Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, has been speaking on the Today programme about education and inequality.

He said inequality was "incredibly complex" and related to many factors such as gender, race and background. He said there were various reasons that aren't fully understood, but that new research by the Social Market Foundation is showing that the area a child grows up in is playing an "increasingly important role" in explaining disparities.

Image source, Science Photo Library

Putting councils in charge of emergency welfare payments to hard-pressed families in England has led to concerns of a "postcode lottery", MPs have said.

The Commons Work and Pensions Committee said the changes worked well in some areas, but there was a wide variation.

Its report, external urged better co-ordination between central and local government.

The government said it was right to let councils distribute the Department of Work and Pensions cash because they understand local needs better.

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Where children grow up in England is more likely to determine success or failure at school than in previous generations, a study suggests.

The Social Market Foundation has examined test results of cohorts born in 1970 and 2000 and found regional differences have become much greater.

Pupils' results are highest in London and lowest in Yorkshire and Humber.

"Where you live has become much more important," said think tank director Emran Mian.

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Image source, EPA

The PM has been accused of double standards over climate change, ahead of a Commons committee appearance.

Select committee chairmen Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour) and Angus MacNeil (SNP) said he has scrapped UK schemes aimed at cutting emissions, despite pledging internationally to protect the climate.

They singled out the decision to axe a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project promised in the Tory manifesto.

The government said the CCS scheme had always been "subject to affordability".

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Image source, Getty Images

The way that offenders sentenced to unpaid community work in England and Wales are managed and supervised has been criticised by inspectors.

HM Inspectorate of Probation found delays in getting offenders to start their work, and said too many were let off if they did not attend.

In one case, an offender had completed just 16 hours in the 17 months since he had been sentenced.

The Ministry of Justice said it was acting on the report's recommendations.

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Image source, PA

Hospitals in England are expected to face major disruption later as junior doctors go on strike in a dispute with the government over a new contract.

The doctors will provide emergency cover only during the 24-hour walkout, which gets under way at 08:00 GMT.

Hospitals have so far postponed 4,000 routine treatments, while appointments and tests are also being hit.

NHS chiefs said plans were in place to protect patients, despite David Cameron warning they could be put at risk.

In a last-minute plea for junior doctors to call off the action, the prime minister said the walkout would cause "real difficulties for patients and potentially worse".

There are more than 50,000 junior doctors in England - a position covering people who have just graduated from medical school through to those with more than a decade of experience.

They represent a third of the medical workforce, and just over 37,000 are members of the British Medical Association (BMA), which called the strike.

In preparation for the action, hospital bosses have:

• postponed 4,000 routine treatments, such as knee and hip replacements, some of which are on the days before and after the walkout
• cancelled many more appointments, check-ups and tests
• prioritised cancer care to minimise the risk to those needing vital surgery and treatment
• told patients to use alternatives to hospital where possible, such as pharmacies, NHS 111 and GPs, on the day of the strike

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Hello and welcome to our rolling political coverage on Tuesday 12 January. The big news today is the junior doctors' strike, but there's plenty of other stuff going on - we'll start this morning with a round-up of the main stories around so far this morning, followed by an update on ex-Deputy PM Nick Clegg's thoughts about social mobility in his Today programme interview. 

We still don't know when it's going to happen, but the EU referendum has again been making the political news today, as David Cameron wrote to ministers setting out exactly how they will be entitled to campaign once his negotiations are complete. BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg has written about the PM's attempts to avoid a slanging match within his party.

Elsewhere, tonight's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party was relatively uneventful (see 20:16) - but earlier shadow attorney general Catherine McKinnell became the first shadow cabinet member to resign following Jeremy Corbyn's reshuffle.

The DUP's Arlene Foster has become Northern Ireland's first minister, and Environment Agency chairman Sir Philip Dilley resigned.

Tuesday's agenda includes an appearance by David Cameron before the Commons Liaison Committee, external, where he will be asked about climate change and Syria, and a meeting of Labour's shadow cabinet.

Sean Curran
Parliamentary correspondent

A former chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party has used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to criticise the current leadership of his party.

Dave, now Lord, Watts, complained that last week had been disastrous for Labour.

He said the party had become involved in an unnecessary reshuffle when it should have been holding the government to account.

Lord Watts advised the Labour leadership to pay less attention to what he called the "the London-centric hard left" who, he said, sat around their "million pound mansions eating their croissants at breakfast and seeking to lay the foundations for a socialist revolution".

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

How do you stop a polite conversation about politics, even with your nearest and dearest, descending into a slanging match? The only failsafe answer of course is not to talk about politics at all.

But it's a very real question that the prime minister faces right now. He says ministers who want to campaign to leave the EU will be able to do so in the runup to the vote.

Robust messages But on this subject, that has so divided the Conservatives in the past, how can he stop what will be an energetic debate in the party doing lasting damage?

The Downing Street headed notepaper, the clarifications of parliamentary precedent, and the careful words all look terribly polite.

But in David Cameron's three-page letter to his ministers this afternoon, there are some robust messages to his own side, and evidence of his own anxieties about the self-harm the Conservatives could indulge in during the coming months.

