David Cameron trumped Ed Miliband in the first of the live TV leadership debates as both men were grilled by Jeremy Paxman.

A snap poll taken after the end of the programme broadcast on Sky TV suggested that the Prime Minister had beaten his main rival, Mr Miliband, by 54% to 46%.

The Battle for Number 10 show broadcast live on Sky News and Channel 4 saw the Conservative and Labour leaders grilled by veteran TV inquisitor Jeremy Paxman and answer questions from a studio audience.
 
Mr Cameron urged the electorate to vote for a "strong economy", while his Labour rival insisted: "We can do a lot better than this. We're a great country."
 
Mr Cameron was faced with questions about his friend Jeremy Clarkson - saying the BBC's decision to sack him was "absolutely right for them" - and admitted that he would not be able to live on the kind of exclusive zero-hours contract that the coalition has outlawed.
 

Both men had come under pressure from Paxman, the fearless inquistor.

David Cameron and Ed Miliband set out their general election pitches in their first major TV clash of the campaign, with the Conservative leader urging the electorate to vote for a "strong economy", while his Labour rival insisted: "We can do a lot better than this. We're a great country."
Mr Cameron was faced with questions about his friend Jeremy Clarkson - saying the BBC's decision to sack him was "absolutely right for them" - and admitted that he would not be able to live on the kind of exclusive zero-hours country that the coalition has outlawed.
Mr Miliband told a studio audience his relationship with brother David was still "healing" after their bruising battle for the Labour leadership, but said he still thought he was the right man for the job.
Mr Cameron and Ed Miliband were facing a grilling from veteran inquisitor Jeremy Paxman and questions from a studio audience in a special Sky News/Channel 4 live general election programme, the first major TV clash of the campaign.
Despite being in the same TV studio for the live programme, the Prime Minister and Labour leader did not go head to head, after Mr Cameron refused to take part in a one-on-one TV debate with the man vying to replace him in 10 Downing Street.
Mr Cameron said the UK was "immeasurably stronger" after five years of his premiership and claimed that "we've turned the economy round". He defended his stewardship of the NHS, after an audience member accused him of breaking his promise not to impose a top-down reorganisation on the health service.
The Conservative leader told his audience in the studio and at home watching TV: "You are going to have to make this huge choice in 42 days' time. What I have learnt in the last five years is that nothing you want to do will work without a strong and growing economy.
"The schools we want for our children, the hospitals we want when we are ill. These things need that strong economy."
Mr Miliband said: "I think this is a choice between those who think this is as good as it gets for Britain and those who think we can do a lot better than this.
"I don't think it's good enough that we've got 700,000 people on zero hours contracts and I think we can do something about it.
"The Prime Minister said he couldn't live on a zero hours contract, well I couldn't either, so let's do something about it."
Asked by an audience member: "You seem gloomy most of the time - are things really so bad", Miliband replied: "No, but they could be a lot better."
Paxman told the PM that many voters found it "problematic" that he had chosen to surround himself with people like Clarkson, ex-HSBC boss Lord Green and former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, asking: "What do you have in common with all these rich people?"
But the PM replied: "The aspersion you are trying to cast is completely ridiculous."
Mr Cameron admitted he had not asked Lord Green about possible tax avoidance in HSBC's Swiss branch at the time of his appointment as a trade minister but said that "all the normal processes and procedures were followed" and said that allegations the bank helped clients dodge tax had emerged only "subsequently".
And on Clarkson's dismissal from Top Gear after a fracas with a producer, he said: "I just simply answered a question I was asked and said he is a friend of mine, he is a talent and I hoped it could be resolved. Treating the people you work with badly is not acceptable. The BBC have made their decision and that is absolutely right for them."
Mr Cameron insisted: "What I have done for the last five years is lead a Government that has got the economy growing, has got people back to work, has cut the taxes of the poorest people in our country.
"I am not saying we have achieved everything we set out to do, but the country is immeasurably stronger."
Mr Cameron was first to face Paxman after Mr Miliband won a coin toss on Sunday to decide the running order and opted to be interviewed second.
Taking place on the day Parliament broke up for the May 7 general election, the programme - Cameron & Miliband Live: The Battle For Number 10 - is the first of a series of television events agreed by the broadcasters and political parties following protracted negotiations.
A seven-way debate on April 2, also featuring Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, Ukip's Nigel Farage, Natalie Bennett of the Green Party, Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP, and Leanne Wood from Plaid Cymru, will be followed by an ITV hosted five-way with Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron absent on April 16.
Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg will also feature separately in a BBC Question Time special on April 30, just a week before the nation goes to the polls.
The final line-up follows years of wrangling between parties and broadcasters over whether and how to repeat the debates from the 2010 election campaign - which saw Gordon Brown, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg square up three times.
In his 18-minute grilling by Paxman, Mr Cameron was confronted with statistics showing that numbers of food banks had grown from 66 to 421, serving 900,000 people a year, during his time in power.
Referring to a slogan used by Mr Cameron in the 2010 election, Paxman told him: "You talked about broken Britain and fixing it. You haven't. It's more broken now than it was."
The Conservative leader replied: "I don't accept that. If you look at what's happened with our economy, there are 1.89 million more people in work than when I became Prime Minister, we've got 900,000 fewer people on out-of-work benefits ...
"We want to get more people back to work. We've turned the economy round and it's jobs that are the best route out of poverty."
He insisted it was a "myth" that all the jobs being created were low-paid and said he wanted more people to have the opportunity of full-time work.
Asked whether he would want a job with a zero-hours contract, Mr Cameron replied: "No. Some people choose a zero-hours contract, for instance students, because they want the flexibility."
And asked if he could live on a zero-hours contract, he said: "That's not the question."
He said the Government had outlawed zero-hours contracts with exclusive clauses requiring employees to work only for one company, adding: "I couldn't live on one of those."
Mr Cameron accepted that his Government had failed to meet the "no ifs no buts" pledge he made in 2010 to get net immigration down to the tens of thousands over the course of the parliament.
But he said it remained "the right ambition" and insisted tougher welfare rules would squeeze arrivals from the EU.
"We have not met the commitment that I made, I fully accept that," he said.
"I believe that is still the right ambition. We have achieved a cut from outside the EU but inside the EU we haven't achieved it."
Pressed repeatedly on whether he and Chancellor George Osborne knew where they would make £12 billion further savings from the welfare budget over the next parliament, he said: "We know it is possible. We know there will be difficult decisions and we will have to go through every part of the welfare budget."
Around £20 billion less had been spent since 2010 thanks to the Government's reforms, he said.
"So this is well within the range of what we can do if we continue with the sort of plans that we have put in place."
Asked why anyone would believe his declaration yesterday that a Tory administration would not raise VAT given it was hiked in 2010 despite pre-election assurances there were "no plans" to do so, he said: "I think there is a crucial difference.
"We are the Government. We have been able to look very carefully at the books. We know what is necessary in the next parliament and our plans do not involve tax increases on VAT or national insurance or income tax.
"I think it is the right approach to try to find £1 of waste in £100 of government spending rather than to put up everybody's taxes.
"You have a choice: bear down on waste and get public spending under control or bear down on taxes with my opponents."
On the economy, he went on: "If you are saying we haven't gone fast enough to cut the deficit, I would agree we need to complete the job.
"But all my political opponents have been saying we should borrow more, we should spend more, we should tax more. That is the alternative you face with Ed Miliband."
The Prime Minister again defended his decision to announce that he would not seek a third term if re-elected in May and insisted he would serve "every day of a full second term".
Put to him that he would step aside for a successor well before the following general election, he said: "If you vote Conservative, I have said I will serve every day of a full second term.
"I think people need to know that sort of thing. Are you one of those leaders like Chairman Mao who thinks you can go on and on and on?
"Or do you think: look, I'm really passionate about what we are doing. I think we are turning this country around. I am passionate about having another term, completing this vital work.
"But after that? I think politicians do have a date by which they have to say I think it's time for someone else to take over."
Mr Cameron dismissed Ukip's demands for an immediate in/out referendum on EU membership as the price for a post-election deal as offering the public a "false choice".
"Europe isn't working properly for us, that's why we need the renegotiation. That's why I think those who say 'have a referendum straight away' are giving the British people a false choice," he said.
"I want to give a proper choice: stay in a reformed institution or leave. But it will be the British people's choice.
"There's only one way to get a referendum and that's to make sure I am prime minister after the election."
Challenged over how he could persuade voters to back Britain remaining in the EU, Mr Cameron said Britain needed a "new deal with Europe" and it was necessary to negotiate one, adding: "I believe I can."
"The problem with the EU at the moment is it's got some good aspects, but too many things that drive people mad. People see that it's trying to become too much of a state rather than an organisation. It's trying to take too much power," he said. But he insisted there was a "real prospect" of getting a deal the British people would support.
In the audience question session, Mr Cameron faced challenges on issues ranging from Ed Miliband's best qualities to disability cuts.
