With just 10 days to go until the general election, here are today’s movements:
Labour
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls gives a speech this morning at the UNISON schools seminar, where he is expected to lay out Labour’s education plans (11am). Also speaking is the union’s general secretary Dave Prentis (10:00am).
As parties seek to shore up the green vote, Ed Miliband debates the environment with his opposite numbers on The Daily Politics this afternoon (2.15pm; see below).
Elsewhere, Secretary of State for Defence Bob Ainsworth will set out “A Labour Party View of UK Defence Policy” at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Whitehall (1pm).
Conservatives
After a bad start to the day for Michael Gove, with the shadow education secretary having his plans for parent and charity-run “free schools” criticised by Kent County Council Paul Carter, the Tories are seeking to regain some momentum with a question and answer session at their headquarters in Millbank (8.30am).
David Cameron has been repeating his opposition to electoral reform, and said that the Liberal Democrats are in a “complete muddle” about the possibility of a hung parliament. Elsewhere, Milband’s shadow Greg Clark is talking on The Daily Politics a little later in Millbank (2.15pm; see below).
Liberal Democrats
Leader Nick Clegg has been speaking in Edinburgh this morning, where he reiterated yesterday’s statement that he would not prop up Gordon Brown in a coalition if Labour came third in the number of voters (7.30am).
Other parties
Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond joins actress and comedienne Elaine C. Smith and local SNP candidate Richard Thomson for a public question and answer session at Inverurie Town Hall in Aberdeenshire. Also features local SNP candidate Richard Thomson.
With the day’s focus firmly on the environment, the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for Lewisham Deptford Darren Johnson is on The Daily Politics debating opponents from the three main parties (2.15pm; see below).
The media
BBC2’s The Daily Politics continues its live election debates with a debate on the environment between Ed Miliband for Labour, Greg Clark for the Conservatives, Simon Hughes for the Lib Dems and Darren Johnson for the Greens. They are cross-examined by Andrew Neil and Newsnight’s Justin Rowlatt (2.15pm).
Over at ITV1 Scotland tonight, Bernard Ponsonby questions David Mundell of the Conservatives in Election Face to Face (10.45pm).
Away from the campaign
After having his World Cup dreams defeated by his achilles tendon, David Beckham appears on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning daytime talkshow The View alongside hosts Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg in one of the strangest line-ups of the modern era (11pm).
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