Journalist Samuel Hooper criticises moves to create so-called “safe spaces” on university campuses and suggests the voting age could be raised.

Supported housing providers who cater for vulnerable people such as the elderly, homeless, disabled and domestic violence victims will be exempt from cuts to social rents for a year, the government has announced.

Housing minister Brandon Lewis said the 1% cut due to begin in April will be deferred for a year for supported accommodation while the government carries out a review of the sector.

The war of words between some councils and the Scottish government over cash has escalated.

Local government organisation Cosla claims councils heard about the new deadline for accepting this year's funding deal from the media.

Talks took place beforehand between senior councillors and the Finance Secretary John Swinney.

Many councils say they are facing bigger cuts and savings this year than they had expected.

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The Board of Deputies of British Jews has welcomed David Cameron's announcement of a national memorial to the Holocaust. Its president Jonathan Arkush said the monument, to be built close to the Houses of Parliament, would stand "as a permanent statement of our values as a nation". 

The UK has been given a dressing down by a European committee over the social rights of mothers, children and migrants.

Alleged UK violations include "inadequate" maternity pay, laws allowing parents to smack their children, earnings thresholds, and English language requirements for migrants.

The claims by the European Committee of Social Rights were detailed in an assessment of the UK's position in relation to the 1961 European Social Charter, a social and economic counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights.

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Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt says he believes there is an "80% chance that an agreement on the UK's EU renegotiations will be reached next month", but that the "devil remains in the detail".

Were the UK to leave the EU, he says, it would considerably weaken the EU's "combined ability" to face global challenges, adding that "friends should stick together in demanding times".

He says he does not believe the current Swedish government will be too dismayed that Mr Cameron has postponed his visit on Friday, saying that one country's influence is limited and it is the "right choice" to prioritise a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. 

The head of the European Commission taskforce dealing with UK renegotiation, Jonathan Faull, has said a proposal for weighting child benefit to reflect the cost of living in different EU countries is under discussion.

David Cameron has said he wants to end the practice of EU workers in the UK sending child benefit overseas.

Speaking at a meeting of MEPs, Mr Faull said child benefit payment rates were a matter for national governments but work was under way to address the problem of exporting child benefit:

On December 7, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk said, “we see good prospects for agreeing on ways to fight abuses and possibly on some reforms related to the export of child benefits.” But it’s a complex area and it’s not clear the Commission is close to finding a solution.

Jonathan Faull also said he didn’t know if a deal on the UK’s renegotiation would be reached at the February Council. “I do not know what will come out of the European Council in three weeks time”, Mr Faull said.

A No 10 spokesman has defended David Cameron's use of the phrase "bunch of migrants" to describe those living in makeshift camps in Calais, saying that the people of Britain were more concerned that the UK's immigration policy was right. 

He said the government had spent £1.2bn to help hundreds of thousands of refugees in camps in Syria and neighbouring countries and he said Labour's approach would "open the door and provide an incentive for more to come to Calais". Asked if he considered the phrase "bunch of migrants" to be pejorative, the spokesman said "the PM thinks that the key thing here is getting the policy right".

Asked whether Jeremy Corbyn will publish his own personal tax return, a Labour spokesman said "we will consider that".

On the Prime Minister's use of the phrase "bunch of migrants" at Prime Minister's Questions, a Labour spokesman said that it was not right to refer to them in this way:

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Today the government lost a legal challenge against the so-called bedroom tax.

The BBC's legal correspondent Clive Coleman said judges had accepted that the policy unlawfully discriminated against severely disabled children and female victims of domestic violence.

"But no sooner had the judgements been handed down then the government said it fundamentally disagreed with them, and that it was going to appeal against those judgements to the Supreme Court."

The Prime Minister's spokesman has denied that the decision to cancel David Cameron's planned trip to Sweden and Denmark on Friday was a panic move.

The PM is visiting the EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker instead.

The spokesman said "as we get closer" to the summit of EU leaders in February it is "no surprise to have more meetings with the people most closely involved with the process".

Asked about the potential offence to the Scandinavian countries, the spokesman said:

"I don't think there will be a huge offence caused".

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Small business minister Anna Soubry says the UK has led the G20 in dealing with tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.

She admits that the £130m Google has agreed to pay in back taxes "does not sound a lot of money" but the government has had a good record of "changing the rules" and "plugging the gaps" to maximise revenue.

Independent officials have gone through the books and this is the "fair sum" they came up, she stresses.

For Labour, Ian Murray says most people filling in their self-assessment forms this week will feel that the Google tax settlement is derisory and unfair.

It is a moral argument "about contributing your fair share".

The SNP's Pete Wishart jokes that £130m would "barely buy you a spare room in Witney" - the PM's constituency.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said that the government would continue to look at tax loopholes in future Budgets but refused to say that the law would be changed to ensure that companies like Google paid more tax.

He accused Labour of "breathtaking hypocrisy" to complain about tax that was not collected under a Labour government.

He insisted the decision was a matter for HMRC and admitted that the PM had not looked at all the details of the case.

The spokesman also refused to say which minister had signed off on the deal between HMRC and Google.

He also said the PM would not publish his own tax return: "The PM's position hasn't changed. If there is a political consensus to do that - he would do that but that consensus has never emerged."    

At PM's questions earlier Jeremy Corbyn said that in a week when people were filling in their tax returns, they will be thinking there is one rule for big multinationals and one rule for small businesses and self-employed workers. The opposition leader also pointed to a series of meetings Google has had with government ministers:

David Cameron earlier blamed Labour for failures in collecting taxes from large multinationals after Jeremy Corbyn pressed him on Google's controversial settlement with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Mr Corbyn said the internet giant made £6bn profits in the UK between 2005 and 2015, the period covered by the deal, claiming it was paying an effective tax rate of 3%.

Mr Cameron replied: