Campaign truce ends
The campaign truce was well and truly over today, with all three of the main party leaders making speeches across the country.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that education and the economy would be ‘at the heart’ of Labour’s general election campaign
Mr Blair was in his constituency, Sedgefield, for his formal adoption as candidate.
During his adoption speech, he highlighted the improvements made to the education system since 1997, including increased investment, more teachers and classroom assistants, smaller class sizes, and improving GCSE and A-Level results.
In Yorkshire, Gordon Brown said, “the centrepiece of Labour’s campaign is how we equip Britain for the future – and at the heart of that is our commitment to education”.
Meanwhile, in Telford, Conservative Leader Michael Howard outlined his party’s immigration policy, arguing that the current system was “chaotic”.
The Conservatives would introduce a points system for migrant workers, set a limit on the number of immigrants allowed into the UK, he explained.
In a rallying speech to prospective Liberal Democrat candidates, Charles Kennedy urged his party not to “talk down Britain” and pledged to fight the general election on the “real issues”.
Elsewhere, the Scottish Green Party revealed that former Liberal Democrat candidate for Glasgow Stuart Callison has defected and will stand as a Green Party parliamentary candidate in East Dunbartonshire.
