House of Commons
Parliament

In his third question, Jeremy Corbyn raises alleged comments from ministers about the EU working time directive being scrapped.

He goes on to talk about the government downgrading aims for "tariff free trade with EU" to trade that's "as tariff free as possible" and asks why the government has "abandoned that aim?"

Theresa May says the government has "not abandoned its negotiating position". She adds that she's clear that the government will protect worker's rights.

House of Commons
Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn says a former Brexit minister in the House of Lords has warned that the prime minister is "walking a gang plank into thin air if she doesn't decide what she actually wants" from Brexit.

Theresa May says she aims for a strong relationship with the EU but also to take "opportunities... to boost our economy".

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Wow! A Brexit Question from Jeremy Corbyn!

House of Commons
Parliament

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Jeremy Corbyn uses his first question to ask about David Davis' comments about Brexit not resulting in a "Mad Max style dystopia". "Couldn't he set the bar a little bit higher?" he asks.

Theresa May says "we are going to be able to take back control of our borders, our money and our laws" and that the "only fiction around is the Labour Party's front bench, who can't even agree with themselves over what their policy is".

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Air quality is shaping up to be a major issue in the forthcoming London borough elections. Expect a few more pre-election hits from London MPs. Paul Scully – a Conservative in a Lib Dem run borough - is the final questioner…

House of Commons
Parliament

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PMQs kicks off with a question from Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, who asks about the effects of air pollution on children's health.

She adds that the government has lost a third High Court case over air quality.

Prime Minister Theresa May argues that Ms Cadbury's comments do not reflect "the decision that the court has given", as it has "dismissed the claims relating to five cities".

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Parliament

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Theresa May has arrived so PMQs is underway...

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Parliament

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The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has arrived. Still a gap on the government front bench for Theresa May.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

After a brief half term hiatus, PMQs returns. Jeremy Corbyn will doubtless follow his usual pattern of avoiding Westminster’s subject du jour in favour of some issue of public service failure. Last time it was police cuts. Might it be the state of ambulance services, or homelessness today?

Theresa May, tends to riposte with fairly boilerplate attacks on Labour – but she may also follow her recent practice of finding a more positive note to strike, on issues raised by backbenchers. W

ith the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, due to follow her appearance with a statement on the safety of medicines and medical devices, keep an eye open for someone like ex-minister Sir Mike Penning raising the side-effects of the hormone pregnancy test, Primodos.

Will hard-case Tory backbenchers raise the issue of the Labour leader’s meetings with Czech spies during the Cold War? And will the DUP Leader Nigel Dodds – or one of his party colleagues – have something to say about the collapse of talks to resume devolved government in Northern Ireland, and the future of the Good Friday Agreement? Or might Labour backbenchers issue their own warnings?

Certainly the cluster of pro-EU Labour backbenchers on the list of questioners today (Angela Smith, Anna Turley and Chris Bryant) seem the most likely source of Brexit-related questions. And keep an eye out for the SNP’s David Linden – the sole newcomer on his benches from the 2-17 election, tipped as a rising star.

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With ten minutes until kick-off for Prime Minister's Questions, the Commons chamber is starting to fill up.

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Labour's Lucy Powell asks whether the government will back calls to lower the voting age to 16.

She says two former Conservative cabinet ministers, Justine Greening and Nicky Morgan, now back the change and the government "may as well get on with it, embrace it and get the credit for it".

Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington says the government has "no plans" to make such a change and argues that the voting age should stay at 18, which is the "age of majority".

Tory backbencher Anna Soubry proposes a wider review of the law, which she describes as "all over the place".

For example, she says, "you can get married at 16 with your parents' consent... but you can't have a drink to celebrate".

House of Commons
Parliament

The Commons chamber gets up and running shortly with Cabinet Office questions followed by Prime Minister's Questions at noon.

There's also a statement from the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the medicines and medical devices safety review.

Select Committee
Parliament

The education committee winds up its robust session with university vice-chancellors in which they were challenged on whether they're admitting enough students from disadvantaged backgrounds and whether their pay - they all earn more than the Prime Minister - is too high.

After all that, the committee chair, Robert Halfon tries to end on an upbeat note, thanking them for their public service.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Labour's Ian Mearns raises the high level of vice-chancellor pay, quoting JK Galbraith's remark that "the salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself."

Iam Mearns asks the university bosses to justify how much they earn and how the number is decided.

Peter Horrocks, vice-chancellor of the Open University, paid £347,000 a year, external, says he doesn't think it's "appropriate" to have external regulation on VC pay.

Chris Husbands of Sheffield Hallam, paid £365,000 in 2015/16 says he's "never tried to argue my salary up...I think it's important for me to be able to look my students and staff in the eye and I think I can".

Professor Dame Janet Beer of the University of Liverpool, paid £341,600 a year, says it's under "active discussion" that the president of the guild of students could sit on the remuneration committee. She adds that she's "never been present" for the discussion of her own salary, even when she sat on remuneration panels.

Oxford University's Louise Richardson, the highest paid person on the panel at £433,000, says her salary is "less than was paid five years ago...but we are emphatically in a global competition".

Nottingham Trent's Edward Peck lauds his own university's transparency. The full details of his £319,240 pay package in 2016/17 are posted on their website., external

Select Committee
Parliament

Committee chair Robert Halfon says that elite US institutions Harvard and Yale have far better records on widening participation than their UK equivalents. He returns to the statistic that 15 Oxford colleges offered no places at all to black Britons in 2015.

Oxford's vice-chancellor Louise Richardson says it's "quite likely none of them had any black applicants" to which Robert Halfon replies that Oxford's "outreach should be better".

Select Committee
Parliament

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Labour's Lucy Powell tells the story of a black constituent who went to a "really terrible secondary school" but who was "on track for good grades" and didn't get in to Cambridge.

She says that "if anybody looked at his life, and where he was educated...I don't think there is anyone in the country who would have beaten him".

She asks why the context of his background didn't help him and if that's stopping elite institutions from widening participation.

Oxford vice-chancellor Louise Richardson says both Oxford and Cambridge see some "extraordinary kids" apply and she's sure there are "equally extraordinary kids who did get that place".

She says that while Oxford has "certain academic cutoffs" for applicants because "you're not going to survive" unless you've attained a certain level, every student who applies and meets the criteria at least gets an interview.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Committee Chair Halfon raises the statistic that 15 of Oxford's 38 colleges failed to offer any places to black British applicants in 2015. "This is just incredible, pretty shocking" he says, "what is going on?"

"We're not doing nearly as well as we need to in this but we are making progress", replies Louise Richardson.

She says places given to students from the most deprived backgrounds have been rising, and that 60% of Oxford's intake now come from state schools, although she calls that a "crude measurement".

She adds that many of their poorest students come to the university from private schools, on scholarships.

Private school lobby groups estimate that 18% of pupils in education after the age of 16 are in private schools, external.

She says there are "huge disparities in this country, the universities can't fix this".