Leaders trade last-minute blows before election showdown

Labour aims to hand the Liberal Democrats an embarrassing defeat in Thursday’s local elections by winning control of the council in Nick Clegg’s Sheffield powerbase.

A widely forecast slump in support for the Lib Dems could see hundreds of seats change hands, mainly to Labour’s advantage, as councillors are elected in 279 authorities across England.

Labour is hoping to take Sheffield – where Mr Clegg has his Commons seat – from no overall control and wrest Chesterfield from the Lib Dems. Other Labour targets include Bolton, Leeds and Oldham, Thurrock and Ipswich.

The Tories face losing North Devon to the Lib Dems but might take Lewes from their coalition Government partners.

The Conservatives are hoping to win Bath and North East Somerset from no overall control, while the Lib Dems also fancy their chances in North East Somerset and have hopes of wnning Mendip, Mid Sussex and Taunton Deane.

In the Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband accused the Government of breaking pledges made before the last election.

He said: “What the public are saying is – on police cuts, on tuition fees, on the NHS: this is not what we voted for.

‘Having broken so many of their promises a year ago, how can the public believe anything they are saying at these elections?’ Ed Miliband

“Having broken so many of their promises a year ago, how can the public believe anything they are saying at these elections tomorrow?”

Mr Cameron replied: “What this coalition has done over the last year is frozen council tax, capped immigration, lifted a million people out of income tax, introduced a pupil premium, linked the pension back to earnings, cut corporation tax and set up more academies in 10 months than the last government set up in 10 years.

“And with council elections tomorrow, people should remember the mess Labour left us in and resolve themselves: don’t let Labour do to your council what they did to our country.”

Thursday is believed to be the biggest mid-term voting test in UK history, with the AV referendum, elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, and votes for mayors in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield, Middlesbrough and Torbay. More than 6,000 winners are expected to be declared by the end of the day.

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Alex Salmond’s Scottish Nationalist Party is on course to win a majority at Holyrood, according to latest polls.

Both Labour and the Conservatives focused on the party’s commitment to a referendum on Scottish independence in anticipation of what looks set to be a closely-fought battle.

Only one seat separated the SNP and Labour last time, and some seats could change hands by a handful of votes. The SNP’s deputy leader and Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, appears to be 27 votes away from beating Labour’s challenge to a constituency seat in Glasgow Southern.

‘Don’t let Labour do to your council what they did to our country.’ David Cameron

Former Labour MP George Galloway wants to return to frontline politics in Glasgow and jailed perjurer Tommy Sheridan’s party, Solidarity, is hoping to make an impact, as is his former party, the Scottish Socialist party.

The fourth ever Welsh Assembly elections have been described by all four main parties as “the most important” in the principality’s history.

Following a referendum on March 3, the next assembly will be able to pass its own laws in 20 devolved areas for the first time.

At the last election in 2007, Labour won 26 seats – five short of an overall majority. The party says it is “confident but not complacent” it will go into government alone this time after an apparent drop in support for Plaid Cymru.