House of Commons
Parliament

Hilary Benn is having a pop at David Cameron after the confusion over his comments as to whether ministers would have to quit if they campaigned against for a British exit from the EU against his recommendation.

House of Commons
Parliament

Asked for this thoughts on the scrapping of the purdah period in the run-up to the election, Hilary Benn agrees with the government's stance, saying "it would not be sensible" for ministers to be "constrained" from explaining what the government's view is to the British public.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Diane Abbott recalls the state of the Conservative Party under John Major, saying it "fell apart" under the pressure over rows over Europe "and we look forward cheerfully to it doing so again".

Mr Benn claims the Conservatives have called the referendum to try to deal with splits that exist within the party.

House of Commons
Parliament

Hilary Benn begins by telling the House that Labour supports the bill and its passage through Parliament "but we also support Britain remaining a member of the EU". The same cannot be said of all Conservative MPs, he adds.

But he says the 28-member bloc does need to recognise that there is "a growing demand" across Europe for greater devolution of power. "We need to co-operate and to devolve - and the EU's task is to reconcile these two forces," he adds.

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Parliament

The debate will be "hard fought" by both sides of the argument, Mr Hammond says, but he adds that all should  be able to agree "on the single principle" that the decision on the UK's membership should be taken by the British public.

For too long, he says, Britons have been denied their say while powers were ceded to Brussels. "This bill puts that right".

House of Commons
Parliament

Philip Hammond explains why the government thinks there should be no purdah period (a period of weeks when the government avoids announcing anything that might influence a vote) in the lead up to the EU referendum, saying it would be "unworkable".

Tory backbencher and Eurosceptic Peter Bone intervenes to raise concerns that the government could use "the apparatus of state to push a case". Mr Hammond assures MPs the government has "no intention" of doing so.

House of Commons
Parliament

On the subject of whether EU nationals should be allowed to vote in the referendum, Conservative MP Richard Graham asks whether, in other European countries, British citizens or other non-nationals are able to vote in referendums? Philip Hammond says as far as he's aware, no.

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Ken Livingstone says Sadiq Khan can "change London for the better". 

He writes in the New Statesman: "He is absolutely committed to giving Londoners the same opportunities he had when he was growing up - the opportunities that allowed him to go from his council estate to being a successful lawyer and sitting at the cabinet table."

Image source, EPA

Ken Livingstone says he is backing Sadiq Khan to become Mayor of London. 

Mr Livingstone, who held the position before Boris Johnson, writes in the New Statesman:

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Lord Falconer says he is "absolutely delighted" that Labour's Rob Marris has chosen to introduce an assisted dying bill, after coming top of the Private Members Bill ballot .

In the last session of Parliament, Lord Falconer's own Assisted Dying Bill got further than any previous attempt to change the law in England and Wales - but ran out of time before the general election.

He added he had intended to reintroduce the bill in the Lords himself, but it came 21st out of 42 in the House of Lords' own ballot. 

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You can see our correspondent Ross Hawkins here, external discussing the Labour leadership battle. 

 "Anyone who thinks they can call this one has got another think coming," he adds. 

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Angela Eagle says that it is time to "step up to the plate" and for party members to "put our shoulders to the wheel" and to "do everything we can" to win in 2020. 

And what did Labour do wrong? "People didn't feel they could trust us," she replies, echoing comments made by Lord Falconer on the same programme. 

Voters were also put off by the idea of a minority government formed of Labour and the SNP - "but the real problem they should have been worrying about was a majority Tory government", she says. 

The first intervention the foreign secretary faces is from noted pro-European Ken Clarke. 

He says he was active during the 1975 referendum and, contrary to Mr Hammond's comments, the issue of pooling of sovereignty was one of the key points of debate while "ever closing union was in the treaty" to which the UK was signing up.

Mr Hammond prompts laughter with his response:

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Angela Eagle adds that she doesn't "want ever to feel again like I felt on the night of  7 May when that exit poll came out" - pointing to a Conservative victory. 

She says she felt she had failed the "millions of people" she had come into politics in order to represent. 

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Angela Eagle, who is standing as deputy Labour leader, says she wants to be seen as a "unity candidate", adding that she can bring the party together because she is not a member of any faction. 

She won't say who she favours as leader - pointing out she would have to work with whoever wins that position. 

Asked about the hustings, she says they have been a "friendly affair". 

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond opens the debate by saying that the way the EU had changed since the 1975 referendum had "eroded the democratic mandate for our membership to the point where it is wafer thin and demands to be renewed".

Speaker John Bercow says "some dozens" of MPs want to speak in the debate on the EU Referendum Bill and that a time limit will have to be brought in for backbenchers, to ensure as many as possible get a chance to have their say.

Speaking during Foreign Office Questions, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said HMS Bulwark has rescued more than 2,000 migrants from the Mediterranean since it was deployed.

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From now on, at 12.30pm and 5.30pm every day, the latest positions of Labour leadership hopefuls will be posted on the party's website, says BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins. 

He also tells the Daily Politics he spotted former Labour leader Ed Miliband alone earlier - with no aides around him, pointing out politics is a "brutal, brutal business".