Election Live - 6 April

1. Labour and the Conservatives argue over the impact of government tax and benefit changes
2. The Conservatives claim 94% of working households are better off
3. But Labour say average families are £1,100 a year worse off since 2010
4. A former Conservative parliamentary candidate joins UKIP
5. There are 31 days until the general election

Recap: Easter Monday

Tax has been the main talking point.

* The Conservatives claim 94% of working households are better off under the coalition's tax and benefit changes, while Labour argues families are on average £1,100 a year worse off than in 2010.

* The Lib Dems and Conservatives battled to claim the credit for increasing the starting point at which people pay income tax.

* Former Conservative candidate for Hull West and Hessle, Mike Whitehead, has joined UKIP. Nigel Farage claimed it was a "defection", while the Conservatives say he was sacked.

* The Green Party replaced its candidate for Erewash after Victoria Martindale, who was serving a suspended jail sentence for breaching gas safety regulations at a property she was letting out, stepped down.

Tories hit back at Blair

With Tuesday's Guardian and the Independent both reporting former Labour PM Tony Blair is to enter the election fray with an attack on the Conservatives' over Europe, the Conservatives have this evening issued a statement:

AP

Tony Blair has no credibility on the EU. He gave away Britain's rebate, now he wants to deny the British people their say on the European Union. David Cameron has stood up for Britain in Europe - securing a cut in the EU budget, vetoing a new EU Fiscal Treaty that didn't guarantee a level playing field for British business, and getting British taxpayers out of bailing out the euro."

Fight for 'core vote'

Martin Bentham, of London's Evening Standard, tells the BBC News Channel that Mr Cameron's appeal - as highlighted by the Telegraph - is symptomatic of the main parties trying to harden up their core vote.

Labour doesn't want to lose people to the Greens or indeed, in Scotland, to the SNP. It's trying to drag those people back. The Tories definitely want to ensure they can appeal and not be outflanked on the right by UKIP."

'Come home' call

The Telegraph's front page - featuring David Cameron's call for UKIP voters to "come home" to the Conservative Party - is interesting the BBC News Channel's paper reviewers.

Gaurdian diarist Hugh Muir reminds viewers that it's often said about David Cameron that he's much better on tactics than strategy, adding:

In a very short space of time he's gone from calling UKIP supporters loonies and fruitcakes to saying 'we're in trouble, can you come back home and rejoin the Conservative Party', which doesn't look very good for him."

Blair's EU 'chaos' warning

The Guardian has advance notice that former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to "step into the election battle" by giving a speech warning of the "chaos" that could be caused by a vote to leave the EU, should the Conservatives win a majority on 7 May.

"Think of the chaos produced by the possibility, never mind the reality, of Britain quitting Europe," he will reportedly say. "Jobs that are secure suddenly insecure; investment decisions postponed or cancelled; a pall of unpredictability hanging over the British economy."

The former PM praises Labour leader Ed Miliband for showing real leadership on the issue by following his own convictions "even when they go against the tide”.

Tuesday's Guardian front page

Guardian

Tuesday's Telegraph front page

Daily Telegraph

On the front pages...

The papers are starting to release images of Tuesday's front pages. And the FT has grim news for the next government, saying whoever wins the election will face an "immediate crisis" in the NHS budget. Finances are, apparently, in a much worse state than thought.

Financial Times

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

tweets:

Now Cameron calls Clegg "desperate" and LDs "minor party" But won't they kiss & make up May 8th if electoral arithmetic works for them?"

#constituencysongs: A 'hit' on social media

"Woking My Way Back To You", "Arundel All Night" and "I Fought Bassetlaw" were my feeble attempts to join the Twitter meme du jour, where social media users have been contributing their own suggestions under the hashtag #constituencysongs. We've rounded up some of them here .

The digital election (again)

In a contest widely described as the UK's first digital general election (although your correspondent remembers such a title being pinned to the 2010 vote), a new study suggests Prime Minister David Cameron has beaten comedian Russell Brand to the title of Britain's "most politically influential person on social media".

AP

This man is reportedly not as influential as the PM

The study by social media consultancy Telegraph Hill puts London mayor and prospective Tory candidate Boris Johnson third in a study of 800 politicians and commentators.

Labour leader Ed Miliband was fourth, while SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was in fifth place.

Tax tussle

Sean Curran

Parliamentary correspondent

What we are getting now is Labour and the Conservatives really arguing over one of the central issues in any election – do the voters feel better off."

Our correspondent says the parties will spend the coming weeks arguing over those voters who remain undecided. "There will be quite a lot of those people. Opinions vary but it's thought that maybe 24% - nearly one-in-four haven't decided which way they're going to jump," he adds.

