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Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid is giving an update on Northamptonshire County Council.

Earlier this year, the council said they would stop all non-essential spending in order to make sure their finances were protected.

An inspection of Northamptonshire County Council opened in January and the final report was published on 15 March. The report said NCC had " failed to comply" with its duties to provide best value in the delivery of its services.

Local MPs say council cabinet members "repeatedly told" the government that the council could "balance its budget."

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Shadow transport minister Rachael Maskell says Network Rail was nationalised in the first place due to public safety concerns.

The UK railway has the best safety record in Europe, she states, and she asks if Mr Grayling's new plans are considered to be safe.

This is a return to the "bad old days of Railtrack," she states.

Taking the British rail network into public ownership would benefit the Treasury and the public, she says.

Mr Grayling replies that after years of a "common sense approach" from Labour," the party has now "walked a million miles away from that".

He states that safety is paramount in the UK rail network, and the Rail Inspector does an "excellent job" of maintaining railway safety.

He says that the West Coast Mainline continues to operate well, so the "last thing" the department would want to do is to give it back to the government.

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The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling makes a statement on the future of the West Coast main line.

He announces that he is today publishing a new invitation to tender to be the West Coast partner.

The winner will help design the new HS2 services, he tells MPs.

Christopher Wylie says the companies did not care whether work was legal just that the job was done.

Select Committee
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Another Conservative MP, Giles Watling asks Christopher Wylie if he has been threatened since going public with his story of working at Cambridge Analytica.

He replies that "the most amount of legal push-back" he has received was from Facebook.

Facebook has sent him "some fairly intimidating legal correspondence," he says.

He also says he anticipates receiving some "robust push-back" from Cambridge Analytica in the future since "this is sort of an existential crisis for them".

He says however he believes he has a "fairly robust public interest defence" for breaking a confidentiality agreement he had with the company.

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Conservative MP Rebecca Pow asks if there is a "more sinister, money-making side" to the practice of so-called "influence brokering".

Mr Wylie replies that part of the business model of SCL, Cambridge Analytica's parent company, was to "capture" newly-elected governments and then introduce businesses to its ministers.

There would be "a cut" on offer of deals approved by government officials, he says.

SCL would also use "fake government projects" to support the political aims of ministers, he says.

He likens the arrangement to being "like a colonial master in a country".

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Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Jo Swinson says that "women's rights are human rights," saying that Poland has some of the most "draconian" abortion laws in Europe.

Estimates of illegal and unsafe abortions carried out in Poland reach as high as tens of thousands annually, she adds. She asks whether the government is providing extra funding for access to abortions more widely.

Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan says "countries across Europe have different laws on abortion," but says that where laws breach human rights "as she is describing we will of course always make representations when we meet ministers from other countries".

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The SNP's Patrick Grady asks about funding for the diplomatic service once the UK leaves the EU.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says that following conversations with the Chancellor Philip Hammond, he has been able to announce 250 new diplomatic positions and 10 new sovereign posts, meaning that the UK will have more sovereign posts than any European diplomatic service and "more than France".

Mr Grady jokingly asks how many of those diplomats "will be stationed in far off places such as Camden?"

He then goes on to ask how many of those diplomats will be in Brussels and how much they will cost.

Mr Johnson says those 250 new posts are in addition to the 50 extra diplomats being put into the European network by the UK.

Select Committee
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SNP MP Brendan O'Hara asks Mr Wylie to explain his previous comments that Cambridge Analytica used data to "target people's inner demons" during political campaigns.

Mr Wylie replies that psychological profiling was used to identify people who would likely be "early adopters" of certain messages, such as conspiracy theories.

Mr O'Hara asks whether such tactics were routinely employed by Cambridge Analytica.

Mr Wylie says it was, and it formed "the basis of a lot of our research".

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The SNP's Brendan O'Hara asks about Alexander Nix's previous insistence to the committee that Cambridge Analytica has not received information from Facebook.

In reply, Mr Wylie asks why else the company would have spent "the better part of a million dollars" on a contract with GSR, a firm he says was used to acquire Facebook data.

He calls Mr Nix's denials "just not true".

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Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry asks if Boris Johnson will initiate a case against the Russian state at the European Court of Human Rights for the Salisbury attack.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says that "we must wait for the investigation to be concluded".

Ms Thornberry says that a third of all cases in front of the European Court at the moment relate to Russia.

These cases are powerful, she states, as they are used by the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny to show the state's abuses.

Ms Thornberry asks if the government will be congratulating President Sisi of Egypt next week after his "sham election" confirms him as president.

Her remarks follow criticism of Jean-Claude Juncker and President Trump for congratulating President Putin on his re-election.

Mr Johnson says "it is a bit much to bash America today, and to bash the Trump administration," adding that doing so is her "reflex instinct".

The US has just expelled 60 Russian spies, he states.

And he says the Foreign Office is not going to predict the outcome of any election.

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Conservative former cabinet minister James Brokenshire says Russia should be in no doubt as to the UK response to the Salisbury attack, saying it is important to keep working with international allies.

He asks for assurances that individuals expelled from a particular country will not be allowed to enter other countries.

Mr Johnson replies that the fact that another 18 countries have also expelled diplomats shows the strength of the UK's international co-operation.

Select Committee
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Labour's Julie Elliott asks Christoper Wylie whether AIQ were "working to a common plan" with the various campaigns that backed a Leave vote in the EU referendum.

Mr Wylie says he is "absolutely convinced" that there was a "common plan" shared by Vote Leave, BeLeave, the DUP and Veterans for Britain.

He says all the different companies all decided to use AIQ as a service provider, despite the company not having a website or public presence.

He says he has provided three binders of evidence of documents to the Electoral Commission showing conversations inside Vote Leave about the BeLeave campaign.

Given the evidence it would be "completely unreasonable to come to any other conclusion that this must be co-ordination", he tells MPs.