Summary

  • David Cameron outlines plans to tackle child sexual exploitation, but Labour says they don't go far enough

  • Oxfordshire serious case review highlights extent of child sexual exploitation problem

  • First Minister Nicola Sturgeon sets out her economic strategy, with a focus on tackling inequality

  • Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt delivers a statement on maternity services at Morecambe Bay

  • There are 65 days until the general election

  • Rolling political news, including key moments from Today, Breakfast, Daily Politics and Newsnight

  1. Rowena Mason, political correspondent at the Guardianpublished at 13:23 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    tweets:, external Commons nearly empty for UQ on Yarl's Wood. No sign of the home secretary or immigration minister - Karen Bradley speaks for govt

  2. 'We are not a Rotherham'published at 13:21 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    BBC Radio 4

    Oxfordshire County Council's former leader Keith Mitchell tells The World At One that he is "not sure I ever really understood the scale" of the abuse in Oxford. "Oxfordshire has been and remains a good council. I just wish we'd done it earlier," he says. "We are not a Rotherham, I won't have that said. We are a good council and we have put in place the measures that are necessary to stamp this abuse out."

  3. 'Inhuman' systempublished at 13:17 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Conservative MP and business minister Nick Boles has expressed concern about "inhuman inflexibility" in the benefits sanction system. The remarks were made to a group of charity volunteers and reported by the Grantham Journal, external.

    "With some of these cases it seems to me that there is an inhuman inflexibility that is imposed on them… The sanctions are a worry, and do need to be looked at," he said. "In the run-up to the election there is not a lot we can do, but we can get the case studies together where the sanctions seem to be most unreasonable… The beginning of a parliamentary term, when people are looking at things afresh, is the best time to make a change."

  4. Yarl's Wood urgent questionpublished at 13:09 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Yarl's Wood detention centreImage source, South Beds News Agency

    The next item on the Commons agenda is about Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre, which has come under scrutiny for the way it treats asylum seekers. Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, has called for inquiries into Yarl's Wood in the past. Now he and other MPs will seek to establish, via an urgent question, what the government will do after undercover filming showed one management team member describing inmates as "caged animals".

  5. Labour's pardons promisepublished at 13:05 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Here's our full story on Labour's plan to introduce a Turing's Law. "What was right for Alan Turing's family should be right for other families as well," Ed Miliband said.

  6. Cooper on child sexual exploitationpublished at 13:01 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Yvette Cooper

    Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has been speaking about the Oxfordshire serious case review. She says it's "yet another example of children simply not being listened to when exploited and abused". She adds: "I think the government's response is a bit of a missed opportunity, because we need stronger laws on abduction and exploitation to stop these crimes, stronger requirements for institutions to respond, but also stronger prevention with compulsory sex and relationship education in schools."

  7. Clegg talks religionpublished at 12:58 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Despite being well-known as an atheist, Nick Clegg has given an interview to Premier Christian Radio., external The deputy prime minister said he attends mass most weeks with his wife and children and does so "with great joy". "I sometimes think it must be the most wonderful thing to be infused with faith. It's not something that's happened to me, it's not happened to me yet and I would embrace it." He said he might be an atheist but had "never had that much time for what I call vociferous secularism", adding: "I'm always a bit sceptical of anyone who acts with raging certainty about anything."

  8. Sex education responsepublished at 12:55 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Here's what Nicky Morgan had to say in response to Tristram Hunt's request for her support on sex education: "I am fully in favour of full PSHE education on consent. But it has to be excellent, it can't just be about ticking boxes."

  9. Sex educationpublished at 12:52 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, at the end of a long list of questions to Nicky Morgan, calls for "age-appropriate statutory sex and relationship education to teach young people about consent and healthy sexual relationships". Her agreement would result in cross-party backing for the idea, he says.

