Campaign countdown - 28 April

1. The Conservatives promise another 50,000 apprenticeships paid for by £200 million from Libor fines
2. Labour announce a 10-point plan to reform the immigration system
3. Lib Dems demand a stability budget within 50 days of the next government being formed as a red line for any post-election negotiations
4. BBC2's Daily Politics hosts another election debate - this time on defence and security
5. One hundred young voters quiz politicians on the cost of living in the final Newsbeat election debate
6. There are nine days left until the general election

Until tomorrow...

It's time for us to say goodnight after another busy day in the election campaign. But before we sign off and head home for sleep, we'll leave you with a quick round-up of today's main political news. Thanks for joining us - and see you tomorrow.

• Growth in the UK economy slowed in the first three months of the year, according to official figures
• David Cameron vows that a Conservative government would use bank fines to fund 50,000 apprenticeships
• Ed Miliband pledges a 10-point plan to reform the immigration system
• Nick Clegg said the Lib Dems would not enter into another coalition unless an emergency "stability budget" was held within 50 days
• A group of ex-senior military officials has said any decision not to renew the UK's nuclear weapons programme would be "irresponsible folly"
• Average incomes are set to fall over the next five years regardless of who leads the new government, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies
• The Green Party pledged to double child benefit to £40 a week
• Nigel Farage said he was "bored" with the media's "obsession" that depicted UKIP as a racist party
• Ed Miliband was interviewed by Russell Brand , which prompted much discussion in the newspapers

What would a hung parliament mean for Britain?

During the election campaign, politicians have constantly said they are campaigning for an overall majority for their party.

However, the polls indicate another hung parliament is more likely.

With the parties having ruled out various coalitions, talks about who governs Britain could involve many parties, not just a handful or only the main ones.

Nick Robinson reports.

Conservative spending pledge

BBC News Channel

The focus of tomorrow's election campaign is inevitably going to be on tax, with the Conservatives pledging not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT for the next five years if they win the election, says our political correspondent Ben Geoghegan.

David Cameron is due to announce his plans in a speech on Wednesday, and is expected to propose a law to outlaw any tax rises.

Labour will say it is a sign that the Tories can't be trusted and they will point to David Cameron's broken promise not to raise VAT in the last Parliament., our correspondent says.

The Conservatives will be hoping to get good headlines from the policy, and by pledging to enshrine it in law they want to show it is a clear commitment, he adds.

Three new polls

Two GB-wide polls and one from Scotland. Both TNS and YouGov deliver one-point Conservative leads, with the Lib Dems around 8%, UKIP around 13% and the Greens on 5%. Survation’s Scottish poll has the SNP on 51% and Labour on 26%, a swing of 24% that one year ago would have been unthinkable but not now. 

Farron: UKIP and SNP are dangerous

Newsnight

BBC

Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron is on BBC 2's Newsnight programme, and says the party would not take part in a post-election coalition that involved either the SNP or UKIP.

"If you wrap yourself in the union jack, like UKIP, or the Saltire, like the SNP, you are dangerous," Mr Farron says.

He adds: "The politics of nationalism and identity is dangerous and divisive and we would not want to share power in any formal way with a party that wants to split up the country or destabilise it by taking us out of the European Union."

Tomorrow's papers

Tomorrow's papers

Tomorrow's papers

Newsbeat debate: Housing and cost of living

Newsbeat

Thefinal Newsbeat election debate has taken place in Edinburghwith the cost of living, jobs and housing discussed by 100 young adults and five politicians.

Lib Dem Danny Alexander pledged to build 300,000 new houses a year, while UKIP's Jonathan Arnott said his party would create a million new homes in 10 years. Gavin Brown of the Conservatives said his party was already cutting the cost of living "whether that’s energy bills, freezing council tax, freezing fuel duty".

Meanwhile, Labour's Jenny Marra said her party was "committed to increasing the minimum wage to £8.00 by 2020.” On zero-hours jobs and the minimum wage, the SNP's Humza Yousaf said: "In the 21st century we have women doing the same job as men but being paid less for it. It's completely medieval."

To keep across all the big election stories for young and first-time voters, check outNewsbeat's Election 2015

BBC

Tomorrow's papers

Ease the pre-election stress... with BallotBots

Newsbeat

BallotBots is a game all about the general election, except we've turned your leaders into robots. Your task is to pair robot politicians with robot voters as you progress through a series of zones on your way to Number 10.Play it here on BBC Taster.

BBC

Tomorrow's papers

Tomorrow's papers

How boring is the election - statistically speaking?

BBC Radio 4

Science Photo Library

There's just nine days to go until the general election. We don't know about you, but it's felt like a pretty long campaign already - and many voters are probably looking forward to the whole thing being over.

So, how boring is the general election - statistically speaking? Tim Harford, from BBC Radio 4's More or Less programme, has examined the figures - and has done so with a doughnut analogy.

Newsbeat debate

Newsbeat

On the need for more housing for young people, Jonathan Arnott of UKIP said: “The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors have said we’re the only party with a plan to address the supply side. We need to build one million more homes over the next 10 years.”

BBC

Tomorrow's papers

Tomorrow's papers

Tomorrow's papers

'We're cutting the cost of living'

Newsbeat

BBC

Gavin Brown of the Conservatives: “We’ve taken as many policies as we can to cut the cost of living, whether that’s energy bills, freezing council tax, freezing fuel duty, which is not just the cost of the petrol in your tank but cuts the cost of goods more widely.”

'I'm pregnant and in temporary accommodation'

Newsbeat

BBC

Danielle, 23, from Edinburgh is 32 weeks pregnant. She tells the Newsbeat debate: "I was homeless for two-and-a-half-years, I'm in temporary accommodation now and I'll have a newborn. People talk about scroungers, but I'm not asking for handouts, just somewhere to raise my child."

Newsbeat debate

Newsbeat

Newsbeat debate

Newsbeat

BBC

Jenny Marra, for Labour says: "Some apprenticeships in Scotland pay £2.73 an hour. It’s not good enough, that’s why the Labour Party is committed to increasing the minimum wage to £8.00 by 2020.”

Tomorrow's papers

Newsbeat debate

Newsbeat

When will it all be over?

Nick Robinson

Political editor

BBC

Don't worry. Not long to go. The election that never seems to end will be over by next Friday… or maybe it won't.

On the morning after the night before, you might imagine that you won't have to hear from that seemingly endless parade of political leaders anymore but, and I'm sorry to have to break this news to you, you may be wrong. Very wrong.

If (and it is still an if) the opinion polls don't budge, as they have stubbornly refused to do not just for days or weeks but many, many months, the people may have spoken but no-one will quite know what it is that they have said. There will be no clear winner. No instant answer as to whether David Cameron stays in Number 10 or calls the removal men.

So, what happens then?

Read more from Nick.

'We need to build more homes'

Newsbeat

Danny Alexander, for the Lib Dems, says his party will push to "build 300,000 houses a year". He adds: "The point is that for decades we have not been building the number of houses we need."

BBC

Get Involved

Newsbeat

BBC

Newsbeat's Tina Daheley is ready for your questions

Jobs, housing and the cost of living: Got a question about the issues we're debating tonight? Tweet your comments #Newsbeat

Reality Check

Minority governments

BBC

It's Friday 8 May, all the votes are counted and every constituency declared.

The people have spoken, and delivered a resounding "not sure".

Unlike last time round, the policies, personalities and Parliamentary arithmetic do not allow for formation of a coalition government.

So what if a minority government is the only answer?

Over to BBC Reality Check's William Wearmouth.

'Completely medieval'

Newsbeat

BBC

Humza Yousaf, SNP

On zero-hours jobs and the minimum wage, the SNP's Humza Yousaf says: "In the 21st century we have women doing the same job as men but being paid less for it. It's completely medieval."

'People should know they're safe'

Newsbeat

Isabel,19, from South Wales: "These job aren’t giving people security. People should have a relationship with their employer and know that they’re safe for the future."

BBC

Newsbeat debate

Newsbeat debate

Newsbeat election debate

Newsbeat

The last BBC Newsbeat debate is about to kick off in Edinburgh (2100 BST).

More than 100 young voters will fire questions at five politicians: Jenny Marra of Labour, deputy leader of Labour in Scotland, Danny Alexander of the Liberal Democrats, Humza Yousaf of the SNP, Gavin Brown of the Conservatives and Jonathan Arnott of UKIP. The key themes are the cost of living, housing and the economy. Your hosts are Tina Daheley and Chris Smith.

Watch live video and text updates right here, listen on Radio 1/1Xtra or watch on the BBC News Channel. If you want to ask a question or post a comment, use our hashtag - #Newsbeat - on Twitter.

BBC

The view from Anglesey

In Wales, the polls indicate that Plaid Cymru's momentum is nowhere near as strong as the SNP's in Scotland. Labour's support in Wales looks strong, too. But there are some key battles between Labour and Plaid Cymru. Huw Edwards has been to Ynys Mon, Anglesey, one of the heartlands of Welsh-speaking Wales, to talk to the island's voters about their priorities.

You can watch his film here.

And a profile of the Ynys Mon constituency and a full list of candidates standing there is here .

Brand chat 'will get more people engaged'

Russell Brand/YouTube/PA

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has defended Ed Miliband's decision to do an interview with Russell Brand. He told Channel 4 News: "I think there are lots of people who watch his channel and Ed Miliband is going to do interviews with people left, right and centre all across the country...

"The fact is, if Russell Brand wants to do an interview, and Ed Miliband goes and does it and people watch it, that's good, because it will get more people engaged in politics."

NI leaders' debate

There's another debate tonight too, in addition to the @bbcnewsbeat one. Representatives from the five major political parties in Northern Ireland are debating on UTV. Nigel Dodds of the DUP, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, the SDLP’s Mark Durkan, Danny Kennedy of the UUP and the Alliance Party’s Naomi Long are taking part in the one-hour programme, which starts at 8pm and is chaired by Marc Mallett. It's also being aired on ITV's national network, from 10.40pm.

If voters choose not to choose

Last Newsbeat debate

Population growth clash

There's been a lively-sounding debate about the UK's population in Margate, hosted by BBC Radio Kent. A Liberal Democrat candidate called for a conversation about how many people could live "on this island".

The Tory, UKIP and Labour candidates said they understood him to mean limits on having children, describing his comments as chilling, astonishing and "barmy".

