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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Election 2015 live: Miliband's pledges stone marks 'Sheffield rally' moment for Labour, says Osborne

Ed Miliband unveils Labour’s pledges carved into a stone plinth in Hastings
Ed Miliband unveils Labour’s pledges carved into a stone plinth in Hastings Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Afternoon summary - and #EdStone analysis

There used to be a time when politicians just made promises, and expected people to believe them. Then, as public scepticism grew, Tony Blair developed a new strategy to persuade people he was sincere; he wrote his commitments out by hand. (He did this during the referendum on the Good Friday agreement, and with part of Labour’s 1997 manifesto too, I recall, and other politicians have tried the same trick, most recently in the Scottish independence referendum.) Later Labour developed another ploy; passing legislation committing it to doing something it said it would do anyway (eg, reducing child poverty.)

Now Ed Miliband has gone one step further: not content with affirming promises by hand, or by statute, he has hired a stonemason to carve them into a block of granite (or whatever it is).

At this stage of the election campaign we all need a bit of a laugh, and #EdStone has certainly provided some welcome entertainment. And some of the mockery is undoubtedly deserved. Announcing that this slab is heading for the Downing Street garden was probably a mistake, and, as John Rentoul argues, it would be easier to admire the pledges stone if some of the promises weren’t so vague.

Still, to his credit, Miliband is trying something imaginative to tackle the problem of trust.

Is this Labour’s “Sheffield rally moment”, as George Osborne suggests? (See 12.45pm.) Almost certainly not. (The psephologists argue that even the Sheffield rally wasn’t really a Sheffield rally moment.) David Cameron argued that the move cast doubt on Ed Miliband’s judgement but, if it was silly, it was certainly no sillier than last week’s tax lock law proposal from the Tories.

Here are the key developments from today.

  • Cameron has said that Miliband’s decision to commission a pledges “tombstone” for the Number 10 garden casts doubt on his judgment.
  • Cameron has urged potential Ukip or Lib Dem supporters who want him as prime minister to vote Conservative. In a speech he said:

If you have got a view on who you would prefer as your prime minister express it at the ballot box. The outcome will not be decided any other way. Do not risk voting for another party and hoping that is the outcome. If you want your preferred prime minister get out there and vote for it.

  • Labour has highlighted the Tories and Lib Dems’ refusal to rule out raising tuition fees, and repeated its pledge to cut them to £6,000. The SNP has also said it would vote with Labour on this. (See 4.17pm.)

That’s all from me.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

As I reported this morning, some press reports suggest David Cameron is planning to assert his right to remain as prime minister if the Conservatives win most seats, even if he does not have a majority. (See 9.10am.)

The Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe has a good take on this.

(If you’re interested in this topic, Adam Ramsay’s blog for Our Kingdom on the subject from last month is essential reading.)

Press coverage of Labour getting more negative, research shows

It’s official. Negative press coverage of Labour and Ed Miliband is “intensifying”. That’s the conclusion from the latest analysis of election coverage from Loughborough University’s Communications Research Centre.

Here’s a chart illustrating the analysis.

This shows the positivity/negativity of press coverage, with scores weighted to reflect newspapers’ circulation.

The blue line represents the Tories, who are the only party getting consistently positive coverage.

Red is Labour, yellow Lib Dem, orange SNP, and purple Ukip.

Positive/negative press coverage chart
Positive/negative press coverage chart Photograph: Loughborough University

https://twitter.com/LabourBIS/status/594781818320199680

Natalie Bennett, the Green leader, told Sky this morning that the Greens want a “people’s convention” to redraw the constitution, including restricting the Queen to a purely ceremonial role.

This is what she said about the need for a convention.

First-past-the-post is going to be the certain loser from this election. We are calling for a people’s constitutional convention. Westminster hasn’t been reformed significantly since women got the vote in 1918. It’s past time that we started again and redrew our constitution for the 21st century.

And this is what she said about the Queen.

In the Green party, we believe that the hereditary principle should have no place in our constitution. We want to have an elected House of Lords as well as proportional representation in both the lower House and the upper House. That is the kind of constitutional reform we are focused on.

In terms of the Royal Family, Sweden in 1975 kept the ceremonial aspects but removed the constitutional aspects. That’s the kind of angle we would be looking at.

Natalie Bennett with Bristol West Green party candidate Darren Hall yesterday
Natalie Bennett with Bristol West Green party candidate Darren Hall yesterday Photograph: Redorbital ./Demotix/Corbis

You may be feeling as if you’ve had enough of the election, but some people aren’t even sure what the main party leaders look like.

SNP says it would vote with Labour to cut tuition fees

Stewart Hosie, the SNP deputy leader, has put out a statement saying the SNP would vote with Labour to cut tuition fees.

The SNP is absolutely clear that we will work with Labour and support the reduction of tuition fees for students south of the border – giving more young people the chance to go to university and boosting Scotland’s education budget in the process.

Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems all have an absolutely appalling track record when it comes to tuition fees – and a strong team of SNP MPs will hold Ed Miliband to his promise to students in the rest of the UK.

This is just one example of the progressive influence the SNP can have at Westminster – and demonstrates exactly how we can help deliver policies for the benefit of people right across the UK.

James O’Shaughnessy, David Cameron’s former head of policy, has responded to Nick Clegg’s attack on him on the Andrew Marr show this morning. (See 10.48am.)

He is using the Mandy Rice-Davies line (ie, accusing Clegg of not telling the truth).

CCHQ have mocked up their own version of the #EdStone.

Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, says Labour would require planning permission to put the stone in the Number 10 garden.

And this tweet is doing well, judging by retweets.

Cameron says he will not form a government if he can't have an EU referendum

Last week Ed Miliband said he would rather give up his chance of becoming prime minister than strike a deal with the SNP.

