Conservatives take six-point lead in Guardian/ICM poll
Labour’s manifesto launch: all the key points in one place
IFS says people who vote Labour won’t know what cuts they are voting for
Osborne says Labour has no credible economic plan
Miliband says cuts would continue after 2016 under Labour
3.13pm BST
With Jim Murphy seemingly contradicted by not one but two colleagues today, opponents have not been slow to capitalise. We’ve already reported on Nicola Sturgeon (see 10.47am) and John Swinney’s (see 10.29am) response to the Today interview with Ed Balls.
3.08pm BST
And here’s a Guardian video with an extract from Ed Miliband’s speech.
3.07pm BST
Here’s Jonathan Freedland and Hugh Muir talking about Labour’s manifesto launch in today’s Guardian three-minute election video.
2.42pm BST
The Guardian has just released its latest ICM poll. My colleague Tom Clark has the details.
A new Guardian/ICM poll has produced a surprise Conservative lead of six points, taking David Cameron’s party to 39% with Labour on 33%.
While most recent polls show the race is tied or that Labour is in a slight lead, the telephone poll conducted between Friday and Sunday reports that the Conservatives have gained three points while Labour is down by two points in the last month.
2.18pm BST
As the Press Association reports, David Cameron has also been taking part in his first on-camera walkabout of the campaign
David Cameron has staged his first on-camera walkabout of the campaign - and was urged to avoid “name calling” tactics against Ed Miliband.
The prime minister took to the streets of Alnwick, in the Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency, in a bid to woo voters, where one woman told him: “I don’t like the name calling in politics ... Be a good boy.”
2.12pm BST
David Cameron has said that voters should not trust Ed Miliband with the economy.
Ed Miliband still won’t apologise for the fact that the last Labour government spent too much, borrowed too much, taxed too much, and crashed our economy in a most appallingly dramatic fashion. Frankly if you cannot learn the lessons of the past you cannot possibly provide the leadership for the future.
When people hear Ed Miliband today they will think this is not a conversion to responsibility. It is not a conversion, it is a con.
2.05pm BST
Nick Clegg has had a run-in with protesters in Carshalton. My colleague Frances Perraudin has more details.
Local NHS campaigners outside a hospital in Carshaltan come to greet Clegg as he arrives. Lots of pushing. pic.twitter.com/WuQSrOUnrl
1.59pm BST
In the world of election live blogs, the competition is definitely getting more intense. Newsnight has just launched one. It’s a rolling analysis blog, with updates from Newsnight correspondents, who are today writing about the Labour manifesto. I’m afraid to say it’s rather good.
1.52pm BST
The Guardian’s picture desk have compiled their highlights of the day so far.
1.48pm BST
George Osborne, the chancellor, has issued a response to the Labour manifesto on behalf of the Conservatives. He said Labour had no credible economic plan.
Today Ed Miliband failed to provide a credible economic plan and nobody will be fooled.
There were no new ideas for Britain, and if you read the small print independent experts like the IFS have confirmed he would run a deficit every year.
1.46pm BST
Carl Emmerson, the deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, was on the World at One talking about Labour’s plans. He repeated the arguments used by his boss, Paul Johnson. (See 12.37pm and 12.57pm.) Asked about Scotland, and whether there would be a need for further cuts in Scotland after 2016, Emmerson said there would be no need for further cuts if Labour borrowed as much as its ruled allowed. But he suggested this was unlikely.
If the Labour party is talking about serious cuts to unprotected services, if they are meaningful ones, when they talk about year on year cuts, then it would be hard to see how they would be able to escape cuts in Scotland.
1.39pm BST
Here’s Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, on the Labour manifesto.
Labour is still struggling to face up to the economic facts of life. They still believe that you can borrow your way out of debt. They have no clear timetable to finish the job of balancing the books. They’ve opposed all Liberal Democrats have done to turn the economy around and their whole approach remains riddled with inconsistency. Every single economic prediction they have made has been wrong. However they dress it up, their plans would mean borrowing £70bn more and would drag austerity out for years to come.
1.38pm BST
Libby Brooks has some more news from the Trident protests at the Faslane nuclear base, where there have been 12 arrests.
Hundreds of protesters have closed the base for around four hours now and campaigners believe that it will take the police another few hours to clear activists from the entrance to the south gate of the base.
Patrick Harvie, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens and MSP for Glasgow, was among those taking part. He said: “Trident is an obscenity. Through direct action and through the ballot box we can make the case for the UK to play a new role on the world stage. By choosing to disarm Trident we can re-skill workers on the Clyde to provide defence of the strategically important northern seas, and diversify our economy for social good.”
1.30pm BST
On the Daily Politics Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, was asked about Jim Murphy’s claim that a Labour government would not need to make further cuts after 2016. Ed Balls rejected Murphy’s proposition earlier (see 9.22am), and Ed Miliband did the same in his Q&A (see 11.56am). But Umunna was even more blunt.
