Ipsos MORI's first Political Monitor of 2017, suggests 44% of people believe Britain should prioritise having access to the European single market, while 42% think the priority should be controlling immigration.

In October 45% believed Britain should prioritise single market access, compared with 39% who wanted controlling immigration prioritised.

Gideon Skinner, Ipsos Mori's head of political research, said:

Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 1,132 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone 13-16 January. Data has been weighted to the profile of the population.

Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, claims Jeremy Corbyn is wrong to force Labour MPs to vote to trigger Article 50 to leave the EU.

The MP for Brighton Pavilion said: 

Jeremy Corbyn will order Labour MPs to vote in favour of starting the Brexit process if the prime minister is forced to seek the approval of Parliament to trigger Article 50.

The Labour leader said he had made it "very clear" that his party accepts the decision made by the public in the referendum.

Mr Corbyn's commitment to back Article 50 follows reports that members of the shadow cabinet were considering voting against allowing Theresa May to formally start the Brexit process.

The Guardian reported that four shadow cabinet ministers and several junior frontbenchers were agonising about the prospect of backing the measure.

But Mr Corbyn said:

During the same interview with our economics editor Theresa May was asked about the row over Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's warning to EU leaders against giving the UK "punishment beatings" for Brexit "in the manner of some World War Two movie".

She said:

Theresa May says she's had "a good positive discussion" with the CEOs of banks and financial institutions following news that several lenders are preparing to shift thousands of jobs out of London after Brexit.

Bosses of JP Morgan, HSBC and UBS have all confirmed Britain's decision to scrap single market access will have major implications for their UK operations. 

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of US bank JP Morgan, who was set to meet Mrs May, told Bloomberg Television: "It looks like there will be more job movement than we hoped for."

In an interview following her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the UK prime minister told BBC Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed: 

Image source, Reuters

The European Central Bank (ECB) has kept its main interest rate unchanged at zero for another month.

The decision by the eurozone central bank's 25-member governing council to leave its benchmark borrowing rate on hold had been expected.

It was also decided not to change the ECB's bond-buying stimulus scheme, which was extended last month amid worries about economic growth.

ECB head Mario Draghi said the eurozone economy is stronger, but still fragile.

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Ministers are repeating the same mistakes they made before Donald Trump's election as United States' president by not engaging with French far-right politician Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage has said.

The former UKIP leader said it was "extraordinary" that the government was not reaching out to the Front National and Ms Le Pen. 

Lord Llewellyn of Steep, Britain's ambassador to Paris, revealed last week that long-standing protocols mean UK officials shun the far-right party and its presidential candidate. 

But Mr Farage said Ms Le Pen was "gaining momentum" ahead of the spring election, and told the government to make connections with her to avoid the embarrassment it faced when Mr Trump won the US presidential election.

A string of ministers had heavily criticised and mocked Mr Trump during the campaign and are now attempting to make up lost ground ahead of Theresa May's spring visit to the US. 

Writing for the Westmonster, external website set up by his former aide Michael Heaver and UKIP donor Arron Banks, Mr Farage said: 

Scotland's Brexit minister Mike Russell says there is "great frustration building up" over the UK's handling of Brexit.

The SNP's Joanna Cherry looks at future Scottish trade deals with the EU and UK.

At a lunch hosted by the CBI in Davos, Chancellor Philip Hammond warned against any attempt to "punish" the UK by trying to attract financial services companies away from the City of London to alternative European centres.

It comes after HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver revealed his bank is on course to move 1,000 jobs from London to Paris after Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed the UK would be leaving the European single market. 

Mr Hammond, who is in Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum in Davos, said the government was determined to protect the City.

Mr Hammond said he was "confident of getting a sensible Brexit deal" with the remaining 27 EU nations, but made clear Britain was ready to go down the route of a Singapore-style low-tax haven to attract business from the rest of the world if it was unable to negotiate access to European markets.

"Maintaining Britain's competitiveness is not an optional extra. It's an existential necessity," he said.  

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem Lord Ashdown tells peers that he is "struck" by comparisons between our age and 1930s:

"A surge of nationalism, free trade withering away, protectionism on the rise, vulgarity succeeding over decency, the ugly voices heard over the quiet voice of reason."

"I don't say we are not to blame," he says - "we are" - but adds that the problem is not who to blame but what to do. 

He asks why people's movements have to be "about the nasty, ugly things" and calls for a movement giving voice to the "decent moderate liberal centre".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative Lord Tugendhat argues that populism and nationalism are the symptoms, not the disease.

The disease, he says, is that governments and parliaments have failed to take "sufficient account" of "legitimate public concerns".

How much are we as individuals to blame? he asks.

House of Lords
Parliament

A slightly out-of-breath Lord Bruce arrives in the chamber in time to begin the debate entitled: challenges to the liberal international order posed by the development of populism and nationalism around the world.

He begins by asking how did we get here and what can we do about it.

He argues that loss of inequality and feelings of alienation have been exacerbated by "conspicuous consumption" of those at the top creating a "ferment" that was exploited by populist and nationalist movements. 

He urges people "not to overreact" but nor to "just keep buggering on". 

"We should not succumb to wreckers. We must stand up to them with a reassertion of liberal values."

Image source, Google

Away from Brexit... A Conservative-run council wants to raise its tax by 15% in the next financial year, blaming government cuts and increased demand for social care.

Surrey County Council leader David Hodge said the government had cut its annual grant by £170m since 2010.

The proposed increase would add nearly £200 to a Band D bill, bringing it to about £1,500.

The government said if the proposed budget is set, taxpayers would have the final say at the following referendum.

Any authority wanting to increase council tax by more than 2% must put the plans to a vote. This would take place on 4 May, alongside local elections, and would include a vote in Chancellor Philip Hammond's constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge.

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The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Former M&S chairman, and former city minister under Labour, Lord Myners has been talking to the BBC about the prospect of the City of London losing banking and financial services jobs to other capitals ahead of Brexit and the possible need for the UK "at all times" having to "satisfy the EU that your regulation was at least as good as the EU".

"This is a test that is carried on a daily basis, it would be open to the EU at any time to say 'we no longer regard your regulation as matching our test of equivalence'... it's rather like having a home where you are on a lease which renews every day  - you just wouldn't feel happy about that. You certainly wouldn't make long-term commitments."

Read a full explanation of the financial 'passporting' system