Image source, BRITISH GAS

Here's a late night recap as Monday draws to a close:

• Theresa May has vowed to end the "injustice" of rising energy costs by including a price cap in the Conservative general election manifesto
• The PM also indicated that the Conservatives would again promise to cut net migration to the "tens of thousands" in their election manifesto
• UKIP, meanwhile, proposed "one in, one out" migration and said it would cut net migration levels to zero within five years by almost halving immigration into the UK
• Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour will provide free car parking at all NHS hospitals in England to end what he called a "tax on serious illness"
• Labour also said it would tackle childhood obesity with a ban on TV adverts for junk food and sweets before the 21:00 watershed
• Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said there would be no pacts with other parties after two senior Lib Dems were recorded discussing support for a Labour candidate
• The Greens were open to the idea, with co-leader Caroline Lucas urging Jeremy Corbyn to discuss ways of developing a progressive alliance
• No formal pacts have been reached in Northern Ireland, as the SDLP refused to stand aside for Sinn Fein in two seats and the two main unionist parties failed to strike an electoral pact deal
• And the BBC unveiled details of its election programmes - with Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn set to take part in Question Time specials

Newsnight

Former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith defends the Conservatives' commitment to getting migration down to the "tens of thousands" on Newsnight.

"If you don't have a target and you don't seek to achieve that target, what happens is you lose control of migration," he argues.

Leaving the EU will enable the government to "control low-skilled migration", he claims, and insists that this will help to reduce immigration from outside the EU as well.

"The point about a new migration policy, based on work permits... means that you control all the migration in exactly the same way, which allow you to adjust it," he says.

This will give the government more power to get migration "within their set target", he adds.

Newsnight

Guardian economics writer Aditya Chakrabortty and Labour's Chuka Umunna join Newsnight to discuss Emmanuel Macron's victory in France and Labour's election prospects in the UK.

Mr Umunna says Mr Macron represents a welcome rejection of a politics of "opposing each other for the sake of opposing each other" and instead represents an attitude of "What can we do to get things done?"

But Mr Chakrabortty thinks the French president-elect offers "a kind of reheated centrism which has failed". With parties deserting the centre ground and Theresa May "flirting with UKIP", Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn "knows something's up" and sees the challenges ahead, he says. 

Turning to Labour's prospects on 8 June, he thinks the party is "going to get an absolute pounding" because in Labour heartlands "all the mechanisms that people used to rely on as delivering people to the Labour Party", such as unions and social clubs, have gone.

On this point, Mr Umunna - once a Labour leadership contender - is in some agreement, saying that union activism in "mass organised workplaces" has gone.

The party's Welsh leader Andrew RT Davies distances himself from the row over "imposed" figures.

The SNP won 32% of the first preference votes last week, with the Conservatives on 25% and Labour on 20%.

The SDLP says it is "not interested" after Sinn Féin call for a free run in two constituencies.

ITV

Last month Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was forced to clarify that he does not believe gay sex is a sin, following repeated questions about his views on the subject.

ITV's Tonight programme spoke to a childhood friend who came out to Mr Farron when they were teenagers. Ian insisted that the Lib Dem leader was not at all homophobic.

Asked how he reacted, Mr Farron said: "Was I expecting it? No. How did I feel? Genuinely moved that he'd trusted me."

He added: "I don't go judging anybody. He's my mate."

Of his religious views, Mr Farron said that "people's personal faith is just that and it is not right for us force that on other people" and that he wanted "a country where LGBT rights are absolutely central to it".

Also in the programme, he denied being a teenage Tory who had an "I love Maggie" sticker as a schoolboy.

However, Mr Farron said there was a young woman who "was a young Tory, and I was somewhat taken aback by her but not by her politics".

Bob Dale
BBC Live reporter

A £1m piece of street art appears in your town overnight.

Do people in Dover like their Brexit-themed Banksy?

ITV

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has been questioned on ITV's Tonight programme on topics including Brexit, his faith and his attitude to homosexuality.

"I'm not somebody who, kind of, looks up at the stars and says there must be a God," he said.

"I'm somebody who, as an 18-year-old, made what I thought was a rational choice - and I still do - to become a Christian."

He adds: "Politicians who  try to use their faith for political purposes - that's a bit American. It's something that I feel is not quite right, so I don't do it."

The Green Party has attacked the BBC following plans for an election programme featuring UKIP's leader but no equivalent programme for its own top team.

The BBC has announced that Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are set to take part in Question Time specials, as are SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and Lib Dem Tim Farron.

There will also be Election Questions to Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and to UKIP leader Paul Nuttall.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the party alongside Caroline Lucas, said: “This is getting beyond a joke. The BBC’s love affair with UKIP is getting embarrassing and it is time it recognised that the Green Party is entitled to a fair hearing in its election programming.”

He added: "As the local election results, in which 150,000 people voted Green compared with less than 100,000 for UKIP, demonstrated, when people see what we stand for, they support the Green Party."

The Greens will be included in a live debate featuring senior figures from seven parties on BBC One on 31 May - as will UKIP.

A BBC spokesman told the i earlier: "Our coverage is duly impartial, but in any given day editorial judgements will be made about what the most significant story is. That also takes into account past electoral support over two electoral cycles, as set out by Ofcom, and not just the recent local election results.”

Westminster Hour
Radio 4's Westminster Hour