Conservative manifesto launch

1. The Conservatives launch their manifesto, with David Cameron declaring “we are the party of working people”
2. They promise an extension of the right-to-buy scheme and 30 hours free childcare a week
3. The Green Party’s manifesto launch calls for action against climate change
4. It also promises steps to “restore and extend our public services”
5. There are 23 days left until polling day

Recap of the day....

The day has been dominated by manifesto launches, with David Cameron offering to help voters secure a 'good life'. We're signing off for the day but we’ll be back with more manifestos - the Liberal Democrats and UKIP - from 6am tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a recap of the day:

• Launching the Conservative Party manifesto , David Cameron said the Conservatives were the party of "working people"
• Mr Cameron unveiled new policies on childcare, the right-to-buy and income tax
• The other parties spent the day attacking the Tories’ pitch to voters. Nigel Farage said the Conservatives were “aping UKIP”; the Lib Dems said the Tories’ lack of detailed plans for cuts was “extraordinary”; and Labour insisted Mr Cameron's party wouldn’t stand up for working people
• The Green Party launched its manifesto with party leader Natalie Bennett calling on voters to join a “peaceful revolution” as she laid out plans to end austerity politics
• The Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy clashed with the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon on austerity politics – and faced veiled criticism from his colleagues in London too.

A place to call your own

We finish where we started... with the Conservatives' big manifesto announcement on extending the right-to-buy to housing association tenants. In an interview with BBC2's Newsnight, the Conservative chief whip Michael Gove said it would help "tens of thousands of people to have a place they can call their own". As for the Tories' wider plans, he denied that people with disabilities would lose under proposals to cut welfare spending by £12bn. Mr Gove said:

The idea that any government led by David Cameron would actually make the lives of disabled children, or families with disabled members, more difficult simply doesn't make sense."

Wednesday's i

Independent

Wednesday's Independent

Independent

Wednesday's Sun

The Sun

Wednesday's Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The latest on the polls....

David Cowling, Editor, BBC Political Research says:

TNS gave the Conservatives a two-point lead over Labour (34% versus 32%) and YouGov gave Labour a one-point lead over the Conservatives (34% versus 33%), with the Lib Dems around 9%, UKIP 14% and the Greens around 6%. Too early to tell if manifestos have any impact on public opinion. But the really interesting development was the publication of the latest batch of Ashcroft constituency polls. These comprised ten Conservative seats with challenging majorities for Labour to overturn. He found a mixed bag of results, varying from a 0.5% swing from Conservative to Labour in Harlow and a swing of one point in Dover, through to a 7.5% swing in Crewe & Nantwich, 7% in Finchley & Golders Green and 6% in Milton Keynes South. He also found that Labour were generally outgunning the Conservatives in terms of making contact with electors."

Clegg: 'We will not sell out'

The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg tells the Guardian that the country faces a stark choice between "a coalition of grievance" that involves the Scottish Nationalists or UKIP, or the politics of conscience and stability with the Liberal Democrats. He was speaking ahead of the Lib Dem manifesto launch on Wednesday. He also tells the Guardian that the party will stick to its manifesto promises.

Wednesday's Guardian

Guardian

Wednesday's Telegraph

Telegraph

Wednesday's Mirror

Mirror

John Prescott hits the campaign trail...

John - now Lord - Prescott, (and former Labour deputy prime minister) has been campaigning in Merseyside today. He still knows how to pack a punch - verbally, of course. He compared Esther McVey - a Conservative Minister defending Wirral West - to Margaret Thatcher. The Liverpool Echo reports that he called her heartless.

Here's a full list of candidates standing in Wirral West.

Wednesday's Financial Times

Financial Times

A 'good life' for marine life?

Here's a bit of the Conservative manifesto that may have passed you by. The Conservative Zac Goldsmith tweets:

Fantastic that Conservative Manifesto includes biggest & boldest marine conservation measures of any Government ever."

George Eaton, New Statesman's political editor

tweets:

Labour and Tories have looked like students desperately cramming to ensure they secure a pass in their weakest subjects (economy/society).

Polly Curtis

tweets:

@MichaelLCrick to boat dweller on the election: "Are you a floating voter?" Boat man: "That's not very funny." #channel4news

Help at hand for undecided voters

Need some guidance on which party to vote for? Democratic Audit UK - a research unit at the London School of Economics - has been reviewing Voter Advice Applications, which try to match voters' views to party policies

Manifesto week

PA

Today it was the turn of the Conservatives and Green Party, yesterday Labour. Tomorrow brings us the Lib Dem and UKIP manifesto launches. How will those two parties try to tempt voters their way?

'Political cross-dressing'

The BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, examines the language of the party leaders during this manifesto week.

Immigration warning

The Huffington Post

Britain would "fall apart" without immigration, a former senior Conservative minister has argued.

Alistair Burt, who served as a Foreign Office minister from 2010 to 2013, said on Monday evening that politicians had to make sure to counter the "negative" view of migration.

'Mummy vote'

On the BBC News Channel, Caroline Wheeler of the Sunday Express says the Conservatives' manifesto launch was aiming at both the "grey vote" and the "mummy vote" with announcements on right to buy and childcare. Kate Devlin, of the Herald, says the "good life" theme was not just an attempt to steal ground from Labour - it was also a pitch at potential voters.

All change please

The Lib Dem battle bus, previously known for hitting a pigeon , has been abandoned. PA's David Hughes (see the entry below) says journalists have opted for the tube instead.

David Hughes, Press Association

tweets:

Lib Dem bus stranded by side of the road due to some form of electrical problem. Driver trying to get it restarted.

David Hughes/Twitter

Gove: 'bright and optimistic' story

BBC

Michael Gove, the Conservative chief whip, reviews the party's manifesto. Speaking to the BBC News Channel, he says: "I think it's a bright and optimistic story of the good life that all of us can enjoy in the next five years if we carry on the path that we have been following for the last five years."

He says:

We are now in a position to say to people that at every stage in your life we can provide an enhanced opportunity for you and your family."

Debbie Cameron

tweets:

I want one interview where the question is 'why do you think that's a good idea' rather than 'how are you going to pay for it'."

Manifesto test for Priti Patel

In the hot-seat for Radio 4 PM's 10-minute election interview this afternoon was the Conservative Treasury Minister, Priti Patel.

Presenter Eddie Mair asked her about a manifesto pledge to ensure everyone can access a GP in their area between 8am and 8pm seven days a week.

There was a brief silence - a rare occurrence on PM - at which point Eddie Mair 'fessed up. "I beg your pardon. That was the 2010 manifesto. You didn't keep that promise."

Ms Patel replied: "Well, well... let's go back to 2010 and where we are now. Of course there wasn't a Conservative government. It's been a coalition government."

At which Mair observed: "It's the Liberal Democrats' fault!"

Add to the debate

Mary, London:

Cameron delivered the best news today regarding housing and l am happy somebody is finally addressing the unfair and unjust housing policy. lf council tenants have the right to buy their properties with discount why not housing association tenants? l can't continue paying rent without it benefiting me in the future.

Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent, Daily Telegraph

tweets:

"We've not got a money tree," says Greens' Darren Johnson, outlining plans to increase tax take by £200 billion

ela!ne

tweets:

Forcing folk into mortgages they can't afford is how this economy got in a mess in the first place #righttobuy

What about drugs?

Generation 2015 panel member Billy Orton thought David Cameron's speech was "quite visionary, but I thought it was bit of a throwback to Thatcher's era". He laments that there was "very little mention" of the environment and drugs policies.

Jordan Lee-Pirrie, meanwhile, felt the tone adopted by the PM was "very positive", if, perhaps, a little over-the-top. "But you need that, otherwise people aren't going to be interested in politics and they're not going to want to vote," he adds.

Party leaders...as you've never heard them before

BBC

Listen to impressions by Jon Culshaw and Debra Stephenson on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Generation 2015 reaction

BBC

Several young people who are part of the BBC's Generation 2015 team of 200 young voters have been giving their reaction to the Conservatives' manifesto, launched by David Cameron today.

Watching the speech, Jodie Lunnon felt there wasn't much in it to appeal to younger voters. But others on the panel liked the prime minister's focus on traditional and family values.

Ross Slocombe

tweets:

Just emailed all the candidates standing in my local area in #election2015 to ask how they would improve things, lets see what comes back :)

Frank Field: right-to-buy `a half-baked idea'

BBC

The veteran Labour politician Frank Field says he was "at the fore" of calls for Labour to support the right-to-buy back in 1970s and 80s. In an article for the Politics Home website he says he still supports the principle but not the details of the Conservatives' policy.

I cannot support this half-baked idea. There are no guarantees the scheme will raise the income the Tories propose and no guarantees the social housing lost will be replaced."

Labour's 'ethnic minority' manifesto

Labour has been setting out policies designed to help people from ethnic minority backgrounds . Launching the party's BAME manifesto was shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan. He said that when his parents came to London from Pakistan in the 1960s they were "regularly confronted with signs saying ‘no blacks, no Irish, no dogs’". Mr Khan said there had been "huge progress" since then but that things had gone backwards under the last government.

Are you a political poet?

BBC Have Your Say has been asking readers to tweet an election-themed poem in 140 characters or fewer.  Click here to find out to take part.

Tom Watson, Labour candidate in West Bromwich East

tweets:

From a bedroom window in North Warwickshire: "I'm making love to the wife but please put a poster in the letter box". There's commitment.

Iain Dale, columnist

tweets:

That @GreenJennyJones is a rascal. Avoided answering difficult question by congratulating me on my Blog of the Year Award. Minx :)

Ben Glaze, DailyMirror political correspondent

tweets:

Russian planes near our airspace, Russian ships in the Channel - manna from heaven for those wanting UK to meet @NATO 2% target. #GE2015

Gove goes off message?

BBC

There was nothing silly about the question BBC politics producer Chris Gibson put to Michael Gove: "Too late to win the election?" However, we'll leave you to judge whether the Chief Whip gave a sensible answer.

Hot election tips from blacksmiths

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

BBC

The Daily Politics is touring the UK, calling in on voters at 18 sites to ask their views on the general election - and Tuesday's stop was in Tholthorpe, North Yorkshire. Reporter Giles Dilnot spoke to Will Lowe, Branny Drinkhall and Allison Steed, who work at a blacksmiths, about what the parties have to offer to earn their vote at the general election. Watch the film

Have your say

Phil Brown, Lowestoft:

I am really getting turned off by the election campaign. Why oh why are we being subjected to the constant barrage of “good news”? Surely pretty well all of these “pledges” could have been delivered policy over the last five years? Anyway I no longer believe politicians' rhetoric, it is all about their own futures not about the country's future. A small committee of intelligent, non partisan, individuals could almost certainly make better decisions than 650 expensive, self- interested MPs.

Signing off

European Photopress Agency

It’s been a day dominated by manifesto launches, with David Cameron offering a brighter, more positive message from the Conservatives to voters. This is Alex Stevenson and Victoria King signing off for the day – we’ll be back for more from 6am tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a recap of the day so far:

• The Conservative Party manifesto saw David Cameron promise a “good life” as he positioned the Tories as the party for “working people”
• Mr Cameron unveiled new policies on childcare, right-to-buy and income tax
• The other parties spent the day attacking the Tories’ pitch to voters. Nigel Farage said the Conservatives were “aping UKIP”; the Lib Dems said the Tories’ lack of detailed plans for cuts were “extraordinary”; and Labour insisted Mr Cameron's party wouldn’t stand up for working people
• The Green Party manifesto featured a promise for action on climate change
• Leader Natalie Bennett called for voters to join a “peaceful revolution” as she laid out plans to end austerity politics
• The latest inflation figures saw the consumer price index unchanged at 0%
• Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy clashed with Nicola Sturgeon on austerity politics – and faced veiled criticism from his colleagues in London, too.

In praise of UKIP

Francis Bashir / UKIP

UKIP is enjoying the spiritual assistance of a Christian church in Lahore, Pakistan. Pastor Francis Bashir has revealed pictures of his congregation holding up a UKIP poster stating that “God made you successful”. Their enthusiasm for "Nigel Farag" – as his name is spelled on the poster – is clear. Pastor Bashir wants UKIP to win the election “because the party stands up for Christian culture and values and people from the Commonwealth”. Pakistani Christians are among the most persecuted in the world, UKIP points out.

A long way from parliament

WittWoo Photography

Westminster feels rather a long way from Penrith and the Borders, the seat held by Conservative Rory Stewart in the last parliament. That distance is in the mind as much as it is physical, as Today programme reporter Matthew Price has been discovering. His report is the latest in Today’s 100 seats in 100 days series.

James Kirkup, Politics @ Telegraph Media Group

tweets:

Can you tell the Conservative and Labour 2015 election manifestos apart? | via @Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11535111/Can-you-tell-the-Conservative-and-Labour-2015-election-manifestos-apart.html …

Conservatives would `shackle workers'

As the day goes on, other policies - beyond the headline-grabbers - in the Conservative manifesto are coming to light. The party wants to change the rules on industrial action so a strike could only go ahead "based on a ballot in which half the workforce has voted". And public sector workers would only be able to go out on strike if it was directly supported by 40% of people entitled to take part. The manifesto states: "We will protect you from disruptive and undemocratic strike action."

The proposal has angered the unions with the GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny calling the Conservatives "class warriors" seeking to "shackle workers".

We will soon see the double standards in operation as if the Tories are returned again they will have no hesitation in forming a Government while not securing 40% support from the electorate. Yet they propose to use that power to impose a 40% threshold on trade union members voting for strike action.

Add to the debate

Paul Barrett Brown:

Right to buy seems to have dominated media reporting. Whatever happened to EU membership, controlling immigration and the fact that population growth has exacerbated health, education, welfare, housing pressures? It seems that some of the most important issues confronting the electorate have been deliberately sidelined by most parties and that the media has helped to keep these matters off the table.

Hanging with the Girl Guides

BBC

No-one, it’s fair to assume, told Miriam Gonzalez Durantez that being a politician’s wife would involve making edible pigs. But carefully crafting these objects out of chocolate digestives, fondant and cream eggs, as well as assisting in the preparation of lava lamps (pictured above), is exactly what Nick Clegg’s missus has been up to on a visit to a local Girl Guides hut. She’s been in Hazel Grove, Stockport, helping Lib Dem candidate Lisa Smart's bid to hold the seat. “It's obviously a very close campaign for everybody,” says Ms Gonzalez Durantez. “Nobody's going to have an outright majority and that makes it quite interesting." That’s one way of putting it…

'Flaky election bribes'

AFP/Getty Images

Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman delivers her verdict on today's Conservative party manifesto launch:

The Conservative Party have not and will not stand up for working families. It is working people who have paid the price of the last five years, with higher taxes and wages down £1,600. Yesterday Labour showed that it was the party of change and the party of responsibility with a fully funded manifesto that does not require any extra borrowing. The Conservative manifesto today shows once again that working people can’t afford five more years of the Tories.”

Election deaths

Independent candidate Ronnie Carroll's death brought into focus the need for rules to govern what happens in such an event. BBC political analyst Will Wearmouth sums up the relevant electoral law:

• When an independent like Mr Carroll dies, the election proceeds as normal
• When a candidate for a political party dies, the poll in that constituency is postponed. New nominations aren’t permitted, apart from a new candidate from the deceased’s party
• If the Speaker seeking re-election dies, new nominations are allowed
• If the Queen dies, polling day is postponed by 14 days

Are you an election geek?

Click here to find out how to take part in Jeremy Vine's quiz.

Blast from the past

Delving into his elephant-like memory, our political correspondent Chris Mason reminds us that a plan to extend right-to-buy to tenants of housing associations appeared in the Conservative manifesto ahead of the 2005 general election. On page 22, to be precise.

Remember this?

BBC

Ned Simons, Assistant political editor, The Huffington Post UK

tweets a link to an interview with former minister Alistair Burt:

Cameron downgrades his immigration target to an ambition. Ex-minister says without migration UK would 'fall apart'"

'Massive subsidies'

PA

Boris Johnson might not be such a big fan of today’s right-to-buy announcement, if comments from him in mayor’s question time just a couple of weeks ago are anything to go by. The comments, which can be found here at 17.30 in, have been flagged up by Liberal Democrats. Here’s what Mr Johnson had to say when pressed on extending the policy to housing association tenants:

“If I may say so, obviously one of the issues with extending the right-to-buy to housing associations in the way that I think you are thinking of is that it would be potentially extremely costly to this body. We would have to make up the difference. Housing associations are private bodies, as we all know. It would involve massive subsidies. We would need to get the funds to support that. At the moment, I would stress, there is no such policy.”

Mark Glover

tweets:

Loving @jamieoliver's manifesto idea in @theipaper to ban chewing gum in public. Would like to see spitting outlawed too #ELECTION2015

Is leader a liability for her party?

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

The Green Party "is having a wonderful campaign" said its leader, who predicted more than one-in-20 people would vote for them at the general election. Natalie Bennett was talking to Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics, where he asked her if she had become a liability for her party.Watch a clip

BBC

Directors-general

Getty Images

Here are two more reactions to the Conservatives’ manifesto - one rather more sympathetic than the other.

The economic recovery is strengthening, but there is still much to do. Progress has been made in cutting the deficit over this parliament, and the Conservative Party’s clear plans to continue the path of deficit reduction are welcome. Business will want clarity over how manifesto commitments will be funded. The Conservative manifesto includes a number of pro-growth measures, such as investing in infrastructure, creating a competitive tax environment, and boosting skills. And business is clear: our membership of a reformed European Union is also critical to our economic future.”

John CridlandCBI director general

This manifesto promises us that the Conservatives have a plan for every stage of our lives. It’s highly doubtful that there are many voters who want David Cameron and George Osborne to plan their lives from cradle to grave. This is a missed opportunity by the Conservative Party to put forward a strategy for a growing and successful economy which allows individuals to make their own plans for their own prosperity.”

Mark LittlewoodInstitute of Economic Affairs director general

Emily Canfor-Dumas

tweets:

What happened to climate change? Remember that big issue? Doesn't seem to be on the agenda anymore... #ELECTION2015 #climatechange

Squeezing the Tories

BBC News Channel

PA

Throughout this campaign so far Nick Clegg has been going to a lot of seats where the primary opponent is not a Labour candidate but a Tory candidate. Even in those seats where the Lib Dems are up against Labour, they hope that they can get those middle-ground Tories to support them. So they’re pretty hopeful the Tory campaign, which they see as a little too extreme, could alienate middle-ground Tories - and those are the kind of voters that Nick Clegg is trying to win over.

Beth Rigby, FT's deputy political editor

tweets:

Female Conservative also said to me the campaign messaging wld have been more effective if more women at top table

Allegra Stratton, political editor, BBC Newsnight

tweets:

Tory aides v kind to me today, loitering nearby with mike to help me ask PM a Q. But next time he should take more than one Q from a woman."

Wellbeing success

Thinkstock

The economic debate is often dominated by confusing numbers, with their pesky decimal places and baffling percentages. Perhaps the alternative measure of wellbeing might reveal more about the state of British politics, former cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell suggests. He's written an article for Prospect magazine highlighting the steady improvement in wellbeing seen over the last five years. "Why has wellbeing increased?" he asks. "Causal analysis of the data is still pretty primitive. But the first thing we can say is that it’s probably the economy, stupid." Ah. Maybe those pesky numbers do have something to do with it.

Welsh socialist republic?

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

Every child should have the opportunity to later stand to be elected head of state, says Leanne Wood. The Plaid Cymru leader told Andrew Neil there was "some way to go" before a Welsh socialist republic, but it it would be "fantastic if we could achieve that". During their Daily Politics interview, she was asked about Plaid's 11% poll result at the last general election, predictions for the next one, and her reaction to being mimicked in Radio 4's Dead Ringers comedy programme. Watch the interview

BBC

Skills drive?

Second jobs are controversial in politics, but what about additional skills? We're thinking of starting a new series on "Things you have to learn on the campaign trail". We've seen plenty of food-related tasks - pizza, pie and pancake making - as well as car maintenance and animal husbandry.

Now it seems Nicola Sturgeon has been having a go at weaving.

PA

The same hymn sheets

Reuters

Labour has run into a little difficulty over the consistency of its message on spending cuts. The problem was summed up by shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna declaring earlier that "the leader of the Scottish Labour Party will not be in charge of the UK Budget”. His comments followed shadow chancellor Ed Balls saying he couldn’t guarantee Scotland an exemption from cuts. That appeared to clash with Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy’s comments during last week’s TV debates. Mr Murphy, out campaigning in Cumbernauld today, insists he’s “singing from the same hymn sheet”. He said:

"It isn't all about cuts, it's just a different approach to how we run our economy, which is we want more people out earning decent wages, paying taxes rather than subsidising low pay and that's a much more effective way of having economic growth."

Britain's 'first crowd-sourced manifesto'

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

BBC

The Pirate Party started fighting for internet freedom but now has Britain's "first crowd-sourced manifesto", says its leader. Loz Kaye told the Daily Politics that it stood for "taking democracy back", and getting people involved in politics. And he claimed that internet access for all would help boost the UK economy and deliver growth. Watch the interview

Tory manifesto highlights

PA

Let's keep it simple for a minute. Here’s a few of the key pledges from the Conservative manifesto:

• Right-to-buy scheme extended to all housing association tenants
• Free childcare allowance for working parents of three- and four-year-olds doubled to 30 hours a week
• All those who work 30 hours per week on the minimum wage taken out of paying any income tax
• Rail fares prevented from rising above inflation until 2020
• Extra £8bn a year for the NHS by 2020
• EU referendum by 2017

There’s much more, of course, on the deficit, the "Northern Powerhouse" and the “good life” - check out our at-a-glance summary here.

Reality Check

How many people could benefit from a right-to-buy extension?

The Conservatives have said they would extend right-to-buy for “up to 1.3 million tenants of housing associations”. The party’s press release says there are around 800,000 housing association tenants who only have a limited ‘right to acquire’ social housing. The Conservatives also say that around 500,000 housing association tenants currently don’t have the right to buy their home. As the new policy would affect both of those groups, the Conservatives say that 1.3m people could benefit. But is this correct? The first thing to note is that the housing landscape has changed considerably in recent decades. The government’s 2013-14 English Housing Survey (EHS) said there were 3.9m households in the social rented sector in England in 2013-14. At 17%, that was the smallest type of tenure and follows a long downward trend since the 1980s. That suggests that the proportion of potentially beneficiaries from the right-to-buy extension is dwindling.

Of those that might qualify under the Conservatives' plan, not all will be in a position to buy their own home. The EHS said that 8.6% of people in the social rented sector were unemployed. That compares with 3% overall in England or 5.4% among private renters. In terms of economic activity, the survey said that only 23.9% of people in the socially-rented sector were in full-time employment, compared to 62.1% of private renters. The survey also said that just 25.2% of people in the socially rented sector expected to buy a property, compared to 61.1% of private renters.

The Conservatives could argue that this figure might change following today’s announcement. And they might also take some comfort from the EHS survey, which showed that 73.8% of people in the social rented sector have been in the property more than three years and so would meet the eligibility criteria in terms of length of stay in the property. But given the relatively high unemployment rate, and relatively low rate of people in full-time work, it is perhaps less likely that all of the people who are potentially eligible will find themselves in a position to buy their home.

Jonathan Walker, local newspaper political editor

tweets:

If it's only people working 30 hours a week on the minimum wage who pay no income tax then it's not "a Tax Free Minimum Wage" really is it?"

Kate Devlin, Westminster correspondent, The Herald

tweets:

Tory manifesto also appears to promise an "English rate of Income Tax..."

