Ed Miliband has opened his speech on immigration by saying Labour had got it wrong, but changed.

Speaking at a school int the Wirral he says: "Labour got it wrong in the past. We have listened. We have learned and we have changed"

Mr Miliband says that Labour was "wrong not to ensure there were maximum transitional controls when new countries joined the European Union in 2004."

He adds: "And the reason we were wrong is that working people were seeing dramatic changes in their communities that were not planned or properly prepared for. We won’t make that mistake in future."

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Are you getting a bit tired and dispirited by the handbags being swung by party leaders during this election campaign? Don't worry, we have the antidote.

It turns out, in some parts of the country, politicians are fighting their campaigns in quite a gentille fashion. Take the south west London constituency of Richmond Park and North Kingston, where the Tory incumbent Zac Goldsmith has this morning praised his Labour opponent Sachin Patel for his campaign.

But Mr Goldsmith has assured him - quite naturally for a Conservative - that he won't be voting for Mr Patel.

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The Lib Dems will focus on a boost to apprenticeships if they get back into power.

They've pledged to double the number of employers providing apprenticeships over the next five years.

Business secretary Vince Cable said: "The world is changing at an accelerated rate and we need to equip our young people with the skills they need for the future, to ensure they can compete in a global marketplace, in ever- changing technologies and the digital economy."

Ros Altmann, the pensions expert that David Cameron wants to appoint as a consumer protection minister, tells the BBC News Channel: "What's exciting is that the Conservatives have shown that they trust people with their own money, they want people to be in charge of their own money, and that's absolutely right, but in order to be able to make that work best for people, you need to make sure that the industry treats them fairly."

Should the Conservatives be elected, Ms Altmann would be asked to conduct a "financial fairness" review, which would look at charge caps for pension products, older consumers' rights, and how the Pension Wise advice service could be developed.

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BBC News Channel

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, external published yesterday, Conservative Michael Gove dismissed a post-election deal with UKIP.

However, today UKIP leader' Nigel Farage told the BBC News Channel: "I wouldn't believe anything anyone says about future deals after 7 May at this moment in time.

"There's a lot of shadow boxing going on, people aren't going to say what they really think.

"The truth is this is the most uncertain election we've seen in our lifetimes. I have a suspicion that whatever happens on 7 May it'll take some time to form the next government afterwards."

BBC News Channel

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been responding to Labour’s plans to crack down on employers that exploit migrants and undercut workers already here.

Mr Farage told the BBC News Channel: “It’s big diversion. Labour will talk about anything but open borders. It was the Labour government that opened up the door to ten former Communist countries who have unlimited access into this country, and that is the debate that Ed Miliband simply won’t have. Is he right that some people come here and are exploited and abused? Yes, of course he is right. There is no doubt that there are problems out there but it is not the main issue. The main issue is that we have too many people allowed to come into Britain which is pushing down people’s wages."

Mr Farage said the other main parties would "rather not discuss immigration at all"

He added: "They’d like it to go away. Their problem is when the public are polled, immigration and the impacts of that on public services and people’s live is the number one issue."

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The Daily Telegraph's editorial, external is quite punchy this morning.

It calls on the Prime Minister to dig out his soap box and roll up his sleeves, a la John Major in 1992, if he hopes to avoid the "nightmare coalition of Ed Miliband and Nicola Sturgeon"

It also takes a dim view of David Cameron's decision not to take part in the Thursday's televised debate, saying he missed an opportunity to counter "a tirade of simplistic Left-wing claptrap" about the economy: "In retrospect Mr Cameron must privately wish he had been there on the platform to make this point himself rather than rely on the French IMF chief to do it for him 3,000 miles away".

The Telegraph adds: "There is now, clearly, a Left-wing, anti-Conservative coalition in the making, headed by Mr Miliband, sustained by Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party and propped up by the Greens and Plaid Cymru."

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That's according to the Independent newspaper., external

It says figures due to be released from the Trussell Trust, the biggest provider of emergency food aid in the UK, will show one million people have used a food bank in the last year.

That's up from 936,000 a year ago and just 2,814 nine years ago.

The figures will come at an awkward time for the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats, after official figures showed 2 million new jobs had been created since 2010.

David Cameron hailed yesterday's figures as a jobs miracle, but the Independent says Labour is likely to seize on the Trussell Trust figures as further proof of the "cost of living crisis", and will "put poverty and living standards at the heart of its general election campaign."

BBC News Channel

Labour says that it will be able to fund 1,000 new border control staff through changes to the UK visa waiver system, which it says would bring in £60m.

The Conservatives have been doing their sums, however, and say the changes would only be able to fund 59 new staff.

However, Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper tells the BBC News Channel the Conservative's reckoning is "just nonsense".

"They're just making this up," she says. "If you look at the same system that the Americans have in place, and that's what it would be modelled on... they're able to do this. The government's just trying to come up with excuses as to why they haven't done it."

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The Conservatives want to bring pensions expert Ros Altmann (pictured with David Cameron) into the political fold. She will be brought into the House of Lords and made a government minister if the Conservatives win at the election.

Ms Altmann has worked as an adviser to Mr Cameron's government and also that of Tony Blair. She is a former director-general of Saga Group, which provides insurance and travel services to over-50s.

Pension reform has been a major policy for the government, which has removed many of the restrictions on how older people can cash in their pension pots.

Conservative leader David Cameron said Ms Altmann would be responsible for financial consumer protection and financial education. "We want to create a real savings culture in our country for everybody," he said.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Ms Cooper is challenged on Radio 5 live that people are more concerned about immigration control, rather than exploitation of illegal immigrants.

"We're talking about a range of issues. For example, we're talking about stronger border controls. We would have 1,000 more border staff, paid for by changing the visa waiver system," she says.

Ms Cooper adds Labour would try to discourage illegal immigration by cooperating with France and other countries.