Labour stamp duty pledge for first-time buyers

A Labour government would introduce a stamp duty holiday on homes costing up to £300,000, Ed Miliband will announce later today.

Under the plans, Labour would change planning laws to introduce a “first call” policy that would give first-time buyers who have lived in an area for more than three years priority on up to half of local new homes.

It would also introduce a “local first” policy that would stop properties being advertised overseas before they have been publicised in the UK.

In a speech in Stockton, Teesside, the Labour leader will say: “There’s nothing more British than the dream of home ownership, starting out in a place of your own.”

“But for so many young people today, that dream is fading, with more people than ever renting when they want to buy, new properties being snapped up before local people get a look-in, young families wondering if this country will ever work for them.

“That is the condition of Britain today, a modern housing crisis which only a Labour government will tackle.”

Buyers currently pay nothing on the first £125,000 of a home’s value and are then charged on a sliding scale, starting with 2 per cent on the next £125,000 on the next £125,000 and 5 per cent on the following £675,000.

Chancellor George Osborne introduced a two-year holiday on stamp duty, expiring in March 2013. It raised the threshold for first-time buyers to £250,000.

Small businesses back Tories in Telegraph letter

On the day David Cameron unveils the Conservatives’ small business manifesto, leaders of 5,000 smaller businesses have signed a letter to the Daily Telegraph in which they say they “would like to see David Cameron and George Osborne given the chance to finish what they have started”.

The firms, which employ nearly 100,000 people across the country, say: “This conservative-led government has been genuinely committed to making sure Britain is open for business.

“They’ve managed to get the economy moving against by tackling the deficit, helping to keep interest rates low and inflation down.”

Later today Mr Cameron will tell an audience in central London that he wants to see 600,000 new businesses start every year by 2020.

“Labour think it’s government that creates jobs,” the Tory party leader will say. “We know it’s the people who take risks, start out on their own, wake up at the crack of dawn to open up their shop and do their books on the kitchen table at midnight, who create jobs.”

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy – and Conservatives are behind them 100 per cent.”

Labour business spokesman Chuka Umunna says that his party would cut and then freeze business rates, which he claims have increased by around £1,500 under the coalition.

“Government scheme after government scheme designed to boost finance for small firms has failed,” he said in an email in response to the letter. “With Labour, the tax burden on small firms will be lower than under the Tories.”

Today on the campaign trail

David Cameron will be setting out his plans for small businesses in London today

Ed Miliband is in the north-east for his 11am speech on living standards.

Nick Clegg will be campaigning in Eastleigh a constituency that the party held onto in a by-election in 2013. The polls suggest the Lib Dems might struggle to pull off the same feat this time.

Jim Wells resigns as Norther Ireland health minister

The Northern Ireland health minister at the centre of controversy over remarks about gay couples has resigned.

Jim Wells said he would now care for his wife who is seriously ill.

The resignation follows his remarks at a hustings where he linked same-sex relationships to child abuse. He later apologised for those comments.

Police are now also investigating an incident involving a lesbian couple during an election canvas by Mr Wells in County Down.

His statement read: “As many people are aware I have been focused on helping my wife during her fight for life,” he added.

“Those who know my family and I, know the last three months have been the toughest of our lives as we watched my wife, Grace, suffer two successive strokes and battle through major heart surgery.”

“However, as she now faces further challenges I have come to the point where I am no longer able to continue my ministerial duties and give Grace the attention she deserves.”

Well they do play in the same colours…

David Cameron and son Arthur watch Queens Park Rangers v Aston Villa at Loftus Road in 2011

David Cameron has been forced to justify his “brain fade” on Saturday when he wrongly identified the team he claims to avidly support. He mixed up his apparently beloved Villa, calling on people to support West Ham.

He’s been quizzed on forgetting his own football team, a unconscionable sin for most fans, on ITV’s Lorraine show. He says he’d been to West Ham’s stadium the day before but that these are not the things that determine an election.

In a speech celebrating Britain’s multiculturalism the Prime Minister said that he wished everyone would support West Ham, despite claiming for many years to be life-long Villa fan.