  10. 'Brave' victimspublished at 12:51 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Nicky Morgan

    Oxford West MP Nicola Blackwood, who is a member of the home affairs select committee, asks Nicky Morgan to make it a "personal priority to ensure survivors [of child sexual exploitation] have the long-term and sustainable support they need". "We must not only pay tribute to the victims for their bravery in coming forward but we must also recognise such serious abuse has long-term and complex consequences," she says. The education secretary, above, says she can be reassured the government will do all it can to help them.

  11. Survivors' fundpublished at 12:47 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    There will be a £7m fund to support victims and survivors of child abuse and sexual exploitation, Nicky Morgan adds. But Labour MP for Oxford East Andrew Smith calls for a public inquiry, saying child protection services were "chaotic" and there was a "failure to act on clear evidence on sexual exploitation".

  12. 'Broken windows matter'published at 12:45 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Daily Politics
    Live on BBC Two

    David Lammy

    David Lammy, whose report for Policy Exchange has prompted debate today about police's ability to deal with crime, calls for a "debate with the public about whether we still take theft seriously or not". He insists that "broken windows matter" because failing to address low-level crime will only result in more serious crime taking place. Commentator Tim Montgomerie says crime is a "success story" for the government but accepts "there are parts of the country where crime is still a daily problem".

  13. 'Horrific abuse'published at 12:44 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Nicky Morgan is summarising the measures the government is taking to ensure the "horrific abuse" detailed in the Oxford report is "stamped out" and never happens again. David Cameron will chair a meeting of ministers, police and council safeguarding officers later.

  14. Morgan abuse statementpublished at 12:39 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Foreign Office questions has now come to an end. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is now making a statement about the serious case review into child sexual abuse in Oxford, saying what has emerged in the report is "sickening". She says child abuse had been a "scourge in many communities around the country".

  15. Diplomatic languagepublished at 12:36 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Ever wondered how many UK diplomats speak Russian or Arabic? Tory MP John Baron is curious, suggesting that linguistic shortcomings may have contributed to the UK being "unsighted" over recent developments in Ukraine or the Middle East. Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood says there are 170 Arabic-speaking mandarins in his department and a similar number of Russian speakers.

  16. National securitypublished at 12:35 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Daily Politics
    Live on BBC Two

    Margaret Beckett

    Margaret Beckett, chair of parliament's national security strategy committee, is on the Daily Politics explaining why she and her fellow parliamentarians have released a report criticising the government for its limited interest in developing a strategy. "What there doesn't seem to us to be is the kind of coordinated approach that we'd hoped for," she says. More broadly, she says fears about defence cuts are a "legitimate anxiety". The government hasn't been able to make decisions, having stepped back to consider the bigger picture. "They identify high-priority risks but they don't necessarily link them to the spending decisions," she says.

  17. Religious freedomspublished at 12:30 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander says a new job is needed in the Foreign Office: a global envoy for religious freedom, reporting to the foreign secretary, which he says a Labour government will create. Philip Hammond sounds unimpressed. "Our general approach is to try to get things done," he says, by using the tools already in place. "I don't think simply creating new posts delivers in quite the way the shadow foreign secretary thinks."

  18. Benefit sanctionspublished at 12:27 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    The Guardian

    Nick Boles

    Business minister Nick Boles has criticised the government's "inhuman" benefit sanctions regime, the Guardian reports, external. It quotes him telling constituents the current system does "need to be looked at".

  19. 'Hidden from view'published at 12:23 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    Daily Politics
    Live on BBC Two

    The eye-catching move by the government to impose criminal sanctions on those who fail to ensure the children they're responsible for are protected from sexual exploitation is in line with rules already in place in the NHS, Cllr David Simmonds, from the Local Government Association, tells the Daily Politics. "It's absolutely clear this has been hidden from view - we need to make sure that mums and dads know the signs, that teachers know the signs when they pop up in the classroom."

  20. Wrong questionpublished at 12:22 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2015

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    A little light relief in the Commons as Labour's Mary Glindon realises she has asked the wrong question. She apologises and changes tack - pressing ministers on the use of the death penalty around the world.