House of Commons
Parliament

Abase Hussen, whose daughter Amira is thought to have gone to Syria to join so-called Islamic State, urges other parents to "be vigilant" so that their children will "not follow on the same track".

House of Commons
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Keith Vaz asks the trio of witnesses what advice they would have for other parents. "It's very difficult," Fahmida Aziz says. "We need to maintain a certain level of communication with the school, but it's got to be a two-way street. In respect of our sister, my cousin, for her safety we do want her to come back, we're hoping that she is safe wherever she may be. We need to still rely on services who can help us do this and bring them back safely." Sahima Begum adds: "I feel so let down by the police."

House of Commons
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Who would you turn to to talk to about these issues, Keith Vaz asks? Fahmida Aziz says the best option for members of the community would be turning to the school. Not the anti-terrorism hotline, then, Mr Vaz confirms.

House of Commons
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The relatives say they have no idea how the girls got the estimated £1,000 needed for the three flights. Nor had they seen any signs of radicalisation. Nor had they noticed particularly heavy use of social media.

Daily Politics
Live on BBC Two

YouGov's Peter Kellner looks at the latest election polls and what they mean for the larger parties. He spoke to Jo Coburn on the Daily Politics about the relevance of even the tiniest changes for the Conservatives and Labour. And they looked at what the public may think of the results for Liberal Democrats, UKIP and SNP, comparing their vote share and the number of the seats they may win. Watch the clip

Tweets, external: Extraordinary Speaker Bercow should liken @EstherMcVeyMP's Commons answers to 'when one thinks the washing machine will stop - but does not'

London Evening Standard
Newspaper

Image source, PA

The Evening Standard, external has picked up on an aside by Speaker John Bercow in work and pensions questions yesterday. Frustrated by the length of employment minister Esther McVey's answers, he said: "I am reminded of the feeling when one thinks the washing machine will stop - but it does not!" That prompted Labour's Stephen Pound to say: "A washing machine metaphor for a woman minister is seldom a good idea. Let's see how he spins his way out of this one!" And now Mr Bercow is attracting further criticism, with LBC presenter Andrew Pierce comparing the speaker, external to "a Teasmade: plastic, dated, and producing lukewarm drivel".

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman has blogged on Coffeehouse, external about continuing behind the scenes troubles over the Tory manifesto.

She writes: "I have picked up some considerable dissatisfaction in the party at the way the document is being put together.

"Some departments feel as though they and their advisers have been shut out by the team working on the manifesto. Other lower-ranking ministers with extremely good, detailed ideas for their own policy areas have submitted ideas that have been rejected out of hand, which has left them rather grumpy."

House of Commons
Parliament

"All the police had to do was use an envelope and we might have avoided all of this," says solicitor Tasnime Akunjee, brandishing just such an envelope. We assume he means that if the girls hadn't known the contents of the letter sent home with them by the school they wouldn't have reacted to it by hiding it and their parents would have received the warning they say was so crucial.

House of Commons
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Committee chairman Keith Vaz says the school the three girls attended was told to "keep it under wraps". Sahima Begum adds that her sister, a 15-year-old, was told to keep the information away from her family too and that this was unreasonable.

House of Commons
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Committee chairman Keith Vaz says he's been told by staff at the girls' school that police told them not to tell the families any details about the first missing girl. He says they school insist they were instructed only to say she was missing and nothing about where she had gone.

House of Commons
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Image source, BBC Sport

Labour veteran David Winnick asks the schoolgirls' relatives whether other young females might be persuaded to follow a similar route. Their solicitor, Tasnime Akunjee, takes this one. "I would hasten to suggest that understanding a 15-year-old mindset is a difficult thing," he says. "Justin Bieber is a difficult thing to understand… we don't know what contact they've had and with whom and what's led them on this path - the parents don't know the answer to this question. They don't know how this has happened but it is shocking to them."

House of Commons
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"As far as we know we did what we could to keep an eye on our child," says Sahima Begum. "In retrospect, I think if we had been given information about this first girl we would have thought... friends have similar mindsets. Is her mindset similar to that?" We didn't get the chance to do that, she adds.

House of Commons
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"The letter terrified my daughter," says Abase Hussen. He says he would normally take his daughter to places so cannot imagine how she could travel all the way to Syria alone.

House of Commons
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Tasnime Akunjee says it's impossible to put ourselves in the mindset of a 15-year-old girl when we don't know what contact they've had and with whom. "It is shocking to them," he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Solicitor for the families Tasnime Akunjee tells MPs it is possible that receipt of the police letter could have triggered the girls' plan to go. He says they might have reacted badly to an official letter, headed Metropolitan Police, that was effectively asking them to "rat out" their friend. Sahima Begum says it's impossible to know what was in the girls' minds.

House of Commons
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Keith Vaz is questioning the trio about letters that were sent home with the schoolgirls asking for information about a missing classmate - a girl who had previously gone to Syria. Sahmina Begum says: "If we had received the letter directly we would have contacted the police, found out where the first girl had gone and I would have spoken to my sister."

House of Commons
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The relatives say they had no idea that the girls might have been radicalised.

House of Commons
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Keith Vaz begins the questioning by asking the relatives about the circumstances in which they found the schoolgirls missing.

House of Commons
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Everything is in place for the home affairs committee session with relatives of the three schoolgirls missing in Syria, and chairman Keith Vaz calls the committee to order. "We cannot imagine the anguish and the distress you must feel," he tells the relatives. "Please would you accept from us our best wishes at this time and our support to you personally on what you have gone through. It is every parent's nightmare."