The Daily Politics

For Labour, Caroline Flint says the UK could "do more" to help those who have been displaced by conflicts in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the region, suggesting only 140 refugees have been accepted from Syria since a scheme was set up last year. She also suggests EU nations need to reconsider how the Schengen agreement - which the UK is not a part of - is working. This abolished internal borders, enabling passport-free movement between a large number of European countries.

House of Commons
Parliament

Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers tells MPs that the UK government is making progress on implementing the Stormont House Agreement and that it has legislated for corporation tax devolution. 

She urges the Northern Ireland political parties to deliver on their side of the agreement and adds that to lose the deal would be "a huge setback".

The Daily Politics

Environment minister George Eustice rejects claims by the deputy mayor of Calais that the UK has helped inflame the migrant problems at the French port. Mr Eustice tells the Daily Politics that "it is a serious problem but we are doing our bit", pointing out that 40,000 people have been stopped from crossing the channel in the past year. The fact Calais is the scene of such flashpoints is no surprise, he adds, since it is the first time that many of those milling around the port have been subject to a "border check" since arriving in Europe.

The Daily Politics

The arguments for paying women less than men are "intriguing" says Milo Yiannopoulos.

In a personal film, the blogger looks at equality for men and women in - and out of - the work place, and he calls for the balance to be redressed in favour of men.

He will debate the ideas in this film with Labour MP Caroline Flint and Conservative MP George Eustice around 12:40 BST on Wednesday’s Daily Politics.

House of Commons
Parliament

The House of Commons is now open for business. MPs are starting their day with Northern Ireland Questions and the first one of the day is on the progress of the Stormont House Agreement.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing government has been facing severe financial pressures in recent months, and rows over the implementation of welfare reform.

Last December's Stormont House Agreement dealt, in part, with some of the outstanding issues of the peace process, and crucially, appeared to find consensus over changes to the welfare system. However there is now a dispute between the DUP and Sinn Féin over what was agreed.

The Daily Politics

The Daily Politics is getting under way on BBC Two. Guests include Caroline Flint, a contender for the Labour party deputy leadership. Will she agree with Alan Milburn's diagnosis of where the party went wrong?. 

BBC News Channel

Image source, AFP/Getty

The BBC's Norman Smith says David Cameron met Home Secretary Theresa May and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to discuss the situation in Calais and he is almost certain that the issue will come up at PMQs at some point. Labour's David Hanson, who has tabled an urgent question on the subject, says the French government needs to "step up to the plate" and assess the status of all the 3,000 people living in camps at the French port to determine if they are genuine refugees who should be considered for asylum or illegal economic migrants. "They need to take action to stop the pressure on our ports," he tells the BBC News Channel.  

Image source, PA

There has been plenty of analysis of how the Conservatives managed to pull off their election victory. Here's a slightly different take on the subject from journalist Andrew Gimson, who used to work at the Research Department at Conservative Central Office. He says David Cameron - another alumnus of the department - owes much to the time he spent there in the late 1980s. Writing in Conservative Home, external, he says the prime minister "learned the method of doing politics which contributed directly to the victory of 2015" and suggests his time in No 10 has been shaped much more by his stint there than anything he did at Eton or Oxford. 

We've just heard there will be an urgent question on the situation at Calais later in Parliament. It is expected to be after Prime Minister's Questions at about 12:30 BST. 

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said the European Union needs to "completely rethink" its policy towards asylum and immigration in light of the migrant crisis in the mediterranean. He told LBC Radio:

Alan Milburn concludes his blunt analysis of where Labour finds itself by saying the party needs a "profound change of approach" and a new leader who can "sit comfortably on, own and dominate" political territory currently occupied by the Conservatives. 

Labour faces a "daunting" prospect if it is to win a majority at the next election, Alan Milburn said, pointing out that, to do so, it would need to win the constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green - which it has never done in its history. Ironically, this is the constituency of work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who established the Centre for Social Justice that Mr Miliburn was addressing. Voters no longer have a sense that Labour has a "compelling, clear purpose", he asserts. To get back into power, the party needs to reach out beyond its traditional heartlands, citing Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher as leaders who were able to do this. 

Alan Milburn says Labour seems "determined to forget how it won elections" between 1997 and 2005, with its leaders since 2007 "deliberately and destructively turning their back on the formula" which carried the party into power. Labour, he suggests needs to "come to terms" with Tony Blair's legacy if it is ever to make progress. But he insists that he is not urging a return to New Labour and the party must, instead, build a "new proposition" in response to the rise of identity politics. 

More from Alan Milburn's post-mortem on Labour's election performance. He argues Labour needs to be "brutally honest" about what he said was the party's worse defeat for three decades. Under Ed Miliband, he says Labour tried to "defy the laws of political gravity", suggesting the former leader "bet the house on the country moving to the left" while, on issues like welfare and immigration, the dlectorate arguably went the other way. He says "we have no-one but ourselves to blame" since Labour "drove voters into Conservative arms". 

You can hardly move in Westminster these days for politicians vying to become Mayor of London. Yesterday, Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith declared he is entering the race while two Lib Dems contenders - Caroline Pidgeon and Duwayne Brooks - formally said they would run. And now Lembit Opik, the former Lib Dem MP, has said he wants to throw his hat into the ring. 

Image source, PA

There has been a bit of speculation this morning about the Sovereign Grant, the money paid to the Queen to enable her to fulfill her public duties, and how it might be affected by the further devolution of powers to Scotland. Responsibilities for overseeing the Crown Estate in Scotland may be transferred to the Scottish government in 2016, leading some to suggest an SNP government could seek to reduce the contributions to the royal purse from the Estate's profits. But the UK government has said that Scottish taxpayers will make the same financial contribution whatever the outcome of the devolution settlement currently being considered by Parliament. A Treasury spokeswoman has said: