Election 2015: GDP figures show Tories leaving British people behind says Miliband - live
- Ed Balls Day
- Cameron pledges to create 50,000 new apprenticeships using Libor fine
- GDP figures show unexpected slowdown, with economy growing by just 0.3%
- Osborne says GDP figures show economy at 'a critical moment'
- Miliband spotted leaving Russell Brand's London home
- Lunchtime summary
1.30am AEST
The Lib Dems have created an educational interactive quiz to mark the most important day in our political diary:
Do you know your Ed from your Balls?
Do you know your Ed from your Balls? #EdBallsDay http://t.co/j4wLvCol5w pic.twitter.com/uO5EpYMNCk
1.21am AEST
Ed Balls
1.16am AEST
Russell Brand has released a video about the election today. But it is about Nigel Farage, not Ed Miliband.
.@rustyrockets has released the latest Trews, sadly not with Miliband but about Farage and UKIP: https://t.co/zH8kXH6IGr
1.14am AEST
The BBC has released the running order for Thursday's Question Time event with the three main party leaders.
BBC release details of their election Leaders' Question Time: programme from Leeds 8:00-9:30. Order of appearance Cameron, Miliband, Clegg
1.12am AEST
Ed Miliband has just wrapped up his People's Question Time event in Barry. He ended by urging people to support Chris Elmore, the Labour candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan. Elmore was a trained butcher, Miliband said (more than once). That was better than an untrained butcher, he added.
1.08am AEST
Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, is still out of action, having lost her voice. So Amelia Womack, the Green deputy leader, was speaking on her behalf in Bristol, where she said the Greens would reverse welfare cuts and double child benefit. "The Green party isn't just opposed to cuts - we believe in doing more, much more, to redistribute income within our society," Womack said.
1.04am AEST
Here is John Harris's latest Guardian election video.
1.01am AEST
Asked about his decision to give an interview to Russell Brand, Miliband says that the election is hugely important, and that he will go anywhere, and engage with anyone, in an effort to persuade them that voting matters.
1.00am AEST
The People's Question Time is still going on, and Miliband has just criticised the Tories for the way they have mismanaged the introduction of personal independence payments, the new disability payments. They claim to be compassionate and competent, but the PIP reforms show they are neither, he says.
12.59am AEST
The Daily Politics debate on defence and security actually had a few great moments, in that participating candidates were forced off-script and either flapped about or - in the case of the Green Party's Rebecca Johnson - had a moment of refreshing candour. Here's my highlights:
The only way to be absolutely sure about our nuclear defence is to conservative. Our aim in this election is to have a majority Conservative government when you don't have to have that question. You can avoid that question. We're not planning to lose the election. The country needs to avoid the uncertainty of that question by voting for a majority Tory government.
This has been all over the place. First you said three or more. Today you're saying four. Previously you've said everything is up for review, which is it?
The actual percentage number for each of the next three spending review years will be set in the autumn.... We can't commit now to the exact total for the three following years of the current year but we're already spending 2%.
It should not be a crime simply to belong to an organisation or have sympathy with its aims.
Q: Do you disown that statement in the website?
A: Personally, yes.
12.58am AEST
As the focus swings back on the economy it's back in the blue overalls for Osborne, speeches from Miliband, Clegg and Farage, while Miriam Gonziles Durintez tries out a new bike in Scotland. Here's a link to today's election photo highlights.
12.53am AEST
Fair play to Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy: whatever the polls are predicting, rain or shine (and there was a lot of rain in Glasgow this morning), he's bouncing about on the campaign trail like a Celtic Tigger.
Today he was visiting a building site in the Labour/SNP battleground of Glasgow East - Scottish Labour are hosting a load of campaign events there, and one wonder how sitting MP Margaret Curran's less visited contemporaries feel about that. Today Curran and Murphy were joined by shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint to talk about Labour's energy price freeze policy, and to continue with Scottish Labour's theme of the week: that a vote for the SNP would take Scotland on the road to a second referendum. Murphy said:
A lot of people, whether they were yes or no in the referendum, have a sense of 'what do we want to do over the next few years - do we want to repeat the last two or do something different?' We know from the doorstep that a lot of people who did vote yes in the referendum did believe that it was once in a lifetime. You can spend the next few years trying to do what's happening here [indicating to the building site he was visiting] - 100,000 new homes, a higher minimum wage, the abolition of exploitative zero hours contracts - or you can rerun the last two years over the next two years.