In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson, David Cameron has made a similar declaration; he would rather give up his chance of becoming prime minister than abandon his commitment to an in/out referendum on the EU, he said.

What I am saying is that people would worry that were we to fall short - and I don’t believe we will - this [the referendum] is something that could be bargained away and I want to be absolutely clear with people that that will not happen … Come what may, I will not be PM of a government that does not deliver that referendum.

David Cameron poses for a photograph with a member of the public as he arrives to watch the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race pass through Addingham near Ilkley
David Cameron poses for a photograph with a member of the public as he arrives to watch the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race pass through Addingham near Ilkley Photograph: Jon Super/AP

Damian McBride, Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor, used to brief against his enemies in the Labour party (well, Brown’s enemies) in secret.

Now he does it on Twitter. Here’s his take on the #EdStone.

UPDATE: And here’s the BBC’s Ross Hawkins on the subject.

Updated

Financial crisis not caused by Labour over-spending, says top Treasury official

Sir Nicholas Macpherson, the permanent secretary to the Treasury, has argued that the 2008 financial crisis was “a banking crisis pure and simple”, contradicting Conservative claims that it was caused by Labour over-spending, Patrick Wintour reports.

[Macpherson’s] surprising remarks come after Ed Miliband came under pressure on a leader’s question time debate last week that Labour government had overspent, a view strengthened by the notorious letter left by the former Liam Byrne treasury chief secretary to his successor saying there is “no money left”.

In a largely challenging review of Mr Osborne’s Economic Experiment, a book by William Keegan, the Observer economics columnist, Macpherson wrote “some of Keegan’s book resonates. The 2008 crisis was a banking crisis pure and simple. Excessive risk had built up in the system; the regulators failed to appreciate the scale of that risk or to address it.

“As he puts it, it was ‘a failure of the Group of Seven economic policymaking establishment’, myself included. Inevitably, countries with bigger banking sectors, notably the UK, were worse affected.”

The SNP has released figures from a Survation poll showing that 63% people in Scotland agree that electing more SNP MPs will mean that Scotland’s interests at better represented at Westminster, compared to only 16% who believe they would be worse represented.

That’s a fairly leading question, but, there again, the poll was actually commissioned by the SNP.

On the World this Weekend Mark Reckless, the former Tory who is seeking re-election as a Ukip MP, said he would not be surprised if Labour and the Conservatives joined forces on some occasions after the election.

I think that is what will happen. If there is a Labour minority government, I think the SNP will back it in confidence votes but beyond that, to get business through parliament, I think the Labour party in minority would look, if needed, to the Conservatives for things where the SNP wouldn’t support it. We saw with Michael Fallon, he was making out that it would be uncertain up until the 10 o’clock vote whether Conservative MPs would vote to renew Trident if Labour needed their support, and I think that’s ludicrous.

I think Conservative MPs would come to sensible arrangements to try and get budgets and supply through. The alternative would be threatening an American-style sort of shut-down and I don’t think they’re likely to do that.

In those circumstances it would be up to Ukip to provide the opposition and serve as “the voice of the common-sense English majority”, he said.

On Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics this morning, George Osborne, the chancellor, said he did not accept claims that his policies lacked compassion.

I just reject the prism that says if you are taking the decisions that are creating an economy where jobs are going to be created that that somehow is uncompassionate. I would say quite the reverse. I would say if you are creating a country where businesses can grow, jobs are being created - that is progressive politics, that is delivering for the hard working people of this country, that is delivering for the poorest in our country who have been put out of work.

Simon Blackwell, producer of The Thick of It, has posted this about #EdStone on Twitter.

In his Q&A Ed Miliband said he would not hold allow a second Scottish independence referendum to be held. “I’m not going to have another referendum on this,” he said.

He also defended Ed Balls after he was criticised by a member of the audience. Miliband said:

Ed Balls is an incredibly capable person. He has the capability and the capacity to do the job. He’s a trained economist ... He’s somebody who is tough as well. So, I think he is somebody who should persuade you to vote for our party.

Ed Miliband at a People’s Question Time event in Worcester.
Ed Miliband at a People’s Question Time event in Worcester. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

In the Q&A after his speech in Nuneaton David Cameron rejected claims that he had not engaged enough with the public during the campaign.

I think we have taken our message to the country in all sorts of different ways. In Wetherby last week I did a sort of open air speech to members of the public as well as supporters. My opponent has not done that. I have done walkabouts, in places like Alnwick, met people randomly in the streets - my opponent has not done that. I have been in factories with audiences, sometimes Conservative voters, sometimes undecided voters, sometimes people who would not dream of voting Conservative. I have done it rolled up shirt sleeves, out there in front of people. I have done it sometimes with a lectern in front of me. My opponent seems to have a lectern wherever he goes.

(Quite why the Tories are so obsessed with the Ed Miliband’ lectern remains a bit of mystery.)

David Cameron speaking at the Ambleside Sports Club in Nuneaton
David Cameron speaking at the Ambleside Sports Club in Nuneaton Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Speaking on the Lib Dem battle bus, a party spokesperson has commented on the news that David Cameron has pulled out of tomorrow’s Citizens UK event:

It’s very disappointing that David Cameron has chosen to pull out of such an important event that was hugely successful in 2010 and will, no doubt, be hugely successful tomorrow night. Nick is very much looking forward to it.

They said the party was “chiseling out” a response to Ed Miliband’s pledge stone: “It will be a mili-stone round his neck, mark my words.”

David Cameron meeting members of the public before his speech at the Ambleside Sports Club in Nuneaton
David Cameron meeting members of the public before his speech at the Ambleside Sports Club in Nuneaton Photograph: Tim Ireland/AFP/Getty Images

Even Paddy Ashdown is getting involved in #EdStone.