The leader of the Scottish Labour party will not be in charge of the UK budget. The leader of our country, the next prime minister Ed Miliband, will be in charge of the UK budget. And he’s just answered the question when that was put to him: Will there be cuts over the course of this parliament, not just in the first financial year but in the following financial years? And he was absolutely clear there will be a need for further consolidation and cuts throughout the rest of the parliament.
Chuka Umunna’s brutal line that leader of the Scottish Labour party doesn’t set UK Budget, suggests party beginning to write off Scotland
1.22pm BST
The BBC’s Nick Robinson has described Ed Miliband’s speech at the manifesto launch today as “one of the most powerful speeches I’ve seen him make”.
1.14pm BST
Nick Clegg said today the Labour manifesto was “not worth the paper it’s written on”. Here’s the full “vodka” quote. (See 10.32am.)
The Labour party saying they have no plans for additional borrowing is like an alcoholic who consumes a bottle of vodka every day, saying they have no plans to drink more vodka. It’s a dangerous addiction and the Labour party have no plan and no date by which to clear the decks, wipe the slate clean and deal with the deficit.
Given his claim to take mental health issues seriously I find @nick_clegg remarks regarding alcoholics inappropriate http://t.co/s5v0sZIZDq
I hope @normanlamb will berate @nick_clegg for using the analogy it's 'like an alcoholic vowing not to drink.' #MentalHealth #GE2015
I’m making a serious point in a forceful, if colourful, way. You’ve had a Labour manifesto today, which is deeply mendacious, claiming to people that they’re not going to make additional borrowing when that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
They’re claiming they’ve discovered fiscal probity and discipline when they haven’t and I’m saying that it’s as implausible as somebody who drinks a lot who claims that, because they’re not going to drink a bit extra, somehow they’ve cracked their problem.
1.14pm BST
Nigel Farage has been challenged to a duel with swords by a man claiming to be a Polish prince, the Press Association reports. Yanek Zylinski, in a video posted to YouTube, criticised the Ukip leader’s “idiotic” blaming of immigrants for traffic jams on the M40. Zylinski called on Farage to meet him in Hyde Park in central London to resolve the matter “in a way that an 18th-century Polish aristocrat and an English gentleman would traditionally do”.
Perhaps Zylinski would have more luck if he challenged Farage to a drinking contest.
1.07pm BST
The cost of living, rather than tax, is the centrepiece of a manifesto that promises a cap on gas and electricity bills, a new focus on water bills, a freeze on train fares and a pledge to put a ceiling on rent rises hitting the millions more now renting privately.
These pledges are popular, while costing virtually nothing to an incoming government hamstrung by a huge deficit. In areas the government directly controls - income and spending taxes - the manifesto is less radical. Core tax rates and tax credits will remain fixed, apart from the return of the 50% top rate band and the revival of a 10% rate axed by the previous Labour government in 2007, but with no mention of personal allowances.
The deeply unpopular utility companies - energy bills are up £300 since 2010 - come in for tougher treatment than perhaps expected, with a freeze not just in bills, but a plan to break up the ‘big six’ energy providers. The water companies, which in parts of the country (especially the south west) are more hated than the energy companies, also face a Labour clampdown, with a pledge to launch a new national affordability scheme.
After years of runaway prices, the property market features more heavily than in almost any Labour manifesto for a generation. A ceiling on “excessive rent rises”, legislation to make three-year tenancies a norm and a ban on letting agency fees form Labour’s appeal to the 11 million people now renting privately.
1.04pm BST
Michael Gove, the Conservative chief whip, has been responding to the Labour manifesto launch. This is what he told the BBC.
It’s got no credibility at all. We know every page in Labour’s manifesto will be subject to signoff by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Labour cannot get into Downing Street except on the coattails of the Scottish National party, so every promise they make today is subject to veto or endorsement by the SNP. Labour proposals are not funded and they are not underwritten by the credibility of delivering a strong economy.
The bold @christopherhope is periscoping Gove and the Sturgeons. pic.twitter.com/QXMmmHbcuV
1.03pm BST
This from the Guardian’s business reporter Sean Farrell:
The only new policy affecting business is that the minimum wage will increase to more than £8 by October 2019 from £6.50 now for workers over 21. Even that is a revision of an existing promise to raise the minimum wage to £8 by the end of the parliament in May 2020.
Labour says the minimum wage will increase by at least twice the rate in this parliament and make a full-time worker on the minimum wage £800 better off than under the Tories. Miliband has said the economy needs rising wages to increase tax receipts and reduce social security spending.
The rest of Labour’s business policies include extra powers for the Green Investment Bank, limiting votes on takeovers to those who already hold the shares, requiring fund managers to disclose how they vote on executive pay, and installing employee representatives on company remuneration committees. Labour says it wants the City to take a long-term view of a company’s prospects instead of seeking short-term returns.
