David Cameron informs the Queen of the dissolution of Parliament and fires the starting gun of the election.Returning to No 10, he says: “Together we are turning our country around and for the sake of you, your family, and your children’s future, we have got to see this through.”

More than 100 of the country’s most senior business figures warn that a Labour government would “threaten jobs and deter investment” in the UK.In a letter to The Telegraph, they praise Conservative economic policies and warn that a “change in course” would “put the recovery at risk”.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, fails to break through in the first election debate since the dissolution of Parliament, with minority parties emerging as the winners of the contest.Mr Cameron finishes the debate as voters’ overwhelming choice to lead the country, according to a snap poll.The Prime Minister urges voters not to send the UK back to “square one” by electing Mr Miliband.

A leaked memo seen by the Telegraph claims that Nicola Sturgeon, privately said she would “rather see” Mr Cameron win the general election because Mr Miliband is not “prime minister material”. The official account of a discussion between the SNP leader and the French ambassador appears to confirm that her party would privately favour another Tory-led government because it might help to stoke up anti-English sentiment. Both the French ambassador and Ms Sturgeon deny she made the comment.

Photo: Paul Grover Mr Miliband announces that Labour will scrap the non-dom tax status enjoyed by those who are British citizens but do not pay tax on earnings made outside the UK. He claims that the 200-year-old scheme costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year and has made Britain “an offshore tax haven for a few”.Duncan Bannatyne, the entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den star, above, says the policy “gets my vote”, having previously backed the Tories’ economic plans.

Photo: AFP One of the most memorable images of the election campaign emerges when Mr Cameron visits the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School in Westhoughton, Bolton.Six-year-old Lucy Haworth, sitting next to the Prime Minister, becomes overcome with shyness when he asks if she will read aloud from a book. “Why don’t I do a line and you do a line, is that fair?” he asks, prompting her to rest her face on the desk.

Mr Miliband publishes Labour’s election manifesto, which focuses on economic competence.Measures include a £2.5 billion NHS Time to Care fund in the early years of the next parliament, 25 hours of free childcare for working parents of three and four-year-olds, and smaller class sizes for five, six, and seven-year-olds.

The Conservatives launch their manifesto. It includes a pledge that working families with three or four-year-old children will get 30 hours of free childcare a week.The manifesto also includes plans to revive Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy to enable 1.3 million families in housing association properties to own their home.

Nicola Sturgeon delivers a strong performance in a live BBC debate in which she sets out the terms of a deal to work with Ed Miliband and “lock David Cameron out of Downing Street”.Pledging to “make Labour bolder”, the SNP leader dominates the debate.

Sir John Major, the former Conservative prime minister, suggests the party’s campaign lacks passion. At a question-and-answer session with Tory activists he says: “Behind this sloganising of economics, about growth and matters like that [are] lives, people that really matter. We should focus on people, people, people.”

David Cameron accidentally jokes that he wishes everyone supported West Ham — a Premier League rival of the team he is meant to back, Aston Villa.

The Prime Minister makes a speech aimed at rejecting claims that his campaign has lacked energy and passion. Mr Cameron says that he is “pumped up” and has more desire to win this election than he did in 2010.“If I’m getting lively about it, it’s because I feel bloody lively about it,” he said.

Russell Brand releases an interview with Ed Miliband in which the Labour leader says he wants to confront “the richest and most powerful” in Britain. The video, filmed for the comedian’s YouTube channel, is uploaded after Mr Miliband was pictured leaving Brand’s home at night. Brand praises Mr Miliband for “understanding how the country feels”.

Mr Miliband, David Cameron and Nick Clegg appear separately in a BBC Question Time Leaders’ special during which the Labour leader is lambasted by a business owner over his party’s record on the economy. Catherine Shuttleworth, 48, from Leeds, says Ed Miliband should fire Ed Balls, after the shadow chancellor claimed that a note stating there is “no money left” was nothing more than a joke. Mr Miliband is widely mocked on social media when he trips in the studio.

Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Ed Miliband is accused of suffering his “Neil Kinnock moment” after pledging to install an eight-foot limestone monument to his manifesto in the Downing Street garden. Critics dub it a “policy cenotaph” and “the heaviest suicide note in history”. In an embarrassing gaffe, Lucy Powell, Labour’s campaign vice-chairman, later suggests Mr Miliband could still break the pledges.

A bombshell exit poll released as voting finishes at 10pm suggests David Cameron is on course to sweep back into Downing Street with 316 seats — a far greater number than his party expected.Labour insist the results are likely to be wrong: they show a very different picture from the party’s private polling. However, over the next 12 hours it will become clear that the Conservatives have gained more seats than even the poll suggested.