22:01

Echoing scenes from Challenge Anneka, Britain’s political leaders scrambled themselves across the length and breadth of the country in planes, trains and automobiles as they entered the last 48 hours of the election campaign. The prime minister is currently on a non-stop 36-hour tour of the UK, which will see him talking to nightshift workers as he campaigns through the small hours, while Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is embarking on a 1,000-mile two-day battlebus odyssey from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Ed Miliband was in Bedfordshire and North Warwickshire, while Ukip’s Nigel Farage was in Ramsgate and the Green’s Natalie Bennett was in Cambridge.

The big picture

Prime Minister David Cameron holds a Q&A. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

While we could easily have predicted to see plenty of babies kissed, sleeves rolled up, thumbs flicked to the sky and hard hats donned, we could be forgiven for presuming in the last 48 hours that none of the country’s politicians would “commit news”. But rather than stick to the safety of photo ops in the final throes of the election campaign, the parliamentary hopefuls did quite the opposite. Nick Clegg issued a warning over the prospect of a second election before Christmas, a Ukip candidate was suspended for a foul-mouthed rant and Ed Miliband revealed a so-called red line over scrapping the non-dom rule and in doing so acknowledged for the first time he might not seal a majority. Who knows what tomorrow might bring?

What happened today

Laugh of the day

My hasn’t he grown? ITV Meridian scored an absolute winner when they discovered a 24-year-old clip of a lean and youthful Ed Miliband - or Ted Miliband as he was known back then - leading a rent strike on behalf of Oxford students in the spring of 1991.



Adam Clark (@adamclarkitv) EXCLUSIVE: Watch @Ed_Miliband 's first ever TV appearance from 1991. Copyright @itvmeridian http://t.co/NLj1e2UOuu pic.twitter.com/yxnutjsvlt

Quote of the day

I feel like the British public will go through as many Milibands as they can til they get to on that they like. So, I dunno how many more of the brothers there are but I’m sure if the British public continues to meet more and more Milibands they’ll find one that they deem appropriate.

US comedian Jon Stewart gave a brief but typically sardonic take on the UK election for Channel 4 News, in which he predicted England will “secede itself” and praised Cameron and Miliband for “lowering expectations”, further underlining how much he will be missed when he leaves the Daily Show in August.



Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) Jon Stewart speaks to @jonsnowC4 on #Cameron vs #Miliband and #Bush vs #Clinton - watch his take on #GE2015 https://t.co/cRAcVX9Bbr

Hero of the day

Sela Ward

Roland Emmerich’s upcoming sequel to Independence Day will be getting a female president in the shape of Sela Ward. Ward, best known for big-screen roles in The Fugitive and Gone Girl, will be playing the character of President Lanford. I accept Lanford is a fictional political character, but presuming the film will end with the world being saved, most likely by her, then her selection seems fair.

Villain of the day

Robert Blay, UKIP’s candidate for North East Hampshire, was recorded expressing his disgust at the possibility of Ranil Jayawardena becoming the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister. Photograph: gethampshire.co.uk

Ukip parliamentary candidate Robert Blay was suspended after saying he would shoot his Tory rival if he ever became prime minister. In an expletive-laden rant, Blay says the Tory party’s candidate Ranil Jayawardena was “not British enough to be in our parliament”.



Tomorrow’s agenda

I can’t quite believe I’m about to write this - but tomorrow is of course the final day of the election campaign. So what can we expect? 24 hours of pleas and promises, insults and putdowns, banners and balloons and predictions and projections.

That’s it for me for today. It has been a pleasure. Join the Guardian’s election team tomorrow morning, as we bring you the latest news, reaction, analysis, pictures, video, and jokes from the campaign trail.