12.46am AEST
Miliband says the Tories tried to "gerrymander" parliamentary boundaries through boundary changes.
Some 7m are not registered to vote, he says. That is a "scandal".
12.44am AEST
Miliband tells the event in Barry that he is in favour of Lords reform. Labour wants an elected senate of the nations and the regions, he says.
The House of Lords is "one of the most antiquated institutions in all of the Western world". Most of its members come from the south of England, he says.
12.34am AEST
Miliband says we are "selling the younger generation short" by letting them leave university with 44,000's worth of debt.
12.32am AEST
Russell Brand has hit back at David Cameron. (See 1.45pm.)
Don't be jealous Dave - I'll run into you at West Ham - when you're not busy with "ordinary people" pic.twitter.com/wB1Paq9xHV
12.31am AEST
At his People's Question Time, Miliband says he accepts that, on balance, the impact of immigration is positive.
But that does not take into account how immigration impacts on particular workers and communities.
12.27am AEST
Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, told an Usdaw conference today that the Tories could not be pro-business when they were anti-worker. He said:
I say to the Tories, who waste no time is denigrating our trade unions at every turn, you can't be pro-business if you are continually beating up on the terms and conditions of working people and on the organisations that represent them.
Because it is through all stakeholders - government, business and our trade unions - working together that we will build that better future.
We need you to be bringing the expertise and insight of those who are literally on the shop-floor into the strategic decision making of firms which I know you are already doing, and we need businesses willing to engage with you.
12.23am AEST
Q: Would you keep the work capability assessment test?
Miliband says Labour will reform the way the test operates. But he agrees with the idea that if people can work, they should.
12.10am AEST
Ed Miliband is holding one of his People's Question Time events in Barry.
12.06am AEST
What do the real voters think? We have 60 in five key seats giving their view throughout the campaign as part of our polling project with BritainThinks. They each have an app and are telling us what they think of stories as they crop up.
12.05am AEST
My colleague Philip Inman has written an analysis of the GDP figures and their impact on the election. It is well worth reading. Here's how it starts.
What a gift to Labour. With just a few days to go before the general election, official figures have shown that Britain's growth rate halved in the first three months of the year. And without the huge boost from lower oil prices to consumer spending and the transport sector, the economy could be heading back into recession.
Such is the lopsided, unequal character of Britain's recovery that the Office for National Statistics put the spotlight on the hotel, restaurant and distribution sectors as among the fastest growing. A 1.2% increase in the last quarter compares with a 2.2% collapse across the entire construction industry and a minuscule 0.1% increase in manufacturing.
In good times people turn to left-wing parties but in bad times they say 'Leftwing parties can't necessarily make those tough decisions, we'll turn to the right'.
The graph shows that Labour has indeed never been voted in when the economy has been in trouble - in fact it has never swept into Number 10 with economic growth running below 2 per cent.
11.39pm AEST
Green Party defence spokeswoman Rebecca Johnson has personally disowned a statement on her party's website, which appears to condone supporting a terrorist organisation.
Q: Do you disown that statement?
A: Personally, yes.
11.32pm AEST
Nate Silver was Panorama last night with his election predictions. We have not yet established who the British Nate Silver is, but Lewis Baston, a psephologist, is a possible contender. He has just updated his election forecast in a report for Westbourne Communications (pdf) and he is predicting a tie - with Labour and the Tories both on 272 seats.
Here are his figures.
My expectations have changed in very few seats in England and Wales since I looked at the electoral map in January. The big change is that rather than melting away, the SNP's big lead in voting intention in Scotland has snowballed.
In January it still looked possible that it was a post-referendum bubble, but it is clear that even if the SNP fall short of sweeping the entire country, they stand to gain a swathe of seats and the better the SNP do, the worse for Scottish Labour. Nicola Sturgeon's honeymoon with the Scottish electorate shows no sign of coming to an end, and she has increased her standing during the election campaign.
11.19pm AEST
My colleague Jessica Elgot has sent me this.
The Greens have launched a new campaign video on the back of strong polling for their candidate in Bristol West, after an poll by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft showed a 21% jump in support for Darren Hall.
Following the party's viral 'Change the Tune' boyband-themed video, this offering is decidedly more sober, focusing on selling the potential of a larger "Green grouping" in Parliament and combating 'vote green, get blue' fears of left-wing voters.
