Labour manifesto promises ‘budget responsibility’

Ed Miliband’s party will cut the deficit in Britain’s public finances every year until they are back in the black – just five years after Labour lost office in the aftermath of the financial crash.

Launching his party’s election manifesto in Manchester today, Mr Miliband will say that Labour in government would be “the party of responsibility” while holding out hope in the form of a more equal country that “works for people”.

The first page of the manifesto will commit a new Labour government to a “budget responsibility lock”, guaranteeing that every policy is fully costed.

Other manifesto pledges will include

– reversal of the 50p tax cut and introduction of lower 10p starting rate – 50p tax rate on incomes over £150,000 – cut in ministerial pay until the books are balanced – ban on zero-hours contracts – taxing bank bonuses and introduction of two new high street banks – new levy on payday lenders – freeze on domestic gas and electricity bills until 2017

Battle for economic credibility

Labour’s efforts this morning are all about presenting themselves as the credible party on economics.

Credibility is something that an be notably lacking in an election when all parties optimise bonanza offerings that may have no basis in reality come May.

The party has said that the front page of the manifesto, released in two hours at an 11am press conference in Manchester will be a commitment. To a “Budget Responsibility Lock.”

Miliband says that this means every policy in the Manifesto will be fully costed and paid for without additional borrowing.

This is Miliband’s attempt to end the common theme of other elections with the Conservatives able to attack any Labour promise as wild, unfunded and irresponsible spending.

It is part of Miliband’s determination to make economic credibility, one of his party’s weaker areas in the face of repeated conservative attacks that it was a Labour government before 2010 that “crashed the economy”.

Labour think it will give them the upper hand able to fight on a strong platform of funded cuts and attack the Conservatives for not providing the same detail and for any freebies (like three days volunteering a year) that they may offer in the coming weeks.

Labour also think that this plays well when the Conservatives publicly offer large unfunded depending commitments, and no doubt enjoyed the reluctance of chancellor George Osborne this weekend to explain where £8 billion of additional funding for the NHS funding will come from – despite being asked multiple times on air on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday.

However it also gives Labour vulnerability – many of its core members and indeed the party’s own MPs out on the door step will want to be able to offer something really solid on the NHS – the most important issue in this election – and a costed £2.5 billion may pale into insignificance next to £8 billion the Conservatives talk about – funded or not.

Ed Balls won’t match £8 billion pledge

Labour’s shadow chancellor was on Radio 4’s Today programme for an interview ahead of the manifesto launch in an hour.

He said was pushed on the Conservatives pledge to provide the £8 billion for the NHS. It is the figure NHS chief executive Simon Stevens has said that it needs.

However the “budget responsiblity lock” in their manifesto means that Labour can’t match it. Mr Balls said that the promise was meaningless because Mr Osborne was asked “18 times” to explain how it was funded and refused.

Sajid Javid has been on Sky news in an effort to knock down Labour’s economic crediblity arguing that the party have “made this promise about balancing the books time and time again.

However the culture secretary was followed the chancellor’s lead and was unable to say where the £8 billion in NHS funding will come from. He said that his part would “find the money”.

“An extra £7 billion a year now going into the NHS from where it was five years ago. That’s the kind of principle we are going to stick to and which will allow us to find the money, the extra £8 billion, by 2020.”

Am told that fiscal charter / responsibility front page was added to the Labour manifesto last Friday. Late overhaul, acc to some sources

— Allegra Stratton (@BBCAllegra) April 13, 2015

Every one of the policies in our manifesto is paid for: Here’s the first page of the Manifesto we launch today pic.twitter.com/Rod4H8TNgH

— Ed Balls (@edballsmp) April 13, 2015

However the Conservatives are pointing out a typo in The Guardian that was slightly off the Labour message

The truth will out. Guardian 1st edition: “Labour is now the fiscally irresponsible party” #SameOldLabour pic.twitter.com/nxglpWkbET

— CCHQ Press Office (@CCHQPress) April 13, 2015

Labour launches manifesto on Corrie set

Corrie backdrop for Labours manifesto launch ! pic.twitter.com/3IDtmwLPlU

— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) April 13, 2015

Off camera @edballsmp displays a frightening amount of Corrie knowledge and reveals family dog used to howl at theme tune ! #hound news

— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) April 13, 2015

Strong message from Labour Party on law/order..? By hosting Milibands manifesto bid to be PM at Corrie police station pic.twitter.com/TgcRjdnq28

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) April 13, 2015

Who will be Britain’s first voter?

