BBC Radio 5 live

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MP Jess Phillips has told the BBC she fears that she and other colleagues will not be in Parliament long enough to see another Labour government.

The MP for Birmingham Yardley told Emma Barnett on 5 live Daily that she wouldn't "put money" on Labour winning power in time for her and others to "hang onto" their seats and play a part in taking the country forward.

Asked about her relationship with Jeremy Corbyn, she said being leader of the opposition at the moment must be a "terrible job".

She said she would like to see a woman leading the party soon but, in the meantime, for the current leadership to be more vocal on issues of equality. 

Select Committee
Parliament

The SNP's Joanna Cherry asks about Sir Ivan Rogers' earlier comments on the "asymmetry" of negotiations between the remaining EU 27 and the UK.

Sir Ivan says the "problem of the process is that it's designed by the 27 for the benefit of the 27...it's a process that's done to you" if you're the one negotiating to leave.

"The clock is more ticking against us than them," he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

International Development Secretary Priti Patel will take questions from 11:30 GMT, immediately followed by Prime Minister's Questions at midday.

Conservative Jame Berry's ten minute rule bill will aim to tackle the "unfair" funding process for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority in North London, claiming the park does not benefit his constituents. 

In the afternoon MPs will hear the case for policing and local government funding. Leading figures in policing, including the outgoing Metropolitan Police chief, have already warned that funding is not meeting demands, so now will be the time for MPs to make the case for their local funding. 

The day will adjourn with a debate by Conservative Simon Hoare on the Aster Group Housing Association and their relationship with private residents. 

Thousands of street parties, picnics and baking competitions are being planned for the anniversary of the MP Jo Cox's death.

She was murdered by a far right extremist. Her husband Brendan Cox told BBC Radio 4's Today he hoped it would be the biggest community event since the Queen's diamond jubilee.

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative MP Peter Lilley asks how difficult it can be to negotiate a free trade agreement "when you start off with free trade".

Sir Ivan Rogers repeats something he's spent a lot of time talking about today, telling the committee that "the problem is divergence": the idea that UK and EU law will grow apart from each other. 

The question will be "how far are you going to diverge, and on what?" he says.

He also says that "nobody" has ever done a free trade agreement starting from the point of "closer integration".

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The UK economy grew by more than previously reported in the final three months of 2016, according to the latest official estimate.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 0.7%, up from 0.6%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The upward revision is mainly due to manufacturing industry having done better than thought.

The ONS cut its estimate for growth in 2016 as a whole to 1.8%, down from the 2% it forecast last month. Read more

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Herman van Rompuy, the former president of the European Council, has warned that it won't be possible for Britain to secure a free trade agreement with the European Union in the two years it will take for it to leave the EU. 

In a speech in London, he said other EU governments had higher priorities. 

But he said there would have to be a special relationship between Britain and the EU once it had left. 

He also said that US President Donald Trump was enhancing the climate of uncertainty in Europe, describing him as the "erratic commander-in-chief of the world's largest army". 

Select Committee
Parliament

Sir Ivan Rogers tells the committee that the European Commission are "really pretty good" at trade deal negotiation. 

"They've got lots of experience and lots of grey hairs," he says, although he admits there are other things the Commission is not so good at.

For negotiations, he says the UK will need "people who know what they're doing" and that might involve "pulling people in from Commonwealth countries" who've negotiated trade deals. 

Since it's been in the European Union the UK has not negotiated its own trade deals, instead having done so as part of the EU.

UKIP donor Arron Banks has told BBC Radio 5 live he "sticks by" comments he made last week that he is "sick to death" of hearing about Hillsborough.

He told Emma Barnett on 5 live Daily that the death of 96 football fans in 1989 was a "disaster" and it was wrong of the police to try and cover up their role in events on the day. 

But he added:

Two UKIP officials resigned from the party earlier this week in response to Mr Banks's comments about Hillsborough.

Liverpool and Merseyside party chairmen Stuart Monkham and Adam Heatherington said such comments were "intolerable".  

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Pat McFadden asks Sir Ivan Rogers to expand on a statement he made earlier, where he said that "no major country deals with the EU on solely WTO terms". 

It's been suggested that the UK would fall back on World Trade Organisation terms if it fell out of the EU with no deal agreed.

Sir Ivan Rogers uses the EU's relationship with the US as an example. 

