Summary

  • Five Westminster opposition party leaders took part in a debate, with Labour's Ed Miliband and the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon in heated exchanges

  • UKIP's Nigel Farage accused the audience - which was independently selected and broadly representative - of being "left-wing"

  • Leanne Wood, of Plaid Cymru, and the Green Party's Natalie Bennett took on Mr Farage over his attitude to migrants

  • In other news - Richard Desmond, whose publishing company owns the Daily and Sunday Express, gave £1m to UKIP

  • Nick Clegg said a vote for the Lib Dems could prevent a right-wing coalition of the Conservatives, UKIP and the DUP - or "Blukip"

  • There are 21 days left until polling day

Live Reporting

Tim Fenton, Andy McFarlane, Bernadette McCague and Tom Moseley

  1. Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh

    @JananGanesh

    tweets:

    Disappointing lack of media interest in the launch of my Jananifesto. #fiscallyneutral

    Janan GaneshTiwtter

  2. Clegg to warn of 'Blukip'

    Arif Ansari, BBC Lib Dem campaign correspondent

    Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg - campaigning in the north west of England today - is about to do a press conference at Cheadle College about the risk to the party in Conservative/Lib Dem marginals.

    The Liberal Democrats have identified 20 seats which they consider at risk from what they've dubbed "Blukip" - a Tory minority government influenced by UKIP and the DUP.

    The Lib Dems have printed a set of "Blukip" playing cards which feature some choice quotes from various politicians. They say they demonstrate the "extreme" views of those politicians.

  3. David Nicholson, former boss of NHS England

    tweets:

    Oh well there goes my seat in the House of Lords

  4. Labour House of Lords reform

    Much like Ian Barrs, the policy guides do not go into enough detail to let people know what they are voting for.

    After reading the Labour Manifesto, buried away towards the back is a policy that they are going to replace the House of Lords with an Electable Regional Senate.

    I thought the whole point of the House of Lords was that they didn’t have to be swayed by a political party/promise and they acted as the “steady hand” of our electoral system, calming down the excitable MPs?

    Will David Dimbleby ask Ed Miliband about this tonight?

    Nick Williams from Wales

  5. Miliband on tonight's BBC debate

    Ed Miliband

    You may have heard that there’s a debate tonight. Now David Cameron has chosen not to turn up tonight to defend his record. Here’s what I believe, I think if you are applying for the job of Prime Minister, the very least people expect if for you to turn up to the job interview. What I'm going to be doing is getting out the big choice facing our country, between a Labour plan to have recovery for working families across Britain or more of the same from a government that believes as long as you look after the rich and powerful, everyone else will be okay. It has failed Britain - that’s why we need a Labour government.”

    During a campaign appearance in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency in north London, Ed Miliband says:

  6. CPS: Lord Janner will not be prosecuted
    Breaking

    The CPS has said Labour peer Lord Janner should not be prosecuted for alleged sexual offences against children because of the severity of his dementia which means he is not fit to take part in any proceedings. There is no treatment for his condition, and there is no current or future risk of offending, it adds.

  7. 'Coalition of grievance'

    LBC

    Nick Clegg urges people to vote Lib Dem to avoid a "somewhat hapless Conservative administration who will have to rely on UKIP and the DUP and the sort of swivel-eyed brigade".

    He describes such an outcome as "a coalition of grievance".

  8. Sam Lister, Press Association political correspondent

    tweets:

    If you're applying for job of PM v least people expect you to do is turn up to job interview, Miliband says of debate

  9. Digesting manifestos

    I'm on the fence, and have no idea who to vote for this time...

    Whilst I find Emily Maitlis' discovery regarding people reading manifestos to be unsurprising, I also find her conclusion to be wholly unhelpful.

    Perhaps she could have finished on a note of encouragement instead of reinforcing an undesirable state of play by stating that no-one reads them? Or attempted to open debate on how people would like to be approached, how they'd like to receive information? I find manifestos bloody hard going and often full of drivel, but they're still a key part of the entire process.

    Also, please could the BBC site clearly link to the actual manifestos, not just your Policy Guide? Whilst the policy guide is wayyyy easier to digest, it doesn't provide the full text nor the context or flow of the original, which is important in deciding which party you dislike the least.