@MichaelLCrick Our post is very late here… will see what the postman brings.

— Britt Warg (@Britt_W) April 13, 2015

Meanwhile the electoral commission has teamed up with Twitter to try and encourage the young voters of Britain to sign up up. Every user in the country will see a notification in their newsfeed encouraging them to register to vote and providing information on how to do so.

Nick Clegg in an obligatory selfie on the campaign trail

He is in Maidstone this morning as he meets young college students.

Labour manifesto mainly written by Marc Stears, Miliband's speechwriter, and Cruddas aide Jonathan Rutherford. http://t.co/r5mwpXBJSE

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) April 13, 2015

Labour aide says to expect policy announcement on "improving family finances" at manifesto launch http://t.co/r5mwpXBJSE

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) April 13, 2015

Convoy of Conservative attack posters arrive at Labour manifesto launch

The Tories have parked no less than SIX Sturgeon/Salmond vans outside the Labour manifesto launch. pic.twitter.com/BpIpu0R0Ns

— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) April 13, 2015

SNP unstoppable?

A new poll has shown that the SNP are on 52% in Scotland with Labour lagging on 24% prompting commentators to wonder if anything will block the party’s rise before May 7.

Manifesto launch venue has fond memories for Ed Balls

Granada studios, home to the Coronation Street set, also played host to the Mirror Labour party conference bash last year.

Where this happened:

(expertly captured by Times reporter Kaya Burgess.)

Photoshop 101

Hot new entry on the shortlist for Worst Deployment of Photoshop, General Election 2015 https://t.co/a7ebOr1LAF

— Alex Hern (@alexhern) April 13, 2015

Soundtrack of a manifesto

Next on Labour Manifesto FM: Luna, by Bombay Bicycle Club. “I will bathe myself/ Then I’ll wear you for the night/ Hell yes I will”

— Michael Deacon (@MichaelPDeacon) April 13, 2015

Britain Can Be Better

Titled Britain Can Be Better, the cover of the document – posted on Twitter by Mr Miliband – bills it as “a plan to reward hard work, share prosperity and build a better Britain”.

‘For the Common Good’

The Greens confirm they will launch their manifesto tomorrow at 10am in Dalston, East London. The document, called “For the Common Good”, will have to compete with the Conservative manifesto launch on the same morning.

Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, has been in Brighton this morning launching the party’s billboard campaign. She will be joined later by Queen’s Brian May to talk about democracy and the importance of voting.

Gary Gibbon: Labour to commit to increase in all tax credits

• Gary Gibbon Political Editor

Gary Gibbon is in Manchester with this update:

Labour is committing to inflation increases in all tax credits throughout the next parliament. It says that will be paid for from the existing welfare budget which, Labour says, it can do as it is not focusing cuts on welfare like the Tories.

Media section has this line: “No one media owner should be allowed to exert undue influence” … That’ll keep up poor relations with certain media outlets. It also, incidentally, commits to keeping Channel 4 in the public sector.

Meanwhile Gary Gibbon points out that the party’s language on rail investment / travel is not as strong as many in the party would like. There is big language but not a fundamental change of direction towards nationalisation. There is a 1 year rail price freeze, funded by delaying upgrade work on A27 and A358. The Conservatives have promised a 5 year freeze but Labour’s lock means they can only promise it for a year.

Harriet Harman introduces Ed Miliband

Speaking on the set of Coronation Street set she says he has “shaped the political weather”.

