The Mirror

Image source, Press Association

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been talking to the Mirror, external. He tells the paper that if he fails to win Thanet South he might quit politics altogether and become a house-husband. Other tidbits: he enjoys cooking; his political heroes are Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama; and he appears to bristle slightly at physical comparisons between himself and the actor Brad Pitt - who is older than Mr Farage.

The Guardian

In The Observer, Andrew Rawnsley looks ahead, external to this week's party election manifesto launches, and ponders the utility of such a document in the modern day. He writes: "They eat trees, drink ink and burn airtime. They come loaded with dangerous hostages to fortune and yet they are regarded as indispensable. They cause no end of angst for party leaders during the build-up to elections and massive trouble after them."

BBC home affairs correspondent June Kelly tells BBC News that Labour's pledge to let alleged victims of sexual offences challenge police would apply to complaints to the police that weren't passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Labour has said there were 16,300 rapes reported to the police in 2012-13, and 6,400 were passed to the CPS. "Labour have made much of the fact that, they say, that victims need to have a stronger voice," she says.

The Independent

The Independent on Sunday's John Rentoul, external says "David Cameron's main hope now is the return of the 'shy Tories'", whose voting behaviour so surprised pundits in the 1992 election.

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BBC Radio 4

"The debate around tax this election has been really deeply depressing," says Paul Johnson, director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies. He says the Conservatives and Labour are "ruling out whole hosts of relatively straightforward ways of increasing tax, talking about raising tax from some other group, be they the rich, or the non-doms, or the tax avoiders, but this is all real money and has real effects on the economy, and no sense from anybody about a serious way forward for the tax system".

BBC Radio 4

Both the Conservatives and Labour are "making up numbers" as to how much they could recoup from tax evasion and avoidance, Institute of Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson says. The Conservatives are committed to getting £5bn, Labour £7.5bn. "It's almost impossible to know up front actually what you can achieve from cracking down on avoidance and evasion, and indeed, it's almost impossible to know ex post how much you've got," he says.

The Conservative inheritance tax cut proposal would increase the attractiveness for those who can afford it to make an investment in property without dealing with the lack of housing that is pushing house prices up to begin with, Institute of Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson says. "Anything... which increases the tax privilege associated with an asset like housing will drive the price up in the long run," he says.

BBC Radio 4

Tory plans to cut inheritance tax for some will only affect "a very small proportion of all estates", Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, tells the World This Weekend: "Less than 10% [of estates] pay inheritance tax at all at the moment. This particular change will probably reduce the inheritance tax liabilities of between 20,000 and 30,000 estates each year. That's out of something like half a million people who die each year."

BBC Radio 4

Speaking to the World This Weekend, Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander says he acknowledges it will be a "tough" fight for him to hold on to his constituency seat, but that people faced a choice between Scottish nationalists who wanted to go to Westminster to be "disruptive", or Lib Dems, who had "battled hard for their constituents". "Clearly I want everyone in my constituency to vote for me," he says.

From BBC North West reporter Stuart Flinders - Labour is refusing to match the Conservatives' promise to increase spending on the NHS by £8bn by 2020.

Speaking on the Sunday Politics North West, Labour's health spokesman, Andy Burnham, said his party was sticking to its commitment to spend an extra £2.5bn right after the General Election.

But he dismissed the Tory promise as a cheque that will probably bounce.The Liberal Democrats have already pledged an extra £8bn.

Image source, Getty Images

The former president of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron - who is seen as a potential successor to Nick Clegg - has praised Business Secretary Vince Cable as a "stonking good leader" on the Sunday Politics North West, even though Mr Cable recently dismissed Mr Farron's own chances of leading the Lib Dems. Last month, he questioned Tim Farron's credibility and competence. Mr Farron insists that currently he's concentrating only on his party's election campaign.

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The announcement [on inheritance tax] is likely to appeal to middle class voters, particularly in London and the South East. But it also opens the Conservatives to the charge they are helping the wealthy. David Cameron’s team deny this – pointing out that it will be paid for by reducing pension tax relief for high earners and that many ordinary families now have to pay the tax. It is however a marked contrast to the promises from Labour and the Liberal Democrats to impose a “mansion tax” on expensive properties.

David Cameron will be hoping his pledge to take the family home out of inheritance tax will galvanise his campaign in a week which will be critical for his prospects of staying in power. When George Osborne promised to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1m at his party conference back in 2007, he delivered a huge boost to Tory morale and put Gordon Brown off holding a snap election. Subsequent promises to take more people out of the tax have not been delivered. The threshold has been frozen since 2009 and rising property prices have dragged tens of thousands more families into the inheritance tax net. His opponents are already questioning whether voters will believe this latest promise.

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Image source, Carole Walker

Nicola Sturgeon says removing the benefits cap is “not a priority for change”. Jim Murphy says his party has accepted it should stay at the current level. Ruth Davidson said her party would lower it to £23k. Willie Rennie says the Lib Dems will keep the benefit cap as it is.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson defends her government's record on the economy, pointing to economic growth and more employment. But Jim Murphy (pictured above) says for so many people it's been "a bloody awful five years".