Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Sunday 5 Apr 2015

1. STURGEON OFFERS ANTI-AUSTERITY PACT

Nicola Sturgeon has offered to help make Ed Miliband the next prime minister even if Labour wins fewer seats than the Tories at the general election. The Scottish National party leader’s appeal comes as she furiously denies claims that she thinks he is not up to the job. She challenges the Labour leader to form an anti-austerity alliance.

Sturgeon denies saying she would prefer Tories to win

2. FARAGE CENSORS DAMNING SURVEY

Nigel Farage has censored a poll that suggests he is on course for a humiliating personal defeat in the general election. A top-secret Ukip-commissioned poll, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, shows that the controversial leader has fallen behind his Tory opponent in the Kent seat he is contesting. With Labour catching up fast, there is a possibility he could come third.

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Ukip ‘buries’ poll that shows Farage could lose on 7 May

3. TEACHERS WARN OF ‘VICTORIAN’ POVERTY

A teachers’ union says members are seeing "Victorian conditions" with pupils arriving at school hungry and not wearing clothes unsuitable for weather conditions. The NASUWT says staff are increasingly having to deal with the consequences of poor housing and poverty. Labour warned of the "quiet indignity of poverty that can wreak havoc with a child's confidence".

4. FORMER NYC MAYOR EYES LONDON

Former three-term mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg is “considering” standing as London mayor, claims The Sunday Times. Bloomberg, who was last year given an honorary knighthood by the Queen for his “prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavours” in the UK, is being encouraged to cross the Atlantic.

5. GEORGE OSBORNE IN HOUSING PLEDGE

George Osborne has pledged to get 2.4m first-time buyers onto the housing ladder in a 1980s-style home ownership boom, reports the Sunday Telegraph. The chancellor also says his “best friend" David Cameron should be Tory PM for next five years, and claims Ed Miliband poses a bigger threat to the economy than Greece.

6. WELBY: LET’S RECLAIM THE MARTYRS

The Archbishop of Canterbury will remember martyrs in his Easter Sunday sermon. Justin Welby will say all Christians should bear witness to Jesus Christ and the resurrection, adding: "Witnesses are those people who know Christ - lay or ordained, old or young, gender, politics, sexuality or whatever irrelevant - all are equally witnesses. To witness is to be a martyr.”

7. FENERBAHCE’S TEAM BUS SHOT AT

Fenerbahce's team bus was attacked by a gunman after the Turkish Super Lig leaders' 5-1 victory at Rizespor. The driver was taken to hospital but no players were injured in the shooting, which happened while they were travelling to Trabzon airport. Large crowds of Fenerbahce fans waited at Istanbul Airport to welcome the players back.

8. MAY’S LEADERSHIP AMBITION ENDANGERED

Theresa May’s Tory leadership ambition may be hit by a scandal, reports the Independent On Sunday. She is caught up in an embarrassing furore over how a convicted criminal obtained a £500,000 government-backed loan for a business in her Berkshire constituency that has now gone bust, amid suspicions of financial misconduct.

9. CHARGING ATMS ARE ON THE DECLINE

Cash-charging ATM machines are on the decline, says the Sunday Express. According to new figures, there are 3,000 fewer fee-charging ATM machines than five years ago and 245 of them closed in the first two months 2015. The number of customers paying to withdraw cash from ATMs also fell from 86 million in 2010 to 62 million in 2014.

10. CHELSEA PULL CLEAR AS GUNNERS ROMP

Chelsea pulled seven points clear after beating Stoke despite a 70-yard screamer from Charlie Adams. Meanwhile, Brendan Rodgers has ruled out Liverpool finishing in the top four after his side was beaten 4-1 by rampant Arsenal. Manchester United’s Louis van Gaal says the scrap for a top-four place is still a "rat race" despite his side’s eight-point advantage over Liverpool.