Ed Miliband is speaking

Mr Miliband says that “building this country” will not be “instant or easy” and has demanded change “change from us” in the past and will do again. He says seeing it through “requires new and different leadership”. He says the start of his manifesto is “different from those that have gone before, it doesn’t do what most manifestos do. It doesn’t offer a list of promises, a shipping list of proposals.” Instead, he says, it “seeks to answer the questions you are answering.” “You want labour policies… but you ask if we can be responsible with our nations finances. This is the key point that Ed Miliband wants to campaign on: That Labour can be disciplined, that he can be trusted with the economy. In contrast he says Conservative promises are “unfunded, unfair and unbelievable”.

Today's Labour manifesto is 84 pages long. Tory manifesto in 2010 was 130 pages, 27,835 wds + 620 pledges long. Will tmrw's be as detailed?

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) April 13, 2015

Ed Miliband: You can’t fund the NHS with an IOU

He says that Labour should not be less ambitious in a time of scarcity, instead but more ambitious. He wants to present Labour “not only as the party of change but the party of responsibility too.”

He says that in recent days we have seen the Conservatives “spending promises around with absolutely no idea where the money is coming from.” Miliband hits out at George Osborne’s promise to provide the £8 billion Simon Stevens says is necessary for the NHS without explaining how it will be funded.

He says “nothing is as dangerous” as promising to protect the NHS without “explaining how it will be paid for.”

“You can’t fund the NHS with an IOU”, he adds, which goes down well in the hall.

Grant Shapps, the Conservative party chairman, has tweeted an attack on Labour’s record on the NHS in Wales.

Big cheers for scrapping non doms

Biggest reaction so far in the hall, including some whoops, although no standing ovation for attack on hedgefunds, tax-dodgers and non doms.

Miliband says his party will say “enough is enough” to non doms who “live here, work here and send their kids to school here but don’t want to pay taxes here like everyone else.

He repeats his slogan that Labour is “pro-business but not no business as usual.”

Ed Vaizey, the Conservative culture minister, the Manifesto is “nothing new but still dangerous. More spending, more borrowing and more tax.”

Full Labour manifesto

Read it in full here

Ed Miliband: ‘We’ll make amends for calamity Clegg’

He attacks Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats on tution fees and re-announces Labour’s pledge to cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000.

The Lib Dems hit back:

The fact is @UKLabour doesn’t have the guts to tackle the deficit and will need to borrow £70bn more than the @LibDems #GE2015

— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) April 13, 2015

Ed Miliband tells crowd not to boo journalists

Ed marshalling crowd rather well to stop them booing journalists. Maybe he could take over from Bercow if he loses the election

— Alex Richman (@alexrichman) April 13, 2015

There have been issues at other events when journalists from the FT to the BBC have been booed by Labour activits when they ask questions at official events.

He says: “Whats really important about the country that we believe in is that we have a press that asks difficult questions and it is important that we hear these questions respectfully because it is who we are as a country, so I am going to turn to our friends from the media.

He adds: “Just for the record – it wasn’t just the media applauding what I said there.”

Ed Miliband: ‘I am ready’

The Labour leader has given his pitch to the country in his speech finale:

Over the last four and a half years, I have been tested.

It is right that I have been.

Tested for the privilege of leading this country.

I am ready.

Ready to put an end to the tired old idea that as long as we look after the rich and powerful we will all be OK.

Ready to put into practice the truth that it is only when working people succeed, that Britain succeeds.

If you elect me as your Prime Minister in just over three weeks’ time:

I will work for that goal.

I will fight for that goal.

Every single day.

In everything I do.

In every decision I make.

I know Britain can be better.

The British people know Britain can be better.

Together, let’s make it happen.

Ed Miliband Q&A

Labour shadow cabinet walk through the Corrie set to the manifesto launch

He is asked why should people trust Labour when the manifesto doesn’t include taxes they will raise and what services they will cut?

He says that his plans are more binding than those of other parties and that they have been very clear about their plans.

Why won’t Labour say what date they will get rid of the deficit by? 