Farage performs U-turn and says BBC should keep Strictly and Dr Who after all

We’ve got a Ukip U-turn. On the Andrew Marr show this morning Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, suggested the BBC should give up showing programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who. (See 10.56am.) “I don’t think [the BBC] needs to do entertainment,” he said. When Andrew Marr put it to him that he would “exterminate the Doctor”, Farage replied:

We now have lots of commercial channels out there. We have cable television. The BBC does not need to be doing all of these things.

But now Farage has put out a statement saying that, when Ukip sweeps to power, the Doctor and Strictly are safe. Although he still thinks the BBC is making too many entertainment programmes, the “jewels” should remain, he said.

When it comes to entertainment, the BBC should be proud of its ‘crown jewels’ such as Strictly Come Dancing and dramas such as Dr Who. They have become valuable global brands as well as programmes hugely appreciated by British audiences. Should the BBC feel it has to come up with its own version of every commercial TV genre, from dating formats to home makeover shows? I don’t think so.

But he does not like Newsnight. This is what Farage’s statement said about BBC news and current affairs.

When it comes to political bias, it is obvious to most people that the metropolitan and establishment backgrounds of so many of its journalists is a problem.

For instance, Newsnight has become little more than a televised version of the Guardian, with its journalists moving to and fro between it and Channel Four News at frequent intervals. I think it is time for Newsnight to be put out to grass and a new flagship current affairs and news analysis programme to replace it.

Speaking after a Liberal Democrat rally in Bermondsey, where justice minister Simon Hughes is campaigning to remain MP, Nick Clegg was asked why a referendum on the EU was not one of the party’s six red lines:

How the parties interact with each other and whether the red lines are compatible or not with each other is entirely dependent on the mandate that is given to each political party in the ballot box on Thursday.

Pushed on whether that meant the Lib Dems would allow the Tories to go ahead with their plans to hold a referendum on EU membership in a possible future coalition, the deputy prime minister said:

Of course we will argue for all the things that are in our manifesto. I accept - I am a grown up politician - that if no one wins outright there is give and take about what is finally included in a coalition government agreement. I couldn’t have been clearer about the things I won’t compromise on and beyond that it is really up to the British people to tell the politicians what kind of mandate they have to insist on their red lines.

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, suggests that one of Ed Miliband’s Scottish colleagues could be behind the pledges stone idea.

Cameron pulls out of Citizens UK event

The BBC’s Ross Hawkins says David Cameron has pulled out of a Citizens UK event tomorrow.

Lucy Powell, Labour’s election campaign vice chair, has issued this statement.

David Cameron is ducking the last chance before polling day for people to see the main party leaders go head-to-head. Just as he did when he dodged a TV debate with Ed Miliband, David Cameron is showing that he can’t defend his record. He has nothing to offer working people.

But, given Cameron’s record during the campaign, this decision isn’t a huge surprise. Cameron won’t even take part in Election Call.

Citizens UK, a social justice organisation that has played a leading role in campaigning for the living wage, is probably not a place where Cameron would get a particularly sympathetic hearing.

Cameron did event the Citizens UK election rally in 2010, but his speech was overshadowed by Gordon Brown’s, which was widely seen as the most inspiring of the campaign.

Nicola Sturgeon on a carousel in Lanarkshire today.
Nicola Sturgeon on a carousel in Lanarkshire today. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian

As the rain pours down in biblical style across Scotland today, Nicola Sturgeon brought sunshine to photographers when she rode on a carousel during a visit to a children’s theme park in Motherwell, Lanarkshire. As you can tell, I’m too tired for metaphors this morning, so I asked Twitter to supply their own: relaxed and enjoying the ride, running rings around Scottish Labour were firm favourites.

Sturgeon told waiting broadcasters that she was looking forward to putting across the SNP’s “simple message” at the Scottish leaders’ final televised debate tonight in Edinburgh, and added that Labour increasingly sounded like they were “in denial” about the outcome of the general election.

Nothing new from Sturgeon herself then, and that’s only to be expected in the final days of campaigning when the core messages about Scotland’s voice being heard at Westminster, a nation coming together to fight austerity, are hammered home again and again.

I had a chat with folk in the crowd, because Lib Dems in Inverness were mumbling to me yesterday about SNP crowds being “bussed in”. There were some who had come as part of the local candidates’ entourage but I found that the majority were on a Sunday morning out with the we’ans and rather surprised and impressed to see the SNP leader attempting to make candy floss.

Natalie Penicuik, a call centre worker, told me that people had started recognising her Scottish accent when she phones them up and asking her about the election. “I’ve noticed it much more since last September. People ask you how you voted in the referendum too.”

Updated

Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, told Sky that any Lib Dems ruling out coalition with the Tories would not be “respecting the democratic will of the country” if David Cameron led the largest party.

On the Sunday Politics show Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, accused Ed Miliband of behaving like “Moses” because of his pledges stone. Johnson said:

I have to say I think it’s absolutely crazy you’ve already got the Labour leader commissioning great stones that are going to be engraved like the commandments of Moses or Hammurabi or something with what he wants to do.

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, told the Murnaghan show earlier that Ukip would “absolutely” vote against a Conservative Queen’s Speech if it did not include an EU referendum.

He also named “the Carswells, the Recklesses, the Suzanne Evans, the Steven Woolfes, the Paul Nuttalls” as prominent Ukippers who would ensure the party survived if he failed to win his target seat of South Thanet and had to resign. He would be gone “in 10 minutes” as leader if he did not win the seat, he said.

Speaking to reporters in Worcester, Ed Miliband denied that his pledges stone was naff. He added:

I’m going to leave the landscape gardening part of this to other people. I don’t measure the curtains or the garden.

Miliband says he is determined to 'restore people's faith in politics' by keeping his promises

Ed Miliband has been giving a speech in Worcester, where he explained his decision to commission his pledges monument.

Here are the key points.

  • Miliband said he had commissioned his pledges monument to ensure that Labour was not allowed to forget its promises.

