Image source, Getty Images

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that for the Tories to put £8bn per year into the NHS and stick to austerity measures, cuts would have to be made elsewhere. "Without genuine additional funding these Tory plans will see cuts to services like social care, police and local government - all of which are vital in keeping the pressure off the NHS," she said. "This is a clear illustration of why Tory austerity must end if we are to properly protect our public services."

In January, David Cameron said that unfunded spending commitments could "wreck our NHS", Labour leader Ed Miliband says at the launch of the Labour Party health manifesto. He criticised the Tories' £8bn per year funding pledge. "The truth is you can't save the NHS if you don't know where the money is coming from," he says. "You can only damage the NHS if you are planning collosal cuts in public spending year after year," he says.

"The bottom line is this. You can't fund the NHS from an IOU, and the British people know it."

BBC News Channel

Prime Minister David Cameron was at Witney Community Hospital in Oxfordshire earlier today. He told the BBC he wanted "an NHS that continues to expand and improve and provide great care… that continues to save lives."

He added: "It has always been there for me and my family and I want it to be there for everyone’s families. And that’s why we are making this decision today to fund this plan in full."

He said the Conservatives were able to do that because "we have a strong economy and because we have taken the long term decisions necessary to put the NHS first".

Asked whether that would mean cuts elsewhere, Mr Cameron said:

'For us the NHS has always been a priority because we want the NHS to expand, to improve, to provide the great lifesaving treatments, to have that great care.

That's what we've done in the last Parliament, that's what we're going to do in this Parliament and we're able to fund the NHS's own plan in full because we have a strong economy, a strong economy that is linked to the difficult and long term decisions that we've taken elsewhere".

Labour Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham, launching Labour's health manifesto, has said there are "unprecedented pressures" on the NHS with people "struggling to get GP appointments" and cuts to mental health services.

He says: "The root cause of the A&E crisis is the collapse of social care under David Cameron. Last year over 300,000 aged over 90 were admitted to A&E in England via a blue light ambulance."

BBC News Channel

Stephanie Baker, a senior writer at Bloomberg News tells BBC Dateline none of the political parties seem to be able to explain how they will fund their NHS spending promises.

It’s incredibly the number of unfunded giveaways they [the political parties] have trotted out this week. Trying to woo voters and move the polls,” she says.

She dismisses Labour’s promise of one-on-one midwife care saying that even in the boom years under Blair "you didn’t necessarily have that".

The Conservative promise of an £8bn annual spending increase for the NHS by 2020 she also questions. Why have the Tories taken so long to come out with this proposal? She asks.

Ms Baker points out the Tories have been under pressure to outline a policy like this for months.

The most interesting policy initiative was Ed Miliband’s policy on the tax status of non doms.

Ms Baker says: “It was gutsy, it made him look prime ministerial but again you have to wonder, he was in the Treasury for years, I’m sure he looked at this before. Why only now did he suddenly say 'we’ve found a way to do this in a way that won’t cost the Treasury money'. I think it will cost the Treasury money in line with what Ed Balls said a couple of months ago."

Mr Richards adds he defence secretary's attack on the Labour leader wasn't "a clumsy, casual intervention" but a deliberate act.

He says this is largely because the one thing most pollsters say people know about Mr Miliband is that he beat his brother to the leadership of the Labour party.

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Image source, Twitter

On Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's personal attack on Ed Miliband, Thomas Kielinger, the UK correspondent for German newspaper Die Welt, tells Dateline: “I’m sure the voters are just as upset or cheesed off… by this unbelievably stupid intervention by the Defence Secretary.”

Mr Keilinger adds that all Mr Fallon needed to do was warn Labour off from ever doing a deal with the Scottish National Party (SNP) over Trident.

To make out that the deal had already happened was far-fetched . He adds personal attacks "turn off voters completely".

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Image source, Twitter

On the BBC’s Dateline Independent columnist, Steve Richards, calls the personal attack by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon on Labour leader Ed Miliband earlier this week “absurd”.

He adds the attack will have done nothing to help the Tories adding it was a “comically hyperbolic attack”.

“I think it was just ridiculous,” he says.

More broadly, Mr Richards says, although Mr Miliband’s personal ratings have “been abysmal for a long time” he is a more formidable figure than the Conservative party and right leaning newspapers have realised.

Mr Miliband is "aware of the rhythms of campaigns…People will see someone who is a bit more intelligent, thoughtful and engaged than the caricature," he adds

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage has weighed in on the Tories NHS spending pledge.

He says:

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BBC Radio 4 Today

Shadow health minister Liz Kendall has been speaking about the Labour's plans to improve midwife services and said the pledge would mean one-to-one care, leading to safer births, fewer caesareans, less post-natal depression and a better start in life for babies.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier: "We need to retain more midwives because many feel under huge pressure and are leaving.

"It is going to be tough. It is going to be a real challenge but we need to break this vicious cycle where staff are under huge pressure, they leave and women get worse care."

Around £480m a year is spent on clinical negligence cover for maternity services, she added.

Reality Check

Not always as it turns out. There are several examples of the second largest party forming the government with the help of another party. it's simply that it hasn't happened for a while: the last time was in 1974.

As it happens the first Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald in 1923 only came into existence because of the support of the Liberals. The Conservative party was by far the largest party with 258 seats in the House of Commons but Labour on 191 seats were able to keep them out of government with the help of the Liberal party and its 158 seats.

Admittedly the government only lasted 10 months but that's sort of beside the point. You can read more about what might happen in the even of a hung parliament after 7 May here.

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BBC Radio 4

YouGov researcher Joe Twyman, external has just been tweeting, external about the correlation between a person's first name and the party they are most likely to vote for. Apparently, you're more likely to vote UKIP if your name is Nigel.

Here is what he says are the top three most common names for voters of four of the parties:

• Conservative: Charlotte, Fiona and Pauline
• Labour: Michelle, June and Andy
• Lib Dem: Tim, Kathryn and Samantha
• UKIP: Jill, Nigel and Terry

He'll be speaking about the topic on Radio 4 just after 11:00.

Which party leader has travelled the furthest distance in their quest to cultivate votes so far?

Prime Minister David Cameron comes out the clear winner, clocking up 4,900 kilometres (3,000 miles) up and down the country to date. That's 1,000 kilomotres further than Lib Dem leader NIck Clegg, who has covered the second largest distance - 3,900 kilometres (1,800 miles).

Labour leader Ed Miliband has so far covered 2,200 kilometres (1,400 miles).

You can read more about the campaign stats here.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond reports from the Conservative campaign bus.

He says: It’s a day of role reversal today as the Conservatives spray apparently unfunded largesse at the NHS and Labour cries foul at what it calls irresponsible spending.

The Conservatives won’t say where the money’s going to come from, apart from ‘future growth' but insist that voters should look at their record, both in building the kind of economy that can support such spending and in funding the NHS over the last five years – to the tune of £7.3bn a year over and above inflation, by the end of the last Parliament

Conservative officials also dispute that there’s any kind of change in campaign momentum ; there’s been comment about the need to run a more positive campaign, with some suggestions from Team Cameron of good-times-to-come for a long suffering electorate. But the Conservatives say that all week they’ve been bringing out good news for voters, and that the best news of all is a strong economy.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Norman Lamb, Lib Dem care minister, tells Radio 5 live that the Tory £8bn pledge can't be taken seriously. He says: "Just to say they will spend this money while at the same time trying to shrink the size of the state to somewhere near where it was 50 years ago... I just don't think it's any way credible."