Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Conservative MP Damian Green, who is pro-Europe says "it's a bit odd" for Chris Grayling to say that the UK's EU membership has been disastrous, adding that Mr Grayling is "peddling myths". "He and I fought an election campaign last year... in which we told the British people that we were creating more jobs, we kept inflation down, we were bringing the deficit down, we were creating millions of new apprenticeships. Well we've done all that as members of the EU."

BBC Breakfast

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins says there is "a nonsense" in UK politics that cabinet ministers have to "pretend to agree with each other." He adds: "It's like nothing at all in ordinary human life." The PM is going to put that rule on hold after UK and EU negotiations have finished, before the UK's EU membership referendum - but they haven't yet. So Chris Grayling "chose his words very carefully" in criticising the EU, Ross says.

Image source, PA

Talks aimed at avoiding further NHS strikes in England are due to resume later, amid warnings the government could impose its controversial new contract on junior doctors.

The British Medical Association (BMA) and the government are to begin two days of talks at 10:00 GMT, the conciliation service Acas said.

The dispute is over weekend pay, career progression, and fears of overworking.

A 48-hour walkout will start on 26 January if no agreement is found.

Read more.

Image source, Getty Images

The failure of opinion pollsters to predict the outcome of May's general election may have been because Conservative voters are harder to track down, a report suggests.

The disparity between forecasts and the eventual Conservative majority has been blamed on "shy Tory" voters or a late swing to David Cameron's party.

But polling expert John Curtice highlighted sampling "deficiencies".

His report said "more time and effort" was needed to find Conservative voters.

Read more.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Have hostilities begun between the two sides of the Conservative Party on the debate of whether the UK should remain in the EU? BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith says Chris Grayling is "very careful to remain within the bounds of collective cabinet responsibility" on the question of EU membership before the prime minister concludes negotiations with member states. "But bluntly, I think it's inconceivable that Chris Grayling is going to do anything but campaign to leave [the EU] because this is not the article [in the Telegraph, external] of a man sitting awkwardly on the fence."

Remaining within the European Union under the UK's current membership terms would be "disastrous", Conservative minister Chris Grayling has said.

The EU was heading towards closer integration - a path the UK "will not and should not follow", the leader of the Commons wrote in the Telegraph, external.

It is being seen as the first signal of a minister preparing to campaign to leave the EU in the UK's referendum.

A government source said Downing Street was "very relaxed" about the article.

Read more.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The first report by MPs examining the problems facing transgender people says the UK still has a long way to go to achieve equality. The Commons Women and Equalities Committee is calling for a new government strategy within six months.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, external Chris Grayling gives a "damning critique of the European Union in its current form" says BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth. "The leader of the house of commons does not say the UK should leave the EU, but this intervention from a self-confessed eurosceptic will be seen by many as the first clear signal of a cabinet minister prepared to campaign to leave," she says.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Hundreds of extra armed police officers are to be trained to help counter the threat of a terrorist attack in London. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, is to give details this morning. BBC home affairs correspondent says: "It's likely to mean that 600 officers will be selected and trained to use firearms, in addition to around 2,000 who are currently authorised to carry weapons in London."

Remaining within the EU under the UK's current membership terms would be "disastrous", Conservative Commons leader Chris Grayling says.

We may hear more about Chris Grayling's EU comments, external, in the Daily Telegraph, on Thursday. It comes as MEPs are due to question Jonathan Faull, the EU official at the heart of the negotiation process. Elsewhere, more talks are expected to try to avert another doctors' strike. We'll have live coverage of all the political news that emerges.

Comments by Commons leader Chris Grayling make the front:

BBC Newsnight

Labour's defence review could report on whether the party should abandon its support for Britain's nuclear deterrent in as little as eight weeks, the co-chair of the review Ken Livingstone has told Newsnight.

Mr Livingstone said he was "desperate" to decide on whether the UK should renew Trident before the Commons votes on the matter.

Sources inside the Ministry of Defence have told Newsnight the vote could come as early as mid-March, but will certainly happen before the Commons breaks up for the summer recess.