1.01pm BST
The green economy already employs more people than teaching and is growing fast. This makes the million job pledge achievable, especially if Labour can give investors more stability than the outgoing coalition, which rowed over wind farms. More jobs could come from the overhaul of the coalition’s troubled Green Deal home energy efficiency programme, with Labour promising zero-interest loans.
Freeing the Green Investment Bank to borrow could create further jobs by funding new green energy projects. Labour backs fracking but would tighten regulations, though not enough to satisfy many opponents. Labour says it will “prioritise” flood protection and produce an “ambitious” adaptation programme, but does not promise extra funding.
12.58pm BST
What is missing is a commitment to maintaining defence spending at 2% of GDP, the government pledge made at last year’s Nato summit. Without that commitment, the Ministry of Defence is one of the most vulnerable government departments to cutbacks.
A Labour government would face tough choices: cuts in the “the best armed forces in the world” that could see army numbers drop from 82,000 to 60,000; fewer planes on two new aircraft carriers; or a more modest Trident nuclear renewal programme.
12.57pm BST
Here are some more quotes from the IFS director Paul Johnson’s interview on the Daily Politics.
[Not having a firm timetable for getting rid of the deficit] gives them an enormous amount of flexibility; it allows them to say well we would be cutting very little, but also that we would be cutting. But it really makes a big difference, there’s a huge difference between £18bn of cuts over the next three years and no cuts. Literally we would not know what we were voting for if we were going to vote for Labour.
Cutting the deficit if we get anything approaching the kind of economic growth that the Bank of England and the Office of Budget Responsibility expect, is not a terribly big hurdle. The expectation is on any reasonable set of fiscal plans the deficit would go down over time.
12.56pm BST
Labour displays its humanitarian credentials by promising to end the indefinite detention of irregular migrants in places such as Yarl’s Wood and the scandal of the Syrian refugee programme which has only seen 143 vulnerable people relocated under the UN scheme in the past year. A total of 3,462 people were in immigration detention at the end of last year mostly waiting for removal – 397 of them had been detained for longer than 6 months, and 18 for longer than 2 years.
Labour’s commitment to employing 1,000 more border staff is designed to ensure faster removals rather than longer detention. The pledge not to lock up pregnant women and the victims of trafficking and sexual abuse is also long overdue.
But the manifesto makes no explicit commitment on the future of the net migration target which has dominated the coalition government’s approach to immigration policy and ended in failure. Net migration is at 298,000 – three times the 100,000 target set by David Cameron. Instead the manifesto talks of ‘smarter controls’.
12.37pm BST
On the Daily Politics Paul Johnson, the Institute for Fiscal Studies director, said that, because Labour won’t say when it hopes to get rid of the deficit on current spending, we don’t really know what their plans would involve.
The Labour party have repeated what they have said over the last several months, which is that they want to get to get to current budget balanced as soon as they can in the next parliament. Now, it really, really matters how soon that is. If they want to get there within three years, which is sort of what they might be thought to have signed up to in the fiscal responsibility charter earlier this year, that’s a really significant amount of spending cuts or tax rises over the next three years. If they are happy to wait til the end of the parliament, which is also sort of consistent with what they signed up to, then actually we don’t need any spending cuts over the next five years. So, which one of those paths really, really matters. And we’ve got no additional clarity today about whether we would be signing up to additional spending cuts or tax rises or not.
12.32pm BST
The BBC has announced the podium positions for Thursday’s challengers’ debate:
Lots drawn for podiums for Thu's Cameronless BBC1 leader debates (l to r) Miliband, Wood, Bennett, Sturgeon, Farage #figures
12.24pm BST
It will take a while for journalists to pore over the manifesto - it runs to 86 pages, and it is relatively dense - but the verdict on his speech and Q&A is already in, and it is highly positive. Political journalists and commentators are impressed. This is what they are saying on Twitter.
From the BBC’s Nick Robinson
.@Ed_Miliband delivers speech he should have given at his Party Conference - it addresses Labour's two key weaknesees - the deficit and him
Miliband so buoyant he doesn't want to stop taking questions. He'll be taking questions from Andorran media soon #GE2015
Much better speech today from Miliband than last yr's conference speech. Given today more ppl may be listening, may matter more
Miliband really enjoying himself today. Robust, confident, relaxed. His 'Let-Bartlet-Be-Bartlet' allies will be pleased
This is a good and combative performance by Miliband but answering fiscal credibility 3 weeks before an election is not where you want to be
Ed Miliband oozing confidence at Labour manifesto launch. Knows today is a significant opportunity to speak directly to voters. #GE2015
One of the strongest speeches have heard from Miliband (manifesto launch). Don't much like the slogans but he appears up for the fight..
Miliband's confident performance at manifesto launch is not surprising. He's been close to heart of elections, tax and spend, for 2 decades.
Confident performance from Ed Miliband but as journos asked will voters be convinced on econ credibility? Has he left that pitch too late?
