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Ron Murray:

Robert Peston
Economics editor

You heard from Robert Peston, our economics editor, on Today earlier, but he's also written a blog this morning comparing the views of business leaders, like those in the Telegraph, with economists. He highlights a poll of 50 experts, asking whether they believe the coalition's austerity policies have been good for the economy. "Its result was a decisive no," Peston writes.

Labour’s plans to require employers to give zero-hour workers a contract after 12 weeks might be supported by those pictured above, but it isn’t going down well with the business community. The Institute for Directors says Labour’s proposals “go too far”. “They are unnecessary and potentially damaging. Frankly, this is an example of politics trumping good policy,” head of communications and campaigns Christian May says. He points out there’s a cross-party consensus on banning exclusivity clauses - that is, when bosses ask employees to commit to not working for their rivals. “But limiting the use of a zero hours contract to just 12 weeks would apply rigid controls on an important element of our flexible labour market.”

Paul Thompson:

Will there be a last-minute rush towards Conservative support in the latter stages of this campaign? Daniel Finkelstein, the Tory peer and Times columnist, thinks so. “There is a real reason to believe that there might be a late swing to the Tories, because there are… clearly voters who might only come to the party reluctantly and at the last minute,” he writes today, external . “They ‘don’t want to vote Conservative’ but might well.” Those kinds of voters haven’t been written about much in previous elections - but they’re clearly going to be critical in the coming weeks.

John:

Image source, PA

Can they see out of the windows one wonders?

John Davies:

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Ahead of tomorrow’s TV debate, has Nigel Farage been doing some private rehearsals with other UKIP figures arguing the side of the party leaders? “We haven’t really gone round looking for a UKIP Nicola Sturgeon, let alone Ed Miliband, but of course he is preparing rigorously, looking over a lot of briefing material,” Patrick O’Flynn says. That’s the last question from this morning’s press conference.

Eric, Bradford:

BBC Radio 4 Today

Image source, Reuters

Ewan Crawford, a former SNP special advisor, says he thinks the nationalists’ progress is “astonishing” and threatens to be “catastrophic” for Labour. The best the SNP’s ever done is win 11 seats before, of course. “What we’re seeing here if this plays out is almost unprecedented, in European terms, a swing of this size,” he tells Today. Only 6% of ‘Yes’ voters reportedly plan on voting for Labour, Mr Crawford points out. Alex Massie, of the Spectator, thinks the logic behind that makes complete sense. “The iron truth of this campaign in Scotland is that if you voted yes in September… why on earth would you switch to a unionist party in May? To do so requires a degree of cognitive dissonance.”

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BBC News Channel

David Wooding, of the Sun on Sunday, tells the BBC News Channel’s Election Today that the business letter “does dent Labour’s credibility”, but the “polarisation” between the Conservatives and business vs Labour and the workers “suits both parties”. Helen Lewis, of the New Statesman, wonders why we “valourise business in a way we don’t with other groups”. What sort of letter would health workers or those affected by the bedroom tax write, she wonders.

UKIP’s Patrick O’Flynn isn’t too worried by the Telegraph letter from business leaders backing the “Conservative-led” government. “I don’t think it’s a surprise the FTSE 100 executive class are quite happy with the status quo,” he says. “If you look at their remuneration packages and how they’ve been going up over the last five years - Britain is pretty cushty for them.” Suzanne Evans says UKIP could get support from “several thousand” small business owners. And Mr O’Flynn adds that UKIP would unashamedly help start-ups in a competitive market over “the corporatist status quo”.

UKIP’s Suzanne Evans and Patrick O’Flynn are blaming the media for obsessing over the question of whether the party’s immigration policy is to introduce a cap or not, after Nigel Farage yesterday said he wanted to aim for net migration of around 30,000 a year. “There won’t be any mention of 50,000 or 30,000 in the party manifesto,” Ms Evans says. “We’ve said we don’t want to be distracted by targets.” Mr O’Flynn adds: “Just the moratorium on unskilled immigration will take about 150,000 people a year out of immigration alone. You can call it what you want, that’s what it will do.”

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