House of Commons
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Emily Thornberry follows up by calling for a "logical explanation" for not lowering the voting age to 16.

She says 16-year-olds are free to leave home, can join the armed forces, pay taxes and are "free of parental control".

David Lidington replies that the last Labour government raised the age for buying cigarettes, buying knives and using a sunbed.

"If she wants a lesson in inconsistency, she might want to examine the mirror", he adds.

House of Commons
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Emily Thornberry says most age restrictions are for safety reasons and are "not the same as the basic right to vote".

She points to the number of 16- and 17-year-olds acting as carers, asking how it's fair that they give up school to do so but don't have the right to vote.

Mr Lidington responds that it's a case of "matching both rights and responsibilities" and young carers should be treated with particular care by local authorities.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Image source, HoC

Speaker Bercow complains of noisy boorish and rather stupid heckling - not sure who that last bit was aimed at. Some of those he rebukes get a bottle of champagne as a reward, from a caucus of Con backbenchers who help orchestrate PMQs

House of Commons
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Image source, HoC

Emily Thornberry says if the Conservatives are so proud of their female prime minister, "why are they trying to get rid of her?"

She asks when voting rights will be extended to 16-year-olds.

Mr Lidington says it's "widely recognised" that 18 is when full citizenship rights are attained and the government believes it's right that this should continue.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Crowd-pleasing stuff from Emily Thornberry – world-class gloating. Then she pivots to women’s representation in the Commons….

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry welcomes David Lidington to the despach box by noting the change in political fortunes since his last appearance in December 2016.

"What a difference year makes," she says.

Noting the upcoming anniversary of women first getting the right to vote, she asks more can be done to improve female representation in Parliament.

In reply Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington points out that "no fewer than 97" Labour frontbenchers have either been sacked or resigned since Jeremy Corbyn took office.

He admits there is more to do when it comes to increasing female MPs in Parliament but notes Labout has a "bit of catching up to do when it comes to female prime ministers.

House of Commons
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Ian Mearns says a number of Carillion employees in his constituency face "uncertainty" and asks the government to stop the "corporate theft" of private directors who have "siphoned off millions from pension funds".

Filling in for Theresa May while she is in China, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington says he understands their anxiety.

He says it would be wrong to pre-empt the inquiry by the official receiver, but they will be looking at proposals to stop pension funds being used in this way.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Image source, HoC

Ian Mearns trademark specs on forehead as he zeros in on the continuing Carillion saga

House of Commons
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Image source, HoC

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Mallalieu, who is President of the Countryside Alliance says that she voted to Leave, but for her, the voice of "one man one vote" is larger than all the voices speaking in the House of Lords, she says.

"In the referendum every vote did count," she says that this bill reflects the then Prime Minister's commitment to honour the outcome of the referendum.

"When the governing elite stop listening to the people," people are drawn to extremism, she says.

She will support amendments that "improve" the bill, but not those which seek to "put a spanner in the works".

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

How many MPs went to China with the PM? The Commons Chamber is very empty particularly on the Conservative benches, as substitute-led PMQs approaches..

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

At this time of the day, the chamber is usually filling up for Prime Minister's Questions. Not so today. Perhaps there'll be a late surge of MPs?

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

With Theresa May drumming up trade for Britain in China, it’s the battle of the substitutes back in the Commons chamber.

Cabinet fixer David Lidington is at the Dispatch Box, with Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry leading for Labour. Will she target the Government’s latest bout of Euro-discomfort? This presents a target-rich environment, with the latest leaked forecasts, the first ominous rumblings from Brexiteer Torty backbenchers, the continuing Cabinet sniping and the looming prospect of trouble in the Lords.

Both the main players today are better Commons performers – at least in the classic sense of pleasing the troops on the benches behind them – than their bosses…. And this matters a lot for Emily Thornberry, who is tipped as one possible successor to Jeremy Corbyn.

On the list of questioners lurk a couple of intriguing names: the former Tory Chief Whip Mark Harper has been prominently and intelligently “helpful” since leaving Government; further down the list is the Justice Committee Chair Bob Neill, probably the biggest Remainer rebel bar Ken Clark on the Tory side, and a little further down is Labour Maverick John Mann.

John Mann once asked a witness at the Treasury Committee if he thought it was easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, so he might produce something genuinely whacky. Alternatively he might raise a subject aimed at pleasing his voters in North Nottinghamshire, at the expense of fashionable Londoners, perhaps.

House of Lords
Parliament

We'll be crossing over to PMQs in the Commins shortly but in the meantime, the Lords ploughs on with its debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Crossbencher Baroness Meacher says the FBI has stated Russian money influenced the EU referendum in the UK.

She says more people are starting to see Brexit in a negative light than during the referendum campaign.

"A growing number of people may want Parliament to intervene" when this information on Russian involvement comes available, she states.

She asks if MI6 are investigating Russian involvement in the Brexit campaign, and if MI6 has commissioned work to combat Russian disinformation.

House of Commons
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Image source, HoC

Labour has put down a motion designed to force the government to share its Brexit analysis with MPs.

The debate will be held shortly after PMQs.

House of Commons
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Business gets underway at 11.30am with questions to ministers in the Wales Office.

After this David Lidington will be standing in for Theresa May at Prime Minister's Questions at noon - Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry will be asking the questions for Labour.

Shortly after PMQs, there's a Labour debate to put further pressure on the government to publish the leaked EU exit analysis.

Labour is using a parliamentary procedure intended to secure a binding vote.

This afternoon, MPs will debate a series of motions on what to do about repairing the Palace of Westminster - ranging from staying put to moving out.

Over on the committee corridor, BBC bosses will be giving evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee about the row over gender pay equality at the corporation.

The committee will also be hearing from Carrie Gracie, the BBC's former China Editor who resigned her post in protest at pay inequality earlier this month.

House of Lords
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Image source, HoL

Conservative Lord Cormack tells peers: "I was on the losing side, and as a loser, I must try to be gracious, but those who won, should try to be magnanimous".

He says the Leave's campaign's margin of victory is "no cause for triumphalism".

He calls for those who wanted Leave to consider the UK union, and the considerable majorities to remain in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London. He asks for a clear direction from the government.

"Vision and nostalgia are two very different things, Brexit, my Lords, is not about recreating a country that exists only in the imagination", he says.

He adds: "my identity is English, my nationality is British but my civilisation is European".

"I fear an implosion within my own party," he finishes.