Summary

  • Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major warns a Labour-SNP government would be "a recipe for mayhem"

  • Labour says it would launch what it calls an "NHS rescue plan", including a recruitment drive for 1,000 new nurses

  • Ed Miliband accuses David Cameron of putting the union at risk by "talking up" the SNP

  • Nick Clegg says Lib Dems would allow councils to charge 200% council tax on second homes in rural beauty spots

  • BBC Radio One's Newsbeat stages hour-long debate on health, education and immigration for 100 young adults

Live Reporting

Kristiina Cooper, Andy McFarlane and Anna Doble

  1. Miliband speech

    Ed Miliband is a couple of minutes late so, to tide you over, we've already taken a look at what might be coming up in his speech.

  2. 'Ransom' politics

    Sir John warns that a Labour-SNP coalition risks holding Labour to ransom on a vote-by-vote basis. 

    Labour would be in hoc to a party that slowly but surely would push them ever further to the left. We would all pay for the SNP's ransom in our daily lives."

  3. John Major trending on Twitter

    @thestuntmonkey tweets:

    John Major is not going to win the Tories any votes. #badmovedave

    @DomDom1919 tweets:

    For @Conservatives to be sending out John Major (one of the most forgettable Prime Minsters ever) to defend them shows they are panicking.

    @LeftOverForEver tweets:

    According to the Twitter Left John Major is irrelevant. Yea right, that is why he is trending third,after the Queen & Sex.Beat that Brown!

  4. Major warning

    Sir John Major

    Now speaking in Solihull, former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major says voters face "a very simple choice" on 7 May - either they vote Labour, "the party that presided over economic chaos", or they vote Conservative.

  5. Danny Savage, BBC UKIP campaign correspondent

    @dannysavage

    tweets:

    Quite a few people wanting to engage with @Nigel_Farage in Canterbury. "Good luck Nigel", says a kipper.

    Nigel Farage

  6. Christopher Hope, Assistant Editor & Chief Political Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph

    @christopherhope

    tweets:

    A full house for Sir John Major's speech in the West Midlands. Lots will remember him as PM as if it were yesterday.

  7. Get involved

    Email: politics@bbc.co.uk

    Frank, Clerkenwell:

    It's amazing that the austerity myth still hasn't been exposed for the myth it is... the country is currently borrowing £90Bn extra a year and our debt pile has doubled to £1.5Tn in the last 5 years. The mainstream parties are once again promising the earth to get elected; all relying on some unlikely growth miracle to pay for their largesse.

  8. Miliband at university

    Ed Miliband will shortly be taking to the lectern to talk to student nurses at Manchester Metropolitan University. Expect announcements on 1,000 more training places for nurses and attacks on the Conservatives' health record.

  9. Big speeches

    Lectern

    We're expecting Sir John Major and Ed Miliband to start speaking shortly - not together, of course. We'll bring you commentary of both speeches. Above, the lectern awaits the former in Warwickshire.

  10. Clegg: Tories 'are not going to win'

    Nick Clegg meeting fishermenGetty

    Away from discussions about his sartorial decisions, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says Lord Forsyth's remarks about the dangers of building up the SNP to undermine support for Labour shows the Conservatives are "panicking".

    Speaking in St Ives, Cornwall, he said: "It is now dawning on the Conservatives, something I could have told them ages ago, that they are not going to win this election. Everybody knows they are not going to win the election, in fact everybody knows that no one is going to win the election outright, and they are starting to panic. They are thrashing around, using ever more intemperate language."

  11. Get involved

    Text: 61124

    Election live reader:

    If the conservatives win the election, the SNP will go for another referendum on independence! And the Yes vote will win this time.

  12. Get involved

    Text: 61124

    Terry C, Erith:

    Personally, the more likely it seems that the SNP will have a strong influence over any Labour Government, the more likely I am to vote Labour!

  13. 'Gangsta Clegg'

    Nick CleggOther

    An innocent clothing choice has led some to accuse Nick Clegg of following "gangsta" fashion, according to BBC Trending. The Lib Dem leader chose a North Face jacket for his Twitter profile picture - and apparently there's a stereotype that comes from northern English cities that people who wear hard-wearing outdoors coats have "gangsta" ties or other nefarious connections. The coat prompted one Twitter user, called Ellie, to comment: "Clegg you absolute roadman". She then added, somewhat more cryptically: "Nick Clegg, more like Yung Clegg, am i rite?"

    A "roadman" in slang describes someone who thoroughly knows his local area, and is good to tap up for all the latest information about where the best parties are. "Yung" can mean that someone is very cool,

    The Lib Dems seem to have embraced the humour in this strange scenario, commenting:

    Nick's a big fan of his North Face jacket. Perhaps now isn't the time to tell you he's also got two mobile phones.

    Lib Dem spokesman

  14. Get involved - Victoria Derbyshire

    Text: 61124

    Victoria Derbyshire

    John, Stirling:

    Gd mng Victoria, excellent programme. Cameron is damaging the union debate by demonizing the SNP and he is driving people to the SNP. Isn't democracy about freedom of the people to select.

  15. Get involved - Victoria Derbyshire

    Text: 61124

    Victoria Derbyshire

    Roger Green:

    Victoria, what emerges from this morning is divisiveness propogated by politicians, which feeds fear and bias rather than our common ground, co-operation and consequences.

  16. 'Nationalist trap' warning

    Ruth DavidsonPA

    Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson says her party should not be welcoming the prospect of a large number of SNP MPs being elected at the expense of Labour in Scotland. She told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme in the wake of a warning from senior Tory peer Lord Forsyth that building up the SNP to undermine support for Labour in England could ultimately damage the Union. She said a "dodgy deal" between the Labour Party and the SNP would bring the nationalists "closer to breaking up Britain".

    I think Lord Forsyth has fallen into a bit of a nationalist trap by framing this as a Scotland versus England thing, and it is not, because unionists across the whole of the UK are concerned and frightened about the sort of concessions that the SNP being in charge of a weak Labour government could bring."

    Ruth Davidson

  17. Get involved

    Email: politics@bbc.co.uk

    Election live reader:

    Question: What did the Lib Dems get out of being in coalition with the Tories? Answer: A lost referendum on AV, and a massive slump in support.

    Question: What would the SNP get out of something less than a coalition with Labour? Answer: Not a lot.

  18. Nick Eardley, BBC politics reporter

    @nickeardley

    tweets:

    Nigel Dodds says SNP has marginalised its influence by ruling out deal with the Tories. "Very likely" DUP members will play "critical role".

  19. Get involved

    Email: politics@bbc.co.uk

    Daniel Stringer, Leeds:

    John Major has it spot on. It would be a disaster having a Labour-SNP deal in government. How can a UK government rely on nationalist party (whose foremost purpose is to break up the UK), to implement policy for the United Kingdom as a whole? I don't imagine the Queen would be keen to endorse this either, though this would never come out.

  20. Donation repaid

    The Independent

    Some embarrassment for the Conservatives today, as it’s emerged the party has had to pay back £50,000 of donations. The returned money came from luxury hotelier Beatrice Tollman, whose husband Stanley Tollman pleaded guilty by agreement to tax evasion in 2008, the Independent reports. That is a little awkward, as the Tories have made a big deal of their efforts to clamp down on tax evaders. Here’s the response of Labour’s general election campaign deputy Jon Ashworth:

    This is even more evidence that the Tory campaign is in chaos. It is humiliating that David Cameron has been forced to hand back over £50,000 of donations as they were connected to bank fraud. But it is also a reminder that the Tories rely on a small pool of big money donors because they are a shell of a party haemorrhaging members."