Wrapping up the Conservatives' day

Carole Walker

Political correspondent

David Cameron said there was not just an economic case but a moral case for low taxes, adding this went to the heart of what he believed in as a Conservative.

But in an apparent acknowledgement that many people do not yet feel they are benefitting from the upturn in the economy, he said: "I don't just want people to see Britain's recovery on the TV or hear it on the radio, I want them to feel it in their lives."

He claimed today's changes would help that to happen.

Getty Images

There is another flipside to the commitment to low taxes. The Tories need to save £30bn to eliminate the deficit by 2017-18 and if they won't put up taxes, all the money will have to come from spending cuts.

They have said they will save £5bn by cracking down on tax avoidance, £13bn from departmental spending and £12bn from welfare.

But there remain big unanswered questions on which benefits and which government projects will have to be axed.

Labour faces similar questions about which taxes it would increase and what public spending it would cut to meet its commitment to eliminating the deficit as soon as possible in the next parliament.

'Come home' says Cameron to UKIP voters

Conservative leader David Cameron has urged potential UKIP voters to "come home" to the Tories on 7 May, but his appeal has been rejected by the anti-EU party's leader, Nigel Farage:

Neither former Labour nor Conservative voters who have switched to UKIP are going back. They've found a new, more authentic home, one in which they don't get roundly abused by their hosts."

Apathy "a good thing"

If some, despairing at the "flatness" of the campaign so far, hope for more visionary policies, Financial Times writer Janan Ganesh reckons they're misguided . He writes "swing voters worry about the Tories' blueprint for a smaller state and Labour's taste for leveraged spending... their grievance with the main parties is actually their excess of vision not their lack of it".

"The average voter is indifferent to politics," he says, arguing that it's a good thing.

Political apathy is a mark of civilisation. Boring elections are proof of national success. Politics is exciting in countries where the rules of the game are contested."

May2015 Election, New Statesman election site

tweets:

Btw, a third of voters say they watched #leadersdebate in full. Would mean 15m. That's twice as many as actually did… "

Twitter

Thirst past the post

Proof the Lib Dems can organise a good booze-up: Leader Nick Clegg ensures he's got the right pump before pouring a pint of Somerset-brewed Butcombe Bitter at the Green Park brasserie, Bath. The deputy PM reportedly declared the beer to be "very nice".

PA

Giles Wilkes, former adviser to Vince Cable

tweets :

On this "we're for the bosses you're for the workers thing" - I remember it at second hand, mid 2012. But said in passing, ironically"

Tax plan scepticism?

The PM is asked if he regrets expressing scepticism about the plan to raise the income tax threshold when it was put forward by the Lib Dems. "This tax cut has been delivered by a Conservative prime minister and a Conservative chancellor," he replies.

Nick Clegg in three words

David Cameron - back on stage in Bristol - is asked by a reporter to describe Nick Clegg in three words. The PM declines the invitation, instead replying: "You will find the minor parties saying increasingly desperate things." Ouch.

Osborne's pension pitch

Mr Osborne, who the PM introduced simply introduced as "George", is running through the government's pensions shake-up, and reminding his audience about increases in the state pension during the last parliament.

BBC

Pensioners can now draw down as much or as little of their own pension pot as they want, when they want. That's only happening because Conservatives believe if you've earned your money, you've saved your money, you should be trusted with your money."

Again, the complexities of coalition politics. Pensions Minister Steve Webb was blowing the Liberal Democrat trumpet over the same policy earlier.

Carole Walker

Political correspondent

David Cameron in Bristol says there's a moral case for low taxes."

BBC

Chancellor George Osborne is on stage now, squinting into the spring sunlight - do none of the Conservative campaign team know how to work the blinds?

More on tax

It's Labour that Mr Cameron really has his sights on, however. He argues that the election involves a simple choice between tax rises under Labour, or cuts if his party's in power.

You’ll see hard work being rewarded, because we the Conservatives are on your side."

Labour, the PM says, will take more of your money and spend it on someone else.

“In their eyes the government knows better than hard-working taxpayers," he adds.

Tax cut claims

Mr Cameron says 26 million people are getting a tax cut, with three million of the poorest paid being taken out of tax altogether “all thanks to the Conservatives”. That’s more or less exactly what Nick Clegg said when claiming the credit for the Lib Dems earlier. (See 14:59)

Cameron in Bristol

And here is the PM arriving at the science park - he's speaking now - you can see it by clicking on the "live coverage" tab above.

BBC

PM speaks on tax changes

David Cameron is speaking at Bristol and Bath Science Park, where's he joined by Chancellor George Osborne. Nick Clegg's also in the West Country. Having accused the Conservatives of pinching Lib Dem income tax policies, we wonder if the Deputy PM thinks Mr Cameron is trying to muscle in on his pitch.