He says it will happen as soon as possible – but he’s not going to make promises on exact dates he can’t keep.

The Conservatives are making “the Green party look fiscally responsible”, he adds.

Ed Miliband: ‘People are saying I like what Labour are putting forward but I want to know it adds up’

Faisal Islam is booed during his question on Labour’s history of fiscal responsibility. Ed Miliband tells the errant audience members off like a teacher “Now, Now, remember what I said before, seriously that is Faisal’s job to ask those questions.”

He says there are lots of people at home who are thinking I like Labour values I like what Labour are putting forward.. but i want to know it adds up”, and adds that

He adds is happens to the Scottish budget overall depends on “other decisions we make”

He says in Scotland you have two other choices – an “extreme plan from the conservatives” or billions of cuts from the SNP due to their fiscal autonomy plan.

Ed Miliband: ‘We didn’t regulate the banks properly and that led to the financial crisis’

The Labour leader is asked whether his party simply spent too much last time around.

“We didn’t regulate the banks properly and that led to the financial crisis… if you look at the position we were in before the financial crisis the debt was lower than the debt we inherited, for example, here is the thing – the financial crisis then happened,. i wish the financial crisis hadn’t happened.

“But the question for the future is who has learnt the lessons of the financial crisis? Who has learnt the lessons in relation to the banks and the question for us is in these changes circumstances are you going to make decisions which show you are going to get the deficit down, and the answer is yes.”

Gary Gibbon: Is this simply a Houdini ‘lock’ which you already know how to unpick

• Gary Gibbon Political Editor

Ed Miliband arrives at the launch of the Labour manifesto in Manchester

Gary Gibbon asks Ed Miliband: “You’re making a lot today obviously about the lock, the budget responsibility lock on page one, a lot of people would see it as a Houdini style lock, one you already know how to unpick.

The IFS is saying your rules are deliberately vague and they don’t allow us to know whether you are going to make £18 billion of cuts or 0. Which is it?

Miliband says he’ll answer the second point first but “will come to the Houdini question”.

He says: “We are going to have cuts in unprotected areas, we have been clear about that … we have to learn about what has happened over the last five years. Why is it that the Government have made the cuts but they haven’t cut the deficit as their promised.

He says there are three elements to deficit reduction.

Tax: He says they have set out the changes they will amke

Spending: He says that he has explained what he will do on this issue, other commentators say that Labour have been far from clear on what they will spend on.

The economy and living standards: He says the revenues haven’t come in and that is why we haven’t balanced the books.

Gary Gibbon says Labour have been given “wriggle room” on their figures. Miliband says he doesn’t recognise that interpretation. He says he is making “clear commitments”.

Populus poll puts parties back on level pegging

Latest Populus VI: Lab 33 (-), Con 33 (+2), LD 8 (-), UKIP 15 (-1), Greens 5 (-1), Others 6 (-1). Tables here: http://t.co/vhjmoiOqkN

— Populus (@PopulusPolls) April 13, 2015

Michael Crick’s verdict: Ed’s enjoying this

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

I don’t think I’ve seen a party leader in an election so relaxed and in such a good mood, as Ed Miliband today.  It partly reflects the fact that Labour’s had a good couple of weeks so far, of course.  Perhaps it’s a combination of two things – Miliband knows that in a month from now he’ll either be prime minister, or be rid of the horrible burden of being leader of the opposition.Do Labour’s words in the manifesto about “the concentration of media power in too few hands” being “damaging to our democracy” apply to the BBC?  Somehow, I doubt it.

Michael Gove turns up at manifesto launch

Gary Gibbon reports that the Conservative chief whip has turned up outside the Labour manifesto launch with lots of people standing outside in Sturgeon masks and waving signs saying “we’ll prop you up Ed”.

Meanwhile Boris Johnson has given his verdict.

No commitment of 4 nuclear subs eh? Already started your coalition negotiations with the SNP, Ed?

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 13, 2015

Cameronless leader debate positions announced

Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage will stand on opposite side of the leaders’ debate on Thursday evening.

