Bits to look out for in today’s Sunday papers

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

I’ll be away again for most of today, but here are a few things to look out for in today’s Sunday papers:

In a “highly personal” interview with the Independent, Gordon Brown says:

“People know that the fight is on. They know that the election is wide open, they know that the closed book that people expected it to be a few weeks ago is not where we are….You start a campaign by people focusing on novelty, and on personality and style, but you end the campaign where people actually think: ‘Here I am, a voter – what’s going to happen to my job, what’s going to happen to my family, my police, my school?'”

And with the polls still pointing to the likelihood of a hung parliament, he adds:

“I am working for a majority Labour government.”

In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Peter Mandelson says:

“People see the idea of George Osborne as Chancellor as a massive gamble. They look at him and think he should be carrying a school lunchbox, not the Budget box. Osborne worries people. He looks like a card-sharp and a chancer – someone who puts schoolboy pranks ahead of the economics of the country.”

Mandelson also accuses David Cameron of “giving his party a paint job” in an effort to win votes:

“When people scratch the surface, they find the paint peels off and beneath it is the same old Tory Party.”

In the Sunday Times, Peter Kellner, President of pollsters YouGov, writes:

“My current prediction is that the Lib Dems will not enjoy another surge, though they will retain most of the gains they have made. I expect the Conservatives to end up with 36%, Labour with 29% and the Lib Dems with 26%. This would almost certainly leave Britain with a hung parliament. Even though these figures would mean almost 2 million more Tory than Labour voters, the Tories would be well short of the 326 seats they need for an overall majority. In fact, the recent Lib Dem surge is doubly bad news for the Tories.”

And, writing for today’s Observer, Ed Miliband says:

“New Labour 2010 is different from New Labour 1997 because we have learned lessons…At the heart of our manifesto is a commitment to correct for the failures of the market. This doesn’t just mean regulating the banks better, but changing corporate governance to encourage long-termism in the City and intervening to create the green jobs of the future.”