    Ian Barrs from Northamptonshire

  10. 'Denied the opportunity'

    LBC

    Nick CleggLBC

    Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says David Cameron refused to take part in the BBC debate later "but I don't see why I should have been denied the opportunity" to defend the coalition partner's "side of the story".

  11. Leaders' debates

    Why are Tory activists allowed in the “spin room” for tonight’s debate?

    As David Cameron won’t take part this simply allows Tories to criticise the arguments put by other leaders without debating them.

    Mike Holden from Burnley

  12. Clegg on opposition leaders' debate

    LBC

    "I find it very odd that the debate tonight doesn't have anyone who has actually been trying to govern our country for the last five years," Nick Clegg says.

    He says he told broadcasters that he "would like to participate."

    He claims that the debate will feature Ed Miliband "remaining completely opaque about how he will actually balance the books", Nigel Farage "saying we should cut, cut, cut and do all sorts of loopy things" and "a whole bunch of other people" saying: "Can we invent money out of thin air please?"

    He claims there will be no-one there who will say: "Let's get real."

  13. Working with the SNP?

    LBC

    A caller urges Nick Clegg to work with the SNP after the election if necessary.

    Mr Clegg agrees that parties should work together but the SNP is in a "different category".

    The Scottish Nationalists don't want to work for the overall good of our whole country because they want to pull our country as it is - the United Kingdom - apart. And that sets them apart."

  14. NHS Funding

    Can someone please tell what is being promised for the NHS by the Tories and Lib Dems, what does £8bn a year by 2020 actually mean, if they spend nothing in the first 4 years and then £8bn in 2020 does that mean they have met their promise?

    Ron Murray, Politics live reader

  15. 'Pessimistic punditry'

    LBC

    A caller asks Nick Clegg how he can "stay positive" in the light of a ComRes poll for ITV which suggested the Conservatives could take 14 marginal seats in the south-west of England.

    The Lib Dem leader dismisses the poll as "balloney".

    We will win so many more seats that this endless cottage industry of pessimistic punditry allows for."

  16. Hung parliament negotiations

    Victoria Derbyshire

    Victoria Derbyshire

    What happens in the event of a hung parliament? BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith tells the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC News there will be huge media pressure to come up with a result – ie, government. He adds that despite the pressure, the public have become used to the idea of coalition negotiations and may have more patience this time compared with five years ago when there was a real sense of urgency to negotiations.

    But former Times columnist Peter Riddell adds it could take several weeks before a government is formed as various different parties negotiate. It may well not be as simple as in 2010 when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats managed to form a government in five days.

  17. BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins

    @rosschawkins

    tweets:

    Ed Miliband's podiumTwitter

    Interesting, Ed Miliband's podium looks a bit higher than the others, extra black base to it

  18. Clegg on Janner and Smith allegations

    LBC

    On his weekly LBC phone-in show, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says any decision on whether to prosecute Labour peer Lord Janner is one for the CPS.

    It is "right that it is a judgment for the Crown Prosecution Service," the deputy PM says.

    Asked what the Lib Dems are doing to investigate allegations against the late former Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith, Mr Clegg says he has told "all peers and MPs" to work with the police if they have any information.

  19. Northern Ireland: Non-voters

    BBC Radio 4 Today

    BBC Radio 4's Today programme is visiting 100 seats in 100 days ahead of the general election on 7 May.

    Elections in Northern Ireland are fairly predictable affairs. Most of those who vote go for either a unionist, or a nationalist candidate.

    There are of course different shades of both. At present, those on the harder-line of each persuasion hold the majority of Northern Ireland's 18 seats at Westminster. But is that a fair reflection of how people in Northern Ireland feel?

    Ireland correspondent Andy Martin has been speaking toan increasingly large proportion of the populationthere who don't vote because, it seems, they don't subscribe to the old labels of orange and green.

  20. What if no-one wins the election?

    Victoria Derbyshire

    The Victoria Derbyshire programme looks at the mechanics of a hung parliament. Watch the live debate here.

    BBC audience