You can watch Question Time and This Week - and indeed all the day's BBC political output - by clicking on the "live coverage" tab at the top of this page.

Here are the other political developments that have happened today:

- The government's remaining 30% stake in Royal Mail is to be sold and £3bn cut from government spending this year, George Osborne has announced

- A department-by-department list of where the axe will fall can be found here

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said  the EU may have to consider treaty change if that is what it takes to keep the UK in

- Ed Miliband has made his first Commons speech since resigning the Labour leadership, and used the moment to call for action against inequality

-  The IFS warns  that government spending cuts will see unprotected parts of the social security budget fall to their lowest level for 25 years

- Downing Street has made a fresh appeal to the body that sets MPs' pay to abandon plans for a £7,000 rise

- The High Court has begun hearing a legal challenge, brought by two MPs, to the government's emergency surveillance law

And finally, Conservative minister Anna Soubry h as rebuked SNP MP Alex Salmond  for telling her to "behave yourself, women" during heated Commons exchanges.

Lib Dem leadership contender Norman Lamb says he won't be accepting the proposed pay rise, if it goes ahead.

He says there is "no other job in the country where you'd vote on your own salary".

This week's Question Time is under way, and the first question to the panel is on the proposed £7,000 pay rise for MPs.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening says the proposal is unacceptable and can't be justified.

"We won't be accepting this pay rise," she adds.

Revealing her frustration with Ipsa, the body which sets MPs' salaries, Ms Greening says it has "got it wrong".

Newsnight

Former Conservative Chancellor Lord Lawson says that any change David Cameron is likely to secure in his EU reform negotiations is likely to be "inconsequential".

Speaking on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the 1975 referendum, the peer tells BBC Newsnight that Mr Cameron's optimism is "misplaced" as there's only "a very small chance" he could secure "significant" reforms. But he says the prime minister will present them to the British public "as a major change".

The ex-chancellor predicts the UK will vote to remain in the EU but says the public will come to regret it "because they will discover that there hasn't been any fundamental change".

Lord Lawson also suggests the PM is holding the referendum "largely" to keep the Conservative Party together.

Andrew Neil will review the political week with Diane Abbott and Michael Portillo on the big red sofa, live on This Week from 23:45 BST. They will be joined by former Lib Dem MP and minister Chris Huhne to look at the future of the party after the general election result and the death of Charles Kennedy, who appeared many times on the programme.The football-themed round-up film of the week's news will come from the Mail's Quentin Letts, and DJ Edith Bowman will be looking at the "communal experience" of music and literature festivals and party political conferences.

Desktop viewers can watch via the Live Coverage tab above.

Image source, @bbcquestiontime

A reminder that Question Time is coming up a little later. The programme, which this week comes from Plymouth, will be broadcast on BBC One at 22.45 BST.

The line-up includes: International Development Secretary Justine Greening, shadow international development secretary Mary Creagh, Lib Dem leadership contender Norman Lamb, social policy analyst Jill Kirby and journalist Susie Boniface.

Image source, Reuters

It's been a busy day at Westminster, with George Osborne announcing the government's remaining 30% stake in the Royal Mail is to be sold and £3bn cut from government spending this year. In other developments: 

- Labour accused the chancellor of "ripping up" his long term economic plan by springing the announcement on MPs

- The SNP said the move "poses real danger to the postal service and, in particular, the universal service obligation which is of huge importance to Scotland"

- Ed Miliband used his first speech in the Commons since resigning as Labour leader to urge action against inequality

- MPs voted to approve the government's legislative programme, as set out in the Queen's Speech

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the BBC the EU may have to consider treaty change if that is what it takes to keep the UK in the union

- Downing Street made a fresh appeal to the body that sets MPs' pay to abandon plans for a £7,000 rise

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has said it will cut the funding of dozens of arts and sports organisations as part of plans to reduce its spending by £30m this financial year.

The department says its latest forecasts show spending in many areas will be "lower than previously expected" and £25m of its total cuts will come through under-spends.

As part of that figure, DCMS will cut 1% or £0.9m from its core budget. Another £3.3m will come from a 0.5% across-the-board reduction in funding for arms-length bodies, including the Imperial War Museum, UK Sport, UK Anti-Doping and Royal Parks.

House of Commons
Parliament

The Commons has voted to approve the government's legislative programme as set out in the Queen's Speech. 326 MPs voted in favour, 279 against. 

Earlier, a Labour amendment was rejected by 325 to 278 votes - a majority of 47.

The SNP's amendment was rejected with 318 MPs voting against and 60 voting in favour.

BBC News Channel

John Moylan, BBC industry correspondent, says there are a number of options for the Royal Mail sell off. 

BBC News Channel

Sajid Javid, the business secretary, says there are many ways the government could sell off its remaining stake in the Royal Mail and the decision be based on getting the best deal for taxpayers.

Although the share will be sold by the end of the current Parliament, Mr Javid says it is not the sort of deal he wants to rush in to. 

Government spending cuts will see unprotected parts of the social security budget fall to their lowest level for 25 years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned.

The IFS said protecting pensioner benefits meant cuts of almost 10% over two years to the welfare budget. That would take welfare spending as a share of GDP to its lowest since 1990.

More on the story here . 

The Department of Transport has provided a bit more detail on the savings it expects to make to its budget - including cuts to Transport for London's budget and underspends on cycling and regional air links.

The department is expected to save £545m this financial year as part of £3bn in cuts announced by the chancellor this morning. Around £345m is expected to be raised by selling off land around Kings Cross station.

The remaining savings are:

• £124m - reduced contingency money held by the department
• £31m - reduction in Transport for London funding
• £23m - expected underspend on the Cycle Cities Ambition budget
• £16m - expected underspend on the Regional Air Connectivity fund
• £5m -  expected underspend on the Stations Commercial Projects Facility
• £1m - expected underspend on the Sheffield Tram Train Project

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it plans to make £83m of savings this financial year through efficiencies and cuts to "low-priority" programmes. A spokesman for Defra says the department "needs to go through a process" to determine exactly where the cuts will fall.

However, it already plans to scrap a research programme on urban seagulls, which will save £250,000. The funding for the programme, which was meant to find ways to alleviate the noise and mess created by gulls, had been announced in the March budget.

A bit more from CWU General Secretary Dave Ward on today's Royal Mail sell off announcement. He says the move "threatens the very existence of the one-price-goes-anywhere, six day delivery service that Royal Mail provides to 29 million UK addresses".

Ian Senior, the postal economist, says the government made a bad job of the first Royal Mail sell off because it priced shares too low. The new sale should happen in three tranches, he argues, to allow the government to evaluate the price at intervals and eventually make sure it gets the right value for shares. 

The Royal Mail name can stay even if the service is in private hands, Mr Senior says. He also predicts the universal service obligation is on its way out - Royal Mail will soon be asking to make around three deliveries to each property a week, which is "perfectly logical", he argues. 

The Daily Politics

Former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth is asked if MPs should take the annual £7,000 pay rise that has been approved by IPSA, and he replies: "Of course."

MPs do not vote on their salary, and some have said they will not take the rise. Watch the Daily Politics clip 

Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, has responded to plans to sell off the government's remaining stake in the Royal Mail. 

The Daily Politics

High street coffee chain Caffe Nero is no longer using milk from dairy farms in the Gloucestershire and Somerset badger culling zones, and protesters are now targeting a supermarket to also stop using milk from these areas.

On the Daily Politics, Andrew Neil heard from Conservative MP and former farmer Neil Parish, and Jay Tiernan from Stop the Cull, about the campaign, and what it may achieve.

Watch the debate