Nick Clegg has touched down in Glasgow ahead of visits in the East Dunbartonshire constituency. The Liberal Democrats are pushing the idea that Mr Clegg will be the most accessible leader during the campaign. In the first three days he has now been involved in visits to key seats in England, Wales and Scotland.

The big problem, according to Business Secretary Vince Cable, is “complex” because there are lots of people who aren’t covered by employee rights. “Nobody until now has really got a handle on employment law and how it affects those different groups,” he says, which is why he’s initiated an inquiry into the matter. “Simple solutions like we’ve had today on zero hours contracts, aren’t going to fix it,” he adds.

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Lord Ashcroft’s latest batch of constituency research reveals a very mixed picture for the Liberal Democrats - but the headline-grabbing statistic is that Nick Clegg is currently two points behind in his Sheffield Hallam seat. The other findings are:

• The Conservatives are comfortably ahead in Camborne & Redruth, North Devon and St Austell & Newquay
• The direction of travel is shifting in the Lib Dems’ favour in North Cornwall, Torbay and St Ives, although in all of these their advantage is within the margin of erro
• The Lib Dems are on track to hold on in Cambridge

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Chris Leslie says Labour would write the legislation in a way that prevents employers from terminating employment when the 12-week period it's specifying comes to an end. "You can frame the legislation in a way that doesn't allow that kind of perverse circumstance to happen," he says. Mr Leslie doesn't want companies to think there's an extra cost implied. "This shouldn't be something which involves necessarily spending more money for businesses, it's about treating their employees fairly."

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In the Daily Politics studio, Conservative Culture Secretary Sajid Javid and Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable are locking horns. Mind you, they’re not disagreeing much about Labour’s criticisms of the government’s approach to zero-hours contracts. “You can’t legislate,” Mr Javid says, in order to “help people get the jobs they want”. Dr Cable says he’s “not comfortable” with the “abuse” that the coalition’s dealt with.

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Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Chris Leslie says about 92% of zero hours contracts are for people on longer than three months, according to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. But the same survey showed workers were happy with their zero-hours contracts. “All I know is… this is a growing problem,” Mr Leslie says. He cites “all of my experience talking to people who are in these circumstances.”

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Iain Watson
Labour campaign correspondent

Labour strategists tell me they didn't know the pro-Conservative business letter was going to appear in today's Telegraph but they insist they are 'not unhappy' it coincided with their own policy announcement on zero hours contracts. Partly, the sharp dividing line between boardroom and shop floor, they believe, will help motivate their own voters to make the journey to the ballot box.

But they insist that their announcement will appeal beyond their own core vote - their argument is that insecure, low paid employment leads to low productivity and is bad for the economy as a whole.

Nonetheless, in 2005 more than 60 business leaders wrote to the FT backing Tony Blair. So while Ed Miliband insists he is in the right place on standing up for working people, his 'one nation' Labour Party hasn't achieved his predecessors' feat of gaining endorsements from both big unions and big companies. Indeed, it feels we are witnessing the sharpest political divide for more than two decades.

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The Daily Politics is under way - desktop viewers can watch on this page by clicking on the live coverage tab above. UKIP’s immigration cap, or lack of one, is being discussed. “They seem to be all over the place on immigration, which is the one issue that’s attracting voters to them,” the Sun on Sunday’s David Wooding says. He doesn’t think the average UKIP voter will be too bothered, but “others who think he can control immigration may be put off by it”. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady isn’t impressed by UKIP’s message: “A lot of people are waking up to the fact that you can’t scapegoat migrant workers for all of Britain’s problems.”

Reality Check

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It depends on what you consider a major economy. The International Monetary Fund forecast in January that the UK grew by 2.6% in 2014. That is indeed faster than other countries in the G7 advanced economies, including the USA (2.4%), Canada (2.4%), Japan (0.1%), France (0.4%), Germany (1.5%) and Italy (which shrunk by 0.4%).

However, the IMF said China was likely to grow by 7.4% in 2014 and India by 5.8%. This is broadly in line with several other forecasting bodies. Many economists would consider those two countries to be “major economies”.

It’s worth noting that these figures are forecasts as we don’t yet have final IMF statistics for the whole of 2014. There are also national figures which might differ (the UK’s Office for National Statistics said yesterday that the UK grew by 2.8% last year).

The letter from business leaders is correct to focus on growth “last year” -as the IMF predicts that the USA will grow faster than the UK in 2015.

Simon H, 23, London:

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Boris Johnson has told the London Evening Standard, external of his idea of "moral purpose" in business. The Mayor warned that Britain had been "harrowed" by the experience of mass unemployment during the Eighties, and said holding down the unemployment rate was "one of the absolute moral triumphs of this Coalition". He also urged the Tories to embrace the Living Wage campaign, saying it should be "front and centre of what we're trying to do".

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No increase in VAT. No increase in National Insurance. No increase in the other rates of income tax. Ed Miliband restates his tax commitments. Yes to a mansion tax. Yes to a reintroduction of the 50p rate. "It's the right choice for country," he adds.