A reminder of what happened today in election news:

• The Prime Minister announced a Conservative victory would mean 500 more free schools for England by 2020

• Labour say the plan would divert money from other schools

• Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the Tories would make "extreme" cuts of £70bn over the next five years

• The Conservatives say the claims are scare-mongering and the figure is less than half that

• HSBC bosses have been accused of managerial incompetence in a grilling by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee about tax evasion

• Committee chair Margaret Hodge said ex-HSBC figure Rona Fairhead should quit her post as chair of the BBC Trust

• The Northern Ireland Assembly is said to be in crisis, after agreement over a key Bill fell apart

• Former Ulster Unionist Party leader James Molyneaux has died aged 94

• Thanks for following the Politics Live page tonight. We're off now and will be back at 06:00 GMT. Good night.

Image source, Reuters

Defence cuts have left Britain reticent to tackle Russia's interference in UK airspace and offshore waters, according to the former head of the Army. General Sir Peter Wall said the "consequences" of the squeeze on funding is now "playing out" in the UK's approach to dealing with Vladimir Putin. In an article for The Daily Telegraph, external, he warned the West had been "caught napping" amid increasing threats from the Russian Federation and Islamic State.

Proposals for a written constitution have been set out by a group of MPs that could end the Queen's reign by making the head of state a directly elected position. It's one of several possible options set out by the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee to "stimulate further debate". Another suggestion was for prime ministers to be directly elected by voters in a two-round ballot.

tweets:, external #HSBC "incompetence" & "ruddy evasion" say MPs. Ella Fitzgerald causes sexism row, & #benefit sanctions @BBCRadio4 #TodayInParliament 1130pm

BBC Newsnight
BBC Two, 22:30

Journalist Adam Boulton says he thinks this election campaign so far is akin to the campaign in 1992 when "there was a lot of negativity in the media". He said negative campaigning "only really works if you [the electorate] really trust the side being negative", and he said that the rise of parties like UKIP, the Green Party and the SNP shows that people don't trust the mainstream parties.

BBC Newsnight
BBC Two, 22:30

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas tells the programme that negative campaigning is nothing new, but "at the moment it is drowning out any kind of positive message". Journalist Adam Boulton concurred and said it was an "exceptionally negative" campaign thus far, and the reason for this was because the "main parties don't have a great deal to promise" in times of austerity.

BBC Newsnight
BBC Two, 22:30

BBC political editor of the programme Allegra Stratton says "fear is being used to force people back to main stream politics".

BBC Newsnight
BBC Two, 22:30

Tune in to BBC2 now if you want to watch Newsnight. The programme this evening looks at why the election campaign has become so negative.

Plaid Cymru Treasury spokesman, Jonathan Edwards MP, has hit out at the two main parties, following Labour's attack on Tory spending plans in the next parliament. Mr Edwards said: "It is clear that the Westminster parties' economic plans boil down to a false choice between bad or worse.

"Welsh communities cannot take any more. Our public services are buckling due to underfunding by the UK Government and mismanagement by the Labour government in Cardiff."

Tweets, external: SNP more unpopular as part of a coalition than UKIP: Ashcroft poll

Image source, James Rentoul

Stormont is facing another crisis, according to Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, after a public row over welfare reform. BBC Northern Ireland looks at what is behind the dispute and what is at stake.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs should be optimistic about the future direction of the European Union as it is setting fewer rules for its member states and has people in powerful positions who want to strengthen national parliaments, the Europe minister has indicated. David Lidington said the presence of Dutchman Frans Timmermans as first vice president of the European Commission was a cause for optimism as he is someone who is sympathetic to strengthening national parliaments at the EU's expense.