Who is responsible for editing Grant Shapps Wikipedia page?

Nick Clegg has a suggestion.

Responding to a question this morning the deputy prime minister said he believed Mr Shapps’ denial that he had been responsible for edits to his Wikipedia page, as reported by the Guardian.

So who does the Liberal Democrat leader think was responsible?

“It could have been someone else… Michael Green for instance”, he said.

A spokesman for the Conservatives has said the allegations in the Guardian are “categorically false” from “start to finish” and has claimed the story is simply a “smear” from Labour.

Nigel Farage: Migrants will keep coming across the Med unless we send a message

Nigel Farage has been on ITV’s Lorraine this morning where he claimed that if the situation of migrants in the med was not sorted millions would come to Britain.

The Ukip leader has been on a media round and told news South that migrants who alighted in Italy should be returned back to their own countries on sea-worthy vessels.

Mr Farage said a “big message” had to come from southern Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece, that “‘unless you send a message that you are not going to unconditionally accept unlimited numbers of people; they are going to keep coming”.

David Cameron backs Grant Shapps

Taking questions after a speech in Bedford, Mr Cameron was asked whether he had “full confidence” in his chairman, and replied: “Grant does a great job. He has made a very clear statement about this and I have got nothing to add to that.”

However he does not say a straight yes to the question of full confidence.

#Milifandom explained

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

Last year Ed Miliband gave a speech about image, and photoshoots and looks.

He was basically decrying the whole image-obsessed political landscape and attempting to paint himself as the serious politician who cared more about creating the right policies than posing with huskies, (which David Cameron famously did as leader of the opposition).

So Mr Miliband, the self-confessed geek who struggled so publicly to eat a bacon sandwich, must have been surprised as the rest of us at the source of his new found support network: teenage girls on Twitter.

Young Labour supporting women have seen one too many sneering commentaries on their beloved leader and have decided enough is enough.

In a tribal show of support they have turned their attentions, and their selfies, on to Mr Miliband creating a fandom support network normally focused on teenage pop groups. And it looks like its working.

In true teenage fandom style the #Cameronettes are hitting back with pictures of the Conservative leader and One Direction. I wonder if both leaders are wishing they’d given 16-year-olds the vote?

Although they also have their heads firmly screwed on.

But Twitter clearly doesn’t.

Food bank use – a political hot potato

• Paul Mason Economics Editor

Over a million people needed free food from a food bank last year, according to the Trussell Trust, which runs Britian’s biggest food bank scheme. 400,000 were children.

A detailed breakdown reveals the same four causes as before: benefits disrupted due to to sanctions, low income, changes in benefits and debt – with those hungry because of low pay showing a marked increase.

It’s a political hot potato for the government: Conservative politicians have repeatedly criticised the Trussell Trust for “creating demand” for charity by advertising food banks’ existence. But all the major parties want to cut to the welfare bill in the next parliament.

Because inflation is flat, average pay is now actually rising – but housing costs for those at the bottom of the labour market eat into low incomes differentially.

Every one of these million stories will be different, but almost a quarter were people on a low income who went hungry when small, unexpected events disrupted their household finances.

This is the price you pay for “job creation” – many of the jobs created are insecure, temporary and part time and put those who work in them permanently in need of in-work benefits, and unable to feed themselves when the smallest thing goes wrong.

Boris Johnson: SAS should be sent into Libya to ‘choke’ traffickers

“The first thing to do is to stop the people who are trafficking in human lives. I think sending over warship is entirely right, I myself would like to see a real commitment to getting to grips with these people and rounding.

“There are people on the northern literal of Mediterranean who are actively conniving in murder because they are sending people to their deaths in unseaworthy vessels.

Asked if military personnel should be sent into Libya, he said: “I think you need to choke of the problem at source, we need to stop these people being put into boats … I think isn’t the tradition that you don’t discuss the us of special forces? But you need to do something.”

Meanwhile in Brighton there is a protest on Britain’s response to the deaths.

Ed Miliband responds to his biggest Milifan

But he didn’t even wish her luck in her A-Levels.

Stanley Greene embedded on the British election trail

Legendary US photographer Stanley Greene (represented by the Noor agency, and especially known for his work in Syria and Chechnya) is embedding with the four main English parties during the election – going out on the campaign trail, taking to politicians, party workers and joe public.

