The Conservatives promise to create two million new jobs if re-elected
Labour say they will help small firms by cutting business rates by an average of £400
Plaid Cymru launch their election manifesto with a call to end austerity
Lib Dems promise to spend billions more on mental health
There are 37 days until the general election
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood has insisted there is "no way" her party would "prop up" a Conservative government. She also told BBC2's Daily Politics it was "unlikely" Plaid Cymru would enter into a coalition with Labour unless it was prepared to abandon its pursuit of "further austerity" and the Trident programme.
Quote MessageI wouldn't prop up a Tory government. Also I'm not prepared to prop up a Labour government pursuing Tory policies."
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Phil Brown, Lowestoft:
None of the main parties will get my vote until they publish details of their spending and borrowing plans. After the experience of the last five years I suspect I am not alone in being reluctant to 'endorse' policies before I understand fully what they will be.
Image source, SkyQuote MessageDavid Cameron's got a real problem because he's promised £10,000 of tax cuts and he can't tell us where the money's going to come from. He's promised £12 billion of welfare cuts, but can't tell us where he's going to cut. He knows he's got deep cuts in public spending and he can't tell us what that means for police and defence so he's lashing out. He's using Downing Street to make allegations yesterday which the Institute for Fiscal Studies made clear just didn't add up."
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Norman Robson, Tyne and Wear:
Now we have Clegg and Cameron promising to plough billions of pounds into the NHS. They had no mandate to re-organise it in the way they did. The NHS is slowly being wrecked and privatised. They should be ashamed.
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Russell Bradley:
@liam gibbons – The deficit has an immense tangible effect on our lives. It is currently the number 1 determinant in the level of investment that we can afford to put into our public services and to the degree that the tax burden can be lessened! Politics’ problems are more to do with the ‘soundbite culture’ that dominates campaigns.
Left Unity chose a squat in Soho in central London for its manifesto launch today to highlight what it calls the "terrible crisis" in housing, our reporter Nick Eardley says. Left Unity has 10 candidates standing on 7 May.
Image source, Nick EardleyUKIP campaign correspondent
Image source, APNigel Farage has insisted that net migration to the UK should fall to around 30,000 people a year, in spite of a pledge several weeks ago that UKIP did not believe in an "arbitrary target". The UKIP leader referred to the figure several times at an election poster launch in Dover. He insisted his party's policy wasn't confused after citing a figure of 50,000 several weeks ago. He said UKIP wanted to see a return to what he called "normality" when it came to immigration.
Reality Check
Coming up on @BBCRealityCheck... who's right on living standards?
@nickeardley
Quote MessageKen Loach says Left Unity is "against the logic of the market". It's failed "in every respect", he says "
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Gill Rodgers:
I say 'thank you' to Cameron, Clegg, Osborne, and Alexander. The last five years must have been politically difficult for them, and yes, it has been financially painful for the majority of us. However, I believe the pain is justified to achieve better things for our futures, and those of our children and grandchildren.
Image source, AP
Carole Walker
Conservative campaign correspondent
David Cameron was at a shiny new digital centre at Sainsbury’s London HQ this morning to press home his theme of the day – the promise of two million more jobs by 2020. His upbeat message will please some in his party who want something positive to offer voters already weary of austerity.
Of course it is companies like Sainsbury’s which create the jobs - not the government of the day. The Conservative argument is that their economic plans are making it happen, by reducing taxes on business, pushing ahead with infrastructure projects and changing the welfare system to try to get people off benefits and into work. Labour say many of the jobs are part-time, low-paid or zero hours contracts. The Tories claim only one in 50 are zero hours and three out of four jobs created since 2010 are full time.
David Cameron undoubtedly has a good story to tell on jobs but he’s making it clear he won’t stop the attacks on Ed Miliband either, insisting that his warnings of the dire economic consequences of a Labour government are “absolutely right".
Text: 61124
MD, London:
The Conservatives have played a blinder with the proposed Right to buy Policy for 2.5 million housing association tenants. This will give hard working families a chance to own a property with the discount acting as a deposit. This rewards hard work and will give many a foot up!
Speaking in Watford, Nick Clegg has been restating his lines about the NHS and mental health. “The Liberal Democrats are the only party saying we’ll balance the books and balance them fairly,” he said. “At the same time invest in the public services and ensure that the NHS gets the £8bn that it needs.” His party is pledging an extra £3.5 billion on mental health. This is spread over six years, not the usual five. And as £1.25bn of it has already been announced, the new money announced only amounts to a further £2.75bn.
Image source, PANo hard hat this time, but Nick Clegg spent some of his morning on a visit to the construction site for the Watford Health Campus in Hertfordshire.
Outgoing Conservative minister Francis Maude will face your questions on the BBC News Channel after 5pm today.
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BBC News Channel
Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, says today’s figures on living standards “don’t change very much” about the basic facts of the economic recovery. He tells the BBC News Channel that he’s not very impressed by David Cameron’s refusal to spell out exactly where the Conservatives plan on making cuts. “You cannot have a long-term economic plan that talks about £12bn in benefit cuts and then not give any detail about how you’re going to deliver those cuts. That really is a bit dishonest,” he says. Mr Portes calls on Labour and the Liberal Democrats to spell out how they’re going to make public spending cuts, too.