11.17pm AEST
SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson reiterates his party's call to scrap the UK Trident programme on Daily Politics. This has been a thorny issue in the election campaign as many claimed the SNP would hold Labour to ransom over the future of the UK's nuclear stockpile - something the party's leader Nicola Sturgeon has denied would happen. Robertson said:
We oppose the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons. It can't be right to cut the conventional defence capabilities we need while we're spending a fortune on weapons of mass destruction which can never be used.
11.08pm AEST
Here's a Guardian video of David Cameron criticising Ed Miliband for giving an interview to Russell Brand.
11.02pm AEST
Good afternoon, Jamie Grierson here. I'm tuning into the Daily Politics election debate on defence and security. Michael Fallon the Conservative defence secretary, Vernon Coaker the Labour shadow defence secretary, Liberal Democrat Sir Nick Harvey, SNP's Angus Robertson and the Green Party's Rebecca Johnson all appear.
10.53pm AEST
Martin McGuinness has demanded a Northern Ireland-only referendum on gay marriage equality.
The deputy first minister of Northern Ireland made the call during an election phone in on Radio Ulster at lunchtime.
10.45pm AEST
What we see from today's figures is, while this government has been trying to run a victory lap, they've been leaving the British people behind. And what these figures illustrate is that, far from the economy being fixed, they are further proof that there are big problems in our economy, big problems [with] the cost of living crisis that so many people are facing. I think that's why we need a better plan, a better plan that puts working people first.
[Brand] says don't vote, that's his whole view, don't vote, it would only encourage them or something. That's funny, it's funny. But politics and life and elections and jobs and the economy is not a joke. Russell Brand's a joke. Ed Miliband, hang out with Russell Brand, he's a joke ... I haven't got time to hang out with Russell Brand. This is more important, these are real people, this is what the election is all about.
10.27pm AEST
Here is more from what Ed Miliband has been saying at his event in Cardiff.
On GDP Ed Miliband says while the Govt has been doing a victory lap, the British people have been left behind with the economy not fixed.
Ed Miliband on GDP figures pic.twitter.com/ADnHlx0exZ
Ed Miliband defends speaking to @rustyrockets says I profoundly disagree with his not voting message but will go & argue with that
I ask Miliband why he engaged with Brand who urges ppl not to vote,he says some complain election isn't interesting &he wants to change that
Miliband tells me re. Russell Brand: if I only did interviews with people who agree with me I wouldn't do any interviews #GE2015
Ed Miliband on his interview with @rustyrockets pic.twitter.com/VzcDZNFYeB
10.14pm AEST
Frances O'Grady, the TUC general secretary, has been looking at the figures in the IFS brieifing that I flagged up earlier. (See 12.32pm.) She has issued this statement:
The IFS report shows that the Conservatives will cut taxes for the better off, and fund it with cuts to benefits and tax credits for the very hard-working families they claim to champion.
With one in five earning less than the living wage, millions of working people depend on a proper welfare safety net to make ends meet.
10.12pm AEST
The Institute of Directors does not often issue press releases praising Labour. But here is Simon Walker, its director general, welcoming Ed Miliband's decision to reject net migration targets.
Ed Miliband is right to rule out net migration targets. Putting an arbitrary figure on the number of people you think should be arriving in the UK every year is not the stuff of serious policymaking. The target has damaged our reputation overseas and put off the very people we should be welcoming into our country, including entrepreneurs and students.
Businesses value - and need - access to a highly-skilled and international talent pool in order to compete in the global economy. As the parties have recognised in their manifestos, part of the long-term solution is to address our skills gaps at home. But growing businesses need engineers, developers and scientists now and the UK will always benefit from being able to attract people with different skills, backgrounds and experiences from across the world.
10.02pm AEST
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has suggested that Labour would not accept Nick Clegg's proposed "red line" on the deficit - Clegg's demand for a "clear timetable" for paying of the deficit. (See 7.04am.) Balls said:
What we are not going to do is sign up to faster plans which would end up meaning huge cuts to police or defence or our public services. He [Clegg] was the guy who came into coalition at the beginning of this parliament and then broke all the promises that he made. I don't think Nick Clegg's promises are worth the paper that they are written on.
9.57pm AEST
David Cameron was mocking Ed Miliband earlier for his use of his lectern. (See 10.47am.)
That has not stopped Miliband getting it out today. He has been using it in Cardiff.
