BBC News Channel

Shadow Environment Spokesman, Kerry McCarthy MP, says the government needs to do more to help protect people from flooding and climate change.

The Labour MP says: "We now have to accept extreme weather events are a feature of British weather... we can't let communities go through this again."

She criticises cuts to department of education, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) and what she describes as the government's reluctance to spend money on climate change adaptation.

She adds "I gather DEFRA hoped it would be better weather this winter - and that's not an approach that's sustainable or fair" on the people who live there.

Lord Janner has been found "unfit" by a high court judge to stand trial over alleged historical sexual abuse.

The former Labour peer, 87, who has dementia, denies allegations of abuse in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

In April Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, decided it wasn't in the public interest for him to face a criminal trial. Six of the alleged victims called for an independent review of that decision, which was overturned.

Today a judge at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Oppenshaw has ruled that Lord Janner was "unfit to plead".  

Image source, PA

More on this morning's report by the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, which wants the number of Bishops in the House of Lords to be reduced to make way for leaders of other faiths.

The report also says major events including the next coronation should have a more "pluralist character" to reflect changing religious attitudes.

And it calls for a reduction in faith school admissions based on religion.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier, its chairwoman, Baroness Butler Sloss, said it was "absolute rubbish" to say the report proposed getting rid of Christianity from public life.

"What we are saying is add to things, not change them so they diminish," she said.

She said other faiths should "play a part" in the coronation, and that schools should still have the right to hold religious assemblies if they wanted but should not be forced to do so.

Read the full story

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Paris

Image source, Getty Images

Ministers from all over the world gather in Paris on Monday in a final push for a new global climate compact.

The politicians will attempt to craft a deal from a draft negotiating text signed off by delegates here on Saturday.

Poor countries warned the talks would fail if the rich tried to limit their right to grow to protect the climate.

One delegate said the poor could not accept starvation as the price of a successful deal in Paris.

Negotiators have taken four years to produce the draft text of a long-term agreement. The ministers will have just five days to turn that text into a deal acceptable to all 195 parties here.

That will not be easy.

Read Matt's full blog here

Government is urging businesses to get ready for the new national living wage which comes in to force on April 1 2016.

Business Minister Nick Boles says business should "get ready now" to avoid "falling foul of the law". 

A poll conducted by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of 1,000 employers in the UK found around 45% had updated the payroll, 39% had told staff of the changes and 29% had looked online for more information.

Liz Truss, the environment secretary says she has "huge sympathy" with those affected by flooding and would "support those communities", but says flood defences protected 8,000 homes.

She says even where flood defences didn't hold back the water it "delayed" it in order to evacuate residents. 

She says the government will "learn the lessons they can from this unprecedented event".

Asked whether the government would be spending more on flood defences she says they have already spent £45 million in Cumbria during the last parliament and will be spending £2.3 billion over the next five years across the UK.

She says the priority was to get power back up and getting transport infrastructure "sorted out".

She says she will be outlining "further support" the government will be giving in a statement to Parliament today.

The government say 2,100 homes have been affected by flooding in the UK. 

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural affairs say they expect this number to rise as checks are still being made. 

In addition thousands of people have been affected by power cuts.

The Financial Times reports , externaltoday Prime Minister David Cameron will try to "neuter" the power of the House of Lords.

After being halted by the Lords on tax credits changes, the government set up a review of the house and its role. 

The paper says Lord Strathclyde, who is heading up the review, will propose the Lords should lose their veto power over delegated and secondary legislation - this would have stopped them from delaying changes to tax credits.

The newspaper quotes a senior Conservative saying "If they don't accept this proposal we could stop them having any say at all on secondary legislation. That's a big bazooka."

In the House of Lords, the Conservatives are outnumbered by Labour and Liberal Democrat peers. 

Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

The message from the first round of France's regional elections is simple and unequivocal - once again the far-right has come out on top.

For the third time in a year-and-a-half, Marine Le Pen can legitimately say that her Front National is the country's most popular party.

It happened with the European elections, then with the departmentals - and now after round one of the regionals, the party has once again outperformed both its rivals.

It is an astonishing performance for a party that until very recently was regarded as being beyond the pale.

The Paris attacks will have played a part in this.

Read Hugh's full blog

Prime Minister David Cameron will be visiting areas hit by the flooding.

He made the announcement after chairing a Cobra emergency committee meeting.

Mr Cameron says: "I've just chaired a Cobra meeting on the floods. There'll be further announcements this morning - and later I will visit badly hit areas." 

The Andrew Marr Show

Michael Fallon, the defence secretary has announced £8 billion will be spent on building warships in Scotland over the next 10 years.

The announcement was made as Mr Fallon visited the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier currently under construction at Rosyth in Scotland.

Image source, AP

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, is expected to outline his assessment of the UK's position in the European Union today.

He will be writing a letter to all the leaders of member states.

The letter comes ahead of a key meeting of European leaders next week, which will discuss in detail for the first time the changes Mr Cameron is trying to make in his renegotiation of the UK in the EU. One of those is plans to stop migrants from claiming in work benefits for up to four years, but other countries have expressed over the legality of the proposal. 

On Friday, Mr Cameron said a deal was not likely until February 2016.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Image source, AP

We got a foretaste a couple of weeks ago when Europe Minister David Lidington delivered a Commons statement on the government's demands for a renegotiation of Britain's EU membership.

The reaction from the hard core of backbench "outers" was summed up by Bernard Jenkin's dismissive comment, "Is that it?"

The government's promised in-out EU referendum was a vote-winner at the election, and probably essential to keep the lid on Tory euro-tension in the last parliament. But as the 2017 deadline appears on the horizon, it is prompting some Commons Tories to murmur of a "Corn Laws-style split" in the party.

Of course, historically, the Conservative Party has always been able to rely on a powerful instinct for unity, born of an equally powerful instinct for power.

But party history offers some warnings too. Issues that go to the heart of what the Conservative party is about can split it, and have split it.

Read more

Image source, Reuters

The opposition in Venezuela has won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, overturning nearly two decades of dominance by the Socialists of President Nicolas Maduro.

Five hours after polling ended, the National Electoral Council announced the opposition had won 99 seats.

President Maduro has admitted defeat, recognising "these adverse results".

It is the worst-ever defeat by the leftist movement founded by former leader Hugo Chavez in 1999.

Read more