Jessica Parker
BBC political correspondent

After Boris Johnson’s apparent verbal slip at last night’s private meeting with Tory MPs (the PM told them the success of the UK's Covid-19 vaccine programme was because of "capitalism" and "greed") - he may be even keener to watch his words at today’s very public meeting.

The expected range of topics will likely see the prime minister questioned on issues ranging from troop cuts to the growing strategic challenges around China.

Unsurprisingly, the government’s response to Covid-19 is also on the agenda.

That is a subject that Boris Johnson is of course regularly asked about but the Liaison Committee can present a particular challenge.

It’s a forum where senior MPs, steeped in their policy areas, get a more prolonged go at grilling the prime minister.

The questioning of Boris Johnson has now begun in the Liaison Committee.

Stay with us for all the updates and analysis here...

Reality Check

With the PM due to face questions from the Liaison Committee about the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, could they ask him about NHS pay?

Once again at PMQs, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer clashed over pay increases for NHS staff.

Starmer said that “nurses are getting a pay cut".

Recently, the government recommended that NHS staff, including nurses, should receive a 1% pay increase in the upcoming year.

But this is not the final decision and an independent pay review body will now look at evidence supplied by the government as well as other bodies, such as unions and employers.

Most other public sector employees will have their pay frozen this year due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Whilst a 1% pay increase would be an increase in cash terms, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that inflation will rise to 1.5% this year. So a below inflation pay increase means their salary will be worth less.

The prime minister responded by saying the government had “increased their starting salary by 12.8%".

It is true that between 2018 and 2021, a nurse's starting salary increased by that much as part of a three-year pay deal, but this figure doesn’t account for inflation.

It also ignores the fact that a decade of pay caps and freezes means that, once we account for inflation, a nurses starting salary is actually worth about 3% less than in 2010.

Image source, Getty Images

The MPs may use their section on the economy to ask the PM about the recent UK inflation figures.

Sharply lower clothes prices and cheaper second-hand cars caused an unexpected fall in the UK's inflation rate in February.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the rate fell to 0.4% last month, down from 0.7% in January.

Economists had expected inflation to rise slightly, driven by increasing fuel and energy prices.

But the impact of rising fuel costs was offset by downward pressures in other areas, including travel costs and toys.

Read more here.

A bereaved Labour MP has called on the prime minister to commit to an immediate and full public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic because people "want and deserve to understand what happened".

At PMQs earlier, Manchester Gorton's Afzal Khan said his own family had lost "an entire generation" to the virus and that he could not hold his mother's hand while she was dying.

Boris Johnson offered his "sympathies and sorrow" and said he was "committed" to an inquiry when it would not be an "irresponsible diversion" in dealing with the crisis.

Read more here.

Reality Check

At PMQs earlier, Labour leader Keir Starmer raised Monday’s announcement of a reduction to the size of the Army, saying Boris Johnson had promised at the last election not to cut the armed forces “in any form”.

He’s right – in November 2019, at the launch of the Conservative manifesto - when answering questions after his speech - Mr Johnson said: “We will not be cutting our armed services in any form – we will be maintaining the size of our armed services”.

This was reported by several papers, including The Sun, external, which also included the video of Mr Johnson saying it.

But that promise wasn’t in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.

On Monday, the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced that: “I have therefore taken the decision to reduce the size of the Army from today’s current strength of 76,500 trade trained personnel to 72,500 by 2025”.

In his reply to Mr Starmer, the prime minister spoke of increased defence spending. There was a pledge in the 2019 manifesto, external to “increase the [defence] budget by at least 0.5 per cent above inflation every year of the new Parliament”.

The spending plan for the Ministry of Defence announced last November will achieve that on average until 2025, based on inflation forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

At PMQs earlier, Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson raised each of their parties past pledges and records on UK defence spending.

Sir Keir Starmer challenged Boris Johnson the government's spending plans, saying that the Army was being cut to the smallest level for 300 years.

The prime minister said the government was proud of the investment made in the Armed Forces.

Image source, Boris Johnson in front of liaison committee in Sept 2020

Next up for us here is the prime minister's appearance in front of the Liaison Committee.

After a bit of a breather from his Prime Minister's Questions appearance, Boris Johnson is scheduled to appear in front of the committee of senior MPs at 15:30 GMT. The session is due to run until around 17:00.

The committee is made up of the heads of all Commons committees, and gives them an opportunity to ask topical questions directly to the PM.

It's the second time Johnson has faced the group this year, and this afternoon the conversation is expected to focus on three topics: the UK's place in the world, the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic and the economy.

We'll be here to bring you what is said.

Earlier today, the BBC News Channel spoke to Mary who is a current asylum seeker awaiting a decision in Home Office housing.

She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire she gets a little under £40 per week per person in the household to live, which leads to "tough decisions" on buying food or clothing. She also said the accommodation she is in does not allow her to have a TV.

Dominic Casciani
Home and Legal Correspondent

There are two enormous legal elephants trumpeting away in the shiny glass atrium of the Home Office this morning that are casting some really significant doubts on whether the home secretary's plan is deliverable.

Firstly, can she treat some refugees who have a recognised case for protection differently from others, purely based on how they reached the UK?

Under the UN Refugee Convention, external (which, history fans, the UK government helped write in 1951) states can’t penalise people in need who come “directly” from their homeland – or anyone has “good cause” to enter a nation illegally. Official sources say Patel's restrictions would be legally possible because asylum seekers are not allowed to go “shopping” for the best destination.

But even if the restrictions are introduced, and the Home Office wants to send people back to France or elsewhere how is that going to happen?

The UK has no legal agreement with EU nations to take these people back. And that’s because we chose to leave it as part of Brexit. Since then, the Home Office has so far been unable to confirm if any failed applicants who have crossed the English Channel have been sent back.

