Labour launches its manifesto, vowing to be the party of economic responsibility
Ed Miliband promises every policy will be fully funded and require no "additional borrowing"
The Conservatives are to announce that they would extend the 'Right-to-buy' to 1.3 million housing association tenants
Nick Clegg says the Lib Dems will not have another coalition with the Tories if they insist on £12bn welfare cuts
The Lib Dems launch a "five point plan" aimed at consumers and commuters
There are 24 days left until the general election
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Richard Placket:
My strong prediction is that when you look at the small print of the labour manifesto they will still be proposing to borrow more than the Conservatives, even after the Conservative's additional NHS funding is taken into account. We shall see!
BBC Radio 4 Today
Labour's shadow chancellor said some cuts may be offset by plans to raise taxes elsewhere.
"We're also setting out ways in which, financed by tax changes - for example, the mansion tax for the National Health Service - we can increase spending on our priorities," he said.
"That will deliver, in 2015-16, £800 million extra for Scotland because that is their share.
"Whether or not the overall Scottish budget is cut depends upon whether or not £800 million which is financed or extra is more than or less than our unplanned cuts."
Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator
The Spectator
Image source, GettyQuote MessageAt Coffee House, we occasionally criticise George Osborne for stretching the truth when describing the deficit - but when it comes to hoodwinking broadcasters and deceiving voters, Ed Balls is the master. Three times on the radio today he lied about Labour’s plans, saying that he intends to have the national debt falling. He has no such plans: what he means is that he plans for the national debt to rise, but to rise more slowly than the economy is growing. What he means is that his plan is not for the debt to fall, but for a ratio to fall: the debt/GDP ratio. And isn't very ambitious, because that ratio already is falling."
@murrisonMP
Quote MessageNigel Farage saying #VoteConservative where UKIP can't win. Otherwise it's a vote for Lab/SNP, Ed & Alex & everything UKIPers don't want
London mayor and Conservative election candidate Boris Johnson
The Daily Telegraph
Quote MessageHooray. Great move, Blue team! At last we are doing something to end the unfairness of a tax that has crept up on countless ordinary families. By cutting inheritance tax on family homes the Conservatives are promising to help vast numbers of people who were being clobbered by a phenomenon over which they had absolutely no control and for which they could not be blamed - the irresistible appreciation in the value of their homes."
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Brian, Norfolk:
This morning Ed Balls said: "We're not going to raise taxes for working people but will for those on the highest incomes." Labour intend doing away with the married couples allowance which will hit the poorest as the allowance is only available to those couples where one spouse does not earn enough to use up all of their personal tax allowance. So taxes would rise for them if Labour were to be elected. That's one promise broken already.
BBC Radio 4 Today
Image source, ReutersA bit more from Ed Balls' interview with Today a short time ago. He said Labour's planned spending cuts "are, of course, UK-wide" but may be offset by other measures to raise more money.
Labour's leader in Scotland Jim Murphy - above left - has said that the party would not need to make "further cuts to achieve our spending rules" in the next Parliament.
But the shadow chancellor said: "We will have cuts in our non-protected areas outside health and education as part of getting the deficit down alongside tax increases for people on the highest incomes."
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Ian, Tamworth:
Who do we trust on NHS funding, a party that increased spending on it between 1997 and 2010 or a Party who has cut funding in real terms every year since 2012. One that has a fully funded £2.5bn commitment or one that has plucked an unfunded £8bn from thin air. I was a floating voter, now I'm voting Labour.
@tamcohen
Quote MessageNick Clegg is off to Maidstone today, where Lib Dems think they can win Helen Grant's seat...private polling puts them 4 points behind her."
Norman Smith
Assistant political editor
Labour will today seek to re-brand themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility. The party that is serious about tackling the deficit.
And so on the front page of their manifesto they will unveil what they call a Budget Responsibility Lock - every policy must be fully funded, no policy must require any additional borrowing and all future Labour budgets must cut the deficit - and this must be be verified by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
This morning the shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the pledge contrasted with the Conservatives, who in recent days had been spending "billions here and there" with unfunded commitments on the NHS and taxes.
The danger is that it is very late in the day to start trying to reassure voters over the party's economic credibility and key questions remain unanswered. Namely, the size of the deficit that would still exist under Labour - because they would leave themselves room to borrow for capital spending - and when in the next Parliament they would actually balance the books.
@Stephenson_Ryan
Quote MessageAt #GE2015 hustings Miliband's candidate called me an "economic nerd". Typical socialist: forgets a strong economy = strong public services
BBC News Channel
"It's a bit early for a pint," says Norman Smith as he speaks to the BBC News Channel from outside the Rovers Return.
@Peston
Quote MessageGripping that @edballsmp refusing to match @George_Osborne unfunded pledge to spend £8bn more on NHS
@bbcnickrobinson
tweets a link to his new blog entry:
Quote MessagePut down that thriller! You should read the manifestos. My blog on why & hear about my next step back to reporting"
From Robin Brant, UKIP campaign correspondent
Image source, GettyIt's Douglas's day today. UKIP's first elected MP has barely been seen on the national stage in this election campaign so far, such is his determination to regain the seaside seat which gave UKIP its historic first last year. But Douglas Carswell will play host to Nigel Farage this morning on an industrial estate in the place dubbed "the most UKIP friendly" in the country. We're told political reform will be the favoured issue. Mr Carswell has long attacked what he sees as the terminal disconnect between Westminster and places at the end of the line like Clacton. His calls for "proper recall" of MPs sit well with his boss Nigel Farage's constant criticism of the first-past-the-post way we elect our MPs. Douglas Carswell has hinted that reform may be a negotiating demand in any post election talks - if UKIP has some influence. The Lib Dems tried that though, and a referendum on plans to introduce a new system - AV - came, and went.
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Martin Mills, Salisbury:
All that is missing from Labour's front cover of their manifesto is a bloke with a spade, a tractor and of course the Hammer & Sickle. It's a bit WW2 Soviet style for my liking!
Image source, ReutersEd Balls returns to attacking the Conservatives, accusing Chancellor George Osborne of making "unfunded commitments" on volunteering, rail fares and the NHS.
He repeats that Labour "will make no commitments to spend more money unless we can show where the money will come from".
He claims that "no-one's going to believe Tory promises of £8bn" for the NHS when they can't show where it is coming from and the deficit is rising.
@steve_hawkes
Quote MessageEd Balls concedes Labour promising less than Tories on NHS, but says George Osborne has no idea where the money is coming from"
@bbclaurak
Quote MessagePolitical vulnerability for Labour on this that no final deadline in plan to sort the books out, even if that is realistic"
BBC Radio 4 Today
Ed Balls now turns his fire on the SNP.
"Their plan for fiscal autonomy in the UK is fiscal austerity," he claims.