A lectern in a garden? It can only be a Miliband campaign visit. pic.twitter.com/aeLlWLyMr5
Ed Miliband tells Cardiff supporters "Labour is showing leadership on the issue of immigration"#ge2015 pic.twitter.com/7PKNC6252L
9.55pm AEST
9.50pm AEST
9.40pm AEST
Here's today's Guardian three-minute election video. It features Hugh Muir and Zoe Williams discussing the contribution Russell Brand could make to the election.
9.36pm AEST
Ed Miliband has defended his decision to give an interview to Russell Brand.
I've just interviewed @Ed_Miliband about immigration, rent controls, deal or no deal with Plaid and others plus his chat with Russell Brand.
Re: his meeting with Russell Brand @Ed_Miliband says 'I'm going to take the argument to anyone anywhere that voting can make a difference.'
9.32pm AEST
Here is the full report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the parties' plans for tax and benefits (pdf). It runs to 69 pages.
And here are the slides from the presentations at the news conference this morning.
9.08pm AEST
TNS has a new poll out, giving the Tories a 1-point lead.
Here is an extract from the news release.
A new poll by TNS UK shows that voter intention figures are as follows:
Commenting, Jamie Willard, Director at TNS UK, said, "Despite the noise and bluster the polls are not breaking for either the Conservatives or Labour. As polling day approaches, attention is turning to what happens if no party secures an overall majority."
9.02pm AEST
Here is more from Nigel Farage's speech, from my colleague Dominic Smith. Nigel Farage said the Labour vote in the north was as soft as "a rotten window pane".
Nigel Farage was speaking at Hartlepool's Grand Hotel this morning. He was introduced by Jonathan Arnott, Ukip MEP in the north-east. He said that the region had been "forgotten, ignored, overlooked" by government, and stressed that Ukip are the "main challengers to Labour in the north of England".
He then introduced Philip Broughton, the Ukip candidate for Hartlepool as the "other future Ukip MP" along with his party leader. He said he's fighting to protect local hospital services and accused Labour of "not caring" about the NHS.
8.53pm AEST
This is what Nigel Farage said when asked about his view that the worst racism was to be found in Scotland. (See 11.35am.) He said the worst nationalist/racist attitudes were to be found in Scotland.
I'm suggesting if you want to look at unpleasant tactics, in terms of street campaigning, and outright, naked unpleasantness of a national/racial nature, then you only have to see what was said to me when I was surrounded by a group of thugs in a street in Edinburgh to understand that, actually, it is not Ukip that is the target. I have to say on that particular day to the police in Edinburgh for locking me in a public house for my safety.
8.40pm AEST
Q: Are you in denial about racism in Ukip?
8.37pm AEST
Q: You said today the worst racism you had seen had been in Scotland. What do you mean?
Farage says people like David Cameron and Chuka Umunna have wrongly condemned Ukip as racist. If you want to see unpleasant conduct like this, you only have to look at what happened when he went to Scotland. He had to be locked in a pub for his own safety, he says.
8.35pm AEST
Nigel Farage has just been giving a speech in Hartelepool. He is now taking questions.
Q: What is your strategy for the final section for the campaign?
I would regard myself as utterly classless.
8.27pm AEST
Here's Heather Stewart's story on the Institute for Fiscal Studies report about the tax and benefit plans from the main parties. And here's how it starts.
British taxpayers should expect to feel worse off under whichever party wins the general election next week, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
In a scathing analysis of tax and spending policies in the runup to the poll, the IFS issued a series of tough criticisms of the parties' manifestos.
8.18pm AEST
Here's Nick Clegg's latest attempt to talk down the prospect of a Labour/Lib Dem coalition. He said in an interview that, when he was practising kickboxing, he sometimes imagined Ed Balls.
8.12pm AEST
David Cameron has given a wide-ranging interview to Woman's Hour. Here are the key points.
8.07pm AEST
Alison Jackson, the artist well known for her lookalike photographs of celebrities, has done a series of politician lookalikes in whimsical situations:
8.05pm AEST
My colleague Dominic Smith has sent me this.
Nigel Farage is giving a speech in Hartlepool this morning - a traditional Labour heartland which has returned an MP from the party at every election since 1964. But the Ukip leader has set his eyes on it as a possible breakthrough in the north-east, and it is thought to be on the party's top ten list of target seats. Ukip topped the European election poll and gained two new councillors in the town last May, and his latest visit comes after the anti-EU party hosted its regional conference in Hartlepool earlier this year.