On the Labour leader, Mr Cameron emphasised he believed MPs on all sides enter politics from a sense of public service.
He said: "We disagree with each other, sometimes passionately, as yesterday in the House of Commons rather noisily, but we all believe in public service and trying to do the right thing for our country.
"One thing I admire about Ed is that when we had to take difficult decisions about sending British forces into help with others to defeat Isil, the murderous death cult in Iraq, he stepped forward and said 'yes, this is the right to do David, let's do that together and vote together in the House of Commons'.
"I admired that."
The Prime Minister said that the one promise he had broken in office was to make Prime Minister's Questions less noisy and more polite. He said he explained to his children yesterday that sometimes the weekly clash over the despatch box "gets a bit heated".
But he added: "There is a point to it though. It's a time of the week when you have to demonstrate you are across all the issues. It does make the Government accountable to Parliament in a way that if you're not across the issues then things will change pretty quickly.
"It does have a point but we don't always behave as well as we should."
Challenged on whether he should appoint a dedicated minister for the elderly, Mr Cameron pledged to think about the issue.
But he added: "Making sure we treat retired people with dignity and security in their old age after a full working life is one of the most important things we can do as a country. That's why I have been so clear that the pensioner benefits - like the free TV licences, the free prescriptions, the winter fuel payments - they will continue for everybody.
"I'm a little bit worried (about a dedicated minister) but I don't want older people's concerns to be sort of restricted to one person in the Cabinet. I want everyone of my ministers to be thinking how do we treat senior citizens properly."
On public spending cuts in the next Parliament, Mr Cameron said the plans were "basically similar" to what had been done in the past five years.
He said: "A big deficit means higher taxes, it means higher mortgage rates, it means lost jobs, it means an economy in chaos and I wanted to stop that.
"What we have done so far is get the deficit down by half. What we need to do in the next two years is basically similar to what we have done so far.
"We have got to find £1 out of every £100 the Government spends and save that rather than putting up people's taxes."
Pressed for an example, Mr Cameron said a two year freeze in unemployment benefits was a difficult decision which had made a big contribution.
Asked by a former police officer if he would reverse cuts to policing, the Prime Minister said more had been achieved with less.
He said: "I was going to say what a brilliant example the police have been over the last five years, we did have to make reductions in spending on the police.
"Police budgets came down by some 20% but at the same time, police have done such a good job, crime has come down by almost 20%.
"We managed to get officers out from desk jobs on to the streets, we put more civilians into some of those roles, we made sure forces were combining and ordering equipment together.
"I think there is still some more efficiency we can get out of that but in the end we have got to back the British police who are the best in the world, who do a great job and they will always have my support."
Asked if he would allow more private provision of NHS services, Mr Cameron said: "If it's good healthcare, that's what matters to me. I love our NHS. It has done amazing things for my family."
He praised the "amazing" treatment given to his severely ill son Ivan, adding: "I want to make sure that is always there for families in our country. That will always be predominantly an NHS provided by NHS providers. The independent sector is a tiny proportion of the total."
But Mr Cameron faced tough questioning on health from one audience member, who told him: "I'm just a little bit confused because I remember very clearly five years ago that you made some very serious pledges about the NHS. I saw your billboards - it's safe in our hands, no top-down reorganisation of the NHS.
"The reality has been very very difficult. There has been huge top-down reorganisation of the NHS.
"No forced closures of local A&E and maternity units was actually in your manifesto. Where I live we had to take you and your government to court to keep our hospital open.
"I feel very let-down with Conservative policy on the NHS. The promises you made last time have been broken, as far as I'm concerned, so how can we trust you next time?"
Cameron responded: "The biggest promise we made about the NHS at a time when we were going to have to make difficult cuts in public spending ... we said `We will not cut the NHS'. And we haven't. We've increased spending on the NHS by £12.7 billion over the last five years."
Mr Miliband said democratic socialism remained an important Labour value - saying it was fundamental to the question of what sort of country Britain was going to be.
"Wealth creation is an incredibly important part of building a more prosperous society and a fairer society.
"But the difference with me, and this is important, is I think the way we succeed is not simply with those at the top doing well but all working people succeeding," he said.
"It is when working people succeed that Britain succeeds. That may sound like a political slogan but it isn't. It is actually a reality for how a country gets on."
"This is what America is facing, President Obama as well. Are we going to be a country that just works for the rich and powerful or is everyone going to get a fair shot ... play by the same rules.
"People are doubting that in Britain."
He firmly defended his decision to rule out an in/out EU referendum, arguing that it was not a priority for the country and leaving would be a disaster.