From left to right the leaders will be: Ed Miliband, Leanne Wood, Natalie Bennett, Nicola Sturgeon, and Nigel Farage.

The first opening statement will be made by Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and Nigel Farage will speak last.

IFS: ‘Lock’ gives Labour ‘enormous amount of flexibility’ on cuts

Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told BBC’s Daily Politics voters “would not know what they were voting for” regarding Labour’s planned spending cuts.

The Labour party have repeated what they have said over the last several months, which is that they want to get to get to current budget balanced as soon as they can in the next parliament.

Now, it really, really matters how soon that is. If they want to get there within three years, which is sort of what they might be thought to have signed up to in the fiscal responsibility charter earlier this year, that’s a really significant amount of spending cuts or tax rises over the next three years.

If they are happy to wait til the end of the parliament, which is also sort of consistent with what they signed up to, then actually we don’t need any spending cuts over the next five years.

So, which one of those paths really, really matters. And we’ve got no additional clarity today about whether we would be signing up to additional spending cuts or tax rises or not.

It gives them an enormous amount of flexibility; it allows them to say well we would be cutting very little, but also that we would be cutting. But it really makes a big difference, there’s a huge difference between £18bn of cuts over the next three years and no cuts. Literally we would not know what we were voting for if we were going to vote for Labour.

Nigel Farage refuses swordfight with a Polish aristocrat

Nigel Farage and his Union Jack socks

Nigel Farage is on the campaign trail in Clacton, Essex where he is wearing a natty pair of socks. The Ukip leader has declined the offer of a swordfight with a Polish prince who challenged him on YouTube. Mr Farage said he was “trying to keep violence out of the election”.

Mr Farage visited the town’s Copping Community Centre with Douglas Carswell – the first person to be elected as a Ukip MP after defecting from the Conservatives. He met supporters and again spoke of the lack of young British people pursuing careers in manufacturing and leaving engineering firms with a “genuine shortage” of skilled workers. He said: “We will say that anyone doing engineering at degree level should not be paying any tuition fees.”

Nick Clegg has used a controversial analogy for Labour’s manifesto

People don’t read manifestos but influential commentators do

Professor Paul Whitely, an expert in electoral behaviour at the University of Essex, said that “people don’t read manifestos but they do care about what commentators say”.

He told Radio 4’s World at One that listening to these outsider commentators – such as the IFS and the OBR – has become “more important as people don’t trust politicians” and he says these independent bodies can “shift votes”.

He adds that in Britain analysis of manifestos is currently very focused on individual parties but on the continent they evaluate on the group of parties that could make a coalition – and if there are great contradictions or credible together.

David Cameron told to be a ‘good boy’ and stopping calling Ed Miliband names

David Cameron campaigning in Alnwick today

David Cameron has been told to “be a good boy” and stop calling Ed Miliband names.

The prime minister was on his first on-camera walkabout of the campaign when he was urged by one voter to avoid “name calling” tactics against the Labour party.

Mr Cameron took to the streets of Alnwick, in Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency, in a bid to woo voters while Ed Miliband was in Manchester to launch the Labour party manifesto.

The prime minister bought some sausages at Turnbull’s butchers and chatted with shoppers during the 15 minute stroll.

However all did not go completely swimmingly as the Prime Minister was forced to dodge the serenade of a man with a ukulele who sang that he should “f*** off back to Eton”.

Last week Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, accused the Labour leader of stabbing his brother in the back by running for leader and suggested he would do the same to the country over the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Mr Cameron repeated the backstabbing comment and refused to say whether he believed Mr Miliband was a “decent man”.

PM asked by member of public to avoid name calling pic.twitter.com/Cg6Yp3aDP9

— James Tapsfield (@JamesTapsfield) April 13, 2015

Gary Gibbon: Ed Miliband is stealing the Conservatives’ Sunday Best

• Gary Gibbon Political Editor

Ed Miliband was on bullish form at Granada’s studios in Manchester launching Labour’smanifesto. You wouldn’t know it had been a tortuous business getting here, but ask anyone involved and it most certainly was.

