Leaders’ debate: the analysis

“What the Tories are banking on happening is that some of (Labour’s) mini-surge starts subsiding”

Gary Gibbon analyses the leaders’ debate from within the chaos of the spin room.

Up and at ’em

Nick Clegg has already been out and about launching a new poster in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, south Manchester today.

He said it’s “for other people to judge” his performance but he couldn’t resist a dig at the Prime Minister who he locked horns with repeatedly in last nights debates.

He told Sky News: ““Have you ever worked with someone who tries to sell your ideas as their own? It’s a bit like that, working with the Conservatives.”

Gary Gibbon: Nicola sturgeon’s national ‘debut’?

It’s the morning after the night before and Gary Gibbon has this analysis of early reactions:

Michael Gove just called Nicola Sturgeon a “debutante” on Radio 4’s Today programme and a “very impressive one” – he’s a man of formidable vocabulary and you can’t help thinking he wanted to goad and big up the First Minister at the same time.

“George Osborne’s first responses in the spin room last night included praise for the First Minister. I’m not sure the SNP needs their kind offer of help. After the debate, the SNP team had real-time connection to its own party membership statistics on an iPhone and it was extraordinary to watch the tally click round – 1500+ new members from 8pm onwards.

Pollster admits post-debate polls ‘to be honest b*******s all b********s’ in this brilliant @GaryGibbonBlog http://t.co/5GPcNJrBss

— oliver king (@oliverjamesking) April 3, 2015

Read more here

Too many tweets

The leaders react to last night’s debate

David Cameron

Ed Miliband

Nick Clegg

Nigel Farage

NICOLA STURGEON

LEANNE WOOD

NATALIE BENNETT

7.3 million tune into TV debates

That makes it ITV’s most watched show, apart from soaps so far this year.

Last night’s seven-way leaders’ debate was watched by an average seven million people, ratings figures show.

The two-hour ITV broadcast was the highest-rating programme on television last night, according to the data – with a peak audience of 7.35 million.

1.5 million people tweeted about the show which means that it was also the second most tweeted about show this year – losing out to the Brit Awards.

However it trailed behind the historic 2010 debates between David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg which had an average of 9.4 million viewers, hitting a peak of 10.3 million.

Nicola Sturgeon gets friendly reception in Edinburgh West

Matthew Moore, our producer in Scotland, is in Scotland where the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is getting a friendly reception. She is in Edinburgh West this morning where the SNP are targeting the Lib Dems  and she’s somewhere in the middle of that scrum.

Meet Brian, the SNP’s secret weapon

Remember Johnny?

He’s on his way safely home.

SamCam gets “broody” over baby Regan

David Cameron and wife Samantha have met their first baby of the election campaign.

As SamCam cuddled seven-week old Regan from Chorley in Lancashire the Prime Minister joked that she was looking a little “broody”.

“Want another one”, he added.

The Camerons – who have had four children, including severely disabled Ivan who died in 2009 – sympathised with the young couple about the pressure parenthood puts on sleep.

After Ms Jeffers, Regan’s mother, said she was nervous that their new daughter would be a worse sleeper than her son, two-year-old Finlay.

Mrs Cameron reassured her: “I thought that with my fourth, actually, I thought there was no way we were going to be lucky again. And she was fine.”

Mr Cameron interjected: “Our girls have been better sleepers than the boys.”

Asked about his “broody” quip afterwards, the Tory leader was quick to quash the idea of having a fifth child.

“Whenever I see a small baby I feel broody, but don’t worry – there’s nothing going to happen on that front.”

Rewriting history: the battle for YouTube

In the aftermath of yesterday’s epic two-hour debate the parties are keen that the clips that favour their candidate live on.

Labour have produced a video claiming that David Cameron was unable to defend his record during last night’s debate.

Meanwhile the Conservatives have released their own in an effort to suggest that a coalition between Labour and other parties would be fractious.

The Liberal Democrats meanwhile have focused on Nick Clegg’s comments on the NHS, which went down well with the live audience.

Seeing double

It looks like Ed Miliband and David Cameron forgot to compare notes on their planned post-debate walkabout attire. Awkward.

Sterling Sturgeon?

Most commentators agree it was a good night for Nicola Sturgeon, all things considered. Not only did she arrive to a friendly welcome in Edinburgh West this morning but she is being lauded south of the border too.

