UKIP leadership contender Suzanne Evans says she intends to put herself forward as a candidate in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election.

Image source, PA

Six MPs from the Business and Skills Committee claim an attempt was made to record their private discussions after a surprise visit to Sports Direct's Shirebrook warehouse.

MPs gave notice only this morning that they would visit the Derbyshire site.

The committee has investigated working practices at Shirebrook, and wanted to see if improvements had been made.

After a three hour tour, they gathered in a private room when they said a recording device was found.

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Every head teacher of a state secondary school in Surrey has signed a letter to the prime minister expressing their "vehement opposition" to plans for more grammar schools in England.

The heads say this "unprecedented" coalition reflects the "confusion" caused by plans to increase selection.

They say 95% of pupils in Surrey are already at good or outstanding schools.

The government says that providing more grammar school places would give extra opportunities for poorer pupils.

Read more...

Image source, Reuters

The prospects for the UK's public finances have deteriorated by £25bn since the March Budget, an influential think tank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said weak growth would lead to lower-than-expected tax receipts, increasing borrowing by £25bn by 2019-20.

The weaker prospects for the economy would result in a "significant increase in the deficit", it said.

Its forecasts come ahead of the Autumn Statement on 23 November.

Read more...

• Today is the final day of the prime minister's trip to India.
• Michael Gove speaks out on the High Court's controversial Brexit ruling. 
• The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the UK's economy is weaker, with lower growth leading to £25bn more government borrowing. 

A top judge warns that reversing the court ruling on Brexit would be seen as a victory for demonstrators.

Here is a summary of the day's main stories:

• Theresa May says she is "clear" she expects to start talks on leaving the EU as planned by the end of March as ministers come under pressure to hold a prompt Commons vote on Article 50 following last week's High Court ruling
• The UK government will sell off 56 more defence sites by 2040, the defence secretary tells MPs.  
• Six MPs from the Business and Skills Committee claim an attempt was made to record their private discussions after a surprise visit to Sports Direct's Shirebrook warehouse.  
• UK welfare reforms have led to "grave and systematic violations" of disabled people's rights, a UN inquiry has said, external.  
• Theresa May rejects calls to relax Indian visa rules, saying the UK has a "good system" for applications.  

The government has restated its commitment to protecting workers' rights after Brexit - insisting it is not going to "dilute or dissolve" the safeguards. 

Concerns have been raised that ministers could seek to tear up employment rights once Britain leaves the European Union.

But, during a Commons debate, Business Secretary Greg Clark insisted workers' rights will be enhanced by being transposed into UK law. 

But Labour's shadow business secretary Clive Lewis dismissed the assurances, saying that although there was little public appetite among Brexit supporters for watering down existing safeguards, the government could use statutory instruments to do so as the process of extricating the UK from EU law unfolded.

The death has been announced, at the age of 95, of veteran broadcaster Sir Jimmy Young. Read the full story.

The former singer turned DJ was a fixture on Radio 2 for nearly thirty years and his lunchtime show became required listening for politicians and political journalists alike as he interviewed every prime minister from Harold Macmillan to Tony Blair. 

Here is a selection of images from his distinguished career. 

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, PA

Six MPs from the Business and Skills Committee claim an attempt was made to record their private discussions after a surprise visit to Sports Direct's Shirebrook warehouse.

MPs on the committee, including Peter Kyle and Anna Turley, gave notice only this morning that they would visit the Derbyshire site.

The committee has investigated working practices at Shirebrook, and wanted to see if improvements had been made.

After a three hour tour, they gathered in a private room when they said a recording device was found.

The company had been expecting a visit from MPs, but was not told when the spot check would be. Read more

Former Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, has expressed concerns at what he said were "vicious" attacks on the judiciary after three High Court judges ruled that Parliament, not government, had the right to decide when Article 50 was triggered. 

Speaking in the House of Lords, the Conservative peer - who was the government's most senior law officer for a decade under Margaret Thatcher and John Major - said the judges had been asked to pronounce on a matter of law and that they had made it "abundantly clear" that they were not expressing a view on the referendum result nor any other political matters relating to Brexit. 

While the principle of press freedom must be upheld, he said he did not believe newspapers were entitled to "insult in a very vicious and verbal manner those judges who are carrying out their statutory responsibilities". 

Former Conservative Chancellor Ken Clarke is speaking tonight at an event to promote his recently-published memoir. According to journalist Robert Colville, who is in the audience, the Europhile MP has said he will vote against triggering Article 50 - thereby beginning the process of leaving the EU - when it comes to a vote in Parliament but believes the Commons as a whole will give its consent. 

BBC News Channel

Image source, AFP

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve has welcomed David Davis' defence of the judiciary in the Commons earlier. 

However, the Tory MP says he was disappointed by what he characterises as the "muted reaction" of ministers, including Lord Chancellor Liz Truss, to the "appalling and unwarranted" criticism of three of the UK's most senior judges in the 48 hours after Thursday's controversial Brexit ruling.

The UK government is to dispose of 56 more army, navy and RAF sites by 2040 as part of an ongoing defence estate review, Michael Fallon tells MPs. Read our story

Image source, AFP

The Crown Prosecution Service is considering a complaint that voters in the EU referendum were misled by the Vote Leave and Leave.EU campaigns in breach of electoral law. 

The allegations against the campaigns - centering on high-profile claims that Brexit could free up an extra £350m to be spent a week on the NHS and the UK was powerless to stop Turkey joining the EU - were lodged with the Director of Public Prosecutions by a group of lawyers and citizens backed by Professor Bob Watt, an expert in electoral law at the University of Buckingham. 

If successful it could see charges brought against leading Leave campaigners with the prospect of up to a year's imprisonment if they are found guilty. 

The CPS said it had received the complaint and was considering it. 

Prof Watt said DPP Alison Saunders had now referred the matter to her electoral law team to investigate.     

The UK will have to compromise with the EU over immigration to protect jobs in Wales, the first minister says.

Theresa May says she is "clear" that talks on quitting the EU will start by the end of March.

House of Lords
Parliament

Minister Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth defends the government's change of mind on a referendum for giving income tax raising powers to the Welsh Assembly.

"Circumstances have changed", he says.

The powers involved are "significant" but not "fundamental or apocalyptic", as he says Labour's Lord Kinnock seemed to think they were. 

He adds that some power over tax will allow more "imaginative" policy from a Welsh Assembly which he says has always been "free thinking". 

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights has said attacks on the judiciary in the wake of Thursday's Brexit ruling were "designed to stir up popular hatred" and called on parts of the media to show more "responsibility". 

In a post on Facebook, external, Nils Muižnieks singled out for concern social media attacks on Gina Miller, the women who brought the legal challenge, saying she had been subjected to abuse which was "clearly inciting violence".

He urged politicians to show leadership and to ensure public debate about the UK's decision to leave the EU and press coverage did not foster an "atmosphere of hostility, rejection and hate speech".

The 47-nation Council of Europe, of which the UK is a member, is the senior European human rights watchdog and is not an EU institution.