Conservative shadow education secretary Michael Gove has defended the party's idea of a "big society", despite it not playing a major part in the leaders' debates.

Explaining the idea to Today presenter Evan Davis, he said the crux of the issue was for public services to stop doing things "in a bureaucratic pattern" and instead to act in a way "which fits with the needs of the people they serve".

"There is already a model that we have developed in opposition, that we can apply in government, that brings individuals together, that is respectful of autonomy and diversity, and also harnesses... the idealism of volunteers," he says.

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