That manifesto launch matched Miliband's better conference speeches. Do more people watch manifesto launches than conference speeches?
Miliband does seem genuinely to be enjoying this. Not many voters watching but will earn a bit of kudos from political corrs.
A free press is "incredibly important" says Ed Miliband, but he only took one question from a national newspaper. Even ignored Mirror.
12.05pm BST
Here is the full text of the speech that Ed Miliband gave at the launch.
12.03pm BST
Miliband ends by thanking the audience for all the support they have shown him.
As he makes clear, he is addressing the Labour activists in the audience, not the journalists (who haven’t generally been particularly supportive).
12.01pm BST
Q: There is no mention of protecting the green belt in the manifesto. Would you protect it?
11.58am BST
Q: What do you want to achieve in an EU renegotiation? And why should other EU leaders make concessions if you are not threatening to leave?
Miliband says we have had a “natural experiment” on this over the last two years. David Cameron tried to block Jean-Claude Juncker. And he lost 26 votes to 2. Why? Because other EU leaders realised he was just interested in solving the problems of the Conservative party. And you know what? Angela Merkel was not elected to solve the problems of the Conservative party.
11.55am BST
Q: Do you agree with a cap on media ownership? And does this, and your pledge to implement Leveson, explain media hostility to you?
Miliband says it is incredibly important that we have a free press, and that they can write what they like about his. “And they certainly have.”
11.53am BST
Q: The IFS says you could meet your targets without any more cuts after 2016. Do you rule out having no further cuts after 2016?
Miliband says he does. There will have to be cuts, he says.
11.50am BST
The Guardian’s Scotland reporter Libby Brooks brings news of a poll showing that the SNP has stretched its lead over Labour, with 52% of voters now backing Sturgeon’s party. However 29% of certain voters have not made up their mind who to plump for.
The SNP has nearly doubled its lead over Labour in Scotland, with more than half of adults who are certain to vote in the general election (52%) saying that they would vote SNP, compared with 24% supporting Labour.
This 28-point lead recorded by TNS is nearly double the figure from last month, when the parties scored 46% and 30% respectively. The Conservatives scored 13% (down 1 percentage point), the Liberal Democrats 6% (up 3) and the Greens 3% (down 1). Support for UKIP in Scotland is almost negligible.
11.50am BST
Q: How are you going to get HMRC to raise an extra £7.5bn from tax avoidance and tax evasion? They have only prosecuted one person in relation to HSBC.
Miliband says he wants a review of the way HMRC works. Small businesses are angry about the way they get pursued aggressively, while big firms are allowed to cut deals with HMRC.
11.47am BST
Q: What will you do to stop the SNP surge in Scotland?
Miliband says the general election is a choice between a Labour and Conservative government. He is proud of the offer he is making to the Scots, and the whole of the UK, on social justice, he says.
11.44am BST
Q: The IFS says your plans are very vague, and do not spell out whether you would have cuts worth £18bn, or nothing at all?
Miliband says there would be cuts in non-protected areas. But it is important to build an economy that works for working people.
11.43am BST
Q: Will you admit that Labour spent too much?
Miliband says Labour should have regulated the banks more tightly. But Labour spending did not cause the crash. David Cameron even backed Labour spending plans. The Tories say the deficit caused the crisis. That’s not true. It is the crash that caused the deficit.
11.41am BST
Asked about Scotland, Miliband repeats the argument used by Ed Balls this morning. (See 9.22am.) Whether or not there would be further cuts in Scotland would depend on other decisions, he says.
11.41am BST
11.40am BST
Miliband says something very interesting happening in British politics.
On Friday the Tories announced a plan to freeze rail fares that would cost £3bn. Then, on Saturday, they announced an unfunded £8bn for the NHS. And that is on top of the tax cuts worth £10bn, again unfunded, that they are proposing. That adds up to unfunded spending commitments worth around £20bn, he says.
With due respect to the Green party, they are making the Green party look fiscally credible.
11.36am BST
Q: Why won’t you say when Labour will get rid of the deficit?
Miliband says it will happen as soon as possible in the next parliament. But it is important to make promises you can keep. He does not want to make the mistake that George Osborne made of setting a date for deficit reduction he could not keep.
11.35am BST
You can read the Labour manifesto here (pdf).
11.35am BST
Ed Miliband is now taking questions.
He starts by saying that it is important to have a media that asks difficult questions. He asks Labour supporters not to jeer the reporters who ask unhelpful questions.
11.31am BST
Miliband ends his speech by saying he has been tested over the last five years. But it is right that he has been tested, he says.
Now it is time to make Britain better.
11.30am BST
Here are more Labour manifesto highlights.
Labour will pause and review the Universal Credit programme
"Labour is renewing our traditions as the party of work family and community. We are also the party of equality. "
"Labour remains committed to a minimum credible independent nuclear capability delivered through a continuous at sea deterrent".
