100,000 floor just apply to households? Or does it also apply to individuals? 

4. Will the cap and £100,000 floor apply to care costs only?

Does the cap just apply to care costs or will it also include accommodation costs? Theresa May must come clean.

5. Will people need to pay an arrangement fee and interest?

Will people have to pay arrangement fees and interest on Deferred Payment Agreements for care costs, and if they do how will these charges be set?

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM) currently charges 2.25% interest and a £900 set up fee plus £300 a year (read more here).

6. Will interest fees and fee payments for care costs be included under the cap?

Because if they aren’t – vulnerable elderly people could be hit with massive fees and charges, even after they sell their home.

7. Will local councils have to pay the additional costs for this scheme or will they be fully reimbursed by the Treasury?

If councils do have to pay additional costs that’ll be another drain on already stretched council budgets and cause even more cuts.

8. Will widows, widowers or dependent children be able to remain in the family home after their relative has died?

Forcing widows, widowers and dependent children to leave their homes after losing a relative – especially where they are elderly themselves would be an absolute disgrace. So would they be forced to sell the home to pay for care costs.

Theresa May must come clean on what her dementia tax will mean for the families of those affected.

9. What interest rate will be charged on a deferred payment once the beneficiary has died? 

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead charge 8% if not settled within 90 days of death – will the charge be similar? Higher? Lower?

10. Will measures be put place to prevent people avoiding the Dementia Tax, for example by releasing equity or gifting a house to children or grandchildren more than seven years before their death?

The Liberal Democrats have committed in their manifesto to implementing the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission, which would mean a cap on care costs of £72,000