Sturgeon denies claims she wants Cameron to remain PM 

The French ambassador, the SNP leader and the prime minister – it reads like the start of a bad pub joke, but it’s just the latest twist in the hung parliament guessing game.

The SNP leader splurged a volley of tweets last night denying claims she wanted David Cameron to stay in Downing Street, after the Daily Telegraph reported she had expressed her preference to the French ambassador in February.

She is also claimed to have said Ed Miliband was not “prime minister material”, a position that could – if true – threaten to jeopardise her announced wish to form a “progressive” alliance with the Labour leader.

.@simon_telegraph your story is categorically, 100%, untrue…which I'd have told you if you'd asked me at any point today

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) April 3, 2015

French officials were quoted as denying that Ms Sturgeon expressed any preference for a leader.

.@Telegraph don't you think you should update this story with the statements from both myself and the French Ambassador that it's untrue?

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) April 3, 2015

Does the spat threaten to undermine a possible future alliance between the SNP and Labour? Ed Miliband has already said Labour will not go into a formal coalition with the SNP if the election results in a hung parliament.

Labour aims to revive ‘dream of home ownership’

Another hardhat photo opportunity was in the offing as Labour pledged to generate £5bn to build 125,000 new homes.

Labour leader Ed Miliband wants to take a new ISA scheme for first-time buyers announced by Chancellor George Osborne earlier this year to help finance wide-scale house building.

The party says Britain’s severe housing shortage is being fuelled by coalition schemes like “Help to Buy” but that no action is being taken to improve supply.

“There’s nothing more British than the dream of home ownership, starting out in a place of your own,” Mr Miliband is expected to say.

Labour will create a £5bn Future Homes Fund to build more homes over the course of the next parliament. pic.twitter.com/YZNvFyXhUG

— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 4, 2015

“But for so many young people today that dream is disappearing into the distance.”

Labour would channel the investments banks and building societies make from the new first time buyer ISA into housing, generating billions that Labour would use towards its target of 200,000 new homes by 2020.

Mr Miliband has already announced proposals to end land-banking by developers by pledging to “use it or lose it” laws and is also planning new garden cities.

‘Bairns Not Bombs’: Sturgeon brands Trident ‘morally obscene’

About 2,500 anti-nuclear protesters turned up to a rally in Glasgow along with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon calling on politicians to scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent.

She railed against the huge cost of what she called the “morally obscene” weapon system: “around £3bn a year, peaking at an eye-watering £4bn in the 2020s”.

“You better believe Trident is a red line,” she told the crowd at the “Bairns not Bombs” demonstration.

“We all know that Trident is morally unjustifiable, but at a time when the Westminster parties are all committed to forcing yet more austerity on us after the election Trident is economically indefensible,” she said.

“Just think of what could be achieved with this money for the NHS, education or other public services – not just in Scotland, but across the UK.”

Someone shouts from the crowd … Is anyone here from the Telegraph? #c4news #nicolasturgeon pic.twitter.com/gsB85j0ekC — James Blake (@jimblakey) April 4, 2015

Farage on the real ale campaign trail

In one of the day’s least surprising campaign stories, Nigel Farage visited a beer festival in South Thanet, the seat he is contesting for Ukip.

He renewed one of his favoured electioneering images as, pint in hand, he shared a few thoughts with other visitors – although one of his filmed chats was drowned out by what appeared to be a brass band piping up in the background.

Nigel Farage talks to local people at Thanet Beer Festival in Margate. https://t.co/zQB6hZxiRd — Gareth Fuller (@GarethJFuller) April 4, 2015

Inbetween sips he appeared to comment on the row that engulfed SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon over whether she backed David Cameron to remain as prime minister – a claim she has strongly rejected again today. “The SNP want to break up Britain,” Mr Farage said.

Nigel Farage on the campaign trail today in Margate – Thanet beer festival enjoying a pint of “BritishBulldog” pic.twitter.com/tNP1yRNi9I — Sandi Sidhu (@sandssidhu) April 4, 2015

“The way they see it, if the Tories are strong – given the level of toxification of the Tory brand in Scotland – that will help them. I guess that’s what it’s about.”

Whitehall orders leak inquiry into #Sturgeongate

The Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has ordered a leak inquiry into how a civil service account of Nicola Sturgeon’s private meeting with the French ambassador was obtained by the Daily Telegraph.

The SNP leader and Scotland’s First Minister demanded the leak inquiry as she denied claims she told the French ambassador she would prefer to see the Conservatives remain in power after the general election on 7 May.

In an incident now branded #Sturgeongate on Twitter, she also reportedly said Labour leader Ed Miliband was not “prime minister material”.

Ms Sturgeon described the allegation as “100 per cent untrue” and said she had written to Sir Jeremy to demand a Whitehall probe into how the newspaper obtained the document.

Clegg dons his raincoat in Sheffield Hallam campaign

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was on the stump in Sheffield Hallam today, as he tried to shore up his constituency seat ahead of the 7 May poll.

Great to be out on the doorsteps in #Sheffield this Easter weekend #GE2015 pic.twitter.com/huEeBiEtxT

— Nick Clegg (@nick_clegg) April 4, 2015

His party today proposed a £2.5bn fund to improve GP services to help keep people out of hospitals, as well as improving nursing home care.

An Opinium survey for the Observer said Mr Clegg remains the least popular of the major party leaders, although his overall rating rose from minus 40 to minus 30: 21 per cent approving, 51 per cent disapproving.