Labour are planning a major overhaul of the rail system. Page 26 of the manifesto pic.twitter.com/HqrcBczVVj
11.25am BST
And here’s an extract from Ed Miliband’s speech that the party has sent out. The full text isn’t available yet.
I am ready, ready to put an end to the tired old idea that as long as we look after the rich and powerful we will all be OK.
Ready to build a country that works for working people once again.
11.22am BST
Labour says there are five new policies in the manifesto. This is how they sum them up in the news release they have just sent out.
Today, we are setting out the detail of that pledge: we will give the Low Pay Commission the clear task of raising the minimum wage to more than £8 by October 2019 – accelerating increases and guaranteeing the NMW increases by at least twice as much as it has under the Tories.
It will mean someone working full time on the National Minimum Wage being £800 a year better off compared to continuing with the rate of rise under the Tories.
Instead of an uncosted Tory plan they have no idea how they will pay for, Labour will deliver a fully funded rail fares freeze for one year, a strict cap on every route for any future fare rises, and a new legal right for passengers will be created to access the cheapest ticket for their journey.
The cost, of just over £200 million, will be fully funded by switching spending within the existing transport budget from delaying road projects on the A27 and A358 for which the economic case is still uncertain.
We will not raise the basic or higher rate of Income Tax, National Insurance or VAT. Nor will we extend VAT to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers or public transport fares. Instead, we will cut taxes for working families by bringing in a lower starting 10p rate of income tax by reversing the Tories’ Marriage Tax Allowance.
Labour will protect tax credits that working families rely upon so they rise in line with inflation from next year, not cut them as the Tories plan.
The Tories have let down working families by scrapping the legal requirement to provide after-school or breakfast clubs and allowing numbers to fall with only half of parents able to find suitable term-time childcare to fit with their working hours. Only 17 local authorities in England able to provide after-school clubs at all primary schools.
Today Labour is announcing a new National Primary Childcare Service, underpinning a legal right to guaranteed access to wrap-around childcare in breakfast or after-school clubs from 8am-6pm.
11.12am BST
Ed Miliband is speaking at the manifesto launch now.
He starts by stressing the fiscal responsibility commitment.
What a contrast with the Conservatives. In recent days you have seen them throwing spending promises around with absolutely no idea where the money is coming from ... You can’t fund the NHS with an IOU and the Conservative party needs to learn that lesson.
11.10am BST
My colleague Patrick Wintour has been tweeting some highlights from the manifesto.
There is a big blue Labour passage - work family community trust mutual obligation common good
Labour believes in rewarding work and contribution to social security so we will not cut tax credits Sent from my iPhone specially for you
Rail fares will be frozen next year a strict fare cap rise will be introduced on every route. Sent from my iPhone specially for you
Freeze energy bills till 2017 ensuring bills can fall not rise Sent from my iPhone specially for you
Labour will protect the principle of media plurality so that no media outlet can get too big Sent from my iPhone specially for you
Labour will ban MPs from holding paid directorships and consultancies Sent from my iPhone specially for you
Public sector operators will be allowed to take on rail lines and challenge private companies on a level playing field
11.07am BST
Labour will protect the principle of media plurality so that no media outlet can get too big Sent from my iPhone specially for you
11.06am BST
At the event Labour is now showing a video of Ed Miliband’s greatest rhetorical hits.
11.06am BST
Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, is the first to speak at the manifesto launch.
The Labour manifesto is rooted in the idea that Britain can do better. It is a contrast to the Conservative party’s negative approach, she says.
11.03am BST
Labour announce that minimum wage will be raised to £8 by October 2019 - faster timetable than previously promised.
11.02am BST
Ed Miliband has been tweeting about the Labour manifesto.
And here is what he says about it on Instagram.
And here it is. Our 2015 election manifesto. The whole thing will be online soon, but here’s a preview of the cover. It’s a simple but powerful idea: Britain succeeds when working people succeed. And it will be at the heart of everything a Labour government will do.
We are a great country, but we can be even better: https://t.co/JAGtr6hwPY pic.twitter.com/sP4L6yh6lv
10.57am BST
Nick Robinson, the BBC’s political editor, is still recovering from his tumour operation, but he has been well enough to write a blog about why manifestos are important. Here’s an excerpt.
Here’s another thing the manifestos tells you - how any party sees its strengths and weaknesses. Every document unveiled this week will be a mix of the three Rs - retail offer, radicalism and reassurance.
It is getting the right balance between those three that gives politicians a headache.
10.51am BST
The Tories have parked no less than SIX Sturgeon/Salmond vans outside the Labour manifesto launch. pic.twitter.com/BpIpu0R0Ns
10.51am BST
There are broadly five new policies in the Labour manifesto - mainly in field of labour market.
