Governors and executive governors from six prisons in England, who were due to give evidence to MPs on government reforms, have failed to turn up.

The Chair of the Justice Committee, Bob Neill, said a day of protests staged by the Prison Officers Association outside jails across England and Wales was responsible and so, minutes after opening the evidence session, he closed it again.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has responded to Theresa May's speech to the Lord Mayor of the City of London's banquet last night. 

Mr Corbyn said: “Theresa May is trying to catch up with a changing world the Conservatives do not understand.

“There can’t be a globalisation that works for all without taking on the billionaires club that controls this rigged system.

“The Conservatives have presided over ballooning inequality. They’ve given tax cuts to the richest 1 percent while the incomes of 70 percent have stagnated or fallen.

“Labour will take on the interests holding our country back. We will invest to rebuild and transform Britain, so no-one and no community is left behind.”

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Speaking to the Today Programme the shadow chancellor said a Labour government would reverse former chancellor George Osborne's cuts to capital gains tax rates, calling it a "tax cut for the 0.3% richest".

Mr McDonnell also said he would reverse cuts to corporation tax rates. 

Economic organisations the CBI, OECD and IMF are all recommending the same thing, he said. 

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Image source, PA

If you don't listen, you lose.

Theresa May tonight has given short shrift to the liberal consensus - the world view that has more or less dominated western politics for decades - accusing those politicians, including by implication many of her former colleagues, of being the "enemy" of true liberalism if they are deaf to the concerns of many ordinary voters.

She has argued strongly before, at the Conservative Party conference and on the steps of Number 10, that too many people have been ignored by 21st Century politics - with fears about security or immigration dismissed too easily by the Westminster village.

But with the election of Donald Trump as well as the UK's decision to quit the EU, the establishment on both sides of the Atlantic has now lost, and been surprised to lose. That gives her argument new force, and a new edge.

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A fight broke out between two MPs in Ukraine when one party leader accused another of working with the Kremlin.

Image source, European Union

The Paris climate agreement will survive a Trump presidency says the US special envoy on climate change Dr Jonathan Pershing.

He was speaking before the arrival of ministers and some heads of state in Marrakech on Tuesday.

They are coming to try to take the next steps to tackle global climate change.

But the meeting has been rocked by the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump will withdraw the US from the pact.

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Image source, AP

The UK will remain part of the EU's law enforcement body at least until Brexit happens, ministers have announced.

Last month the government was warned it risked losing vital intelligence unless it signed up to new powers for Europol.

Now Policing Minister Brandon Lewis has announced the government plans to opt into the new regulations which take effect in May next year.

Mr Lewis said: "The UK is leaving the EU but the reality of cross-border crime remains."

Read more...

Image source, Getty Images

Scotland could seek to join the European Economic Area (EEA) as part of the search for a distinctive Scottish response to Brexit.

The so-called Norway model has been privately floated as a possibility as the Scottish government seeks ways to maintain Scotland's links with the EU.

BBC Scotland's political editor Brian Taylor said the plan could give EU citizens the right to work in Scotland.

But it could only happen if the UK and European institutions agreed.

Read more...

Carole Walker
Political correspondent

The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said that neither he, nor the government, recognises the memo leaked to the Times. 

Mr Grayling, said he's on the Brexit Cabinet committee and the report had not been tabled to the committee.  

Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: "I haven't seen these great divisions I keep reading about in the papers."  

He said Brexit was a complex process but with simple objectives to leave the EU, take back political control from Brussels, control migration and carry on doing business with the rest of Europe on "as close a basis as we do today as possible".

• "There is no plan" for Brexit, leaked memo says - but Transport Secretary and Brexiter Chris Grayling denies all knowledge. 
• Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will give a speech saying the government is failing UK workers over Brexit.
• Beyond Birmingham: The government confirms the route for the second phase of HS2.
• Updates from the Commons and the Lords, with health questions, charitable donations and the Wales Bill. 

Image source, bbc

David Cameron's former communications chief, Sir Craig Oliver, has defended his ex-boss's decision to call the Brexit referendum. "Those who say he could've avoided it are denying reality," he told an audience at the London School of Economics. "A referendum in this country was inevitable." Sir Craig cited growing rebelliousness among Tory MPs, the rise of UKIP, popular pressure and the fact there hadn't been a vote on EU membership since 1975.