5Live are empty-chairing Maria Hutchings after she bottled this morning’s hustings. Quite how that works on radio we will find out. Unsurprisingly the LibDems are jumping on her no show, Tim Farron is crowing that the Tory machine have kept her away and party HQ has come up with a mildly amusing missing poster.

Meanwhile their own candidate Mike “Perhaps I’m a bit dull” Thornton has admitted he won’t give up his council seat if he becomes MP. Hardly brimming with confidence then. If only the Tory candidate was there to ask him about it…

UPDATE: George Hollingbery is stepping in for Hutchings.