He was performing the traditional political trick of nicking the other side’s political clothes – in this case the Tories’ Sunday best: their reputation for fiscal prudence. Ed Miliband said the Conservatives “are now the irresponsible party in British politics” – which rather begs the question of who used to have that mantle.

Keep reading

Labour manifesto: The FactCheck verdict

One claim in the Labour manifesto immediately caught the FactCheck team’s eye, Patrick Worrall reports:

“Too many have been driven from secure, full-time work into precarious, badly-paid jobs.”

If this is supposed to mean that there has been a major shift in the labour market from full-time to part-time work, that is not borne out by the official employment stats.

If you look at the latest figures put out by the Office for National Statistics, the total number of people working part-time has gone up since just before the last election – by 6 per cent.

But the number of people working full-time has gone up by slightly more – 6.7 per cent.

There are 472,000 more people working part time than there were in February to April 2010, and about 1.4 million more people working full time. The ratio is almost identical.

As we found in a recent FactCheck, the overall jobs mix – the proportion of part-time compared to full-time and temporary compared to permanent – has only changed slightly.

Labour say – correctly – that about 1.3 million people are working part-time because they can’t find a full-time job. That’s just over 16 per cent of part-time workers – but this is the lowest percentage since 2011.

None of this tells us how much of the rise in employment we have seen since the last election is low-paid. Self-employed people are a growing proportion of the workforce and their earnings are not covered by the official statistics.

Zero hours

Labour are keen to hammer home their proposed reforms of much-maligned zero-hour contracts too. But the party is having to be more careful about the way it talks about them.

It’s right to say that there are 1.8 million zero-hours contracts, but the ONS has made it very clear that the official statistics are complicated and cannot be used to suggest that the number has shot up on David Cameron’s watch.

The chair of the UK Statistics Authority gave Labour a slap on the wrist for making just that suggestion in a press release last year.

Poll puts Conservatives six points ahead

A new Guardian/ICM poll shows a Conservative lead of six points. David Cameron’s party is on 39% with Labour on 33%. Earlier today a separate Populus poll put the parties back on level pegging after a week of positive polls for the Labour party.

Full ICM results. Polling carried out between 10th and 12th April.

CON 39 (+3)

LAB 33 (-2)

LIB 8 (-2)

UKIP 7 (-2)

GRN 7 (+3)

Martin Boon, of ICM Unlimited, said: “There is inevitably random variation between different polls, which generally falls within a ‘margin of error’ of plus or minus three points. The movement we’ve recorded since the March survey is within that normal bound, albeit only just.”

New Ukip policy: Referendum on most popular petition with over 2 million signatures

Some commentators have said this could lead to referendums on issues that have not seemed quite important enough to spark a national vote before.

For example the petition to get Jeremy Clarkson reinstated on Top Gear topped 1 million.

Victoria Macdonald: Miliband refuses to sign up to ‘totemic’ £8bn increase

• Victoria Macdonald Health and Social Care Correspondent

Health and social care correspondent Victoria Macdonald says that Labour was not lured into promising the ‘totemic’ £8 billion extra for the NHS.

Even that Simon Stevens figure itself is becoming increasingly arbitrary based on Stevens’ own five year forward view and require commitment across the entire health service to work.

Read her assessment here

Alcohol campaigners respond to Nick Clegg’s alcoholic Labour comments

The Lib Dem leader has been criticised for comments comparing Labour’s record on borrowing to an alcoholic craving vodka.

Lib Dem council candidate Mathew Hulbert, who is standing in the Barwell ward on Hinkley and Bosworth Borough Council, hit out at the comments on Twitter.

He said: “Has Nick Clegg really described Labour’s pledges as ‘like an alcoholic vowing not to drink’?! A disgraceful analogy if so!

“I hope Norman Lamb will berate Nick Clegg for using the analogy it’s ‘like an alcoholic vowing not to drink.’ Emily Robinson, who founded Alcohol Concern’s successful Dry January campaign, said: “Given his claim to take mental health issues seriously I find Nick Clegg remarks regarding alcoholics inappropriate.”