This is our plan.

And we have carved them in stone.

For a simple reason.

So you can remind me of them.

Point to them.

Insist on them.

And because we will deliver on them.

I expect to be held to account on all six of Labour’s pledges.

  • He said David Cameron and Nick Clegg were both making promises they could not keep and that, unlike them, he was determined to “restore people’s faith in politics”.

Five years ago Nick Clegg promised to scrap tuition fees.

He betrayed that promise and raised them higher.

And now, both he and David Cameron are at it again. They’re promising things they can’t pay for and have no intention of delivering.

An NHS funded with an IOU written by two men who have broken their promises before.

I won’t break my word as Nick Clegg did.

If I had done what he did five years ago, I don’t think I could ask you for your trust again.

I will cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000. And I tell you this, if I fail in this task, I won’t be standing here again in 2020 making more promises.

I won’t be standing for the office of Prime Minister at all.

Because there should be consequences when people’s trust is let down.

Because there should be consequences when young people have their trust betrayed.

Because I am determined to restore people’s faith, young people’s faith, in politics.

  • He said the Tories and the Lib Dems were both refusing to rule out a tuition fees increase.
Ed Miliband speaks during a People’s Question Time event at the Tudor Grange academy in Worcester
Ed Miliband speaks during a People’s Question Time event at the Tudor Grange academy in Worcester Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Updated

Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has accused the Democratic Unionist Party of engaging in “wishful thinking” if they believe they can be kingmakers in a hung parliament.

The Sinn Fein minister repeated his colleague Michelle Gildernew’s statement to the Guardian last week that they will not break their principle of boycotting the House of Commons.

McGuinness said he did not believe the DUP are going to be at the heart of government after 7 May.

Speaking on Sky News this morning he said it was a “huge mistake” of the DUP to back Tory and UKIP demands for a referendum on EU membership. McGuinness said exit from the EU would be a disaster for the two economies on the island of Ireland.

On the forthcoming visit of Prince Charles to Ireland including the site where the IRA murdered his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979, McGuiness said: “If this visit fits into the whole process of reconcilliation then I think that will be a good thing.”

The Labour pledges stone has now got its own hashtage, #EdStone, and is generating much merriment on Twitter.

Osborne says Miliband's pledges stone marks a 'Sheffield rally' moment for Labour

The Tories have been hoping to that this election will prove a re-run of 1992 (when the Conservatives confounded the polls and pulled of a surprise victory). Their anti-Labour messages (tax bombshell etc) have been similar and David Cameron’s “pumped up” approach has some parallels with John Major getting on his soapbox.

Now the Tories are trying to turn the pledges stone into the Sheffield rally, the event blamed for Labour’s defeat in political folklore because it was the moment supposedly when Neil Kinnock’s excitability and hubris turned voters against him. (The psephologists dispute this, but never mind; many people still believe it cost Labour the election.)

This is from George Osborne, the Conservative chancellor.

Cameron says Miliband's pledges 'tombstone' casts doubt on his judgment

Here is that quote from David Cameron on the Labour pledges stone.

When you are prime minister, a lot of the questions are questions about judgment, about the things you choose to do, the things you choose to spend your time on, the priorities that you have. But I have to say, putting up an 8ft 6in stone monument, tombstone, in the Downing Street garden; I think if you’ve got a problem with judgment, I don’t think that is going to help.

  • Cameron says Miliband’s decision to commission a pledges “tombstone” for Number 10 garden casts doubt on his judgment.

Updated

David Cameron is now taking questions.

Q: What do you think about Ed Miliband’s pledges stone?

Cameron says being prime minister involves having good judgment. If people don’t trust your judgment, putting up an 8ft gravestone in Downing Street is not going to help.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, told the Murnaghan show that she understood why the Tories and Labour had to “cling to that pretence” during the campaign that they would win majorities but that they were not being unrealistic.

One thing is very clear and it’s something EM is failing to grasp. If he fails to win a majority, if he wants to be in government he has to put together a majority. If it is not by way of a formal coalition, it will have to be on a vote by vote basis because otherwise you cannot get your policies, your business through the house of Commons .... We are a party that has a wealth of experience of minority government. We know how to get things done.


Sturgeon also repeated her claim that Ed Miliband had “over the past 48 hours or so appalled many traditional Labour voters” by saying he would rather see the Tories back in office than work with the SNP.

My colleague Libby Brooks had a trip on Sturgeon’s “Nicolopter” yesterday. She has posted a video on the Scotland blog.

Today Sturgeon has opted for a less reliable form of transport.

Updated

Cameron is urging Tory activists to remind voters about the government’s record.

And, not for the first time, he produces Liam Byrne’s “no money left” note to make a point about Labour’s legacy. This has now become his most valuable stump speech prop.

David Cameron's speech

David Cameron has just started a campaign speech in Nuneaton.

Soon after he started, he was interrupted by a baby screeching in the audience. It was wonderful to have a baby there, on the weekend of the royal birth, he said. Then he said it was appropriate, because he was talking about the baby’s future; he did not want the baby saddled with debt.

David Cameron
David Cameron speaking in Nuneaton Photograph: BBC

Farage says celebrity culture has made this 'the worst general election campaign in history'

On the Andrew Marr show this morning Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, was complaining that there was not enough focus on the issues. (See 10am.) He expanded on this in an interview with LBC’s Beverley Turner where he complained this was “the worst general election campaign in history” because people were only interested in trivia. This was prompted by a question about why he had not done an interview in his kitchen. Farage replied:

God help us. Is this what it’s sunk too? I’m not blaming you personally but I’m saying this is what it’s sunk too. We look at leaders’ kitchens and we compare their ovens and we don’t talk about the fact that open door immigration meant that 600,000 people settled in Britain last year, that our national debt has doubled in five years and there are many parts of Britain that are broken and need fixing - and we worry about what shoes the leaders’ wives wear or what their kitchens are like or how pretty their kids are ...

