Summary

  • The leaders of seven UK parties took part in a two-hour live televised election debate

  • It was the only debate of the campaign which will feature David Cameron and Ed Miliband

  • They clashed on a range of issues including the NHS, immigration and the deficit

  • Snap polls taken afterwards gave differing verdicts on the winner

  • There are 35 days until the general election

Live Reporting

Tom Moseley, Andrew McFarlane and Bernadette McCague

  1. Analysis: from the Labour campaign

    Peter Hunt, the BBC Labour campaign correspondent, is in Bury with Ed Miliband and his team.

    It started well. “I’d like to wish you the best of luck”, a man told Ed Miliband. “That’s a good question”, a laughing Labour leader replied. It continued, in a similar vein, for a good hour. This was a several hundred strong sympathetic audience who’d come to Bury Town Hall to hear one of the two men who’ll be our next prime minister. Labour insist the audience at what they call their People’s Question Time wasn’t hand picked. They say they send invitations to the undecided they meet on the doorstep. Previous encounters, according to them, have featured more hostile interrogators. At this more tame session Mr Miliband answered with ease - and a dose of humour - topics as diverse as housing, the plight of premature babies and Europe. These events - where they’re in control of the guest list - are Labour’s preferred way of putting Ed Miliband on public display.

  2. @Telegraph assistant comment editor Asa Bennett

    @asabenn

    ‏ tweets:

    I'm told Farage "having a couple of G&Ts" before #ITVDebate, also Natalie Bennett is feeling "good"

  3. Politics class

    Pupils at Kings Leadership Academy, in Warrington, are given an outdoor politics lesson from a familiar face.

    David Cameron with pupils from Kings Leadership Academy, WarringtonAP

  4. Analysis: BBC Lib Dem campaign correspondent Chris Buckler

    Trust is clearly a hard thing to find in politics. Ahead of the debates Nick Clegg was asked if he trusted David Cameron. His response was carefully worded. He said 'we found a way of working together'. Then Mr Clegg was asked if thought he could trust Ed Miliband and said 'of course I can imagine circumstances when the Liberal Democrats govern with another party'.

  5. 'Not just words'

    David Cameron says tonight's TV debate is a "big occasion" but he's looking forward to it.

    "The fact is, if you've got a track record, you've got a long-term economic plan that's working, you've got something real to talk about - not just words."

  6. Leaders' debate: SNP voice

    Nicola Sturgeon has given a preview of her pitch for tonight's leaders debate in a one-minute film posted on Facebook.

    The SNP leader says that a vote for the SNP in the general election is a "vote to make Scotland's voice heard like never before".

    Nicola Sturgeonbbc

  7. 'It's me or chaos'

    BBC News Channel

    Lance Price, a former Labour director of communications, says tonight is a chance for the smaller parties to stand up to the bigger ones. He advises they borrow an Ed Miliband line from his interview with Jeremy Paxman:"You're important, but you're not THAT important." He expects David Cameron to say: "It's me or chaos." Mr Miliband will, he says, need to look prime ministerial.

  8. What will viewers watch on Thursday night?

    Political junkies may be counting the hours until the leaders' TV debate on Thursday evening, but not all potential voters will be settling down with a drink and snacks for the two-hour programme. Daily Politics reporter Adam Fleming asked the people of Guildford in Surrey what they have lined up to watch from 8pm when ITV presents seven party leaders vying for their votes. Watch the film

    Adam Fleming with man in Guildford

  9. Ju jitsu with Farage

    David Cameron jokes he might throw in a surprise element to tonight's debate - martial arts with Nigel Farage.

    At a school visit in Warrington, he told one pupil, whose hobby is ju jitsu: "So I get Nigel Farage and get him on the floor?" Afterwards, he reassured the assembled reporters: "It was a joke, there will be no bodily contact tonight."

  10. DUP's annoyance

    BBC News Channel

    BBC correspondent Chris Buckler has been looking at the Northern Ireland election landscape.

    It's possible that the DUP, the Democratic Unionist Party, which was the fourth biggest party in the Commons in the 2010-2015 parliament with eight MPs, could hold the balance of power in the next parliament, he explains.

    The DUP is not part of the leaders' debates tonight: a decision that has angered the party.

    Leader Peter Robinson said his party had been discriminated against by broadcasters.

  11. BBC's Lib Dem campaign correspondent Chris Buckler

    @csbuckler

    tweets:

    Nick Clegg planning to go for "a nice walk" to clear his head ahead of the debate.

    Nick Clegg being questioned

  12. 'Pass the parcel'

    BBC News Channel

    Asked whether he welcomes the seven-way format, Nick Clegg says it reflects the "fragmentation" of British politics. David Cameron and Ed Miliband want to "sustain the fiction" that power alternates between the "blue and red teams" in a sort of "pass the parcel" game. But our politics has become much more fluid and plural than that, he adds.

    Are you doing any last minute homework? A bit, he tells the BBC, "but if the weather holds I hope to go for a nice walk to clear my head".

  13. Miliband direct

    During a question-time session earlier this morning, the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, told an audience that tonight's televised leaders debate is a "very special opportunity" to put his case to the British people.

    Mr Miliband said: "It is a debate but the most important people for me tonight are not the six other leaders, not the moderator, but the British people at home.

    "That's what's unique about the opportunity of these debates - the chance to put my case to them about how the country needs to change."

  14. Order, order

    BBC News Channel

    Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire ahead of tonight's much-trailed debate. He tells the BBC's Ben Brown he's sure all the leaders will be kept in good order if they start to talk over each other during the two-hour session. "I hope everyone will have the opportunity to say their piece," he adds.

  15. 'Clear differentiation'

    BBC News Channel

    Deputy UKIP chairwoman Suzanne Evans says tonight's debate will be the only opportunity for the British people to hear UKIP's point of view. "We've been very disappointed it will be our only chance," she says, but adds that Mr Farage will be able to set out the "clear differentiation" between UKIP and the others: namely that it is the only party advocating withdrawal from the European Union.

    Ms Evans laments that David Cameron has managed to "bully" the broadcasters into" getting his own way" on the format of the debates. She's worried it'll either be a shouting match or "a bore-a-thon".

  16. Iain Watson, BBC's Labour campaign correspondent

    @iainjwatson

    tweets :

    On the debate @Ed_Miliband sidesteps my question on his prep and on if Alistair Campbell's role play as Julie Etchingham made him nervous

  17. Opposition easy ride?

    BBC News Channel

    Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude tells BBC News the election TV debates are more difficult for the prime minister than opposition leaders, who can take "pot shots" at "difficult, unpopular but necessary decisions" that have had to be taken for the good of the country. Shouldn't voters have the chance to see David Cameron and Ed Miliband debate head-to-head? They did last week, in the Paxman grilling, Mr Maude replies, adding that the public enjoyed it.

  18. Callum May, BBC News

    @callummay

    tweets :

    Several people in this audience revealed themselves as Labour members. Big applause for an NHS worker who mentioned Andy Burnham. #ge2015

  19. Making room

    Nigel Farage said earlier this morning that he was "sorry" there are so many people on tonight's debate panel. With the leaders of seven UK parties taking part, the podium certainly is going to be crowded. So how do you stage a seven-way debate? The BBC's Leala Padmanabhan finds out.

  20. Required listening...

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Peter Allen

    BBC Radio 5 Live’s Peter Allen is on the leaders’ debate set, ahead of tonight's big event - the station will be broadcasting the debate from 8pm.