Labour MPs and supporters have been quick to compliment her critique of Nigel Farage over his comments immigration and fascinating polling data has revealed that one in three Labour voters thought that the SNP was victorious in the debate and more Lib Dems thought she had won than their own leader, Nick Clegg.

Her performance has even left some people calling for SNP candidates to stand in England and Wales, a suggestion Ms Sturgeon laughed off this morning. She said:  “I think it is a reflection of how out of touch the whole Westminster system has become.”

Ukip MP refuses to back Farage on HIV comments

Douglas Carswell, one of Ukip’s two MPs, has refused to endorse Nigel Farage’s comments about giving foreign people with aids drugs on the NHS.

In last night’s TV debates Nigel Farage told the audience that people can “come to Britain from anywhere in the world and get diagnosed with HIV and get retroviral drugs that cost up to £25,000 per year per patient.”

Mr Carswell was quizzed on the comments by The Telegraph but refused to back his leaders views about aids.

The Ukip MP for Clacton, whose father was the scientist who diagnosed the first cases of HIV, said it was “fair and reasonable” to make the point that “our health service should not be an international health service”.

When asked specifically about whether he agreed with the comments about HIV suffers Mr Carswell said he would not answer a “slightly slanted question” that would make him appear “at  odds with my party leader.”

However he reiterated his view that the NHS should not be an “international service.”

George Osborne, Ed Miliband, Leanne Wood and Nick Clegg have since said that Mr Farage should be “ashamed” of the comments made in the debate last night, but Mr Farage said that the NHS should be for “British people and families”.

It’s all happening in Hull

Danny’s 7, but Stella’s a perfect 10

The Lib Dem Danny Alexander and Labour’s Stella Creasy went on a politics “Blind Date” for the Guardian magazine’s popular column this weekend, but controversy is errupting over the scores the pair gave each other.

Stella Creasy was awarded a perfect 10 by the Lib Dem minister, meanwhile Stella gave the Chief Secretary to the Treasury a paltry 7.

Blind Date brutal as ever: Danny gives Stella a 10, Stella gives Danny a 7 http://t.co/3mA2DKPeJk (that’s @dannyalexander and @stellacreasy)

— Archie Bland (@archiebland) April 3, 2015

  @stellacreasy @archiebland Oh but in the column a 7 is usually “I thought they were awful but I don’t want to embarrass them in the paper”. — Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) April 3, 2015

Krishnan’s epic cycle to the debates

Over the last week Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been on an cycle ride through northern England, speaking to people who are passionate about politics and clocking up the miles.

Here is the round up of his trip from Robin Hood’s Bay, in North Yorkshire to Salford, in Manchester, just in time for the leaders’ debate.

From immigration to potholes, Yorkshire residents said they were “perturbed” by the current political situation – follow his journey here.

Alex Salmond’s verdict on the debates

Alex Salmond has given his verdict on Nicola Sturgeon’s performance in the debates last night.

The former First Minister said his successor’s appearance was a “great boost” for the SNP campaign, and that he thinks she is “wiping the floor with the Westminster old boys’ network.”

Earlier today Michal Gove, the Conservative chief whip, said a coaltion between Labour and the SNP would be a “lethal cocktail” that would destabilise the country and undermine the economic recovery

Mr Salmond responded: “I think Michael Gove is showing all the signs of panic and the distress that the Prime Minister was showing in the debate last night when he was hammered by Nicola Sturgeon.”

Last month the Conservatives mocked up a photograph of Ed Miliband sitting the the shirt pocket of Alex Salmond, an attempt to imply that a Labour government would be subject to the whim of Scotland in any power sharing deal. After the debate the conservatives mocked up a similar poster featuring Nicola Sturgeon.

Ed Miliband has said that Labour will not go into a formal coalition with the SNP.

Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP dog

The debate moment the Conservatives want you to remember?

The Conservatives may have been hoping that a seven-leader debate would have created a cacophony that Mr Cameron could stand back from.

It did not quite work out that way… but there was one moment the Tory spinners seem to want you to remember.

More from Gary Gibbon here.

Debate boost for Ed… but will it last?

A poll by Survation for the Daily Mirror says Ed Miliband’s net approval ratings have risen 8.1 per cent over the course of the leaders’ debates and interviews (ie. over the past ten days).

But, as Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon pointed out in the debate spin room on Thursday evening, the Conservatives are hoping there is still long enough until the election for any debate “bounce” to wear off…