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. Reuters UK Politics

    @ReutersLobby

    tweets:

    Some inaudible heckling from the audience as Miliband talks about the NHS #BBCDebate

  2. Rob Earl

    @RobEarl

    tweets:

    Miliband paying the same game Cameron did in the last debate - stand back, let the rest squabble then have a poke every so often #bbcdebate

  3. Lord Ashcroft, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party

    @LordAshcroft

    tweets:

    The gamble by @Ed_Miliband of appearing in this debate without @David_Cameron is on balance paying off....

  4. Defence spending

    Reality Check

    A little while ago, Nigel Farage said it wasn't much to ask to devote 2% of our total spend to defence. He is confusing government spending with the total output of the economy (GDP).

    UK spending on defence is currently just over 2% of GDP as discussed in this Reality Check.

    Leanne Wood, on the other hand, was saying that the government was spending 6% of its budget on defence. It's actually closer to 5%.

    Defence spending in 2013-14 was £36.4bn, which was 5.1% of total managed expenditure.

  5. Bennett turns on UKIP

    Natalie Bennett

    Green Party leader Natalie Bennett accuses Nigel Farage of wanting to "demonise immigrants".

  6. Immigration

    Long-term trend

    Graphic showing long-term net UK migration

  7. Harry Cole, The Spectatator

    @MrHarryCole

    tweets:

    Once again falls to Leanne to have a proper crack at Nigel. Ed screwed this up last time

  8. Pic: opposing views

    Ed Miliband challenges Nigel Farage

  9. Ashley Cowburn, Political Reporter at the Observer

    @ashcowburn

    tweets:

    By far the strongest performance Natalie Bennett has ever given. #BBCDebate

  10. Andrew Neil, BBC presenter

    @afneil

    tweets:

    Bennett says Greens now support current levels of defence spending. Very different from what she told me a month ago.

  11. Catch the worm

    You can also see the worm by clicking the “Live coverage” tab at the top of this page, and selecting the “Live reaction” video.

  12. John Rentoul, Columnist, Independent on Sunday

    @JohnRentoul

    tweets:

    EdM started well but coming off badly against Sturgeon, which is what matters tonight. #BBCDebate

  13. Isabel Hardman, Assistant editor, The Spectator

    @IsabelHardman

    tweets:

    If I had a bad day and got rained on or lost my keys or something, I’d love to pop round to Leanne Wood’s for a comforting cuppa.

  14. Andrew Neil, BBC presenter

    @afneil

    tweets:

    Bennett says we should take lead by abolishing Trident. Any idea who would follow our lead?

  15. SNP and Trident

    Douglas Fraser, BBC Scotland Business and Economy Editor

    SNP opposition to nuclear weapons is long-standing and runs deep. It’s an article of faith for the party. Its critics point out that there are nearly 7,000 jobs at the nuclear submarine bases on the Clyde. South of the border, more than 5,000 are employed building submarines at Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria.

  16. David Maddox, The Scotsman

    @DavidPBMaddox

    tweets:

    This is a walk in the park for Nicola Sturgeon...the champion of the left tonight again Ukip...Miliband too quiet #BBCDebate

  17. Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister

    @nick_clegg

    tweets:

    For clarity, I was not invited to #BBCDebate. I would have happily taken part and proudly defended our strong @LibDems record in government.

  18. Cost of replacing Trident

    Compared with other capital projects

    Graphic on Trident cost

  19. Cost of Trident

    Reality Check

    Leanne Wood and Nicola Sturgeon both say they are against spending £100bn on renewing Trident. This is a figure from the CND, which includes servicing the submarines over 30 years and decommissioning them. There's more about the costing in this Reality Check.

  20. Defence spending

    How does UK spending compare internationally?

    Graphic on defence spending