MP Nick Herbert, head of Conservatives for Reform in Europe, sticks up for the official guidance, saying that if ministers who disagree with it think that it is unfair they always have the option to return to the backbenches. 

David Davis asks what the "constitutional basis" is for the official guidance, telling MPs that it was not in the Conservative election manifesto and has not been voted on by the House of Commons. Has the PM imposed the rules by virtue of his powers of royal prerogative, he asks? 

MPs from all sides are criticising the guidance. Veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner says the infighting within the government and the Conservative Party at large reminds him of the Godfather movies, asking whether it will end up with a "horse's head in someone's bed". His colleague Paul Flynn says the rules are "constitutional gibberish" that are completely unworkable. Ministers opposing the government line should step aside until after the referendum, he argues. 

Image source, House of Commons

For Labour, deputy leader Tom Watson says he does not believe a "memorandum from a mandarin" is going to change the conduct of the referendum or constrain those in the Leave campaign, who he suggests are intent on attacking "the referee rather than the captain of the opposing side". But he also says the prime minister must decide whether to give "free rein" to ministers who back EU exit to run their departments or to sack them, saying the issue "cannot be fudged".And he adds.

In response, Bernard Jenkin says there is no clarity and suggests the rules are very different to those which applied during the 1975 EU referendum. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbench peer Lord Low of Dalston says the government's concessions are "not enough". The changes announced by Lord Freud would "only return about £35 or £30m to the pockets of the disabled" and work "only work at the margins", he argues.

Lord Low, who is blind, then tables his own amendment to the government's amendments. 

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Under these amendments, the planned cuts to the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) paid to those in long term work would not  be made until ministers publish an impact assessment of these changes and the equivalent changes in the Universal Credit system that will replace benefits in the future. 

Far from being the "wrecking amendment, external" that Lord Freud calls them, Lord Low says these changes strike the balance between "recognising that the the House of Commons has re-instated its will" and allying fears of the impact of the changes.

House of Commons
Parliament

Cabinet Office Matt Hancock is responding to an urgent question about access to EU documents and the conduct of the civil service in the run-up to the referendum. He says the guidance from Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood is "clear". Aside from matters relating to the referendum, he says all ministers can continue to commission and see all documents as well as receive factual briefings. But he says ministers who back EU exit cannot see papers relating to the case for remaining in the EU or commission material advocating EU exit. 

A leading Scottish Conservative politician has said there is "no limit to the SNP's hypocrisy" after Nicola Sturgeon urged both sides in the EU referendum debate to avoid scaremongering. John Lamont, the Conservative whip in the Scottish Parliament, said. 

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Peter Grant asks for assurance that the government's asylum policy is not influenced by the timing on the EU referendum.

James Brokenshire says it is not.

Reality Check

Nicola Sturgeon says that Scottish exports to the EU are worth £2,000 a year for every person in Scotland.    

In 2014 the total value of Scottish exports to the EU was £11.6bn (Source: National Statistics). 

In fact that works out as about £2,160 for each person in Scotland where the estimated mid-year population for 2014 was a little under 5.4 million (Source: National Records of Scotland).

We can’t say with any degree of certainty how that figure would be affected – if at all – were the UK to leave the EU.

House of Lords
Parliament

Work and Pensions Minister Lord Freud announces a series of concessions that he hopes will assure peers, leading them to support the government's plan to scrap the work related component of the ESA.

He announces that a white paper, external will be put forward on removing the limit on how much work ESA claimants can do before losing their benefit.

Currently ESA claimants can work for 16 hours a week - earning up to £107.50 - for up to 52 weeks before they must reduce their work hours and lose their benefit.

Lord Freud adds that an extra "£15m will be made available" to employment support for disabled people, while the government will begin a campaign of improving awareness of disability benefits for those with deteriorating conditions.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Sarah Wollaston asks for an assurance that children who are eligible for asylum in UK are not disadvantaged by starting their claim in France.

James Brokenshire says the government "will stand by our obligation" to grant asylum to those who are eligible for it.  

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Stuart McDonald says the procedures for reuniting unaccompanied children with relatives are "not fit for purpose".

James Brokenshire replies that it is important for asylum claims to be made at the earliest possible opportunity within the French system.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers agree to the government's concession without the need for a vote.

The debate now moves an amendment to re-instate the "work-related activity component" of the Employment and Support Allowance, external (ESA) - a type of benefit paid to those in work with health conditions or disabilities that makes it difficult or impossible to work, or claimants with limited capability for work.

Peers had voted to re-instate the measure, but MPs overturned this. 

Under the bill as it currently stands, work-related activity component ESA would be abolished and replaced with the lower paying Job Seekers Allowance benefit.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour home affairs spokesperson Keir Starmer says the squalor in the refugee camps is "hard to describe to the House".

He adds that there "is no process" for dealing with unaccompanied children, and asks the minister to reconsider the situation and see what can be done for these children now.

James Brokenshire replies that "there is no need for people to be in those conditions", and that there are services away from the camps which people can use.

Select Committee
Parliament

The Public Accounts Committee is about to start taking evidence on accountability to Parliament for taxpayers' money and the role of accounting officers in delivering value for money.

Witnesses are: 

• Sir Nicholas Macpherson, Permanent Secretary, HM Treasury
• Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary
• John Manzoni, chief executive of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office.

House of Commons
Parliament

Clashes have broken out in the French port of Calais where demolition teams are dismantling huts in part of a migrant camp known as the Jungle.

Riot police fired tear gas after migrants began throwing boulders inside the camp. Water cannon was also used to extinguish a fire in one of the shacks.

The demolition teams seem to be leaving inhabited huts intact as they move through the camp's southern sector.

The government plans to relocate migrants to reception centres.

Read more here

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Yvette Cooper asks an urgent question about child refugees in the migrant camp at Calais in France.

Home Office Minister James Brokenshire says the UK is playing a leading role in tackling people smuggling.

He adds that the UK "shares the French government's objective" of moving refugees away from the camp in Calais, and adds that migrants in need of protection should claim asylum in France.

House of Lords
Parliament

The two Archbishops and the 24 most senior bishops from the Church of England have an automatic right to sit in the House of Lords.

Iran, Belize and the UK are the only elected parliamentary systems in the world to reserve places for religious representatives amongst its lawmakers like this.

In recent history, bishops have taken a relatively modest role in scrutinising legislation.

Since the accession of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013, bishops have taken a bolder approach on legislation, intervening in wider variety of political debates.