Newsnight

As well as indicating support for Trident in her Newsnight interview earlier, shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said Labour is fully, fully committed to Nato" and to the alliance's target of spending 2% of GDP on defence.

Ms Griffith also said that if another Nato member state was attacked, the UK would use "diplomatic means first but ultimately you have to back up... your Nato allies".

Speaking earlier in May, Jeremy Corbyn said Labour backed "no first use" nuclear weapons, but he would do "everything necessary" to protect the country.

Ms Griffith told Newsnight that "you do have to be prepared" for first use of nuclear weapons but "nobody would put that as the first item on their agenda".

Newsnight

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith has said that Labour is "fully committed" to Trident, following comments by shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry.

Labour's manifesto backs the nuclear weapons system but the party leadership has said Trident would be covered in a defence review if the party wins the general election. Jeremy Corbyn is a long-standing supporter of nuclear disarmament.

Ms Thornberry was asked on LBC radio whether Trident could still be party policy after the defence review, which Ms Griffith is conducting. She said: "Well no, of course not, if you are going to have a review, you have to have a review."

Ms Griffith told Newsnight: “When we have a review it is about how we would spend money. What it is not about is questioning whether we have a Trident nuclear deterrent.

“With all due respect, Emily is not the shadow defence secretary. I am."

The Daily Telegraph

The Telegraph reports concerns in the UK fishing industry, external that the Conservatives could "waive the rights to almost 95% of British waters" if the party wins the general election.

The paper says that fishermen "believe Britain has legal rights to all fish within 200 miles of the coast, but the manifesto leaves open the possibility that only 12 miles of water will be protected after Brexit".

The article continues: "Trawlermen believe that might refer only to the 12-mile zone guaranteed under the 1964 London Fisheries Convention, as the 200-mile zone, agreed under a United Nations convention in 1982, was never implemented because of Britain’s EU membership."

It quotes UKIP's Mike Hookem, who says: "Rather than reclaiming what is rightfully ours under international law, Theresa May's manifesto has signalled her intention to only reclaim waters up to 12 miles."

A Conservative spokesman told the paper that the UK's departure from the EU "will see us gain control of British waters within the UK Exclusive Economic Zone" or the 200-mile limit.

The spokesman added:

Jeremy Corbyn is to step up his attacks on Theresa May over Conservative campaign pledges at an election rally on Saturday.

The Labour leader is to use a speech in Birmingham to call on the prime minister to drop what he calls an "anti-pensioner package" in the Tories' manifesto.

The Conservative policies include a proposal to means-test the winter fuel allowance and end the triple lock which guarantees the state pension rises by at least 2.5% annually.

Proposed changes to social care funding in England could see more elderly people paying to be looked after in their own home.

However, the policy also plans to raise the threshold of an individual's assets which are protected against being used to pay for residential care to £100,000.

Mr Corbyn is expected to say:

Earlier on Any Questions? Conservative David Gauke cited a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, external and the Education Endowment Foundation,, external which found that free school breakfasts were beneficial.

"A free breakfast is a fraction of the cost and you can recycle the savings into school funding," the Treasury minister argued.

However, his insistence that free breakfasts are as good as free lunches provoked some loud murmurs of disagreement from the audience.

When Mr Gauke said the the policy would save almost £600m, which is "not marginal money" one audience member shouted: "Is it on the side of a bus?"

She was of course recalling a Vote Leave campaign claim in last year's EU referendum concerning the amount of money the UK contributes to the EU budget.

"I'm starting to feel sorry for David Gauke now, because even he doesn't believe what he just said," commented SNP candidate Tommy Sheppard.

"It beggars belief to say that a bowl of sugar puffs in the morning is going to have the same nutritional benefit that a hot, proper, nutricious lunch in the middle of the day," he said.

Mr Sheppard also alleged that ministers were "banking on" take-up of free breakfasts being low.

BBC Radio 4

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell says "axing free school meals is a disgrace and it puts future generations at risk".

Mr McDonnell says that, in the Hayes and Harlington constituency in London that he represented in the last Parliament, "that hot meal during the day is probably, for some of them, the only hot meal that child will get and it's absolutely vital for them".

He also argues that "sometimes you never forget the shame" being a child who claims free means-tested free school meals and being "divided from the other kids".

Labour would provide free school meals to all primary school children, he says, but is not able to provide the cost off the top of his head.

John McDonnell is standing again in Hayes and Harlington for Labour. A full list of candidates is available here.

BBC Radio 4

Image source, Reuters

Also on Any Questions? the panel is asked: "Is a school breakfast just as good as a school lunch?"

The Conservatives want to means test school lunches (or dinners, depending on what you call the midday meal in your part of the country).

Journalist and Lib Dem supporter Rachel Johnson says she "couldn't understand" the policy. "This is a stupid thing to cut," she adds, arguing that a hot meal during the school day is good for pupils and improves learning.