James Blake, Channel 4 News and STV

tweets:

Jim Murphy keeps pushing #memogate. Says the enquiry "needs to get to the bottom of what @NicolaSturgeon has said or didn't say" #c4news"

Farage poll blow

UKIP leader Nigel Farage brushes off the results of a ComRes poll which put him behind the Conservatives in South Thanet. Commissioned by UKIP donor Aaron Banks, it put the Conservatives on 30 points, UKIP on 29 and Labour on 28.

What it shows is yes, there is a real battle for this constituency. That's always been the case."

PA

Mr Farage insists that "raw data" from the poll put UKIP five points ahead, adding: "It's only after a variety of re-weightings that we're back to a sort of three-way split."

'Central battleground'

Where better to spend a bank holiday Monday than aboard a bus full of Conservative party activists?

BBC

Our correspondent Gavin Hewitt, travelling to England's South West with David Cameron, says the party's boasts about increased income tax allowances - and Labour's counter-claims about the effect of VAT rises and benefit changes - form the core arguments in the campaign.

The central battleground is whether the recovery, which the Tories are basing their campaign on, will convince people that it's going to work for them... and Labour that says this 'so-called recovery' is working for the few."

Ben Riley-Smith, political correspondent, Daily Telegraph

tweets:

Remarkable that Labour feels it needs to remind English voters that the SNP - who they cannot vote for - will not protect their interests."

Easter Ed

A fair few commentators are wondering where Ed Miliband has got to over the Easter break. Toby Young tweets that the Labour leader hasn't been seen for 48 hours. "Holed up with his $15,000-a-day American debate coach?" he wonders.

Meanwhile, Spectator contributing editor Harry Cole tweets: "

So anyone actually seen Ed since Sat? Is he hiding? Or prepping more zingers for the challenger debate #WheresMili

Twitter

If he's not boning up ahead of the 16 April debate with Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood, the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, Natalie Bennett, of the Greens, and UKIP's Nigel Farage, perhaps the Labour leader is dashing to his nearest city farm to have his photo taken with a lamb?

Pic: Nigel Farage campaigning in Broadstairs

PA

Farage on 'defection'

More on that switch to UKIP of former Conservative candidate for Hull and West Hessle, Mike Whitehead. While the Tories insist it's not a defection, on the basis the party sacked Mr Whitehead last Wednesday, his new boss Nigel Farage tells reporters he was "pretty confident a fortnight ago" that Mr Whitehead would join UKIP.

Mr Whitehead was in dispute with fellow Conservatives on East Riding Council before Easter, says Mr Farage, but remained the Tory candidate at 09:30 BST  today.

Either way, the fact is that somebody who was a Conservative candidate has now crossed the floor and joined UKIP and that's the kind of trend we're seeing, particularly at local council level across many parts of the north."

Taking a dip?

PA

If eating in public is risky for a politician, surely leaning over the edge of a swimming pool is tantamount to dicing with death. Here's Nick Clegg, taking a break from the stresses and strains of the campaign trail, at Bath Spa. If he takes a tumble we can presumably expect headlines along the lines of "Did he jump? Or was he pushed?"

Public underwhelmed?

Sean Curran

Parliamentary correspondent

We know our avid readers are hooked on election gossip. But, amazingly, not everyone's so immersed in politics.

"There’s nothing like a couple of days away from work to give you a bit of perspective," says our correspondent Sean Curran. He's been enjoying a couple of days off "just hanging about" - his words, not ours. "You know the sort of thing, a cup of coffee here, a longish wait for a blood test there."

I began to cast an ear over the general chatter around me. Only to discover that the general election campaign was the dog that hasn’t started barking yet."

"During my entirely unscientific, unrepresentative, idling I heard lots of conversations about holidays, television programmes, one or two celebrities and the triumphs and mishaps of peoples’ relatives.

"My fears that teenagers really do speak another language were confirmed, but I didn’t hear anyone talking about the election. It could be that I’m spending my free time in the wrong places (or the right ones depending on your point of view) but perhaps the election hasn’t really taken off yet and grabbed the public imagination?"

It shows why parties repeatedly keep pushing the same themes, he says, "in the hope they eventually catch the attention of my fellow hangers-about".

Lamb update

That tweet featured Conservative candidate Robert Halfon, in case you weren't sure.

Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian columnist

tweets:

OFFICIAL: lamb photo ops are now the new relaxing-in-your-kitchen photo op #election2015"

Twitter

Like sheep...

