Chris Page
BBC News NI Political Correspondent

Image source, Pacemaker

Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said he will not be standing for the leadership of the party.

Commentators had long believed that the party's "dream ticket" to succeed Peter Robinson was Mr Dodds as DUP leader and Arlene Foster as first minister.

And over the last few weeks, DUP members have privately expressed expectations that would be the case.

But Mr Dodds points out that he has been on record as saying the party would be at a disadvantage if it was led from Westminster rather than Stormont.

He says he would have had "no hesitation whatsoever" in putting his name forward from the leadership if he had still been an MLA.

And the North Belfast MP says his choice was a difficult one.

More from Chris here

An MP accused of faking a death threat has defended modifying a message from a constituent.

Conservative MP for Telford, Lucy Allan, posted an email ending with the words "unless you die" on Facebook.

The email's author denied writing the final line. Mrs Allan admitted adding it - but said it came from another email sent to her that day.

The BBC is yet to see the email, which Mrs Allan said police were investigating.

More here.

Speaking at a Trade Unions for Energy Democracy meeting in Paris earlier this evening, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused David Cameron of broken promises over investment in flood defences.

“Last year, the prime minister... promised that ‘money is no object’ in dealing with flooding, itself a consequence of the destruction of our environment. But this has proved to be yet another false promises," he said, adding: "In the last Parliament, the government slashed spending on flood defences before the 2014 winter floods."

Mr Corbyn also paid tribute to the emergency services for their response to the recent flooding in Britain caused by Storm Desmond.

The CBI has responded to European Council President Donald Tusk's letter to EU leaders about the progress of the UK's EU reform negotiations.

The CBI says the letter shows the "seriousness" with which EU countries are taking David Cameron's demands, but there are also "difficult issues at play". 

The group said it would follow the negotiations "closely" and work with sister federations across Europe to build "consensus for reform". 

Plans to let 16 and 17-year-olds vote in the UK's EU membership referendum look set to be blocked by the government after ministers claimed the move would cost £6m.

The House of Lords has been pushing for teenagers to have a say in the vote, promised by the end of 2017.

But ministers fear it could undermine the legitimacy of the result.

Speaker John Bercow has now decided that due to the estimated costs, the changes must be decided by the Commons.

More here.

House of Commons
Parliament

Robert Devereux, permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, told the same committee that "even with the summer Budget changes" Universal Credit continued to provide incentives to be in work.

Neil Couling, who has operational responsibility for Universal Credit at the Department for Work and Pensions, said there would be "cash protection" for people moving from tax credits into Universal Credit, a process which will begin in 2018.

Mr Couling explained that if a person's entitlement to Universal Credit was lower than their entitlement to tax credit, the government would top up the Universal Credit amount to the level of that person's tax credit entitlement.

House of Commons
Parliament

James Bowler, director general of tax and welfare at HM Treasury, told the Public Accounts Committee earlier that the "outline business case" for Universal Credit is complete and was signed off by the Treasury chief secretary last week.

Mr Bowler said the "final business case" was due to be published in September 2017.

He also told MPs the roll-out of Universal Credit would continue to pose risks:

Image source, Getty Images

Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said he will not be standing for the leadership of the party.

Mr Dodds said that after Peter Robinson's decision to step down as leader and first minister, he had given "prayerful thought" to his position.

He said he wanted to concentrate on his work as head of the party at Westminster.

He backed Arlene Foster "to take the party and Northern Ireland forward".

More here.

There have been two main stories dominating today: the flooding in Cumbria and European Council President Donald Tusk's letter about Britain's EU reform aims.

• In a letter to EU leaders, Donald Tusk said there were "substantial political differences" over David Cameron’s demands for welfare curbs for EU migrants. He warned that uncertainty over the UK's future in the EU was "destabilising" and called for a solution "as quickly as possible"

• The prime minister has been visiting flood affected areas in Cumbria. He called the flooding "absolutely horrific" and said he would re-examine flood defences. The government said it would reimburse councils money for the cost of dealing with flooding

• David Cameron also gave a speech this morning insisting the government is delivering on election pledges including on childcare, home ownership and skills training

•   Lord Janner is unfit to stand trial over allegations of child sexual abuse spanning four decades, a High Court judge has ruled

• A decision on airport expansion at Heathrow or Gatwick has been delayed for around six months

• A report published today called for the number of bishops in the House of Lords to be reduced in order to make way for leaders of other faiths

• Plans to let 16 and 17-year-olds vote in the UK's EU membership referendum look set to be blocked by the government after ministers claimed the move would cost £6m

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent

Image source, PA

Struggling academies could face rapid intervention and being taken over by another academy chain, in new powers proposed by the education secretary.

Nicky Morgan has announced that legislation will be extended to address failing and "coasting" academies as well as local authority schools. 

Mrs Morgan said under-performing academies should be "held to account". 

Heads' leader Brian Lightman says under-performance needs to be tackled, regardless of the type of school. 

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said "the government seems to be finally waking up to the fact that some academies underperform". 

Read more

The Prime Minister David Cameron says the recent flooding is an "absolutely horrific thing" to have happened to people.

Visiting flooding in central Carlisle Mr Cameron says money spent on barriers after floods in 2009 had stopped Carlisle flooding on two occasions, but "they weren't enough this time" because of the "torrential" rain.

"After every flood, the thing to do is sit down, look at the money you're spending, look at what you're building, look at what you're planning to build in the future and ask, is it enough? And that's exactly what we'll do."

He says the Environment Agency were going to do a study following these floods "because people want to live free from the fear of being flooded".

James Landale
Deputy political editor

Plans to let 16 and 17-year-olds vote in the forthcoming EU referendum look set to be blocked by the government after ministers claimed the move would cost £6 million.

The House of Lords has been pushing for teenagers to have a say in the referendum. But ministers fear it could undermine the legitimacy of the result.

On Tuesday MPs are expected once again to reject the idea of widening the electorate.

But for the first time ministers claimed today that enfranchising one and a half million teenagers would cost £6m. 

That forced the Commons speaker, John Bercow, to certify that the change would be covered by what's called financial privilege. 

That means that unelected peers can't tell elected MPs to spend public money in this way. Labour sources accused the government of arrogance and promised to try to find ways round this, potentially by tabling new amendments. 

But the parliamentary technicality means that it will be much harder for peers to continue pushing for teenagers to get a vote and - in the process - potentially delay the referendum. 

It also shows that the government is ready to play hardball with the House of Lords after its plans to cut tax credits were defeated in October.

The Prime Minister David Cameron said Donald Tusk's letter was "encouraging" but that the "the whole renegotiation is difficult".

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Downing Street has welcomed the letter from Donald Tusk which "marks another step forward in the renegotiations."

The PM's spokeswoman says the Prime Minister welcomes the fact that Tusk said good process had been made in finding solutions in the four areas where change was wanted.

She said "clearly some issues are more difficult than others" and the response "reflects the significant and far reaching reforms we are seeking".

The spokeswoman said it was important to focus minds now ahead of further discussions at next week's EU Council summit.

Asked about the lack of consensus on restricting benefits to migrants she said "negotiations are ongoing" and added "we want to find a solution which meets our overall objective of having better control over EU migration".

Asked whether Downing Street believed the language on protection for countries outside the euro goes far enough, she said "the objective is to make sure that countries outside the euro are not disadvantaged" and she says there were "a number of mechanisms and different ways you could do that".

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