'Penalised the poorest'

BBC

The last five years of Conservative policy have “penalised the poorest people in our society”, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon says. The Scottish First Minister’s comments, following the launch of the Tory manifesto earlier today, saw her go on the offensive against David Cameron’s party’s austerity politics:

• She criticised the Conservatives for punishing “women with children, the disabled” and “the vulnerable”
• Ms Sturgeon said George Osborne and Mr Cameron had missed “every single one of their fiscal targets”. While she accepted the need to cut the deficit, she said it should be done in a way “that allows us also to invest in the NHS and growing our economy faster and lifting people out of poverty”
• She called on new powers for Scotland to be delivered “in full and quickly” - before making clear the SNP wants full fiscal autonomy “over a period of years”

Kate Devlin, Westminster correspondent, The Herald

tweets:

Tory pledge appears to contradict Smith agreement on extra powers that all MPs "will continue to decide UK's Budget, incl Income Tax"

'Double standards'

Getty

The Conservative Party's election manifesto is a recipe for higher household energy bills, according to environmental campaign group Greenpeace.

Spokesman Dr Doug Parr said: "Onshore wind is the cheapest form of low-carbon power. Stopping it whilst also committing to cutting carbon emissions only means we'll have to invest in more expensive sources of clean energy, driving up bills."

He accused the Conservatives of "double standards and ideological bias", claiming the party will "champion localism when it comes to wind farms" but "run roughshod over local people's concerns when it's about fracking".

Nick Eardley, BBC politics reporter

tweets:

Tory manifesto p 23: "A Conservative Government will give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act on a free vote"

'Small business champions'

We're very much champions of small business in the Green Party and we want to restore strong local economies built around small business and cooperatives. Those small businesses put far more back into the communities than the big businesses do."

Natalie BennettGreen Party leader

Your questions

BBC News Channel

Reuters

Conservative Treasury spokesman Priti Patel - George Osborne's left-hand woman in the above shot - will be live on the BBC News Channel at 16:30 to answer your questions about the Tory manifesto. Tweet questions to #BBCAskThis - and if you send in a video question you may see yourself on TV.

Faisal Islam, Sky News political editor

tweets:

a cunning meaty think tanky idea this RTB policy, but £18bn of realisable excess expensive housing equity over parliament is a big big claim"

Natalie Bennett interview

BBC Radio 4

AFP

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett says the party's "big focus" is on increasing spending, creating a million public sector jobs and providing free social care for over 65s. But how will you pay for this? Cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion to raise £30bn a year, as well as a tax on the financial sector are among the party's plan, she explains.

Ms Bennett says the party has "a philosophical commitment" to re-balancing society to help the disadvantaged who have been "hard hit" by austerity. The current system is set up for the big multi-national companies and we'll turn that around, she adds.

The shrinking BNP

BNP

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis notes that with nominations now closed there are just eight BNP candidates at this general election - in 2010, there were 338. Read more on the Newsnight live blog.

Knives out

BBC Radio 4

"He did stab his brother in the back, that is absolutely clear," says Environment Secretary Liz Truss of Ed Miliband.

Her comments come after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Mr Miliband had "stabbed his own brother in the back" to lead Labour and was now "willing to stab the UK in the back" by doing a deal on Trident with the SNP "to become PM".

Ms Truss, pressed on Mr Fallon's remarks, said he was "right to highlight the character implications of Ed Miliband in government".

Ian

tweets:

#David Cameron says we will build affordable homes on brownfield. Maybe build places of work on brownfield as well not just houses.

Pic: Camerons meet voters in Swindon

Getty

Anne McElvoy, Economist public policy editor

tweets:

"Im not going to give a running commentary."@trussliz on Worldat1. Trans: "Don't want to answer question and will talk about something else"

Joe Murphy, political editor of the Evening Standard

Singing star Ronnie Carroll may have died at 80 - but thanks to a quirk of electoral law he'll still appear on the ballot paper in a seat where the majority is just 42. Read more.

George Eaton, Political Editor, New Statesman

tweets a link to his blog:

Cameron promises a land of sunshine - but how many will believe him? My take on the Tories' manifesto launch"

Pic: Miliband campaigning in Loughborough

AP

'Massively successful'

BBC Radio 4

Liz Truss, Conservative environment secretary, is challenged on the World at One over the Conservatives' right-to-buy housing announcement. She says the party wants to give more people the benefit of home ownership. Right-to-buy has been "a massively successful policy" and we want to extend that to 1.3 million more families, she adds.

The Conservatives have also promised to fund the NHS in England by £8bn extra a year, which NHS bosses say is needed to sustain the system. Asked where the money will come from, Ms Truss doesn't answer, instead pointing to the government's "track record" of making the necessary reductions in government spending to invest in the health service.

"We've got the track record, Labour's track record is a letter saying we've got no money left."

'Tens and tens of billions'

BBC Radio 4

IFS director Paul Johnson is speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme about the Conservatives' election manifesto launch.

He said the prime minister confirmed that the Conservatives are looking for a budget surplus by 2018. To get to that, he adds, they will need “tens and tens of billions of pounds” of spending cuts or tax increases, “but we got no new detail whatever of what those might look like”.

That implies something really dramatic... rally big cuts on welfare spending, really big cuts in local government spending, really big cuts in all the other bits of spending which haven't been specifically protected."

Pic: Clegg and Hughes campaign in Southwark

PA

David Maddox, Political journalist for The Scotsman

tweets:

So not much for Scotland in Conservative manifesto...noticeably @RuthDavidsonMSP chose a fish farm over being with the PM in Swindon #GE2015

Send your views

M. Scott, Newcastle:

Why not ask these people why they do not refurbish all the council properties standing empty? Surely the cost would be a fraction of cost of new building.

Ask a minister

BBC News Channel viewers can put questions to Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander later. He'll be live in the studio with Huw Edwards at 17:30 BST, when the presenter will be getting answers about Lib Dem policies on behalf of viewers.

You can tweet questions to #BBCAskThis, or email video questions to [e-mail] .

Tim Sculthorpe, Press Association parliamentary editor

tweets : Very roughly - the Tory manifesto is around 31,000 words, the Labour manifesto about 20,000 words. This is a pretty useless fact.

Political 'cross-dressing'

Nick Robinson

Political editor

PA

This week of political cross-dressing goes on.

David Cameron tried to re-brand the Conservatives as the party of working people - the day after Ed Miliband claimed that Labour was the party of economic responsibility.

It is not just the language that has changed, it is the tone.

Read more from Nick.

'Aping UKIP'

PA

Nigel Farage, who’s been out and about in Kent today, says the right-to-buy initiative won’t do anything at all to guarantee homes go to British people. He says the Conservative manifesto as a whole was a “re-hash of so much of what was said in 2010” – and voices concern that there was “no commitment to Britain’s defence whatsoever”.

There are a lot of policies here that are long-term UKIP policies and they are trying to ape UKIP. But let’s remember that commitment to reduce immigration to tens of thousands is still there - they failed, the commitment to up the thresholds on inheritance tax are still there and haven’t been delivered on. This is so much of the same that people have seen before, that I’m not frankly sure people will believe it."

Nigel Farage, UKIP leader

Iain Watson, Labour campaign correspondent

tweets: looks like @ed_miliband will be literally drummed out of Leicester at end of ethnic minority manifesto launch

BBC

Socialist dreams

BBC

Leanne Wood doesn’t shy away from her very left-leaning brand of nationalism, declaring that a Welsh socialist republic would be “fantastic”. She admits on the Daily Politics there’s a long way to go, though, and says it’s hard to contest an election when she hasn’t got the chance of becoming prime minister. Ms Wood says she’s hoping to lead a party with five MPs after the general election – that would count as a success because it would be Plaid’s best-ever haul. It would be a net increase of two from their 2010 performance.

Inflation views

BBC

Here are two rather contrasting takes from the Conservatives and Labour on today’s inflation figures, which remained at the record low of 0% in March:

“Today our plan for working people gets another boost, with good news for family budgets. For the second month in a row, inflation is at zero. Thanks to our long-term economic plan, Britain's economy is getting stronger: jobs are up, the deficit is down, the economy is growing, and inflation is at record lows. We are the party for working people offering you security at every stage of your life.”

George Osborne, Chancellor

"A few months of falling world oil prices won’t solve the deep-seated problems in our economy or make up for years of bills rising faster than wages. Wages continue to be sluggish and are down £1,600 a year on average under this government. And tax and benefit changes since 2010 have left families £1,100 a year worse off on average. Labour’s better plan will build a more productive economy that will earn our way to higher living standards for all. While the Tories will end up raising VAT again to make their sums add up, Labour's plan will back working families."

Chris Leslie, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury

Have your say

BBC News website readers react to Conservative plans to extend the right-to-buy scheme for housing association tenants.

Maxine Barton emails: How is this fair? Having had subsidised rent now the property can be bought with up to 70% discount! What about young people who can't get a local authority property and have to seek out private rentals? What help will they get to buy their own property?

Kirsty Mardlin in Hertfordshire writes: I can't believe with the existing affordable housing crisis that a Tory government want to sell off the few houses left by opening up the right to buy to housing associations tenants. How about helping those of us trapped paying three times more than those in social housing in the private rent sector by providing us a 35% deposit on our houses. We will be forced to move out of our area and further north soon as rent prices are rocketing.

Babs Taylor emails: Surely if they can afford an expensive property within the social housing stock, these persons can afford to live in either private housing sector or take advantage of other schemes such as shared ownership. There are houses purchased not for occupants but for the greedy. Should social housing not focus on the needy?

Christine Holland writes: Right to buy will have long term, detrimental effects and costs for the country. They are buying votes. My daughter can't afford a home, why on earth should my taxes help someone already in a home to buy one?

Rose Knight emails: If the Conservatives win the election, I would probably have to move out of the council property I live in as it's worth quite a lot. I am financially unable to purchase my home so what do I benefit from this? Having to moving into a smaller property!! Doesn't make sense. It's all about robbing Peter to pay Paul!

'Extending opportunity'

PA

Labour has launched its manifesto today – not the big one, that was yesterday, but a document specifically targeting black and ethnic minority voters. The party is highlighting its compulsory jobs guarantee for those aged 18 to 25 who've been out of work for 12 months, plans to raise the national minimum wage and a cross-government race equality strategy as the highlights of its plan to “extend opportunity and tackle discrimination”.

“Britain only succeeds when all working people succeed. That’s why Labour has a plan to build an economy that works for ethnic minority families and to tackle race inequality.”

Sadiq Khan, shadow justice secretary

BBC story: Greens urge voters - 'join a revolution'

Mark comments:

If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. You cannot achieve all of this without raising a lot of money to do it. Tax the rich and they will move abroad, borrow the money and deepen our debt. Its the system that needs changing, Capitalism is rapidly turning into a noose around our necks.

Andrew Johns says:

Nice to see all the people re-enforcing their own ignorant stereotypical opinions of what the Greens stand for. Just because it's a different view to your own doesn't make it lunacy. Plenty of examples through history to learn from, and many experts agree with Green policies. Some countries are even already successfully implementing them.

Have your say

Andrew:

So, under the proposed new tax-free minimum wage (30 hours a week), that's a clear reduction in the current personal allowance? Also, who works full time for 30 hours a week? Like the idea in principle but it seems not too save us as much as first thought.

Truss on right-to-buy

Elizabeth Truss, the Conservative environment secretary, says today's manifesto shows hers is the "party of working people" - wait, we've heard that phrase before.

BBC

Asked about the right-to-buy policy, and specifically what happens if councils can't - or won't - sell their most expensive social housing properties, Ms Truss insists: "This is a policy that works across the country". It's being funded on a "national basis", she says, adding that 15,000 families move out of expensive homes every year.

These are Treasury numbers that have been fully costed."