AP

The Lib Dems say the Conservatives are trying to pinch the credit for their income tax policy. Well,according to the Daily Mirror,they could make a case for them trying to steal their photo opportunity ideas as well. Apparently Lib Dem leader in Scotland Willie Rennie was pictured feeding a lamb just a few days ago...

Income tax gain v VAT loss

While the governing parties do battle to take credit for the income tax cut - in the form of an increase in the point at which people start paying - Labour's Treasury spokesman Chris Leslie argues that people are no better off at all.

BBC

Anything that people have got through things like the personal allowance has been more than offset by, in particular, that massive rise in VAT."

That 2.5% sales tax increase, in 2011, has led to a situation where people are £1,100 a year worse off, while typical household incomes have fallen, Mr Leslie tells the BBC News Channel.

Bun fight for Cameron?

While Culture Secretary Sajid Javid is spending his Easter Monday doing the rounds on TV and radio, his boss is chillaxing at a family barbecue in Dorset.

BBC

Not that the PM can avoid the careful eye for detail of our correspondent, Carole Walker, who reports: "David Cameron had a hot dog with ketchup and no onions."

Clegg on offensive

Having shaken off hecklers in south-west London, Nick Clegg is in Bath, where he's doing his best to encourage people to acknowledge Lib Dem-influenced policies - in particular the increase in the starting point at which people must pay income tax.

He tells the BBC's Sophie Long: "Today is a very important day for the Liberal Democrats. Today 27 million people are £825 better off in terms of the income tax they pay."

Arguing that he's apologised for the increase in tuition fees his party had pledged to oppose before the last election, he says his critics should in turn acknowledge "better" policies on taxes, pensions, shared parental leave and apprenticeships.

BBC

All these things are happening for one reason only, because the Liberal Democrats have done them."

Liberal Democrats

tweets:

Something's going on in #Folkestone. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the Lib Dem tax cut ;)

Lib Dems

Pic: Protester greets Jim Murphy in Neilston

PA

Minister tackled on pensions

Not everyone thinks the government's pension reforms are a good idea. Sue, a 63-year-old pensioner from Portsmouth, took Pensions Minister Steve Webb to task on BBC Radio 5 live this morning.

She said: "There will be people who spend their money on [a Lamborghini] and end up with absolutely nothing... so in five years time when they need help they'll put their hand out... that wouldn't we fair to people like myself who do put something away for their future."

However, Mr Webb reckons the sort of people who have built up big pension pots are unlikely to be reckless with their cash.

PA

"If they literally blow the lot - and we don't think people will in general - then the state pension will be a bare minimum to live on."

Rebecca Keating, parliamentary reporter for BBC Westminster

tweets:

Tories v anxious to downplay Mike Whitehead switch to UKIP - Downing St statement, @sajidjavid interview round & now David Davis statement"

Pic: Jim Murphy campaigning in Neilston

Getty

Farage 'disingenuous'

Getty

Senior Conservative David Davis has added his two-penn'orth to the row about Mike Whitehead, the former Conservative candidate who's joined UKIP.

Given that Nigel Farage claims to be more straightforward than most conventional politicians, his tweet that he had 'Just spoken to Tory Parliamentary candidate for Hull West and Hessle who has now left the Conservatives and joined Ukip' is at best disingenuous, and at worst the sort of misleading statement that he is always accusing others of making. "Far from a considered decision to join UKIP because he thought they were a better party, Mr Whitehead went to them only after the Conservative Party had sacked him. It is hard to see how Mr Farage can represent this as a principled decision."

Analysis: Alexander 'bosses vs workers' row

For months, if not years, the two coalition partners, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, have talked up the lists they were each keeping of what they saw as the bonkers ideas they had stopped the other lot doing - or their brilliant schemes the other side had thwarted. David Cameron called it his "little black book." Today, senior Lib Dem Danny Alexander appears to be trying to cash in one of his. His reporting of a private conversation is potent because it plays at the prejudice about the Tories that they are most scared of: being seen as the party of the rich. But his suggestion is hugely weakened by having no proof of the conversation and not being willing to name which Conservative said what he accuses them of. It means the Tories can accuse him of making it up, something he insists he isn't.

Easter Cl-eggs

Lib Dems

Nick Clegg has been handing out Easter treats to all the hacks on his battle bus. He tweeted: "Stronger eggconomy, fairer society, opportunity (and eggs) for everyone #GE2015"

'Can't do it without us'

Getty

Labour won't win the election without the backing of voters in Scotland, Jim Murphy has warned. The Scottish Labour leader said that while votes in Scotland alone would not be enough to eject the Conservatives from power "the rest of the UK can't do it without us". Launching his party's Scottish general election campaign in Neilston, East Renfrewshire, he told activists: "It would be deeply ironic, would it not, if the only people in the UK that stood in the way of a Labour government were SNP MPs here in Scotland?"