Politics is becoming almost like our celebrity culture and we’re having the worst general election campaign in history because the British people are not having proper debates on subjects.

In the interview Farage was also asked if he had a cleaner. He replied:

No I don’t. The wife may have a cleaner, I don’t know. I’m never there ... Frankly, doing this job the number of hours a week I spend at home are probably on average five to six hours a day.

Hague refuses to rule out tuition fee increase

William Hague, the Conservative former foreign secretary, has refused to rule out raising tuition fees. But he said suggestions that the Conservatives would raise them were “scare stories”.

Other parties have made promises to reduce the fees that I don’t think have credibility. We haven’t specified the future level of university fees but I think the scare stories put about by the Labour party are extremely misleading, they are just designed to frighten the voters before the election.

We will continue to act in the interests of universities prospering and of record numbers of students going to university. We haven’t ruled that out but scare stories about what may happen to such fees are really, as I say, just designed to scare people ahead of the elections.

Updated

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, has called on unionist voters in Northern Ireland not to vote for unionist parties because these parties don’t act in their economic interests.

Unsurprisingly the Sinn Fein’s outreach to pro union voters has been met with derision by the unionist parties.

Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said all unionists regard Adams as “toxic”.

“Unionism will rightly struggle to do business with Sinn Fein until he has gone away,” Nesbitt added.

Sinn Fein is defending one of its five Westminster seats against a sole Ulster Unionist challenge in the border constituency of Fermanagh/South Tyrone. Its MP Michelle Gildernew held the seat by just four votes in 2010.

Hague dismisses Labour's 'vanity stone' as a 'meaningless gimmick'

William Hague, the Conservative former foreign secretary, has put out a press statement about Labour’s pledges stone - or tombstone, as Andrew Neil called it. (See 11.32am.)

This is yet more evidence that Ed Miliband is simply not up to the job of being prime minister.

David Cameron has a plan for a stronger economy, jobs and hope for the future. All Miliband can offer is a meaningless gimmick that takes voters for granted.

And if he does make it to No10, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP will take their chisels to Miliband’s vanity stone and write their own demands all over it.

According to the BBC’s Lucy Manning, Miliband would not necessarily be able to get it into the Downing Street garden on day one.

William Hague, the Conservative former foreign secretary, has agreed there is a possible parallel with the political situation currently facing the UK and the period of history before Irish independence, when Irish nationalists were elected to parliament.

Speaking on Sky News’s Murnaghan, Hague said:

Maybe there are parallels, yes. There was a huge number of Irish nationalists elected to parliament in the 19th century and early 20th century which did distort British politics for a long time. It’s certainly not good for the UK as a whole because what would happen is that if there was a weak Labour minority government held to ransom every day by the Scottish nationalists is that those nationalists would try to divide Scotland against England with everything they did every day. They would make impossible demands in order to turn England against Scotland and vice versa. You’d have a situation very bad for taxes and borrowing and the future of the UK. It’s a vital choice that people are making.

On the Daily Politics Chris Leslie, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has just been asked about Labour’s election pledges tombstone (as Andrew Neil called it). (See 11.10am.) Labour had paid for it, Leslie said. But have you got planning permission to put it up in the Number 10 garden? Leslie was rather flummoxed by this, but said he did not think the election would turn on this.

Clegg says Lib Dems would only form coalition with party committed to increasing public sector pay

The Lib Dems have now released more details of the party’s new “red line”, their opposition to further public sector pay cuts. This is from Nick Clegg.

Liberal Democrats will not enter a coalition with a party not prepared to back pay rises for people working in the public sector. They have paid more than their fair share, and now enough is enough.

In a briefing, the Lib Dems say public sector pay has already been set for 2015-16.

For 2016-17 and 2017-18, the Lib Dems, in guidance to public sector pay bodies, would insist that pay should at least keep pace with inflation. That would mean no real-terms pay cuts.

The Lib Dems would expect to get rid of the deficit by the end of 2017-18. After that they would tell the public sector pay bodies to give workers real-terms pay rises.


    • In her Sky interview with Dermot Murnaghan, Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, reaffirmed Labour’s opposition to coalition deals with other parties.

    The formal deal we are having is not with any other political party, it’s actually with the public. That’s why we are making it absolutely clear what we’re promising to do and that’s what we’ll do as elected. What other parties do is a matter for them and our conversation is not with other political parties, it’s with the British people, so it’s not about who you bump into in the lift after the election.

    She also declined to say if she expected to be deputy prime minister in a Labour government.

    We are not talking about who is going to do what job in a government when people have yet to vote.

    Updated

    According to Labour, Nick Clegg actually refused five times on the Marr show to rule out voting for a tuition fee increase. Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, issued this response.

    Five times Nick Clegg was challenged to rule out a further increase in tuition fees, five times he failed to do so. It’s now clear that the Lib Dems are preparing to hike tuition fees yet again.

    You can’t trust a word Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems say. While they would hit the next generation again, Labour has a better plan to cut fees by a third to £6,000 and boost student grants.

    In case you haven’t seen it, the most curious election story in today’s papers is this, from Toby Helm in the Observer.

    Ed Miliband has commissioned a giant stone inscription bearing Labour’s six election pledges that is set to be installed in the Downing Street Rose Garden if he becomes prime minister.

    The 8ft 6in-high limestone structure is intended to underline his commitment to keep his promises by having them literally “carved in stone” and visible from the offices inside No 10.

    Here’s a picture.

    Scottish press round-up

    Alistair Darling, who is standing down as an MP at the election, gives an interview to the Times in which he questions whether the scars left by the independence referendum will ever heal. He also argues that the referendum campaign has fundamentally altered the public mood. “Scotland has been in a state of election since about 2010, and all that electioneering has raised people’s hopes and expectations against a background of austerity. It’s the backwash of the financial crisis and if you ask me what is happening, a lot of people in Scotland just want change, they want things to be better.”