'Desperate pledges'

BBC News Channel

BBC

“We’re the only party, really, that’s set out any detail on how we’d actually balance the books and pay for the promises we’re making,” Liberal Democrat Danny Alexander tells the BBC News Channel. “The Tories won’t describe their cuts in detail because they go much further than anyone else wants to go, cutting to the bone in public services.” The Lib Dems would offer £6bn of tax rises, £7bn of measures to crack down on tax avoidance, £12bn of departmental expenditure savings and £3bn on welfare. Mr Alexander, George Osborne’s right-hand-man in the Treasury over the last five years, says the Tories’ manifesto isn’t nearly as convincing because it lacks the same level of detail. 

These desperate pledges from a party that knows it can’t win the election will strike voters as pretty unbelievable."

Nick Faith, Co-founder of Westminster Policy Institute

tweets:

Tucked away on p49 is a commitment to implement boundary changes post 2018. #torymanifesto

60% questions

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Natalie Bennett faces Andrew Neil on the BBC's Daily Politics. She's claiming that increasing the top rate of income tax to 60% for those who earn over £150,000 will bring in £2bn - but where's the proof? "What we'll talk about is what we're planning, which is a crackdown on tax avoidance," she replies. People don’t decide their lives based on “money”. She says London has a lot to offer in terms of “lifestyle”.

Not impressed

BBC News Channel

It's a total con... The big issue with the Tory manifesto is they're trying to keep the massive cuts they want to make entirely secret."

Danny AlexanderLib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury

BBC

Patrick Wintour, Political editor of the Guardian

tweets:

TUC gen sect O'Grady "The Conservative plans on industrial action ballots will make it almost impossible for unions to call a legal strike"

Send us your views

Holly, Leeds:

Can you please ask or let me know have the Conservative said anything in the manifesto anything about helping the genuine sick or disabled people who can't work or are we forgotten again because we don't qualify as hard working people? Does no one care because over the last 5 years I feel as though I've been classed as a scrounger.

Manifesto in full

Here's the Conservative manifesto in full  to read over lunch - or whenever you fancy.

Plaid security

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood is on the Daily Politics. She isn’t very sympathetic to the idea that senior politicians should be shielded from the public. “I have no bodyguards or security team, and I’m free to go wherever I want,” she says. Nick Clegg got into a bit of difficulty while out campaigning, but that doesn’t seem to have shifted Ms Wood’s view. “I think that’s important for democracy, actually - I think politicians should be available to the public to be scrutinised on their policies.”

Add to the debate

Mike Shaw , Leek, Staffordshire:

The Conservatives say that they are the party of the working people, funny that the room is full of rich business men and women & supporters. Who's he kidding?

Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity

tweet a link to their response:

As @peston says we've major concerns about #righttobuy given the track record of replacing homes sold through it"

Thinking about tomorrow

BBC

David Cameron exits, accompanied by his wife Samantha, who will presumably now be advising him on which Good Life couple she thinks they're most like. Senior Tories stand and applaud as Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop blasts out on the speakers. As in 'Don't stop thinking about tomorrow' - fairly subtle messaging there.

Nicholas Watt, The Guardian

tweets:

Now @Conservatives nicking @billclinton Fleetwood Mac 1992 campaign theme tune

'On the right track'

BBC

And now David Cameron is wrapping up. "Britain is on the right track," he says. He wants to clear the deficit and go for full employment. "Stick with the team and the plan and the vision that will deliver security for working people throughout their lives, throughout our country," he finishes. And that, as they say, is that.

Isabel Hardman, Assistant editor, The Spectator

tweets:

Cameron produces a vague cloud of candyfloss when @BBCAllegra asks him for detail on welfare cuts

Welfare details

PA

Here's the final question, from BBC Newsnight's Allegra Stratton. She's asking David Cameron why he's being so clear on the "nice stuff" and so unclear on the "nasty stuff" - like £12bn of welfare cuts. The Conservative leader says further welfare cuts are the right thing to do - but he doesn't offer any new detail about how that will actually be achieved. Instead he offers a lengthy exposition of the Conservatives' deficit reduction strategy.

Taking stock

On the right-to-buy policy, and the question of whether the government will actually be able to get councils replacing the stock they're going to sell off, David Cameron gets interrupted by applause before he can actually answer the question. In London, he says, some properties have been sold off that have led to a dozen others being constructed.

Beth Rigby, FT's deputy political editor

falsetweets:

Great question from @BBCAllegra £12bn of welfare cuts? How can you be so open about the nice stuff and not about the nasty stuff? #GE2015

David Maddox, Political journalist for The Scotsman

tweets:

Tories to legislate that nobody on minimum wage pays income tax. Big rabbit to pull out of hat outflanks Labour and Lib Dems #GE2015

Wooing UKIP voters

Reuters

How about UKIP? This election, David Cameron says, is a “choice” between a Conservative government and the “old Labour ways”. He concedes that there might be “things that have bothered you over the last five years” but Britain is “heading in the right direction” and that the “good life” - that phrase again - is within reach. Echoing his earlier appeal to UKIP voters to “come home” to the Tories, Mr Cameron adds:

“We’ve listened and we’re taking action to control immigration. We’re going to have that in-out referendum because it’s time the British people had their choice… but what we’re now saying is who do you trust to run the economy? I’m saying stick with the team that’s delivering for Britain.”

David Cameron

Analysis: Green Party manifesto

Laura Kuenssberg

Newsnight Chief Correspondent

AFP

As if the parties didn't already suffer from assumptions about who they represent, the Greens held their manifesto launch in a hip East London theatre this morning - all bare wooden boards, charming staff and flat whites, local brewed beer and bio dynamic wine in the cafe. What they do not suffer from is boldness. Their manifesto is full of big promises - a pension of more than three hundred pounds a week for a couple; renewable energy taking over from fossil fuels; a million new public sector jobs. What they do suffer from is a difficulty to defend their numbers robustly. They claim they'll raise a massive £30 billion extra from clampdowns on tax avoidance for example - very very optimistic. And the man who wrote the manifesto numbers, Brian Heatley, has told me they can't really be sure how much their new wealth tax would work because it hasn't been tried before. In a sense, refreshingly candid. In another way, extremely problematic for a party that wants to be taken seriously on a tax that they need to raise £20 billion. The Greens also say in their manifesto they would carry on spending more each year than the government gets from revenue. Does that mean deficits for ever? The Greens won't say. In other news, Natalie Bennett has also told Newsnight they don't want to ban the Grand National after all. More straightforward to decide that than work out government spending.

In addition to the ideas the Greens talked about on their wealth tax, they say they would adjust their planned-for cuts to employers’ national insurance contributions if they didn't raise as much from the Wealth Tax as they hoped.

Andrew Osborn, Deputy UK Bureau Chief for Reuters

tweets:

UK's Cameron changes campaign gear at manifesto launch, emphasises the positive, tries to sell hope instead of past doom-mongering #GE2015

Gary Bainbridge, columnist

tweets:

For younger viewers, The Good Life was a show where a rich couple lived next door to a couple who didn't have any money.

eBay submarines

Is Ed Miliband going to be a threat to national security? David Cameron doesn’t shy away from the invitation to attack Labour on the nuclear deterrent. “You cannot take risks with this,” he says. You need four nuclear submarines for a credible deterrent, not three, and he claims Labour haven't committed to that. What do you do when one of them needs servicing - “buy one on eBay?” He says Labour doesn’t always do what’s needed to help the security services keep Britain safe.

Steve Richards, The Independent

tweets:

What to believe- The spending plans outlined in Autumn Statement /Budget or those pledged generously in Conservatives' election campaign?

Missing £8bn

Reuters

What about that £8bn funding gap? David Cameron insists the “fiscal plan” covers everything that’s in the manifesto. “We’re saying that balanced plan continues in the next parliament,” he says. There’ll be an extra £8bn spent on the NHS by 2020, he says. But that might be misinterpreting the question, which sounded to us like it was about the £8bn of unspecified spending on welfare cuts that Theresa May avoided talking about earlier today.

Cameron the pundit

David Cameron offers his take on the big political narrative of this election. He says Labour has produced a “thin manifesto”- and he predicts the SNP will “produce a more detailed list which they will try and force on a Labour government”. Stopping the “horror” of this requires a Conservative vote, he says.

Paul Brand, Political Correspondent for ITV

tweets:

Tories already pinging out press releases about that surprise announcement on 30 hours of free child care. #ConservativeManifesto

'Bounced cheque'

AP

Today they are trying to claim that they can fund right-to-buy with a bounced cheque. The reality about the Conservatives is that they are the party not of working people, from first to last and always, they are the party of the richest in our society and that is absolutely the case with what they are saying today. We support people’s right to buy their own homes, but their offer on right-to-buy won’t work because they haven’t found the money to fund it or build homes... just like with health, just like with the tax cuts they are promising, so on the right to buy, they have absolutely no idea how where a penny of this money is coming from."

Ed MilibandLabour leader

Deathbed politics

David Cameron gets a round of applause as he points out the Labour Party, which is trumpeting itself as the party of financial responsibility, has spent the last five years attacking the Conservatives' tough decisions. "That's why the deathbed conversion is so unconvincing in every single way," Mr Cameron says.

Jenny Gross, Reporter for The Wall Street Journal

tweets:

British PM David Cameron, at manifesto launch, seems to tell voters: you've suffered through budget cuts, but now you'll get the benefits

The Good Life

BBC

Time for questions, now. Is the "Good life" a return to the "Sunny Dave" of his early years? He dodges an invitation to clarify whether he's the Tom and Barbara of British politics, or the Margot and Jerry? Samantha Cameron will have to tell him later, he says.

The punchline

And now David Cameron wraps up his speech, arms outstretched as he declares: "Let us not go back to square one. Let us finish what we've begun."

Guido Fawkes

tweets:

"the party of no income tax"... hmmm

'Five more years'

David Cameron says: "It means we can proudly say this is the party of working people. Not just the party of low income tax, but us, the party of no income tax!" It's an offer of "strong leadership", an economic plan and "a brighter, more secure future". The phrase 'long-term economic plan' isn't front and centre, is it?

And now here comes another quiet moment towards the end of his speech. He says he's standing on the stage asking for five more years to "finish the job". Five more years, he says, will lead to "security at every stage of your life".

Pic: No feats of memory

Reuters

Ian Dunt, Editor of Politics.co.uk

tweets:

Despite all the flaws this really is much better from the Tories: It's positive, at the very least. Childcare promise v.good.

Breaking'Tax-free minimum wage'

And now the third commitment for working people - a promise David Cameron says the Tories want to make "not just now, but always". The Conservatives are pledging to go "one step further" on income tax by legislating their change. The basic tax-free allowance will be automatically uprated so that no-one earning the minimum wage will pay income tax. Lots more applause, of course.

Childcare commitment

Getty

The second commitment to working people, David Cameron says, is on childcare. For families, he says, it is "the issue they care about". Childcare is being made tax-free; and now 15 hours of universal free childcare is now being doubled to 30 hours. "We are going to take that free childcare and we will double it." There's cheers in Swindon as his audience greets that news. David Cameron smiles to one side as he soaks up the applause.

Add to the debate

At 5.30 today Liberal Democrat, Danny Alexander - Chief Secretary to the Treasury - will be live in the studio to take your questions on the party's policies. You can tweet questions to us at #BBCAskThis -- or you can email video questions to Your [e-mail] .

Right-to-buy unveiled

Now David Cameron moves on to the three big policy announcements the Tories are wheeling out today. First comes the right-to-buy story, and the PM is explaining the details of his approach. "That is 1.3 million extra families, a whole generation given the security of a home of their own." More looking into the camera as Cameron declares: "The dream of a home-owning democracy is alive, and we will help you fulfill it."

'Difficult decisions'

"We are taking and will continue to take the difficult decisions that are necessary," David Cameron says, but given his positive rhetoric many viewers could be forgiven for thinking there's anything to really worry about in the years ahead. "A manifesto that is right there, foursquare behind working people in this country - only a Conservative government can deliver it." Lots more applause now.

'Gimmick'

PA

Patrick O'Flynn, UKIP's economics spokesman, said he did not think the right-to-buy extension would help David Cameron win back UKIP voters. 