Alexander stands firm

BBC Radio 4

EPA

Danny Alexander comes back. "I thought it was a fairly extraordinary interview from Sajid... but I've said what I've said. It is an accurate reflection of a comment that was made."

He says it was "even more extraordinary" that Mr Javid claimed it was always Conservative policy to raise the income tax threshold, yet they didn't put it in their manifesto.

Personal tax allowance

BBC Radio 4

Mr Javid says it was "always, absolutely" a Conservative plan to raise the income tax threshold - even though David Cameron said during the leadership debates in 2010 that it couldn't be done.

Jason Beattie, @DailyMirror political editor

So the Tories claim there was no money left but, having looked at books, there was enough to raise personal tax allowance #GE2015"

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

tweets:

Peter Kellner of @YouGov tells #wato Lib Dems have struggled to 'shift the public perception that they are stooges of the Conservatives'"

Patrick Wintour, political editor of the Guardian

tweets:

Sajid Javid says only in government that Tories looked at the books and realised they had the money to raise personal tax allowance."

'No-one said it'

BBC Radio 4

"It's complete rubbish. The reason he won't say who said it is that no-one said it," Culture Secretary Sajid Javid says as he hits back at Danny Alexander. "If they think someone said it... they should come clean and say who said it. The only conclusion is they must be making this up."

'Your tax cut'

BBC Radio 4

Danny Alexander says the "motive, motivation and argument" behind the raising of the income tax threshold all came from the Lib Dems. Of the Conservatives, he adds: "I've been told time and again, 'this is your tax cut, we want this in exchange'."

AFP

Alexander on 'bosses vs workers'

BBC Radio 4

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander is speaking to The World At One, but won't say which senior Conservative made the remark "you take care of the workers, we'll take care of the bosses". He says it "reflects that there is a very different" attitude between Lib Dems and Tories in government. "I remember what was said and I remember the nervous laughter from the other side of the table when it was said," he adds.

Lunchtime round-up

If you've been enjoying a lie-in this morning - please don't rub it in - and have missed the action, here's a quick run-down of what's been happening:

• a former Conservative candidate has joined UKIP . Mike Whitehead cited a row with the local Conservative group for his decision, but the Tories say he was sacked before he jumped
• Labour and the Conservatives are arguing about whether people are better or worse off thanks to the coalition
• Ed Balls has insisted the Conservatives will raise VAT if re-elected - despite David Cameron insisting otherwise
• Nick Clegg has brushed off protesters who greeted him in Surbiton and backed his Lib Dem colleague Danny Alexander who claimed he'd heard a senior Conservative tell a Lib Dem, "You look after the workers, we'll look after the bosses."
• Nicola Sturgeon visits a care home in East Dunbartonshire to launch the SNP's Pensioner Plan

SNP 'dishonest' on pensioner plans

Reuters

Scottish Labour candidate for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East Gregg McClymont has criticised Nicola Sturgeon's plans for pensioners. "The SNP want only Scottish taxes to support Scottish spending - that would end the UK shared pension. To pretend otherwise is simply dishonest," he said. "Full fiscal autonomy is the SNP's central election policy, and it would leave a £7.6bn black hole in Scotland's finances, which is more than our entire pensions bill. And that's before the extra cost of Scotland's faster ageing society is factored in."

May 2015, New Statesman election coverage

tweets:

Labour rule out tax hikes for vat, income & NI too? That's 60%+ of all tax - v hard to raise meaningful £ otherwise."

At the scene

PA

All smiles here, but as Nick Clegg left Kingston, trade union activists who ambushed the deputy PM as he arrived earlier met him once again outside the pub where he had been talking to supporters. They regaled him with more loud chants of "Give up, your party is finished" and "Nick Clegg lied to me. He said uni would be free" through a loudhailer. Their sounds were matched by Lib Dem supporters who carried placards and cheered to drown out the activists as Clegg hopped on to his yellow battle bus. The vocal bunch were small in number, only eight, but police arrived to make sure there was no trouble.

Clegg on bosses vs workers

Nick Clegg is asked about Danny Alexander's claim - in the Independent - that he heard a senior Conservative tell a Lib Dem colleague, "You take care of the workers and we'll take care of the bosses."

"Of course I believe Danny - I remember him vividly telling me that," Nick Clegg replies.

Kevin Schofield, the Sun's chief political correspondent

tweets:

Latest YouGov Welsh poll for The Sun puts Labour on 40%, Tories on 27%, Ukip 13%, Plaid Cymru 9%, Lib Dems 6% and the Greens 5%."