Farage has written a piece for the Daily Mail ahead of his visit in which he appeals to northern voters to help Ukip "smash apart Labour's one party state in the North". He claims Ukip has several target seats in mind, and names Rotherham, Hartlepool and Stockton as areas where Labour are vulnerable.
7.51pm AEST
Cameron wraps up his Q&A by telling people to be sure to vote.
Don't listen to Russell Brand. Get out there with your stubby pencil.
7.47pm AEST
Q: Why have you only done one walkabout? Would not that show more passion?
Cameron says he has done walkabouts. Unlike Ed Miliband, he does not need to go out with a lectern. He would like to free the Labour lectern, and let it out on its own, he says.
7.46pm AEST
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has issued Labour's response to the GDP figures:
While the Tories have spent months patting themselves on the back these figures show they have not fixed the economy for working families.
Tory economic policy may be helping a few at the top but for most people bills have gone up faster than wages, which are down 1600 a year since 2010. And now these disappointing figures show economic growth slowing down too. The Tories just don't understand that Britain only succeeds when working people succeed.
7.44pm AEST
Q: Will you keep the NHS free?
Cameron says the NHS is one of the best things about this country. He will keep it free. There will be "no extension of charging" under him.
7.42pm AEST
Q: Don't these GDP figures show the danger of sucking the demand out of the economy, as your plans entail?
Don't believe politicians who say the deficit doesn't matter. They only say that because they have not got the guts or the gumption to tackle it.
7.36pm AEST
Q: Given you say the economy is everything, why shouldn't people be worried about the slowdown in the economy? And isn't your response the the figures just spin?
Cameron says the economy is still growing. Many other countries would give their eye teeth for these figures. But we cannot put the recovery at risk, he says.
7.33pm AEST
Q: [From ITV] Could the timing of the growth figure be any worse for you?
Cameron says they are a "timely reminder" that people need to stick to the economic plan. The economy is still growing, but there are dangers.
7.28pm AEST
Q: Why are you planning deeper cuts than the other parties?
Cameron says the government should be getting rid of the deficit after nearly 10 years.
7.26pm AEST
Cameron says it was wrong in the 1970s to sign up to the Treaty of Rome committing Europe to "ever closer union".
7.25pm AEST
David Cameron is now taking questions at his rally.
7.22pm AEST
A new Survation poll for the Record in Glasgow has added to Labour's gloom by showing the SNP has increased its support, again, putting Nicola Sturgeon's party at a gravity-defying 51%. The four point boost to the SNP is partly at the expense of Labour, down one point to 26%.
Survation finds Sturgeon has remarkable trust ratings, far exceeding her opponents, with a 64% positive trust rating, against 34% for Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and 35% for Nick Clegg.
7.22pm AEST
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has released its analysis of the main parties' tax and benefits proposals.
Here are the IFS's key points.
The Conservatives propose small net cuts to taxes and large cuts to benefits; Labour propose a rise in taxes and little change to benefits spending; the Liberal Democrats are in both respects somewhere in between.
All these parties seem to have a desire to raise tax revenue in vaguely-defined, opaque and apparently painless ways. In many cases the proposals would lead to unnecessary increases in complexity and inefficiency in the tax system.
7.17pm AEST
David Cameron says the GDP figures show that we cannot take growth for granted.
7.16pm AEST
And, while Woman's Hour is broadcasting a pre-recorded interview with David Cameron, Cameron himself is speaking at a campaign event. There is a live feed on the BBC website.
7.14pm AEST
David Cameron is being interviewed on Radio 4's Woman's Hour now. He has just said he could see Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, as leader of the party one day.
Could Ruth Davidson be leader of the Conservative party one day? Cameron: "Indeed. I don't put a limit on her ambition." @BBCWomansHour
7.10pm AEST
Here's Lee Hopley, chief economist at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, has issued this statement on the GDP figures.
Today's data is disappointing, but unsurprising, with the UK moving from being one of the fastest growing developed economies to posting the weakest rate of expansion in over two years.
7.08pm AEST
Can you have too much of a good thing? SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon gave her fifth major interview within 24 hours this morning on Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland just now. (The others were on Today, Newsbeat, PM and Newsnight, and yes, we covered every one.)
A few things emerge from this interview avalanche. Firstly, the notion that the first minister is preternaturally unflappable. Certainly, she is an impressive interviewee: articulate, engaging and - when necessary - charming. Indeed, this morning the Herald's political editor Magnus Gardham introduces his own articulacy scale, puting Sturgeon at the top.