    Meanwhile the Scotsman reports that Scottish Labour has drawn up a “rescue list” of twelve Scottish seats that they must win in order to stand the chance of forming a government after Thursday. Interestingly, this list includes many Edinburgh seats but none in Glasgow.

    This is echoed by a piece by Paul Hutcheon in the Sunday Herald who suggests that Labour has written off nearly 75% of its seats in Scotland and is focused on saving leader Jim Murphy, shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander and veteran shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran.

    And an editorial in the Sunday Mail comes as close to endorsing the SNP as it can without actually saying so, in a paean to Nicola Sturgeon: “Nicola Sturgeon, tireless and talented, deserves the opportunity to show that her party and her MPs can take on that responsibility and responsibly speak for all Scots at westminster”.

    Updated

    Yvette Cooper's Marr interview - Summary

    And here are the key points from Yvette Cooper’s Marr interview.

    • Cooper said that reports today saying David Cameron was making plans to stay on in Number 10 showed he was desperate and preoccupied with his career.

    It’s clear that David Cameron will desperately be trying to cling on to number 10. We’ve seen him already talking about his career rather than about the country – I think that’s the wrong approach.

    • She reaffirmed Labour’s opposition to deals or pacts with the SNP, but sidestepped questions about whether, in a minority government, Labour ministers would discuss legislative proposals with opposition parties before putting them to a vote.

    Nigel Farage's Marr interview - Summary

    Here are the key lines from Nigel Farage’s interview with Andrew Marr.

    • Farage said David Cameron’s appeal today to Ukip supporters to return to the Conservatives was doomed to fail.

    It’s desperate Dave saying to those voters who have left him over the course of the last five years ‘Please come home’.

    They are not going back to a guy that’s covered the country in windmills, slashed our armed forces, raised the level of our foreign aid budget, presided over massive immigration and only at the last minute been persuaded to half-heartedly offer a referendum.

    These voters are not going back. Most Ukip voters haven’t come to us from the Conservatives, they are coming from Labour, a few from the Liberal Democrats and a huge chunk of our vote is from people who were completely outside the political process and see Ukip offering hope.

    • Farage said the BBC should stop providing an entertainment service, indicating the programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and Dr Who should be left to other broadcasters. “I don’t think it needs to do entertainment,” he said. He also said that the BBC’s election coverage was biased against Ukip, and that its website was damaging local papers.

    Updated

    Clegg suggests Lib Dems would only accept EU referendum in return for all their red lines

    We have not had the election result, but in some respects the coalition talks have already begun.

    Nick Clegg has repeatedly made it clear, from the Lib Dem party conference onwards, that the Lib Dems would, in some circumstances, be willing to back David Cameron’s plans for an in/out EU referendum. Cameron has said he would refuse to compromise on this, and a Tory/Lib Dem coalition would only go ahead if the Lib Dems signed up to the idea.

    But at what price? Today Clegg seemed to set out what he would demand in return. And it was a bold bid (or opening bid): all his red lines (at least six, at the last count, but the number seems to be going up by the day.)

    That was the main thing we learnt from his interview. Here is a summary.

    • Clegg suggested that he would agree to an EU referendum in coalition talks with the Tories - but only if David Cameron accepted all his “red lines” first.

    Before I addressed anyone else’s red lines, I would address mine ...

    The Conservatives would have to abandon, hook, line and sinker, one of the most aggressive approaches to balancing the books that I’ve seen in modern British politics ...

    I’m happy to insist on my red lines. And they are the ones that Liberal Democrats have put on the front page of the manifesto.

    Over the last few days Clegg has been producing more red lines than a candy stick factory and, by my count, we have now got at least six. Clegg mentioned the manifesto, and there are five priorities on the front page of that: more education spending; raising the personal allowance to £12,500; balancing the budget; investing £8bn in the NHS; and protecting the environment. Overnight Clegg has identified a new one; no further pay cuts for public sector workers. The Independent on Sunday today also mentions another, a “green line”, strong leadership on the environment, although arguably this is the same as the manifesto front page priority.

    • Clegg rowed back from his suggestion that a deal with a party that came second would be illegitmate. He suggested this in an interview with the Financial Times about a week ago. Today he said he was not saying that he would refuse a deal with a party that came second in all circumstances.

    What I’m saying is that once the votes are done, I think the party that nonetheless has the biggest mandate from the British people is the party that should be given the chance to try and assemble a government. They may not succeed. They may not choose to assemble a government. And then, of course, we will turn to arrangements likely to be arrived at.

    This is slightly different from the line he took with the FT. Here is an extract from its interview.

    Only if those talks failed would Mr Clegg start negotiations with the leader of the smaller party in the Commons, but he fears that any so-called “coalition of the losers” could lack “legitimacy”.

    “You cannot provide stability, you can’t take difficult decisions, if people are constantly questioning the birthright of a government,” he said.

    • He rejected claims from James O’Shaughnessy, David Cameron’s former head of policy, that he had been keen to drop his opposition to a tuition fee increase because he thought Lib Dem policy was flawed. O’Shaughnessy said this in a tweet on Thursday. (See 9.53am.) Clegg said he was talking “rubbish”.

    That’s complete rubbish. I don’t even know who this chap is and he certainly wasn’t in the room, I tell you we were between a rock and a hard place.

    He also said O’’Shaughnessy’s comment was “typical Tory game-playing”.

    • Clegg refused to say the Lib Dems would not support a rise it tuition fees. He was pressed on this by Yvette Cooper, because Labour are making this a big campaign theme today.

    We’ve now got Yvette Cooper, Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg on the sofa together.

    Clegg says he would not do a deal with Farage.

    Farage says he does not want to do a deal with anyone.

