Summary

  • The Institute for Fiscal Studies says four of the major parties have not provided "anything like full details" on plans to cut the deficit

  • Labour and the Conservatives attacked on each other's economic plans ahead of the IFS report

  • Mr Cameron has described the prospect of a Labour government propped up by the SNP as a "toxic tie-up"

  • The Liberal Democrats launched a disability manifesto pledging a £150m support package for carers

  • There are 14 days until the general election

Live Reporting

Kristiina Cooper, Andy McFarlane and Bernadette McCague

  1. Owen Meredith

    @owenlmeredith

    tweets:

    More embarrassment for Labour's @IanMearnsMP today as ONS say deficit more than halved since 2010. http://order-order.com/2015/04/20/loony-labour-lefty-in-deficit-deceit-leaflet/#_@/X5ajeoqjKJKqNQ …

  2. Emily Ashton, Senior Political Correspondent @BuzzFeedUK.

    @elashton

    tweets:

    Frank Field says party leaders should be brave & talk to real people during campaign to make it "come alive": http://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyashton/labour-needs-to-be-frank …

  3. Craig Woodhouse, The Sun political correspondent

    @craigawoodhouse

    tweets:

    Interesting under-reported poll finding from @YouGov - support for staying In the EU is at a record 10 point lead. https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/04/22/eu-referendum-lead-10/ …

  4. BBC story: Electorate 'left in the dark', says IFS

    Your comments

    Stuart8827 comments on this story:

    Is it any wonder the parties are reluctant to give details. The reality is there is only two ways to cut the deficit; increase taxes or cut back on spending. Neither of these are going to be vote winners so all the parties beat about the bush hoping that no one will notice until it's too late.

    Gordon comments:

    The elephant in the room that the IFS have missed and that really leaves the electorate in the dark is that the parties can say anything they like to get elected and ignore them and in fact vote in the opposite direction - student fees anyone - and there is nothing the electorate can do for another 5 years when another lying round begins.

  5. A key marginal

    BBC Radio 5 Live

  6. Send us your views

    Email: politics@bbc.co.uk

    Mark Watson, Thame, Oxfordshire:

    It would be nice to hear from the parties about law and order.

    My son has just passed all his police entrance exams and assessments (having cost him £12000). Are there going to be any jobs for him?

  7. Politicians on the NHS in Wales

    BBC News Channel

    Debating the NHS in Wales on the BBC News Channel, UKIP's Simon Mahoney says Labour is "trying to shut down honest, decent debate" on the health service. He accuses the party of painting any criticism of the Welsh government's record as an attack on health service preofessionals.

    Lib Dem candidate Jenny Willott says the Welsh government is "very centralising" and the Lib Dems would like to see "decisions made closer to the people".

    For the Greens, Pippa Bartolotti says "this is about austerity, ultimately" which she says is an "ideological choice".

  8. Joe Watts, Political Correspondent for the Evening Standard

    @JoeWatts

    tweets:

    No wonder Tower Hamlets 1st decided not to stand in the area's two parliamentary seats, as many had expected them to. #writingonthewall

  9. Picture: Lutfur Rahman

    Lutfur RahmanPA

    Lutfur Rahman is the former Labour leader on Tower Hamlets Council and now leads Tower Hamlets First (THF).

  10. On the Daily Politics from noon

    Daily Politics
    Live on BBC Two

    Coming up on the Daily Politics: Jo Coburn offers a red and white hat to the speakers at a UKIP conference on St George's Day, Giles Dilnot is talking to shoemakers in the East Midlands about their election views, they will talk to Lord West about immigration, and also hear more about the threat to behead a UKIP candidate. Viewers on the desktop site can watch via the Live Coverage tab above.

    Jo Coburn at UKIP press conference

  11. Tower Hamlets mayor Rahman guilty
    Breaking

    Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets in east London, has been found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices by an Election Court judge who concluded that he had breached rules governing elections.

  12. 'More positive picture'

    The British Chambers of Commerce says the government has made progress in reducing the deficit but warns that huge challenges remain.