Image source, HoC

The home secretary has finished giving her statement on the government's asylum plans.

When Priti Patel was on her feet, eagle eyes spotted she was holding the Home Office policy document 'New Plan for Immigration' that outlines the details.

It has been published online - you can find it here, external.

Image source, HoC

Conservative MP Alexander Stafford says he welcomes "strong action in tackling illegal, dangerous migration".

He asks the home secretary whether she agrees that there is "no justifiable reason for migrants to be making this crossing [across the Channel]... when staying in France remains a perfectly safe and right option for them".

Patel says "people should claim as in the first safe country they arrive in".

"Currently they are in the hands of people traffickers," she continues. "They are being duped, quite frankly, into false promises and false hope."

She adds: "We will be pursuing this with greater vigour with counterparts, but the principle that he raises is fundamentally correct."

Image source, HoC

Joining by video link, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy says government's asylum plan discriminates between people fleeing persecution depending on their mode of transport. She says they will be left with "limited options" for travel and it contravenes the 1951 law on refugee rights.

Ms Patel says the plan "is in line with international obligations" and under the "safe and legal routes scheme" people will be covered for political and personal reasons for seeking asylum.

Image source, HoC

Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael asks Patel when the first refugees will be able to enter the UK under her new scheme and how many will be settled each year.

The home secretary says the new immigration plan is "a consultation document".

"We are consulting and we'll work with everybody that wants to work with us constructively on this. This will be subject to new legislation," she says.

"We are already in discussions right now with partner organisations we can work with on safe and legal routes."

She adds that the UK has a "moral responsibility and an obligation" to "stand by those that are fleeing persecution" and will work with other countries to "make sure that they raise the bar, too".

Image source, HoC

Home Affairs Committee Chair Yvette Cooper says "talking about safe legal routes" is no good if there are no good equivalent routes.

Ms Patel says "this isn't just about camps in Greece" and says "the government is absolutely committed... to resettling children and to family reunion rights". She says there needs to be "new routes, and not just from the camps in Greece".

"We need to create safe and legal routes," and not just in the Mediterranean, in the countries where these people are travelling from, she adds.

Image source, HoC

The SNP's Justice spokesperson Anne McLaughlin says that the UK's high success rate of asylum appeals is showing that asylum decisions originally made by the Home Office are frequently wrong.

The Home Secretary should be "ashamed to make this statement today" and it is "ugly dogwhistle politics," she says.

Home Secretary Priti Patel says her statement on the bill made a "compelling case" for stopping people trafficking and travel through illegal routes.

She says the SNP government in Scotland needs to work harder on housing individuals who are fleeing persecution.

Refugee convention does allow for differing treatment, such as when they have travelled to the UK through another country, fleeing persecution, she adds.

Patel responds to Thomas-Symonds.

She says the government is "ensuring" that the Windrush generation get "the compensation they deserve" and is announcing new measures to help them "receive British citizenship more easily".

She says she has "launched the biggest and the most wide-ranging consultation when it comes to this new plan".

The home secretary adds that the UK "will always provide a sanctuary to people who are having the light switched off on their own liberties and personal freedoms".

"This new plan will build upon that," she says.

Patel says she will not apologise for stressing that "an illegal journey to the UK is not worth the risk".

She says her plan "is about tackling illegal migration, protecting lives and of course.. creating new routes".

She accuses Labour of being "devoid of a plan of substance" and "defending a broken system".

Image source, HoC

Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds says that the changes made this morning are "stark admissions" from a government which has been in power for eleven years.

He says the government is still presiding over a compensation scheme for Windrush victims which has only helped a few hundred people.

He says the share of admissions for asylum seekers has fallen in the past few years. "There hasn't been the progress we need" in dealing with "appalling criminal gangs" and dealing with "human trafficking". He says the government's asylum plan is marked by a "lack of compassion".

The plans have been described as "inhumane" by the British Red Cross, he states, and adds that the UNHCR has also expressed concerns at the UK's following of international law following recent announcements.

He says the government "turned the other way" rather than helping children in the burning refugee camp at Lesbos last summer.

The government can't even explain how this new system will work, he states, adding that it will need international co-operation, but no agreements have so far been signed.

"The measures outlined today will do next to nothing to stop people making Channel crossings," he finishes, accusing the government of having "no idea" how to solve the problem.

Patel runs through three key points.

First, she says "we will continue to provide safe refuge for those in need".

She says those who come from "resettlement routes" will "receive more report to learn English, find work and integrate".

Second, she says that she wants to "disincentivise" people coming to the UK if they have "travelled through a safe country like France... where they could and should have claimed asylum".

She says the government's "new tough stance" will include new maximum life sentences for people smugglers and stronger "enforcement powers for Border Force".

Finally, she says: "We will seek to rapidly remove those with no right to be here in the UK."

She says the approach will include a "fast-track appeals process, streamlining the appeals system and making quicker removal decisions for failed asylum seekers".

"We will tackle the practice of meritless claims that clog up the courts," Patel adds.

She calls it "a fundamental unfairness", adding: "enough is enough."

Priti Patel says if asylum seekers are coming to the UK after France and then seeking asylum, then the UK is a "preference" rather than a need to flee asylum.

"The capacity of our asylum system is not unlimited" and so economic migrants using people smuggling boats are limiting the resources available to others, she adds.

The asylum system is costing over £1bn this year, she tells MPs, and is "becoming overwhelmed" and asylum claims are backing up in a queue.

54,000 failed asylum seekers have still not left the country, she says, and this is "eroding public trust" in the system.

The UK wants to increase the fairness of the system, deter illegal entry into the UK and remove easily those with no right to be here, she states.