He said he just wanted a debate about population growth.

You can read more here.

bbc

Greens oppose eCall

bbc

Meanwhile, over in the EU Parliament, MEPs have voted to get emergency call devices called eCall installed in all new cars, as of 31 March 2018. The aim is to reduce deaths in road accidents, but there are concerns about data privacy. The Greens have come out against.

Green MEP Jan Phillip Albrecht explains why here.

Newsnight preview

Brand appeal?

Russell Brand has published a preview of his interview with Ed Miliband. In it, the pair discuss the low tax rates paid by some companies.

"You've got to have a government that's willing to say there's something wrong with this and we're going to deal with it.

Ed MilibandLabour leader

'The Greens' dilemma'

The Guardian

Getty Images

Over at The Guardian feature writer John Crace looks at what he sees as the Green Party in England and Wales's dilemma.

However much Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has improved since her “brain fade” moment, she is still not the leader most of her party would want, he writes.

He says Caroline Lucas - who became the party's first MP - "is the face and voice the Greens would like to see carrying their message around the country".

Voters face big choice on EU

James Landale

Deputy political editor

The Conservatives will undoubtedly welcome European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker's comments.

One of the great challenges the party has had is to convince people they would get a hearing in Europe for their planned renegotiation of Britain's terms of membership of the EU. So Mr Juncker saying a deal might be possible and that there may be some minor treaty change can only be helpful. Ministers also tell me it reflects what they're hearing around Europe: that there is no enthusiasm for change but at least a willingness to listen and potentially consider some kind of a deal.

It also gives the Conservatives a chance to rehearse their position on Europe - namely that they want to negotiate change and hold an in/out referendum - which they hope will appeal to UKIP-minded voters. Similarly it gives Labour a chance to remind voters of their stance - that the uncertainty of the referendum would be damaging for the UK economy.

Europe hasn't played that big a role in the election campaign to date. These comments bring it to the fore and remind voters that there is a pretty big choice facing them at the election.

Analysis: GDP figures

Norman Smith

Assistant political editor

For David Cameron these worse than expected GDP figures would appear a blow. They are the last set of economic figures before the general election and they come in the week the party has chosen to focus on the economy.

The Conservatives say the figures underline how fragile the economic recovery remains. Labour has accused the Tories of complacency and said the economy is faltering. The Lib Dems say the figures underline the need for their party to act as a brake on either the Tories or Labour after the election.

But senior Tories remain hopeful that disappointing though the growth figures may be, they may make voters more cautious about change.

Hanson on Labour immigration plans

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

Andrew Neil spoke to shadow immigration minister David Hanson about Labour's immigration plans, benefits for migrants, the minimum wage, and its past and present policies on exit checks at UK ports. Their interview came after Jo Coburn explained the background. Watch the interview

MP

Greens 'would double child benefit'

BBC

The Green Party has called for child benefit in England and Wales to double to £40 a week. Announcing the policy, deputy leader Amelia Womack said the proposed increase would be "life changing" for families.

The Greens also say they would reverse cuts to welfare as part of efforts to "protect the most vulnerable".

Here's the full story.

Firms 'wrong' on immigration

Labour has been talking about immigration today, with leader Ed Miliband saying the party would take action within weeks of coming into government.

Shadow immigration minister David Hanson meanwhile told BBC Radio 5 live: "If companies are recruiting solely from Eastern Europe and not recruiting or advertising jobs at home, that's wrong... If companies are not using the minimum wage, that's wrong."

Clegg: Economic recovery 'fragile'

BBC

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been responding to today's GDP figures, which showed that UK economic growth slowed to 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

"The economic recovery is more fragile than many people think," he said.

The Lib Dem leader took a pop at both the Conservatives' and Labour's fiscal plans for the next parliament, saying only the Lib Dems had a "sensible plan" to secure the economic recovery.

Election round-up: Day 29

BBC

With just nine days to go, David Cameron urged people to "let rip" if they wanted to, Nick Clegg said the economic recovery would not be happening without the Lib Dems, and Ed Miliband talked about immigration. UKIP, meanwhile, talked about "wholly unjustified" attempts to make the party look racist.

Watch it all in our video round-up here.

UKIP pledges 'legal protection' for Christians

UKIP would give legal protection in the workplace to people who oppose same-sex marriage because of their religious beliefs.

The party has put together a mini-manifesto for Christians - published on the website of Christian Concern - which set out plans to extend the concept of "reasonable accommodation".

It would apply to cases such as the Christian-run bakery in Belfast which declined an order for a cake bearing a pro-gay marriage slogan.

The party has said it would not repeal the same-sex marriage legislation, even though it opposed its introduction.

'Numbers, not arguments'

The Spectator

BBC

Numbers, not arguments about legitimacy, will decide who enters No.10 after 7 May, writes Professor Philip Cowley in a piece for The Spectator. He looks at the challenges a government could face if it chose to go it alone without a majority in the House of Commons (Westminster watchers avert your eyes!)

"On bill after bill, the opposition parties could combine to bog the government down, dragging out legislation for months, keeping MPs up all night in the sort of all-night sittings that had (thankfully) become a thing of the past."

Ed Balls joins #EdBallsDay

@edballsmp

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has finally joined in the #EdBallsDay fun - by saying just "Ed Balls" for Sky News to mark the day four years ago when he tweeted his own name. He also gamely retweeted the fateful tweet.

Add to the debate

Mrs J Robertson:

To: Andrew Neill, Daily 'Election' Politics. Excellent debate today thank you. But no defence minister can predict drain demands on our defence budget in present day world; therefore Michael Fallon was correct to say % of GDP on defence can only actually be stated in Autumn Review. That was a good honest unambiguous answer.

Man charged over beheading threat

A man has been charged over an alleged threat to behead a UKIP candidate in Newcastle.

Aftab Ahmed has been charged with threats to kill after David Robinson-Young claimed he received a phone call from a constituent complaining about the Middle East. More details here.

Thanet South 'an open race'

BBC News Channel

Paul Francis, political editor of the Kent Messenger Group, says it's an open race in Thanet South constituency, where Nigel Farage is hoping to win his first seat at Westminster.

Mr Francis says UKIP probably felt it would win the seat "relatively comfortably" at the beginning of the campaign but the Conservatives and Labour have since narrowed the gap.

Here's a full list of candidates standing in Thanet South at the election.

Labour 'committed to four Trident subs'

Andrew Neil

Daily and Sunday Politics

Labour's shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker has said his party is committed to renewing four Trident submarines if it wins the election. In a Daily Politics election debate on defence and security, he said evidence showed four were needed. In March, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the party would consider reducing the number to three.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon refused to say whether his party would back a Labour minority government on Trident renewal.

Watch a clip from the debate

BBC

Miliband defends Russell Brand meeting

Talking down Brand interview?

Send us your comments

Paul:

In a withering analysis of the major parties' plans, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has concluded that households can expect lower incomes, whoever wins the election. - I guess the party apparatchiks will ignore this in the hope that no-one will notice. Looks like the IFS have crunched the numbers and found that they do not add up to the sunny highlands we are being promised. It would have been much better if Lib/Lab/Con had offered the voters properly costed manifestos that did not include un-funded, pie-in-the-sky, promises whilst giving us more details regarding future tax hikes and spending cuts.

Add to the debate

Joe Hawkins, Birkenhead:

Russell Brand hopes to see David Cameron at West Ham, this won't happen while Prince William supports Aston Villa.

Stoking English nationalism?

Do newspapers still have the ability to influence voters?

BBC Radio 5 Live

Getty

The famous 'It was The Sun wot won it' headline followed the 1992 general election, but the ability of newspapers to influence voting intentions could be in decline, particularly with the rise of social media. Two former political editors, the Guardian's Michael White and the Sun's Trevor Kavanagh, discuss whether politicians should fear the papers and how press coverage of this election compares with previous campaigns.

The broadcasters would be lost without the newspapers in my opinion, despite everything. We are still the benchmark of coverage... am not sure how we tell our readers to vote matters as much as we like to pretend it does.

Michael WhitePolitical editor of The Guardian from 1990 to 2006

Love for all

Signing off

There really were some serious stories today – most notably the GDP figures – but the last 10 hours or so have seen a thoroughly entertaining bunch of semi-serious developments too. Here’s some picks and the things we’ve learned from them, as Alex Stevenson and Victoria King sign off for the day:

• #EdBallsDay is still very much a thing (13.55)
• Peanuts are an effective campaigning prop (11.01)
• The pink bus really is pink (12.22)
• Stanley Johnson (Boris's dad) struggles to keep a straight face when confronted with a cross-dressing politician (13.37)
• Russell Brand embodies the very concept of a joke, in the view of the prime minister (10.46)
• Boris Johnson has made clear plans to curb bagpipes in the capital are “absolute b*******” - while George Osborne has been getting to grips with nuts in Loughborough (8.08 and 13.09).

Running order for Question Time Leaders' Special revealed

Juncker 'open' to EU changes

In a boost for David Cameron and the Conservatives, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has told the BBC he is open to minor changes to the EU’s founding treaties to obtain a fair deal for Britain and Europe.

Major treaty changes on things like freedom of movement aren’t possible, though. Speaking to the BBC’s Europe Editor Katya Adler, Mr Juncker said he’d been perfectly clear on these issues since before his appointment but that unfortunately "the British government and the British press are not listening, and are blind when others are speaking".

That’s a slap on the wrist to the Times, which had reported a source in his office suggesting there would be no treaty negotiations with Britain of any kind before 2019.

No forced marriage

Vaz's van

Vinod Popat/Leicester Conservative Party/PA

We mentioned a complaint made against Labour's Keith Vaz for apparently using a loud-hailer on his campaign van. Well it appears this is the vehicle at the centre of the drama.

Cam-morons and Demo-prats

A voter in Wales says the prime minister should be called “Cam-moron” - a view which gets a light smattering of applause from the audience in Barry. “You’re not a fan then,” Ed Miliband says. He looks faintly amused as the voter reveals he’s torn between backing Labour or Plaid Cymru. And then comes the voter’s verdict on Nick Clegg’s party: “They’re not Liberal Democrats, they’re Liberal Demo-prats.” Mr Miliband says he doesn’t like them much, either.

Get involved

Daily Politics viewer:

Can Ed Miliband please stop talking about the election debates. We have seen plenty of him and David Cameron by now! It is a bit of a stuck record.....