    Cooper says both the other parties would do a deal with Cameron.

    Cooper challenges Clegg, twice, to say whether he would rule out an increase in tuition fees. He refuses to give that assurance, and says he wants more money spent on nursery education.

    Clegg says Cooper has to accept that she won’t win a majority. The Lib Dems would not impose the cuts Labour is planning on nursery education.

    Farage is talking over them both, saying we should talk about policy.

    And that’s it. I’ll post a summary soon.

    Yvette Cooper, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage together on the Marr sofa
    Yvette Cooper, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage together on the Marr sofa Photograph: BBC

    Q: You said having a deal with the party that came second would be illegitimate. That is not correct, is it?

    Clegg says he was making the point that the Lib Dems should first talk to the party that came first.

    Q: It has been said that you have not told the truth about tuition fees, and that you were happy to drop your policy, because you agreed with the Tory plan. James O’Shaughnessy said this:

    (O’Shaughnessy was Cameron’s head of policy.)

    Clegg says that is rubbish. He does not even know who this person is. He was not in the room.

    Q: Let’s turn to Scotland. Bella Caledonia, the Scottish website, says:

    This morning Scotland is a pariah state, disenfranchised, with a proscribed party on the verge of a landslide victory.

    Do you agree?

    Clegg says there should be a constitutional convention after the election.

    Q: You have got a new red line, on public sector pay?

    Clegg says public sector workers have made considerable sacrifices. He says we should give public sector workers an assurance that their pay will not be cut further.

    Q: It is overwhelmingly likely that one of the first things on the table in coalition talks with Cameron would be a referendum. And you won’t say what you will do.

    Clegg says his red lines would be on the table too.

    What would happen would partly depend on the mandate the parties had.

    Nick Clegg's interview on the Andrew Marr show

    Q: Would you back the kind of EU referendum Cameron wants?

    Nick Clegg says, for once, he agrees with what Nigel Farage said earlier; Farage said the Conservatives kept changing their minds on an EU referendum.

    Clegg says the Tories have “flipped and flopped” on this.

    He can only state his position. He supports the proposals in the coalition’s referendum lock legislation (ie, there would only be a referendum when it was proposed to transfer powers to Brussels).

    He says he has set out the Lib Dems’ red lines on their manifesto.

    The Conservative and Ukip positions on Europe are almost indistinguishable.

    Q: Would you give Cameron his referendum?

    Clegg says he would address Lib Dem red lines first, before deciding whether to back Cameron’s.

    Q: So you would have a haggle first?

    It would not just be a haggle. The Tories would have to abandon their plans for welfare cuts.

    Nick Clegg
    Nick Clegg Photograph: BBC

    Andrew Marr was asking Nigel Farage about Ukip’s Christian manifesto.

    This is the section Marr was referring to when he talked about people being able to say they disapproved of certain lifestyles.

    We will not repeal the legislation, as it would be grossly unfair and unethical to ‘un-marry’ loving couples or restrict further marriages, but we will not require churches to marry same-sex couples. We will also extend the legal concept of ‘reasonable accommodation’ to give protection in law to those expressing a religious conscience in the workplace on this issue.

    This, from the Times’s Laura Pitel, is interesting.

    Q: Do you think a Conservative government will deliver a fair EU referendum?

    Not confident at all, says Farage.

    If Cameron tried to hold a referendum on his own, with Ukip holding his “feet to the fire”, there would not be a full, free and fair referendum.

    There would have to be spending limits. There would have to be a commission ensuring the BBC and others gave both sides fair airtime. And there would have to be agreement on who could vote.

    Q: You have a Christian manifesto. Are you a Christian?

    Yes, says Farage.

    Q: You says people should be able to say they don’t approve of certain lifestyles. Under your plans, would a B&B owner be allowed to turn away a gay couple.

    No, says Farage. That would be open discrimination.

    Q: So what does your manifesto plan mean?

    Farage says, compared with the size of the national debt, this issue is an irrelevance. He refused to engage with the question.

    Q: How would you change the BBC?

    Farage says the BBC should get out of entertainment. And he says its website is damaging local newspapers.

    He also says the BBC has not treated Ukip fairly during the election.

    Farage says only Ukip can take on the SNP. The Tories and the other parties agreed to keep the Barnett formula, which sends money to Scotland.

    Nigel Farage's interview on the Andrew Marr show

    Q: Cameron is urging Ukip voters to go back to the Tories.

    Nigel Farage say that is a sign of “desperate Dave”. Ukip voters will not go back to a party that has covered the country with windmills, slashed the armed forces, put up the aid budget and only half-heartedly agreed a referendum.

    Q: Would you change the voting system?

    Farage says first-past-the-post is now “bankrupt”.

    Nigel Farage
    Nigel Farage Photograph: BBC

    Q: How does it feel to have your husband, Ed Balls, being used by the Tories as the symbol of what went wrong in the past.

    Cooper sidesteps the question, and says Labour has a different vision.

    Q: What cuts would you make in the Home Office?

    Cooper says Labour would not cut as deeply as the Conservatives.

    But Labour has identified £800m of savings.

    Q: But you plan to spend that money?

    Cooper says that could ensure that cuts would not have to be as deep. Labour would save 10,000 police officer jobs.

    Q: What would Labour do if Cameron tried to stay on in Number 10? (See 9.10am.)

    Cooper says Labour would vote against a Tory Queen’s Speech.

    Q: In a minority government, would you have conversations with other parties about passing your legislation. Or would you just wait to see if they backed your legislation?

    Cooper says Ed Miliband has said Labour would not do deals or pacts with the SNP.

    Q: But, if you were passing a bill, would you talk to the opposition parties to find out if they agreed.

    Cooper says it would be for other parties to decide how the voted.

    Q: Would you have conversations with the SNP? Yes or no?