Clegg answers protesters

BBC

"It was the Labour Party, what do you expect?"

Nick CleggLib Dem leader and deputy prime minister

Clegg heckled

BBC

Nick Clegg go to hell, take your Tory mates as well."

Protester at Lib Dem event in Surbiton

Scottish state pension age

Reuters

Nicola Sturgeon has been speaking about the SNP's demand that there will be no further rises to the state pension age in Scotland while life expectancy there continues to lag behind the rest of the UK and Europe, "Our comparatively low life expectancy rate is an issue which I will do everything in my power to change but in the meantime it would be completely unacceptable for people in Scotland who have paid in to a state pension all of their lives to lose out."

In the same speech, she also reiterated a phrase used by her predecessor Alex Salmond - to some consternation in Westminster - a few weeks ago, referring to SNP MPs "holding the balance of power" after the election.

Compulsory voting

Centre-left think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research says young people should be forced to vote in the first election after they turn 18 in an effort to reverse declining turnouts. It is arguing that research shows taking part in elections is a habit formed early in life. Australia is the oft-cited example of this idea, where voting is required by law. The Today programme discussed the idea earlier, with broadcaster Rick Edwards. Listen back here.

BBC

Pic: Ed Balls and the latest Labour poster

PA

Sophie Long, Lib Dem campaign correspondent

tweets:

People know the Lib Dems are the people who delivered tax cuts says @nick_clegg in Kingston"

Pension credit

BBC

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid has said the changes to pensions coming into force today are "a Conservative idea" - despite being pushed through Parliament by the Liberal Democrat Pensions Minister, Steve Webb. But Mr Javid - the former financial secretary at the Treasury - told the BBC: "It's something we worked on for a long time because it's a deep Conservative-held view that these are people's savings, they belong to them."

Posters stolen

Conservative candidate for Great Yarmouth Brandon Lewis says he has reported the "theft and vandalism" of his campaign posters to the police. On Twitter, the housing minister said: "Sad to see opponents in #GreatYarmouth resorting to poster theft & vandalism. Says much about them. Reported to police due to scale."

Alastair Stewart, ITV News

tweets:

#GE2015 One party trumpets its tax-changes to wrong-foot a second party only to be bitten on the bottom by a third party....

Fees protesters

PA

There were some very, very loud heckles to welcome Nick Clegg to Surbiton this morning. They were chanting, "Nick Clegg lied to me. He said uni would be free." So another reminder for him there of that broken promise.

Mr Clegg - pictured here with local Lib Dem candidate Ed Davey - is arguing that this is a big day; a day when many of the tax and pension changes the Lib Dems have fought for in government will come into force. He's also meeting an NCT group of new mums and dads to highlight changes to parental leave just introduced.

Kevin Schofield, Sun chief political correspondent

tweets:

Full breakdown of latest YouGov Scotland poll for The Sun: SNP 46%, Lab 29 %, Con 16%, Libs and Greens 3% and Ukip 2%. #GE2015."

'Already outside the group'

BBC Radio 5 Live

A bit more from Mike Whitehead, the former Conservative parliamentary candidate who has now switched allegiance to UKIP. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live a short time ago, he said he had been concerned about the way the local council Conservative group in Hull have operated - "against the interests of the local residents" - for some time, and was selected as a party candidate despite already being outside the Conservative group.

'Same again'

There's laughter in the room as Ed Balls argues the only promise David Cameron made before the last election was not to raise VAT. Nick Clegg also promised to block the "Tory VAT "bombshell". He goes on: "Then the Tories and the Liberal Democrats both voted for a VAT rise. And if the Tories get back in they'll do the same thing again."

Pic: Nick Clegg campaigning in Surbiton

PA

Mental arithmetic

What's six times seven, Mr Balls? That's the first question for the shadow chancellor. He gets it right - 42. It's also the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but he doesn't mention that.

Labour policies

BBC

The shadow chancellor is running through all of Labour's key policies to make, as he puts it, the lives of working families better. They include freezing energy prices, building more homes, increasing the free hours of early years education for all children from 15 to 25.

He also continues to insist that the Conservatives will put up VAT if re-elected - despite David Cameron insisting otherwise a couple of weeks ago.

After five years of the Tories, millions are paying more and millionaires are better off."

John Stevens, Daily Mail political reporter

tweets:

Ed Balls says today's Ukip defection is a "huge blow for David Cameron" during an election campaign

'Defector' speaks

BBC Radio 5 Live

UKIP are a party that stand up for local issues and allow people to stand up for their beliefs and principals. Therefore, it wasn't a major change for me to go into the UKIP fold."