Miliband pressed on immigration

Reuters

“Take back leadership of this,” a voter called Nick presses Ed Miliband over his stance on immigration. Why doesn’t he say more about what immigrants bring to the economy, to jobs and businesses? “I have no truck with those people who want to leave the European Union,” the Labour leader says. He thinks that message is getting through as he outlines an argument that is about membership of the EU.

On immigration, Nick doesn’t let up, pressing Mr Miliband further. Rather than shutting Nick down, the Labour leader responds with an answer he warns is going to be “very long”. He says: “The point about immigration is it has different effects on different people in different communities. We should recognise people’s concerns are not based on prejudice, they’re based on reality.”

So what should be done about it? He outlines a number of options - the “Farage position” of leaving the EU, the send ‘em back philosophy and the “sensible position” of Labour’s “changed approach”. It’s not good enough for Nick, though, who is still dissatisfied. Mr Miliband moves on to answer some other questions.

Send us your comments

Matt Hedley, Abbots Langley: Given how we are having more and more coalitions, isn't the party system becoming archaic and a problem for its members, for instance the Lib Dems reputation due to the coalition affecting it's prospective MPs chances in this upcoming election.

Is it not fair to say that if MP's voted for what their constituents wanted instead of a party line, we'd be closer to a true democracy, instead of this farcical mishmash of policies, a government instead of a party.

This is the first election where I look at all of the major parties and find nothing I like, they are all terrible choices.

Clegg in No 10

PA

Nick Clegg received a fair slice of ridicule when he declared his ambition to be prime minister before the 2010 election. It was a “pity” that he didn’t get the job, his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez says while out campaigning in Scotland. He would have done “even better things” than he did as deputy prime minister. "If you look at the record they have, shared parental leave, more apprenticeships, stabilising the economy, the amount of things they have done with 56 MPs,” she says. “Imagine if they had more." Mrs Clegg, as she doesn’t like to be called, is clearly on-message, backing her husband’s determination not to work in a government with either the SNP or UKIP. Those who don’t want a government “constantly blackmailed” by the fringe parties “just have to vote Lib Dem”, she thinks.

Add to the debate

Paul Barrett-Brown, Powys:

Excellent, Mr. Milliband has just discovered that immigration matters to many voters. His 'party machine' has hinted that Labour just might recognise immigration as a bit of a problem and perhaps attempt to do something about it. How long will it be before Milliband discovers that membership of the EU matters to many voters. and, as we supposedly live in a democratic society, give the British public a referendum on EU membership?

Pic: Al Murray campaigns in Thanet South

PA

#merchantnavy moment

Miliband on Brand

BBC

Earlier today David Cameron said Ed Miliband’s decision to go and see Russell Brand - for an interview for the film star and comedian’s YouTube channel - was a “joke”. Here’s the Labour leader’s response: "I tell you what I think is a joke. I think a joke is saying that you want this election to be about leadership and then refusing to debate me.” So why did he agree to the interview, then? Mr Miliband adds:

I decided that some people were saying the campaign was too boring so I thought I'd make it more interesting. But the serious point is there are millions of people in our country who are not watching this election, who are not listening to this election and who think voting doesn't make a difference. And Russell Brand is one of the people who's said in the past that voting doesn't make a difference. Now I profoundly disagree with that and I am going to go anywhere and talk to anyone to take that message out to people about how we can change this country so it works for working people again."

Defence debate

A selection of your comments:

C. Holland: As Michael Fallon refused to confirm that the Tories would support a Labour Gov't over Trident,could we please have some newspaper headlines about the dangers of the Tories playing politics with our safety.

Steve, London: There are a frightening number of politicians who clearly don't understand the concept of our 'nuclear deterrent'. It is not there to prevent all wars, just a nuclear war. I don't think there has been a nuclear war since we have had Polaris/Trident so it looks like it does work after all. Furthermore, no sane man *wants* nuclear weapons but also no sane man denies that we *need* them in this highly unpredictable world.

Peter Banks: Why aren't UKIP represented? They have a very strong policy on defence and particularly looking after veterans.

Osborne campaigns against Farage

Getty

George Osborne has been out and about campaigning in South Thanet, where Nigel Farage is standing for UKIP. Mr Osborne said voters have a “clear choice”. On the one hand, backing the Tories can put David Cameron in Downing Street and help a “strong local candidate into parliament. On the other, there's a candidate “who stands from the side-lines and won’t even be here” - that’s Mr Farage he’s referring to, of course - “and potentially Ed Miliband and the SNP in Downing Street”. The chancellor adds:

What UKIP are showing us is that they are on the sidelines of this election and the real choice is between Ed Miliband propped up by the Scottish Nationalists, or David Cameron and a stable majority government."

Pledge card

The Labour leader begins his stump speech by saying that "it's only when working people succeed that Britain succeeds". It's the "central thread" running through the campaign, he explains, before working his way through the policies on Labour's pledge card. We first found out what was featuring on the card last month . Its five big promises to voters are:

- A strong economic foundation

- Higher living standards for working families

- An NHS with the time to care

- Controls on immigration

- A country where the next generation can do better than the last

Yesterday a sixth pledge was added to a new version of the card:

- homes to buy and action on rent

Miliband in Wales

BBC

Ed Miliband is in Barry where he's helping out the local candidate, Chris Elmore, who's standing in the Vale of Glamorgan constituency. "It's great to have a trained butcher in the House of Commons. I think that's what the House of Commons needs," he says.

Closing statements

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

Jeff Overs/BBC

And here's the closing statements from today's defence debate:

- The SNP’s Angus Robertson says the parties provided no details about the defence cuts expected to be forced through by the main parties. He says the conventional armed forces should be supported – but “weapons of mass destruction” shouldn’t.

- The Greens’ Rebecca Johnson says the UK needs to change “how we think about defence and Britain’s place in the world”. She makes clear “outdated inhumane weapons” like Trident need to be abandoned.

- The Conservatives’ Michael Fallon says his party “puts defence first”. Commitments will be met because of the “strong economy” – whereas “a Labour government propped up by the SNP” would put that at risk.

- Labour’s Vernon Coaker says his party “will not take risks with Britain’s security” and underlines his determination to support the armed forces.

- The Liberal Democrats’ Sir Nick Harvey says the “balance of our defence priority” is wrong because it’s based on Cold War thinking, not the state of play now.

Send us your comments

Mike Holden:

Why is the Defence Secretary allowed to refuse to answer questions about his own brief? Never seen such contempt for voters as in this election.

Royal Baby Update ban?

Election enjoyment

Division and deployability

Michael Fallon insists that the UK could deploy a division – although it’s not sustainable, as everyone instantly points out - when challenged on the decline of Britain’s military. There are 82,000 soldiers in the British Army now, down from 350,000 in the First Gulf War, but Mr Fallon says the US has said Britain is an “indispensable” ally. Vernon Coaker says there are “real and difficult questions” and the “deployability” is “what it’s all about”. And then there’s questions about the types of deployability, too. An unexpected note of agreement to finish, there.

Defence headaches

BBC

“Nobody is making this commitment because the sums involved… are so eye-watering that nobody has come up with a way of affording it,” the Lib Dems’ Sir Nick Harvey says. Angus Robertson agrees, but warns that the government might try to include other non-defence bits of government spending in order to maintain the 2% figure. Rebecca Johnson, of the Greens, points out the Nato 2% target was decided by Nato. She offers a brief history of the “military-industrial complex” - and appears to suggest the aid budget should be incorporated into defence spending. She won’t offer a “direct figure” and then seems to struggle with the idea of maintaining a standing Army, or fighter jets, or a Royal Navy.

Add to the debate

John Hayter:

UK economic growth - "for reasons no one can quite explain, construction in Britain has been lousy for 6 months". Speaking to a quantity surveyor recently, I learned that there is a shortage of bricks because capacity was scrapped during the recession. If the same thing happened elsewhere in the supply chain, you may have part of the answer. A mortgage broker also told me that conveyancing staff and residential surveyors were also cut in the recession and re-hiring has been slow and difficult. This might also contribute.

Send us your views

K. Norfolk:

The defence debate on BBC with Fallon's answer about a combined vote of Tory/Lab on nuclear subs has convinced me again l did the right vote. Labour. What a fool. Who does he think he is talking to. People like him.

Brand speaks

In detention

Coaker: No 2% commitment

Daily Politics

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What about Labour? “We’re committed to where the budget is now, that’s the starting point,” Vernon Coaker says. That rather sounds like exactly the same thing as Michael Fallon was saying a moment ago. But it doesn’t stop him arguing with the defence secretary over spending plans. Mr Coaker says: “You need to speak to your chancellor… who said that the real-terms budget decrease over the next three years… will be 18%.” Andrew Neil complains neither of them have answered the question - at which both Mr Coaker and Mr Fallon begin speaking at once.

Fallon: No 2% commitment

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

Time for the discussion to move on to Britain’s commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence. Michael Fallon gets a real grilling but says the “actual percentage number” decision will take place in this autumn’s comprehensive spending review. “We are already top of the class,” the defence secretary says. He points out that some of the other countries don’t even spend 1%. And then there comes what feels like a concession: “We can’t commit now to the exact totals for the three following years of the current year,” he says.

Nato membership

Daily Politics

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Would the Greens support ongoing British membership of Nato, then? It’s not really clear, to be honest. Vernon Coaker says there’s a “contradiction” between giving up our nuclear weapons and “accepting the American nuclear umbrella”. Angus Robertson says the SNP accepts “all of the rules of the club” - the Nato club, that is. And on that Andrew Neil shuts down the debate on Trident. Phew. And the programme isn’t even over yet.

Too risky?

'Stupid nuclear weapons'

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

The nuclear debate continues:

- Sir Nick Harvey explains the Lib Dem position of dropping down to three nuclear submarines, rather than the current four. Mightn’t the decision to deploy a nuclear sub in a crisis be a destabilising factor? That goes both ways, Sir Nick says. “The United States will flex its posture as part of its diplomacy to send a message,” he insists, suggesting Britain could do the same.

- Angus Robertson says the “massive decision” is being taken when £30bn of spending cuts have already been voted through. “These guys are prepared to spend £100bn on something that doesn’t deter, that doesn’t work.” Pulled up on that, he cites the Falklands and Vladimir Putin’s Crimea annexation as evidence that Britain’s threat doesn’t make much of a difference. Mr Robertson says the three UK “austerity” parties want to spend money on something that will “destroy the world”. Michael Fallon responds by saying it’s impossible to say whether a threat will emerge between now and 2060. He’s not prepared to “gamble” with the future security of the country.