The devil will be in the detail of this policy. I believe there's already something called Right to Acquire for housing association tenants so it'll be interesting to see how significant any proposed extension of facilitating the ownership route really is with this policy. Some people may fear there might be an element of gimmick in it."

Patrick O'FlynnUKIP candidate

'A good life'

By 2018 Britain will be running a surplus, David Cameron says, as he continues his very positive theme. The Tories will back businesses in their work, he says. But it's not about the numbers, he says. It's about living a "good life":

The most important words on this manifesto are these: a brighter, more secure future for you and your family. I didn't come into politics to be some sort of high-powered accountant and balance the books. I desperately want this to be a country where children can make the most of their God-given talents whatever their background."

David Cameron, Conservative leader

Clegg on right-to-buy

AP

"I think it's a measure of how the Conservatives have run out of new ideas that on the day they publish their manifesto their big idea is a poor cover version or one of Margaret Thatcher's 1980's hits'. It won't actually help people who don't live in a home, people who dream of moving from rented accommodation into owning their own home, it won't help those youngsters who are living with mum and dad and need some help to get their feet on the first rung of the property ladder. As the housing industry have said it's not affordable and it's certainly not new."

Nick CleggLib Dem leader

Tim Montgomerie, Columnist for @TheTimes

tweets:

Mr Cameron is Mr Sunshine today: full of praise for buccaneering Britain and his can-do Cabinet: Let sunshine win the day etc etc

BreakingChildcare announcement

The big announcement of this manifesto is a promise of 30 hours a week of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds. The Conservatives are doubling the existing provision, saving parents £5,000 a year.

Labour have promised 25 hours a week.

Security manifesto

BBC

The one word as prime minster that matters to him more than anything else, David Cameron says, is "security". He says the Conservatives will always support the armed forces. And on the threat from Islamic State, he says "the threat is in many ways unprecedented". Mr Cameron says the Tory manifesto deals with that threat head-on. "Yes, we will give our security services the powers they need including keeping up-to-date their ability to access communications data."

The hold firm

David Cameron is visibly passionate as he talks of the "buccaneering, world-beating, can-do country" that he thinks can "do it all again". He then looks directly into the camera and slows down as he says: "Let's not let Labour drag us back to square one." Then comes the jabbing finger as he looks back at the last five years and the doubters. George Osborne, Theresa May and Iain Duncan Smith all said "no, we hold firm", he says. "That's what we've done together."

Nicholas Watt, The Guardian

tweets:

Back to 1970s as @David_Cameron pledges to create Good Life. Calling Penelope Keith

Faisal Islam, SkyNews Political Editor

tweets:

"The Note" left by L.Byrne contrasted in slick video with other Notes: "job offers, mortgage offers, apprenticeship offers, school places"

Michael Crick, Political corr, C4 News

tweets:

Greens tells me that they expect to reach 70,000 members in whole of UK by the end of this week - they boast 59,000 in England and Wales.

'Bright light' Britain

BBC

David Cameron says the next five years are about "turning the good news in our economy into a good life for you and your family". He talks of the "small island with a massive impact, the bright light in the North Sea that's exceeded expectations decade after decade, century after century. And we are on the brink of being that country once again."

David Cameron on his feet

BBC

And now here's the Conservative leader, who strides on to the stage to rounds of applause. His first big point, after praising the college in Swindon where he's speaking, is to say that there's a simple proposition at the heart of this manifesto: "We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life."

Iain Watson, BBC political correspondent

tweets:

Ed Miliband says #Conservative right to buy policy is a deceit as it is unfunded but says he backs rtb in principle"

May on security

BBC

Theresa May rather teasingly builds up to introducing David Cameron - "I know there is no-one... more dedicated to keeping our country safe," she declares - but she leaves us waiting as a video's played highlighting the Liam Byrne "no money left" note.

Jason Beattie, @DailyMirror political editor

tweets:

Enjoying Tory leadership hustings. Shame Boris not here #GE2015

Hardline May

BBC

Home Secretary Theresa May whistles through her greatest hits, including her record of excluding more hate preachers from Britain than any of her predecessors in the job. She offers voters a hardline choice on national security and contrasts "a coalition of chaos" involving Labour and the SNP or "stable, competent majority government led by David Cameron".

Kylie Maclellan, UK Political Correspondent for Reuters

tweets:

Nicky Morgan, George Osborne, now Theresa May, is this a manifesto launch or a Conservative leadership contest?

Working class politics

The chancellor concludes:

"This is unashamedly a manifesto for the working people of Britain. It's an offer of hope and reward and it's a commitment to a brighter and more secure future for this country which we love."

George Osborne

Isabel Hardman, Assistant editor, The Spectator

tweets:

This manifesto launch is a cabinet relay. Osborne hands over to Theresa May

Chancellor's pitch

The chancellor says "others threaten jobs and home with an anti-business agenda and economic agenda". We think he means Labour. George Osborne then contrasts their threats with the Conservatives' "truly national recovery felt across our United Kingdom" offered by their manifesto. He says it's a "comprehensive credible blueprint to close the north-south gap in Britain", too. Then comes a pitch to the low and middle paid, who get to "keep more of your money tax-free".

Miliband on right to buy

The Conservatives are claiming they can fund right-to-buy with a bounced cheque."

Ed MilibandLabour leader

James Forsyth, Spectator

tweets:

Nicky Morgan up first, am told she has the largest personal vote of any Tory MP in a marginal seat.

Osborne continues

BBC

And now here's Chancellor George Osborne, who reminds everyone that in 2010 David Cameron promised to reduce the deficit and "unleash the potential" of Britain's business. It's all very Budget-y. "Now, in this manifesto, we commit to finish the job - that - we - have - started." Lots of emphasis there.

'Blue collar vote'

Norman Smith

Assistant political editor

This manifesto is all about trying to appeal to working class voters. To present the Conservative Party as a broad based party and to hunt out the blue collar Tory vote which Margaret Thatcher was able to do. It's pretty late in the day though.

Morgan begins

BBC

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is on her feet as the Conservative manifesto launch event gets under way. "This manifesto sets out what else we offer the next generation," she says. It's rather a long list, from "a good primary school place for every child", to institutions offering "the best maths and science education in the world". Lots of applause as she declares her pride at being "a member of this team".

Owen Meredith, Head of Public Affairs at the Professional Publishers Association

tweets:

Worrying that @TheGreenParty back "legislation to implement the Leveson system". Direct attack on a free press #manifesto #election2015

Pic: Samantha and George in the front row

BBC

On the campaign trail

Getty Images

Here’s a quick rundown of where the three main party leaders are focusing their efforts today from David Cowling, editor of BBC Political Research:

• David Cameron is in Swindon for his party’s manifesto launch. The party is defending two seats here - Swindon South being especially vulnerable, with a recent Lord Ashcroft poll putting the Tories and Labour neck-and-neck.
• Ed Miliband is in Loughborough, a Conservative gain from Labour in 2010. Almost one in five votes were Lib Dem five years ago and the Conservatives and Labour will be scrapping for these. He’ll also be hoping to boost Labour in the three Leicester seats it’s defending, too.
• Nick Clegg is in London, trying to help out in his old leadership rival Simon Hughes’ Bermondsey & Old Southwark seat. All the suggestions are this might be a tough fight - in the 2014 London Borough elections the Lib Dems lost 12 of their 25 seats on Southwark council. Later Mr Clegg will head to Lewes, where an Ashcroft poll suggests Norman Baker is doing well against the Conservatives.

Kevin Maguire, Daily Mirror associate editor

tweets:

Sneak - "cough" - preview of the Con new election slogan: "'Hurry! our sale ends May 7!" They nicked it from DFS...

JamesTapsfield, Press Association

tweets:

Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine playing at Tory manifesto launch. Will Cameron keep to his habit of coming in to Killers?"

Pic: Any minute now...

BBC

BBC

Add to the debate

Roger, Edinburgh:

What exactly is this whole frenzy about buying or owning your own home ? With people living longer, by the time we die our kid's will probably be in their 40's. I've always rented and don't feel any need whatsoever to buy a property or "home". Home is being with the people you love and care about, it's got nothing to do with owning nor buying brick's and mortar.

Google election

The Guardian

PA

A certain search engine has released its top queries for the party leaders over the last week - providing an interesting insight into what voters really care about as this election campaign continues. Their ages, heights and education backgrounds are the top queries on Google, but there are one or two distinguishing questions too: people want to know if Natalie Bennett really is British, what Nigel Farage actually said about HIV in last week’s leader’s debate, and whether Nicola Sturgeon is an MP. The Guardian has all the answers.

Jack Doyle, Daily Mail political correspondent

tweets:

Greens reckon they can raise 30 billion from tax avoidance and evasion. Is that six time the Tory estimate and five times Labours?"

Iain Watson, BBC political correspondent

tweets:

Ed Miliband at Brush Traction in Leics and confirms they don't have the zero hours jobs he'd clamp down on #ge2015"

BBC

'Failed economic plan'

PA

The TUC offers a less positive take on today's flat inflation figures - you can read our full story here. General secretary Frances O'Grady has this to say:

“Zero inflation is a mark of the weak condition the economy has been left in by a failed economic plan. Stagnating prices are not a sound foundation for the strong and sustained pay rises that workers have been waiting years for. With the threat of deflation set to continue, the Conservatives’ plans for extreme cuts after the election look more and more like a suicide note for the UK economy.”

Green manifesto: Key pledges

PA

We're hearing the full Green manifesto is something of a weighty tome so here’s a handy digest of the key pledges:

• Fair economy: Creating one million jobs that pay at least a living wage; a new wealth tax on the top 1%; a Robin Hood tax on the banks
• Safe climate: Urgent action with other countries; ban fracking; invest in renewable energy
• Public NHS: End the creeping privatisation of the NHS and repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012; make mental health a much higher priority with resources to match this status
• Free education: Scrap university tuition fees, promote comprehensive system of local schools offering mixed ability teaching; bring academies and free scores into the local authority system.
• Better transport: Return railways to public hands, saving money and improving services; introduce an immediate cut in fares of 10% to give passengers a much-needed financial break; promote walking and cycling
• Decent homes: Abolish the bedroom tax; provide 500,000 social rented homes by 2020; cap rent, introduce longer tenancies and license landlords to provide greater protection for renters.

Add to the debate

Rosie Shaw, Cambridge:

Housing association tenants already have better security of tenure than private tenants. Giving them the right-to-buy while completely ignoring the private rented sector is utterly irrational. Lots of us in the private rented sector would never qualify for social housing (which is fair enough) but we're completely priced out of buying; why is nothing being done for us? How much would it really cost the government to improve security of tenure for private tenants?

Can we force Theresa May to live in the private rented sector? Preferably in the grottiest house we can find. Then (legally) kick her out on two months notice when she hasn't done anything wrong.

Tamara Cohen, Political Correspondent at the Daily Mail

tweets:

Clegg on right-to-buy: 'It's a poor cover version of one of Margaret Thatcher's 1980s great hits...and the sums don't add up'.

Robert Hutton, Bloomberg

tweets:

Arriving in Swindon, we're passed by a chauffeur-driven Bentley. I sense we're approaching the Tory manifesto launch. #GE2015

Nurses 'demoralised'

PA

Unison, the public services union, has released itsannual nursing survey. The results aren’t great: safe staffing levels haven’t improved over the last year, with 65% reporting that patients are missing out on care because of under-staffing. “With not enough money to fund adequate staffing levels, nurses and midwives are running themselves into the ground as they struggle to keep the health service going,” Unison’s head of health Christina McAnea says. The union concludes nurses are now an “overstretched and demoralised workforce”.

Inflation figures

Two consecutive months of zero inflation is yet more positive news for family budgets and economic stability. We now have low inflation, record employment and strong growth. These are the ingredients that are delivering a stronger economy and a fairer society. But all this progress on the economy is at risk if we allow either a single party Labour or Conservative government to pull the economy off course. There’s never been a more important time to keep a Liberal Democrat hand on the economic rudder’."