Labour's official policy is to support the renewal of Trident, and can only be changed by the party's conference, which doesn't meet until September. Nevertheless the review could be used to try to pursuade Labour MPs and shadow cabinet ministers to support Jeremy Corbyn's long-held opposition to nuclear weapons..

Mr Livingstone said that "with a bit of luck", the review could report on Trident "in eight to 10 weeks."

Labour has accused the government of trying to "stifle debate" by removing peers' power to veto some draft laws.

Shadow Lords leader Baroness Smith said the move was a "massive over-reaction" to the government's defeat over tax credit changes last year.

She was speaking as peers debated the proposals put forward by Conservative Lord Strathclyde.

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Jeremy Corbyn has appointed Labour MP Jo Stevens as shadow solicitor general following his reshuffle. She replaces Karl Turner, who was promoted to shadow attorney general last week following the resignation of Catherine McKinnell.

Ms Stevens is the MP for Cardiff Central.

• The big political event of today was Prime Minister's Questions. Jeremy Corbyn quizzed David Cameron over his plans on housing, in particular bulldozing "sink" estates. Mr Corbyn accused the Prime Minister of not thinking "this thing through very carefully" while Mr Cameron retorted the Labour Party leader was a "small-c conservative" who wanted people to stay "stuck" in council estates

• Scottish secretary David Mundell came out as gay and is believed to be the first openly-gay Conservative cabinet minister.

• MPs backed the initial idea for an English National anthem, voting in favour of a ten minute rule bill by Labour's Toby Perkins. The bill will now be debated on 4 March.

• Theresa May has faced detailed scrutiny on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill - she claimed the "UK does not undertake mass surveillance".

• The House of Lords has been debating Lord Strathclyde's proposal to restrict their powers on secondary legislation.

Brian Wheeler

Home Secretary Theresa May has refused to spell out what kind of personal information Britain's security services are accessing as part of their investigations.

Asked if they could include medical records or other sensitive personal details she said she did not want to "go down the route of giving information about the sort of data sets that are being acquired".

It was revealed last year that GCHQ is downloading large amounts of personal data, known as "bulk personal datasets".

The data could include the personal details of "a large number of individuals, the majority of whom will not be of any interest to the security and intelligence agencies", according to the government's draft Investigatory Powers Bill.

The information from these "bulk personal data sets" is then analysed to enable investigators to "join the dots".

The practice is covered by old legislation and has never been debated by MPs.

Theresa May is promising new safeguards over the use of the powers, including six-month warrants to access data and judicial oversight.

She said the security minister, John Hayes, had written to the committee of MPs and peers scrutinising the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, to give the reasons why the government did not want to reveal the kinds of data investigators were accessing. 

She insisted the practice - and the sweeping up by the security services of large quantities of internet traffic passing through the UK - did not amount to "mass surveillance" as civil liberties campaigners claim.

"The UK does not undertake mass surveillance," she told the committee.

The government's anti-terror legislation watchdog David Anderson is set to warn in a report that Ms May needs to come out and make the case to MPs and the public for the bulk collection of data.

If the government does not do this, it risks the practice being outlawed at a European level, he is set to warn.

The Daily Politics

Stylist magazine has handed over the whole of its 300th issue to MPs, with contributions from David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn, and Caroline Lucas among others.

Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn spoke to the magazine’s editor, Lisa Smosarski, who said people were intrigued to see the people behind the politics.  

House of Lords
Parliament

In the wake of the government’s defeat in the House of Lords over changes to tax credits, the government asked Lord Strathclyde to consider how to “secure the decisive role” of the House of Commons in secondary legislation.

He came up with three options:

• Remove the House of Lords from having power over statutory instruments entirely.
• Retain the present role of the House of Lords but “clarify” the restrictions on how it can exercise its powers.
• Give the Lords the right to ask the Commons to "look again" at legislation but give the Commons the final say.

After releasing the report before Christmas the prime minister promised to respond to the report in the New Year.