- Rebecca Johnson says Britain ought to comply with its obligations under the terms of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. She also raises the possibility that a cyberattack could turn “our own stupid nuclear weapons against us”. 

Trident questions

Fallon under pressure

Debate goes nuclear

BBC

Vernon Coaker says the debate about Trident isn’t just about what’s being deterred today. The decision affects the security of the UK for “decades”, he points out. Michael Fallon responds by asking how a minority Labour government could push the policy through if backed with the SNP. “We will not negotiate with the national security of the country,” Mr Coaker responds.

The shadow defence secretary wonders how Mr Fallon would vote - implying that Labour and the Conservatives could easily get the Trident decision through. Challenged on that, the defence secretary is rather evasive. The best way to avoid “confusion and uncertainty” is to back the Tories, he suggests. Relying on the Tories to back a Labour government on Trident though would apparently, slightly confusingly, cause "uncertainty".

Trident row

Free speech limits

Daily Politics

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The Greens’ Rebecca Jones is challenged over the statement on the party’s website that it opposes any kind of restrictions on radical organisations. She says “grooming” is to blame for people joining them. It’s definitely not OK to join Al-Qaeda though, Ms Johnson makes clear. The distinction is between joining a terrorist organisation and “a sympathy with an objective”, she suggests. It’s not in the manifesto, she says. Then she’s asked whether she disowns the policy as stated on the website. “Personally, yes.”

In the manifesto?

Greens' stance on extremism

Prevent funding

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

What about "compulsory deradicalisation", as proposed by the Labour Party’s manifesto? That would involve thousands of people, Vernon Coaker says. “The alternative is to… almost shrug your shoulders.” It doesn’t necessarily involve detention facilities,the shadow defence secretary says, but they would be part of a programme. “We think the government made a mistake in cutting the number of Prevent programmes,” he says. Michael Fallon says they were “refocused” rather than cut. He says he believes his party has pledged to increase funding for the programmes.

Arctic at risk?

Tackling extremism

Daily Politics

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BBC

Michael Fallon clashes with Vernon Coaker over control orders, the Labour government-era scheme for limiting the powers of terror suspects. But the two actually agree, or thereabouts, on the measure’s merits - it’s the Liberal Democrats who insisted on the watered-down TPIMs regime. “I readily admit we didn’t get that right,” Sir Nick Harvey says. He suggests “we can do better than either of these things”.

Mr Fallon says permanent exclusion orders are needed. Extremism must be tackled in mosques, too. And military action in the Middle East is part of that, too. Angus Robertson of the SNP broadly agrees, saying “everything needs to be done to try and combat radicalisation in all communities” - but points out the overwhelming majority of Muslims oppose extremism.

'Only one Keith Vaz'

BBC

Labour’s Keith Vaz - above right - has been accused by his rivals of producing excessive noise on the campaign trial. Conservatives are raising a din with Leicester City Council after videoing a vehicle pumping out messages via loud speaker calling to for people to vote for Mr Vaz.

City hall officials have confirmed it is an offence to use a loudspeaker in the street, and anyone in breach of the rules can face a fine of up to £5,000. A Leicester City Council spokesman said the allegation was now under investigation.

A spokesman for Mr Vaz told the Leicester Mercury the Conservatives were "running scared". "We have received no complaints from any members of the public," he said. The spokesman went on to say Mr Vaz had not been in the vehicle at the time, as he could not be in two places at once.

With tongue firmly in cheek, he added: "The Conservative Party should note: There is only one Keith Vaz."

Nato promises

Michael Fallon rejects the suggestion that the UK’s military commitments at last year’s Nato summit in Wales are getting a bit flaky. “Britain is leading the way in taking up the commitment of the Nato summit to have a rapid reaction force that is worthy of the name,” he insists. Pressed to state how many jets are actually patrolling to protect Britain, he comes up with the answer - eight.

New threats

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Michael Fallon says now is “no time to be dropping our guard” when sizing up the extent of the threats Britain faces now. Vernon Coaker, Labour, says the coalition failed to predict developments in eastern Europe, and the big challenge is meeting all the threats. The situation now is “different”, Sir Nick Harvey of the Lib Dems agrees. “We need the capabilities… to counter these problems wherever they arrive,” he says. That means having “flexible, adaptable forces”. The Greens’ Rebecca Johnson highlights “cyber” as one of the big reasons why it’s “bonkers” that Britain is considering renewing Trident. “What we need to do is look at different kinds of defence and security,” the former Greenham Commons protester says. Angus Robertson, of the SNP, says he’s concerned that the larger UK parties have taken their eyes off the ball. He raises worries about the Arctic and "threats from the north" - and laments that this didn’t “rate a mention” in the last defence review.

Opening statements

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

Here come the opening statements in the Daily Politics' defence debate:

- Sir Nick Harvey, the Lib Dems’ defence spokesman and a former armed forces minister, says his party is full of “committed liberal interventionists” ready and willing to work with allies. He’s opposed to a like-for-like renewal of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

- Vernon Coaker, shadow defence secretary, says defence and security are a “priority” for the Labour Party. He says it’s essential that the Armed Forces are well-equipped and calls for a “strategic approach to defence” - unlike the one taken in the last five years.

- Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, says “Labour left behind a £38bn black hole in the defence budget” - but now it’s on a “sound footing” and defence spending is the second largest in Nato. “Strong defence depends on a strong economy,” he adds.

- Rebecca Johnson, Green defence spokesperson, says today’s security problems have been driven by an over-reliance on arms sales and previous foreign policy failures. She pledges the Greens will put “human security” at the heart of its international approach. “A vote for the Green Party is a vote for a safer, nuclear-free Britain."

- Angus Robertson, the SNP’s defence spokesperson, says the general election is taking place “in the shadow of massive austerity cuts”. He says the conventional defence budget isn’t protected – so where will the cuts fall? “The time has come for answers.” He reiterates his party’s opposition to Trident renewal.

First words

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

The politicians are giving their opening speeches at the moment - we're going to pull them all together into one entry when they're done.

Unusual tactics

Head to head

Defence debate

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

Time for today’s Daily Politics election debate, which is on defence and security issues. You can follow the debate on BBC2 by switching on the telly or, if you so prefer, using the live coverage tab above.

Greens 'offer hope'

European Photopress Agency

Greens’ deputy leader Amelia Womack is out campaigning in Bristol West, where Lord Ashcroft polling puts them in second place behind Labour - but ahead of the incumbent Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams. Ms Womack is outlining how the Greens would protect the independent living fund and double child benefit. Speaking in front of a campaign bus - and why not? - she says:

The Green Party is offering something unique: hope. We make this one very clear promise to voters: we will always stand for an economy, a society, that works for the many, not just the few. That means our MPs will never blame the most vulnerable for the mistakes of those at the top."

#EdBallsDay

PA

The internet’s strange fascination with Ed Balls has been continuing apace today, with #EdBallsDay featuring as the top UK trending top this morning. Four years after the original tweet, we’ve pulled together some of the best parodies doing the rounds. How ever did we cope before 28 April 2011?

Anti-austerity

BBC

Voting for the SNP will pave the way for an “end to austerity”, Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney has said. Speaking in response to today’s GDP figures, he said:

The lesson I take from that is that we have a chance in the election next Thursday to start to invest again in our economy by ending the austerity and spending cuts of the UK government. That will only come about if we have a strong group of SNP MPs elected to Westminster able to demand an end to austerity and to see investment in our economy, to support new employment and new opportunities."

Pic: Miriam on the campaign trail in Glasgow

Getty

Seeking growth

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

PA

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander is questioned about today's wobbly growth figures. He says:

It’s been clear for a long time that we can’t be complacent about economic growth and the recovery in this country. It’s a big thing to recover from the crisis that we went through… it’s a long time ago now but the consequences are still with us… the only way to make sure we have that economic stability at the heart of economic growth is to have Liberal Democrats involved in the next government.”

Savings scepticism

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says he’s “sceptical” about the numbers being put forward by the main parties when interviewed on The World At One. He’s particularly unimpressed with their income tax proposals. “We’ve now got to a point where about 44% of the adult population don’t pay income tax,” Mr Johnson says. “If what you really wanted to do was help people on lower earnings, you’d be much better off increasing the point at which they pay national insurance contributions.”

On welfare, Mr Johnson says if the Tories are serious about going ahead with £12bn, they’ll have to cut up to 15% of spending on housing benefit, tax credit or child benefit. Labour’s proposals don’t contain many cuts at all -which means there are “stark differences” between the two parties’ plans.

No shame

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Here’s a bit more from Adam Clifford, the strikingly dressed Class War Party candidate, who was on Daily Politics earlier this lunchtime. He says he can see things in the right kind of perspective because he’s educated. But that’s not the case for many. “A lot of people have got a lot of shame about being working class - they’re indoctrinated into thinking ‘the best I can do is become middle class.’" That's all very well, Stanley Johnson says, but why are you dressed like a woman? The answer is accompanied with a first-rate pout: “I’ve got nothing to hide.” Watch his interview again.

On the doorstep

No specifics

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

David Gauke sticks to the party line when asked to spell out where that increasingly infamous £12bn of welfare cuts will come from. Is it child benefit, disability benefit or housing benefit, as the IFS suggest? "I would point you towards our track record" he replies.

Can you categorically rule out means-testing disability benefit? "I'm not going to go through a long list of proposals," he replies, but says the Conservatives are not going to "hit disabled people".

Pressed on whether that means it'll be child benefit instead, he says he's "set out the principles" the policies will be based on.

Conservatives

'Critical point'

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

Conservative Treasury Minister David Gauke is up now - unsurprisingly, he "strongly disagrees" with Mr Balls. It's undoubtedly "a critical point" in the recovery, Mr Gauke accepts, and "we should not be complacent".

'Funny Tory world'

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

"The Tories have looked out of touch on the economy for months and months," Ed Balls continues. Labour's shadow chancellor is then confronted with the IFS findings about his plans to raise the top rate of income tax.

Is it a purely ideological move, he's asked. "It's a funny Tory world isn't it, that you say to people on low incomes, 'we're going to cut your benefits', and you say to people at the top, 'we're going to cut your taxes'."