Mike WhiteheadFormer Conservative candidate and new UKIP member

Steve Hawkes, deputy political editor of the Sun

tweets:

Ed Balls calls the PM's promise not to raise VAT in his final PMQs "desperate and panicky" - seemed pretty pre-planned at the time

'Families hit hardest'

Ed Balls cites figures from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies to support his case. He says the think tank has calculated that average household incomes have fallen by £1,100 a year since 2010. The IFS "also exposes how families with children have been hit hardest", he adds. 

You know when David Cameron and George Osborne said 'We're all in this together'... They don't say that any more."

Ed Balls' speech

BBC

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has just started speaking in a very sunny Leeds. He says he wants to set out "the true impact" of the tax and benefit changes the government has made in the last five years - and "Labour's better alternative".

Analysis: Conservative tax plans

Carole Walker

Conservative campaign correspondent

Getty

David Cameron and George Osborne will both be out campaigning in south-west England today, where the PM will be meeting some carefully selected voters who will benefit from the government's tax changes.

The PM will say there is not just an economic case but a moral case for low taxes, and this goes to the heart of what he believes in as a Conservative.

However, while few of us want to hand over more of our earnings in taxes, as we saw in last week’s television debate, some of his political rivals are mounting strong arguments that taxes should be raised for higher earners.

And there is another flipside to the commitment to low taxes. The Tories need to save £30bn to eliminate the deficit by 2017/18 and if they won’t put up taxes, all the money will have to come from spending cuts. They have said they will save £5bn by cracking down on tax avoidance, £13bn from departmental spending and £12bn from welfare. But there remain big unanswered questions on which benefits and which government projects will have to be axed.

SNP 'Pensioner Plan'

Nicola Sturgeon is visiting a care home this morning in East Dunbartonshire to launch the SNP's Pensioner Plan.

Among the key tenets are:

• Retention of the triple lock to ensure the state pension increases every year either by inflation, in line with wages or by 2.5% - whichever is higher
• A single tier pension rate of at least £160 to lift pensioners out of means-tested benefits
• A guarantee that there should be no further increase in the state pension age in Scotland while life expectancy still lags behind the rest of the UK and Europe
• A pledge that the SNP will oppose any attempts to end the Winter Fuel Allowance 

Bosses vs workers

BBC News Channel

That is utter nonsense, it really is.

Priti PatelExchequer Secretary to the Treasury

BBC

Priti Patel was referring to a story in the Independent in which Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander claims he heard a senior Conservative tell a Lib Dem colleague, "You take care of the workers and we'll take care of the bosses." Ms Patel, a Conservative, adds: "We are in an election campaign so it's not surprising that comments like that are being made by other political parties."

'Error 404'

Mike Whitehead's profile wasn't just lingering on the local Conservative website. According to Darren McCaffrey at Sky News, it was still on the main party one too this morning.

This is what you get now.

Conservatves

Bygone era?

Getty

We at Politics Live might be surgically attached to Twitter, but are British general elections more broadly stuck in the 1950s? That's the question our colleague Brian Wheeler has been considering - read his piece here.

Let us know what you think by emailing [e-mail].

Candidate profile

Mike Whitehead might have been sacked by the Conservatives last week, but his profile as candidate was still on the Hull branch of the party's website this morning.

Conservatives

Labour react to 'defection'

Despite the downplaying from the Conservatives, Labour's Jon Trickett, shadow Cabinet Office minister, insisted the defection was "another huge blow for David Cameron’s authority".

“UKIP and the Tories increasingly share the same people as well as the same policies. Both stand for increased health service privatisation, extreme spending plans which threaten the NHS and further tax breaks for those at the top."

Tim Ireland, BBC political editor for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Conservatives playing down the defection of Mike Whitehead to #UKIP Tories say he was sacked by party and "this is not a Carswell moment"

Carrie Symonds, Conservative adviser

New low from @Nigel_Farage trying to claim a "defection" by taking on a candidate we sacked last week! Desperate!

Conservatives

Analysis: Conservative defection

Mike Whitehead wont be standing as a parliamentary candidate for UKIP - they already have one. But he won't be standing for the Conservatives either - and will be running to be UKIP councillor. The Conservatives might play this down, but it'll definitely give Nigel Farage something to smile about, especially as we've reported on plenty of stories about his candidates making headlines for the wrong reasons.

Jim Pickard, chief political correspondent for the Financial Times

tweets:

The Ukip defection would be more of a "hammer blow" if the seat wasn't held easily by Alan Johnson with 6k majority...

Conservative defector

PA

UKIP might be claiming a scalp, but the Conservatives say they had already sacked Mike Whitehead. A spokesman said: "He refused to support the local Conservative council candidate - and so we wrote to him last week to say that his position was untenable and could not stand for us at the general election. We were already selecting a new candidate for this constituency.

