It was according to Jeremy Corbyn a bold, radical and ambitious programme.

And few would dissent from that description of Labour’s hefty manifesto launch yesterday.

But it came with an eye-watering sum of £82bn a year that the party says would be needed to implement the dizzying array of promises.

Once accused of having a magic money tree, the scale of some of the commitments suggested that the party would need an entire forest to fulfill its commitments.

There is little doubt that some of the key manifesto promises are appealing.

And they are consistent with the party’s slogan of representing the many rather than the few.

From scrapping tuition fees to boosting the minimum wage through to building 100,000 new homes, a 5% pay rise for public sector workers and ploughing more money into the NHS, Labour offered up the political equivalent of Black Friday.

The downside is that meeting the costs of these commitments means someone, somewhere will have to pay.

And it is that question that voters may well ask themselves when they head to polling stations in a few weeks time.

Meanwhile, there was a sure sign that the election arms race is in full flow with a visit to Canterbury by health secretary Matt Hancock. Billed as a “surprise” visit, it was of course, carefully planned in advance - the trip to Kent just one stop on a series of visits to marginal seats.

Mr Hancock stopped short of committing the party to building a new hospital - a key election battleground in Canterbury - and he confined his remarks, probably wisely, to make general points about the Conservative party plans to invest more in the NHS.

One reason perhaps for being so non-committal was that the ongoing discussion around health reorganisation plans for east Kent will also potentially adversely affect other hospitals - represented by other Conservative candidates.

Listen to the latest episode of Talking Points: Kent's politics podcast

As with most political VIP visits this was more about the optics rather than substance. Stand by for more of the same in the coming weeks...

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