Mr Balls says he thinks "it will raise more than the £100m" the IFS predicts.

Balls on GDP 'disappointment'

The World at One

BBC Radio 4

Ed Balls is now on The World At One. "It's a deeply disappointing number" - that's his take on the latest GDP figures. "I'm afraid this Tory plan isn't working."

Ed Miliband on his Russell Brand interview

Getty

I decided that some people were saying the campaign was too boring so I thought it would make it more interesting."

More on Miliband and Brand

Changing sides

Add to the debate

If apprenticeship are so important to the Tories, why is the minimum wage for first year apprentices (of any age) less than of unskilled 16 year olds?

Tightening the screws - or nuts, more accurately

PA

Learning a new skill under the eye of the education secretary - what could be more stressful?

This was Nicky Morgan and George Osborne visiting EPS engineering company in Loughborough.

Time for Class War

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

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Adam Clifford, a candidate for the Class War Party, is being interviewed on the Daily Politics. Stanley Johnson’s face, it’s fair to say, is a picture. “I embrace working class culture and I think that we’re great,” he says. Mr Clifford predicts a riot. “Working class people know that they’re basically slaves,” he adds. “So let the people rise… I don’t know how violent they’re going to be.” Sounds like trouble.

In or out?

Add to the debate

Daily Politics viewer:

Interview by Andrew Neil with David Hanson (refusing to answer questions on past record) has convinced this life long Labour voter NOT to vote Labour this time!

Engagement strategy

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

David Hanson thinks it was a good use of Ed Miliband’s time to go and visit Russell Brand, as he did last night. “We should try to influence people who have an influence over a section of our community to go and vote,” Mr Hanson says. He sees it as an engagement issue - Brand has encouraged people not to bother voting at all and should be treated like any other disillusioned member of the electorate, Mr Hanson thinks.

Change of focus?

Exit checks

Daily Politics

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PA

On exit checks – which Labour scrapped but now wants to reintroduce – David Hanson says his party’s “offer” is to “count people in” and “count people out”. It’s only a smidgin awkward when Andrew Neil quotes a former Labour immigration minister explaining they were scrapped because “they did not contribute to overall effectiveness of overall immigration control”. Mr Hanson says exit checks are “essential to have strong borders”. They’ll be paid for by a small charge on countries who don’t have a visa waiver scheme, he says.

Benefit checks

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Labour's shadow immigration minister David Hanson – over a rather crackly telephone line – is being interviewed about his party’s plans to prevent new arrivals receiving out-of-work benefits. Mr Hanson says that the policy covers child benefit, child tax credit and jobseekers’ allowance. It looks rather like it would be possible for EU migrants to claim some in-work benefits – but Mr Hanson doesn’t offer any explanation beyond saying he’s “concentrating” on those three benefits.

Sub-surface churning

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

YouGov's Peter Kellner tells the Daily Politics he doesn't think this election campaign is resulting in zero change - even if it looks that way.

“It’s not static. It looks static, but underneath the surface a lot of people are churning from one party to another. But they’re cancelling each other out. I wouldn’t rule out anything changing at the last minute.”

Ed Balls

The Mirror

Reuters

Type in the words 'Ed Balls' on Twitter's search function and you'll get an idea of what Ed Balls Day is all about. But for our money there's no more visual summary of the real meaning of this special anniversary than the Mirror's webpage on the issue. Happy Ed Balls Day, everyone.

Women voters

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Is there such a thing as a woman’s vote? On two issues the answer is definitely yes, YouGov president Peter Kellner says. On anything to do with war, “women are much more cautious on going into action”, he says. And then there’s the Scottish independence referendum: if it had only been men voting, Alex Salmond would have been victorious. The way in which women vote is mostly determined by their age, Mr Kellner adds: older women who grew up in what was more of a man’s world tend to be more conservative, while younger generations are more progressive.

Send us your comments

Darren F:

Further to my earlier email regarding growth which you posted, I would like to depart from the political drudgery by publicly wishing my wonderful wife Pam a happy 3rd Anniversary, and congratulate her long term economic strategy of getting me to pay for everything.

Think pink

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Here’s an important development: Labour is accepting its pink bus is, um, definitely pink. “It’s moved beyond magenta and fuschia and it’s now out and proud as pink,” Harriet Harman tells the Daily Politics. But one very pink-dressed voter declares: “It could be pinker.” The debate goes on. And on. And on.

Helping young voters

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

On apprenticeships figures, Priti Patel admits she doesn’t know why the numbers are falling. FT deputy political editor Beth Rigby says they’re important because of the “shocking” low levels of youth employment in the last parliament. “There’s a mixed picture for young people out there, which is why young people tend to vote Labour.” Ms Patel doesn’t like that. It’s about giving young people the “opportunity” to try something news, she explains.

Have your say

Gwyn Kay:

Re Priti Patel on Daily Politics.

How many more times is she going to say "Look!"

Return of the Swingometer

'The growth is there'

Daily Politics

Live on BBC Two

BBC

Conservative Treasury Minister Priti Patel says “the march of the makers is taking place” as she's quizzed about today's GDP news on the Daily Politics. “The growth is there,” she says. Asked about construction, she says it has grown in the last year – studiously avoiding the fact it shrunk in the last three months. Is Ms Patel worried by today’s slowing growth figures? “We are never complacent about our economy” she says. Her focus is on the bigger picture and the improvements seen over the last five years.

Candidates' CVs

You wouldn't give someone a job without studying their CV so why vote for them? That's the thinking behind a new project that aims to persuade would-be MPs to share their CVs with the public.

Other

Voters can enter their postcode at the Democracy Club website to see to see their candidates' efforts. Bad Science newspaper columnist Dr Ben Goldacre, one of those behind the initiative, said “I will only consider voting for an MP who posts their CV in public.”

#EdBallsDay

Balls: I'm a fan of Brand

BBC

Ed Balls - silhouetted above - was also asked what he thought about Russell Brand interviewing Ed Miliband. The move has prompted some speculation that Brand might endorse Labour. Suffice to say - and the words aren't really printable - the comedian hasn't been very nice about the shadow chancellor in the past.

I have always been a fan of Russell Brand. I’ve always thought he was funny. Every now and then, like any comedian, he fires off left, right and centre and not all of them land. He had a pop at me and I had a go back, but frankly I’m sure if we sat down we could both agree: let’s get the Tories out."

Analysis: GDP growth slowdown

Robert Peston

Business editor

Thank goodness for our domestic-facing services. Or, to put it another way, if we weren't a nation of shoppers and restaurant eaters, there would be very little growth at all.

Getty

The output of distribution, hotels and restaurants increased by 1.2% in the quarter - only slightly slower than at the end of last year.

In fact shops, hotels and restaurants contributed two thirds of all growth in the latest quarter.

Which brings us to a couple of big and important points.

The most politically resonant one is that the Tory and Lib Dem government has failed in its ambition to rebalance the economy more towards manufacturing. Read the rest of Robert's thoughts.

Balls on GDP figures

Reuters

The Tories have been patting themselves on the back for months. These figures show their plan is not working for working people. People in our country have seen their bills rising faster than wages year on year, now we see a big slow-down in our economic growth. The Tories just don’t understand, unless the economy works for working people, Britain is not going to succeed."

Ed BallsShadow chancellor

Next generation of voters

BBC

The political parties were asked by BBC News School Report to create party election broadcasts for young people aged from 11 to 16 - the voters of the future. The Conservatives, the Green Party, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party each made a short film, to help students think and learn more about democracy and politics. The Northern Ireland parties and UKIP were also approached but didn't take part.

TNS UK poll stats

Clarkson, Chipping and corduroys

Taxes and cuts

Summing up the two parties’ taxation plans, James Browne, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies said: “The Conservatives propose a small net tax cut overall. Their giveaways on income tax and inheritance tax slightly more than offset the takeaways from pensions tax relief and various unspecified anti-avoidance measures.

“The biggest winners from their policies would be those with incomes of between £50,000 and £150,000.”

And on Labour he said more than half its estimated £12.2bn in tax rises would come from closing tax loopholes, adding “most of the rest” would come from “taxes on rich people and companies”.

But he warned: “This doesn’t mean those taxes would be harmless. The exchequer is already highly reliant on a small number of very rich individuals for tax revenues.”

Is UKIP a racist party?

'Plucked out of the air'

A Conservative government would cut taxes more than Labour and Tory plans would benefit people earning more than £50,000 the most, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has concluded.

The respected financial analysts said Labour was proposing £12.2bn worth of tax rises, which would fall mainly on companies and rich people.

But they warned that all three main Westminster parties were relying heavily on unspecified anti-tax avoidance and evasion measures to raise revenue, using figures that appeared to have been “plucked out of the air”.

Giving a presentation in central London on what the parties have proposed, senior research economist James Browne was scathing on some of their flagship policies.

He said Tory plans effectively to increase the inheritance tax threshold to £1m would encourage people to stay in larger homes when they might want to downsize and were “particularly undesirable”.

Labour’s mansion tax “falls far short” of solving council tax banding problems, while its proposals on limiting tax relief on pensions create “a highly undesirable cliff edge” and are “incoherent”.

Farage on class

"I consider myself to be utterly classless," Nigel Farage says.

We couldn't possibly comment.

'Biggest party in the north east'

"We have got 10 days to go. Every attempt has been made to talk down our expectations, to squeeze the UKIP vote... but people who vote UKIP do so because they believe in what we stand for," Nigel Farage says, as he brings his speech in Hartlepool to an end.

PA

We are the only people who can beat Labour in these constituencies... and I think there will be some tactical voting because the only truly wasted vote in these northern towns is a Conservative vote."

With a final flourish, Mr Farage says UKIP want to be the biggest party in the north east by 2020.

Party playlist

More of your reaction to GDP figures

Darren F: Everyone is focussing on the 0.3% GROWTH in the last quarter and not the fact the economy grew by 2.4% over the last year and will return to 0.7 and 0.8% in the next 2 quarters. Growth is growth!!!

Joe Hawkins, Birkenhead: David Cameron and George Osborne both say the latest figure shows that the recovery is at risk from Labour and external factors, so is Mr Cameron still insisting on good times for all?

Alastair: The flash figures come from the largest companies which are most exposed to currency fluctuations and the slowdown in oil work. When more data is available I expect the growth figure to be revised upward to the level projected by Markit which has proved more accurate of late.

