Summary

  • Nicola Sturgeon denies a newspaper claim she told a French diplomat she would prefer David Cameron in No 10

  • The Daily Telegraph says a memo details Ms Sturgeon privately saying Labour's leader wasn't PM material

  • Ed Miliband is unveiling a Labour plan to encourage banks to fund 125,000 new homes for first time-buyers in England

  • The Lib Dems set out plans for a £2.5bn healthcare fund to reduce pressure on hospitals in England

  • The Conservatives unveil plans to prevent children from viewing pornographic websites

  • There are 33 days until the general election

  1. Robin Brant, BBC UKIP campaign correspondentpublished at 14:47 British Summer Time 4 April 2015

    @robindbrant

    tweets, external :

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    No regrets over hiv #nhs tourism comments from tv debate, @Nigel_Farage says people need to hear cold hard facts

  2. Miliband campaigning in Warringtonpublished at 14:34

    Ed MilibandImage source, Sky pool

    Ed Miliband greets Labour supporters in Warrington. He is due to address a rally there shortly.

  3. Peter Hunt, BBC Labour campaign correspondentpublished at 14:19 British Summer Time 4 April 2015

    @BBCPeterHunt

    Labour supporters queue for an Ed Miliband event in Warrington - 4 April 2015

    tweets, external:

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    Protesters. A few. Supporters. Many more. Waiting to attend a Miliband Warrington rally. #ge2015

  4. SNP 'will never support Trident'published at 14:02

    While the media were keen to question Nicola Sturgeon on what she did or didn't say to the French ambassador, she was preparing to address the annual CND Scotland Scrap Trident rally in Glasgow.

    In her speech to the rally, the SNP leader urged people across the UK to seize the moment of the Westminster election to block the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons.

    "I have been against nuclear weapons all of my life - indeed, I was a member of the CND before I was a member of the SNP," she said.

    "I give you my cast-iron assurance SNP MPs will never support Trident - and that is why we need as many SNP MPs as possible in the House of Commons."

  5. 'Coalition of chaos'published at 13:47

    David Cameron

    David Cameron tells Conservative supporters in Oxford West and Abingdon that there is a danger of a "coalition of chaos" after the election.

    He claims there could be an alliance between "the people who want to bankrupt Britain - Labour - and the people who want to break up Britain - the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond".

    He adds: 'What's Nicola Sturgeon told us today? Well she's told us - she's being anointed as this great genius - she's told us something that I said about four years ago, which is Ed Miliband's not up to the job of being prime minister. I think we knew that already."

  6. Arif Ansari, BBC Lib Dem campaign correspondentpublished at 13:42

    @ArifBBC

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    First visit to Sheffield Hallam and I wonder if the Lib Dem campaign office could be better branded? #GE15

    The Liberal Democrat campaign office in Sheffield Hallam
  7. Cameron campaigns in Oxfordshirepublished at 13:28

    David Cameron and Nicola Blackwood

    David Cameron is campaigning in the constituency of Oxford West and Abingdon alongside the Conservative candidate, Nicola Blackwood.

  8. SNP deals?published at 13:22

    Catriona Renton, BBC Scotland correspondent

    Catriona Renton
    Quote Message

    "We've heard throughout the general election campaign that the SNP will not do any deals with David Cameron's Conservative Party but Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly said that on certain issues they would be able to do deals with the Labour Party if it means keeping the Tories out. Now Nicola Sturgeon is absolutely categoric that she did not make these comments. It is believed to be thought by some within the SNP, though, that five years of a Tory government to attack might be easier than cosying up to the Labour Party."

  9. Labour response to Sturgeon interviewpublished at 13:10

    Ellie Price, BBC political correspondent

    A Labour spokesperson says:

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    No one will ever know for certain what went on between Nicola Sturgeon and the French ambassador. But what we do know is that the Tories are desperate for the SNP to do well, and the SNP are happy to see another Tory government. The Tories know that the SNP are David Cameron's last hope of clinging on to power - and the Tories care a lot more about that than they do about the future of the United Kingdom. And we know the SNP care more about a second referendum than they do about stopping Tory austerity. So forget all the silly scare stories about a Labour-SNP coalition. The truth is that the SNP and the Tories are locked in an unholy alliance.

