Summary

  • Labour and the Conservatives argue over the impact of government tax and benefit changes

  • The Conservatives claim 94% of working households are better off

  • But Labour say average families are £1,100 a year worse off since 2010

  • A former Conservative parliamentary candidate joins UKIP

  • There are 31 days until the general election

  1. SNP 'dishonest' on pensioner planspublished at 12.40

    Nicola Sturgeon visiting care homeImage source, 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."

  2. May 2015, New Statesman election coveragepublished at 12:32 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    @May2015NS

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

  3. At the scenepublished at 12.24

    The BBC's Becky Kelly

    Ed Davey and Nick CleggImage source, 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.

  4. Clegg on bosses vs workerspublished at 12.14

    Nick Clegg is asked about Danny Alexander's claim - in the Independent, external - 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.

  5. Kevin Schofield, the Sun's chief political correspondentpublished at 12:04 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    @schofieldkevin

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    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%."

  6. Clegg answers protesterspublished at 12.01

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

    Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister

  7. Clegg heckledpublished at 11.59

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

    Protester at Lib Dem event in Surbiton

  8. Scottish state pension agepublished at 11:56 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    Nicola Sturgeon visiting a care homeImage source, 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.

  9. Compulsory votingpublished at 11:48 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    Centre-left think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research , externalsays 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.

    Today programme image
  10. Pic: Ed Balls and the latest Labour posterpublished at 11:45

    Ed BallsImage source, PA
  11. Sophie Long, Lib Dem campaign correspondentpublished at 11:44 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    @S0Long

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

  12. Pension creditpublished at 11:36

    Sajid Javid

    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."

  13. Posters stolenpublished at 11:35

    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:, external "Sad to see opponents in #GreatYarmouth resorting to poster theft & vandalism. Says much about them. Reported to police due to scale."

  14. Alastair Stewart, ITV Newspublished at 11:30 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    @alstewitn

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

  15. Fees protesterspublished at 11:21

    From Sophie Long, Lib Dem campaign correspondent

    Ed Davey and Nick CleggImage source, 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.

  16. Kevin Schofield, Sun chief political correspondentpublished at 11:21 British Summer Time 6 April 2015

    @schofieldkevin

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

  17. 'Already outside the group'published at 11.14

    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.

  18. 'Same again'published at 11.12

    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."

  19. Pic: Nick Clegg campaigning in Surbitonpublished at 11:11

    Nick Clegg in SurbitonImage source, PA
  20. Mental arithmeticpublished at 11.02

    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.