Empty chairs

When's the election date?

'Bad news'

The TUC's general secretary Frances O'Grady reacts to the GDP figures by saying: "The slowest recovery in modern history just slowed down again."

She describes it as "bad news" for jobs and living standards and says Conservative plans for "extreme cuts" after the election risk killing off the economic recovery.

The makers are marching backwards, construction is slumping and it's only services that have rescued the economy from shrinking. This is the opposite of the rebalanced economy we were promised."

Farage hammers Labour

Farage attacks Labour 'complacency'

ITN pool

The view has always been that the north east is a one-party state... they got away with it for years. But the lesson is Scotland was a one-party state and we've seen how the SNP managed to destroy it."

Nigel FarageUKIP leader

Banned from talking to media?

Farage on Mediterranean crisis

Nigel Farage is discussing the coalition's decision to get militarily involved in Libya. "Libya is now basically a failed state, a conduit for mass criminal human trafficking," the UKIP leader says. He accuses the coalition of "picking up where Labour let off" in starting wars without any planning for the aftermath.

Mr Farage says there'll be discussions in Strasbourg tomorrow about the issue but insists: "We want no part of an EU common immigration and asylum policy".

Farage speech

Nigel Farage has taken to the stage at a press conference in Hartlepool - a seat in which he's set his sights firmly on attacking Labour. He says there's been a dramatic shift from Ed Miliband's party to his own since the campaign started. "We've got some real momentum," he adds.

PM 'let my constituents down'

Getty

Enfield North Conservative candidate Nick de Bois - whom David Cameron gave an enthusaistic shout-out to during his speech a short time ago - told BBC Radio 5 live Breakfast this morning that the said same Mr Cameron "utterly let down" his constituents over the failure to protect maternity and A&E services at his local Chase Farm hospital.

Nick de Bois - pictured here with Boris Johnson - told presenter Rachel Burden: "In 2008 the Labour government then made the decision - [rival candidate] Joan Ryan was a member of that government - to downgrade the hospital.

"Then along comes my party leader and he said 'this won't happen' and, of course, that utterly let down the constituents in my party as well."

Anything positive to say?

Policies picked apart

A bit more from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Labour's plans for a mansion tax imply an average charge of more than £16,000 a year on homes worth more than £3 million, the think tank says. On Conservative plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold on homes to £1m, the IFS added:

It is hard to see a good economic or social rationale for such a policy."

Add to the debate

Matt, Wakefield:

David Cameron says he hasn't got time to hang out with Russell Brand, but he seems to have time to hang out with Heat magazine which is even more of a joke.

Peanut politicking

BBC

There's nothing like props to liven up a press conference. Earlier today UKIP's economy spokesman Patrick O'Flynn held aloft a certain salted snack to illustrate his claim that Labour's new 10p rate of income tax doesn't amount to much. It would save a typical taxpayer just 42p a week, he says. "We will be going into those neglected Labour heartlands with a compelling message to working people: under UKIP, no tax on the minimum wage; under Labour, peanuts."

Not tempted?

Send us your views

Scott, London:

In response to various posts on GDP figs. Business, particularly construction (where I work ) has pulled back from activity due to uncertain election, nothing more. A Tory victory will put the foot back on the accelerator be in no doubt.

Lectern wars

BBC

David Cameron isn’t really doing much in the way of walkabouts in this campaign, but when asked about his reticence he finds at least one way to get in a dig at Ed Miliband. “Unlike Ed Miliband I don’t have to go everywhere with a lectern.” Elaborating on his theme, he calls on all those present to help him “free this lectern” which has been “held hostage”. "Maybe the lectern should be allowed on its own he suggests - he's pictured above apparently picking the lectern up. A career in charades beckons, but then Mr Cameron remembers he's the prime minister and offers a serious answer: “I believe in getting out there, that’s what I’m doing in this campaign and there’ll be plenty more of it."

GDP over the years

More comments on Ed's meeting with Russell

No majority?

Last Leg

Channel 4

PA

After Nick Clegg went on Channel 4’s The Last Leg programme - and got a rather good write-up from the show's presenter Adam Hills as a result - now a voter asks if David Cameron is going to follow suit. The PM doesn’t sound keen. “I’ve got a feeling it could be one of those programmes that’s better to watch than appear on,” he says warily. “But I’ll give it some thought.”

PM: Brand's a joke

PA

David Cameron is asked why he’s not getting to spend quality time with Russell Brand, as Ed Miliband did last night. He offers a rather robust reply. “Politics and life and election and jobs and the economy is not a joke -Russell Brand’s a joke!” he says. “Ed Miliband, hang out with Russell Brand, he’s a joke. This is not funny. I haven’t got time to hang out with Russell Brand!”

Which leader should be interviewed by Russell Brand?

Five years of passion

Osborne on GDP figures

Getty Images

Reinforcing David Cameron's message, Chancellor George Osborne has this to say about today's GDP figures:

It’s good news that the economy has continued to grow, but we have reached a critical moment. Today is a reminder that you can’t take the recovery for granted and the future of our economy is on the ballot paper at this election. With rising instability abroad, now is the worst possible time to vote for instability at home. Instead we should stick with the plan that is delivering a brighter and more secure future."

Farage condemns Miliband

Send us your comments

Mike Holden:

How can the government now claim to produce 8bn of funding for the NHS based on “future growth”? This shows growth to be slowing – it may not be like this forever, but with uncertainty going forward surely Tory pledges must be challenged?

Recovery 'fragile'

BBC

The PM says he is “fighting for you” as he pledges to fight for the economy, stability and security. After a quick glug of water at the end of his speech, David Cameron is asked about his view on Europe. He says the UK “can make progress”, citing his negotiations on the EU budget, before saying that membership isn’t worth it “on any terms”.

Later, he's pressed by the BBC's Gavin Hewitt on GDP rates once again. “It’s a reminder of the fragility of the recovery,” he says, before suggesting instability in Europe and the “softening of growth” elsewhere in the world has something to do with it. “You shouldn’t take too much on one quarter’s figures,” Mr Cameorn stresses. “This is a precious time where you’ve got to stick to the plan that’s working.”

IFS on the attack again

It doesn’t matter who ends up leading the next government, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank has decided - average incomes are set to fall regardless. Here's what it makes of the parties’ proposals:

- The Tories will cut taxes but cut benefits, too

- Labour will protect benefits but increase taxes to pay for it

- The Lib Dems will end up somewhere in the middle

It’s all rather damning. “All these parties seem to have a desire to raise tax revenue in vaguely-defined, opaque and apparently painless ways,” Stuart Adam and James Browne say. “In many cases the proposals would lead to unnecessary increases in complexity and inefficiency in the tax system.”

They’re scathing about benefit cut proposals, too. The Tories’ are “largely unspecified”, the Lib Dems are “vague” and Labour’s are “trivially small relative to the rhetoric being used”.

Ouch.

PM on GDP

No red trousers?

BBC story: Tories 'to fund apprenticeships with bank fines'

hurricanechicken comments on this story: It's amazing just how many things these bank fines are funding.

They seem to have been spent many times by all parties in their manifestos.

Perhaps more fines are being lined up that the banks don't know about yet.

jenko comments: Cut foreign aid then we will have enough to really fund apprenticeships.

Why do we give our hard earned money to others when we need it? especially when we have food banks

Cameron on Woman's Hour

Send us your comments

Chris Newey:

Re: GDP figures. The unfunded commitments from the Tories in this election now look even more suspect - they aren't worth the paper they are written on.

'Recovery at risk'

BBC

And now here’s David Cameron’s first comment on today’s GDP stats: “The figures out today show we’re still growing, and that’s good, but they show we cannot take the recovery for granted.” He says the recovery is “at risk” in this election. “If there’s a difference, there’s a risk. With me, you know what you get. You keep the plan, you keep the growth, you keep the jobs, you keep the security.” The alternative would mean higher taxes, higher interest rates and lower investment that would bring the economy to a “juddering halt”, the prime minister warns.

Send us your views

Dex:

Anyone who has watched Russell Brand's YouTube clips will know he is very unlikely to endorse a major (or minor for that matter) party leader as his view is that the system in place restricts any parties ability for change.

Get involved

Politics Daily viewer texts:

Danny Boy can tell us he's not going to lose his seat but can't tell us how many public sector workers he's going to cull. These Liberals have got more faces than the market clock (ours got 4). One for their Tory mates of five years,one for Ed and Labour, another for a 'rainbow' coalition in Wales and finally one for the SNP/UKIP/Plaid/Respect/DUP/SDLP just in case. After tuition fees they are a political pariah and nobody trusts them.

Economy, economy, economy

“The economy is everything,” David Cameron says twice. “That is what is on the ballot paper in nine days’ time.” He’s talking figuratively there, just to be clear. You can't just vote for that.

Still pumped

BBC

David Cameron, still full of beans as he bounds on to the stage in Enfield, begins by saying he’s “very excited” by the “men in blue coats” - better than white ones, we guess. Here we go again.

Expenses receipts

PA

Here’s the background to today’s Court of Appeal defeat for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, to give Ipsa its full title. It stems from a Telegraph journalist’s 2010 complaint that Ipsa would only provide a summary of the information contained in MPs’ expenses receipts, rather than copies of the actual receipts themselves. The information commissioner ruled in the journalist’s favour in 2012, after which Ipsa lost two tribunal decisions before today. The ruling is a significant one, Ipsa’s lawyers have argued, because it will have an impact on all public authorities.

Pic: Ed Miliband heads to Cardiff

PA

Add to the debate

Politics Daily viewer:

So if GDP growth is high it's proof the Conservative long term economic plan is working, but when it's low (like today) it's proof we should stick with the Tories to 'finish the job'? Isn't that having your cake and eating it?

Lib Dems challenged on cuts

Victoria Derbyshire

BBC

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has been repeatedly pushed by Victoria Derbyshire on what impact the Lib Dem's £12bn of cuts would have on public services.

"As you make government more efficient... if you're using more technology then you need fewer people," he said - but declined to put a figure on the number of potential job losses.

IFS unimpressed

The Daily Telegraph's Matthew Holehouse helpfully summarises some top lines from the Institute for Fiscal Studies briefing going on right now. We'll bring you more when we can.

BreakingIpsa judgment

Expenses regulator Ipsa has lost a Court of Appeal challenge against an order that it must release copies of receipts submitted by politicians.

