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The Green Party has called for railways to be brought into public ownership. It comes after the government said it would delay or cut back a number of Network Rail modernisation projects.

Ms Bennett said the government was "failing" on public transport - and argued that renationalisation of the railways was supported by a majority of the public.

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To compound what Nick Clegg was saying on LBC Radio earlier today, Lib Dem leadership contender Tim Farron said the election result, which saw the worst losses in the party's history, was a consequence of forming a government with the Conservatives. 

He told the IPPR think-tank: "We did the right thing by our country, and I am proud of Nick and all that we achieved, but our party was hugely damaged by the perceived submerging of our identity and by the tuition fees issue which undermined the electorate's trust in us." 

Nearly £300,000 of taxpayers' money was spent on lawyers acting for government witnesses to the Leveson Inquiry into the press, Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock has revealed. 

A total of £287,491 was spent by the Government Legal Department, formerly Treasury Solicitors, on providing support to government witnesses to the inquiry, Mr Hancock said in a written ministerial statement. 

The inquiry was ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 in the wake of the phone hacking scandal and the closure of the News Of The World. 

Part one of the inquiry examined the culture, practices and ethics of the press and the relationship between the press and the public, police and politicians. 

Part two cannot begin until current police investigations and any criminal proceedings have been completed. 

Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokeswoman said today's statistics show that the proportion of individuals in poverty "is at the lowest level since the mid-1980s".

The government's emergency committee, Cobra, is meeting to discuss the migrant crisis, following the chaos at Calais earlier this week. BBC chief political correspondent Vicki Young says the meeting is looking at the “practicalities” of what can be done if there is another strike by French workers.

David Cameron has arrived at the European Council summit in Brussels, saying it is a "milestone" for his EU renegotiation:

On the migrants crisis, which is to be discussed by European leaders, Mr Cameron said a "comprehensive and co-ordinated approach" was needed "and Britain will "play its role". He said more needed to be done to crack down on "criminal gangs that are trafficking people across Africa and into Europe".

A  backbench bill which would commit the UK to spending 2% of GDP on defence will not be given government time, Downing Street has said.

The Private Member's Bill is expected to be tabled by ex-Conservative defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth. But without government support it stands very little chance of becoming law.

The PM's official spokeswoman said: "In terms of the bill, I don't expect it to be given government time."

David Cameron has come under pressure from Conservative MPs and former army generals to commit to the defence spend target, which is set by Nato.

He has yet to commit to it beyond 2015-16, saying the government's plans for the coming years will be announced in Chancellor George Osborne's autumn spending review.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is on his feet in the Commons, speaking about the recent report into surveillance powers. Mr Clegg says report author David Anderson was "scathing" about the sort of data retention powers he resisted while the Lib Dems were in government. He says he is "nostalgic" about his coalition battles with Home Secretary Theresa May on the issue. Is the feeling mutual? Here is Ms May listening to his speech:

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On government plans to change the measurement of child poverty, Mr Field says the relative definitions of poverty "don't recognise what the academics now describe as the things you need and if you don't have them you're in poverty".

"Clearly one needs televisions" as it links you with the rest of society, he says, but adds that at the same time other parents "can't be bothered to get up and give their children breakfast and get them to school".

"Children struggle alone in this life", he says, adding that this is a "complex area" and one that needs "a great deal more thought".

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Commenting on today's child poverty figures, Labour MP Frank Field, the new chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee and ex-poverty tsar, says it's good there hasn't been the decline that was predicted.

But he's anxious that "these data that have real drawbacks are looked at critically when we talk about these millions of people in poverty".

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Moving on to David Cameron's EU renegotiation aims at today's Brussels summit, Damian Green says it is "a good time" for the PM to outline the reform he wants and show that it is in the EU - and not just Britain's - interest.

But Douglas Carswell says the "inward-looking" debate in Europe "misses the broader picture", that UK exports to Europe have "fallen" over recent years "because there's a world of growth out there".

Mr Green seems less than impressed with his argument: "This idea that you make it easer to export to China by making it more difficult to export to Germany is one of the weirder fantasies of my Eurosceptic friends."

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Douglas Carswell says the whole raison d'etre of the EU is that "it allows us to act together and therefore act more effectively". But what if this is the moment it's realised that the opposite is true, he asks. What if it the EU project "exports public policy failure" in one part of the EU to another, and that in fact "this togetherness is a form of weakness", he adds. Damian Green doesn't share his view, saying there are "prosperous" countries in the eurozone growing fast and with low unemployment.

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Conservative MP Damian Green there's a danger that "every summit becomes a crisis summit, and every crisis becomes the worst crisis in history". It's clearly an important moment, he goes on, saying the migrant problem is "not of Europe's making", but it is Europe's problem.

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UKIP's Douglas Carswell says the EU project is "lurching from crisis to crisis". If you talked about the "crisis" at the summit people probably wouldn't know "which one you were talking about", he says.

Brian Wheeler

Is there any limit to the size of Britain's population? And if so what is it?

Prime ministers, from Tony Blair to David Cameron, have always refused answer that question.

To do so would risk accusations of pandering to the far right and provide a hostage to fortune, when their predictions, inevitably, proved wide of the mark.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has made political capital out of their discomfort but even he rarely talks about the overall size of the population.

David Cameron thought he had hit on a formula for talking about numbers without announcing that the country is full by targeting "net migration".

But, his critics would say, he only succeeded in revealing how little control he has over it.

For some Britain's growth spurt, which began at the end of the 1990s, is a sign of success. It is the secret weapon that will pay the pensions bill and underpin economic growth. Some of our European neighbours struggling with declining populations, such as Germany, can only look on in envy.

But anxiety about the pressure on services and the pace of cultural change among many voters is not likely to go away.