10.47am BST
Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, has also commented on the Ed Balls interview (see 9.22am), my colleague Libby Brooks reports. Sturgeon said:
Labour are offering more cuts. We heard Ed Balls on the radio this morning directly contradicting Jim Murphy about cuts in Scotland. I think that’s the wrong choice. Yes, we need to get the deficit down but we also need investment in economic growth, to protect our public services and help people out of poverty. There is a clear alternative to austerity with the SNP.
.@NicolaSturgeon: if Labour in gov't is left to own devices there will be more cuts for Scotland #GE2015 pic.twitter.com/3ilztqkoTH
10.43am BST
Helen Pidd has sent more from the campaign trail in Bradford West, where one of George Galloway’s supporters has been accused of assaulting a Ukip candidate.
Police are always busy in Bradford during election time. After hustings in the cathedral on Sunday night, a Ukip parliamentary candidate claims he was assaulted by one of George Galloway’s supporters.
Owais Rajput, who is contesting Bradford East for Ukip, said he was verbally and physically assaulted by Amar Rafiq, who attended Galloway’s wedding the day after his spectacular byelection win in Bradford West in 2012.
According to Boota, Rafiq then “grabbed Owais by the shoulders and pushed him as if to say, ‘get out’.” Rajput was “very shaken”, he added.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire police confirmed the force had received a complaint. He said: “We are investigating a report of an assault which allegedly took place following an event at Bradford Cathedral on Sunday evening.”
10.42am BST
Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, and Caroline Lucas, who is seeking re-election as the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, have launched the Greens’ national poster campaign in Brighton.
Bennett said:
More people than ever will have a chance to vote Green at this election. Our message is clear: don’t vote for second best, vote for what you believe in.
A Green vote at this election is one for an economy that works for everyone – where multinational companies and rich individuals pay their fair share and wages are enough to build a life on. It’s a vote for an NHS which is run for all of us- not for private profit. And it’s a vote for real action on climate change.
In #Brighton with @natalieben and @CarolineLucas for the launch of our billboards #votegreen2015 #teamcaroline pic.twitter.com/CuZZAMECKu
10.36am BST
In Manchester it looks as if the journalists have finally been brought in from the cold.
Labour getting ready for manifesto launch in Manchester as SNP stretch lead pic.twitter.com/dQzs2oHt6F
10.32am BST
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, says Labour claiming to be giving up borrowing is like an alcoholic claiming to be giving up vodka.
Miliband's claim that Labour won't borrow more is like an alcoholic saying they'll give up vodka, says Clegg. pic.twitter.com/P2XiAmhlyp
10.29am BST
John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, is claiming that Ed Balls’ Today interview (see 9.22am) has “blown a massive hole” in Labour’s campaign in Scotland. He put out this statement:
For the last week, Jim Murphy has been ducking and diving trying to hide his party’s cuts plans – now Ed Balls has shone a light on Labour’s true intentions and blown a massive hole in his own party’s campaign.
Despite Jim Murphy’s attempts, nothing can hide the fact that earlier this year Labour trooped through the lobbies with the Tories to vote for another £30bn in cuts that we simply can’t afford – and Ed Balls’ comments today have destroyed Mr Murphy’s anti-cuts pretence once and for all.
Nationalists want measures guaranteeing prompt payment to small businesses to be put into law, along with the early devolution of control over air passenger duty (APD) to Scotland, in a bid to boost tourism.
They would also press for the HS2 high-speed rail line to connect with Scotland, and for more investment in the expansion of high-speed broadband technology.
10.19am BST
The Conservatives are in action at the Labour launch too. They’ve got their “Ed Miliband in the pocket of the SNP” poster vans out.
10.18am BST
More evidence of unhappy journos at the Labour launch.
Incredible scenes. A group of about six journalists, including me, have been locked out of the manifesto launch. pic.twitter.com/GJLy4qPo81
The security guard didn't have a complete list of accredited journalists and just panicked and locked the gate.
The situation is: Labour told us to come to this gate, but the staff only know of one entrance and it's not this. Now there is panic.
"Sometimes we're just at the mercy of the venues," says a Labour staffer trying to diffuse the situation. It's getting quite cold now.
10.11am BST
This explains why Ed Balls has been banging on about Coronation Street. (See 10.10am.)
The shadow cabinet arriving for the Labour Manifesto launch -- at the studios where Coronation St was once filmed. pic.twitter.com/qPVl7Q3GyW
Labour certainly know how to treat journalists. At their manifesto launch we've been told to wait here. It's freezing pic.twitter.com/OPIoyX5HR5
10.10am BST
10.10am BST
Ed Balls has been giving further interviews, and revealing his TV viewing secrets too.
Off camera @edballsmp displays a frightening amount of Corrie knowledge and reveals family dog used to howl at theme tune ! #hound news
10.08am BST
Labour manifesto mainly written by Marc Stears, Miliband's speechwriter, and Cruddas aide Jonathan Rutherford. http://t.co/r5mwpXBJSE
10.06am BST
What do the real voters think? We have 60 in five key seats giving their view throughout the campaign as part of our polling project with BritainThinks. They each have an app and are telling us their reaction to issues and policy announcements as they crop up.