Danny AlexanderLib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Jess Brammar, BBC Newsnight

tweets:

Green presser over. launch lasted 20 mins and they took 4 (I think) questioners and then called it a day. Told hacks to refer to PDF on site"

Saving trees

BBC

Natalie Bennett doesn’t sound so keen on discussing the details of her party’s proposals. Asked about pensions policy, she explains the nitty-gritty can be found online. “We are the Green Party so we haven’t given you out the printed versions,” she explains, before adding: “Going through detailed numbers at this point isn't the most useful thing.” The press conference wraps up shortly afterwards.

Fraser Nelson, Editor of the @spectator

tweets a link to his blog:

At last, shopping is getting cheaper - let’s not look this gift horse in the mouth. My blog on today's inflation data"

Laura Kuenssberg, chief correspondent and presenter of BBC Newsnight

tweets:

Green manifesto says total spending by 2019, 919bn, total revenue 898bn - so deficit bigger every year?"

PoliticsHome

tweets:

The role of smaller parties in the coming election/parliament will be "more important than ever", says Caroline Lucas of @TheGreenParty

No Green coalition

Caroline Lucas, sounding very much like a leader, says the Greens would consider supporting a minority Labour government on a case-by-case basis. "That would give us a real opportunity to push Labour on the policies that we know the public wants and are at the heart of our manifesto," she says. Top of her list, significantly, is not renewing Britain's nuclear deterrent - posing a potential future nuclear threat for Ed Miliband.

Mike Robinson

tweets:

#Green Party wants to scrap the eco friendly #HS2 yet calls for action on climate change #environment #climatechange

Joey Jones, deputy political editor, Sky News

tweets:

Hearing a lot about "green" (environmental) issues at Green manifesto launch. Which isn't always the case as much as one might imagine."

Doing the sums

BBC

"It is nonsense to say we can waste billions on new roads or HS2 but we can't afford to keep people warm in their own homes," Caroline Lucas says. She claims every £1 spent on insulation results in £1.27 being returned to the economy.

Green cheers

"Hurray!" yells an enthusiast amid applause as Natalie Bennett wraps up (this is a rather smaller affair than Labour's manifesto launch yesterday). We're on to Caroline Lucas, now, who says the Greens recognise "tackling the environmental crisis isn't some luxury". It can't be "discarded... like that extra cappuccino on the way to work". She underlines the importance of her party's home heating policy.

Greens on wages

Victoria Derbyshire

We're the only UK party who is saying that the minimum wage should immediately be lifted to a living wage and should reach £10 an hour by 2020"

Natalie BennettGreen party leader

Siraj Datoo, UK political reporter, Buzz Feed

tweets:

Bennett says that the first past the post system represents "a politics that's left many voters disappointed or even depressed". #GE2015"

Green policies

BBC

The Greens' leader is rattling through her party's policies as she launches their manifesto.

"It's really not a radical statement to say that if you work full-time it should be enough to live on," Natalie Bennett says. In a "fair economy", she insists, a living wage should be the bare minimum income acceptable.

On the NHS, she says privatisation has meant the "shovelling of public money into private hands".

The same principle applies to transport: "We want to bring the railways back into public hands."

Then there's the "pressingly urgent need to create the conditions for a safer climate". Ms Bennett points out in the big TV debate she was the only leader to mention the two words "climate change".

BBC story: David Cameron to pledge right-to-buy extension

CladinBlack comments on this story:

All this did first time round under Thatcher was cause a housing shortage as they didn't build any extra social housing back then and this is partly why we have a housing crisis today. They say they are going to build 400,000 houses but will they? They probably won't have any money left. There are always going to be people who need social housing for whatever reason.

Tommm comments:

Right to buy what? What's left that's affordable? We still haven't replaced what was sold off before! Seems a bit bonkers this one.

Read it in full

Here's the full Green Party manifesto for you to peruse at leisure.

'Green surge'

Natalie Bennett points out her party's membership is now larger than that of UKIP and the Lib Dems. She praises Caroline Lucas, the party's sole MP in the last parliament, and wonders what "a strong group" of Green MPs could achieve in the Commons after 7 May.

Green manifesto launch under way

BBC

"Woo," a lone enthusiast cheers as Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas emerge for the Green Party's manifesto launch. "I'm very proud today to be presenting this manifesto - our plan... for the next five years," Ms Bennett says. "Our manifesto is shaped by a vision of a future Britain and our principles and values that say that no-one in this, the world's sixth-richest economy, should fear not being able to put food on the table, not being able to keep a roof over their head."

Future voter?

Look closely and you'll spot a very small head in the front row. A toddler at a manifesto launch!

BBC

The English Sturgeon

Getty Images

Often listeners come up with the most piercing questions - and here’s Nicola Sturgeon being asked who she’d vote for if she was in England. The SNP leader has made clear nationalists will support a “progressive” party in government - that means Labour, presumably - and Ms Sturgeon’s reply reflects that. It certainly gives more ammunition for Conservative campaigners - pictured above - who suggest the SNP will help Ed Miliband into No 10. Not that Ms Sturgeon actually stretches to endorsing Labour outright, mind. Instead she says:

"I don't think you should vote Tory, I'd look at my candidates and vote for the most progressive voices... Whether those progressive voices are Labour, Green, Plaid Cymru, SNP. I want there to be progressive forces in the House of Commons so that we can start to change things."

Ian Dunt, Editor of Politics.co.uk

tweets:

Aussie journo told me yesterday they'd barely covered UK election campaign. Told her I wasn't surprised. It's been dull as ditchwater.

Add to the debate

M James, Kent:

Housing stock fell under Labour. Was this anything to do with the fact that all the council stock was sold off under Tory rules to buy your council house? Is BBC blinkered?

Pic: Any minute now...

BBC

The podium is set for the Green Party launch in Dalston, east London.

Schools shaken up

The Guardian

Thinkstock

If elections were a kind of medicine, disruption to schools would have to be listed as one of the side-effects. Closures on polling day are a pain for teachers and even more of a pain for parents, as the Guardian’s been reporting. “As holiday dates are set by the local authority and individual schools can’t change them,” Anna Tobin writes, “staff are not given leave and are still expected to do some form of work, so the school cannot make up the day’s lost teaching time later in the year, which means that pupils have a day less education.” But what’s the alternative? Private buildings would probably charge, increasing the cost of democracy to the taxpayer. Maybe, though, more village halls, libraries and town halls should become polling stations.

Have your say

JB:

I see that the Green Party wishes to tax people with another band of taxation. Why does every party want to complicate the already overly complicated tax system in which we spend so much money on policing and calculating? Why doesn't someone simplify it by balancing it with one rate of tax and increasing the tax free allowance to allow the hard working low paid people to keep most if not all of their earnings. This would allow everyone to have a basic salary free of tax which allows a basic standard of living, anything earned over this that would be considered an addition to the basic standard of living and could be taxed by one rate of tax.

Michael Crick, Political corr, C4 News

tweets:

Simon Hart, sitting Cons MP for Carmarthen West & Pembrokeshire South claims he has already voted, by post. Is he first voter of 2015?

Jim Pickard, Chief Political Correspondent for the Financial Times

tweets:

Miliband launched manifesto to soundtrack including "Out of the Black" by Neneh Cherry....

100 seats in 100 days

BBC Radio 4 Today

BBC

We spend a lot of time on this blog writing about politicians, but what about the poor old voters? In Warwickshire North, a hotly-contested seat, they’re getting a bit fed up by the sheer volume of leaflets now pouring through their letterboxes. "People get a bit weary of them as they know it's the same attacking political party - the ones that don't attack each other have more of an effect," Richard Harwood says. He’s a local newspaper editor who designs and prints election leaflets for the local parties. The voters aren’t overkeen, the Today programme’s Sima Kotecha’s been finding. “I put them in the bin, I don’t even bother reading them,” one voter tells her. “It just seems really crazy to me they just spend so much money on them.”

Take part

Barry Cooper:

Sturgeon keeps saying it will take more years to reduce the debt. She NEVER says with what by what, no figures,

Just the usual wish list of emptiness. Tell us, please.

'No right-to-buy for non-Brits'

Getty

UKIP has said migrants living in houses of multiple occupation are driving up rents. Deputy leader Suzanne Evans said there was a “question” over buy-to-let, but that wasn’t the main issue.

Explaining the party’s housing policy at a press conference in Westminster, Ms Evans - who said she owned two “modest” homes and had a stake in a third - said uncontrolled immigration had placed demand on housing and second home ownership “was not the main issue."

She accused other parties of sacrificing the countryside to solve the housing crisis.

UKIP says it will protect the greenbelt and incentivise developers to build one million homes on brownfield sites over the course of the next parliament by removing stamp duty on new homes and offering developer grants of up to £10,000. The party admits it doesn’t know how much brownfield land is available for development although it has claimed there's enough for 2.5m homes.

The party says it will also bring 300,000 empty properties back to use by giving local authorities increased power to issue compulsory purchase orders.

Economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn said under UKIP, non-British nationals would not have the right to buy or to benefit from help-to-buy schemes.

Suzanne Virdee, journalist

tweets:

#nicolasturgeon on #@bbc5live (policies aside) v engaging and impressive. Wonder what polls wd be like if she was a main party ldr in Eng?

Get involved

Trebor, Warwick:

There is a massive property development initiative going on all over the country. A percentage of these properties being built have to be available to local authorities for rent, along with a few 'shared ownership' properties. This has come about because the Thatcher period allowed people to buy their council properties & an increasing population today. Why is it then, that so soon after this initiative, are the Tories trying to champion another 'right to buy' era? Surely in years to come, this will backfire again.

Analysis: Popular revival?

Carole Walker

Conservative campaign correspondent

BBC

David Cameron is reaching into the Thatcher era, hoping an extension of a policy which proved popular back in the 1980s will give him the breakthrough he needs.

But there are many questions. Housing associations say it will cost taxpayers billions of pounds. There are few details on how the 400,000 new homes will be built. It is also unclear whether the sell-off of some higher grade council housing will raise enough to pay for their replacement with affordable homes and the clear up of old industrial sites and 400,000 additional houses. There are also concerns about what sort of housing will be left for council tenants once the better properties have been sold. Some London councils may have plenty expensive properties they can sell, but elsewhere councils may find that if they get rid of their best houses, those left will be of low quality. Analysts will no doubt study the figures closely to see if the Tory sums add up.

David Cameron will be hoping the announcement, along with cuts to inheritance tax, promises on NHS funding and a freeze on rail fares will give him the momentum he needs. The policy may have given Margaret Thatcher a boost 35 years ago but circumstances are very different today. Revivals are rarely as popular as the original hits.

Breaking0% inflation

Here come the inflation figures. Consumer price index inflation was 0% in March - that’s the same as it was in February. Falls in clothing and gas prices were offset by increases in the price of motor fuels and other products like food, the Office for National Statistics says.

Alliances and weapons

BBC Radio 5 Live

Nicola Sturgeon is working her way through a range of topics. On the post-election landscape, she says: "I was a member of a minority government and I think we proved that minority government can be sustainable, successful and effective. You try to build alliances on an issue by issue basis and build support for the things you think matters."

On the subject of potential job losses in the event the Trident weapons system was abandoned, she replies: "Our proposal to scrap Trident is not a proposal to close Faslane." She says it should remain a key naval base and major source of employment.

Take part

Gary Moss, Stourbridge:

I wonder how appealing it will be for many on low pay to buy a poorly built house from their housing association and then realise they are responsible for all the bills and upkeep.

When every penny counts each month and they have to call a plumber or electrician and pay themselves rather than the HA to send one round - reality will hit home and hurt!

Mark Ferguson, Editor of @LabourList.

tweets a link to his blog:

Right to buy? This new scheme might be better described as “right to buy votes”

Kevin Schofield, Sun's chief political correspondent

tweets:

Nicola Sturgeon says full fiscal autonomy "would take several years to fully implement". But setting up a new state would take 18 months?"

