Politicians from across the North West lock horns in a debate about the forthcoming EU referendum.

The head of Germany's financial watchdog Bafin has said a UK vote to leave the EU would hit German banks with activities in London.

Felix Hufeld told German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, external that the European Central Bank planned to closely monitor the situation and the banks themselves had internal groups looking at the possible consequences of the referendum on 23 June.

"The biggest banks would have the biggest problems," Mr Hufeld said. "They have the most activities in, and with, London."

All major German banks have offices in London, with Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank having some of the largest business dealings in in the UK.

The Britain Stronger in Europe campaign says Labour MP Chris Bryant has reported Leave campaigner Owen Paterson to the police for flouting electoral law on Twitter.

Conservative MP Mr Paterson tweeted speculation about the contents of postal ballot papers, despite the Representation of the People Act's requirement that political figures "aid in maintaining the secrecy of voting" and do not "communicate to any person before the poll is closed".

Mr Bryant has passed this information on to both West Mercia Police and the Electoral Commission, urging them to investigate the specifics of the incident.

Mr Bryant said: "Yet again Owen Paterson makes a shocking mis-step in his campaign, flouting electoral laws by commenting on the outcome of postal votes."

Image source, bb

John Pienaar
Pienaar’s Politics

Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has declined to criticise the prime minister after he claimed that the value of the state pension could be undermined by a vote to leave the EU. 

Asked about David Cameron's assertion that the triple pension lock, ensuring an annual rise of at least 2.5% until 2020, could have to be revisited after Brexit due to the damage done to the public finances, he told 5 live's Pienaar's Politics. 

BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Energy Minister Andrew Leadsom, who is a Leave campaigner, says she does not believe the triple lock guarantee on the state pension is under serious threat from a vote to leave the EU.

There is "no evidence" that the UK economy will suffer from Brexit, she tells Radio 4's The World this Weekend, suggesting people should listen instead to the "real experts" - the people whose firms create jobs. She mentions JCB boss Sir Anthony Bamford and Sir James Dyson - the UK's "greatest inventor" - who both happen to back Brexit.

She insists that there is no "systemic risk" to the UK from leaving the EU and that voting Remain is "not a risk-free option" given the likelihood of further integration and new countries joining.

David Cameron says a vote to leave the EU will result in "difficult choices" and future spending on pensions might not be protected, but Vote Leave calls it a "baseless threat".

BBC Sunday Politics

Image source, PA

We've obviously heavily focusing on the EU referendum but there are a number of other big running stories at the moment, including the collapse of the retailer BHS.

At the moment, there is a stand-off between its former owner Sir Philip Green and MPs on the Commons work and pensions and business committees about whether he gives evidence before their joint parliamentary inquiry into the firm's demise.

He said he won't appear unless Frank Field, the Labour MP who heads the work and pensions committee, stands down.

But Conservative MP Richard Fuller, who is a member of the business committee, told Sunday Politics this will not happen.

While it was not clear whether Commons committees had the power to subpoena witnesses, he said there was an "expectation" people asked to do so should show up to "account for their actions".

And if Sir Philip was not willing to turn up, he suggested it would not be unreasonable to consider revoking his knighthood.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, gett

Millionaire UKIP backer Arron Banks says the party will come back "with steroids" if the referendum delivers a narrow defeat for the Leave side.

On the Andrew Marr programme earlier the party's leader Nigel Farage said the referendum was a once and once only vote on membership of the EU, even if it's a close vote to Remain.

However, Mr Banks told Pienaar's Politics on 5 Live: "I think Nigel is totally wrong on that point. It doesn't end if it's an 'In' vote. 

We know 62% of the French population want to vote out if there was a referendum and it's a movement that is sweeping right across Europe. This is not the end of the story so for that reason I would have to disagree."

Sky News

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, Gordon Brown told Murnahan on Sky News that Labour's pro-EU campaign had time to engage voters and suggested he had been talking to Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson about how to do this. 

"I think Labour can show over the next ten days, particularly to Labour voters - they don't like the status quo, they want to know how things are going to change to the benefit of them and their communities for the future. Once we set out this agenda, I think you will see Labour voters far more enthusiastic about the vote to Remain."

Sky News

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suggested that the European Union might be able to offer financial support to communities under pressure as a result of migration.

Ahead of a speech in Brussels on Monday, Mr Brown told Murnaghan on Sky News: "One of things I will be talking about tomorrow is how we relieve the pressure on communities where there have been high levels of migration.

"These communities need European Union financial support where there's pressure on the health services and schools and on amenities, and I think the government and the European Union together could do more to help communities that have felt that they are under pressure with their schools and their hospitals in particular."

When asked by Dermot Murnaghan whether there was emergency EU funding that the UK could draw upon, he said:

BBC Sunday Politics

Labour Leave supporter John Mann rejects the suggestion from his fellow Labour MP Khalid Mahmood that working within the EU will control immigration.

"This concept of the European citizen rather than the British citizen, the German citizen, is the fundamental faultline in the European Union that it cannot fix," he declares. 

"This is why the issue of immigration is so toxic."

However, Mr Mahmood argues that "if we don't co-operate" with other EU states there will be far more refugees reaching the UK. Mr Mahmood says he has joined the campaign to get the Labour vote out for Remain, but Mr Mann claims:

BBC Sunday Politics

Labour MP John Mann speaks to the Sunday Politics after announcing his support for leaving the EU a couple of days ago.

He thinks the EU is "fundamentally broken", adding that he asked himself if it could be "reformed from the inside" and concluded that it could not.

He is joined by fellow MP Khalid Mahmood, who had supported Leave but has decided to campaign for Remain.

He calls for engagement with the EU and argues that member states need to support each other on immigration and "work together in terms of restricting borders".

Image source, PA

Comedian John Cleese has said he backs leaving the EU. 

The prominent Liberal Democrat supporter did so in a series of tweets in which he apologised to former leader Paddy Ashdown for his pro-Leave views and laid into European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for "threatening" the UK.

The Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star dismissed warnings by Remain campaigners that the UK's ability to trade would be damaged by a divorce from the EU, saying the country had been selling and buying from around the world for "millennia".

BBC Sunday Politics

Leave campaigner Chris Grayling has his turn to cross-examine Remain supporter Mary Creagh.

The Conservative MP focuses on jobs, saying the EU gave grants to Ford "to move the construction of transit vans from Southampton to Turkey".

Labour's Ms Creagh says she doesn't know about that story but many other large companies are warning of the risks of leaving the EU, which would hit foreign investment.

Mr Grayling then says that Spain has a youth unemployment rate of 50%, which Ms Creagh agrees is "unacceptably high".

But she argues that "structural weaknesses" in the economies of Spain and Greece were exacerbated by the financial crash and the recession.