House of Commons
Parliament

Speaker John Bercow jumps to the defence of Simon Hughes, whose answers in justice questions are being delivered in a rather croaky voice. "He's obviously struggling with a very severe sore throat," Mr Bercow says. "It seems a very considerable unkindness." Mr Hughes, who has been in the government for less than a year, says Justice Secretary Chris Grayling offered him the chance of opting out. "But I volunteered to do my duty," he says. The speaker declares: "The minister's virtue is not in doubt." A good-tempered start to the Commons day, then.

House of Commons
Parliament

Prayers are completed in the Commons chamber, which means justice questions is underway. The first set of questions are on protecting children at risk of grooming. Lib Dem justice minister Simon Hughes, who has rather a croaky voice today, says "government is absolutely committed to making sure the law is as tough as it needs be". He says the problem is that young people haven't been listened to in the past.

Here are David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the aforementioned Crossrail tunnel. Not just the hi-vis vest, beloved by all politicians, but a full safety suit for the two of them today.

Image source, Reuters

tweets:, external *Any* cooperation between Lab/SNP would drive sensible Labour people in England to rebel, because it would threaten to destroy English Lab.

Daily and Sunday Politics

Image source, (C) British Broadcasting Corporation

UKIP leader Nigel Farage will be the guest of the day on Tuesday's Daily Politics with Jo Coburn from 12:00 GMT. They'll be looking at a montage of some key moments for the party. Watch it here.

There'll also be a look ahead to tomorrow's Budget with TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady and Jonathan Isaby, from the TaxPayers' Alliance. Also, education select committee chairman, the Conservative MP Graham Stuart, will be interviewed about its inquiry into extremism in schools, and the so-called Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham.

tweets:, external UKIP holding their morning meeting al fresco today, trying to relive the Brussels cafe culture they so love

Image source, James Landale

Image source, PA

Protesters from Oxfam dressed as George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander have staged an anti-tax dodging demonstration outside Parliament. They posed with red Budget boxes inside a glass dome blowing fake bank notes around - it represented, they said, the amount of money the Treasury loses each year due to tax dodging.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg are in a hole together. No coalition jokes please, they're in an actual hole - or tunnel to be more precise, that is being dug underneath London for the Crossrail link. While there, they're asked about today's inheritance tax story. The prime minister dismissed suggestions the idea would have been in the Budget were it not for the Liberal Democrats. "That's not the case. This isn't a Budget leak. It's not something in the Budget and you'll see the Budget tomorrow," he said. For his part, Mr Clegg said: "They want to fiddle around on inheritance tax - only benefiting the very wealthiest... We have said that every spare penny you can find should be devoted to giving tax cuts to people on middle and low incomes."

BBC News Channel

"You could easily conclude that this man went into politics to destroy our public services" - the man Chuka Umunna is referring to is George Osborne. The shadow business secretary makes the now familiar claim that Mr Osborne wants to strip public spending back to the level of the 1930s.

BBC News Channel

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna welcomes the increase in the apprentices' minimum wage but says the headline increase in the national minimum wage isn't enough and isn't as much as Labour would provide - that would be £8 an hour, he says. He also says "better enforcement" is needed to ensure employers actually pay the minimum wage. "We're more ambitious for the British people than this lot in office."

tweets:, external Rachel Reeves in the Guardian on benefits: "We don't want to be seen, and we're not, the party to represent those who are out of work."

BBC News Channel

"A very salutary warning" - that was Business Secretary Vince Cable's view on comments made by National Audit Office chief Sir Amyas Morse in today's Financial Times. Sir Amyas said those in Westminster must think about the impact of any further cuts on people's lives. Mr Cable told the BBC: "I think he is right to say what he has said. I think within this Parliament we have managed this very carefully, but there isn't very much low-hanging fruit. There isn't going to be scope for deep cuts without doing serious damage."

tweets:, external Cutting inheritance tax gets expensive. Yield in last year was £3.4bn, but rises to £6.3bn by 2019-20.

tweets:, external Labour's Chuka Umunna tells Sky - "I didn't come into politics to tax people."

BBC News Channel

Vince Cable, who last autumn had called for a dramatic increase in the apprenticeship national minimum wage, was in accepting mode when asked why he wasn't pushing the issue today. The Low Pay Commission has only recommended a 57p hike, below the £1 increase the business secretary had called for. "We're accepting the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission, an independent body of employers, trade unions and independent academics," Dr Cable told the News Channel. "This has been traditionally accepted by ministers, and I'm accepting it on that basis. We mustn't politicise that." Nevertheless, he says the new total is "still a small sum, but we have to take into account the fact that employers need to provide apprenticeships".

BBC News Channel

Vince Cable hits out at George Osborne, criticising the chancellor's reported plans to offer an increase in the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million. The business secretary says the idea is "very cynical". "If taxes can be cut, and it's very difficult in the present budget constraints, we've got to start at the bottom, not at the top." Dr Cable says his Twickenham constituency is full of people who are worried about the issue. "But the Budget is under a lot of financial pressure and this is sending a very bad signal about the chancellor's priorities."

Conservative Home

Local Conservative party chairmen are not, in the normal run of things, supposed to be getting their supporters to back another party. But that is what the top Tottenham Tory has been up to, according to ConservativeHome, external. It's published a letter from Justin Hinchcliffe in which he urges Conservatives to back Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone to keep out Labour. "To put it bluntly," Mr Hinchcliffe writes, "If Lynne loses in Hornsey & Wood Green, Ed Miliband is another step closer to being Britain's next Prime Minister." Imagine how the Tory candidate, Suhail Rahuja, feels. It's certainly angered Mark Wallace, of ConHome, who says this kind of encouragement of tactical voting is "outrageous".

tweets:, external E-cigarettes and craft beer added to basket of goods and services used to calculate UK inflation.

Labour isn't letting today's "damning" education committee report, external pass without getting in its own attack on ministers. Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt has this to say: "The government's schools policy failed children and parents in Birmingham, leaving them open and exposed to unsuitable influences for years, and they still have no plan for tackling such issues - schools and parents are still dangerously unsupported." He says Labour will introduce a "robust system of local oversight for all schools" featuring new directors of school standards on the grounds in every area.

tweets:, external Some of the 400-plus apprentices who have been part of Crossrail project chat to PM and DPM about rise in min wage.

Image source, Twitter