He’s covered elections in the U.S. and under Putin in Russia… And is interested in exploring race and power.

Greene is a 65 year-old African-American from Brooklyn, now living in Beirut.

Our producers will film him shooting a black and white, photo essay of Britain’s election process with exclusive shots first here throughout the rest of the campaign.

First stop: the Clegg battlebus.

Geoffrey Evans, BES co-director Professor, said:

The idea that many Ukip voters are working class and that they therefore pose a threat to Labour’s support in the election has gained considerable currency in recent years. But we find this is wrong; the working class basis of Ukip has been strongly overstated.

The party’s strongest supporters are often the self-employed and business owners. Even within the working class, Ukippers tend to be low level supervisors, and not the disadvantaged semi and unskilled workers often thought to provide the core of the party’s support.”

‘This is just not something Grant would do’

NIcky Morgan has come to the defence of Grant Shapps, the Conservative party chairman, who has denied being blocked by Wikipedia for editing information about himself and other politicians.

She said: “Grant has absolutely strenuously denied these allegations, and I know Grant well, this is just not something that he would do…

“This is part of a smear tactic I’m afraid to say, by the Labour party, by our opponents, trying to detract the attention of everybody else from the fact it has become clear the Labour party cannot get a majority at the election.”

Who are you going to vote for?

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

We are entering the final stretch of the election, well at least we’ll soon be entering the final fortnight of the election campaign.

There are lots and lots of national speeches, events, polices, manifestos but politics is also a local thing – you vote for your MP who represents you for the next five years, not technically for a party.

Democratic dashboard, established by the Democratic Audit, based in the London School of Economics allows you to simply type your postcode and it hands you a detailed analysis of your seat.

Recent voting patterns, unemployment levels and crucially all the candidates standing in your area are included.

It’s worth a look.

Never one to be left out, Nigel now has his very own fandom…

Three teenage girls in Dudley have branded the Ukip leader their “hero” and say that he is the “best person we’ve ever met”.

Sophie, 14, told The Independent: “It’s made our Easter holidays and when I go back to school I’m going to tell all my friends that I met Nigel Farage.”

Why’s that then?

“David Cameron says he’s going to do all this stuff but he does nothing,” was the verdict from her best mate Charlotte. “For the whole time he’s been Prime Minister, he’s done nothing – all he does is argue and he’s losing to Ed Miliband and Ed Miliband is crap.

“Nigel Farage shook our hands and we’re not going to wash our hands for weeks now.”

David Cameron’s been on the This Morning sofa

Nigel Farage defends his decision to describe colleague as ‘half-black’

Mr Farage described Ukip immigration spokesman Steven Woolfe as half-black while defending the lack of black faces in his party’s manifesto.

He told Sky News: “Well, he refers to himself as that, so you will really have to ask him that question … I don’t regret repeating how a candidate describes himself.”

Internal Shapps Wiki investigation done by Lib Dem

• Mike Deri Smith

Grant Shapps has denied that he or anyone he instructed made changes to the pages of top Tories to add slurs about them, and to polish his Wiki to remove criticism.

An investigation by a Wikipedia adminstrator called “Chase me ladies, I’m the Cavalry”, also known as Richard Symonds, found that the IP addresses and technical details of the computers used to make the new changes, under the name ‘Contribsx’, were similar enough to ones linked to Shapps’ office by a prior Guardian story. As a result the account was banned.

So it’s quite a stretch, the Wikipedia experts say, to assume that it wasn’t someone close to Shapps, based on technical details.

Grant Shapps has said that the changes were made as a result of a Labour smear. But the actual person who banned the account on Wikipedia? One of the UK’s most senior Wikipedia administrators, but also a “Liberal Democrat (to the last)” reads a Twitter page under his name and username.

Boris Johnson faces a grilling from Michael Crick over the online activities of Grant Shapps

The Conservative Party chairman has denied claims he repeatedly edited entries about himself and other MPs on Wikipedia.

He has said that the claims made by The Guardian are “categorically false and defamatory” and “the most bonkers story I’ve seen in this election campaign so far”.

The Guardian claims Wikipedia has blocked an account it suspects is being used by Mr Shapps.

In 2012 Mr Shapps was challenged over his role in the HowToCorp website which featured get-rich-quick advice from supposedly successful businessmen Sebastian Fox and Michael Green – a name Mr Shapps had previously used as a business alias.

