Victoria Derbyshire

Former Lib Dem MP Sir Nick Harvey, who lost his North Devon seat to the Conservatives, speaks to Victoria Derbyshire about the experience of being abruptly ejected from Parliament.

"I heard the exit poll and realised quite quickly we couldn’t possibly have won," he says.

While some of his Lib Dem colleagues - notablyformer leader Paddy Ashdown- thought the poll couldn't be right - Sir Nick says he thought the "number crunchers" had had "weeks, if not months" to study the election.

Most difficult to deal with was "the dawning realisation for the party that 40 years of progress had been wiped out in a day", he adds.

The Bank of England has also cut its forecast for growth next year from 2.9% to 2.6%, and for 2017 from 2.7% to 2.4%.

The Bank of England today cut its forecast for UK growth this year from 2.9% to 2.5%.

The Daily Telegraph

Image source, Getty

"Ukippers should be careful not to ask Mr Carswell to choose between party and principle. There is little doubt about his choice." So says James Kirkup in the Daily Telegraph., external

"This is a man who takes his relationship with his constituents seriously. How would he explain to the people of Clacton why their taxes should pay for the 15 staff members UKIP apparently wants him to hire?"

Kirkup writes that even before the Short money row "there was only one question people at Westminster were asking about Douglas Carswell: how long will he stay with UKIP?"

And he adds that Nigel Farage's un-resignation "is about as far away from the Carswell way of doing politics as you can get".

Victoria Derbyshire

Image source, Getty

Victoria Derbyshire challenges Employment Minister Priti Patel over figures showing the number of people from other EU countries working in the UK has risen to almost two million.

Ms Patel says the government has changed the rules so that "people coming to the UK to work from the European Union do not have the free-for-all" to claim benefits.

It is also "a reflection" on the conditions in some other European countries, she argues.

Victoria Derbyshire

Priti Patel says that "economic growth is crucial" if the deficit is to be eliminated by 2018.

She will not discuss the size of the deficit in cash terms, insisting that it has "halved since 2010".

"It's £87 billion, and you're talking about reducing it to zero," BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire says.

Victoria Derbyshire

Employment Minister Priti Patel welcomes the latest employment figures.

"Employment has reached an all time high of 73.5%," she tells Victoria Derbyshire.

This vindicates the government's "long-term plan" for the economy, she adds.

She says she wants to tackle remaining unemployment, including by creating new apprenticeships.

Victoria Derbyshire

Labour MP and former Home Office minister David Hanson gives qualified backing to the government's counter-extremism proposals.

"The question we would ask the home secretary is: what is the definition of extremism? How do we exercise that definition? What judicial oversight is there of that definition? What rights of appeal do people have?"

He says Labour does agree with taking action on the issue, but wants to "test very strongly" those definitions of extremism.

Unemployment fell by 35,000 between January and March to 1.83 million, official figures showed today.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance last month fell by 12,600 to 763,800, the Office for National Statistics says.

Average earnings increased by 1.9% in the year to March, 0.2% up on the previous month. Excluding bonuses, pay rose by 2.2%.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Reuters

The Today programme spoke to one newly-elected Labour MP, Stephen Kinnock - the son of former party leader Neil - who was elected in Aberavon.

He jokes that "everybody thinks that I seem to know my way around" Parliament already because of his dad.

He says the forthcoming leadership election gives Labour the chance to "have a real discussion about the future of the party".

Mr Kinnock is also the husband of Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who joined him at the election count last week.

Image source, EPA

Former Labour minister Kim Howells also has a few thoughts on Labour's future direction.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Image source, AFP/Getty

I think it almost certainly will be months. There has been talk of it being done by July, but that is not going to happen. The reason? The trade unions.

Under rule changes introduced by Ed Miliband, the unions no longer have a block of one third of the votes in leadership contests. Instead, they have to sign up their members individually to affiliate to the Labour Party so they can then take part, one member one vote. But because these rules have only just been introduced and none of the unions expected a leadership contest, they haven't signed anyone up. So at the moment they have almost no influence - and what they want is time.

If they are successful - if, say, they sign up 10% of their members - it is possible the unions could have even more of a say than under the old rules which elected Ed Miliband,

BBC Radio 5 Live

Former Labour MP and Foreign Office minister Kim Howells - who chaired Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee for five years until he stood down in 2010 - tells 5live the government's new law to tackle extremism is unprecedented.