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Margaret Thatcher considered suing BBC Radio 4's Today programme for libel, previously secret papers reveal.

In 1988, the former prime minister contemplated legal action after a piece on the show compared "Thatcherism" to Hitler's Final Solution, newly released Cabinet Office files show.

The then Today editor now admits it was "probably unwise" to have broadcast it.

In the end, no legal action was taken, but Mrs Thatcher's husband Denis wrote the BBC a personal letter of complaint.

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Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

On Wednesday, Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith faced questions over a previous job with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Diane Abbott says the Conservatives had a former PR man and "lobbyist" in David Cameron as a leader but "they've moved on from that".

She doubts that "a former pharmaceutical company lobbyist is going to enthuse the base" in the Labour Party.

She adds: "People find the link between lobbyists and politics very distasteful."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Diane Abbott, shadow health secretary and Jeremy Corbyn supporter, told Today that Labour MPs should support their leader in the Commons.

"They refuse to cheer, they sit on their hands, they sulk, they talk among themselves," she says,

She adds that Theresa May got "huge cheers" from her MPs ahead of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday "but when Jeremy came in, there was silence".

Instead of challenging Mr Corbyn's leadership, Owen Smith should "talk to Labour MPs [and] get them to support Jeremy in the chamber".

As Theresa May travels to Paris for talks with President Hollande, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says the PM might find France "a more awkward customer than Germany was" on Wednesday.

However, Laura tells Today, Mrs May's meeting with Chancellor Merkel was "the prime encounter" of talks with European leaders that are very much at the "getting to know you stage for Number 10".

Laura says the message from Berlin to the UK on triggering the Brexit process was "go away, sort out what you really want, then we can talk".

Mrs Merkel will want the UK to set out what it really wants from negotiations. Brexit is "more a vague ambition, an aspiration" at this stage.

Theresa May says the UK will not begin official negotiations on leaving the EU this year as she holds talks with Germany's Angela Merkel.

Jeremy Corbyn is promising to set out policy solutions to the "five ills of 21st Century Britain" as part of his official campaign to retain the Labour leadership. 

In a speech in London on Thursday outlining his agenda ahead of the September vote, the Labour leader is to say Britons are being held back by inequality, neglect, insecurity, prejudice and discrimination. 

A future Labour government will move decisively towards a society in which opportunity and prosperity are "truly shared", he is expected to say. 

Highlighting figures that suggest the UK is ranked 18th in the world for its gender pay gap, Mr Corbyn is to propose that all employers with more than 21 staff publish equality pay audits.

Esther Webber
BBC Parliament Online

Image source, PA

There have been some lively exchanges in the House of Lords this evening, following a report in The Times earlier this week, external that Lord Faulks resigned as justice minister after Liz Truss's appointment as justice secretary.

Former Supreme Court Justice and crossbencher Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood claimed she was "not over-burdened with previous experience" of courts and access to justice. 

His remarks were condemned by human rights lawyer and Labour peer Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, who said there had been a "clamour of male lawyers and judges" criticising Ms Truss who had not spoken out about Michael Gove or Chris Grayling's lack of legal background.

This in turn prompted a top piece of trivia from crossbencher Lord Pannick, who pointed out that contrary to some reports she is not the first female Lord Chancellor - it was Eleanor of Provence, who filled in for her husband Henry III in 1253.

He added that at the time there was probably a 13th-Century Lord Falconer (another critic of Ms Truss), "who complained Eleanor had not been trained as a lawyer".  

A Downing Street source says after the Berlin meeting:

"We are very encouraged by the meetings with Chancellor Merkel. There was a free flowing conversation in the bilateral talks and the dinner." The two established a personal connection and relationship and the "communication channels are now open". 

They discussed a wide range of topics, including global challenges as well as Article 50 and access to the single market and immigration controls.   

Jeremy Corbyn says he won't "get in the gutter" during the Labour leadership campaign, and he doesn't think anybody else should either.

The party leader, who launches his bid to remain as leader of the party on Thursday, said his campaign would be about "economic policies" and the "inclusion of everyone in our society".  

Speaking in central London, Mr Corbyn said he wanted a discussion about the "kind of world we want to live in" and for the party to offer something different to an economic strategy that he believed only widened the gap between the richest and the poorest. 

Instead, he said, he wanted to see people come together to challenge housing shortages, and the inadequacy of public services, and to give people "hope and inspiration". 

Labour should "chase down, oppose and defeat" those who "pursue the policies of attacking the most vulnerable", he added.  

The British and German leaders spent more than two hours together at the Chancellery in Berlin. The menu at their working dinner was reported to include tuna and mango chutney, and veal and mushrooms. 

Image source, epa

Theresa May presented two books on the British outdoors to Angela Merkel as a birthday present, reflecting their shared interest in hiking.

The UK prime minister handed her German counterpart a new edition of Coast To Coast With Wainwright, a pictorial guide to illustrate Alfred Wainwright's walking route between northern England's west and east coasts, and a copy of Great Mountain Days In Snowdonia, which includes a guide to walks in the National Park.

Mrs Merkel, who turned 62 on Sunday, often holidays in the South Tyrol region of northern Italy, while Mrs May is reported to enjoy hiking holidays in the Alps.

The 183,541 applicants paid £25 to become registered supporters and qualify for a vote in the contest between existing leader Jeremy Corbyn and challenger Owen Smith.

More than 380,000 party members who joined before 12 January and members of affiliated unions can also vote.

Mr Smith says he will offer Mr Corbyn the role of party president if he wins.

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Guide to the leadership election

British PM Theresa May has said "we get on with the job" when asked what she thought of Germany's Angela Merkel.

Radio 4 PM programme

Image source, HoC

EU nationals with a right to permanent residence can stay in the UK after it leaves the EU and enjoy the same rights, a top civil servant has said.

Mark Sedwill said the rights of those granted residence after five years were "quite clear" in law and it amounted to a guarantee of their future status.

But he told MPs the rights of other EU nationals were subject to negotiations on Brexit and the "will of Parliament".

Ministers have been urged not to use EU citizens as "bargaining chips".

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A total of 183,541 applications have been made to the Labour Party over the past 48 hours to sign up as registered supporters with the right to vote in the upcoming leadership election.

Here's your Wednesday afternoon recap of the big politics stories:

• UK PM Theresa May has said the UK will not begin official negotiations on leaving the EU this year, as she held talks with German's Angela Merkel in Berlin
• Before that, Mrs May made her Prime Minister's Questions debut, likening Jeremy Corbyn to an "unscrupulous boss" as the two leaders clashed on workers' rights
• Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith says he will offer Jeremy Corbyn the role of party president if he wins the contest against him
• Mr Smith also described as "nonsense" criticism of him over the NHS, based on comments made while working for Pfizer that choice in the NHS was a "good thing"
• EU nationals with a right to permanent residence can stay in the UK after it leaves the EU and enjoy the same rights, a top civil servant has said
• Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is making a return to front-line politics as the Lib Dem EU spokesman  
• Ministers have announced a further delay to the government's flagship Universal Credit scheme
• More than 150,000 supporters signed up to take part in the Labour leadership contest in last 48 hours