    Commenting on the publication of the public sector borrowing statistics for the financial year ending March 2015, the BCC's chief economist, David Kern, said:

    Despite a slow start to the financial year, we have seen welcome progress in recent months. Looking at the financial year as a whole, we see a more positive picture - the deficit is much lower than the previous year. However, when compared with 2010 we have cut only half the fiscal deficit. We have to make more progress towards stabilising our public finances - it is a difficult but necessary task. The challenges in the financial sector and lower oil and gas output constrain our ability to generate tax receipts. The simple if uncomfortable truth is we must focus on reducing public spending so that we can live within our means. The next government must focus on creating conditions that will make it possible for businesses to drive a sustainable recovery."

  13. Steve Hawkes, deputy political editor, the Sun

    @steve_hawkes

    tweets:

    The SNP's plans for the economy "imply a longer period of austerity", say the boffins at the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Well, well, well !

  14. Osborne says other parties live in 'unreal world'

    George Osborne

    Chancellor George Osborne is campaigning on the government's economic record in Morley, West Yorkshire.

    He says the UK is growing faster than other western economies and has "the highest employment rate in our history".

    It would be easy at this election to say job done, no further difficult decisions are required. And that is indeed the unreal world inhabited by our political opponents."

  15. TUC: 'Deficit targets missed'

    BBC News Channel

    Commenting on the publication of the public sector borrowing statistics, TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady says the chancellor's economic strategy has failed.

    The chancellor has missed his deficit targets by a country mile. He is borrowing £50bn more this year than his initial target because of the abysmal failure of his economic plan. The chancellor failed to reduce the deficit because he failed to get wages growing. It left the public finances in a mess because income tax revenues and national insurance receipts fell £33bn short of expectations for the last year alone. The extreme cuts the Conservatives want after the election will kill-off the recovery, put wages back in decline and leave our schools, hospitals and other services without the vital revenues they need.

  16. Welsh NHS debate

    BBC News Channel

    Welsh politicians have been debating the NHS in Wales on the BBC News Channel.

    Labour candidate Mari Williams says her party created the NHS and is promising 1,000 more nurses in Wales.

    Andrew RT Davies, who leads the Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly, says "a conscious decision" was taken by the Labour Welsh government to cut the NHS, while the Tory-led UK government protected health spending.

    Plaid Cyrmu's Simon Thomas says "we have to have the resources" to recruit more staff to the NHS in Wales.

  17. Do the parties financial plans stack up?

    As mentioned earlier, the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has taken a look at the main political parties’ financial plans to see if they stack up. Carl Emmerson, deputy director at the IFS, points out first and foremost the scale of the mountain either Labour or the Conservatives still have to climb.

    Cutting government borrowing by 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) will, he says, be the equivalent of £19bn of spending cuts or tax rises.

    Government borrowing has fallen from 10% of GDP at the height of the financial crisis to around 5% today, he adds.

  18. In Gordon Brown's old constituency

    A shop

    With all the coverage of Gordon Brown at the moment, Alan Soady's been testing the mood in his political heartland:

    As you can see from the pic, the SNP's is the only shop on Kirkcaldy High Street with a wheelbarrow of flowers parked outside. In previous general elections, it has never exactly a bed of roses for the SNP. Last time around, the local Labour MP - Gordon Brown - had a rock solid majority of more than 23,000.

    Yet it's those who are backing the SNP who appear the most optimistic - and the most willing to boast of how they intend to vote. Of course there are still Labour supporters hoping Kenny Selbie will succeed Brown (here are all the candidates standing), as Alan Soady says:

    A pensioner called Margaret was feistily anti-SNP, describing Nicola Sturgeon as a 'nippy sweetie' who goes 'stalking about in those six-inch heels'. But most of the Labour-leaning voters I spoke to seemed reluctant to say so. Perhaps in the privacy of the ballot box things will be different."

  19. UKIP press conference - hats ready for St George's day

    Hats

  20. Steve Hawkes, Deputy Political Editor, The Sun

    @steve_hawkes

    tweets:

    Govt borrowed just over £87 billion in the last year, Britain's debt now almost £1.6 trillion... Yet people say it's time to ease up...