Read the rest of Laura's blog

House of Commons
Parliament

In a Commons debate about local government funding in rural areas, Conservative MP Sheryll Murray chooses to focus on poor transport in rural areas.

She tells MPs of the commute she had to make for her first job: "I took a bus, then a ferry, then a bus, then another bus". 

She says it is rare for her to see a timetable at Westminster tube station without seeing a train due in "a couple of minutes".

By comparison she tells MPs that some small villages in her South East Cornwall constituency have to wait "hours or even days" before a bus arrives.

Follow live coverage of the Commons and Lords

Eleanor Garnier
Political Correspondent

The General Secretary of the Labour Party, Iain McNicol, has told tonight's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party that any change to the way Labour makes policy would have to be agreed by the party's annual conference.

After tonight's meeting a spokesman for Labour said: "Iain made it clear how policy works, which is the NPF (National Policy Forum) and conference and if there are any ideas to change policy, then we take it to conference."

The spokesman added, "NPF is currently the policy making body and Conference is ultimate policy making body."

Jeremy Corbyn has said he'd like to encourage more Labour members to have a greater say in decision making and to be more active in the process. But tonight's comments from Iain McNichol make it clear that any new policy making system could not be introduced unless the party's annual conference agreed to the changes.

Labour is currently reviewing its defence policy but it is possible that there could be a Commons vote on Trident before Labour reaches a decision at conference on the nuclear deterrent. The party's spokesman said that "where there are votes sometimes there are ways of the shadow cabinet discussing it".

First Minister Carwyn Jones and UKIP leader Nigel Farage have clashed over the fate of the steel industry in a head-to-head debate on the UK's future within the European Union.

Mr Jones said leaving the EU would have "devastating consequences" for Wales, and asked what Mr Farage had done to help steel in his role as a Euro MP.

Mr Farage claimed membership of the EU had left the first minister "impotent".

He argued the UK would have more control of its economy outside the EU.

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• Catherine McKinnell, has quit Labour's shadow cabinet citing concerns over party's direction. She said the party was heading down an "increasingly negative path" and is the first shadow cabinet member to resign. She has been replaced by Karl Turner

• David Cameron announced an "all out assault on poverty" by announcing a range of social reforms, including for mental health services

• The prime minister also said ministers should treat each other with "respect and courtesy" when campaigning on the European Union referendum

• Environment Agency chairman Sir Philip Dilley, who faced criticism during the recent floods, has resigned. He said it was  "inappropriate in a part-time non-executive position" to be required at short notice

• Jeremy Corbyn has said the Labour Party is moving on from the reshuffle and is "strong and determined"

David Cameron has said he does "not envy" his wife Samantha's task when she appears on a special edition of the Great British Bake Off.

Mrs Cameron is following in the footsteps of another prime ministerial spouse, Sarah Brown, in appearing in a Sport Relief edition of the show.

Other contestants in the show include former Labour MP Ed Balls.

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Image source, BBC/PA

Justine Thornton and Marina Wheeler, whose husbands are Ed Miliband and Boris Johnson, have been appointed QCs.

Ms Thornton, an environmental barrister, and Ms Wheeler, a human rights lawyer, are part of 107 new appointments - 25 of whom are women.

Ms Wheeler said she would celebrate with family on the weekend, her husband Mr Johnson is said be to "delighted".

Ms Thornton, whose husband led Labour in the 2015 election, said she was "absolutely delighted" to be appointed.

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"I have today told the Secretary of State of my decision to step down as Chairman of the Environment Agency, and she has accepted my resignation.

"I am well qualified to carry out this role, and had much to contribute. I fully support the Secretary of State’s reform agenda to deliver efficiency as well as a better, more joined-up service to our stakeholders and the public, and so I am disappointed that I will not now see through delivery of these reforms.

"My reason for resigning is that the expectations of the role have expanded to require the Chairman to be available at short notice throughout the year, irrespective of routine arrangements for deputy and executive cover. In my view this is inappropriate in a part-time non-executive position, and this is something I am unable to deliver.

"Furthermore the media scrutiny focused on me is diverting attention from the real issue of helping those whose homes and businesses have flooded, as well as the important matter of delivering a long-term flood defence strategy. This same media attention has also affected and intruded on my immediate family, which I find unacceptable.

"I want to be clear that I have not made any untrue or misleading statements, apart from approving the statement about my location over Christmas that in hindsight could have been clearer.

"The Environment Agency is an extremely competent and well-run organisation, and the many employees I have met are passionate about what they do because they really care for the environment and the communities we work to enhance and protect.

"I retain the full support of the board, which I know has a strong breadth of knowledge and experience, and with Sir James Bevan as the newly appointed Chief Executive the future of the Environment Agency is in strong hands."

The Daily Politics

Junior doctors "have no other option but to strike", shadow Treasury minister Richard Burgon said, as he criticised the government's handling of the dispute.

Speaking to the Daily Politics, Mr Burgon said "no-one wanted to see a strike taking place" but the government had treated junior doctors "appallingly", and added that he would have joined the picket line on Tuesday if he did not have to be in Parliament.

Tory MP Mims Davies said junior doctors were being offered "a better deal" but added that some did not seem to have "a full handle" on what was being offered. She hoped the strike would be averted.