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Lord Ashcroft has defended the polling industry in the wake of a report exposing failures in its sampling of voters in the run-up to the election - which led pollsters to incorrectly predict a virtual dead-heat between the Conservatives and Labour.

Writing in Conservative Home, external, the former Tory treasurer turned pollster says the report's findings give the industry plenty to think about - and it needs to address the weaknesses identified.

But he says polls undeniably play a key role in political debate and in informing the parties' priorities.

After a report was published explaining why pollsters got the general election wrong and another study offered the reasons for Labour's defeat, the Daily Politics' Ellie Price counts down the top five political excuses.  

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd defends government plans to remove university maintenance grants. Put to her that the policy wasn't in the Conservatives' manifesto, she said the party promised to increase the number of people who go to university and this policy will help to achieve that.

Kate Green, shadow women and equalities minister, says the proposals will be "counter-productive". Would Labour reverse it? 

She says it's a long way until the next election, but a future Labour government would ensure students from low-income backgrounds have "every chance to go to university".

After Jeremy Corbyn called for a "reasonable accommodation" with Argentina over the Falklands, Guardian journalist Richard Norton-Taylor says it is time for the UK to hand over control of the islands.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd welcomes the latest fall in unemployment, saying it is good for the country. Labour's Kate Green says falls in unemployment are always welcome but notes the "sluggish" wage growth and says "not everyone is benefiting equally".

Asked about Scottish Secretary David Mundell's assertion that there is a "strong argument" for an EU referendum in June, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "June is certainly a possible date for the referendum".

He added that this would be based on a successful negotiation at February's summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

The Daily Politics

After Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday that the UK and Argentina should discuss the future of the Falkland Islands while respecting residents' right to stay, shadow cabinet minister Owen Smith says Labour's position is clear, that the islanders want to remain a part of Britain "and they should do".

"It's very clear there is an established principle of self-determination," he tells the Daily Politics, adding that it's a "peripheral issue".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Andy McDonald has tabled an urgent question on alleged discriminatory treatment of asylum seekers in his Middlesbrough constituency.

A story on the front page of today's Times says that homes used in the town to house asylum seekers all have distinctive red front doors, making them easy to identify. 

The paper says the red doors have been blamed for "numerous" incidents of attacks and harassment.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's John Woodcock compares the combined failure of several agencies to the cases of Baby Peter and Victoria Climbie and says they are "every bit as serious". 

He asks for a separate police force to be brought in to investigate the death and asks what can be done to assure the safety of children in Barrow.

Karen Bradley says that an Ofsted investigation into Cumbria's social services found them to be inadequate, and that a Department for Education intervention is currently underway. 

She says everyone involved "needs to learn lessons", but they need to wait for the second inquest because we "will not have full facts until then". She adds that the case cannot be re-opened until new evidence comes to light.

The Daily Politics

Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith says 500,000 students will lose out as a result of the changes and will leave university with more than £50,000 in debt.

"The government is going to save money on the backs of the poorest," he adds and warns it will diminish participation by women, disabled people and black and ethnic minorities.

Pressed on Labour's policy, he says the party wants to make higher education more accessible and is considering a policy to abolish tuition fees, something, he says, which is an "ambition" of Jeremy Corbyn's.

The Daily Politics

On government plans to convert university maintenance grants into loans, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said it was discussed and considered under the coalition government, which shied away from doing it. But the plan came off the shelf after the election as a way of finding the savings needed, she added.

The Daily Politics

Pressed on changes to student maintenance grants, Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said the government had to make further savings in public spending.

"Here was an area where we feel a significant saving could be made," he said.

He defended the decision to use a statutory instrument to push this through, rather than Parliament.

"There was a vote in the House of Commons on this," he said. "It was announced in the Budget - there was no concealment."

The Daily Politics