Lib Dems' online sentiment surges, PRWeek's General Election sentiment tracker shows

Those are the conclusions from the first instalment of PRWeek's General Election online sentiment tracker, developed by Meltwater Buzz.

The results, which span the two weeks since the General Election was called, demonstrate that sentiment towards the Lib Dems has now reached approximate parity with the two major parties.

The party began the campaign with highly negative sentiment scores, compared to Labour and the Tories.

 While the Tories were the only party to record a positive sentiment score on 6 April, that score dipped considerably on 12 April, when the Labour party launched its election manifesto.

A Tory rebound was blunted by the leaders debate on 15 April, since when online sentiment towards the party has hovered in slightly negative territory.

The Labour Party, meanwhile has recovered from its own dip during the Tories' manifesto launch to edge ahead of its fierce rivals as of 18 April.

The three parties are now neck and neck as the election campaign enters its final fortnight.