Summary

  • Job figures show that UK unemployment has fallen to its lowest rate since July 2008

  • Labour unveils its Scottish manifesto in Glasgow

  • Conservative leader David Cameron is campaigning in the Midlands and in Wales, with a speech on jobs

  • Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is in Scotland, where he will be urging Conservative and Labour voters to vote Lib Dem to defeat the SNP

  • There are 20 days until the general election

Live Reporting

Tim Fenton and Andy McFarlane

  1. Murphy: I'm concentrating on the Tories

    Jim MurphyPA

    Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has said Labour is fighting to beat David Cameron at the ballot box rather than concerned with doing a "shoddy back room deal" with the Scottish Nationalists (SNP).

    He said: "Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond and all the others can huff and puff as much as they want. Only Labour is big enough and only Labour is strong enough to beat the Tories."

    Mr Murphy hailed the party's manifesto as a return to the politics of two of Scottish Labour's best known leaders, John Smith and Donald Dewar.

    He told activists at Tollcross leisure centre in Glasgow: "In our manifesto I'm proud to say the party of John Smith and Donald Dewar is back in business."

  2. Is the SNP a 'faith-based' party?

    Alex Massie, columnist, the Spectator

    The Spectator

    Politics is often a low and scurrilous business but there is something breathtaking about a party arguing, in all apparent seriousness, that you could, as some kind of consolation prize for losing the referendum, have full fiscal autonomy within the UK while also maintaining the Barnett Formula."

    Read the full piece here.

  3. Carole Walker, BBC political correspondent

    @carolewalkercw

    tweets:

    Cameron is back in campaign uniform - hi viz and hard hat

    David Cameron visiting a building site - 17 April 2015Twitter

  4. 'Borris' out on the road

    Boris Johnson visits a mosque in West Acton, London - 17 April 2015PA

    Political blogger Iain Dale described Boris Johnson as the "the Scarlet Pimpernel of this election campaign" and said he had been "more or less invisible" - but London's mayor has been out on the road today.

    He visited a mosque in West Acton, London, earlier and then spoke to workers at a nearby sign-making company. But despite being one of the country's best known politicians, the sign writers weren't sure of his name.

    Richard Wheeler, a journalist at Press Association, caught the moment on film.

    Boris Johnson meets workers at a sign company in West Acton, London - 17 April 2015PA

  5. Undecideds should vote Conservative

    Record falls in unemployment. Major rises in pay. Both announced today. We need to get fully behind the Tories so that we can all enjoy the fruits of the slog of the last five years.

    We also need to thank the Tories for spending five years clearing up Labour’s latest mess. We absolutely do not need Labour back in power to start mucking it all up again.

    Stephen Dresc, Politics live reader

  6. Labour view

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    For Labour, shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said Mr Duncan Smith had his "head in the sand".

    Chuka UmunnaChuka Umunna

    People on exploitative zero hours contracts are furious with him and that's before you get over their outrage at his introduction of things like the bedroom tax. I just think he is living in a parallel universe. If zero hours contracts are not a problem why did the prime minister the other day say that he wouldn't want to work on one. Instead of tackling exploitation, here you have a man denying the problem and trying to dress up insecurity as flexibility."

  7. Zero hours?

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Iain Duncan Smith hit back at his critics on Radio 4's World at One, pointing to a survey carried out by personnel managers which found people on zero hours contracts scored higher on the work life balance than those on fixed hours.

    I am furious with the Labour Party. I am genuinely furious with what they have tried to do about this. They've said 'Oh, there's an epidemic of people' - just over 2% of the total workforce is actually in what they call zero hours contracts. These contracts are for the most part contracts taken by people who have caring responsibilities, students, who might be able to work 20 hours one week, the next week, because you're taking somebody to hospital, you can only work 10 hours."

  8. World class?

    Kayne West and Taylor SwiftGetty Images

    Time Magazine has released its annual list of the Top 100 most influential people in the world. it's a list that includes world leaders, entrepreneurs, religious leaders, stars of stage and screen,artists... but not a single British politician among them.

    India Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes the list, German Chancellor Angel Merkel makes the cut, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is there. And Vladimir Putin is included...

    Even North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is listed.

    But not a sniff for David Cameron, Nick Clegg or Ed Miliband.

    Reality star Kim Kardashian and her husband Kayne West - and for that matter, pop star Taylor Swift - make the list.

    In fact, Kanye comes top.

    Hmm.

  9. Matt Chorley, Political Editor for @MailOnline

    @MattChorley

    tweets:

    Duncan Smith accused of 'let them eat cake' moment after suggesting zero-hours contracts be renamed http://dailym.ai/1DdwOWw

  10. Undecided 'should vote Labour'

    It does seem extraordinary that the economy has somehow taken second place in this election but it has.

    The battleground is now the future governance of the UK. Conservative strategists seem to feel that they can finally get traction for their anti-Miliband line by warning of chaos with a Labour-SNP arrangement.

    They are right to the extent that the solution to the crisis is a government that is truly national in scope. However their pitch falls down completely because they are no longer a national party.

    It is true that Labour is also losing its claim to be a national party but it is the only one we have left.

    I would say to people who worry about Labour on the economic competence point that they need to shrug their shoulders and take a calculated risk because only Labour has a chance to form a majority government that is also representative of all of Britain.

    A slender Conservative majority or even worse a Conservative minority government will only hasten the break-up of Britain and I don't just mean Scotland leaving the union. The north of England won't take much more either and will press for radical federalism.

    I think it is time for people to come together.

    Jon Sutcliffe, from Enfield in London

  11. Chris Mason, BBC political correspondent

    ‏@ChrisMasonBBC

    tweets:

    In the last five weeks over 1.5million people have made online applications to register.

  12. Pic: on the campaign trail

    Lib Dem campaigning in GordonPA

    Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and the parliamentary candidate for Gordon, Christine Jardine, look at cattle in pens at a livestock auctioneers

  13. Pic: Labour supporter Eddie Izzard on the campaign trail

    Labour Party supporter Eddie Izzard campaigning in Chester - 17 April 2015AP

  14. Homes and immigration

    In a question about immigration and homes, Natalie Bennett is asked about the Green pledge to build 500,000 homes. Those would be for social housing, she says.

    Then on immigration. "We first of all celebrate free movement of people in the EU," she says.

    "In terms of non-EU immigration, we need a fair and humane system," she says. At the moment, that system is not fair or humane, she says.

  15. Rob Merrick, Reporter for @TheNorthernEcho

    @Rob_Merrick

    tweets:

    IDS tries to shut down row over cutting child benefit (by including in Universal Credit) "I have not looked at that and am not planning to"

  16. Green opposition to HS2

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Natalie Bennett explains her party's opposition to HS2, the high-speed rail link.

    She says the scheme is a London-centric plan. "We want to invest in intra-regional transport," she says. "HS2 is going to focus everything in London."

  17. Green leader

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green party since 2012, is on Radio 4's World at One now - and is being asked questions by members of the public.

    Natalie BennettAFP

  18. Job figures in Scotland

    Unemployment in Scotland rose by 9,000 in the three months to February and now stands at 167,000, according to official statistics.

    It was the second rise in a row, following an increase of 6,000 in the previous set of figures.

    Data from the Office for National Statistics also showed UK unemployment falling by 76,000 to 1.84 million.

    The unemployment rate in Scotland is now 6%, compared with 5.6% for the UK as a whole.

  19. Jack Blanchard, Deputy Political Editor, Daily Mirror

    @Jack_Blanchard_

    tweets :

    TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady on IDS's plan to rebrand zero-hours contracts: "If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig."