House of Lords
Parliament

Peers kick things off at 11am this morning, and as usual the half hour session of oral questions to government ministers starts the day.

Questions this morning will cover topics including the drink-drive limit in England and Wales, and the path network.

For the rest of the day peers will be taking part in a number of debates.

The topics of these debates include the impact of fluctuations in the level of the pound sterling; addressing the root causes of child poverty across the UK; the application of immigration policy to overseas students at UK universities and colleges; and Economic Partnership Agreements negotiated between the European Commission and economic regions of Africa.

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House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Jeremy Lefroy asks how the government is supporting small businesses who want to invest in electric vehicles for their staff.

He adds that he himself is in the process of buying his own electric car - a Nissan Leaf.

Minister John Hayes quotes Benjamin Disraeli - "justice is truth in action" and tells the House that he will offer "a little bit of justice for those who want to get this right".

He announces that a £7.5m grant scheme for electric charge points in work places will begin this Monday.

Speaker John Bercow suggests they can all agree that Benjamin Disraeli did not drive a Nissan.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow transport minister Pat Glass says passengers on Southern Rail face a daily commuting "hell". She asks if the transport secretary is content with the situation.

Chris Grayling says he is not content and says the biggest step to improving the situation would be if the rail unions called off their strike.

He adds that it is sad that Labour are "keen to line up with militants".

Pat Glass argues that Southern Rail was a disgrace before industrial action and urges the Mr Grayling to "stop pretending this is nothing to do with him".

Chris Grayling accuses the opposition of failing to understand the issue. He says that the problem is with the publicly-run infrastructure rather than the privately-operated trains. 

"Their argument that we should nationalise the railways is just plain wrong."

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A further £10 million of funding for a scheme to improve the resilience of a coastal railway line in Devon has been announced by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

He told MPs that it was a priority to ensure the line through Dawlish does not suffer a repeat of the storm damage that cut the line for several weeks in 2014. 

Network Rail is looking at either replacing the Dawlish line, which connects the south-west of England to the rest of the country, or to stabilise the cliffs.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

In her party conference speech last month Theresa May criticised the effect of low interest rates. She said "people with assets have got richer. People without them have suffered."

But Ed Balls, a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School, disagrees. The former adviser to Gordon Brown, and shadow chancellor, has just written an academic paper with the title Central Bank Independence Revisited. 

He says "low interest rates are the only thing that has stopped our economy sliding back into depression".

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Theresa May's decision to drop plans to curb the power of the House of Lords is a "big mistake" and risks peers blocking Brexit because the Tories do not have a majority in the Upper House, according to Lord (Digby) Jones.

The crossbench peer and former CBI director-general suggested the PM has miscalculated if she thinks treating the Lords well now will win peers' support on crunch votes in the future.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:

He added: "I think it's, in political, legislative management terms, a big mistake because this stuff is going to be huge coming down the pipe in a year's time."

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

"You hope there are many tomorrows. But you also hope you can do everything you want to do in whatever time you have."

Mark Serwotka looks well, but is desperately ill.

"Today is day 73," he says. "But I'm not counting," he adds, with a knowing smile.

The general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union is in urgent need of a heart transplant.

Mr Serwotka, 53, has invited me to see him at Papworth Hospital.

The sprawling site, on the plains of rural Cambridgeshire, began life a century ago as a convalescence and treatment centre for people with tuberculosis.

But for the past 50 years it has been a global pioneer in the treatment of heart and lung disease.

The very operation Mark Serwotka is waiting for was carried out successfully for the first time in the UK here in 1979.

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Coverage of Thursday at the Northern Ireland Assembly, as the Justice Committee takes evidence on a case of serious self-harm by an inmate at Maghaberry Prison.

House of Commons
Parliament

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The SNP's Stewart McDonald accuses the government of "dragging its heels" when it come to getting compensation from Volkswagen following the emissions scandal.

Transport Minister John Hayes tells the MP that "he underestimates me".

He explains that "it is true that in a hard world I have a soft heart" but insists that this will not stop him taking a tough stance against the company.

He emphasises the point "beneath this velvet glove, there is a steely fist which I am not afraid to use".

He tells MPs that he has received a pledge from VW that they will provide the government with compensation of £1.1m and that he expects to receive the cheque before Christmas.

House of Commons
Parliament

...and we begin with a question from Conservative Andrew Stephenson who asks if the government will take steps to prevent the renting of high-performance sports cars by dangerous drivers.

Transport Minister Andrew Jones says rental companies can check DVLA records and should not rent to dangerous drivers. He adds that the UK has an enviable record on road safety.

Labour's Graham Jones suggests that cuts to local authorities have led to motorway lights being turned off.

The minister replies that there is no evidence that cuts have had an impact on road safety.

Nick Bryant
BBC New York Correspondent

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This election, surely the most extraordinary in American history, was a revolt against the political establishment.

And few people personify the political establishment more than Hillary Clinton. During this campaign, for millions of angry voters, she became the face of America's broken politics.

Donald Trump managed to persuade enough voters in enough states that he offered a fix. The billionaire cast himself successfully as the ultimate outsider against the ultimate insider. He was the protest candidate. She represented the status quo.

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House of Commons
Parliament

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of Parliament.

MPs begin their morning with questions to the Transport Secretary at 9:30am.

After an urgent question on the Chagos Islands and the Business statement to the Leader of the House, MPs will begin the first of two backbench business debates.

The first has been tabled by SNP MP Neil Gray and focuses on reductions to Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit.

The second comes from Conservatives Philip Davies who is proposing a debate based on International Men’s Day.

SNP MP Roger Mullin has the final item of business with his adjournment debate on the Maxwellisation process.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss will restart talks with the prison officers' union later amid claims the service in England and Wales is "in meltdown".

On Tuesday, up to 10,000 prison officers in England and Wales stopped work over claims of a "surge in violence" among inmates.

Prison Officers Association members were ordered back to work after the government won a High Court injunction.

The Ministry of Justice said Ms Truss had now asked the POA to resume talks.

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Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The Bank of England needs a systemic body chaired by the chancellor "to spot risks when things start to go wrong", former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.

He argued that the case for independent central banks "is as strong as it's ever been at a time of economic uncertainty and great political risk", but said they were constantly under attack from politicians, like MPs and even the UK prime minister.

Mr Balls, who wrote the paper for former chancellor Gordon Brown that made the Bank of England independent, makes the claims in his academic paper entitled "Central bank independence revisited" written in his role as a senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

He tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that reforms over the last few years "have hugely concentrated power in central banks".

While it it is good the Bank of England has a financial policy committee making decisions about the UK's financial system, Mr Balls says there is insufficient accountability, no clear target and the committee makes politically sensitive decisions.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Strictly Come Dancing contender and former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls urged viewers who have a bet on him winning the BBC contest to "cash out".

But Mr Balls, whose dance and entertainment skills in the Saturday night show have exceeded expectations, insisted he would not be stepping aside for a better qualified candidate to win - unlike former BBC political journalist John Sergeant.

Mr Sergeant quit the show in 2008 when it looked like he could possibly win despite his lack of skill.

Pressed by BBC Radio 4's Nick Robinson on whether he would do something similar, Mr Balls replied:

But Mr Balls conceded: "I think if you've got a bet on me, I'd cash out."

Will the Autumn Statement reveal more about the government's Brexit plans than about the economy?

Report suggests Stormont should have the power to decide the number of migrants who can come to Northern Ireland to work in agri-food after the UK leaves the EU.