7.01pm AEST
City economists agree that today's growth figures are disappointing:
Jeremy Cook, chief economist at the international payments company, World First, says Britain has suffered a "dramatic" slowdown:
Q1 2015 was the slowest three month period of growth in the UK since the last quarter of 2012.
Industrial and manufacturing numbers from the UK economy through January and February have been poor and for once, the services sector has not been able to make up that deficit. That, in itself, is worrying.
Given that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are hoping that many undecided voters will ultimately decide to vote for them due to their management of the economy, this marked slowdown in growth is particularly unwelcome news coming just over a week before the general election.
6.51pm AEST
The pound has been hit by the disappointing growth figures.
Sterling fell sharply against the US dollar when the data was released, down half a cent to $1.518.
6.49pm AEST
David Cameron has commented on the GDP figures. His message is the same as George Osborne's. (See 9.34am.)
GDP figures show our economy is still growing, but we can't take the recovery for granted. Don't risk it with Ed Miliband and the SNP.
6.47pm AEST
Here is some snap Twitter reaction to the GDP figures.
From Philip Aldrick, the Times's economics editor
GDP grew just 0.3pc in Q1. Bad news for Tories - worse than expected - just nine days to election. Now for the spin.
So just as we reported last record jobs numbers pre-election as great news for Osborne/Cam, these GDP numbers are self-evidently not.
Wow ... economic growth slows to 0.3% in 1st 3 months of the year, half what is was the previous quarter and well below expectations.
Q1 GDP at 0.3% against expected 0.5% driven by bad construction figures.
GDP sector detail: 2nd quarterly fall in construction but slowdown broad based across sectors. pic.twitter.com/qVv2VgM72R
Service sector slowdown driven by business services & finance.
Before we all over analyse the stats - remember this is the first estimate of three.
Remember, all GDP data prove the validity of #LongTermEconomicPlan. Strong? It's working Weak? Shows we need to stick at it Karl Popper.
6.42pm AEST
This is Britain's weakest quarterly growth since the last three months of 2012 (the last time the UK's economy contracted), as this chart shows:
6.40pm AEST
Britain's recovery suffered a far sharper than expected slowdown in the first quarter, delivering a major blow to George Osborne's track record on the economy with a little over a week to go before the general election.
The economy grew by just 0.3% between January and March according to the latest official figures, half the rate of the previous quarter. Economists were expecting stronger growth of 0.5%.
6.38pm AEST
Here's Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, on the GDP figures and the slowing rate of growth.
The British economy is recovering well, but these figures remind us that there is still work to do to secure the recovery. Though volatile construction data shows a big dip, the underlying figures show that we are still making solid progress across the wider economy.
Britain will continue to grow at a healthy rate if we stick to a sensible, balanced, timely plan to finish the job and do it fairly. The Tory plans to lurch off to the right with unnecessarily deep cuts and a frenzy of unfunded tax giveaways is a real threat to all the hard earned progress we've made to date. Labour's plans for more borrowing and more debt will push the recovery off track.
6.37pm AEST
The UK service sector was the only part of the economy to grow during the quarter, by +0.5%.
Construction output fell by 1.6%, production by 0.1% and agriculture by 0.2%.
6.36pm AEST
Here is the Office for National Statistics summary of today's GDP figures.
And here is the statistical bulletin, with the full details (pdf).
6.34pm AEST
George Osborne, the Conservative chancellor, has issued his response on Twitter.
GDP up 0.3%, 2.4% on year. Good news economy continues to grow but this is a critical moment & reminder you can't take recovery for granted
GDP figures show future of the economy is on the ballot paper. We should stick to the plan that's delivering a brighter more secure future
With rising instability abroad, now is worst possible time to vote for instability at home.
6.32pm AEST
GDP growth slows to 0.3% in Q1 2015 compared with 0.6% in Q4 2014
Woah. Big miss. GDP growth in q1 at 0.3%
6.32pm AEST
That is less than expected.
6.31pm AEST
Here are the growth figures.
0.3% growth in #GDP in Q1 2015 http://t.co/Y4wnrPxhtq
6.16pm AEST
Peter Robinson, the DUP leader, was interviewed on the Today programme earlier. Here are the key points.