At the end of the speech he was pulled up by a surprised journalist who asked him: “You’ve said I think before that to govern is to choose. Do you choose West Ham or do you choose Villa?”

At the time he said he had had what “Natalie Bennett [the Green Party leader] would describe as a brain fade” adding: “I’m a Villa fan”.

Natalie Bennett has lost her voice.

Nicola Sturgeon: I will lead negotiations at Westminster

• Andy Davies Home Affairs Correspondent

The SNP leader was on Radio 4 earlier to talk about her party’s possible role as kingmakers after May 7. 

She used her now familiar line that any “anti-Tory majority” – i.e. any combination of Greens, Plaid and SNP should work together to “lock” the Conservatives out of Downing Street. She said that Labour and these parties should do this even if Labour are not the biggest party come May 8.

Ms Sturgeon was also clear in her determination that she would lead any discussion with Ed Miliband should they come up.

As she is not an MP and would not have a right to sit in Westminster some critics have said that she should not lead negotiations on any power sharing deal there. She says it doesn’t matter. People know she is leader of the SNP and people voting for the SNP know she can be “trusted” to do the right thing.

David Cameron: If you want the excitement of risk, vote for the other guy

David Cameron is speaking in central London.

He looks rather pumped up and he’s been asked by journalists whether this is his “hell yes” moment, a reference to an unexpected comment from Ed Miliband at a recent speech.

He tells the crowd: “I prefer to carry out speeches in traditional English rather than hiring American coach”

Mr Cameron plumps for a rather more home counties description of his election campaign:”I feel bloody lively about it”, he says.

Ukip councillor saves family from a blazing house

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

According to The News in Portsmouth a Ukip councillor saved a family of four.

Patrick Bergin burst into his neighbour’s home in Gosport, “with fire licking at his heels”, the paper reports

Bursting into the house as the family sat down to a Chinese take away, he picked up the four-year-old boy and led the rest of the family to safety.

His efforts have earned him praise from his party’s leader:

Should the politicians just stay at home?

• Alex Thomson Chief Correspondent

Labour battle buses in the Wirral last week

All seated on a small room on the concert hall complex above Buchanan St steps outside.

We await Ed Balls and Jim Murphy the Scottish Labout leader. There are about 60 in the room by invitation and guest list only.

One serial Labour heckler offered to carry our tripod in order to get in – jokingly to be fair.

Part of me wonders what the point is of these events? Plainly weeks of plastic campaigning have made little difference to any of the parties’ standings in the polls.

Should they all simply have stayed at home?

My impression is that the constant bombardment of all of them taking about millions of this and billions of that, leaves the voters utterly unmoved and that in fact the voting process is stimulated far more by non-statistical, emotional and frankly less rational processes little understood by the PR spinners who claim to comprehend so much but who have achieved precisely nothing as the polls show.

Nick Clegg: It’s perilous to pretend to be a football fan

Nick Clegg has some advice for David Cameron when it comes to football supporting.

He;s at the the Ageas Bowl cricket ground in Hampshire telling reporters: “It’s a perilous thing to pretend you’re a fan of a sport when you’re not.”

Election 2015: Jon Snow on the road

Jon Snow is off on a road trip around Britain in the run up to the election, getting a feel from voters on the ground.

Interviewing ex-Labour voter John Prentice who thinks Scotland needs the change the SNP offers

First stop is Inverness where he’s sailing up the Beuly Firth trying to find out if it really matters to voters here that Labour is dying in Scotland.

Next week it’s off to Barry Island in Wales (notable as the home of Gavin and Stacey) and then to York on the eve of the election.

We’ll keep you updated here.

David Cameron fired up in London

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

Commentators are pointing out that David Cameron was pretty fiery this morning, oratorically and physically.

During a standing room only event in central London the Conservative leader appeared to get pretty heated during the passionate speech in the city, his cheeks flushing bright, bright red.

Is he changing tack and trying to make the election a little bit more emotive and exciting with less than two weeks to go? Or was it just a very hot room?

“If I’m getting lively it’s because I’m feeling bloody lively”, the Prime Minister says.

Interesting Scotland polling

Ed Miliband adds sixth pledge on housing

He’s in the middle of a Q&A with journalists now and is being asked about the 5000 small businesses who signed a letter in the Telegraph this morning backing David Cameron’s economic policy.

