House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, House of Commons

The Commons benches are filling up ahead of PMQs. Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and her ministers are currently taking questions. 

There has been a lot of negative press coverage about the implications of possible changes to the state pension age. But campaign group the Taxpayers Alliance says it supports the government's decision to review existing rules. Its chief executive Jonathan Isaby says that the pension age - set to rise to 67 by 2028 - went unchanged for 50 years "despite a remarkable increase in life expectancy meaning longer and more costly retirements".

House of Commons
Parliament

We mentioned earlier that Labour had been granted an Urgent Question on the review of the state pension age. There is also another Urgent Question later from the SNP's Stuart McDonald on the humanitarian situation in Greece amid the migrant crisis. Both will take place after Prime Minister's Questions concludes, some time after 12:30 GMT.

The Daily Politics

The Daily Politics is now on air with the build-up to Prime Minister's Questions. Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn's guests include Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock and Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray. 

BBC Radio 4

This is what the pensions minister told Radio 4's World Tonight yesterday about possible changes to the state pension age. Amid warnings that people currently in their 20s could have to work until their late 70s, could Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn raise the issue at Prime Minister's Questions?

The Daily Politics

The UK government has published its revised Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the 'snoopers charter' by some. 

Journalist Hugo Rifkind asks whether politicians are right to bring in new powers covering tech companies, and looks at the arguments over internet security and what individuals get up to online. 

His personal film come amid a legal battle in the US where the FBI has asked Apple for software to bypass security protocols to unlock an iPhone linked to a terror attack, that some fear could set a legal precedent. 

He will debate this film on Wednesday's Daily Politics with presenter Jo Coburn (below), and MPs Matt Hancock and Ian Murray around 12:40 GMT.  

Image source, Reuters

We reported earlier calls from a committee of peers for changes to the government's Trade Union Bill in the area of union funding. Business minister Nick Boles has now responded, insisting that the committee has "accepted the principle that members should be asked to make an active choice about whether to opt-in to a union's political fund".

Vote Leave, one of the groups campaigning for EU exit, says the government has "misrepresented" the alternatives to EU membership. In its response to the government's document, it says that the other existing models being cited are irrelevant because the UK will be able to negotiate a "bespoke free trade agreement with the EU, meaning there will be no tariffs or quotas".

Philip Hammond is asked about his Cabinet colleague Iain Duncan Smith description of the EU document as a "dodgy dossier". He says he is not that surprised by this response and insists that the paper is a factual account which acknowledges some of the benefits, as well as the shortcomings, of alternatives such as the Norwegian model. The document is "filling a gap" in the debate, he says. He goes further, suggesting the intention of the government is to "smoke out" opponents of EU membership and force them to put some "flesh on the bones" of their vision for life outside the EU. 

Mr Hammond concludes his short speech, which I think everyone - whatever side of the argument they are on - would agree was a dry, technocratic-sounding analysis of what life outside the EU would look like. He moves on to questions and a short discussion with the head of the Chatham House think tank, where he is speaking. He suggests there are business people in Paris and other European capitals who are already war-gaming how they could benefit financially from the UK's exit. In contrast, he says the UK is not putting contingency plans in place for a possible Brexit, saying if there is an Out vote 23 June that will be the start, not the end of a process. 

As the leader of Spain's Socialist party attempts to form a new government, the blame game with new party Podemos has begun in earnest, says James Badcock.

Reverting to a series of trade agreements overseen by the World Trade Organisation is the only arrangement that would honestly represent a "clean break" from the EU, Mr Hammond asserts. However, he says this would result in high levels of tariffs in some industries and more basic access to markets, therefore being "bad for business, bad for jobs and bad for growth". 

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also countered those who argue life outside the EU would enable the UK to do more trade with the "Anglosphere and the Commonwealth". Countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada - key members of the Commonwealth - do not want the UK to leave the EU, he argues. In fact, he says the only country that supports Brexit is Russia, adding that this "tells us all we need to know".