Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg tells Today that a YouGov poll suggests that, at present, Jeremy Corbyn would "thump his rivals convincingly" in a leadership election among Labour members.

We should know by the end of Wednesday whether Angela Eagle or Owen Smith will take Mr Corbyn on, Laura says.

However, whoever it is is likely to face "a long, tough battle to try to turn the membership back to that wing of the party".

Image source, Getty Images

Labour MP Hilary Benn is backing Angela Eagle for leader of the party, but would he accept that she should stand aside for Owen Smith if he gets the backing of more Labour MPs?

Mr Benn tells Today that he thinks it's "time for the Labour Party to have a woman leader" but he is aware of a strong view in the parliamentary party that there should be only one challenger to Jeremy Corbyn.

"Angela and Owen would both make great leaders of the Labour Party," Mr Benn says diplomatically.

Has he considered standing? He insists he has not and "made that decision some time ago". Mr Benn, who was sacked from Jeremy Corbyn's front bench when he told the Labour leader he did not have confidence in him, says he did not do so because he wanted to stand as leader.

And Mr Benn insists that, if Mr Corbyn wins the leadership again in a vote of party members, "the Labour Party is not going to split". It "doesn't belong to one particular group or any one individual", he argues.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Former shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn reflects on last night's Commons vote to renew Trident, which saw 140 of Labour's 230 MPs going against leader Jeremy Corbyn and backing the motion.

Mr Benn says Mr Corbyn has a long-standing opposition to nuclear weapons, which he and many others "admire and respect, but I don't agree with him".

Mr Benn says he didn't expect the leader would do anything other than express his view - but that view is not shared by the majority of Labour MPs.

He insists he and other Labour MPs would like to see a world without nuclear weapons - "we are all passionate multilateralists" - but argues that the UK giving up nuclear weapons would not make other countries do the same.

Nuclear weapons have "helped to keep the peace", the Labour MP says, adding that he wouldn't feel safe in a world with no nuclear weapons except "those which North Korea is seeking to develop".

Image source, AP

Prime Minister Theresa May is to chair the first meeting of her new look cabinet later.

Mrs May is expected to set out her priorities - including leaving the EU - during the meeting, ahead of visits to Germany and France later in the week.

Only a handful of the 27 members of Mrs May's top team are in the same jobs as under David Cameron, while others are in the cabinet for the first time.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will later meet US counterpart John Kerry.

Read more.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Image source, House of Comnmons

Two striking things about today.

Theresa May without hesitation said that she would be willing to press the nuclear button - without flinching in the face of that question, there was not a moment's doubt

Secondly, how much agony there was on the Labour benches. The party's difficulties around Trident crystallising the divisions and doubts inside the party

Possibly tomorrow, but possibly not until Wednesday, Labour will know which of its MPs will take on Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership contest over the summer.

Whether it is Owen Smith or Angela Eagle, they both support the nuclear deterrent so that issue will be neutralised for the party if Jeremy Corbyn is defeated

There will, I understand, be only one of them on the ticket - by the end of play on Wednesday the one with fewer nominations will drop out - sources tell me it is "neck and neck".

But as the Tories get down to business under Theresa May, there are plenty of problems brewing. The opposition has a long way to go, maybe a long hot summer, before they can look like they are in any shape to take them on. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair of the Defence Committee Julian Lewis raises a point of order to point out that parliamentary support for Trident has increased since the last time it was voted on. 

Dr Lewis points out that on 14 March 2007, the Commons was asked to approve the general principle of maintaining the deterrent beyond its current lifetime. The motion was passed by 409 to 161 votes - a majority of 248.

"Where as this evening that majority has gone up to 355."

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have vote to renew the UK's nuclear weapons programme by 472 votes to 117.

The vote marks the culmination of a process that started in December 2006, when Tony Blair's cabinet agreed to sustain the nuclear deterrent over the period 2020 to 2050 and beyond.

The current generation of four submarines would begin to end their working lives some time in the late 2020s. 

The government estimate the renewal to cost £31bn (including inflation), with a contingency of a further £10bn, spread over 35 years - though this figure is disputed. 

Earlier in the day Theresa May told MPs it would be "an act of gross irresponsibility" for the UK to abandon its nuclear weapons.

MPs have agreed to the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system by 472 votes to 117 after a five-hour debate. 

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have divided to vote on the motion to renew Trident. 

There's no clear winner on the oral vote, so proceedings are paused to allow MPs to file out and register their votes individually in the lobbies either side of the chamber.

Results are expected shortly

House of Commons
Parliament

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon tells MPs the 2013 review of alternative to Trident found there is "no other system that is as capable, as resilient or as cost effective as the Trident based deterrent".

"The point about deterrents is that it places doubts in the minds of our adversaries" he argues.

Therefore Trident "is not redundant. It is being employed every day and every night" and has been for nearly 50 years.

"We can all agree a world without nuclear weapons would be a better world" but parliament has to "face facts", Mr Fallon argues. 

There are 17,000 nuclear weapons in the world and "the threats we face are growing" Mr Fallon says, pointing to the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and the increased nuclear threat from Russian forces.

He also notes a commitment to renewing Trident was "clearly stated in the manifesto" on which the Conservatives won a general election.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP MP Ian Blackford says that a vote to renew Trident tonight would be a "nail in the coffin of the Union".

"Ultimately my country will be independent and free of nuclear weapons" he tells MPs.

Summing up for Labour, shadow defence secretary Clive Lewis says the Chilcot report demonstrated that military decisions made on "assumptions and poor evidence the results can be catastrophic".

The government could have addressed some of the concerns about the cost and implementation of Trident "and unite, but have chosen to divide".

He calls for more details on the defence budget and an "urgent assurance nuclear capability is not made at the expense of conventional military equipment". 

Mr Lewis, who served as an Army reservist, tells MPs he knows what it is like "to be under enemy fire and need air support and being told none is available" and he is worried that the Ministry of Defence has "seen its budget suffer a real terms cut of 9%". 

He adds he is not convinced that the government is pursuing a multi-laterailst agenda.

Mr Lewis notes that the Labour party policy is to support the renewal of Trident but points out that there have been "developments since the last conference decision - not least Brexit".  

Unfortunately the parliamentary cameras did not capture the moment in close-up but David Cameron's first appearance on the backbenches for more than 11 years earlier on Monday did not escape the notice of lobby watchers. 

And it seems the former prime minister is also having to refamiliarise himself with the geographical layout of the Palace of Westminster. 

House of Commons
Parliament

SDLP MP Margaret Ritchie argues today's debate is "about status and not about safety".

"There is no genuine security argument for the UK to spend this vast money on weapons that can never be used," she argues.

Trident and "weapons of mass destruction" are used to "kill people in a very indiscriminate manner," she tells MPs. 

There is no deterrent that is not already provided "by the much larger arsenals of our allies" she adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Pro-Trident Labour MP Jamie Reed attacks what he sees as Jeremy Corbyn's "reckless, juvenile, narcissistic irresponsibility" in opposing his own party's policy.

"For the first time I think ever we have witnessed the leader of the Labour party stand up at the despatch box of this House and argue against the policy of the party that he leads" he tells MPs.

The move "makes me fearful of the party that I love".

Mr Reed, whose Copeland constituency is near Barrow-in-Furness where Trident submarines are built, argues "the sheer stupidity of this approach should be dragged out into the light and seen for what it is, because not only is renewal Labour party policy, it is the settled will of the country, and every parliamentary decision relating to it will have been taken by 2020".