Ross Hawkins
Political correspondent, BBC News

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins says the letter from the Archbishops' Council is "remarkable". "The Church is now throwing insults at the politicians", he says.

The Archbishops' Council has just issued a statement criticising coverage of a letter in which the House of Bishops calls for a "fresh moral vision" from politicians ahead of the general election. In a statement Malcolm Brown, director of public affairs at the Archbishops' Council, says: "Whether from the Guardian or the Daily Mail, the media response is to interpret it as attack on the coalition. David Cameron has reacted as if the letter was a rehash of earlier disputes about welfare reform. The letter has been mined for quotes to fit this pre-ordained template and the politicians have risen to the bait like programmed automata."

tweets, external: I'm delighted UKIP can now count upon the support of Harriet Yeo, external, former Labour National Executive Committee member

The announcement by Cameron about youth unemployed is disgraceful. They are to require a minimum 30 hours a week for the basic youth allowance of £57.35. That works out at £1.91 per hour, significantly less than my 14 year old is being paid for his paper round which is badly underpaid. Why this would ever encourage anyone that working is worthwhile is beyond me, when will the Tories ever acknowledge that low pay is the biggest driver of the benefit culture in this country and do something to improve it rather than encouraging it?

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Image source, PA

More from Scotland on the row over NHS figures. Shona Robison, health secretary in the Scottish Government, pictured above, says Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy misrepresented the figures and should apologise. Mr Murphy claimed the rate of operations cancelled in the Glasgow area was significantly higher than in England. But Ms Robison says he "vastly inflated" the number of procedures that had not gone ahead. More here.

Conservative Home

On ConservativeHome, Mark Wallace discusses , externala new project aiming to achieve "a conservatism which is compassionate and electorally successful". Called the Good Right, external, and launched by prominent Conservative Tim Montgomerie and YouGov CEO Stephan Shakespeare today, it has put forward a list of policies including more housebuilding and 25% of private school places being state-funded for scholarship students. Mr Wallace says he applauds the aims of the project, but has a "niggling discomfort" about its name.

Newsnight has announced plans to get into the minds of voters in the run up to the election. The BBC programme will visit the homes of three families for a series of films called The House - based around a kitchen table, discussing the big political issues. The first will be screened tomorrow. More details here.

The High Court has overturned a tribunal ruling that the Home Office must pay £224m to a US defence firm for the unlawful cancellation of a contract to provide the controversial e-Borders programme. Mr Justice Akenhead ruled the case brought by Raytheon Systems Limited (RSL) must be reheard after the Home Office lodged an appeal against the award made last August. More soon.

tweets, external: BREAKING: I can exclusively reveal that Harriet Yeo, chairman of Labour's NEC 2012-13, is quitting the party over Ed M's position on Europe

The SNP has ruled out forming a coalition with the Conservatives after the election. But former Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie tells the Daily Record that she worked side by side with the nationalists while they ran a minority administration at Holyrood. She tells the newspaper, external: "When the chips were down and he had to find support for his budget, I don't remember Alex Salmond jumping up and down and saying he cannot do business with the Tories."

BBC News Channel

Lib Dem Justice Minister Simon Hughes has told the BBC News channel the Conservative's youth benefits policy is "not the way to help the poor and get the economy back on its feet". He said the Lib Dems don't want to cut as much as the Tories, but equally wouldn't borrow as much as Labour.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher has described Ed Miliband and David Cameron as "bozos" who "don't stand for anything". In an interview, external with The Quietus, Gallagher - who famously chatted with Tony Blair in Downing Street in 1997 - hit out at modern politics. He said: "Now politics is mirroring society: it's bland. There's nothing. Who are these two bozos that are standing for election in a couple of months? They're career politicians. They don't stand for anything." He wasn't much kinder about Nigel Farage, using language we would never publish on family website to say the UKIP leader doesn't look capable of running a "corner shop". He also predicts that Boris Johnson will be the next prime minister...

Just as a relay team hands over the baton - or a politician passes on a pancake - it's time for us to relinquish the reins now. Thanks for sticking with us through the first half of the day - for David Cameron's welfare speech, Ed Miliband's People's Questions and various other snippets.

Tom Moseley and Nick Eardley will be taking it from here and will be bringing you all the political news right up until midnight.

Andy Bell, 5 News Political Editor

Tweets: , externalBrixton skateboarder tells me David Cameron's plan for school leavers to do community work is a "sick" idea - when sick means good #GE2015

The journalists claimed victory over the politicians in the annual Parliamentary Pancake Race around Victoria Tower Gardens. Here's every dramatic second of the contest from the point of view of a pancake.

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Floating voters win elections and Labour leader Ed Miliband has pledged to win over two very famous ones - TV duo Ant and Dec. Declan Donnelly told the Times he finds it difficult to picture Mr Miliband as prime minister, while Ant McPartlin said he no longer knows what Labour stands for.

Speaking at an event in Lincolnshire, Mr Miliband said: "I think they said they were floating voters so I've got 78 days to persuade Ant and Dec back on board, and I'm sure we can.

"Look, I think what I would say to Ant and Dec, and the whole country, is I think there's a big choice at this election. How do you want the country run? Do you want a government for the rich and powerful or do you want a government for everyday people. That's the government I'd lead."

Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison has demanded the new Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy apologise, claiming he was "caught red-handed fiddling NHS figures" on the number of cancelled hospital operations. Her comments follow the news that Mr Murphy deleted a YouTube video and tweet because they were based on misread figures.

On the subject of that Church of England letter, the Bishop of Norwich has denied it is left-wing. "It's not a shopping list of policies, you've drawn out statements from it," he told a questioner. "What it is is an encouragement to our own people to be engaged with our political culture."

Asked whether the letter resembled a list of SNP or Green Party policies, he replied: "I don't believe that, I think it's much more even-handed than that. The only manifesto the Church is signed up to is the teaching of Jesus."

New Statesman

Flora Neville and Harry Lambert, of the New Statesman, have written a piece on the welcome UKIP leader Nigel Farage received, external when he kicked off his campaign in Canvey Island in Essex.

The Guardian

The Guardian is reporting that Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has deleted a YouTube video and tweet after making false claims about cancelled hospital operations in Scotland, external which were based on misread figures.