Summary

  • David Cameron outlined Lloyds share sale plan and warned against SNP influence in UK government

  • Nicola Sturgeon ruled out any deal with the Conservatives during her Andrew Marr Show appearance

  • Lib Dem Vince Cable said it would be difficult to work with either Labour or the Conservatives, but they would

  • Labour focused on the NHS, saying the Conservatives would cut the number of nurses in England

  • There are 18 days left until the general election

  1. Farage on Libyapublished at 15:23

    Robin Brant
    UKIP campaign correspondent

    The plight of hundreds of Libyan refugees reported to have died in the latest mass drowning off the coast of Italy should be on the conscience of the prime minister, according to Nigel Farage.

    "I think we are very guilty for what is happening" in Libya, he said, for the "savagery" that took hold in the aftermath of the UK and French-lead bombing which helped oust the dictator Col Gaddafi in 2011.

    Mr Farage said he thought the military intervention in Libya was "the biggest mistake" David Cameron had made in foreign policy.

  2. 'Come to an arrangement'published at 15:15

    Andrew Neil
    Daily and Sunday Politics

    A bit more from Stewart Hosie. He told Sunday Politics Scotland: “We need to look at what might be in a Queen’s Speech, what might be in a Budget, what might be in spending estimates. Find out where the Labour view is the same as ours, have negotiations where it’s different, so that hopefully we could come to an arrangement that’s in the best interests of everyone in the UK.”

    That's a bit different from the "absolute 100% total firewall" that Ed Balls said earlier would be erected around a Labour Budget to protect it from SNP interference.

    Mr Hosie added: "We would, of course, vote against cuts that we didn't like... We would vote against spending we didn't want to see... we would be perfectly at liberty to table amendments to budgets, to table amendments to legislation."

  3. SNP votes on English matterspublished at 15:06

    Stewart Hosie

    Earlier, Sunday Politics Scotland spoke at length to SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie and he had some interesting things to say. SNP MPs have until now held to the principle that they don't vote at Westminster on English-only issues, but it looks like that could change. Mr Hosie said his party wanted “to bring progressive politics to the UK” as a whole and where English only or UK-wide legislation had “an impact on Scotland, of course we’ll take an interest”. He gave the example of university tuition fees. In the event Labour were elected and wanted to cut tuition fees - as they propose - Mr Hosie said: "Although we’d like to see free education across the board, we certainly think a reduction in tuition fees is a sensible thing to do and we’d be prepared to back that.”

  4. Ed Miliband, Labour leaderpublished at 14:59

    @Ed_Miliband

    tweets, external :

    Quote Message

    Those dying in the Mediterranean are some of the poorest men, women and children in the world. We must act to stop these awful scenes.

  5. John Rentoul, Independent on Sunday columnistpublished at 14:48 British Summer Time 19 April 2015

    @JohnRentoul

    tweets:, external

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    St Nicola in danger of overplaying her hand. Saying Fixed-term Parliaments Act could put SNP in "very powerful position".

  6. 'Blue murder'published at 14:39

    Nick CleggImage source, Reuters
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    I think the Conservatives are getting away with, if I can use the pun, blue murder by claiming that if you vote for the Conservatives that gives a guarantee of stability and continuity against the risk of a Miliband/Salmond government. The real risk also is the other way - if you vote for the Conservatives you will get Blukip - you will get an alliance of real hardline right-wingers in the Conservative Party who have been very clear they want to enter into an alliance with UKIP."

    Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader

  7. Pic: Another day, another pubpublished at 14:28

    Nigel FarageImage source, PA

    Nigel Farage takes his campaign to the Volunteer pub in Ash, Kent.

  8. Libya boat tragedypublished at 14:17

    With reports that hundreds of people may have drowned after a boat carrying up to 700 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, Yvette Cooper says:

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    Today's dreadful and distressing tragedy shows how urgently we need EU and international action to prevent thousands of people from drowning off Europe's shores. The British government must immediately reverse its opposition to EU search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, as the EU needs to restart the rescue as soon as possible."

    Yvette Cooper, Labour shadow home secretary

  9. Alberto Nardelli, Guardian data editorpublished at 14:16 British Summer Time 19 April 2015

    @AlbertoNardelli

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    18 days to #GE2015 - @guardian projection: LAB 271 seats, SNP 55, LDEM 28, CON 270 Ukip 4"

  10. 'More passionate tone'published at 14:12

    The Spectator

    David CameronImage source, PA

    James Forsyth, political editor of the Spectator,says he saw a "change of tone", externalfrom David Cameron during this morning's Andrew Marr appearance. "Gone was prime ministerial detachment, replaced by a much more passionate tone as Cameron inveighed against the mess that the last Labour government had left and argued about who the Tories stand up for," he writes.