The Labour leader has faced strong pressure from within the party and shadow cabinet to match the Tory offer in order to take on the threat posed to his party by Ukip.
"I think leaving the EU would be a disaster for our country," he said - pointing to jobs, trade and co-operation in the fight against climate change and terrorism.
"We have got to be an outward looking country so that is not my priority," he said.
"That is what leadership is about. It is saying what your priority is. I don't want us to leave the EU so why would I call a referendum in 2017 and plunge the country into two years of debate about something I do not want to see happen."
He applauded Mr Cameron's successful push in the face of strong Tory opposition to legalise same-sex marriage and raise foreign aid spending to 0.7% of GDP but said he didn't think they would "have a pint" together.
Jeremy Paxman grilled the Labour leader about immigration, insisting he should put a figure on a maximum population for the country.
But Mr Miliband refused.
He said: "I think we have got very high levels of migration, I think we do need to try and get those levels of migration down, particularly low skilled migration.
"I'm not going to make a false promise on this."
Mr Miliband admitted Labour "got it wrong" on immigration and on the forecasts made by the last government.
And on wider Labour mistakes, Mr Miliband said: "I think we were too relaxed about inequality, I think the gap got bigger and I think lots of people fell behind."
Spending was too high by the end of the financial crisis and some spending programmes were "maybe weren't as good as they could have been", Mr Miliband conceded.
But he added: "It's an important point - no Government gets it completely right."
He then appeared to pose a question himself: "Let me just say, the overall point was the financial crisis caused by overspending by Labour?"
Mr Paxman insisted Mr Miliband was answering a question he had not been asked.
The remark prompted the Labour leader to add: "What I would say is, for example, the Dome was not a good example of the way money is spent.
"Governments make mistakes. There are always inefficiencies in government.
"There are probably too many reorganisations of public services which waste money. Of course that's right - but I'm talking about the big picture."
Mr Miliband said that he had shown his toughness by refusing to go along with Mr Cameron and Barack Obama's plans for military action in Syria in 2013.
"Standing up to the leader of the free world, I think, shows a certain toughness," he said.
The Labour leader said he was "not a pacifist", but was "not going to repeat the mistakes of the 2003 Iraq War".
And he said: "Am I tough enough? Hell, yes, I'm tough enough."
Paxman suggested that even Labour MPs considered Miliband a "liability" and that he was seen as "a north London geek" by many voters, who thought: "What a shame it's not his brother."
Mr Miliband insisted he did not read bad press about himself, adding: "It's water off a duck's back, honestly.
"The thing I've learnt most in this job is to be yourself. That's what I am. People have to decide - do they want my ideas, do they want my principles when I stood up not just to President Obama, but Rupert Murdoch, the energy companies, the banks, fighting for ordinary people, which is what I believe in and what I came into politics for?
"Do they want somebody who will think every day about how they put working people first in our country.
"I don't care what the newspapers write about me, because what I care about is what happens to the British people, and I know that this country could be so much better. That's what I came into politics for."
He added: "You need a toughness in this job. People have thrown a lot at me over four and a half years, but I'm a pretty resilient guy and I've been underestimated at every turn.
"People said I wouldn't become leader and I did. People said four years ago he can't become Prime Minister - I think I can. You're saying I can't win a majority - I think I can.
"So let people underestimate me, but what I care about is what's happening to the British people in their lives and I think I can change it. I know I'm the right man for the job - that's why I'm sitting here and that's why I believe that I'm the best choice to be Prime Minister."
As the interview ended, Mr Paxman appeared not to realise his microphone was still live as he asked Miliband: "Are you OK, Ed? Are you alright." Mr Miliband replied: "Yeah. are you?"
Mr Miliband said that under Labour there would be reductions in spending outside of protected areas such as health and education.
He highlighted cuts to the winter fuel allowance proposed for richer pensioners and restrictions to child benefits.
Pressed on the value of the spending cuts, he said: "The figure is at least hundreds of millions, more than a billion pounds.
"That's not the point - we are going to make these decisions when we are in government but I have got to set out an overall approach and I have set out an overall approach.
"It's about fair taxes - I'm a Labour leader going into the election saying we are going to reduce spending outside of a small minority of areas. Tony Blair never went into an election saying that."
Mr Miliband said overall spending would fall before adding: "It is likely to fall.
"I'm setting out the direction of travel."
Meanwhile, Mr Miliband was also quizzed over his brother David, no longer an MP, but living in New York, after he quit frontline politics following his defeat in the Labour leadership battle.