Instead, she says, "a free breakfast means a bowl of sugary cereal which is probably not very good for their health, never mind their brains."

BBC Radio 4

Image source, Reuters

With polls pointing to a Conservative victory in the general election, a questioner asks whether Theresa May is putting a possible "landslide" at risk with policies on pensioners' finances.

The Tories propose to end the "triple lock" on pensions, under which pensions rose by a minimum of 2.5% per year and to means test winter fuel payments to pensioners.

The SNP's Tommy Sheppard says the polices are wrong and pensioners are not rich, as the UK pays a lower state pension than many comparable countries.

Rachel Johnson thinks "pensioners have on the whole been protected because parties know that they vote and they want that vote".

Conservative David Gauke insists he is not complacent and opinion polls have been wrong before. He adds that Theresa May wants "a fairer society" and benefits should go to some people "around this table" who might not need it.

Labour's John McDonnell says two million pensioners live in poverty adding: "I think the cruellest [policy] is the winter fuel allowance".

If it is means-tested, he argues, 10 million pensioners would lose the benefit when are are 30,000 excess deaths in winter.

BBC Radio 4

Writer Rachel Johnson who, unlike her brothers Boris and Jo, is not a Conservative but a Liberal Democrat, thinks Theresa May is trying "shift the burden between the generations" so the young do not pay "through the nose" - as she puts it - for social care for the elderly.

"She describes this as a new contract between the generations and in a sense she's perfectly sensible to do this," says Ms Johnson of Mrs May.

BBC Radio 4

SNP election candidate Tommy Sheppard says he's pleased that social care is devolved in Scotland, with care provided free for "about 60,000 vulnerable Scots".

The cost in Scotland, he tells Any Questions? is about half a billion pounds.

He says he's concerned that the Conservative manifesto policy in England could signal "the beginning of the end of the whole idea of social insurance".

BBC Radio 4

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell claims the Conservatives' plans for social care in England would create a "lottery dependent on what condition you suffer from".

Speaking on Any Questions? the Labour frontbencher says that some are calling it "a dementia tax" and further alleges that government funding cuts have created a crisis in social care in England.

Mr McDonnell says he backs the principles of a review by Sir Andrew Dilnot in 2011, which recommended that there should be a cap on costs, so there is a "pooling" of risk across society.

He calls for a "cross-party agreement that can be sustained in the long term".

BBC Radio 4

The first question on tonight's Any Questions? on BBC Radio 4 concerns the Tory manifesto proposal to change the way social care is funded in England.

The key changes are:

• Taking into account the value of someone's home when means-testing for care at home, in the same way as they currently do for those in a care home
• Increasing the amount of savings and property people can have while still getting their social care costs paid from £23,250 to £100,000

The questioner asks if he would be better off in old age if he got cancer rather than a degenerative disease like dementia.

For the Conservatives, Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke says Theresa May is not shying away from "tough choices" with this policy.

"Nobody will be forced to move out of their home [or] sell their home," he insists, acknowledging "there will be costs involved for some people".

Nine-year-old Hasnain Nawaz stole the show at an election speech Jeremy Corbyn gave in Peterborough earlier.

When the Labour leader took questions, the son of a Labour supporter asked what "strong and stable leadership" - Theresa May's election slogan - meant.

Mark Lobel
BBC political reporter

Image source, PA

More on former Chancellor George Osborne's London Evening Standard editorial attacking the Conservatives' manifesto pledge to cut net migration.

Mr Osborne, who was dismissed as Chancellor by Theresa May last July, ends the editorial with the following conclusion: “Unless she spells out how she intends to reduce net migration by two-thirds, and how she will deal with the damage that would do to British business and universities, she will not be entitled to claim she has that mandate on one of the key issues facing the country.”

In response to Mr Osborne’s attack, Conservative candidate Kwasi Kwarteng said everything Mr Osborne said should be “viewed through the lens of his brutal dismissal” last year.

He told the BBC: "Obviously we have a free press. George Osborne can say what he likes. Everything he says should be viewed through the lens of his brutal dismissal last year. He has many axes to grind."

Mark Lobel
BBC political reporter

Former chancellor George Osborne has criticised the Conservative Party’s pledge on immigration.

The former Tory MP and current editor of the Evening Standard wrote in an editorial in today’s paper: “The Conservatives haven’t a clue how they will achieve the commitment to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands.”

He also criticised their refusal to spell out the cost reduced immigration would have on the economy.

“The civil service is entirely capable of modelling the economic impact of a change in the number of migrants coming to this country,” he said.

He suggested that “either ministers know the damage their immigration policy will do, but won’t tell us; or they have deliberately avoided finding out, because they know the answer will be negative”.

Mr Osborne said it left Theresa May’s government “on very weak ground”, called for ministers to be pushed on the details and was highly critical of Defence Secretary Michael Fallon’s response on this issue.

An at-a-glance guide to the Scottish Conservative manifesto for June's general election.