  11. Envoy for religious freedompublished at 14:04

    Ed Miliband meets worshippers at the Praise House Community Church in CroydonImage source, PA

    Ed Miliband held a Q&A with worshippers this morning at Praise House in Croydon and told the congregation that a Labour government would install an envoy for religious freedom in the Foreign Office to tackle persecution overseas.

    "We must do everything we can to make sure that religious freedom is protected," he added.

  12. Farage and the BBCpublished at 13:54

    Robin Brant
    UKIP campaign correspondent

    Challenger debateImage source, AP

    Lawyers for Nigel Farage will write to the BBC Trust next week and demand to know the thinking behind the choice of polling company who helped pick the audience at last week's TV leaders debate. The UKIP leader criticised the BBC during the debate and labelled the audience "left wing".

    Mr Farage said he would ask the BBC: "Tell us the logic behind giving a polling organisation with a history of getting UKIP wrong... why on earth were those people chosen?"

    He added that he also wanted to ask "what assurances can you give us that for the rest of this election campaign there is going to be free and impartial treatment?"

    Asked if he still planned to appear in the final televised leaders event, which is due on the BBC in the last week of the campaign, Mr Farage said "very much so".

  13. Lib Dems and Labourpublished at 13:52

    BBC Radio 4

    How would you go about working with Labour, Vince Cable is asked on The World This Weekend. "We'd say to them in a polite way that they did leave office with the economy in a bad way... They've never really properly explained how they allowed this situation to happen - never apologised." Mr Cable says Labour "are now using the language of fiscal responsibility, which is welcome" but there's no detail about how they'd put it into practice.

    Should the Lib Dems have done things differently in coalition, shaken things up more? "We could all take responsibility for perhaps not spelling out clearly enough the areas where the big differences with the Conservatives were," the business secretary says.

  14. Cable: EU referendum 'would be damaging'published at 13:42

    BBC Radio 4

    Vince Cable says an in-out EU referendum in 2017 "would be very damaging for the country". He says he doesn't object to people having a vote, but having one as the Conservatives plan "off the back of this election" would leave the country "in a state of paralysis". Leaving the EU would create "genuinely chaotic conditions" for business, and even a narrow decision to stay would leave confusion as is the case after the independence referendum in Scotland, he argues.

    But is the Lib Dems' opposition to a referendum it a red line? He replies:

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    "We're avoiding the language of red lines."

  15. 'Lost some support'published at 13:32

    BBC Radio 4

    Vince CableImage source, PA

    Business Secretary Vince Cable is now speaking to The World This Weekend. He says the "personal vote" - in other words, the popularity of the individual rather than their party - will be key to Lib Dems holding seats on 7 May, although he acknowledges "we have lost some support". He thinks there's "a craving" out there in the real world for some stability and fairness, which he thinks, naturally, the Lib Dems will bring.

  16. Farage on Lloydspublished at 13:23

    From Robin Brant, BBC UKIP campaign correspondent

    Nigel FarageImage source, PA

    Nigel Farage says he "absolutely" welcomes Conservative plans to return Lloyds bank to private ownership with a big discount offering to members of the public.

    But the UKIP leader said: "This government's track record isn't very good because they sold the post office too cheaply."

    He added: "Fine let's do it, but the price must be right otherwise the taxpayer loses out."

  17. Gone in seven secondspublished at 13:19

    Tony Abbott

    David Cameron and George Osborne visited a brewery earlier in the election campaign, but nothing quite like this happened. Footage has emerged of the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, knocking back a large glass of beer (about two thirds of a pint apparently) in only seven seconds. He was at a bar in east Sydney on Saturday along with players from the UTS Bats Australian Rules football team.

  18. David Maddox, political reporter for The Scotsmanpublished at 13:14

    @DavidPBMaddox

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    Has Angela Eagle effectively signalled that UK Labour has given up on Scottish Labour and is preparing to work with SNP?"

  19. Miliband mobbedpublished at 13:10

    Ed Miliband meets a hen party in ChesterImage source, Chester Chronicle

    Last election saw Clegg-mania, but yesterday, it was a case of Mili-mania. The Labour leader found himself in the dangerous position of being a man in the middle of a hen do, but it turned out they were very pleased to see him. He was mobbed - there's no other word for it really - as he got off his campaign bus in Chester, with shouts of "Selfie, selfie!" Apparently one of the women even called him "adorable". Watch it here.

  20. 'Black hole'published at 13:01

    Willie RennieImage source, AFP

    As you might expect, Scots Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie is unimpressed with the SNP's stated aim of full fiscal autonomy for Scotland. "The SNP's hokey-cokey on full fiscal autonomy is a diversionary tactic from the £7.6bn black hole it would blow in public funds," he said. That £7.6bn is said to be what losing its Barnett formula allocation would cost Scotland.

    Mr Rennie continued: "The party that once said independence could be done and dusted in 18 months now says their plans for full fiscal autonomy could take years... they need to come clean and tell voters how they plan to fill this £7.6 billion hole in public funds - is it through cuts or tax hikes?"