Full fiscal autonomy

PA

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is taking listener calls on 5 Live. Asked whether in the event of the full fiscal autonomy she wants to achieve for Scotland, SNP MPs would still vote at Westminster, she replies in the affirmative. "Full fiscal autonomy is not independence... as long as Scotland remains part of the Westminster system I want SNP MPs to be playing a constructive role in that system."

Asked about worries that fiscal autonomy would leave Scotland worse off and without a welfare safety net, Ms Sturgeon says the policy "would be implemented over a period of years". During "that phased implementation" MSPs would take control of business rates, income tax and other matters so Scotland could "start growing" - meaning, we assume, that any gap in funding would be made up.

Michael Deacon, Political sketch writer, Telegraph

tweets:

One thing I've learnt from reading Labour's manifesto: they're going to be tackling a tremendous number of root causes at a local level

'No countryside left'

BBC

So what's the best way to protect the countryside? Curbing immigration, of course. UKIP's Suzanne Evans says the seven million new arrivals under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and the two million more who showed up under David Cameron now threaten rural areas. If action isn't taken, she suggests, Britain will become one vast conurbation with no green space left at all.

It's ironic to think that some of those migrants may well have been drawn to Britain because our land is so green and pleasant. Net immigration is now at an all-time high. If we want to have any countryside left for ourselves and others to enjoy, we have to stop uncontrolled immigration and relieve the pressure on demand for housing, schools, healthcare services, transport, policing and the benefit system."

Suzanne Evans

Send us your comments

M James, Kent:

Housing stock. More gloom for social housing waiting lists as landlords snap up ex-council houses under Tory Thatcherism housing scheme. New builds some 15 years away. Ex council home owners forced to hand back keys 15% interest rates under Tories. Potential landlords rubbing hands with glee.

Add to the debate

John, Staffs:

I was one of the poor people who was allowed to buy a council house by the Tories, then the interest rate went to 15% so I lost my house so please don't do this to them again. It hurts.

Hunting for rural votes

BBC

UKIP’s policy focus today is on the countryside, which Suzanne Evans tells the party's morning press conference is more important to the British people than the Queen and fish and chips. She says Labour is an urban-focusing party and the Conservatives “hate” the countryside so much they’ve been “even worse than Labour”. The reality of the coalition's localism agenda is effectively a “developers’ charter”, Ms Evans says. This has resulted in a “to hell with what the locals think” attitude. “Voters need to consider this very carefully, particularly if they live in rural areas," she says.

Take part in the debate

Scott, London:

Reply to John, Sutton Coldfield on text. The house for sale could of course mean the owner wants to move further up the housing ladder and the tenant buying will release funds to build at least 2 more homes - everyone a winner.

Manifesto 'smokescreen'

Getty Images

They may have spent the last five years in government working together, but the Liberal Democrats are now very much in attack mode against the Conservatives. Their manifesto, election spokesman Brian Paddick says, is a “smokescreen” for "£12bn of savage and ideological welfare cuts”. He adds:

“When they repeatedly refuse to say how they will fund their policies how can anyone trust the promises they make? Only the Liberal Democrats have set out clearly how and when we will balance the books - Labour won’t tell us when and today the Conservatives proved they won’t tell us how.”

Analysis: Will there be more affordable homes?

Robert Peston

Business editor

The Tories admit that they can't force the housing associations - who hate being forced to sell their properties - to replace the sold homes. But they insist that if the associations chose to shrink and shrivel, the funds will be directed to the construction of starter homes in other ways. In other words there is a risk that - for a few years at least - the policy would lead to a contraction in the supply of affordable rented housing. Read more.

Tim Montgomerie, columnist at the Times

tweets:

The right-to-buy policy needs a housebuilding policy alongside it - otherwise it repeats the errors of the 1980s"

Pig-fattening

BBC Radio 4 Today

Getty Images

As the Today programme wraps up, Philip Blond, director of the think tank Respublica, and Beth Rigby, deputy political editor at the Financial Times, size up the political situation. Both parties, she says, are trying to “appeal to a wider group of voters” beyond their core vote. “But you can’t fatten the pig on the way to the market,” she adds. Mr Blond agrees with that. “What we’ve seen is inexplicable - a strategic failure by both parties,” he says. The Tories have an excuse because of the UKIP threat - but Labour’s abandonment of the centre ground has left Mr Blond baffled.

Bekky Parry

tweets:

Is it even legal to force Housing Associations / councils to sell their assets? Desperate policies from the Tories. #ELECTION2015

'Two big announcements'

There are set to be two big policy announcements this morning at the Conservative manifesto launch, according to Tory sources via the Press Association. It takes place at 11.00 in Wiltshire. Income tax and the minimum wage is presumably one of them; what might be the other? Meanwhile, we have some more detail about the format of the event. Nicky Morgan and George Osborne will both be making speeches before Theresa May introduces David Cameron. And the manifesto launch is also set to feature a video entitled The Note - mocking ex-Treasury Minister Liam Byrne for leaving the incoming government the now-infamous missive in which he said there was no money left.

Have your say

Phil, Camberwell:

Comes to something when the Tories need 'non-profit' housing to come to their election rescue. Private renters will feel the rule book has been ripped up.

'No game-changer'

BBC News Channel

BBC

Isabel Hardman, of the Spectator, doubts whether the right-to-buy policy will win the election for the Conservatives on Election Today this morning. “I’m not sure it’s going to have the big game-changing impact right-to-buy did when it was originally announced, but it’s a good positive retail policy,” she says. Owen Jones, of the Guardian, agrees. “What they’re trying to do is have a dividing line where Labour are seen as anti-aspiration,” he suggests. But it won’t work because “it’s very divisive in a way it wasn’t to begin with”.

Paul Waught, Editor of PoliticsHome.com

tweets:

Theresa May on idea of woman President of United States. "I think it's going to be very interesting", is as interesting as it got #r4today

Voters who aren't men

Getty Images

We’ve had "Worcester Woman" in 1997 and the "Mumsnet election" of 2010 - sohow will the women’s vote fare in 2015?Is there even such a thing? That’s the question Vanessa Barford’s been looking into as she sizes up this rather significant chunk of the electorate. And now’s a good time to size it up: this is the final general election of the first century since women got the vote in 1918, after all.

Add to the debate

Lewis:

Theresa May is totally shambolic in interviews, she constantly sounds like she's been dragged in as cover at the last minute without being prepped. Though in that respect, she seems to epitomise this Conservative election campaign perfectly: desperately scrambling around and clutching at pre-given sound bites to avoid giving the real answers they know that people ultimately don't want to hear.

Michael Savage, Times Chief Political Correspondent

tweets:

Earlier this month, 73% councils said current RTB only allows them to replace up to 1/2 homes sold. 12% feared they couldn't to replace any.

Igniting the campaign

Norman Smith

Assistant political editor

Getty Images

A blast from the past today, as David Cameron seeks to reach out to working class voters - deliberately reigniting Mrs Thatcher’s iconic right-to-buy policy from the 1980s. And coupled with that, I expect, a pledge to ensure people on the minimum wage pay no tax. Both measures, Mr Cameron will say later today, prove the Conservative Party is the party of working people. It’s not just about housing - it’s also about trying to ignite a Tory campaign that has been a bit dull, frankly. There’s been a sense it hasn't kicked off. The hope of Team Cameron is that this pledge will give them some real momentum."

Sebastian Payne, managing editor (digital), The Spectator

tweets:

Worth noting that extending Help to Buy was the idea of Iain Duncan Smith. Are we seeing a return of compassionate conservatism?

JamesTapsfield, Press Association

tweets:

Boris won't be at manifesto launch today - aptly campaigning in London. But Osborne, Theresa May and Nicky Morgan will speak

Allegra Stratton, political editor, BBC Newsnight

tweets:

Notes on Tory front page: 3 potential successors (Javid, May, Osborne); perfect gender split: 3 + 3. Featuring the BACK of Osborne's head."

Post-nasty

BBC Radio 4 Today

AFP/Getty Images

A few years back Theresa May talked of the need to end the Conservatives’ “nasty party” record. After some to-and-fro over whether she actually said that - just to be clear, she said other people thought the Tories were not entirely pleasant - Mrs May embarks on a defence of the Tories’ focus on Ed Miliband’s personality. She won’t be drawn on her own leadership prospects, insisting “there’s only one contest and one choice of leader” on 7 May.

Send us your comments

John Sutton Coldfield:

Right to buy. I am 75 and a life long Tory but I always disagreed with this policy. Locally, on a mixed development, a house is currently advertised for sale for £249,950. Therefore a housing association tenant living in an identical property could buy it for £162 468. Disgusting.

Get involved

Billy68:

Teresa May says selling 15000 council houses a year will generate £4.5 billion? That's an average of £300,000 a house. Here in Lincolnshire you would be lucky to get a third of that.

Nitty-gritty

BBC Radio 4 Today

The right-to-buy policy will be put into primary legislation, Theresa May says. That means there will be consultation on the proposals to sort out the details. "I think as the result of this policy what we're going to see is more people housed and more people able to own their own home... it's about a Conservative Party that is on the side of working people." Manifesto slogan - tick!

Asked why there's no help for private rental tenants, she says that just because not everyone can be helped doesn't mean no-one should be.

Jane Martinson, Guardian head of media

tweets:

What sort of lunatic would look at chronic lack of affordable homes and think "let's get rid of even more" Hello David Cameron"

Paying for right-to-buy

BBC Radio 4 Today

Getty

Now Theresa May is on the Today programme as her morning media manifest-ival continues. "We've brought forward a number of ways in which we're saying we do believe in the Conservative Party getting their foot on the housing ladder. We do want to help people get their own home," she says. But how much will the net cost of the scheme be? Housing associations are being compensated by being asked to sell their council housing stock, Ms May explains. When pressed on how confident she is that the move will bring in £4.5bn of cash, she talks about her party's brownfield proposals.

Tories slipping behind

Time for some more polling courtesy of Lord Ashcroft now, who has turned his gaze on seats a little lower down the Conservatives’ defence list. These are constituencies where the Tories ought to be holding on, at least if they want an overall majority. But they’re only ahead in five of these 10 seats.

In Rossendale & Darwen, and South Ribble, they’re tied with Labour. And in Crewe & Nantwich, Finchley & Golders Green and Milton Keynes South they’re three, two and two points behind respectively. This news may come as a bit of a dampener to Conservative supporters celebrating yesterday's Guardian/ICM poll which put them 6% ahead of Labour nationwide.

In all ten seats, majorities were optimistic about the economy, both for the country as a whole and for themselves and their families. This was not related to Conservative fortunes: the most optimistic voters were in Finchley & Golders Green, which also had the biggest swing to Labour."

Lord Ashcroft, pollster

Matthew Holehouse, Daily Telegraph political correspondent

tweets:

Ashcroft poll, released hours before manifesto launch, shows Labour ahead in Thatcher's Finchley seat."

May Day

BBC Radio 5 Live

Theresa May has been pressed on BBC Radio 5 Live about what happens to council housing levels as the Conservatives force local authorities to sell off their most expensive properties. “Housing associations will want to ensure they are replacing the stock,” the home secretary says. Won’t there be a time lag, though? Mrs May isn’t entirely clear in her response. What she actually said, verbatim, is: “The way the scheme operates in terms of - obviously the tenant has an opportunity to buy their own home, has to take that opportunity up, and the housing association obviously will be able to as I’ve said because the funding will be released from local authorities’ more expensive homes, will also have that.” Erm, pardon?

Your Call

BBC Radio 5 Live

PA

This morning’s 5 live Your Call is with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon. It’s from 9am, hosted by Nicky Campbell. People can call 0500 909 693, text 85058, tweet @bbc5live or leave a question on Facebook.