Polling Stones

The Mirror

AFP/Getty Images

Rumours flitting around about Russell Brand possibly backing Labour - rumours which, we should underline, are completely unsubstantiated thus far - are prompting all sorts of speculation about other big-name endorsements. The Mirror’s Heckler column points out that the Conservatives have printed a picture of none other than Mick Jagger alongside David Cameron in Jagger’s home town of Dartford in Kent. Perhaps the Rolling Stones frontman is about to make a late career change? “Mick’s position has not changed,” a spokesman is quoted as saying. “He remains affiliated to no party.” Wishful thinking on the part of local Tories, perhaps.

Add to the debate

Paul Barrett-Brown, Powys:

UK economic growth slows to 0.3% - so much for the grand plan of funding manifesto give-aways from future growth. Anyone got a 'Plan B'?

No talks

Ed for PM?

'Staggering hypocrisy'

BBC

UKIP’s Suzanne Evans has hit out at Labour as Ed Miliband pushes his party’s 10-point plan to tackle immigration today. Ms Evans, appearing at a press briefing this morning, said Labour had "deliberately tried to change the demographics of British society" when it was in power and "used race and religion" to get people to vote for the party. “I simply don't believe that they want to control immigration,” she said. "The fact we've had Labour MPs and candidates running around, refusing to hold that Labour mug saying 'we will control immigration' despite the fact it's apparently been a major plank in their manifesto - I simply don't believe them.”

Have your say

Lynette Bennett, Gloucestershire:

Why is there not a compulsory vote? Then whoever had most votes would win, so simple.

GDP figures

'More work to do'

PA

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander offers a Lib Dem perspective on this morning's GDP figures:

The British economy is recovering well, but these figures remind us that there is still work to do to secure the recovery. Though volatile construction data shows a big dip, the underlying figures show that we are still making solid progress across the wider economy."

Five years ago...

PA

28 April 2010 was not a good day for the Labour. Some believe it might even have cost the party its grip on government. For this was the day that defined the 2010 campaign - the day on which Gordon Brown made his agonisingly bad gaffe of being caught on a microphone saying the pensioner he’d just spoken to about immigration - Gillian Duffy - was a “bigoted woman”. He was pictured with his hand on his forehead while the tape was played back to him, before dashing round to her house in Rochdale to apologise.

There’s been nothing like ‘bigotgate’, as it came to be known, in the 2015 campaign yet - in part because the party leaders are being held back from encounters with the general public in the way they were in 2010.

Construction hits GDP

PA

Here’s a bit more detail on the GDP figures from the Office for National Statistics. The decrease in the rate of growth from 0.6% to 0.3% is mostly down to a 1.6% slip in construction, although output in the services sector was up by 0.5%. Production slipped by 0.1% and agriculture was down to 0.2%. Looking at the big picture, the economy is now 4% larger than its pre-downturn peak.

Service sector performance

Modest slowdown

GDP reaction

BreakingGDP: Growth slows

Here's the GDP figures in for the first three months of the year. Growth has slowed significantly, far worse than expected, from 0.6% in the final quarter of 2014 to 0.3% in the first quarter of this year

Send us your comment

Daily Politics viewer:

Russell Brand endorsing Labour would gain votes among the younger generation. But would it lose votes among the older generation?

Where was Iain Duncan Smith

Ed and Russell

Missing Nigel already

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Nigel Farage is fighting for election in South Thanet, but lobbyist Peter Bingle is already writing what reads rather like his political obituary. The UKIP leader has been suffering from back pain that has dented his party’s campaign, we learned at the weekend, and now Mr Bingle has concluded the end is nigh. “I sense we are observing the last days of Nigel Farage,” hewrites for Total Politics. “He reminds me of that wonderful character Reggie Perrin. So perhaps on the morning of 8 May we will find his clothes on the beach at Ramsgate? If so I will miss him.”

Sanctions for Esther?

'Incredible Hulk' PM

The Daily Telegraph

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Yesterday’s “pumped up” speech from David Cameron has left the Telegraph’s sketchwriter Michael Deacon a little dazed. “Dear Lord,” he writes. “The intensity. The defiance. It was like watching him lead the chanting at his beloved Upton Villa.” The Conservative leader, who last week had delivered a speech “with all the dynamism of a used tea bag”, was now in full-on shouting mode. “I was having to hold my hair down to stop it blowing clean off my scalp,” Deacon adds. And that was before he responded to a journalist’s question by saying he felt “BLOODY LIVELY!” The capital letters make it much more vivid, don’t they? As does Deacon’s closing comparison of Mr Cameron:

His forehead glistened. His eyeballs bulged. He looked like a red Incredible Hulk."

GDP figures v Royal baby?

Send us your views

Mark Sells:

Re suggestions that Russell Brand "might" endorse Ed Miliband after a visit.

Given Miliband hasn't met a single non-aligned person in the whole campaign, I think it's a racing certainty RB's endorsement was in the bag before the visit was publicised.

Sadly, despite it being the most stage-managed affair of the month, some of our electorate will be influenced by RB's apparent conversion on the road to Damascus.

Latest snapshot

Add to the debate

Alan (ex Labour voter) London:

In an interview in October 2014 on the Today programme, it was mentioned PFI is costing the NHS £80 billion. This policy was effected by the last Labour government under Gordon Brown! How is Labour therefore going to "save" the NHS, having strung the PFI albatross round the neck of the nation where it is likely to remain for the next 40 years?!

100 seats in 100 days

BBC Radio 4 Today

BBC

It has the undesirable distinction of being the most economically unproductive constituency in the UK. But there’s a lot more to Ynys Mon - or Angelsey - which depends on big companies and seasonal business to keep things ticking over. “I’d really like the government to make investment in this island,” says Wyn Party, the manager of Holyhead’s ferry port. “We want to invest, we just want to do it quickly.” To listen to squawking seagulls, and unhappy voters, click here.

Shades of pink?

Flaky backbenchers?

BBC News Channel

BBC

The Tories, according to the Spectator's Isabel Hardman on the Election Today programme, are viewing the Liberal Democrats’ prospects in another coalition with rather more trepidation than they have in the past. It’s the habit of Lib Dem backbenchers of rebelling which worries them. “The Conservatives now are working on the basis that only the Lib Dems they make ministers will be able to support them on bills, which really reduces the numbers,” she explains. The big question over the Lib Dems’ campaigning is how many of the 57 seats they won in 2010 will be defended. “The main problem the Lib Dems have is many people don’t trust them - they seem to have offered things they don’t deliver,” the Guardian’s Owen Jones says.

Ed Miliband's visit to Russell Brand

Robinson misgivings

Get involved

Daily Politics viewer:

Why do presenters NEVER question why we or our poor are being made to pay for the bankers greed and irresponsible behaviour? Why not claim the money back retrospectively from bankers? Why is this never discussed?

Tory campaigning worries Robinson

BBC Radio 4 Today

AP

DUP leader Peter Robinson says it’s possible that his party could work with “either” Labour or the Conservatives if we end up with a hung parliament. Their spending plans for Northern Ireland, totalling around £10bn, are virtually identical, he says. What about the possibility of spending cuts hitting his voters, however? He makes clear he doesn’t like the sound of the Tories’ proposals. “I cannot see how £12bn could be cut from welfare in a way that would enjoy our support,” Mr Robinson says. That raises the possibility that the distance between the DUP and the Conservatives has grown over the course of this campaign. It's not a point Mr Robinson disagrees with. What really worries the DUP leader is the Tories’ approach to the SNP. “I’m hoping that is more to do with the campaign team than the policymakers in the party,” he says, before adding:

Some of the anti-Scottish rhetoric doesn’t bode well for encouraging people to remain in the United Kingdom. On the one side you have to make clear there are real dangers with the separatist agenda of the SNP – on the other hand you mustn’t punish the people of Scotland because some of them take that view.”

Squiggly lines

Norman Smith

Assistant political editor

There are red lines and then there are red lines. I think this one about a stability budget is a bit more squiggly than yesterday’s one on education. There's a bit of room to shuffle around. Nick Clegg's just saying, ‘I want a clear timetable to balance the books’ - not ‘I want it done by such and such a date.’ And despite all this talk of red lines, Mr Clegg knows he’ll be in the negotiation business if there is a hung parliament.

Add to the debate

Gill:

Tories don't have a long term economic plan it's actually a long term POLITICAL plan hatched many years ago by Cameron, Osborne, Gove, and Finklestein.

DUP resignation

BBC Radio 4 Today

PA

DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson is interviewed on the Today programme after yesterday’s resignation by Northern Ireland Health Minister Jim Wells over homophobic comments. He says there were “special circumstances” because Mr Wells' wife has been ill and his colleague was under “very considerable pressure”. When pressed, he makes clear Mr Wells’ views that same-sex couples see higher instances of abuse and neglect is not his party’s view.

Clegg's conditions

Mandate judgement

BBC Breakfast

BBC

And now here’s a rather sun-dappled Nick Clegg on Breakfast, where he’s been explaining why he’ll turn to the party with the most seats first of all in the event of a hung parliament. “I think that simple, democratic approach which says that nonetheless the party with the biggest mandate should have the first right to try and assemble a government seems to me the democratic way of doing things,” he says.

There’s no constitutional requirement that this be the case - it’s a political decision of the Liberal Democrats to make this preference. But it’s one the majority of Brits agree with, as a Newsnight poll for ComRes released yesterday evening suggests. It found 55% think the leader with the most MPs should become prime minister if no single party wins a majority of MPs.

Spot the difference

Farage focuses on Labour

'Saving the UK'

PA

The big political interview in today’s newspapers is that of the prime minister - well, you can’t get any bigger, really. And what David Cameron is saying is rather high-stakes stuff: not only does he declare that only winning an outright majority counts as “success”, he goes further than ever before in linking his party’s Labour-SNP warnings with the future of the country. “I have a duty to spend the next 10 days to win the election outright,” he tells the Times, adding: “10 days to save the United Kingdom.” No pressure, then.

Red lines vs front pages

BBC

The sudden appearance of red lines in the Lib Dem campaign has got some people wondering: what about those manifesto front page commitments, then? Nick Clegg, pushed on that question in his morning press conference in central London, says that the Lib Dems tried their best to get their 2010 priorities through. “We stuck very diligently and religiously and stubbornly to those front page priorities, and that’s what we’ll do again,” he says.

