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The British Medical Association is holding its annual conference in Liverpool this week and its head, Dr Mark Porter, will tell delegates today there are big holes in government plans for the NHS.

He will say:

The government has promised 5,000 new GPs by 2020, but Dr Porter will question that too.

My colleague Rebecca Keating has pointed out these helpful figures, external  to give you the big picture on tax credits.

In the 2013/14 tax year:

- 4.53 million families received tax credits

- 3.13 million were working

- 1.4 million were not working

The total bill was nearly £29bn - £21bn was for child tax credits and £7bn for working tax credit.

Image source, PA

Tax credits and their future came up during the election campaign and Politics Live regulars might remember some remarks by Michael Gove on the subject. He was asked on Radio 4's The World at One in April whether a future Conservative government would to cut them.

His reply? "No. We are going to freeze them for two years. We are not going to cut them."

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Suzanne Evans made her contentious remarks when she was asked about what role Nigel Farage might play in the EU referendum. She told the BBC's Daily Politics he was "a very divisive character" and someone else should probably lead the Out campaign.

For her part, MEP Louise Bours insisted UKIP - and more specifically, Mr Farage - must play a key part in campaign.

"They sideline us, UKIP and Nigel Farage at their peril..." she said. "The British people only trust us on Europe, that is clear. We need Nigel there, we need him as one of the major players."

UKIP has been in a degree of turmoil in recent weeks, but the party's MEP Louise Bours did her best to play all that down when she spoke to BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour yesterday.

She said the row over Suzanne Evans - pictured above - who'll you'll remember got the cold shoulder from the party after she called Nigel Farage "divisive", had been "blown up out of all proportions".

Ms Evans was reportedly dropped as a spokesperson for UKIP, but Ms Bours denied she had been "frozen out".

A bit more on that Freedom of Information story. The Financial Times, external  actually carries it on today's front page. It explains that at the moment people can obtain information from government departments as long as finding it doesn't cost more that £600. However, the FT reports, Mr Gove is considering either lowering that limit or including the cost of time spent by individuals "considering and redacting" any releases.

Maurice Frankel, director of the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information, tells the paper the proposals "could have severe consequences for the right to know".

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The European Union has launched a naval operation against people-smugglers in the Mediterranean. The first phase will focus on surveillance and assessment of the criminal networks behind the boats, but later stages could involve direct action against the smugglers. 

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "It will be a phased operation and of course we need United Nations Security Council resolutions to commence later phases of the operation but the early phases will begin immediately." 

 Speaking at a Luxembourg meeting of European foreign ministers, Mr Hammond said the plan would also involve working with African countries to "stop the pressures that are driving this wave of migration towards Europe". 

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Justice Secretary Michael Gove, fresh in the job after the election, is, according to politics.co.uk,, external planning a change to the rules around Freedom of Information requests that could make it harder to get answers from the government. The article says he is "understood to be trying to include officials' 'thinking time' in the costs of FoI requests, thereby making it harder to request information without falling foul of a £600 limit on costs".

It comes after David Cameron said he was considering strengthening the power of the ministerial veto over FoI requests after the government failed to block publication of Prince Charles' letters to ministers.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Tax credits account for some £30bn of the welfare bill, and I think David Cameron's speech today gives a pretty clear steer that he is looking at clawing back some of that money.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Tax credits were the subject of a debate a short time ago on Today. Dr Samantha Callan, from the Centre for Social Justice, said we shouldn't focus on income measures alone in the battle to tackle poverty. "Having a welfare-focused solution... we're not looking at poor education, serious personal debt, family breakdown, drug and alcohol addiction..." she said. 

Instead, she argued, a living wage is key: "For far too long employers could give very poor wages knowing tax credits would take people over the line."

Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said child poverty may well be about more than income, "but the income figures are incredibly stark" and "we know that's devastating for children's outcomes."

"The cuts that we've had today have fallen predominantly on families with children," Ms Garnham continued, arguing that children's benefits should be protected with same sort of triple lock as that given to pensioners.

The Financial Times, among other newspapers, certainly thinks, external  David Cameron's speech "signals an assault on tax credits".

For those who might not know, tax credits are state benefits given to people responsible for children, disabled workers and other workers on lower incomes. There are two types - child tax credits and working tax credits - some people are eligible for both. 

Tax credits are tax free, but they are means tested - how much you get depends on income and personal circumstances, number of children, for example.

On Sunday, Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham said it was "disgraceful" that the government still hadn't revealed the details of the £12bn in cuts. He also questioned whether George Osborne "has a mandate for cuts on this scale because he didn't spell out before the election where these cuts were going to fall".

The shadow health secretary said Mr Osborne would "have a fight on his hands" if he planned to "take benefits off disabled people" or "coming after the tax credits of people on low incomes".  

We won't get any detail of the promised £12bn in benefit cuts until next month's Budget at the earliest, but this afternoon David Cameron will attempt to make the case for them. In a speech in north-west England, he'll say he wants to end the "merry go round" of taxing those on low incomes - with the government handing money back to the same people in benefits. 

The prime minister will argue that this is merely "dealing with the symptoms of the problems - topping up low pay rather than extending the drivers of opportunity". Instead, creating more, well paid jobs, is key, he'll add.

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The husbands of two of the three sisters who are feared to have travelled to Syria with their nine children will meet the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee today. Keith Vaz will meet the men after their lawyers accused the police of being "complicit in the grooming and radicalising" of the women. One of them, Zohra Dawood, left a message for her family last week saying she and her sisters travelled "due to the oppressive nature of the continued surveillance by the police".

Mr Vaz told the Mail on Sunday, external the lawyers' claims were "concerning". He said it was hard for police to keep families informed about ongoing investigations, but added: "It is important to listen to what they have to say, which I will do, and then decide what further action needs to be taken." Read more here.

Image source, SPL

Closer to home and there's a warning from union leaders that thousands of foreign nurses working in junior posts in the UK could be forced to return home under new immigration rules.

A new pay threshold for migrants means non-European workers will have to leave the UK after six years if they are not earning at least £35,000.

The Royal College of Nursing said the rules would "cause chaos" for the NHS and waste money spent on recruitment.

The Home Office said the rules would help reduce demand for migrant labour. Read the full story.

Image source, Getty Images

It may be beyond the world of Westminster, but what happens in Brussels today could certainly affect the UK. Greece is facing a critical 24 hours as European leaders gather for an emergency summit which its hoped could break the deadlock around the country's debt crisis.

On Sunday, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras set out new proposals to try to prevent a default on a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) IMF loan. One European official said the proposals held plenty of promise. Greece must repay the loan by the end of June or risk crashing out of the single currency and possibly the EU. Read the full story here.