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Robert Peston wants to know why UKIP is so keen on positioning itself as the anti-business party.

“We’re not anti-business," Patrick O’Flynn responds. "We think big business has driven the agenda in this country for too long and we very much see ourselves as the party of small business.”

He wants to tackle immigration, but Stewart Hosie of the SNP isn’t impressed. “The answer isn’t to demonise people who come from another country,” he declares.

The SNP’s Stewart Hosie is fairly upbeat about the possibility of his party coming to an accommodation with Labour in the event of a hung Parliament. “There is a deal to be struck which is fiscally responsible,” he says.

But Labour’s Chris Leslie is unyielding. “We are not going to compromise on any Budgets,” he declares, adding that the SNP won’t have any influence on Labour policy at all.

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BBC economics editor Robert Peston asks about concerns in the City that a Labour government could lead to higher interests rates. Chris Leslie disputes the premise of the question, saying not all businesses are fearful.

Lib Dem Dick Newby challenges Mr Leslie over an HMRC report on the cost of the 50p top rate of tax - and Tory David Gauke denies any ministerial interference in it. He rejects the 50p rate proposed by Labour, saying he’s all in favour of making the rich pay more but arguing that “the 50p rate is a lousy way of doing it”.

UKIP’s Patrick O’Flynn, asked about immigrants’ contribution to economic growth, says they won’t improve GDP per capita. But Stewart Hosie points out that half of migrants arriving in Scotland are educated to degree level.

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Summaries of the remaining opening statements from the parties in the Daily Politics' debate on the economy:

• UKIP’s Patrick O’Flynn calls for tax cuts, including for those on the minimum wage. He claims it is affordable “because we alone are prepared to take the axe to politically correct spending” – on things like foreign aid, HS2, the Barnett formula and the EU.
• The SNP’s Stewart Hosie says a vote for his party is about giving Scotland “a voice at Westminster”. He’s pushing for investment in the NHS and an end to austerity because “we simply can’t afford another five years of cuts”.

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Here’s a summary of the opening statements from the Daily Politics’ election debate on the economy – and their answers to one or two awkward questions from Andrew Neil.

• Labour’s Chris Leslie the UK is struggling in a "low wage economy". He calls for a government on the side of the majority because “if working people succeed, Britain as a whole succeeds”.
• The Liberal Democrats’ Dick Newby says his party wants to build on the achievements of the coalition by growing spending in line with economic growth after the deficit’s been eliminated.
• Conservative David Gauke says five years ago “we inherited an economy in crisis”. But now “our economic plan is working”. He acknowledges there’s “more to do”, though.

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Image source, AP

US investment bank Goldman Sachs has attracted one or two headlines today with an "election special" giving its view that a Conservative government would be better news for business than a Labour one. “Concerns are likely to emerge that reliance on the SNP would pull the Labour government away from the centre to the left of the political spectrum, as well as raising the spectre of distributional policies favouring Scotland at the expense of the UK as a whole,” the briefing sent to clients states. By contrast, the coalition government had achieved “some credibility in markets as a consequence of its contribution to the stabilisation of the economy and revival of growth that has been achieved since 2010”.

Image source, PA

Pressed by Jeremy Vine over whether Labour will do any kind of a deal with the SNP – even an “agreement” rather than a “coalition” – Ed Miliband says: “There’s not going to be that.”

He adds: “If you want to ask who’s going to write Labour’s first Budget, it’s the Labour Party, not the SNP.”

But, according to a video highlighted in a tweet from PM David Cameron, external, that clashes with the view of Alex Salmond.

It shows the former SNP leader at an event earlier this month in which he quotes a Labour spokesman saying Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy would not be writing the Labour Party Budget.

Mr Salmond adds:

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Image source, Reuters

Nigel Farage has offered his take on the story that Grant Shapps allegedly changed details of his Wikipedia account:

The Labour leader is emphasising the importance of "speeding up the testing" for cancer diagnosis. "It's the kind of change we need in our health service," he says. He confirms the mansion tax is a part of the £2.5 billion fund Labour will use to pay for it.

Ed Miliband, having spent the entirety of Video Killed The Radio Star trying to remember who the band was, expresses his relief when Jeremy Vine informs him it’s the Buggles, external .

Ed Miliband doesn’t do spending cuts, only “spending reductions”, as he puts it in BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine interview. He’s not prepared to say when he’ll finish off reducing the deficit. “It’s about the sums adding up,” he says.

Grant Williams:

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Ed Miliband, interviewed by Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2, says he takes a “big lesson” from the last five years: “If living standards stagnate, the tax revenues don’t come in and the books don’t get balanced.” He thinks Labour can do something about living standards, listing changes he says will “ease that cost-of-living crisis and build a stronger economy for the future”. The Labour leader says there are 1.3 million people working part-time in the economy who say they want a full-time job. “This goes to a big question, which is: are we satisfied with the jobs we’ve got in our economy, or do we think too many of them are low-paid, insecure?” Mr Miliband highlights the “dramatic growth” in zero-hours contracts and claims everyone knows someone who’s on such a contract now.

Image source, Getty Images

Pollsters Ipsos Mori are carrying out a survey, external of a panel of around 4,500 respondents, looking at their attitude towards the issue which UKIP has made the centrepiece of its campaign: immigration. Here are some of the highlights of the the first findings:

• Only 12% say they are currently satisfied with the government’s handling of immigration
• The average guess from the public on what proportion of the UK population is foreign born is 21% - when the latest official estimate is around 13%
• Views are polarising, with 27% saying we’re talking about the issue too much – compared to just 11% who thought the same thing in 2011
• There’s a growing generational divide on immigration
• But it’s political allegiance which is now the most important predictor of who worries about the issue

Election live reader:

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One final post from today's BBC Daily Politics programme. The Reality Party, Happy Monday's Bez’s new project, has three candidates standing in the general election. Mark Berry, as barely anyone knows him, explains that the party began out of opposition to fracking. What about the Greens, then? “I can’t see the Green Party doing well, that’s why I formed a new political party,” Bez says.

He wants to create a cultural centre in Salford and take back “responsibility for our own food supply”. Bez wants to “set up the idea of community again” and adds that “we need to take responsibility for our own health”, too. So how long would it take to sort out? “Not very long,” he reckons.