Boris Johnson and Michael Crick discuss ‘Lyndon Johnson’s’ influence on the campaign trail

Watch this funny video of Boris discussing the how Lyndon Johnson is a “very capable politician” but sadly not head of the Conservative campaign after Michael muddles his words.

David Cameron posts video of Alex Salmond apparently boasting that he will write Labour’s budget

It definitely sounds like a joke, but Labour won’t be happy.

About “He [Labour spokesperson on TV] said famously: “The Scottish Labour leader will not be writing the Labour party budget.” But then I knew that already, because I’m writing the Labour party budget”

The full video is here, the comment is about 4 minutes in.

The view from a real life Milifan

When Rosalind Dunn tweeted a ‘selfie’ of herself with the lighthearted caption “thinking about Ed Miliband” she didn’t expect to find herself in the middle of the most surprising phenomenon of the election campaign: Milifandom.

But are Are the Milifans for real? Here Rosalind speaks to Channel 4 News about why the movement humanises Mr Miliband… but she accepts that even he might find it “a bit weird”.

Milifandom is about “both appreciating him as a politician and a person”, she tells me over email.

“I suppose Miliband could take it as a compliment, even if he might find it a bit weird… I don’t think Cameron could have the same effect, purely because I don’t think he has the same following with young people on twitter. “Older people have a habit of taking politics very seriously and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but it certainly doesn’t create a stir in the same way this has.”

https://twitter.com/rosalind_dunn/status/589922856366116865

The movement, she suggests, has grown out of an idea that the mainstream media has presented an awkward view of the Labour leader, one his fans don’t recognise. The selfie generation knows the power of “one bad photo” after all: “The fact is that most of the photos readily available of Miliband are chosen by the media to embarrass and ridicule him, and it seems that a lot of us wanted to take these photos and encourage people to look at them in a different light, and understand that bad photos don’t make a bad leader.”

Rosalind is happy with the attention but doesn’t want the Milifan brand to undermine the strength of young Labour support: “The support for Ed Miliband definitely stems from support for Labour, but I don’t think most of us ever expected it to reach the audience that it’s begun to reach now, and especially not start to change perceptions of the Labour leader.”

“I just don’t want people to feel like our views are less valid because it appears to be based on Miliband himself, as opposed to a passion for politics and strong support for the Labour party.”

Cameron’s climbing frame endorsement provides free advertising for shed firm

David Cameron visited Dunster House this morning, telling the audience he had purchased a climbing frame from the firm five years ago. They’ve wasted no time getting him into their advertising videos.

Nick Clegg: Pies, peas and Number 10 sauce

Extra points for the use of an allgravy hashtag there. Mr Clegg is out campaigning in the South West again.

Ed Miliband: My wife thought #Milifandom was a case of mistaken identity

He’s not so clear about what fandom is, though his appreciation is certainly tinged with a little confusion when he says: “It’s very nice of those people who have joined this thing to be being nice about me.”

Asked about the phenomenon on The Jeremy Vine show he said: “So I found out about it last night and I told my wife about it and she thought it must be a case of mistaken identity. I then tried to convince her that it wasn’t a case of mistaken identity and she went from sort of amused to bemused.

“To be fair to the young woman who set the whole thing up, as I understand it, she’s seriously talking about the voice of young people in politics and I think there’s a serious point here, which is hearing the voices of young people in our politics I think young people in our country feel this generation, our generation has done them in.”

He is then shown a tweet in which a Milifan says they’ll die happy if they get to meet Ed Miliband. He adds: “OK I’m definitely blushing now. I certainly wouldn’t claim to be cool, by the way, I don’t think I’ve ever been called that.

“It’s very nice of those people who have joined this thing to be being nice about me, but I think they’re making a serious point about young people in our politics as well.”

Alex Salmond: David Cameron needs to get a sense of humour

Alex Salmond has responded to a video David Cameron has shared which shows him joking that he will write the Labour manifesto.

The Conservatives have been making much of a warning that voting Labour could result in a Labour-SNP coalition with Ed Miliband beholden to the Scottish National Party over key issues affecting the UK.

Alex Salmond says this he was simply making a light-hearted joke about Jim Murphy and the PM needs a sense of humour.

