BBC Radio London

The former pensions minister Baroness Altmann has told BBC Radio London she was "silenced and gagged" while in office.

She was asked by Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio London: "Did you resign, or did you know in advance Theresa May wasn't going to continue to engage you?"

Baroness Altmann said: "it was a bit of both to be honest. I've had four different resignation letters written since the referendum... I had to make a judgement as to whether I thought I really was going to be able to make enough difference.

"She (Theresa May) needed to get more people from the Commons in and I understand that. I have said to her I am ready to help if you want me from the Lords... I can help the government if I'm allowed to and I think I might be able to do that better from the outside than being silenced and gagged from the inside."

Jo Coburn
Daily Politics presenter

The Daily Politics

Daily Politics is under way on BBC 2 (you can also watch on this page). Nicholas Soames and Lisa Nandy are keeping Jo Coburn company throughout Monday's programme and will look at the Labour leadership hustings.

Green MP Caroline Lucas joins them to look at the vote to renew Trident in the Commons, and journalist Harry Mount will discuss what sort of foreign secretary Boris Johnson will be.

The Daily Politics

Politicians have been attending the Reclaim The Internet conference in London, looking at claims that political debate online has seen rising levels of abuse and intimidation. 

In a personal film for Monday's Daily Politics - airing after 12:30 BST - the journalist and Conservative peer Matt Ridley gives his take on how the internet is shaping the way people talk about politics.

He claims that social media "amplifies the personal and extremes, hots up the echo chamber, and gives wings to lies."  

Radio 4 PM programme

Andrea Berger from the Royal United Services Institute compares the UK's nuclear weapons to other systems around the world.

BBC News Channel

SNP defence spokesman Brendan O'Hara says his party will be putting forward the position of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish government in the Trident debate later.

The SNP, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Greens are among those opposing Trident renewal, he says, adding that his party supports an independent, "nuclear-free Scotland".

That doesn't mean that this will happen on "day one" of independence, he continues, but "as soon as it is safe to do so".

The SNP will be supporting an amendment calling for retraining and diversification in the defence industry, Mr O'Hara tells the BBC. His party "will never support" closing the Faslane naval base, which is home to the Trident submarine fleet, but would convert it to "a conventional naval base".

Ian Murray, Labour's only MP for a Scottish constituency, may have left Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet but Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has a job for him.

"I’m pleased to welcome Ian to my shadow cabinet," Ms Dugdale said. "As Scotland’s only Labour MP, Ian has a crucial role to play in representing Scotland’s interests at Westminster and working to strengthen our party, as he has done since he was re-elected last year."

Mr Murray said: "We have to do all we can to strengthen our party, reach out to communities all across Scotland, and speak to the vast majority of working people who need a Labour government in Scotland and across the UK. Following the EU referendum vote, we also need to stand up for those people who voted to remain and understand why over a million Scots voted to leave the EU."

Mr Murray was one of many shadow ministers who quit the front bench amid criticism of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. He was replaced by David Anderson, the MP for Blaydon in the north east of England.

Leaving her house this morning, Labour leadership candidate Angela Eagle said: "I'm looking forward to the hustings today. I've had great support so far and I'm very optimistic."

She was asked if she would consider withdrawing if Owen Smith has better support than her.

"Let's just see what happens today," she replied. "Nominations don't open until Monday night - tonight - and so I don't think it's worth speculating about that at the moment."

And Ms Eagle confirmed she would be voting in favour of renewing Trident in the Commons later:

Theresa May is to hold her first face-to-face meetings with European leaders as Prime Minister this week.

A Downing Street spokesman said:

Image source, Getty Images

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has said that the sale of high tech British firm Arm Holdings to the Japanese company Softbank shows that the UK is open for business.

He described it as a “hugely supportive investment” which would double the number of the firm’s employees in this country.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is in Sunderland to promote Labour's plans for a "Bank of the North", which would finance infrastructure in the north of England and lend to local businesses.

"On coming to power, Labour will set up a National Investment Bank, and a network of regional banks whose aim is to help mobilise £500bn into the economy and transform Britain," he told his audience.

A Bank of the North, forming part of that network of regional banks, would be "publicly accountable and locally managed, with specialist local knowledge," the shadow chancellor said.

He attacked the government for "looking to cut its own investment" and argued:

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell says he backs giving Labour MPs a free vote on renewing Trident.

"It's the same as the Syrian vote," he tells an audience in Sunderland. "I think this is a matter of conscience."

He says that David Cameron condemned Jeremy Corbyn for having a free vote on military action in Syria, yet Mr Cameron allowed his MPs a free vote on the EU.

Mr McDonnell says he will vote against Trident as "I cannot support a weapon of mass destruction" but adds: "I sincerely respect the views of others who don't take that view."

The shadow chancellor also says he also can't support nuclear weapons on grounds of costs and would rather invest in public housing and jobs: "It's a matter of priority for me as well."

There have been a few sightings of Vote Leave's famous red bus in recent weeks around London, and this morning it is back outside the Houses of Parliament. This doesn't mean the referendum campaign has restarted - it's actually part of a Greenpeace stunt. The environmental group has acquired the exact same bus that carried Boris Johnson and Michael Gove around the country. The Vote Leave branding had to be re-added (the bus has recently been used by Pakistan's cricket team) and is going to be replaced by people's post-Brexit questions for the government.

Parliament is due to vote on whether to go ahead with building replacements for the UK's Vanguard fleet of four submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles. The subs are due to become obsolete by the end of the next decade.

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