The battleground for the most unpredictable General Election in decades shifted to spending today as five senior ministers lined up to pull apart Labour's plans.
In an unprecedented move George Osborne, Theresa May, William Hague, Sajid Javid and Nicky Morgan joined together to present a document they claimed showed £20.7bn of unfunded Labour spending promises.
Mr Hague, the Leader of the House of Commons, said that using Treasury costings this amounted to £1,199 more borrowing and debt for every working household.
Between them they highlighted a number of unfunded Labour spending promises including:
:: Food waste in landfill ban = £500m
:: Cancellation of police spending cuts = £299m
:: Forcing teachers to have teacher status = £177m.
Labour was swift to dismiss the Tory spending figures pointing out that David Cameron had announced £7.2bn of unfunded tax cuts at the Conservative Party Conference.
Critics were also quick to point out the Tories had based their figures on a number of assumptions. Labour has pledged only to "make cycling safer" and yet this had been costed at £63m.
And questions were raised over whether it was right to use Government figures for party political gain.
It came after Ed Miliband attempted to take the fight to the Tories by rallying party activists to wage a "once in a generation fight" claiming he could "rebuild the country".
On day one of the General Election battle, as politicians returned to Westminster after the Christmas break, the Labour leader promised action on the deficit, the NHS and the return to 1930s levels of public spending.
However, Mr Osborne accused Mr Miliband of making £2.3bn of unfunded spending cuts in that speech alone with pledges on GP appointments, one-week cancer tests and apprenticeships.
Mr Miliband urged party members at a rally in Salford to take to the doorsteps and hold four million conversations with voters, saying his party could match the Tories' spending power only by marching on the streets to speak directly to people.
He said it was time to determine who the country works for. "It is a choice between a Tory plan where only a few at the top can succeed and our public services are threatened - or a Labour plan that puts working people first, deals with the deficit and protects our NHS."
And he accused the Prime Minister - who was noticeably absent from today's proceedings - of playing "risky and irresponsible games" with the European Union for political gain.
With 122 days to go until the vote, Sky News has launched a campaign looking at the 150 marginal seats which could be so influential in the outcome of the election.
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Nick Clegg also kick started his party's own fight for a return to power in a coalition, burnishing Lib Dem credentials as the party that could anchor either the Tories or Labour from the worst of each party's cutting and borrowing excesses.
He accused the Tories of attempting to sell swingeing public service spending cuts as "continuity" when they were "even deeper" because of £7bn of unfunded tax cuts.
He said: "That's not sticking to the plan. That is a new plan to shelter the very wealthy and impose unnecessary cuts to public services."
He also warned that Labour will "borrow and borrow" and the country could end up paying billions more each year in interest on the debt.
It comes as Britain's former top civil servant, Lord O'Donnell warned in an exclusive interview with Sky News that the face of Westminster could be very different after May and the Government could be a coalition of three parties.
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