tweets, external:

Back to Wadebridge, Cornwall,where Prime Minister David Cameron has been speaking at a Conservative Party rally.

Image source, Reuters

He told the audience the Tories need to win 23 more seats to form a majority government at the upcoming general election. He warned that the country could:

The Conservatives are offering the "best of both worlds" on the EU, says Cabinet Minister, Michael Gove. And he dismissed Tony Blair's speech on the EU, saying he was "reliving some of his own psychodrama". Mr Gove had a lengthy interview with Radio 4's PM programme in which he listened to key clips from Mr Blair's speech. He said the Conservatives would like "a process of modernising the EU" and to make sure any "modernisation" of the relationship between Britain and other EU countries in Europe was "underpinned by a democratic vote". He said:

Image source, Reuters

He saved some of his more colourful turns of phrase for Tony Blair. "Tony Blair finds it hard to believe that any Prime Minister could be anything other than an enthusiast for the EU. It's a failure of what George Eliot once called imaginative sympathy on his part."

tweets, external:

David:

Conservative leader David Cameron is speaking at a party event in north Cornwall, where he's been addressing a range of issues including home ownership, education and provisions for pensioners - hot on the heels of this week's changes to pensions, whereby people can chose to do more with their savings than buying the traditional annuity.

"My friends we have got just 30 days to go to make these arguments", he tells the crowd, after recapping what the Conservatives want to do should they form a majority government after 7 May.

Ruth Alexander from Radio 4's More or Less programme has been sifting through the figures on NHS spending in England. She found that the budget hasn't gone up as much as it used to. She told Radio 4's PM that from 1997 to 2009 spending increased by about 5.5% each year. In the last four years, it has been about 0.8 per cent each year.

Image source, SPL

But things look a bit different if you look at government spending overall. Ruth pointed out that in 2009-10 the Department of Health accounted for nearly a quarter of government spending. In this financial year it will account for about a third. She said it showed two things - how the NHS was being protected and the scale of cuts in other departments. Her conclusion from all this? That there may not be that much between the political parties on NHS spending. The more significant differences, she reckoned, were to be found on spending in other departments.

Nick Robinson
Political editor

You can read Nick's latest blog here.

Ed, Middlesex:

Newsnight

For the course of the general election campaign, Newsnight each evening will be publishing an exclusive Newsnight Index on the likely outcome, based on a sophisticated forecast model. It is produced by Professor Chris Hanretty from the University of East Anglia and his colleagues at electionforecast.co.uk.

The changes shown in brackets are since the last edition – on Thursday 2 April.

For more information on how the Index is produced, see here, external.

tweets:, external

The Mirror

Mikey Smith, external writes: Wondering what Ed Miliband's been up to for the last couple of days?

Well it seems like he's been spittin' rhymes and laying down tracks with rapper Skepta.

A very well edited Vine mashup of the Labour leader and the grime superstar, external has been going crazy online.

Image source, Twitter

There's one story dominating online political chatter in Scotland ahead of tonight's Scottish leaders' debate in Edinburgh - #SNPboss, external.

The hashtag refers to a front page story, external in today's Daily Record that says a "key figure" in the Yes campaign has defected to Labour after becoming "deeply saddened" that many SNP members "secretly hope for another Tory government".

But the paper was mocked on social media for describing the man in question - Muhammad Shoaib - as "SNP boss" in their headline when his role was as organiser of Asians for Independence.

An SNP spokeswoman played down the move, saying it was "a clear case of sour grapes" after Mr Shoaib failed to be selected as an SNP parliamentary candidate.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage is relieved he'll never have to make a decision about using nuclear weapons, says BBC political correspondent Robin Brant.

He told the BBC it was "ridiculous" to ask him if he would ever authorise their use as "that won't be my decision after May the 8th". Mr Farage was speaking at an event in Dudley in the West Midlands about his party's defence policies. He said it was "right to have the deterrent, expensive though it is".

UKIP would create a cabinet-level role of minister for veterans and would increase spending on defence to 2% of the UK's GDP. Robin Brant reports that Mr Farage refused to agree with UKIP colleague Douglas Carswell that reforming defence procurement should be a priority before increasing the budget.

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Image source, David Cameron

BBC News picture editor Phil Coomes brings you the day's best images from the campaign trial - including cupcakes, crossbows and Nick Clegg behind a bar. See them here.

Image source, Reuters

Patrick, Bristol:

Phil L:

A poll for the Jewish Chronicle suggests 69% of British Jews would vote Conservative while 22% would vote Labour.

Survation also asked 560 British Jews about their attitudes to the party leaders. David Cameron was considered by 64% of those questioned to have the best attitude towards the Jewish community, compared with 13% who said Ed Miliband.

Reality Check on the BBC News Channel has been pondering how the public might vote if there was an in/out referendum on Europe. Nick Higham concludes that attitudes have changed over the last five years. He reports that in a YouGov poll in 2010 47% said they would vote to leave the EU - while in a YouGov poll last month 36% said they wanted out.