Matt Chorley, political editor, MailOnline

tweets:

Interesting that Tory manifesto frontpage includes Morgan and McVey, both in marginal seats. Obv for women in pic"

Lib Dem housing plan

Getty

The Lib Dems are having a crack at their own housing announcements today. In particular their big new policy is the idea that the government could directly commission private housebuilding to ensure houses are built at sufficient speed and have proper infrastructure and services. By working with local authorities and builders they could effectively cut out developers. This is a “surprisingly interventionist approach”, one party source has told us. How much would it cost? Um, nothing, the Lib Dems reply - because the idea is the government will get the money back.

Rupert Myers, political correspondent, British GQ magazine

tweets his thoughts on the Tory manifesto cover:

Very 'team of rivals' - more interesting than the Labour cover, but not much. Looks a little corporate"

Today's papers

You could wander down to your local newsagent's to inspect this morning's front pages... or you could just click on this link . The big theme is the papers' interpretation of the Conservatives' right-to-buy announcement: David Cameron is channeling his inner Margaret Thatcher, they seem to be suggesting.

Jason Beattie, @DailyMirror political editor

tweets:

Tories promised one-for-one replacement for each council house sold under right to buy. Since 2012: 17,205 sold, 820 built. #GE2015"

David Cornock, Westminster correspondent for BBC Wales

tweets:

The @Conservatives flagship manifesto policy on right-to-buy is on offer only in England - housing policy devolved in Wales etc"

Tax and insulate

BBC Breakfast

Putting £2.7bn back into the economy by insulating homes - and saving each household £300 - would be a huge boost, Andrew Cooper of the Greens says, ahead of his party's manifesto launch later. He says the trickle-down effect "doesn't work" - and as a result the answer has to be "taxation".

David Cameron, Conservative leader

tweets:

This is the cover of our manifesto. At its heart is a simple proposition: security at every stage of your life. "

Conservatives

'No more austerity'

BBC Breakfast

BBC

"What we're actually looking at here is saying we've had years and years of austerity, we've had all the issues associated with that," Andrew Cooper of the Green Party tells BBC Breakfast. "We want to see... an end to austerity, we want to tax the rich more and we want to invest that more in public services." He says projects like renewing Trident and HS2 are big distractions. "There is money to be saved and there is money to be gained." Raising corporation tax would bring in £10bn a year. Raising the top rate of income tax to 60p would bring in £2bn. "There are other things that would help as well," Mr Cooper says.

Anushka Asthana, political correspondent at Sky News

tweets:

May says Right to Buy transformed ppl's lives. Charities say doesn't help private renters. Tories wd say building boost will help everyone."

Pippa Crerar, London Evening Standard

tweets:

Interesting Tories now self-proclaimed party of workers while Labour of fiscal responsibility. Will be tricky to pull off this late in day."

'Raced to death'

BBC Radio 4 Today

PA

Are you a libertarian party, Caroline Lucas was asked, because you seem to want to ban a lot of things. Alcohol advertising, and potentially the Grand National, according to Green Party policy proposals.

On the latter, Ms Lucas replies: "It’s not something I would want to do. What I would like to do is look at the evidence about the extent to which animal welfare is or is not compromised by races like the Grand National." Around 400 animals are “raced to death essentially” each year in the UK, she claims.

Housing policy worries

BBC Radio 4 Today

Reuters

Ruth Davison, director of policy and external affairs at the National Housing Federation, isn’t impressed by the Conservatives’ right-to-buy proposals. “At the moment we have the best partnership between state and enterprise you can imagine - for every home the government funds it gets six for free,” she tells Today. Those six rest on the confidence of lenders which would become distinctly shaky if the Tories got their way. “If somebody else was trying to tell me how those assets should be used, I would be worried about that,” she says. Won’t the right-to-buy extension be something of a vote-winner, though? Yes, Ms Davison concedes, before adding: “It could also be immensely popular politically if we bought a million shared ownership homes that would be available for everybody.”

Craig Woodhouse, the Sun political correspondent

tweets:

I understand Labour concerns about Tory RTB policy. Problem is, it sounds like they don't want people to own their own homes."

Welfare 'principles'

BBC Breakfast

BBC

Theresa May isn't forthcoming about where the £9bn of unspecified welfare cuts promised by the Conservatives will come from. "We've given an indication by freezing certain benefits... but we would be protecting the most vulnerable, protecting disabled people, protecting pensioners, and we will be making work pay," she says. Speaking from Wiltshire, she says the Conservatives in government have succeeded in cutting the deficit in half. Asked about it again, she repeats her answer. A rather frustrating interview, perhaps.

Philip Blond, director of the ResPublica think tank

tweets:

The greens a little crazy arguing that horse racing harms animals, race horses are among the most well looked after creatures on the planet"

Brownfield homes

BBC Breakfast

"This move in relation to the sale of very expensive local authority houses means we will also be able to put money into a brownfield regeneration fund, too," Theresa May tells Breakfast. She denies there's any five-year delay in the programme - the 400,000 homes she says will be built as a result of the brownfield policy will be built over the next five years. "Our manifesto will be about securing people's future." Very on-message there - that phrase keeps coming up again and again.

'Makes us different'

BBC Radio 4 Today

Getty

We are a party committed to redistribution, to social justice and crucially, to recognising that we live on a planet with finite resources... That makes us different from all the other parties."

Caroline LucasGreen Party candidate

More housing, more sell-offs

BBC Breakfast

The home secretary insists that the Conservatives can raise £4.5bn a year to pay for their right-to-buy extension. It's all about getting councils to sell off the most expensive homes, she says. How many homes, exactly? "I think it's 15,000 houses," Mrs May says. "By saying to local authorities, manage your housing stock in this way, manage your housing stock better, it means more families will be housed. That's the key thing."

Theresa May

BBC Breakfast

BBC

Theresa May is being asked about the Conservatives' right-to-buy scheme on BBC Breakfast. She explains the policy is about extending the idea to housing association tenants. "It will enable these people to own their own home." That's what the manifesto is about, she says - giving people the chance to secure their own future.

Lucas on Today

BBC Radio 4 Today

Former Green Party leader and its only MP - now running again in Brighton Pavillion - Caroline Lucas is on Today. She says she wants to "get fuel bills down on a permanent basis" not just a freeze like the the Labour Party - they'd do this by investing in energy efficiency measures which would also help cut emissions and create jobs. It would involve "a free retro-fit insulation programme", particularly targeting areas where fuel poverty is worst.

Right-to-buy 'bazooka'

The Spectator

The Spectator’s editor, Fraser Nelson, offers some insight into where the Conservatives’ right-to-buy “bazooka” has come from. It was Iain Duncan Smith’s idea, he says. David Cameron was hesitant about it – because the polls suggest more people dislike than like it, and because renters will feel left out. So why did Mr Cameron go for it in the end? “Frankly, caution is a luxury that Cameron can no longer afford,” Nelson wrote rather early this morning. “He’s just weeks away from an election that he shows no signs of being able to win and he needs something for the C1 and C2 voters: the kind of people who backed Thatcher then defected to Blair.”

Jim Pickard, chief political correspondent for the Financial Times

tweets:

1.9 million council homes in England have been sold under Right to Buy while councils have built just 345,000 homes over same period. (DCLG)"

Scottish spending cuts

BBC

In Scotland austerity is on the agenda, as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon takes on the “Westminster consensus on cuts” while on the campaign trail in South Lanarkshire. It’s a message she emphasised in last week’s TV debates and will seek to do so again later, complaining of the “devastating impact” spending cuts are having on Scotland.

The SNP face difficulties, though, after the Institute for Fiscal Studies said there was a £7.6bn hole in the nationalists’ tax and spending plans. Scottish Labour’s leader Jim Murphy, who’ll visit a nursery in Cumbernauld later, will say that’s bad news for working families. “The last thing they need is more austerity, but that is exactly what full fiscal autonomy would mean,” he’ll warn.

Norman Smith, BBC assistant political editor

tweets:

Ah. I seem to be a bit early for Tory Party manifesto launch."

BBC

Lord Ashcroft, pollster and former Tory deputy chairman

tweets:

The marginal seats poll for release 8am today are Tory held which need a swing to Labour of about 5% to change. Will they be blue or red?"

'Magic money tree'

Conservatives

Labour isn't at all convinced that the Conservatives can raise £4.5bn from selling off council homes. Shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds says that only raised £100m last year - and points out that home ownership is now at its lowest point for three decades. But Labour’s objections only go so far as the party supports right-to-buy.

“The Tories can't stand up for working people. On their watch wages are down £1,600 and we've seen the longest fall in living standards since the 1870s. This is yet another uncosted, unfunded and unbelievable announcement from the Tories. Having exhausted the magic money tree, the Tories now want people to believe that they can magic up billions of pounds a year from selling off a few council homes.”

Emma Reynolds, shadow housing minister

YouGov, polling firm

tweets:

Update: Lab lead at 1 - Latest YouGov / The Sun results 13th Apr - Con 33%, Lab 34%, LD 8%, UKIP 13%, GRN 6%; APP -12"

RIP Ronnie

BBC

This morning also sees the sad news that election candidate Ronnie Carroll, who represented Britain at Eurovision in 1962 and 1963, died on Monday after a short illness. Mr Carroll was set to stand in Hampstead and Kilburn, after having previously tried his hardest to get no votes in the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election. He wasn’t successful - as 29 people voted for him, presumably not including himself. Perhaps he’ll be better remembered for his hit Roses Are Red. More here.

Income tax change?

Ross Hawkins

Political correspondent

Possibly - just possibly - we may see the Conservatives announce another policy today about raising either the minimum wage or the personal allowance. It would mean all those people on minimum wage might not pay income tax. It’s not confirmed, though - just a possibility for later.

Right-to-buy

PA

Unlike Labour, who weren’t tempted by a headline-grabbing flagship policy for their campaign launch yesterday, the Conservatives are unveiling an eye-catching idea as they reveal their plan for Britain this morning. The right-to-buy scheme, which gives housing association tenants the opportunity to buy their homes at a discount, is to be extended so that 1.3 million families can benefit. It’s being paid for by a sell-off of the most expensive council housing, which the Tories think will raise a handy £4.5bn every year. And there’s also a plan to “unlock brownfield land” through a £1bn fund that will result in 400,000 new homes. Our story has the full details.

Not just climate change

EPA

Not that this is the only manifesto launch taking place today. Just before the Conservatives, the Greens will be unveiling their plan "For The Common Good". Tackling climate change is front and centre - as you might expect - but the Greens have a raft of other policies on offer, including addressing privatisation in the NHS and challenging the Westminster mainstream’s “failed” approach to deficit reduction. Party leader Natalie Bennett will be joined by the Greens’ only MP in the last parliament, Caroline Lucas, for the launch in east London from 10.00.

“From ending the scandal of cold homes to investing in a public transport system that puts the public first, our plans will make a positive difference to people's lives, create new jobs and help protect our environment. We have put investing in a greener future at the heart of our manifesto and only Green MPs will demand Parliament delivers change that reflects the scale of the climate problem.”

Natalie Bennett, Green leader

'The party of working people'

AP

David Cameron’s bid to remain in No 10 is the big story of the day. The Conservative manifesto launch, which will take place around 11.00 this morning, is centred around Mr Cameron’s claim that the Tories offer voters “security at every stage of your life” as the PM pledges: “We are the party of working people.” The pitch is that whether you’re young and looking for training, or raising a family, or ill, or want to buy a home, or reaching retirement - pretty much everyone, then - the Conservatives are “there for you”.

“My message to Britain is this: we have come this far together. Let’s not waste the past five years. Now is not a time to put it all at risk, but to build on the progress we have made. We are the party of working people. So if you want a more secure Britain... if you want a brighter future for your family, and for you… then together, let’s build on what we've done – and see this through.”

David CameronConservative leader

Good morning

Here we are again, your Politics Live team, Victoria King and Alex Stevenson. It's day two of Manifesto Week. Yesterday, Ed Miliband came out fighting with his and today it's the turn of the Conservatives. Stick with us and you won't miss a thing.