In Pictures: Parties show sweeter side as Sunak feeds lambs and Davey bakes cake

Although the election campaign started on May 22, it became official on Friday with the reading of a royal proclamation announcing the dissolution of Parliament.

Rishi Sunak’s duties as the current Prime Minister were underlined at a morning press conference in which he detailed US-UK strikes on Houthi rebels, before he was back on the campaign trail in the afternoon feeding lambs on a visit to a farm in Macclesfield.

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was cooking up a storm at High Beeches Primary School in Hertfordshire where he donned a chef’s hat and joined pupils for a baking lesson.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney, on a day when Labour focused its campaign north of the border, visited the Barrowfield community centre in Glasgow while Sir Keir Starmer outlined Labour’s six steps for change.