  10. James Cook: Upsum on Sturgeonpublished at 12:55

    BBC News Channel

    James Cook
    Quote Message

    As denials go, Nicola Sturgeon's is pretty categoric in its content. We also have a denial along the same lines from the French ambassador and we have spoken this morning to the French consul general, who says that he did not say this to anyone within the UK government. He says that he was reporting back to the Scotland Office - the branch of the British government, based in Edinburgh and in London, looking after Scottish affairs. That's where we stand. This memo does exist, it is written by a civil servant, but the parties to the conversation deny it happened. Still, it's a big row."

  11. Fox hunting chiefs back Toriespublished at 12:41

    Boxing day fox hunting - The Avon Vale huntImage source, PA

    Hunting groups have been sent an email urging them to back the Conservatives in the hope the party fulfils its promise of a vote on repealing the hunting ban, according to the Independent, external.

    The paper reports that Conservative peer Lord Mancroft, the deputy chairman of the Countryside Alliance, and Tim Easby, director of the Hunting Office, external, wrote: “As the campaign begins in earnest, we are writing to remind you of the vital importance of the result of the forthcoming general election. The 7th May could be a great date for Hunting.”

    The coalition promised a free vote on repeal of the ban on hunting with dogs, but it never happened.

    The pro-hunting group Vote-OK, external, formed in 2004 following the ban, says no vote on the issue was brought during the last Parliament because there would not have been enough MPs in support of repeal.

  12. Sturgeon: 'No attraction in Tory government'published at 12:33

    The BBC's James Cook asks Nicola Sturgeon if a Conservative government has "a certain attraction in strategic terms" for the SNP's campaign for Scottish independence.

    "There is no attraction to me whatsoever in a Tory government," she says. "I have spent my life campaigning against Tory governments."

    She issues a challenge to Ed Miliband: "If the SNP and Labour combined have more MPs than the Tories, will Labour vote with the SNP to keep David Cameron out of Downing Street?"

    She adds that today's claims - which she denies - suggest Westminster is "starting to panic" about the SNP's election campaign.

  13. Sturgeon attacks 'dirty tricks'published at 12:18

    Nicola Sturgeon

    SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said she will be writing to the head of the UK civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, following the publication of details of a UK government memo on her recent meeting with the French ambassador.

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    The real issue is how a second hand and inaccurate account of this meeting – which was not even attended by the UK government – came to be written by a UK government civil servant and then leaked to Tory-supporting newspapers at the start of a general election campaign. “It suggests a Whitehall system out of control – a place where political dirty tricks are manufactured and leaked. And the Foreign Office now appears to be denying the very existence of such a document."

    Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader

  14. Contact 'in Scotland Office'published at 12:13

    Pierre-Alain Coffinier, the French consul general in Edinburgh quoted in the Daily Telegraph's Nicola Sturgeon memo, has told BBC Scotland that his contact was with the Scotland Office, not the Foreign Office. (see 11.39 entry)

  15. The BBC and electionspublished at 12:00

    A screen grab

    The BBC and Sussex University have collaborated on a a website telling the history of the BBC's coverage of elections since 1922. You can explore it here.

  16. Foreign Office 'not aware' of memopublished at 11:39

    A Foreign Office spokeswoman has told the BBC they have no record of the memo behind the Telegraph story, external on Nicola Sturgeon. She said: “We are not aware of such a document.”

  17. Motty and morepublished at 11:30

    5live website

    If you want to explore a series of quick and simple to understand guides to the election - including John Motson's guide to a hung parliament - try 5live's In Short series

  18. Tea breakpublished at 11:20

    Ed MilibandImage source, PA
    Image caption,

    There was time for a cuppa for Ed Miliband in a Leeds coffee shop

  19. Election 2015: Who's going to win?published at 11:08

    (Your guess is as good as theirs)

    Voters

    The opinion polls suggest the 2015 general election is too close to call, putting the two main parties - Labour and the Conservatives - neck and neck.

    The rise in support for UKIP, the SNP and the Green Party, and talk of erosion in the Liberal Democrat vote, has also created a more fragmented political landscape then ever before.

    The BBC's Vanessa Barford travelled from Cornwall to the Shetland Islands to hear who voters think might form the next government on 8 May.