He said: “The point made in a light hearted way was that Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy had been slapped down by his party bosses at Westminster and told that he would have no role in Labour budget.

“David Cameron is clearly a prime minister with both a people by-pass and a sense of humour by-pass.”

Is Ed Sheeran coming?

As the Conservatives are finger painting and are awaiting Ed Miliband in Ipswich.

Wikifiddling – Wikipedia admin deletes links with Lib Dems

• Mike Deri Smith

The Wikipedia administrator facing questions from within Wikipedia today about whether he acted too rashly to ban a user for making edits to pages about Grant Shapps was revealed earlier by Channel 4 News to be a Lib Dem.

His Twitter page said yesterday that he is a “Liberal Democrat (to the last)”. No longer: in the last few hours it was updated to state “Ex-Liberal Democrat voter (no longer)”.

And he has now deleted his page.

He has been an active Liberal Democrat over recent years, including signing an open letter about Lord Rennard.

Shapps denies Guardian allegations that the favourable Wikipedia about him was made by someone in his office.

Child’s play on the Conservative campaign trail

Samantha Cameron joins David Cameron and Boris Johnson at a shed company this morning. She painted a shed, Boris and Dave did some questionable finger painting.

Boris Johnson admits it would be a ‘wonderful thing’ to be considered as Conservative leader one day

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

After a day hanging out with David Cameron, Boris Johnson has got as close as he has ever got to saying he’ll run for leader one day.

He told Sky News: “It is at least 5 years away which is an eon in British politics, by which time whatever my personal ambitions may be there will be thrusting young men and women who will be overtaking me and who knows, it will all be different.

“In the dim, distant future, obviously it would be a wonderful thing to be thought to be in a position to be considered for such an honour but I think it highly unlikely.”

Nick Clegg: Nigel Farage is ‘an odious Victor Meldrew on stilts’

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

Nick Clegg inspects a wheel earlier today

He’s really pulling no punches in this an interview with the MailOnline:

“This is someone who is clearly uncomfortable talking about people from different ethnic backgrounds, calls them ‘half’ and ‘fully’ black, but is also someone who advocates basically turning our backs on people who are very sick and kind of indulging in a language that is so divisive, so odious.”

He adds: “He is just lashing around, thrashing around, lurching from one odious gaffe or assertion to the next. There is no pattern.

“One moment he claims he wants to take his manifesto seriously and the next he is talking about fully and half black candidates.

“You are either serious or a kind of Victor Meldrew on stilts. Which one are you?

“It just beggars belief that it is that kind of person that the Conservative party thinks they need to bring back into the fold.”

Nigel Farage: Hands up, I was wonky but i’ve got the vim and vigour back

He tells Jon Snow that he is back on track after the ups and downs of the election campaign began to take their toll.

Watch the exchange in full tonight from 7pm.

Ed Miliband: There must be no trade off between controlling immigration and basic humanity

The Labour leader has put out a statement ahead of the EU summit on the ongoing crisis of migrants dying in the Mediterranean.

He said: “It was wrong to cancel the search-and-rescue operation last November and it should be restarted.

“There is no trade-off between controlling immigration, showing basic humanity and living up to our moral responsibilities as a country.”

Ed Miliband: My brother sends me texts telling me to be myself

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

Ed Miliband has been on Radio 5 live and he says his brother has been sending him supportive text messages “advising me to be myself”.

He also says that he doesn’t expect David to be winging it back from America anytime soon to take up a place in his cabinet.

“I’m not anticipating that, he’s happy doing the job he’s doing,” he tells John Pienaar.

Conservative parliamentary candidate saves tortoise

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

The Southern Daily Echo has my favourite political story of the day. Caroline Nokes, the Conservative candidate in Hampshire, has reunited a lost tortoise with its owner after coming across the reptile on the campaign trail.

She stumbled across Peggy Sue while campaigning and posted pictures of him to social media. Later that day she was reunited with Loraine… who lives 20 metres from where the tortoise was found.

She had been missing since October and is now reunited with her friend Buddy.

Cameraman taken out on the Labour campaign trail

Update: While it initially appeared that the culprit is a Labour press officer, the cameraman says he got “tangled up in someone’s legs..It happens.”

Labour says that it is “categorically untrue” that a press officer pulled over a BBC camera.