    Cooper says that is hypothetical. The SNP wants to divide people. Labour does not want to divide people.

    Yvette Cooper's interview on the Andrew Marr show

    Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, is being interviewed on the Andrew Marr show.

    Q: It seems impossible you could win a majority.

    We are fighting very hard, says Cooper.

    Q: But you would have to win seats like Basildon. You are not going to win that, are you?

    We are fighting for every vote.

    Q: Do you really think you can win 100-plus seats in England and Wales?

    Cooper says the public will make a decision. She switches subject, and makes a point about Labour fighting for different values.

    Yvette Cooper on the Andrew Marr show
    Yvette Cooper on the Andrew Marr show Photograph: BBC

    Updated

    Morning briefing

    Good morning. Only four days to go, and the bank holiday weekend is not going to hold up campaigning.

    The big picture

    Effectively, the two main parties are still close enough to be effectively tied and there is very little chance of either David Cameron or Ed Miliband being able to command a majority. That means attention is starting to focus on what happens in a hung parliament situation.

    The Tories have taken the lead in the race for Downing Street as senior Conservatives revealed that David Cameron is planning to continue as prime minister even if he lacks a Commons majority ...

    Senior Tories say the prime minister is planning to declare victory if he gets the most seats and votes on Thursday. He is expected to give a statement in Downing Street on Friday if the Tories are “clearly the largest party” — forcing Ed Miliband to strike a deal with the Scottish National party (SNP) to bring him down.

    Three Conservatives with the ear of the prime minister say he will “quickly” argue that Labour cannot claim “legitimacy” to form a government if it is behind and needs nationalist backing.

    Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said that in the event of a hung parliament he would open talks with the largest party. But Tory backbenchers, who are resentful at Lib Dem influence during the last coalition, are determined to force Cameron to offer them a secret ballot on any potential deal with Clegg, allowing them to block the creation of another coalition without a fear of retribution for their decision.

    They hope to strongarm Cameron into either giving in to rightwing demands over a prolonged period, or calling another election to try to win a majority. The powerful 1922 committee has already made Cameron accept that its chair, Graham Brady, will be involved in coalition negotiations. Now members are confident of forcing further concessions from a weakened leadership, according to one senior Tory source, who said backbench support for a secret ballot was “strong”.

    Meanwhile, there were growing signs that Clegg could face a revolt from within his own party if he tries to push through a second deal with the Conservatives that includes an agreement to hold an in/out referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. The Observer has learned that the business secretary, Vince Cable, is among several senior figures who are upset at an apparent decision by Clegg to abandon his previous opposition to a referendum, except in circumstances where there is a further transfer of powers to Brussels.

    Senior Labour figures have been consulting legal experts over ambiguities in the new Fixed Term Parliaments Act, which governs the timing and outcome of general elections.

    Under the Act, the David Cameron has the right to remain in Number 10 and seek to win a Commons vote on his Queen’s Speech in late May or early June if it is not clear that he has lost the election and Ed Miliband has won.

    r Miliband’s team have sought advice over whether it would be possible to force Mr Cameron out of office with an immediate vote of no confidence when the new Parliament meets for the first time after the election.

    Their aim would be to deny Mr Cameron the chance to build support from minor parties and before announcing his Queen’s Speech, which is not scheduled to take place until May 27.

    Other stories

    It’s Ajockalypse Now. People are looking at Ed Miliband and they’re getting bad visuals of him popping out of Alex Salmond’s sporran like a baffled baby kangaroo. Everybody loves the Scots. Nobody thinks this is going to be some tartan tyranny with everybody forced to wear kilts. But it would be a chaotic and tense arrangement.

    Labour and the SNP are like the two spent swimmers in the beginning of Macbeth. The sergeant says: ‘As two spent swimmers that do cling together. And choke their art.’ They’re locked in mortal combat and the risk is they’ll take us all down with them.”

    The “secret plan” for higher tuition fees would saddle graduates with an extra £7,500 of debt each, leaving them an average of £51,600 in the red, according to figures produced by Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary.

    With five days to go, Miliband predicted it would be the “closest election for a generation” and rounded on Cameron at a Labour rally in London.

    “He is the risk to your family,” Miliband said. “He is the risk to your family finances. He is a risk that this country can’t afford to take.”

    Nick Clegg stepped back from a second coalition with the Conservatives, saying he would refuse to sacrifice the unity of his party and threaten a “disastrous” split for the sake of another five-year deal with David Cameron.

    Clegg said: “And every single day of my leadership I have always said the one thing I will never, ever do as a leader is allow my party to split ... I would never have the party go into a coalition government against its own collective will. I will not go against the collective will of my party. You can’t weather all the pressures, you can’t hang tough, you can’t stay the course unless you’ve taken a collective decision. At all levels of the party, including the leader, there is wariness, of course there is.”

    Polls

    There are at least four polls out today. Here is the UK Polling Report summary. Two show the Conservatives ahead, one shows Labour ahead and one shows the two parties tied.

    And here is the Guardian’s latest seat projection.

    Guardian seat projection

    Today’s agenda

    9am: Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage and Yvette Cooper are interviewed on the Andrew Marr show

    10am: Nicola Sturgeon, Farage, William Hague, Harriet Harman, Martin McGuinness and Natalie Bennett are interviewed on Sky’s Murnaghan show.

    10am: George Osborne, Danny Alexander and Chuka Umunna are interviewed on Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics.

    11am: Hague, Chris Leslie and John Swinney are interviewed on the Sunday Politics.

    11am: Clegg holds a rally in Southwark with Simon Hughes.

    12pm: David Cameron gives a campaign speech. He will urge potential Lib Dem and Ukip supporters to think who they want as prime minister before they vote.

    If today were a song

    The Final Countdown

    Non-election news story

    A woman has had a baby. (No, not her - this one was in a field hospital in Nepal.)

    If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

    Updated

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