As celebrity endorsements go, it may not be the biggest name, but the Sun’s splash on “White Van Dan” was certainly on message.
Dan Ware, whose mode of transport and penchant for the Union Jack cut short the shadow cabinet career of Labour MP Emily Thornbury, not only declares his allegiance to Cameron and the Tories, but warns that “a vote for Ukip is wasted” and says he “wouldn’t trust Labour to take care of my business”.
The interview continues inside on a double-page spread, accompanied by a quote from George Osborne saying he’s “delighted” to hear of Dan’s support and a graph mapping the correlation between GDP growth and transit van sales. All under the headline “Van of the People”.
The Daily Mail also reverts to type with an attack on Ed Miliband’s pledge to make owners of unused land sell up and implement rent controls. The newspaper even managed to rustle up quotes describing the plans as “stalinist” and a return to the “dark days of the 70s”.
The lead story continues with some analysis on page two, including the suggestion that rent controls were responsible for a fall in the proportion of households in private rented accommodation from 55% in 1939 to 8% in the late 80s.
Further back, a spread leads on George Osborne’s pledge to increase the 40p tax threshold to £50,000 to help “middle class families”. There’s also some photoshop skills on display with the image of Osborne’s face on the body of Aidan Turner in Poldark.
The SNP remains a preoccupation for both the Times and the Independent, though the two papers take very different angles.
The Times leads on Cameron’s “10 days to save the United Kingdom” speech, as well as warning on page 10 that union Unite will “push Miliband into making deal with nationalists”.
Meanwhile, the Indy zeroes in on the potential damage that concerns about an alliance with Nicola Sturgeon’s party could do to Labour’s vote.
After Monday’s splash on the letter from 5,000 business leaders supporting the Tories, the Telegraph only dedicated a small side column of its front page to the election, focusing on the Tories’ six-point lead in the latest Lord Ashcroft polls.
Inside, Michael Deacon talks about the “Incredible Hulk PM” following Cameron’s recent energetic performance at a log cabin assembly plant in Bedford. More shoring up of the PM’s credentials comes with a story on how Cameron proposed to his wife Samantha while watching 1973 gangster film Mean Streets.
The Guardian leads on the PM’s promise to use £227m raised from fining the banks for rigging Libor rates to fund 50,000 apprenticeships, describing the move as an “attempt to steal ground from Labour”.
The only paper to go for an unashamedly pro-Labour (or rather anti-Tory) front page is the Mirror, leading on comments from Conservative MP Phillip Lee suggesting some patients should face A&E waiting times longer than the four-hour target.
For the Daily Express and Financial Times, which don’t usually have much in common, the election slips off the front page completely.
However, the FT dedicates most of the next two pages to a Populus poll giving Labour a three point lead, Cameron’s appeal to small businesses and critical analysis of Labour and Tory plans to solve the housing crisis.
Express readers on the other hand can get all the way to page nine without reading any election coverage before finally being treated to news of Cameron’s “lively” speech, as well as Ukip’s complaint over the BBC’s “unfair” decision to leave Nigel Farage out of Thursday’s Question Time Leaders’ Special.