He says that "agreements are struck all the time" and that a very significant volume of EU-US trade is governed by these agreements in multiple areas. He says there are "20 plus" such deals, including a financial services equivalence agreement but "even that took four years".

But they're not "overarching agreements" and not a replacement for a full free trade agreement.

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MPs will be allowed to speak Welsh in some parliamentary debates under UK government plans.

Ministers are to bring forward changes in Parliament enabling MPs to use the language when the Welsh Grand Committee meets in Westminster.

Currently, MPs can only speak Welsh in the Welsh Affairs select committee.

The UK government had previously rejected calls to overturn rules prohibiting members from speaking Welsh.

The Welsh Grand Committee meets occasionally to discuss issues relevant to Wales and includes its 40 MPs. Read more

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The UK is to give £100m each in overseas aid to South Sudan and Somalia to help alleviate famine conditions. 

International Development Secretary Priti Patel has called on the global community to step up their support for the two nations as she announced the cash injections for 2017-8. 

The Department for International Development said parts of South Sudan were now in famine, adding that in 2017 there was a credible risk of another three famines in Yemen, North East Nigeria and Somalia. 

The extra funding will help provide food, water and emergency healthcare which is hoped will save more than a million lives. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative MP and Leave campaigner John Whittingdale says it "should be very simple for us to say 'we already comply with your regulations'" and for the UK to continue trading with the EU as it currently does.

Ex EU ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers says that the problem with it is while the UK can go to the EU and say "'can't we just act as sane sensible human beings?'" and ask for "untrammeled trade on day one" the EU "doesn't really work like that".

He says the EU could say "you're no longer a member, we're going to treat you as a third country...that's your choice, you chose to do it...you can't complain about it".

He also says that the core of the problem isn't "day one" post-Brexit but is "day two, day 200 or day 2,000", once UK and EU rules start to diverge. 

And if they don't diverge, people will be able to ask "what have you reclaimed your sovereignty for...to repeat exactly what you had when you were in the European Union?"

Income rules which stop thousands of British citizens bringing their foreign spouse to the UK are lawful "in principle" the Supreme Court has ruled.

Judges rejected an appeal by families who argued that the rules breached their right to family life.

As of 2012, Britons must earn more than £18,600 before a husband or wife from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) can settle in the UK.

Judges criticised this threshold as "defective" and a cause of "hardship". Read more

Select Committee
Parliament

Brexit is not "an existential question" for every EU member state and not all the 27 will be closely involved in the process, Sir Ivan suggests.

The French and German will be key players, as will the Irish for geographical and historical reasons, he tells MPs, but suggests the list stops there.

He also says key figures within the European Commission and other EU institutions will weigh heavily on the outcome. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative MP Alistair Burt asks about the negotiation process. He wants to know "who will drive who" between member states and the Commission.

Sir Ivan Rogers says there's "no easy answer until we've started", but we do know that the European Commission will drive the negotiations.

He says that "one of the issues facing the UK is the asymmetry of knowledge around the table" because the Commission has "vastly more information available about where the 27 are coming from".

But he says that this will not be "any old trade negotiation, not like dealing with South Korea", and that national leaders are not going to allow the Commission to go off and "freelance".

It's "leader level stuff", he says, and the "core issues will all go to leaders".

Conservative MPs are responding positively to the House of Lords approving the government's Brexit bill unopposed at Second Reading. Read more

Select Committee
Parliament

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Sir Ivan Rogers says from his many years in Brussels he can "write the book on the European Commission" and its strengths and weaknesses.

One thing it is good at, he says, is negotiating on behalf of its members.

It has a lot of  "experience and knowledge" and will have "vastly" more awareness of what the other 27 countries are thinking than the UK will have.

As for the European Parliament, he says that it can't be ignored and has "become more important in the whole game".

It can't be taken for granted that the Parliament will agree to the final Brexit deal, as it has a certain "rogue factor". 

Select Committee
Parliament

Discussing the free trade deal that the government says it wants with the EU, Sir Ivan strikes a cautious note. 

Due to the complexities of negotiation and ratification it "may take until the early to mid 2020s before there's a full deal ratified". 

He says that "some in Brussels" say there could be a "framework" agreement on trade, but that doesn't answer "what happens on day one after exit...what's the legal position?"

Committee chair Hilary Benn asks if he's suggesting there could be "transitional arrangements".

Sir Ivan Rogers says yes, although "that is not the view expressed by Her Majesty's Government".