Baroness Meacher was said to be considering putting down a "fatal motion" to block the tax credit cuts. But instead she will seek to delay consideration of policy. The crossbencher explained her decision to BBC News:

BBC News Channel

Crossbench peer Baroness Meacher says the government has conceded a full day's debate on tax credit cuts in the Commons next Thursday.

She predicts the government will lose the vote, saying there are a number of senior Conservatives - citing David Davis and Zac Goldsmith - who are supporting a cross-party motion against the tax credit cuts.

The peer is to put forward a motion in the House of Lords on Monday seeking to delay peers' consideration of the policy until the government provides a report responding to the IFS analysis of the policy.

The IFS has said the cuts could hit three million families.

The Daily Politics

Security Minister John Hayes and shadow Leader of the House Chris Bryant are Wednesday's guests of the day with Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn to review PMQs, and they will also look at tax credits and UK security.

Image source, BBC Sport

In a personal film, the chairman of environmental think tank E3G Tom Burke (above) claims the Hinkley Point project would be "a very bad deal for Britain" - for both the environment and taxpayers - describing it as an "expensive folly".

Watch his soapbox film here

And the team will be looking at the changing image of the new Labour leader with a montage (above) and presenter Jo Coburn (below) asking if voters should really care what Jeremy Corbyn looks like.

At Mayor's Question Time, Boris Johnson says he believes stamp duty should be devolved. But he predicts it won't happen for some time, sharing his thoughts on the temperament of the Treasury.

Image source, bbc

At London mayor’s question time, Boris Johnson is fielding questions from Assembly member and Green peer Jenny Jones on the public health implications of the VW emissions scandal.

And it seems Baroness Jones isn’t much impressed with the mayor's answers. “You’re answering a question I haven't asked,” she exclaims. After further questioning on the scale of the problem in London, she tells him: "You're repeating yourself Mr Mayor, that’s not a valuable use of my time."

She also tells him “you’re notoriously bad on facts”, to which Mr Johnson responds “You! That’s a pot, kettle [black]”.

Leaving the European Union would have "serious downsides" for Britain, business lobby group the CBI has said.

In its latest report on the subject, the CBI accepts there are problems with EU membership but that these are greatly outweighed by the benefits.

It says most of its members want to stay within the 28-country bloc.

Those on the other side of the hotly contested issue say the UK would be better served through a more distant relationship with the EU.

Full story here.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, SPL

Hospitals in England are being given their own individual savings targets as part of a drive to save money.

The figures are being sent to 137 hospital trusts by Lord Carter, who has been appointed by the government to improve efficiency in the NHS.

He will spend the next six weeks meeting hospital bosses to discuss the targets, before they are made public.

In June, Lord Carter's report on the NHS identified a number of measures it said could save £5bn a year by 2019-20.

Read more.

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Nearly 70% of people who go through the government's main welfare-to-work scheme fail to find sustained employment and "we owe it to the 70% to do much better", a committee of MPs has said.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee said the £5bn Work Programme - launched in 2011 - was "not working well" for people with complex problems.

But the MPs also said the programme was "at least as good" as its predecessors, at a much lower cost to the taxpayer.

The government said the Work Programme was "a real success".

More here.

Image source, PA

Commenting on the ONS figures, Chancellor George Osborne said they showed the government's "hard choices are paying off". 

But he said more work needs doing to bring down "unsustainably high" government spending.  

Image source, PA

The latest public sector finance figures, external have been released by the Office for National Statistics, and they show government borrowing fell in the first six months of the financial year.

In September, borrowing was down £1.6bn from a year earlier.

The ONS says the public finances were boosted by the strongest income, VAT and corporation tax receipts on record for September.

David Cameron's former policy adviser Steve Hilton has called his old boss's efforts to woo President Xi Jinping the biggest "national humiliation" since Britain went "cap in hand" to the IMF for an emergency loan in the 1970s.

He points to China's human rights record and its reputation for cyber-espionage, telling the BBC's Newsnight that instead of "sucking up" to China Britain should be treating it as a "rogue state". 

But advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell, whose WPP group employs 16,000 people in China, says you ignore the country "at your peril" and in his experience it was prepared to "listen and learn".

Mr Hilton - who helped Mr Cameron out with his well-received Conservative Party conference speech earlier this month - concedes that he failed to convince the prime minister and George Osborne when he made these arguments in Downing Street.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Liam Fox, who worked as NHS doctor before he became an MP, investigates the variation in mental health treatment waiting times.

Back to the Future and pensions. The connection might not be immediately obvious, but it seems some government departments are keen to get in on Back to the Future Day - the date Marty and Doc crashed the future in the second of the three time-hopping sci-fi adventure films.

Four boats carrying 140 migrants have landed at the RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, the Ministry of Defence says.

Follow the developing story here.

Image source, Getty Images

It is “completely disgraceful” that the findings of a government-commissioned review of how sugar consumption could be reduced has not been published, says Conservative MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, who chairs the Health Select Committee.

Public Health England conducted the review, which looked at measures such as a sugar tax and discounted deals.

"There is no reason why this evidence shouldn’t be available", she tells Today.