Nobody quite knows what the 12bn would amount to. What we have said is that some of the existing welfare plans that the Conservatives have brought forward we are opposed to, the bedroom tax being an example of that ...
I could not see how 12bn could be saved on welfare in a way that would enjoy our support.
We've had a very good relationship with both the Conservative party and with the Labour party in the past.
Yes, we are socially conservative. We make no apology for that. The majority of people in Northern Ireland would fall into that [category].
.@DUPleader agrees with Tories focus has to be on getting people working but could not support scale of planned cuts pic.twitter.com/chSLGKCVjO
When the leader of the DUP sounds more sensible on #r4today than most Tories, (well, at the end) something bizarre has happened.
6.03pm AEST
Faisal Islam, Sky's political editor, has been set out some election thoughts on Twitter which are worth a look.
Anyway I've now attended the campaigns of all the main parties and spent a day in the road with both Cameron and Miliband..some reflections:
1. Miliband first of big 2 to go on totally unvetted walkabout with journo. Newcastle is home territory, but plenty of milifans in evidence
2. Newcastle station not rep sample, but no one would've expected month ago, a few dozen selfies, milifans professing love and 1 'he's sexy'
3. In interview I chucked whole Labour housing/banking/ cost of living government record at him... Zen calmly straight-batted most things
4. So as ashcroft noted from his poll, miliband is energising the Labour support with reasons to come out to vote, can be seen on ground
5. Before that tho Cam/Mili campaigns controlled,sterile. Extraordinary contrast with street campaign public interaction of Sturgeon/ Farage
6. Cam-paign more "air war" message on "good life" (positive) threatened by SNP tail wagging Labour dog (negative).. Polls show some impact
7. Huge amount hinging on a decisive turn in people's minds next week, and the late return "home" of "lost" kippers. Impossible to predict
8. Labour have more on the ground organisers and campaigners, Cons have one of most extensive targeted Royal Mail logistical operations ever
9. Cameron "pumped-up" passion play yesterday reflects stepping up of existing strategy... Economic stability strongest card...
10. But 5k biz letter was sloppy...Bigger point: just how decisive will papers be this time? Analogue campaigning for a digital election?
5.44pm AEST
Another YouGov poll has shown clear support for Labour's plan to impose rent controls on private landlords.
A new YouGov poll reveals broad support for rent controls, with 60% in favour of limiting the amount that landlords can charge renters and 25% opposed. The net +35 support for the policy is up from +23 in May last year.
Conservatives, whose party have denounced rent controls, are divided on the issue - 42% support, 44% oppose.
5.36pm AEST
Here is Patrick Wintour's story about Ed Miliband filming an interview with Russell Brand. And here's how it starts:
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has been seen leaving the London recording studios and home of Russell Brand, raising speculation that the comedian could be considering endorsing him.
5.33pm AEST
Here is more from the Nick Clegg press conference, where he was setting out a new "red line" for coalition talks. (See 7.29am and 7.49am.)
Clegg says of Labour or the Tories the Lib Dems "won't let you bluff your way through" and will "pin them down". pic.twitter.com/iqAm3X022t
Nick Clegg says wd demand a clear timetable for paying off deficit in any Coalition talks
Balancing the budget means filling the structural deficit, says Nick Clegg. #GE2015
Red lines all over the place now. Clegg says would 'never' allow Tories to cut 12bn from welfare.
Red lines are not about "bums on seats in Whitehall", they are about what is right for the country, says Nick Clegg.
5.14pm AEST
Good morning. I'm taking over from Claire now.
Here are today's YouGov polling figures.
Update: Cons lead at 1 - Latest YouGov/The Sun results 27th Apr - Con 35%, Lab 34%, LD 9%, UKIP 12%, GRN 5%; APP -12 http://t.co/5aqcRQzZ9Y
5.00pm AEST
Priti Patel, the exchequer secretary, is on the Today programme now to plug the Conservatives' new fund for apprenticeships funded by Libor fines.
This is the most important election in a generation " We're very clear what is at stake.
This is about our record. Look at what we have achieved.
I actually think this is about being passionate about the future of our country.
4.49pm AEST
My colleague Frances Perraudin is waiting for Nick Clegg at his early morning red-line-drawing. She reports:
Speaking at the National Liberal Club, the deputy prime minister will call for a 'stability budget' within the first 50 days of the next parliament.
He will rule out pursuing Conservative plans to cut 12bn from welfare and to balance the books through cuts alone, and he will insist that Labour spell out clear plans on deficit reduction.
