Image source, PA

It's not remotely politics-related but temperatures in England have reached the hottest they've been in nine years - which is surely worth a mention?

The Met Office said a temperature of 35.3C (95.54F) had been recorded at Wittering near Peterborough. Meanwhile, a level 3 "heatwave action" heat-health alert, external has been declared for all parts of England.

In Scotland, however, forecasters have warned of thunderstorms, torrential downpours and hail stones up to 1cm in size.

As we reported a little earlier, the government is to change the way that child poverty is measured so that it focuses on the "root causes" of poverty and makes a "meaningful change to children's life chances".

It follows a report claiming child poverty levels were "unacceptably high" across the UK.

Here's our story.

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The work and pensions secretary responds with criticism of Labour, which he says is "wedded to the idea that only through consistent and total government spending can anybody move beyond their status of being in poverty". The Conservatives, he goes on to say, believe that by helping and encouraging people back to work and reducing taxes people can move out of poverty.  

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Child tax credits are "vital" and a precise way of targeting children in low income families, argues Labour's Nia Griffith, who seeks assurances that these will not be cut by the government. Ms Griffith is followed by colleague Wes Streeting who says Iain Duncan Smith's reply did not address her question.

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Labour MP Huw Irranca-Davies asks  Iain Duncan Smith to congratulate the work of the Welsh Labour government in addressing the root causes of poverty.

He asks whether the Secretary of State agrees that if there are cuts to in-work benefits that are "too early, too soon and not commensurate" with an increase in the minimum wage, it will "inevitably impact" on absolute poverty in many households.

The Work and Pensions Secretary says he supports all moves that help people get back to work and out of poverty.

Image source, AP

The UK could revisit its decision not to carry out air strikes on so-called Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, if the Tunisian beach attack can be linked to the group’s Syrian headquarters, the defence secretary has suggested.

Michael Fallon said MPs would want to “think very carefully” about how to deal with IS, saying there was an “illogicality” of UK forces observing the Iraq-Syria border when IS “don’t differentiate” between the two countries.

“There’s no legal bar to us operating in Syria but we don’t have the parliamentary approval for it,” he told the World at One. 

Mr Fallon said work was being done to establish if the Sousse attack was directed by IS in Syria.  

“If we can link it back to ISIL in Syria we’ll have to reflect with the rest of the coalition how best we deal with that,” he added.

Mr Fallon said the UK did not currently need to change its policy of contributing to air strikes in Iraq but not in Syria “because we’re playing our part in the campaign”.

If that was to change he said the government would need to return to Parliament and seek MPs’ approval. But the defence secretary said the government reserved the right to take action without a Commons vote if there were an imminent threat to British lives.

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Too many children of disabled children remain in poverty, says the Conservatives' Mike Wood, who seeks assurances that the government will continue to help more people with disabilities in to work to improve their children's outcomes. Iain Duncan Smith says the government spends more on support for disabled people, as a percentage of GDP, than the US, Germany and France combined. "I'm proud of that," he says, but adds that there is more to do.

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Labour's Brent North MP, Barry Gardiner, suggests it's time for a London-weighting for the minimum wage and for the benefits cap in London. Iain Duncan Smith says as a London MP he is "only too well aware" of the "peculiar difficulties" faced by London, and adds that he is happy to discuss the matter with him further.

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Labour’s Emily Thornberry questions how success can be measured under the proposed new system. Iain Duncan Smith says the government will be transparent and publish information. “We’re not hiding from anything, we want those figures to fall."

Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corby raises concerns about the number of people in work, but still in poverty. There's a problem of short-term working, zero hours contracts and low wages, he argues, as well as "excessively high" rents in London and the south-east of England.

"We should be at one because we are addressing that fact," responds Iain Duncan Smith.  

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Iain Duncan Smith says that the numbers of working age people in work poverty rose by 25% between 1998-2010, and says that it "really beggars belief that you would go on with a policy that clearly doesn't work because it has become totemic to you."

Businesses need to recognise that they have to pay their staff a proper wage and not rely on the government to top up, or "subsidise", people’s salaries (through tax credits, for example) so they can have bigger profits. "I am going to campaign for that," he adds.

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Frank Field, the new chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, welcomes the minister's statement. He says Iain Duncan Smith shouldn't be "too modest" about his own contribution to fixing the life chances definition.

Mr Field goes on to say that this and the previous Labour government had been "successful" in moving people from benefit into work and says the focus should now be on tackling low pay so that people can "earn a decent wage and the dignity that comes from it", and reduce their reliance on tax credits.

His comments are welcomed by Mr Duncan Smith.

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Green MP Caroline Lucas says the government's policy to cut housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds is "nasty and punitive", and questions what impact this will have on young people and their child, "or does he not care?"

Iain Duncan Smith says they will always be supported by the government but stresses that a balance must be struck between "those who need support who can be supported by their families and those who have genuine and serious long-term difficulties". Part of this process will help to identify those families earlier, he adds.

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The new Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field urges the government to focus on action on under-5s rather than "technical education" of older children and young people, as life chances for poorer children are over by the age of 5.

He also asks for higher wages for those on welfare to work schemes.