9.58am BST
Labour aide says to expect policy announcement on "improving family finances" at manifesto launch http://t.co/r5mwpXBJSE
9.56am BST
In response to Ed Balls’ interviews, the Conservatives are saying that Labour’s plan to balance the budget only for day-to-day spending, and to not include investment spending in this pledge, means borrowing will continue to rise under Ed Miliband.
Do Labour think public will forget a record deficit and five years of opposing every saving we've made just because of a last minute stunt?
Desperate last minute claim of fiscal responsibility shows just how much ground labour know they need to make up on the economy
Whatever they say on the morning of their manifesto, Labour's plan is for higher taxes, higher borrowing and more debt #sameoldlabour
Paul Johnson, IFS: Labour 'don’t want to get rid of the deficit... They would be happy with a deficit of £25bn to £30bn' (Marr, 29/03/15).
9.49am BST
According to Newsnight’s Allegra Stratton, the Labour’s manifesto front page was a last-minute addition.
Am told that fiscal charter / responsibility front page was added to the Labour manifesto last Friday. Late overhaul, acc to some sources
Every one of the policies in our manifesto is paid for: Here's the first page of the Manifesto we launch tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/1ylWIiGMHE
Our manifesto is a plan to reward hard work, share prosperity and build a better Britain (and says so on the cover) pic.twitter.com/CSaJTBlFzh
9.38am BST
The Liberal Democrat campaign bus has just arrived in Maidstone and the Weald, which the party has named today as a target seat.
9.22am BST
Interviews about spending plans are rarely described as “gripping”, but that is the phrase Robert Peston, the BBC’s economics editor, used this morning after listening to Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor.
Gripping that @edballsmp refusing to match @George_Osborne unfunded pledge to spend £8bn more on NHS
I think this goes to the heart of trust in politics and the election choice. You had George Osborne yesterday asked 18 times by Andrew Marr where he would find the £8bn from and he couldn’t say ... I’m not going to treat the British people with the contempt that I think the Conservative party did this weekend.
We will have cuts in our non-protected areas, outside health and education, as part of getting the deficit down, alongside tax increases for people on the highest incomes, the top rate going up to 50p. Those spending cuts are, of course, UK wide. But what we’re going to do is have sensible spending cuts outside [protected] areas.
Yes, there will be cuts outside [protected] areas across all these budgets which will apply in England and in Scotland. But alongside that in our manifesto today we are also setting out ways in which, financed by tax changes, for example the mansion tax for the national health service, we can increase spending on our priorities. That will deliver, in 2015-16, £800m extra for Scotland, because that is their share of that money which is going for the bank bonus tax, for youth jobs, for more childcare, or for the NHS. Whether or not the overall Scottish budget is cut depends upon whether or not that £800m which is financed and extra is more than or less than our [unprotected] cuts. And that will depend on the scale of the [unprotected] cuts.
I can’t say to Scotland that you are going to be exempt from spending cuts in the unprotected areas. But they are sensible and they are absolutely in marked contrast to what the Tories are proposing, because they want to have double the spending cuts next year, and also the SNP, because what we exposed last week is the SNP both won’t match our manifesto pledges, but also their fiscal autonomy within the UK is actually fiscal austerity. It would mean a massive cut to spending in Scotland.
If I roll up and say ‘£8bn, I’m not going to tell you where the money is going to come from’, that would be irresponsible and that is what the Tories did this weekend. I’ll save the NHS but I’m not going to make promises until we can show where the money is going to come from.
9.01am BST
The Guardian’s northern editor Helen Pidd has spent much of her time in Bradford over the last week covering the deeply divisive race in Bradford West, where the Respect party leader George Galloway took the seat from Labour in a 2012 by-election.
Could George Galloway hold Bradford West? He has lost many young activists but retains significant support. My report http://t.co/H5cOVaHf7K
(To those who assume Galloway is a busted flush because of stuff on here, remember Twitter is not representative, and is not Bradford West)
Also: Galloway may win not just because he's him, but because Labour is a mess in Bradford West. Cllrs not properly supporting Naz Shah.
8.41am BST
Here are today’s YouGov GB polling figures.
Update: Lab lead at 3 - Latest YouGov/The Sun results 12th April - Con 33%, Lab 36%, LD 7%, UKIP 13%, GRN 5%; APP -14 http://t.co/NT2ThDolq9
8.22am BST
Q: Labour candidates would expect you to say you can find the £8bn.
Balls says it is not that easy. There is a deficit of £90bn.
8.20am BST
Q: Would you find the extra £8bn for the NHS?
Balls says he is determined to find the money. Labour founded the NHS. It will protect it. But he will not announce spending plans that are unfunded.
8.17am BST
Q: Do you plan any cuts?
Yes, says Balls. He lists a string of proposed cuts.
8.13am BST
Justin Webb is interviewing Ed Balls.
Q: When do you intend to get rid of the deficit?
8.08am BST
Good morning. I’m taking over now.
I’ll save the NHS but I’m not going to make promises until we can show where the money will come from – that’s the irresponsible approach. It’s actually become the George Osborne approach...
I want, consistent with getting the deficit down, to do more for the NHS. But if I roll up and say ‘£8bn, I’m not going to tell you where the money is going to come from,’ that would be irresponsible and that is what the Tories did this weekend.
7.54am BST
My colleague Damien Gayle watched Ed Balls’s appearance on BBC Breakfast earlier, and has filed this report of his strongest comments – including another rebuttal that Labour caused the global financial crisis:
“We have got to get the deficit down but we have also got to show in this manifesto that everything is paid for,” Balls said.
“We are only spending money where we can identify where it’s going to come from,” he added.
7.49am BST
Holmes introduces Martin, a coalminer’s son from Nottingham, who asks Balls why so many working class “lads” feel abandoned by the party?
Balls says it’s the Tories who will raise VAT again, that he doesn’t understand why he thinks the Tories wouldn’t clobber the working classes - Labour’s mansion tax will only apply to those with homes worth £2m.
7.43am BST
Ed Balls is being interviewed by Eamon Holmes.
Q: Are you requiring big leap of faith from voters?
7.40am BST
Meanwhile, Libby Brooks has also filed this about anti-nuclear protesters who are trying to temporarily close down the Clydeside home of the UK’s nuclear submarines.
Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters are risking arrest this morning as they attempt to close down the Faslane near Helensburgh for the day. The Scrap Trident blockade is being organised by a coalition of 15 peace, political and pro-independence groups and follows last Saturday’s rally in Glasgow’s George Square, where up to 4,000 demonstrators were addressed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon Green party co-convenor Patrick Harvie is expected to attend to protest alongside local SNP MSPs.
Organisers welcomed yesterday’s letter from Roman Catholic bishops in Scotland to their parishioners urging them to use their vote in May’s general election and warning them that “nuclear weapons represent a grave threat to the human family”.
All the Faslane gates are now blocked. #scraptrident pic.twitter.com/V5jXsurfNv
7.28am BST
The Scottish Labour leader will this morning use a campaign event in Glenrothes, Fife, to say that the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy will cost £1,400 for every man, woman and child in Scotland. The figure is arrived at by divided the £7.6bn projected by the IFS as the shortfall that would result next year from Scotland taking control of tax and spending by the population of Scotland.
After yesterday’s chaotic BBC Scotland leaders’ debate, in which Murphy accused Nicola Sturgeon of making up economic policy “as she goes along”, he is expected to say: “The choice at this election couldn’t be clearer - investment in the future of young Scots, and an end to austerity with Scottish Labour, or losing £1,400 per person for our schools and hospitals with Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for full fiscal autonomy.
7.23am BST
Here’s a roundup of what the Twitter commentariat are saying this morning:
Today Labour, tomorrow the Conservatives, launch the first draft of their coalition negotiation demands.
On the train to Manchester for the launch of Labour's election manifesto. What shall I ask Ed Miliband? #GE2015 pic.twitter.com/ASz9tgY3oL
A 6.1% CON to LAB swing in England and Wales as in today's YouGov, would on a theoretical uniform swing see 77 LAB gains from CON
Ed Balls accuses Conservatives of "doctoring" the tape in which he says scrapping non dom rules might mean lower tax take
Miliband & Cameron should swap parties if Labour's developed an austerity fetish while the Cons spend like Viv Nicholson
7.14am BST
Ed Balls is doing the rounds on the morning breakfast shows, softening the ground before Labour’s manifesto launch in Manchester at 11am. We’ll bring you a summary of what he says, but he is likely to hammer home how the first line of the manifesto pledges to make no unfunded spending commitments. The first line.
7.03am BST
Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s election live blog, with – only! – 24 days of campaigning left to go, can you believe it? We are bringing you live coverage every day from 7am till late, kicking off with our all-you-need-to-know morning briefing, designed for those hardened politicos who nonetheless like to get the occasional night’s sleep. Let us get inky fingers as we flick through the morning papers and trawl the political websites, so you don’t have to.
Delighted that @UKLabour’s manifesto launch is in Manchester today! (Here’s the front cover) pic.twitter.com/zffQI3SDgC
Labour believes that the chancellor, who failed on nearly 20 occasions on Sunday to explain how the Tories would fund a commitment to provide an extra £8bn a year to the NHS by 2020, is tripping up by making unfunded commitments. Labour also points out the Tories have failed to explain how they will deliver £12bn of welfare cuts, which account for nearly half of the planned £30bn fiscal consolidation in the next parliament.
Labour’s polling shows swing voters want to hear this Labou