He says the Conservative claim they will create 2 million new jobs is “plucked out of the air”. He wants to create jobs, he says, but he wants to create high paying jobs. He doesn’t match the pledge.

A very sweet sounding boy in the audience takes the mic. “This is loud!” Then he asks whether Mr Miliband thinks David Cameron is “chicken” for not debating him.

Another child asks: “What did want to do when you were seven?”

Ed Miliband wanted to be a bus conductor because he wanted to “turn around the ticket machine” on the old style London buses. David Cameron has previously said that he wanted to be a lorry driver.

He’s asked what he would say to house building companies who have lost value this morning on the back of this policy. He says his policy is better for house owners and house buyers.

Populus poll puts Labour three points ahead

According to a poll just published by the FT Labour is three points ahead of the Conservatives.

The paper reports that with 10 days until polling day Labour is still at 36 per cent against the Tories’ 33 per cent.

The poll was carried out between April 24 and 26, a slightly bigger lead than Labour’s 2 point advantage a week earlier .

Ed Miliband: I wanted to be a bus driver

 Sometimes the most enjoyable questions come from more unexpected places.

A very sweet sounding boy in the audience took the mic during Mr Miliband’s speech earlier. “This is loud!” Then he asks whether Mr MIliband thinks David Cameron is “chicken” for not debating him.

Another child asks: “What did want to do when you were seven?”

Ed Miilband wanted to be a bus conductor because he wanted to “turn around the ticket machine” on the old style London buses”.

Video: David Cameron is pumped up in London

David Cameron: I cry at the sound of music

David Cameron has been talking to Nick Ferrari in an interview which will be broadcast on Classic FM tonight. He is in confessional mode, taking about how he proposed to Samantha Cameron – lying on the sofa watching the violent Scorsese film Mean Streets.

And what makes him cry (hint, it’s the same as Ed Balls.)

“I do cry in films. The Sound Of Music… as soon as we get on to Edelweiss I’m reaching for the Kleenex,” he told the programme.

Here’s Ed Miliband explaining why he wanted to be a bus driver

ICM poll gives Conservatives three point lead

David Cameron campaigns in Thatcher’s old seat

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

Margaret Thatcher in the Finchley job centre in 1977

David Cameron is visiting a free school in the Finchley and Golders Green constituency, which is 89th on Labour’s target list.  There are no TV cameras present but my producer and I made our way in and saw David Cameron being asked questions by a select group of children.

What was his favourite subject?  History, he said.  And he had a teacher who was so passionate about history that “when discussing the death of Prime Ministers he used to cry.”

The PM went on: “And he had a block of wood on his desk – this wouldn’t be allowed these days – and if he thought you weren’t paying attention he’d throw it at you.”

Cameron later told me the history teacher was Michael Kidson.

The PM is now in an art class learning how to do marbling with shaving foam.

Ed Balls mocks David Cameron for forgetting his own football team

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

“We’ll take anything including our football teams won’t we?

Ed Balls loves it: “My team play in yellow and green but I just can’t remember what their name is…. Watford? Brazil? Can’t remember?”

As Jim Murphy points out, the pair are speaking in Glasgow, a city where no one forgets what team they support.

Separately the pair seem rather awkward as they mock, they don’t really seem to commit and Jim Murphy’s timing is very dodgy. Enjoy!

Where’s the yellow playdough?

Nick Clegg makes playdough with some children in Dorset, although one child doesn’t seem too keen to share the role of chief chef with the Liberal Democrat leader. Must feel familiar.

When it becomes clear the group are making bright green sticky playdough paste, Mr Clegg is outraged. “Where is the yellow playdough?” He asks.

Alex Thomson is in Edinburgh

Conservatives have six point lead in Ashcroft poll

THe Conservatives have a 36 to 30 per cent lead in the latest polling carried out by Lord Ashcroft, former Conservative vice chairman.

The Tories are up two points since last week and Labour are unchanged.

The Liberal Democrats are down a point at nine per cent, UKIP down two at 11 per cent, the Greens up three at seven per cent and the SNP down two at four per cent.

