House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow Treasury secretary Chris Leslie asks George Osborne if it was always his plan to scrap maintenance grants for students - and if so, why wasn't it in his manifesto. He references today's IFS report on how much the move could cost students.

"We've put building a first class university system at the heart of our manifesto," says Mr Osborne in reply. He then turns the tables, arguing that Yvette Cooper - the candidate Mr Leslie is backing for the Labour leadership - is in favour of the move.

"However, much he spins it, he's hitting students with more debt," Mr Leslie replies.

Image source, PA

The head of the Civil Service says he's recently met the man leading the Iraq War inquiry, Sir John Chilcott, to repeat David Cameron's offer of extra resources to help him finish his report.

The inquiry finished taking evidence more than four years ago and Sir Jeremy Heywood told a committee hearing this morning he shares the frustrations over how long it's taking.

He added: "We have repeatedly offered the inquiry further resources, they say they don't need them, they are doing it as fast as they can."

House of Commons
Parliament

"Can I tell the chancellor his plan doesn't look very well-planned or indeed very long," says Labour's Barry Sheerman. He says that without the mention of productivity or manufacturing, it can't really claim to be either. 

George Osborne replies with a dig at Mr Sheerman and a mention of his tweet - which we at Politics Live spotted this morning - in which he said last night's welfare vote suggested Labour was "going back to the 1980s".

House of Commons
Parliament

Over in the Commons, Treasury questions is now under way. George Osborne begins in familiar fashion. "The long-term economic plan...."

Image source, Parliament

The new head of broadcast regulator Ofcom, Sharon White, is currently giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. A few of those in the audience are tweeting...

BBC News Channel

Labour MP Jo Stevens was one of the class of 2015 who rebelled last night. She tells the BBC:

Ms Stevens says she doesn't accept the accusation made earlier by her colleague Stephen Timms that those who rebelled are "undermining" Labour's chances of returning to power.

"I think that we can effectively challenge the government, oppose it properly," she says, adding: "I don't criticise any of my colleagues, however they voted last night."

She is backing Andy Burnham to be the next party leader, and despite him abstaining last night, she says he "will vigorously oppose every line, every clause" of the bill once it reaches committee stage.

Another written ministerial statement - they're ten-a-penny on the last day of term at Westminster - concerns police funding.

Policing Minister Mike Penning says he's launching a consultation on the way money is given to forces in England and Wales. At present, as the statement says, it's done by the Police Allocation Formula, external - a devilishly complicated piece of maths that works out force budgets by relative need. 

Image source, Parliament

Image source, Other

Senior Labour MP Frank Field has dug out some figures from the House of Commons library which show that more than three million working people will lose an average of £1,350 next year because of changes to tax credit thresholds announced in the Budget.

Mr Field - who wasn't one of Labour's rebels last night - said the information showed the worst-affected would lose £2,884 next year. He said it gave Labour an opportunity "to put itself once again on the side of Britain's army of strivers".

What does the SNP think about the welfare bill? Well, the party's MPs voted against it, and its employment spokeswoman Hannah Bardell said Labour would pay the price for refusing to do the same.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

For all the criticisms people may have had of Ed Miliband, at the end of the day, the party was united and had a clear stance on the crunch issues. Now we don't even really know what Labour's position is on welfare. We seem to have gone backwards in a way.

What's really interesting is that so many of the rebels last night were new MPs, fresh from the 2015 intake. Usually new MPs are amongst the most loyal because they want to get on, don't want to get in the bad books.

But more importantly, that tells us that many of the new batch of Labour MPs are left-leaning - I think we are seeing that the gravitational pull in the party is not to the centre ground, but to the left, which is why Jeremy Corbyn is doing so well.

This guy could yet win...

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, is giving evidence to the Commons Health Select Committee. If his name rings a bell it was invoked a lot during the election campaign when the various parties competed to commit themselves to giving him what he'd asked for in terms of NHS funding. That was an extra £8bn.

The BBC's health editor is at the hearing and tweeting...

Another written statement is headlined "Costs and benefits of NHS modernisation". You'll remember the big - and controversial - reorganisation of the health service under the the last government, championed by former health secretary Andrew Lansley. Well, it looks as though, it didn't cost quite as much as first estimated.

Image source, Parliament

It also seems, according to Mr Lansley's successor Jeremy Hunt, that the moves saved a lot more money than originally forecast.

Image source, Parliament

According to Mr Hunt, this has all involved a big cut in the number of management staff and an increase in clinicians.

Image source, Parliament

A long list of written ministerial statements today,, external some more easily decipherable than others. 

One of interest given our entry at 9:29am concerns support for students. It confirms the changes being made to the system that the chancellor announced in the Budget - specifically the end of maintenance grants. They'll become loans instead. Here's a key paragraph.

Image source, Parliament

Read more here., external

Victoria Derbyshire

Stephen Kinnock says Labour "has always had an active debate about policy issues" and compares the split over the bill to the divisions within the Conservatives on Europe. He adds:

Victoria Derbyshire

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock was one of those who agreed with Harriet Harman and abstained on the welfare bill vote.

Asked why, he says: "We've got a chancellor who's very tactical and we've had to box clever."

When we get to the committee stage of the bill, he says, Labour MPs will go through it clause by clause and do their best to change the aspects they disagree with.

Broadly speaking, Mr Kinnock says he agrees with the idea of a benefit cap, but it should be "more nuanced" to look at individual family circumstances.

He says George Osborne is "robbing Peter to pay Paul" by increasing the minimum wage on the one hand but taking tax credits away with the other.

Students from the poorest backgrounds in England will graduate owing up to £53,000 after maintenance grants are replaced by loans, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

It reckons changes to student finance announced in the Budget will mean an initial £2bn annual saving for the government, but in the long run, the IFS estimates only a quarter of these loans will be repaid and the eventual annual saving will be £270m.

More than half a million students from poorer backgrounds currently receive a maintenance grant, at a cost to the taxpayer of about £1.57bn a year.

From 2016, these will be replaced with loans, which they will be expected to repay in addition to loans for their tuition fees.

The IFS says the new loans will mean up to £550 more "cash in pocket" per year for those students, but they will graduate owing up to £53,000 in total, compared with £40,500 before maintenance grants were scrapped.

The government says it is committed to "widening access in higher education".  Read more.