Ed Miliband sets his pledges in stone

Ed Miliband has unveiled Labour’s pledges carved into a stone plinth in Hastings while on the campaign trail.

Speaking in front of the 8ft 6ins-high piece of limestone, the Labour leader said he would keep the stone “in a place where we can see it every day as a reminder of our duty to keep Labour’s promises”.

Labour said the stone came as part of an effort to rebuild the public’s trust in politics, after the issue was highlighted by a series of pointed questions from the audience during last week’s final TV debate on BBC Question Time.

He said: “Our six pledges form the basis of our plan for working people.

“These six pledges are now carved in stone. They are carved in stone because they won’t be abandoned after the general election.”

The carving has already been mocked by social media users, with ‘The Thick Of It’ comedy writer Simon Blackwell likening it to a ‘tomb’.

ICYMI: John Prescott boxing with Michael Crick on the election trail

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

Nicola Sturgeon: Ed Miliband has made mistake ruling out SNP deal

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has hit out at Ed Miliband‘s “cack-handed” pledge that there will be no Labour government if it means working with her party.

Polling evidence suggests Mr Miliband’s  announcement on Thursday has boosted support for the SNP, Ms Sturgeon said in an article for the Sunday papers.

Her opponents say this is all the more reason to hand their parties a majority, with Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy warning that the SNP is “plotting another referendum” in the Sunday Mail.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Ed Miliband has been so spooked by anti-SNP rhetoric that he has allowed himself to be bullied by the Tories – hence his disastrous pronouncement that he would rather let them back in than work with us to keep them locked out of Downing Street.

“It was a cack-handed move, because in Scotland it simply galvanises even more support for the SNP – and there is already polling evidence suggesting that is the case.”

Nigel Farage: is this what it’s sunk too?

Nigel Farage has insisted the celebrity culture takeover in politics has resulted in the “worst general election campaign in history”.

The Ukip leader claimed voters had been denied proper debates on key subjects by coverage of the leaders’ ovens and the shoes worn by their wives.

He added he had shunned opportunities to boost his opinion poll ratings by allowing cameras into his kitchen and raising the profile of his family as a matter of principle.

When asked by LBC Radio presenter Beverley Turner why he had not done the “kitchen shot”, Mr Farage said: “God help us. Is this what it’s sunk too?”

Clegg refuses to rule out second coalition with Tories

Nick Clegg has set out his final conditions for any coalition involving the Tories, but pledges not to defy the Liberal Democrats’ “collective will”.

Speaking to The Independent on Sunday, Mr Clegg revealed the sixth and final of his “red lines” with which he will arm himself in any negotiations next weekend.

He said he was “wary” of a coalition this time, because of the way in which they had behaved in the last parliament, particularly over issues such as environment and climate change.

Asked whether he would go into a second coalition with the Tories, however, Mr Clegg said they were the most obvious option on the table adding: “I will not go against the collective will of my party.

“You can’t weather all the pressures, you can’t hang tough, you can’t stay the course unless you’ve taken a collective decision. At all levels of the party, including the leader, there is wariness, of course there is.”

Revealing his “red line”, he said: “Liberal Democrats will not enter a coalition with a party not prepared to back pay rises for people working in the public sector.”

Mr Clegg confirmed that he could foresee a Labour-Lib Dem minority government that then relied on vote-by-vote support of SNP MPs, saying: “I have had so many questions on this I am now going to let rip: it’s astonishing we’ve got to the point where – shock horror – one party can’t control how another decides how to vote. Of course not: it’s called parliamentary democracy.”

Labour’s new stone plinth mocked as a ‘grave’ mistake

Nick Clegg is among several critics who have criticised Labour’s new stone plinth, which outlines the party’s pledges.

During a rally in Southwark, the Liberal Democrat leader called the slab, labelled as #EdStone on Twitter, as “gravestones”.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, also questioned the stunt, likening Ed Miliband to Moses:

William Hague: Tories ‘haven’t ruled out tuition fees rise’

The Tories have not ruled out increasing tuition fees above the current maximum of £9,000 a year, William Hague has said.

The coalition presided over a rise in university tuition fees from around £3,000 a year to a maximum of £9,000 in 2012.

Asked on BBC One’s Sunday Politics, if the Tories would seek to raise fees or not, Mr Hague replied: “We’ll continue to act in the interest of universities prospering and of record numbers of students going to university, which is what we have achieved against all predictions and forecasts over the last five years.”

Told the party had not ruled out an increase in the next parliament, Mr Hague said: “We haven’t ruled that out but scare stories about what may happen to such fees are really, as I say, just designed to scare people ahead of the election.”

Mr Hague’s remarks followed Nick Clegg’s refusal to answer on five occasions – under questioning from Labour’s Yvette Cooper – if he would rule out an increase in fees.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, Mr Clegg said: “Never mind a £9,000 limit, Lord Browne – the report commissioned by the Labour Party, endorsed by the Conservatives – said there should be no upper limit whatsoever and then to add insult to injury the Labour Party basically left no money at all so clearly something had to give.”

Speaking about tuition fees, Ed Miliband on Sunday said he wanted to cut fees to under £6,000.

During a visit to Worcester, Mr Miliband said: “I would like to get tuition fees down further. I would like to do better than £6,000. But, the reason we said £6,000 is we know we can deliver and we have shown where the money is coming from.”

Pollwatch: Election 2015 remains as unpredictable as ever

The latest polls have the two main parties neck and neck, with the Tories on 35% and Labour on 34%. The Liberal Democrats are on 8%, but are expected to secure more seats than their national polling would suggest.

The Tories were also a point ahead in the Sunday Times/YouGov poll while a ComRes poll had the two main parties level on 33%.

The outcome, however, remains too close to call. Source: UK Polling Report

Cameron calls on electors to vote tactically

David Cameron has urged people to vote for their “preferred Prime Minister” as he kicked off a final push to election day.

The Tory leader made a direct appeal for Ukip and Liberal Democrat supporters to cast their ballots tactically and keep him in Downing Street.

Mr Cameron insisted he is the “only option” for avoiding a “calamitous” and “chilling” tie-up between Ed Miliband and the SNP.

He warned that Ukip was a “back door to a Labour Government”, and suggested Nick Clegg was ready to be part of a “minority Labour Government, propped up by the SNP”.

The Conservatives have used their latest election broadcast to press home apocalyptic warnings about the threat of SNP influence.

In the film, the economy, represented by a clock, is smashed by a sledgehammer that represents the nationalists.

Who Cares: the play that puts the NHS under the knife in the election

• Victoria Macdonald Health and Social Care Correspondent

The opening scene in Michael Wynne’s new play, ‘Who Cares’ is a hospital A&E. It is so well done that you can almost smell it. That combination of disinfectant, drunkenness, disease and controlled disorder.

At the Royal Court, the play is about the NHS, based on interviews with many familiar names, from doctors and nurses, from Julie Bailey who revealed the scandal a Mid-Staffordshire, to Anita Charlesworth, from the Health Foundation.

The audience is invited to promenade through the NHS: the GP surgery, outside while the paramedic has a break, on the roof having a smoke are two nurses talking about the pressures they are under, into the operating theatres.

READ MORE

#EdStone: Is Ed Miliband’s Labour plinth a monumental mistake?

Just days before voters go to the polls, there’s little sign of either of the two main political parties securing a convincing lead. The attention is turning to potential deals in the case of a hung parliament.

Watch Cordelia Lynch’s report: