The World at One
BBC Radio 4

A former Conservative Party Chairman says the letter from a Conservative MP to all universities asking for details of the professors who teach Brexit is 'idiotic and offensive'.

Lord Patten, who is Chancellor of Oxford University, and a Remain supporter, told Radio 4's World at One that Chris Heaton-Harris, a leading Eurosceptic, who wrote the letter "must be an agent of Mr Corbyn intent on further increasing the numbers of young people who want to vote Labour."

He added it shows "complete ignorance of what universities are for and the importance of letting people who are sensible enough to make up their own minds, actually do so".

Select Committee
Parliament

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Labour's Preet Gill asks what action internet companies should be taking to address extremism online.

Mark Rowley says that part of the problem is the relative immaturity of online companies, who, he says, are committed to dealing with the problem of online extremist material, but are not as proactive as banks in highlighting wrongdoing.

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative Will Quince asks whether the right balance is being struck between regional and London police resources.

Mark Rowley says that it is, noting that a review of resources took place after some of the terror attacks that were committed in France.

He adds that it needs to be kept under review.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative James Cartlidge argues the current situation was created by Gordon Brown, who put the UK on the "road to serfdom" through means-tested benefits for all, which he says gave rise to "the idea that everybody should be dependent".

He says people cannot be taken off benefits through "some cuddly process" and the country cannot move forward without "unpopular decisions".

Select Committee
Parliament

The committee concludes proceedings with their first set of witnesses, and is moving on to quiz Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the national lead for counter-terrorism.

Chair Yvette Cooper asks him to give a brief summary of the state of the counter-terrorism response at the moment.

Assistant Commissioner Rowley replies that "our ambition must always be that nobody dies in a terrorist attack".

He says that it's probably an unrealistic doctrine of perfection, and calls the recent terror attacks in the UK "sobering" and a challenge to do better.

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The Labour MP says members who laughed at him later apologised.

Select Committee
Parliament

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The SNP's Stuart McDonald asks about modern slavery, saying a report noted many victims receive an inadequate service from the police.

He asks Sara Thornton what can be done to turn this round.

Chief Constable Thornton says that the police got off to a "gentle start" on enforcing the legislation, and that one of the difficulties is that modern slavery and human trafficking cases are not necessarily restricted to one policing area, which slows things down.

She adds that the chief of Devon and Cornwall police, who leads on the issue, has made proposals around sharing intelligence between forces, which has been in place for six months.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour's Laura Smith lays into the government's "stock defence" of universal credit, that it gets people into work. "What type of work is that? Secure work? Work that pays a living wage?"

She says the type of jobs many people get in to from universal credit are about "poverty pay and precarious work".

She says "we were told this policy would make work pay" but says families on UC will be £2,500 a year worse off, and that areas where UC has been rolled out have had double the national average of foodbank referrals.

She says this is now the government's "last chance to show that it does have some heart".

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Stephen Doughty asks whether the witnesses think crime is up overall, across all sectors, or whether there is a distinction.

Sara Thornton says it varies from crime type, with some areas genuinely seeing an increase, such as in youth crime, while others can be put down to better reporting data.

Gareth Morgan says that the ONS's figures "feel right" to him.

Dee Collins, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, says some of the increase can be attributed to policy decisions on recording particular incidents as crimes.

She adds that they've seen increases in cyber crime, and lower level violence.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Douglas Ross rises to speak, amid much jeering from the opposition benches. He missed the opposition day debate on the same subject last week to be assistant referee at the FC Barcelona v Olympiacos Champions League match. But he notes that one of the most vocal critics of his non-attendance, SNP MP John McNally, is not currently in the chamber.

He says that "people on universal credit are more likely to find work, more likely to stay in work, and more likely to earn more money in work". He goes on to say that he's "grateful" that the government is "listening to concerns" raised from across the House, citing the removal of charges for the universal credit helpline as an example.

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Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative Rehman Chishti asks Gareth Morgan what additional resources he needs to tackle the issue of knife crime.

Chief Constable Morgan says that he's "wary" of drawing correlation between resources and crime figures.

"You can't arrest your way out of a knife crime issue", he says, and adds that education and engagement is needed, as well as a stop and search strategy with intelligence-driven objectives.

He tells the committee there's been a knife amnesty in his area recently, which has seen hundreds of weapons taken off the streets.

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BBC News UK

Police in England and Wales would struggle to deal with riots on the scale of 2011 due to budget cuts, an officer who oversees funding has said.

Chief Constable Dave Thompson, of West Midlands Police, said the "strain is showing" after multiple terror attacks.

Read more here.

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House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Robathan asks if Britain will offer assistance to police in Malta investigating the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

She was killed by a car bomb last week. She had accused prominent Maltese politicians of corruption.

Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford says the UK is looking at "how best to support Malta at this time" but has not yet received any requests for help, which it would "of course consider".

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House of Lords
Parliament

Labour backbencher Lord Foulkes of Cumnock asks what discussions have been had with devolved administrations over Brexit.

Minister Baroness Anelay of St Johns says the government is "clear that the devolved administrations should be fully engaged" in Brexit, and cites recent meetings of the joint ministerial committee as an example of devolved administrations being consulted.

As a follow up, Lord Foulkes says the Irish border is the "most intractable" of Brexit. He asks how any agreement can be reached while Stormont and the Executive in Belfast are suspended.

The minister says the government is working "closely with the Northern Ireland civil service at an official level on the technical aspects" and that the government stands "ready to assist" and achieve a resolution to the divisions between Sinn Fein and the DUP in Northern Ireland.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Labour's Nas Shah asks if the witnesses think that the current police funding settlement is enough to deliver the service expected by the public.

Chief Constable Dave Thompson says that the "flat cash settlement" means that if the Police and Crime Commissioner increases the police precept - the amount people pay through their council tax - to the maximum, the budget will stand still.

He argues that there is a "good debate" to start asking whether more of the of money the Home Office has allocated should be spent on police forces.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Carolyn Harris tells MPs that "we were elected to debate the issues that affect our constituents and vote on them" and that she and party colleagues "did this last week".

In contrast, she accuses government of "ignoring the result" and "arrogance".

She predicts "mayhem" when universal credit is rolled out in Swansea, asking: "Where is the compassion?"

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem Lord Rennard asks if it is still government policy to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

Parliament agreed in principle to cut the number of MPs in 2011, and the latest plans for boundaries in a 600 member Commons were published last week. But the boundaries still have to be agreed by MPs.

Lord Rennard says one sixth of voters are missing from the electoral rolls being used and suggests that the legislation be amended so that the boundary commission can include voters who have signed up to vote in the past two years for the EU referendum and the 2017 election.

Government spokesperson Lord Young of Cookham says the government is "committed to fair and equal representation" for the public across the UK.

He also points out that the Liberal Democrat 2010 manifesto committed to cutting 150 MPs, and wonders why Lord Rennard is so "squeamish" about cutting 50 MPs.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative former chief whip Mark Harper says Labour did not provide "a single reason" why the government should pause universal credit in its motion last week.

He warns that "we shouldn't patronisingly assume every person on universal credit is incapable of managing their rent".

He further argues if the policy were paused the issues would not be addressed.

BBC News UK

The UK's counter-terrorism effort is putting an unsustainable strain on policing, the head of the National Police Chiefs' Council has said.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton said resources were being diverted from mainstream policing in England and Wales, leading to backlogs in control rooms and slower response times.

She said the strain was "causing real problems" and "frankly unsustainable".

Read more here.

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