Westminster Hall

Labour's Geraint Davies would probably be described in certain tabloid newspapers as a "remoaner", the neologism to describe supporters of the Remain camp in the referendum who want to stop Brexit happening. 

He's telling MPs about his private member's bill, due to be debated in the Commons on Friday, which would allow voters to have a referendum on the terms of the final Brexit deal, with the idea that if voters don't like the deal, the UK could remain in the EU. 

He says he wants to give voters the opportunity to say "it's all been a dreadful mistake".

Longtime Eurosceptic Conservative Phillip Hollobone intervenes to tell Geraint Davies "he hasn't understood the message" of the people who voted to Leave. He goes on to suggest that the MP for Swansea West would be "better suited to having a job on the business section of the Today programme" because of the "doom and gloom" of his speech.

The BBC has been under fire from prominent pro-Brexit figures, including Iain Duncan Smith who said the corporation had reported Brexit with a "constant stream of negativity".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Baroness Harding of Winscombe, who is the chief executive of Talk Talk, says she cannot be accused of not understanding the technology.

"There are plenty of ways that organised crime and nation states" can "obfuscate" attempts to track telephone calls, she says, yet telephony is not excluded from the bill.

She does not think that internet connection records should be excluded either - and the bill's powers could contribute to "a civilised digital world".

The House of Commons Library - an invaluable resource for MPs and the public - has begun a blog called Second Reading.

It publishes background material and research; and today it has published some of the material relating to the bill.

Read about some of the concerns and controversies surrounding the bill, outlined on the blog, here, external.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour peer Lord Harris of Haringey disputes Lord Paddick's arguments.

As Lord Harris sees it, the fact that some criminals and terrorists are determined to avoid detection should not mean "you should prevent the state knowing what you've done if you are not very determined".

He thinks that some criminals are not as clever or knowledgeable about online records as Lord Paddick is, and "a lot of very nasty people would be caught".

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Paddick introduces another amendment to remove internet connection records from the communications data that the bill would allow the authorities to retain.

He claims that agents from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have told him that "they do not need, or want, internet connection records".

He adds that retention of internet connection records would be permitted "from the moment intelligence shows there's a reasonable cause to suspect the subject is involved in serious crime".

Former Deputy PM Nick Clegg warns that leaving the European single market will lead the UK "off a cliff towards higher food prices".

Parliament's consent is "not required" for Theresa May to get Brexit under way by triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the High Court hears.

House of Commons
Parliament

Treasury Minister Jane Ellison is opening the second reading of the Savings (Government Contributions) Bill.

The bill is designed to create new lifetime ISAs. 

These would be open to anyone under the age of 40, allowing them to save up to £4,000 a year. For every £4 they put in the ISA, the government add a further £1. So put in £4,000 and the government will give £1,000, every year, until 50. 

Ministers believe it will be more flexible than the pension saving system and will be particularly helpful to the self-employed.  

House of Lords
Parliament

Earl Howe now introduces government amendments requiring judicial oversight of notices to retain communications data.

"I hope the House will welcome this additional safeguard," he says.

Labour spokeswoman Baroness Hayter indicates that the opposition is happy to support this and the amendment is agreed without a vote.

Westminster Hall

Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam Paul Scully is introducing the debate. Talking about a petition opposing free movement of people post-Brexit, he says "we can attract and we should be attracting skillful and talented citizens from across the world", but want skilled workers from across the world to have an "equal footing" when trying to come to the UK. 

Post Brexit the country will be free to set its own immigration policy, this is "taking control", he says.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers reject the Lib Dems' amendment by 314 votes to 78 - a big government majority of 236.

This means the clause on the home secretary's powers and "filtering arrangements" for data remains in the bill.

Westminster Hall

Over in Westminster Hall - the Commons' overspill debate chamber - MPs are debating a series of e-petitions submitted to Parliament's website on the subject of the EU referendum.

They include petitions demanding the invoking of Article 50 "immediately" and another asking the government not to invoke it at all. 

Another petition asks for referendum day, 23 June, to be designated "Independence Day, and celebrated annually". One petition asks for Parliament to have the final say over whether to leave the EU or not.

Not up for debate is a petition submitted to the website this weekend by a Conservative Party councillor from Guildford, calling for support for UK membership of the European Union to be considered treason.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Lord Paddick pushes his amendment to a vote and the House divides.

The amendment would remove a clause in the bill authorising the secretary of state to allow public authorities to obtain communications data.

Lord Paddick and others have argued that the powers would lead to a database of information on citizens but the government rejects this.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Michael Dugher has tabled an urgent question on reports over the weekend that the Department of Health was planning on cutting funding to pharmacies by 12% from December. 

Mr Dugher asks Health Minister David Mowatt how many pharmacies will close, going on to call the plans a "false economy to the NHS" which can only add further pressure to already overstretched GPs and A&E.

David Mowatt tells the House that the government has been trying to find ways of reducing the £2.8bn paid by the government to pharmacies and that the pharmacy sector must make a contribution to "efficiencies" in the wider NHS. He says the government's plans will be announced "shortly".

You can read more about the reported proposals here

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour home affairs spokesman Lord Rosser indicates that his party does not support Lib Dem Lord Paddick's amendment.

Government spokesman Earl Howe says there are "misconceptions" about the so-called "filter". He claims it applies "important safeguards" about how information is used and what public authorities can access it. 

He further claims that, if the clause was removed as the amendment specifies, these safeguards would also be removed.

And Earl Howe dismisses claims that the filter would create a database. "A database has to contain data," he says. "A filter will not hold any communications data."

Data will be discarded once filtered and the police and other authorities "will only see the information" they need to, he tells the House.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Oates, who served as chief of staff to former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, backs Lord Paddick's amendment, saying that just because powers are "useful" to the authorities is "not in itself a justification".

The Lib Dem peer claims the clause in the bill as it stands would lead to the creation of "a vast, virtual database of information on very single person in this country".

This would be "available to all public authorities", Lord Oates says, adding that the public would be "horrified" by the extent of the powers Parliament is considering granting to the secretary of state.

The prime minister's spokeswoman has said that the decision to freeze the UK accounts of Russian state-funded channel Russia Today was the responsibility of their bank, NatWest. 

Downing Street said: "it's for them [NatWest] to decide who they offer services to based on their own risk appetite".

RT published an image of a letter from NatWest on its website which said: "Our decision is final and we are not prepared to enter into any discussion on it."

The letter encourages RT to "make alternative arrangements" outside of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. 

Read more: RT: NatWest 'freezes Russian channel's UK bank accounts'