tweets:, external Margaret Hodge on Rona Fairhead as Chair of the BBC Trust: "I think the government should sack you."

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has promised to report back to MPs on the growth of "shared spaces" between cars and pedestrians in town centres. There have been complaints that the layouts are dangerous for blind and partially sighted people. The minister says he will look at the issue and write to the committee.

There has been much interest in Labour's Margaret Hodge's comments that she thinks Rona Fairhead - who now chairs the BBC Trust - knew all along about the tax evasion running into millions of pounds - something Ms Fairhead strongly denies. Ms Hodge says that as a licence-fee payer she has no confidence in Rona Fairhead's ability to guard the BBC's reputation.

A little earlier, Mrs Hodge read out a series of instances about action taken by HSBC's Swiss private bank staff in relation to reducing the tax burden for clients, which she labels "tax avoidance on an industrial scale". Mr Meares says he was not aware of these practices, which included "endless visits" by Swiss staff to Britain to get customers to sign documents. "I don't believe you didn't know Mr Meares," Mrs Hodge says. Follow the hearing here.

Margaret Hodge - chairwoman of Public Accounts Committee - says Rona Fairhead was either "incredibly naive or totally incompetent" in her stewardship of HSBC, which gave the MP no confidence in her ability to oversee the BBC, in her role as the chair of the BBC Trust. "You should think about resigning" from the BBC role, Mrs Hodge says, or says the government should think about sacking her if she did not go.

tweets: , externalEleven things you should know, external about David Cameron's Free Schools programme

In the House of Commons, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin is being grilled by the transport select committee. He has pledged the end of pacer trains by 2020, and said he expects the final Davies , externalreport on airport capacity to be published in "July August time".

Image source, BBC

A pre-election Budget with major tax cuts and spending pledges would not be "credible", Business Secretary Vince Cable has said. The Liberal Democrat minister said his party would be arguing for a "modest approach" - not a "big giveaway". The Lib Dems are launching their plans for innovation, science and industry. Chancellor George Osborne's last Budget of this Parliament is on 18 March.

Chris Mason
Political correspondent, BBC News

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said David Cameron found the row in the Northern Ireland Assembly over welfare reform "deeply concerning." It was "very important" that the Stormont House Agreement was "implemented in full," but the spokesman added that "it must be for the locally-elected political leadership to find a way forward - the responsibility is with them."

He added: "The Prime Minister hopes they'll find a way forward to resolving this."

Here is a bit more detail on the recent poll which has given the Tories a four-point lead. The national poll also found a large majority of voters saying they do not want the SNP playing a part in a future government, with 61% saying they would be unhappy at the prospect of a coalition involving the Scottish nationalists, compared to 31% who would be happy.

The survey, for former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft, gave Conservatives a clear lead for the second successive week on 34% (unchanged since last week) against Labour's 30% (down one point), UKIP on 15% (up one), Greens on 8% (up one), Liberal Democrats on 5% (down two) and SNP on 5% (up one).

A majority of voters (57%) said they would be unhappy to see UKIP taking part in a government, against 36% who would be happy. Just one-third of Conservative supporters (33%) said they would be ready to see a coalition involving Nigel Farage's party.

tweets:, external Michael Moore's International development bill enshrining UK aid target in law passes its final hurdle in the Lords

Back at the Public Accounts Committee hearing: Was HSBC different to other banks? Former bank executive Mr Meares says he thinks HSBC's practices in Switzerland were similar to other banks at the time.

House of Lords
Parliament

Plans to bind future governments to an overseas aid spending target are set to become law in a move welcomed by campaign groups. Peers gave an unopposed third reading to the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill. The Bill, which would make it a legal requirement for 0.7% of UK income to be spent on international development, has already cleared the Commons despite strong opposition from some Tory MPs and peers.

tweets: , externalMPs on the PAC accuse HSBC of "complete managerial incompetence" over lack of knowledge of Swiss evasion #swissleaks

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools minister, has attacked Tory plans to expand free schools, saying the Lib Dems could not agree to this. He says the proposed plan for 500 new free schools (if the Conservatives win the general election) could only be paid for "by raiding maintenance budgets of 25,000 other schools". The "vast majority of schools" would have to pay for this "excessive number of new schools", he told BBC News.

Daily Politics
Live on BBC Two

The majority of MPs tweet, but there's not a great chance of voters getting a reply, a survey for the left-leaning Demos has found. Daily Politics presenter Jo Coburn looked at the statistics about social media and politicians, and heard from the think tank's Jamie Bartlett. Conservative Charles Walker said he would never join Facebook or twitter, and he found it "utterly, utterly objectionable" that people would want to know what he was doing in his dining room. While Lib Dem Jenny Willott, who got a big reaction after appearing in a BBC documentary, said she was flooded with replies, where many were positive, but "a lot of which were deeply unpleasant". Watch the studio debate .

If you're just tuning in to the Politics Live page, here is a quick update on the day in politics:

• David Cameron has announced the Conservatives will fund another 500 free schools if they win the general election

• Labour say the plan would divert much-needed money from other schools

• HSBC executives and former bosses are being grilled by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee over tax evasion by clients

• Labour says the Conservatives' economic plans would mean £70bn in cuts over the next five years

• The Tories say Labour's accusations have been "made up on the back of an envelope"

• Former Ulster Unionist Party leader James Molyneaux has died aged 94.

Here is an explainer, external - via conservativehome.com - on the Ashcroft National Poll which puts the Tories just ahead of Labour.

Tweets, external: Ashcroft National Poll, 6-8 March: CON 34%, LAB 30%, LDEM 5%, UKIP 15%, GRN 8%. Full details on @ConHome, 4pm.

tweets:, external HSBC chief admits that Swiss "hold mail" accounts could be used for tax avoidance. Number of accounts now down from c.15,000 to 12.