Miliband dismisses Conservative spending claims

A black hole in NHS funding would be filled by ploughing the proceeds of future economic growth into public services, under Liberal Democrat plans.

Nick Clegg said his was the only party able to show how it would meet "in full" the increase of £8 billion a year by 2019/20 NHS chief executive Simon Stevens says is required.

Under the plan, the additional £2 billion announced by Chancellor George Osborne for 2015/16 in the Autumn Statement would be repeated every year of the next parliament.

Another £1 billion a year from 2016/17 would come from a pension tax relief and dividend tax squeeze on high earners, and ending the Conservative "shares for rights" policy - a move agreed at the party's conference.

The bulk of the boost would come, however, from the Lib Dems' pledge to increase public spending in line with the growth of the economy after eliminating the structural deficit in 2017/18.

But Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham accused Mr Clegg of "empty promises" and said the public wold "not believe a word of this unfunded policy".

Read: Clegg dismisses 'threat' from Miliband to boot him out

Labour's newly elected leader in Scotland has said his party would use a 'mansion tax' to fund 1,000 extra nurses north of the border.

Jim Murphy admitted the move would mean taxing properties mainly in England to pay for improvements that would benefit Scotland.

He told the Press Association:

Read: Health Secretary: 'Homes tax' is Labour's only NHS funding plan

Conservative Chief Whip Michael Gove has indicated the Tories would use some of the cash made available once the deficit is eliminated to fund a £7 billion income tax cut promised by David Cameron

But his comments suggested the cuts would not be seen until the final year of the next Parliament, when the Office for Budget Responsibility predicts a £23 billion surplus in the public finances.

He told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "Within that, we can afford to have tax cuts ... If you've got £23 billion spare, left over, then you can take £7 billion out of that for tax cuts."

Analysis: Unspun: Picking apart the parties' campaign claims

Nick Clegg has dismissed the threat of losing his Commons seat after Ed Miliband suggested he would make time in the election campaign to support Labour's direct campaign against the Deputy Prime Minister.

Asked by a Labour activist from Clegg's Sheffield Hallam constituency whether he would join their bid to boot out Mr Clegg, Mr Miliband told a pre-election rally: "Sheffield is very close to Doncaster where I'm an MP so I'm sure I can find time to come and visit."

But the Liberal Democrat leader played down the threat from a party he said was "seriously discredited" on how to look "after people's money, both locally and nationally".

Mr Clegg defended his record as a "hard-working constituency MP, knocking on doors".

A Conservative document accusing Labour of making £20.7 billion worth of unfunded spending commitments is a "dodgy Tory dossier" that is "riddled with untruths and errors on every page", shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.

• Tom Bradby: Do these 'nonsense' election claims actually make sense?

George Osborne and his senior Cabinet colleagues laughed as they were asked if they could each say why they might make a good leader of the Conservative Party.

Osborne, William Hague, Theresa May, Nicky Morgan and Sajid Javid were addressing journalists on the cost of Labour's policies when it was suggested the event looked like a leadership hustings.

"We're not going to do that," the Chancellor said after the laughing subsided.

"This is a team united behind David Cameron, a strong Prime Minister who lead our country in the coming years."

George Osborne has denied the party's cost analysis of Labour's policies is "a load of nonsense" when questioned by ITV News Political Editor Tom Bradby.

"No, we've been very clear that the commitments that we use are ones that are either in Labour policy documents or in party conference speeches," the Chancellor said.

"We've done the thorough homework here," he added.

ITV News Political Editor Tom Bradby has said the panel criticism of Labour's spending claims by the Conservatives' leading Cabinet figures is "nonsense" but "clever politics".