George Osborne and Boris Johnson were out and about early this morning pushing their 'long-term economic plan for London'. In addition to the announcement on overground trains (see below) the pair are also confirming wifi will be extended to all below-ground sections of the Tube by 2020. There's a commitment to 800 new Routemaster buses a year from 2016. The plan will, they hope, produce what Chancellor George Osborne hopes will be "the greatest capital city on Earth". They're making a big promise: this plan will add £6.4bn to the London economy by 2030 and create half a million new jobs, they claim.

George Osborne and Boris Johnson will be hoping their announcement later this morning that weekend 24-hour services will begin on London Overground services from 2017 will go down well with voters. The chancellor and mayor are teaming up to announce the Conservatives' latest regional 'long-term economic plan', this one for London.

Last night's Question Time offered an insight into possible coalition talks in the event of a hung parliament. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set out the case for a "progressive alliance" at Westminster - implying, but not actually mentioning, Labour. Separately Liberal Democrat Health Minister Norman Lamb said the prospect of the SNP in government at Westminster "absolutely horrifies me". That seemed a little at odds with Vince Cable's comments earlier this week about a "rainbow coalition".

If you missed Question Time last night, you can watch the whole thing back via the 'Live Coverage' tab on this page. Notable moments included Lord Heseltine being asked about Ant and Dec's politics and differing with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon about Trident. Ms Sturgeon said Labour were not heading for a landslide because they were not offering an alternative. Labour's Caroline Flint rejected that and said the recovery must be for everybody not just a few at the top.

Image source, AFP

The main story this morning is that, a day after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's warning comments about Russia, the Lords' EU committee has accused Britain and the rest of Europe of "sleepwalking" into the Ukraine crisis. Its report out today, external is particularly critical of the Foreign Office's expertise in the region, which it says has "diminished significantly". Peers add: "The lack of robust analytical capacity, in both the UK and the EU, effectively led to a catastrophic misreading of the mood in the run-up to the crisis." The Foreign Office has said no-one could have predicted the extent of the Russians' "unjustified and illegal" intervention in eastern Ukraine. You can read our full story on the report here.

Alex Hunt
Politics editor, BBC News Online

Hello and welcome to what is shaping up to be another busy day of politics. It may be recess in Parliament and the half term break for many schools, but there's little sign of a let-up in the pace of campaigning as we move closer to the 7 May election. We will bring you all the action, reaction and analysis in text and you'll be able to watch and listen to all the main BBC political programmes on this page, from Today in the morning to Any Questions and Newsnight this evening. Here's how Thursday unfolded.