We will have a stability budget, to take place within 50 days of election day, a pre-condition of any coalition arrangement.
There will be no deal if there is no stability. No coalition without coming clean with the British people. This too, is a red line.
It is, from my point of view, of course a shame that a policy we were not able to put into practice, which wasn't on the front page of our manifesto, has eclipsed the very remarkable achievement of being a party with only 8% of MPs [that] has delivered everything on the front page of our manifesto, but therein lie the twists and turns of politics.
4.39pm AEST
The Guardian's political editor, Patrick Wintour, has more on that visit by Ed Miliband to Russell Brand's pad.
A Labour spokesman said Miliband went to film an interview, adding that the party was looking forward to it being broadcast. Brand has more than 9.5 million followers on Twitter, runs his own YouTube channel, The Trews, and has previously urged his followers on the left not to vote.
It is thought he is not himself registered to vote so if he were to endorse Miliband it would represent a sharp change of mind by the comedian.
4.29pm AEST
Nick Clegg is all about those red lines this week. Yesterday, it was education, and his insistence that the Lib Dems would not enter coalition with any party that didn't agree to its education spending plans.
The Lib Dems want education spending boosted to 55.3bn by the end of the next parliament, 5bn more than Conservative plans and 2.5bn more than Labour.
An emergency "stability budget" within the first 50 days of the next parliament will be a Liberal Democrat red line in any post-election deal.
Nick Clegg's demand would effectively veto the Tory plan to cut 12bn from the welfare budget to balance the books if the Lib Dems teamed up with the Conservatives again.
4.21pm AEST
The New Statesman wonders if Russell Brand is ready to forgo his non-voting hard line in order to pencil his X for " Ed Miliband.
It notes that:
The comedian and activist has recently praised Miliband on his programme The Trews after the Labour leader's appearance in the televised debates.
A friend of mine lives opposite Russell Brand and snapped this picture of Ed Milliband leaving his house...urm pic.twitter.com/kHGVWFbpVZ
The only reason to vote is if the vote represents power or change. I don't think it does.
I fervently believe that we deserve more from our democratic system than the few derisory tit-bits tossed from the carousel of the mighty, when they hop a few inches left or right "
4.01pm AEST
Good morning! Nine days to go until polling day and there will be no signs of election fatigue on this live blog. We are bringing you live coverage of the campaign every day from 7am till late, right up to 7 May and - possibly significantly - beyond, as the next government takes shape.
I'm Claire Phipps, kicking off the blog this morning, before handing over to Andrew Sparrow to take you through the day. We're on Twitter, @Claire_Phipps and @AndrewSparrow, so do share your thoughts there or in the comments below.
Not winning the election outright is obviously not a success " I have a duty to spend the next 10 days to win the election outright.
I'm feeling pumped up. There's 10 days to go, it's a bloody important election and I'm determined to get across the line. The line is victory - and victory is a Conservative majority. I know the polls are tight but victory is doable.
I just sort of wallop these sort of things that you have to hit. I try not to put a face on the things that I'm striking with my feet and my hands " Sometimes Ed Balls might flicker through my imagination.
The Conservatives have put the economy at the heart of their election strategy in the belief that it will give them a decisive lead over Labour.
This approach will still be justified if there is a swing to the Tories in the last 10 days of the campaign. But so far, despite zero inflation, falling unemployment and rising consumer confidence, David Cameron has yet to reap a significant 'growth dividend'.
The real battle is being fought for a few thousand votes in around 80 marginals mainly in England, which are being bombarded with election literature and subjected to a steady stream of political heavyweights beating a path to their doors. Some of them may be getting fed up with it but at least they are involved. Their vote counts; it doesn't feel like mine does.
The momentous nature of the choice ahead is still passing too many voters by: canvassers need the patience of saints hearing those whose lives will be radically affected by the result say 'They're all the same' or 'We don't vote'. The temptation to grab people by the lapels and give them a good shaking must be almost overwhelming.
The parliamentary arithmetic means that a vote for the SNP is most probably actually a vote for a weak Labour government. Unless Cameron can cobble together a majority with the Lib Dems and, perhaps, Northern Ireland's Unionist parties, it's likely that, together, the SNP and Labour could, as Sturgeon says, 'lock the Tories out of Downing Street'.
Labour in Scotland, however, cannot admit such a possibility even as Labour in England cannot afford to discount it.
Ed Balls
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