Party Leaders In Final TV Debate

Party leaders in Scotland will face each other in a final TV debate today before the country goes to the polls.

Nicola Sturgeon, Jim Murphy, Willie Rennie and Ruth Davidson will take part in the live BBC debate in Edinburgh in what will be one of the final big events of the election campaign in Scotland.

Before the debate, the parties will host various events across the country as they continue to make the case for their support.

SNP leader Ms Sturgeon will meet families at a play area in Motherwell where she will call on people across Scotland to "unite on May 7 to put an end to austerity, and to invest in things which matter to people in Scotland like the NHS and childcare, rather than Trident''.

SNP activists will also host around 600 street stalls across the country today as they step up campaigning in the final week.

A party spokesman said: "There is strong underlying support for our proposition that a team of SNP MPs holding the balance of power will be good for Scotland, and indeed good for the UK as a whole.

"More people still believe that than are currently intending to vote SNP, and that is crucial in continuing to win undecided voters over to the SNP.

"Our experience is that most previously undecided voters are choosing to be part of this unprecedented opportunity to make Scotland stronger at Westminster - that is our call in these final few days.''

Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale will join Edinburgh South candidate Ian Murray in the capital to spread their party's message.

Mr Murphy was joined by former prime minister Gordon Brown on the campaign trail yesterday.

Mr Brown said: ''Labour are Scottish patriots who believe in the need for change and stand for social justice.

''While the SNP get up in the morning thinking of how they can achieve independence, we get up in the morning thinking of how we can achieve social justice.

''All the nationalists talk of is deals, pacts and coalitions. Labour are focused on ending austerity, unemployment and the need for food banks."

The Lib Dems will also be in the capital before the debate with Mr Rennie being joined by former UK party leader Sir Menzies Campbell and Edinburgh West candidate Mike Crockart.

The will say that the Lib Dems will "anchor a government in the centre ground'' if they have an influence.