An unlikely ally?

PA

Ed Miliband was interviewed last night by Russell Brand at the comedian's home. Sightings of the Labour leader leaving sparked some speculation that Mr Brand may "endorse" Mr Miliband despite him repeatedly urging young people not to vote. Read more.

More lines...

Nick's demands

Boris on bagpipes

BBC Radio 5 Live

Getty Images

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Rachel Burden has had a brush with Boris Johnson on the campaign trail in Enfield. “I hope very much that people will focus on the issues,” he says when the inevitable leadership question comes up. He is more illuminating when it comes to the suggestion that he has banned bagpipes in the capital. “It’s total total tripe, it’s absolute b******* if I may say so,” the mayor responds, rather colourfully. He says City Hall has introduced a new code “saying if you’re playing an instrument with a lot of amplification… then be careful how you do it. Or something.” What about the suggestion from a senior Tory donor that there’s a “curious lack of energy and belief in the prime minister’s campaign”? That, Mr Johnson says, is “total nonsense”.

'Real opportunities'

BBC Radio 4 Today

On the Conservative apprenticeships plans, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Priti Patel says the Libor money will be "a ring-fenced pot" specifically for 22 to 24-year-olds who've been out of work for at least six months. She refuses to accept though that by announcing it today she's acknowledging that this group have been ignored so far by the government.

“This is also about creating the right pro-enterprise economy… by focusing on long-term youth unemployment we are giving real opportunities to these young people," she says.

Asked about the need for an injection of passion by David Cameron yesterday into the Tory campaign - the "pumped up" speech - Ms Patel ducks and weaves again. "I actually think this is about being passionate about the future of our country and about the record we've achieved."

Getty

Stability jeopardised

BBC

“I certainly didn’t anticipate the Conservatives would combine a very socially aggressive approach to balancing the books with an economically illiterate approach to making a whole bunch of billions of pounds of unfunded spending commitments. It’s starting to really jeopardise that hard-won credibility we’ve secured over the last five years.”

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg

Blurred lines?

'Completely unacceptable'

Nick Clegg is using the word “disingenuous” rather a lot this morning to attack Labour and the Conservatives’ approach to spending plans. He says “we will not see the balancing of the books done on the back of the working-age poor”. That’s the Conservatives’ plan, he says, and it’s “completely unacceptable” to the Lib Dems in its current form.

Labour immigration plans

Labour-SNP fears

The Independent

Getty Images

The Conservatives’ election strategy of warning a Labour government could rely on the SNP for survival appears to be working, a poll of 2,000 people by ORB suggests. It’s found that a potential deal between the two parties is making 25% of people less likely to vote for Labour and 16% more likely - a nine-point difference which the Independent reports could make a big difference. Among UKIP voters, the difference was 22%. That will boost Tory hopes that UKIP supporters could be persuaded back "home" to the Conservatives.

Lib Dem red line

Balancing the books

BBC

Nick Clegg’s second big ‘red line’ of the morning is his demand for a "Stability Budget" within the first 50 days of the next parliament. Speaking at the National Liberal Club, he says such a move is a “precondition of any coalition arrangement”. In political terms, it’s part of his bid to persuade voters that the Lib Dems “won’t let Labour risk your job or our economy with reckless borrowing”. In technical terms, such a Budget would set out detailed tax and welfare plans to balance the books. A comprehensive spending review would then be held in autumn 2015.

'Absolute red line'

Until yesterday the Lib Dems had largely rebuffed any invitations to offer "red lines" on coalition deal-making, instead directing journalists to the policies on the front page of their manifesto. But now party leader Nick Clegg is using the phrase in his morning press conference, set to get under way at any moment. He’s expected to refer to two red line issues - a stability Budget within 50 days and this one:

Today, I can confirm an absolute red line - a pre-condition for government. Education. The Liberal Democrats will not allow our children and grandchildren to pay the price of this generation’s mistakes. We believe above all else in spreading opportunity, in tearing down the barriers that stop people from reaching their potential. Nothing is more crucial to that than education."

Nick Clegg

Miliband visits Russell Brand

Mili-brand?

100 seats in 100 days

BBC Radio 4 Today

BBC

When politicians are asked about the price of milk, the first instinct of some of them might be to think of it as a test to see if they’re really connected to ordinary, everyday life. But it’s just possible the person asking the question might actually care about farming. In Monmouth, farmers are struggling to make milk production pay. And they don’t really feel like their elected representatives care enough. "The trouble with all politicians is they've never had a bill they couldn't pay and yet we're producing something that everybody needs, you cannot live without food," one says. "They don't come out to the country to see what's happening, we're nothing for the government really," another adds. You can listen to their concerns in full - and the implications for the political contest in Monmouth - here.

Coming up: Nick Clegg speech

BBC

The rather opulent surroundings of the National Liberal Club awaiting the arrival of the Lib Dem leader.

Tories on immigration

The Conservatives don’t seem particularly bovvered by Ed Miliband’s challenge on immigration. They insist they have their own plan which they’re sticking to, and view today’s speech from the Labour leader on the issue as a “desperate attempt” to “distract” people from questions about the SNP. A spokesperson says:

“The Conservatives have a plan to control immigration and build a system that puts the British people first. We will regain control of EU migration by reforming welfare rules, tackle criminality and abuse of free movement and cut immigration from outside the EU. But Ed Miliband - propped up by the SNP, who want to force him to weaken immigration controls - would just take us backwards.”

Labour on apprenticeships

Getty Images

Conservative efforts to play up their achievements on apprenticeships are being challenged by Labour, which claims that the number of young people starting apprenticeships has fallen in the last year. And during their time in office the proportion of apprenticeship starts is down by nearly a quarter. Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna says:

"The Tories have failed to match Labour's plans to guarantee an apprenticeship place for every school leaver who gets the grades, use government procurement to create thousands of new apprenticeship opportunities and safeguard apprenticeship quality. And they've opposed Labour's plans to introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee to get young people back to work."

Advantage SNP

BBC Radio 4 Today

One extra layer of insight we do have in this election comes from Lord Ashcroft, who is “spending a fortune” on his polling. He’s getting a “very serious sample” in each constituency, the BBC's head of political research David Cowling tells the Today programme - and he suggests that they and other polling does suggest that tactical voting in Scotland is a thing. “The Ashcroft polling shows in a number of Liberal Democrat seats the MP hangs on when the question is asking ‘how would you vote in this constituency?’” Mr Cowling says. Similarly, a recent YouGov poll put the SNP advantage at 24% - but when asked to make a straight choice between Labour and the SNP, the nationalist lead slipped to just 12%. “If it’s anywhere half near correct it makes for a much more interesting mix,” he adds.

Questions, no answers

BBC Radio 4 Today

BBC

If you’re confused by the likely result of the election, and aren't completely certain who’s going to win, don’t worry - you’re not alone. David Cowling, the head of political research at the BBC, is asked what’s going on while being interviewed on Today. “I’m asking the same question,” he admits. “I’d love to give you an answer.” If he can't, who can? Maybe our poll tracker will clear everything up.

Expenses judgement

Today's papers

Politics stories are all over the this morning's front pages - which is just as you'd expect with the election imminent. They're worth inspecting - but why trudge down to your local newsagents when you could just click this link ?

Labour's immigration plan

Getty Images

Ed Miliband is in the Vale of Glamorgan later to challenge the Conservatives over immigration. There’s nothing new in the 10-point plan he's discussing today, but Mr Miliband will suggest getting started in the first 100 days gives his party the advantage on the issue. Labour’s proposals include:

- Recruiting an extra 1,000 borders staff

- Introducing full exit checks

- Keeping the cap on workers from outside the EU in place

- Requiring that people working in public services in public-facing roles speak English.

Speaking later, Mr Miliband will say:

David Cameron once promised to cut net immigration to tens of thousands - and told us to kick him out of office if he didn't deliver. But net migration rose to 298,000 last year, almost exactly three times higher than he promised. Nothing damages people’s faith in politics more than broken promises like that - or those he is still making today. I will only make promises I can keep. I won’t offer false targets or seek to exploit concerns with the politics of fear. Instead, I am offering clear, credible and concrete ways of making a real difference."

Coming up: GDP figures

BBC

There’ll be a big moment in the campaign later this morning when the latest - and final - GDP figures of this parliament are released at 09:30 BST. The statistics for the first three months of this year aren’t expected to be trumpeted by the governing parties, though; as the Observer reported at the weekend, economists are predicting growth has slowed to 0.5% from the 0.6% seen in the last quarter of 2014. “A disappointing reading could cause a headache for the incumbent parties, particularly given their desire to emphasise their economic credentials,” Andrew Goodwin, of Oxford Economics, says. He's probably right, you know. Our economy tracker gives you the full picture of the state of play.

SNP advance continues

AFP/Getty Images

There’s nothing in the latest Survation/Daily Record poll which suggests the prospect of an SNP landslide in Scotland isn’t going to happen. Its Westminster voting intention for April has put the nationalists up a further four points on its March poll to an eye-watering 51%, with Labour slipping one point to 26%. The Conservatives also drop a point to 14%, the Lib Dems advance a point to 5% while others - apparently being squeezed - slip 4%. It follows yesterday’s TNS poll that put the SNP on 54%.

Still undecided

Testing the mood

Apprenticeships

AP

Today the Conservative Party is in spending mode, promising to use the £200m fine from Deutsche Bank’s rate-fixing scandal to pay for 50,000 apprenticeships. This is actually a top-up to the Tories’ pledge for three million apprenticeships over the next five years but serves to highlight the party’s commitment to helping “train young people and get them off the dole and into work”. Attention will be on David Cameron as he announces the news, in particular, because he's promising to fight with every ounce of energy in the final phase of this campaign - as he strives to make the breakthrough which has eluded him so far.Here's our storyon the day’s political developments.

Single figures

AFP/Getty Images

For many years the general election was something to be thought of as in the dim and distant future. Since the start of 2014 it was something to be acceptably spoken of as "looming". And now, after starting the final campaign countdown earlier this year, we find ourselves with just nine days to go until polling day. It’s been a long build up - but the wait for 7 May 2015 is nearly over.

Good morning

We're down to single figures - nine days to go until polling day. It's Victoria King and Alex Stevenson here this morning, your Politics Live team. We're feeling pumped, to quote the prime minister, so stick with us and you won't miss a thing.