Brian May is in Brighton with the Greens

Ashcroft poll puts Conservatives and Labour neck and neck

It is a mixed day for polls with Populus poll putting the parties back on level pegging after a week of positive polls for the Labour party and an apparently outlying ICM poll in the Guardian putting the Conservatives ahead by 6 points.

As ever, the best bit of Ashcroft's polling is the focus groups: http://t.co/JfpBTeddbu pic.twitter.com/CXdF15zvrG

— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) April 13, 2015

Nick Clegg responds to criticism of his alcoholics analogy

The deputy prime minister said: “I have a great deal of sympathy – and I have known alcoholics in my time – and I understand the battles individuals have to wage.

I’m not seeking to cause wilful offence, I am seeking to illustrate that the claims that someone who drinks a lot might make, that they are not going to drink any extra, are not dissimilar to a Labour Party that wants to borrow billions and billions and billions of pounds and is now trying to claim it is not going to borrow any extra.

Clearly I’m not intending to cast aspersions on people who are grappling with alcoholism.

Michael Crick: The Whigs are back

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

The Whigs are standing in Bethnal Green and Bow along with three other seats

The Whigs are back. The party which dominated British politics for much of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is contesting its first British general election in almost 150 years.

The party resulted from the Exclusion Crisis of 1678-81, and after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, stood for the ascendancy of Parliament over the Crown. The party boasted sixteen Prime Ministers in the almost two centuries of its existence (including the very first PM – Sir Robert Walpole) as well as historic figures such as Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke. But in the nineteenth century the party split.

One Whip group formed what became the Liberal Party, another the Liberal Unionists who eventually merged with the Conservative Party in 1912. The Whigs also played a big role in America too, with four Whig presidents in the mid-nineteenth century. The British party was dissolved in 1868.

The Whig Party is fighting four seats in 2015 – Vauxhall; Camberwell & Peckham; Bethnal Green & Bow (all in London); and Stretford & Urmston (in Greater Manchester).

Their leader, Waleed Ghani, a London business consultant, insists they are not standing for a laugh. “We are absolutely serious,” he tells me. “I think there is a massive gap in Britain for an economically literate party of progressives at the centre of our politics.”

The Whigs’ manifesto, which was published a fortnight ago, says: “We’re pro-EU, pro-immigration, and pro-gender equality. We’re on the side of thoughtful people who are politically aware and want to vote for a better tomorrow.”

David Cameron: Labour’s manifesto is a ‘con trick’

Campaigning in the Conservative marginal seat of Stockton South, Mr Cameron responds to Labour’s manifesto, saying: “What’s striking is, Labour are committed to running a budget deficit for ever so this is not a conversion to responsibility, it is a con trick and the more borrowing would mean more taxes so frankly, it’s the same old Labour and the same old mess that they produced the last time they were in Government.”

Video: David Cameron serenaded by a rude ukulele player

Here is that footage of David Cameron being serenaded by a man with a ukulele who is singing “f*** off back to Eton”.

FactCheck: do Labour’s sums add up?

Labour claim to have the only fully-costed election manifesto. But do the numbers add up?

Read more from FactCheck

Rachel Reeves: Ed is ready

Rachel Reeves, Labour spokesperson for work and pensions, backs up Ed Miliband’s manifesto declaration that he is ready to become prime minister.

Gary Gibbon on Labour’s manifesto launch

• Gary Gibbon Political Editor

Ed Miliband has painted Labour as the party of fiscal responsibility – but David Cameron has said Labour would produce the “same old mess” as last time they were in government, while the Lib Dems dismissed the manifesto as “not worth the paper it’s written on”.

Paul Mason: what they aren’t telling you about work

• Paul Mason Economics Editor

In the first of a series of reports, our economics editor Paul Mason looks beyond the policy announcements and finds the looming issue of mass automation hangs over all the promises to make working life better.