This is typical UKIP - cynical, misleading and utterly calculating to try and score political points."

Patrick Wintour, political editor of the Guardian

tweets:

Tories 3rd in Hull West in 2010 ( A.Johnson seat ) so defection of candidate to Ukip is good Easter fare, but unregistered on Richter scale

Jason Beattie, Daily Mirror political editor

tweets:

Labour quick out of the blocks on the Tory defector to UKIP: "This is another huge blow for David Cameron's authority," says Jon Trickett

BreakingConservative candidate defects

A Conservative parliamentary candidate has defected to UKIP, the party has just announced. Nigel Farage called it "another hammer blow to Tory pretensions in the north of England". Mike Whitehead, who was standing for the Conservatives in the Hull West and Hessle constituency, is a councillor on East Riding Council. He said he was "disgusted" with the behaviour of the ruling Tory group in East Yorkshire and the "wilful refusal" of the Conservative Party to intervene at a national level.

'Over-interpreted'

Norman Smith

Assistant political editor

The memo row matters because any suggestion that Nicola Sturgeon would prefer the Conservatives would be potentially devastating for the SNP in Scotland. What I think might have happened is that Ms Sturgeon may have ventured some doubts about Ed Miliband's leadership qualities. That was then reported to the Scotland Office and then maybe over-written, over-interpreted into doubts about Mr Miliband equalling a preference for Mr Cameron.

'We are anti-Tory'

BBC Radio 4 Today

EPA

Deputy SNP leader Stewart Hosie also told Today that his party did not want a Conservative government. He said: "We are an anti-Tory party, we are an anti-austerity party. We have offered Ed Miliband a deal. We would not prefer to see a Tory government." Asked about the argument that a Conservative government - given its likely unpopularity in Scotland - would boost support for a second independence referendum, Mr Hosie replied: "The arguments for and against independence stand on their own merits. This is definitely not a re-run of the referendum. This is about holding Westminster to account."

PM material?

BBC Radio 4 Today

AFP

Speaking a short time ago to Today, deputy SNP leader Stewart Hosie wasn't going to be drawn very far into a discussion about whether Ed Miliband was prime minister material. "Of course one could see him as prime minister. He is leader of the Labour Party and therefore quite conceivably could be," he said. Mr Hosie said it was for the Labour Party alone to judge whether any other one of its MPs would do a better job as leader.

Sturgeon memo

AFP

Away from matters economic, the row rumbles on about Nicola Sturgeon and a leaked memo which claimed she would prefer David Cameron to be prime minister after 7 May. On Sunday, Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael confirmed the memo was written in the Scotland Office, but he denied the leak was embarrassing for the government department, stating "this is the middle of an election campaign, these things happen". Miss Sturgeon, of course, insists she never said any such thing. Read more here.

Front pages

Guardian

Those pension changes occupy many of this morning's newspaper front pages. You can read our review here. There are also plenty of pictures of David Cameron feeding a lamb - the 2015 campaign equivalent of kissing a baby.

New pension rules

PA

Those aforementioned pension changes are explained fully in our story here. In a nutshell, people who are retiring no longer have to take out an annuity to provide them with a regular income. But, of course, there's a lot more to it than that.

Happy New Year!

BBC

Or new tax year at least. Cue new pension rules and an increasingly familiar argument about whether we're better or worse off than we were five years ago. According to the Conservatives, 94% of working households are better off, but au contraire argue Labour. They say working households are £1,100 poorer than in 2010.Read more here.

Good morning

It might be a Bank Holiday but there's no rest for the wicked on Politics Live. Victoria King here, ready to bring you all the action from another day of campaigning - there are now 31 days to go until election D-Day. Here's how Sunday panned out.

Easy like Sunday morning...

Here's a quick rundown of the highlights from Sunday, which saw a relatively light day of campaigning for politicians across the divide:

- Chancellor George Osborne told Sky News it was "not his plan" to cut top rate of tax from 45p to 40p

- Lib Dem David Laws told BBCRadio 5 live the Tories had shown “unbelievable cheek” in taking credit for rises in the personal tax allowance

- Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said the leaking of a memo which claimed Nicola Sturgeon would prefer David Cameron to be PM was

- Labour leader Ed Miliband wanted to be seen as a "happy warrior" in last Thursday's TV debate, according to notes reported by the Sun

- Lib Dem Danny Alexander said he was told by a senior Tory that the Lib Dems were for the workers, and the Conservatives were for the bosses

- Simply Red's Mick Hucknall - once a prominent Labour supporter - said he was now a fan of the coalition