BBC Radio 4 Today

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Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham says the Conservatives have presided over a huge increase - a billion pounds - in the amount of money going to private agencies to provide nurses.

He won't commit a Labour government to an extra £8bn a year by the end of the next parliament as the Conservatives and Lib Dems have done, but he seeks to reassure listeners. “The Labour Party through its history has always done whatever it takes to secure the future of the NHS.”

He promises an extra £2.5bn by 2016, adding:

BBC Radio 5 Live

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Former foreign secretary William Hague is asked about the Mediterranean migrant crisis. "This is a completely unacceptable situation," he says, telling BBC Radio 5 Live his first instinct is to help. "We've got to work with other countries to help people stay in those countries." But Mr Hague says there is no "quick fix" to the problem. Should European countries take asylum seekers? "It can't be the answer to the world's problems to open all the doors of the European Union to unlimited immigration," he adds.

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As Labour calls for more training for nurses today, the Conservatives are responding by saying that the coalition inherited a “nursing crisis” which included a plan to cut nursing levels.

This kind of investment is only possible because of the “strong economy” built by the Conservatives in government, the spokesman adds.

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The Daily Mail

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The SNP is getting a lot of flak from the rest of the UK but there are some nice messages in there too, Nicola Sturgeon has been telling the Mail, external. The Scottish First Minister says she’s been “surprised” by supportive messages from people in England and Wales who would like to see a “progressive alternative” to Labour. The interview, conducted after yesterday’s manifesto launch, also saw her dismiss the Mail’s claim that she is the ‘most dangerous woman in Britain’. She said: “Do I look dangerous?” If she calls for another independence referendum if Britain votes to leave the EU in 2017, the Mail suggests, she might be very dangerous indeed.

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BBC Radio 4 Today

When asked about childcare in interviews David Cameron has a habit of saying it is “the issue” that bothers families - and it’s certainly proving an important one on the doorsteps. In Amber Valley, where Tory incumbent Nigel Mills is defending a majority of just 536 against Labour, the parties' proposals are attracting interest from voters. One mother picking up her child from a nursery told the Today programme’s Sanchia Berg that a party's offer of childcare could sway her vote. "If it was more hours you could work longer hours, possibly full-time...so yes it would sway me," she said. You can listen to Sanchia’s full report here.

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Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman doesn’t hold back as she attacks the Conservatives’ “desperate and cynical game” in talking about the SNP’s chances of having a big influence in the next parliament. Responding to Lord Forsyth’s comments in theGuardian, external, she says:

BBC Radio 4 Today

David Steel doubts that Ed Miliband would do a deal with the SNP. “Stop to think about it - if the SNP do quite well, it will be at the expense of the Labour Party,” he tells Today. “The idea that having killed off a number of Labour MPs they’re going to embrace the SNP is in the realm of fantasy, I think.” He says the most likely outcome of the general election is a Labour minority government.

BBC Radio 4 Today

David Steel - former Liberal leader and former presiding officer in the Scottish Parliament, to boot - says Sir John Major has “never understood Scotland”. He says Tory peer Michael Forsyth is more on the money when it comes to the negative impact of highlighting the nationalists' position. “The Tories are really doing the SNP a favour by bringing them to centre-stage of the campaign,” he says.

Pollster Joe Twyman of YouGov, speaking from a beautiful but rather chilly-looking stretch of the Wirral coastline, says the big change in this campaign has been “people’s expectations of Ed Miliband and the Labour Party”. His strong performance might not have had an impact on the polls just yet, he says, but it could do because “he’s exceeded what were very low expectations”. The big policy announcements really haven’t made much of a difference, Mr Twyman adds - the Conservatives’ right-to-buy policy was only approved by 39%, for example - and it’s now looking like the expected incumbency boost for the Tories might not materialise.

At the start of the campaign Mr Twyman says he would have expected those in government would have received “some sort of benefit” and would “pull away”. But “that doesn’t seem to have happened”, he says. “As each day goes past, the likelihood of it happening reduces. Will it happen? I think it’s now less likely than it was originally.”

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Nigel Farage is calling for a two-thirds cut in the BBC licence fee, telling a public meeting in Rochester yesterday that he thinks it should become “purely a public service broadcaster”. It’s the first time he’s put a figure on his long-held view that the BBC should be pared back - proposing the current £145.50 licence fee be reduced to £48.50. It follows Mr Farage’s accusation in last week’s TV debate that the BBC had fielded a “left-wing” audience. UKIP's lawyers, he added, would be writing to the BBC Trust to ask it to explain "the logic" behind the process of the audience's selection and seek assurances that in future he would be treated in a "free and impartial way".

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Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Talking to folk around Mr Cameron, they believe the strategy of playing the SNP card in this campaign is working - is gaining traction - in a way that concentrating on the economy just isn’t. They are determined to keep doing this right up to election day. What I find interesting is the extent to which we may now see some queasiness in some sections of the Conservative Party, and amongst wise heads generally, that by playing the SNP card so hard you actually risk jeopardising the union.

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The biggest story overnight from the papers is probably that of Tory peer Lord Forsyth's comments in the Guardian. He's not at all happy with his party's approach to the SNP - and has been bothered ever since Scottish Conservatives propped up the SNP's 2007-11 minority government in Holyrood. So imagine how he felt when he faced up to the Conservatives' approach in this campaign of highlighting the dangers of the SNP helping Labour and, critics say, undermining the union in the process. Here's what hetold the Guardian, external:

As you'd expect there's an awful lot of politics on today's front pages, with Sir John Major's speech leading the bill. That and a vitamin pill health scare. that is. Cast your eye over the papers in one handy place here .

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If the early bird catches the worm - or fish - Nick Clegg looks to have bagged it this morning. He's out meeting fishermen in Newlyn in Cornwall. The Press Association's David Hughes has filed these snaps of the Lib Dem leader taking a tour of the Louisa N.