The Daily Politics

The Daily Politics

The Daily Politics

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Justice Secretary Michael Gove has apologised for an error on an online form used by parties seeking divorce to calculate their assets. 

Speaking on Radio 4's World at One, he offered "my apologies to all affected". 

He said he was grateful to the woman who had spotted the mistake which he described as "deeply regrettable". 

He said the 17,000 people who may have been affected should contact an email helpline formE@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk.

Carole Walker
Political correspondent

Justice Secretary Michael Gove has denied he is preparing to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. 

Asked whether he was the minister referred to in a tweet from journalist George Eaton, suggesting a Cabinet minister could come out for EU exit in January, Mr Gove said "no". 

He said he believes the PM has made progress and it’s important that all in the cabinet and the Conservative Party support the prime minister.

He said the best solution would be Britain in a reformed EU, but he said "you can only judge a deal once it is concluded". "No one should make a judgement till it ends". 

Mr Gove told the World at One there has been progress in all four areas where Britain is seeking change. 

On the proposed four year limit for benefits for EU workers, he said what the PM is looking for is "not compromise but solutions". 

He said there is "eight weeks in which those solutions can be refined" and it would be "premature" to say what the final details would be.

The Daily Politics

The PM concludes by saying he has set himself a "pretty tight" deadline to get a deal by February but then seems to contradict that by also arguing he has given himself "plenty of room" to secure the substance of the changes he wants. The negotiation has not been sorted or fixed but the EU is "well on the way to a deal", adding that now it is "time to bring it home". He ends by repeating his belief that the UK is better off "standing with its allies in a reformed Europe". 

David Cameron says there need to be answers "not unsustainable compromises" in each of the four key areas where the UK is seeking changes to its links with the EU. He plays down talk that the UK is close to agreement on everything other than welfare - such as the opt-out of ever-closer union, greater competitiveness and safeguards for countries outside the eurozone - saying there are difficulties in those areas as well. But he insists there is "goodwill" to deal with all of the concerns that exist. 

Asked whether the UK is being offered a potential brake on future EU migration as an alternative to its existing proposal for a four-year ban on migrants' benefits, Mr Cameron insists the latter idea is still on the table and the EU is committed to find a solution in this field. He says he is convinced that the EU will reach a "good answer" on the issue, he adds. 

Moving onto the UK renegotiations, the PM says ideally he wants a deal in February but has "given himself the time" to get the best possible deal in order to hold a referendum before the end of 2017.

The UK is playing a leading role in a EU "on issues of security", the prime minister says, welcoming efforts to create a government of national unity in Libya. 

David Cameron begins another press conference in Brussels, initially talking about the UK's response to the conflict in Syria and EU measures to counter terrorism. 

Another document released on so-called "trash day" was a report into housing benefit changes dubbed the "bedroom tax" by critics (the government prefers to call the old system a "spare room subsidy").

The report found two thirds of people affected by the cuts had to reduce the amount they spent on food and 78% often ran out of money before the end of the week.

The 'bedroom tax' how many rooms a tenant needs and adjusts housing benefits accordingly and is not actually a tax at all. If bedrooms are deemed to be spare the tenant gets less money.

The government report, external found 76% of people cut back spending on food. While only a third successfully accessed a hardship fund to ease the impact of a reduction in money. Only one in ten moved to a smaller property which is what the policy aims to do. 

Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith said the report was "damning" and called the policy "shameful" and "vile"  adding it drove "people deeper and deeper in to poverty".

The Daily Politics

The Daily Politics

Nigel Farage says Douglas Carswell has to decide whether he wants to continue to be a member of UKIP, saying the MP "is giving the impression the party is divided when in fact it is united" on its policy, direction and leadership. 

He challenges Mr Carswell to say whether he agrees with the party's core message and focus on immigration and suggests he "does not know what the MP wants". 

While he has no regrets that Mr Carswell defected from the Tories, he says the MP has been carping privately for many months and suggests "this has got to end". 

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Asked by Daily Politics host Andrew Neil when he thinks the referendum will be, Mr Farage says he is "absolutely certain" that it will be on the third Thursday in June. He says he is a "gambling man" and that a number of obstacles standing in the way of an early poll have been removed in recent weeks.

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The UKIP leader suggests the British public were lied to in the run-up to the 1975 EU referendum, when the then prime minister Harold Wilson claimed he had won major concessions from other EU countries, and Mr Farage says they will not be "gulled again". He says there is a long way to go but the opinion polls are positive and suggest the "fear factor" among the public about the cost of exit is diminishing. Tory peer Lord Finkelstein, who is also on Daily Politics, says he does not believe anything negotiated by the prime minister will be transformative to UK-EU relations but that the bigger picture has to be considered. 

The Daily Politics

Nigel Farage is on the Daily Politics talking about the EU negotiations. He says three of the UK's demands are relatively minor and "can be promissory notes on a piece of paper" while David Cameron has "got nowhere" on the most contentious issue of curbing EU migrants benefits. 

He suggests that the only way the UK will be able to achieve this is by limiting UK citizens' own access to in-work benefits. He claims "none of the big stuff" is up for grabs in the talks. 

Image source, Getty Images

The Government spent nearly £2m on ministerial car services in 2014-15.

The Department for Transport yesterday released the figure as part of a huge number of documents.

In 2014-15 it cost £1,901,960.43 to provide ministers with cars - a reduction of around £50,000 on the previous year. 

However this figure does not include car costs for the Prime Minister David Cameron, Home Secretary Theresa May, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers who use the Metropolitan Police.

Transport Minister Robert Goodwill said "these charges do not necessarily reflect the total spend on car services for Ministers as some departments have arrangements with other providers".

Mr Goodwill said charges to government departments have not increased since 2010. Over 2014-15 the total cost of cars - including operational costs - was £6.325m, a reduction from £21.617m in 2010-11.