Ed Miliband has watched Labour's lead shrink to just three points in the most recent Guardian/ICM opinion poll. But he has been on the offensive this week with a refined strategy to target middle-class voters and a forthcoming speech taking on big banks. But has the economic recovery caught Labour flat-footed?
Plus: as Channel 4 documentary series Benefits Street attracts millions of viewers, we ask is it a valuable addition to the public debate over welfare – or another example of "poverty porn"?
Joining Tom Clark in the studio are columnist Polly Toynbee; leader writer Anne Perkins and former Paris correspondent Jon Henley.
Also on the agenda this week: French president François Hollande gave his regular January press conference but this year it was carried live by television networks around the globe. As details emerged of an alleged affair with an actress, Hollande refused to make any comments about his private life. In a session lasting more than two hours he set out his priorities for an increasingly unpopular term in office and vowed to slash tens of billions of euros out of public spending.
Meanwhile, back in Britain, 94 Conservatives wrote to David Cameron calling for a national veto on any present or future legislation emerging from the European Union. The agitated backbench Eurosceptics fear a pummelling from Ukip in the European elections and are growing increasingly frustrated by David Cameron's reluctance to take a harder line with Brussels.
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