Summary

  • Deputy PM Nick Clegg said millions of public sector workers would be spared pay cuts under Liberal Democrat plans

  • David Cameron said a Conservative government would create an extra 600,000 free childcare places

  • Former SNP candidate Alex Salmond said his suggestion he would be writing Labour's Budget in May was a joke

  • UKIP's Nigel Farage admitted the tone he has used on issues such as immigration and HIV was aimed to "get noticed"

  • There are 15 days until the general election

  1. Thursday's Recappublished at 23:59

    Here is a run-through some of the main political stories of the day:

    Nick Clegg said millions of public sector workers would be spared pay cuts under Liberal Democrat plans

    Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said his comment that he would be writing Labour's Budget if it won power in May was meant to be "light-hearted"

    In a BBC interview UKIP leader Nigel Farage admitted the tone he has used on issues including immigration and HIV was designed to "get noticed"

    Gordon Brown has accused David Cameron of stirring up English nationalism to try to win the election

    David Cameron says he will create 600,000 extra free childcare places if he is returned to power next month

    A Labour government would invest £150m a year in cancer diagnostic equipment in England, Ed Miliband has said

    NHS founder Aneurin Bevan would be " turning in his grave " if he saw the way Welsh ministers run the service, the UK government's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said

    And finally, James Lovelock, a leading environmentalist, has criticised the lack of attention given to climate change during the general election campaign.

    That's it for tonight folks see you at 06:00 BST tomorrow for more news, reaction and analysis.

  2. Osborne 'in it for working people'published at 23:42

    Newsnight

    Chancellor George Osborne was interviewed for BBC Newsnight during a visit to Erewash in the East Midlands.

    George Osborne

    After visiting a family business in the area, the chancellor said he met an employee called Nick who he thought represented "the working people of this country, who work damn hard".

    "He relies on people like me to make sure those taxes are well spent," Mr Osborne added.

    Quote Message

    I am in it for the working people of this country, they don't always have pressure groups standing up for them and appearing on Newsnight and the like, but they are the people who keep this country moving forward."

  3. Thursday's Mailpublished at 23:22

    #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers

    MailImage source, Mail
  4. Laura Kuenssberg, Newsnight chief correspondentpublished at 23:22 British Summer Time 22 April 2015

    @bbclaurak

    tweets, external :

    Quote Message

    We understand Brown will make a bigger public appearance on campaign tmrw and get more directly involved in central Labour efforts

  5. Spectator front pagepublished at 23:18

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    SpectatorImage source, Spectator
  6. Thursday's Timespublished at 23:02

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    TimesImage source, Times
  7. Thursday's Independentpublished at 22:53

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    IndependentImage source, Independent
  8. Thursday's Financial Timespublished at 22:47

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    FTImage source, FT
  9. Poll gives Labour leadpublished at 22:35 British Summer Time 22 April 2015

    @LordAshcroft

    tweets, external :

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    YouGov/Sun poll CON 33%, LAB 34%, LDEM 7%, UKIP 14%, GRNS 5%

  10. Thursday's Guardianpublished at 22:14

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    GuardianImage source, Guardian
  11. Thursday's Daily Expresspublished at 22:11

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    ExpressImage source, Express
  12. David Cowling, editor of BBC political researchpublished at 22:05

    With precious little on the poll front (YouGov had a one point Conservative lead) perhaps it is time to step back and review all the campaign polls.

    I have registered 48 so far (19 from YouGov alone). Labour led in 24, the Conservatives in 15 and nine were dead-heats. However, three-quarters of Conservative and Labour leads have been either 1% or 2%.

    What of the other parties? The average Lib Dem share in the first 10 campaign polls was 7.8%: in the most recent ten polls it was 8.4%.

    On the same basis, at the start of the campaign, UKIP’s average was 13.5%, compared with 12.3% most recently; and the figures for the Greens were 5.1% versus 4.5% currently.

    The recent Conservative focus on the SNP may pay electoral dividends and change the polls. Something needs to if we are ever to have a decisive outcome to this election.

  13. Thursday's Telegraphpublished at 22:00

    #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday

    TelegraphImage source, Telegraph
  14. Power of social mediapublished at 21:44

    The Huffington Post

    Ned Simons

    Ned Simons, assistant political editor of the Huffington Post, has commented on Ed Miliband's new-found appreciation online.

    "I imagine Labour can't believe their luck, they spent about four years trying to turn Miliband's image around. You remember bacon sandwiches, and geeky and weird.

    "Then in a couple of days one tweet from a teenage girl, and suddenly he's a symbol of everything else, you've got people photoshopping him onto actors and models and so on, so I think they'll be quite pleased with this."

    He added that Miliband's poll rating had gone from minus 50 to minus 18... "it's still not great but it's better than where he was before," he says.

  15. Wealth debatepublished at 21:15

    The Spectator

    Across at the Spectator they are currently holding a debate about wealth. The speakers are Guardian columnist Owen Jones, Spectator journalists Toby Young and Fraser Nelson, blogger Jack Monroe, Green MEP Molly Scott Cato and editor of Spears William Cash.

    People can join in using the hashtag #SpecDebate on Twitter.

  16. Morgan intervenes on minority languagespublished at 20:41

    Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has said a future Conservative government would "guarantee the future" of GCSEs and A-levels in minority languages such as Polish, Gujarati, Bengali and Turkish.

    There has been a campaign against exam board plans to withdraw these languages as exam subjects in England.

    Nicky Morgan

    Mrs Morgan has written to exam boards telling them to reverse their decision.

    Labour's Tristram Hunt said it was a "desperate attempt" to "undo the damage of chaotic exam changes". Full story here.

  17. Matt Chorley, political editor of MailOnlinepublished at 20:07 British Summer Time 22 April 2015

    @MattChorley

    tweets:, external

    Quote Message

    Another riveting campaign day: Clegg can't cook, someone fell over near Miliband, Dave and Boris did a jigsaw and Farage said immigrants

  18. Nigel Faragepublished at 19:50

    The UKIP leader's chat with Evan Davis (see below) is on BBC1 now. You can also watch on the live coverage tab above.

  19. 'Out of touch'published at 19:46

    Labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna reckons David Cameron’s admission on BBC Radio 1 that he does not know how much the living wage is shows "he’s completely out of touch".

    "Unlike the Tories who have done nothing to promote it, Labour will help employers pay a living wage with new incentives through Make Work Pay contracts," he adds.

  20. Teenage voterspublished at 19:16

    Newsbeat

    One audience member at the Newsbeat Ask the Leaders pressed the prime minister as to why 16 and 17-year-olds couldn't vote, and suggested it was because the Conservatives feared young people's "disillusionment" with the party's policies.

    Mr Cameron wasn't having that. He said there was strong support, even at many schools he visited, for keeping the voting age at 18, and added:

    Quote Message

    I don't accept if you gave the vote to 16 or 17-year-olds they would miraculously vote this way or that way."

    You can read the full account of the prime minister's appearance in Newsbeat's round-up of the event.