Four key House of Commons committees are asking the education secretary to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education compulsory in schools.

The education, health, home affairs and business committee chairmen want PSHE, which covers sex education, made statutory in primaries and secondaries.

In a letter to Nicky Morgan, they express concern at her failure to respond to various committees' calls.

The government is working on a way to achieve high-quality PSHE for all. Read more

The Daily Politics

Ever wondered what it is like to lead one of the great offices of state? In the first of a new series, Giles Dilnot spoke to former home secretaries, who offered candid views about their time in office.

The Daily Politics

There have been reports the Department of Health intervened in the writing of a letter by NHS England's medical director Bruce Keogh to the British Medical Association, to warn about the risks to patient care in the event of a major terrorist attack during a potential junior doctors' strike.

The government said "it is completely right that the department expressed a view on communication with the BMA".

But former Lib Dem health minister Norman Lamb said he was worried it would "damage trust further between the government and junior doctors". 

The Daily Politics

A 60-second look back at the biggest headlines of the political week, by Daily Politics reporter Ellie Price. Featuring David Cameron’s decision to allow ministers to campaign on either side of the EU referendum campaign when a deal on Britain's membership of the bloc is agreed, and what became known as the longest shadow cabinet reshuffle in history.  

The Daily Politics

Labour MP John Mann, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, has accused the government of interfering in the decision by the City watchdog to drop an inquiry into banking culture.

There's renewed focus on the likely timing of the EU referendum this morning, with The Guardian, external suggesting that September is now considered the most likely date. It says an agreement on David Cameron's renegotiation package is increasingly unlikely to be reached at next month's summit of EU leaders and may not be concluded until March's EU Council meeting. Given that four to six weeks is required to pass the secondary legislation needed to hold the referendum and that David Cameron has said he believes at least three months should elapse after that before the vote is held, the newspaper says campaigners are increasingly focusing on a date in early or mid September. However, UKIP leader Nigel Farage told LBC Radio earlier that he still thinks it will be held in June - which would be entirely conditional on an agreement next month. LBC pundit Iain Dale has written today he expects a July date, but the second half of July and August appear to have been ruled out because of the school holidays. Remember that David Cameron has the flexibility to hold the poll at any point before the end of 2017. However, 2017 is seen as being problematic because of elections in Germany and France and Downing Street is thought to want to get it out of the way as soon as possible so it does not become a mid-term referendum on the government. 

LBC

Mr Farage's phone-in winds up with the UKIP leader making an appeal for people "from all walks of life" to rally to the cause of taking the UK out of the EU. The Leave campaign, he argues, cannot just rely on his party and Eurosceptic Conservatives, saying it needs trade unions and other figures from the centre left to come on board, as well as personalities from business, sport and other fields. He repeats his view that the referendum will be held in June and the decision will be the biggest that will be taken in his lifetime. 

LBC

Reflecting on Jeremy Corbyn's reshuffle and the fresh internal rows it triggered, the UKIP leader says Labour is in the process of "destroying its public image" and is fast returning to the early 1980s when he says the country lost faith in the party's ability to keep the country safe. But, from a selfish point of view, he says Labour's troubles are great for UKIP as lots of "patriotic" Labour supporters are likely to flock to his party. 

Image source, LBC

As to whether he will lead the campaign to leave the EU, Nigel Farage says that if he is the only high-profile politician associated with the 'Leave' campaign, then "we will probably lose". But he insists that he will play a key role as part of a team. He says the party's private polling suggests that he is one of only three figures - alongside Theresa May and Boris Johnson - who would be a major net benefit to the Leave campaign, repudiating claims he would be personally toxic for the campaign. As for the current state of play, he says he agrees with polls suggesting a third of people want to stay in, a third want to get out and a third are undecided - although increasingly sceptical about the EU. 

LBC

Image source, PA

Nigel Farage says the new alcohol guidance limits in England are "puritanical", "over the top" and there should be a "mass protest against this form of nannying". He jokes that he is "25% more likely to die" than he was last night following the guidelines, which suggest no level of drinking is now regarded as safe. While he concedes that there is a problem with excessive consumption of alcohol and a "binge drinking mentality", particularly on a Friday night, he says there is nothing wrong with having a few drinks after a hard day's work and people should not be told to lay off the booze entirely even "if it will shorten their lives a little". In that spirit, he suggests he will be enjoying a glass of red wine this lunchtime.

LBC

Nigel Farage is doing his weekly phone-in on LBC Radio. He is asked about the sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve, reportedly carried out by gangs of men described as of North African and Arab appearance, and their repercussions for the debate about immigration in Europe. He says there is a major problem that is being "covered up", suggesting that parts of Brussels have become a "no go zone" and women are being "accosted again, again and again". As for immigration, he says by accepting up to a million refugees from Syria and other warzones, Chancellor Angela Merkel has made the "biggest post-war policy error of any European country".  

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The foreign secretary was pressed on whether the UK should have been more vociferous in its condemnation of the mass executions carried out by Saudi Arabia last week - including that of the leading Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Mr Hammond says all those executed were convicted terrorists and points out that Iran - which has frozen diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia as a result - executes more people every year than Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, he says the UK has repeatedly told Saudi Arabia that it is opposed to the use of the death penalty and denies that the UK has soft pedalled on the issue because of its trade and intelligence links with the Gulf state. The UK, he adds, prefers to focus on the cases where it can "make the most difference", such as lobbying the Saudis "consistently and persistently" against the death penalty for juveniles, adding that its diplomatic efforts have proved successful. 

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Philip Hammond has been interviewed on Radio 4's Today about a range of subjects, including North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Europe. On the referendum on the UK's EU membership, the foreign secretary says he can't "envisage" a situation in which he would campaign against any deal David Cameron recommended to the British public which would keep the UK in the EU. telling host Nick Robinson that "he would find that very difficult" to do. The one rider to that, he adds, is that it remains to be seen what kind of agreement the prime minister secures after what he describes as "painstaking" negotiations. 

Here, from Thursday's This Week, is a War and Peace-inspired take on the last seven days in politics, courtesy of The Spectator's Isabel Hardman.

Image source, SPL

Tough new guidelines issued on alcohol have cut recommended drinking limits and say there is no such thing as a safe level of drinking.

The UK's chief medical officers say new research shows any amount of alcohol can increase the risk of cancer.

The new advice says men and women who drink regularly should consume no more than 14 units a week - equivalent to six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine.

Pregnant women should not drink at all.

Read more