Offering more hours of free childcare to parents with young children is a hot topic in the General Election.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are planning to increase the current entitlement, and the Conservatives have talked up their record in Government on early years provision.

General Election 2019
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow education secretary Angela Rayner visited the Scrap Creative Reuse Arts Project in Farsley, Leeds (Nigel Roddis/PA)
General Election 2019
During the visit, Mr Corbyn announced plans to provide 30 hours per week of free care to all children aged between two and four (Nigel Roddis/PA)
General Election 2019
That pledge comes on top of Labour plans for a £1 billion investment programme to reverse Conservative cuts in order to open 1,000 extra Sure Start centres in England to support young families (Nigel Roddis/PA)
Jo Swinson
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson also focused on childcare as she joined youngsters playing at the Battersea Arts Centre in Lavender Hill, south London (Aaron Chown/PA)
Jo Swinson
Ms Swinson earlier gave an address at the venue – which is where Labour launched their campaign last week (Aaron Chown/PA)
Jo Swinson
The ‘family-friendly’ rally was used by Ms Swinson to propose ‘universal free childcare’ for babies aged from nine months and up to the age they start school (Aaron Chown/PA)
UUP leadership
In Northern Ireland, former submariner Steve Aiken was congratulated by his wife Beth as he was confirmed as the new Ulster Unionist Party leader at the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick, Co Antrim (Niall Carson/PA)
UUP leadership
In his speech, Mr Aiken accused Boris Johnson of agreeing a ‘sell-out’ Brexit deal (Niall Carson/PA)