One notable change Lord Ashcroft points to is an increase in Labour voters who say they would prefer Ed Miliband in No.10. He says that this is explained by those Labour voters who really dislike him deciding on another party and with others deciding he has run a good campaign.

“I also suspect that some who have decided to vote Labour despite their doubts about its leader are now telling themselves that he might not be so bad after all,” Lord Ashcroft writes.

Lib Dem would be MP gets bitten by a dog

Stephen Gibert came off pretty badly when he attempted to canvass a local dog in  St Austell & Newquay this afternoon. Mr Gilbert is defending a majority of just 1,312.

The perils of the doorstep.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said he was delivering leaflets through doors at the time.

He said: “He was out in the constituency delivering a leaflet through a letter box when the dog bit him. It is a hazard of the job and all politicians are vulnerable to it.

“Stephen has been treated at the minor injuries unit at the local hospital this morning and has been bandaged up with a few painkillers. He will be back on the campaign trail this afternoon.”

Finally meeting some real people… they just aren’t old enough to vote

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

Today David Miliband, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband have spoken to some actual, real people. Something that has been sorely missing from this election campaign.

And what do the 7-year-old who asked Mr Miliband about his bus driving ambitions, those 3-year-olds messing about with playdough with Mr Clegg and these teenagers apparently hanging on to Mr Cameron’s every word have in common? None of them is old enough to actually vote.

It’s becoming a theme – need to get out from behind your lectern but don’t want too many awkward questions about immigration? What about an intensive playground Q&A with a three year old?

Feeling a little “Westminster political elite”? Grab Boris Johnson and head to a finger painting workshop with some politically engaged five year olds.

Lib Dems reveal their first red line for any coalition

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

Nick Clegg has said that they will not make a deal with any party after May 7 if they are not guaranteed that their pledge of “cradle to college” education investment.

The party says that any deal will come with the quid pro quo of increased spending on nurseries, schools and colleges. This specific “red line” refers to a guarantee that “per pupil” spending, from nursery to the age of 19, is protected in real terms to the end of the parliament.

Funding is currently protected for children aged between five and 16 but the Liberal Democrats want to ring fence education spending for two to 19-year-olds.

According to the Lib Dems this is the equivalent to £5.2bn more funding than the Conservatives and £2.5bn more than Labour.

Deputy Prime Minister said: “I can confirm a Liberal Democrat red line – a pre-condition for Government – is increasing spending on education.

“The Liberal Democrats will not allow our children and grandchildren to pay the price of this generation’s mistakes.

“We believe above all else in spreading opportunity, in tearing down the barriers that stop people from reaching their potential. Nothing is more crucial to that than education.

“So the next Government must increase spending on nurseries, schools and colleges.

“That means education spending must rise with both prices and pupil numbers.

Can he fix it? Osborne turns up in a factory yet again

Watch George Osborne lift concrete blocks with a hand-controlled crane before lowering them –  after a brief wobble – on to a lorry.

The chancellor, who was at a builder’s merchants in Cheltenham, has made a point of making macho trips to factories across Britain, dressed down, often in high vis, and more than not with a cuppa in hand.

And isn’t he having fun?

Daddy is the election over yet?

David Cameron holds his daughter Florence before taking part in the Sport Relief Mile run last year

 

David Cameron has revealed that his daughter Florence, 4, is the Cameron who has her pulse most firmly on the pulse of the electorate.

He says she already thinks it’s all been going on “for a long time” and demands to know every evening “if the election is over yet”.

The Conservative leader is also carrying on his fired up form which appears to have gone down well at an event in London today. He told Channel 5 News that he is “hungrier” than he was five years ago.

“I want this very badly,” he says. “It’s not about me though.”

Jon Snow prepares for tonight’s programme on the river front in Inverness – as a TNS poll suggests that 57 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies could be won by the SNP.

‘One day you’ll meet your maker…’

Jon Snow takes a sombre tone as he grills the Lib Dems’ Danny Alexander over whether he will regret having “messed about with a referendum on Europe”.

Mr Alexander was also asked about the Lib Dems’ new line in the sand, and the very real prospect (according to a poll any way) that he may lose his seat in nine days time.

Watch the report: