Sunday politics

Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith told BBC 5 live earlier he thought Jeremy Corbyn "would make a very good prime minister".

Quote Message: ...I think he [Jeremy Corbyn] is absolutely, deeply principled. I think he has got a very clear understanding of the scale of inequality in the country and the need for a politics and a leadership and a government that actually looks after ordinary people, as opposed to the play boys that we’ve currently got running Britain” from Owen Smith Shadow work and pensions secretary

...I think he [Jeremy Corbyn] is absolutely, deeply principled. I think he has got a very clear understanding of the scale of inequality in the country and the need for a politics and a leadership and a government that actually looks after ordinary people, as opposed to the play boys that we’ve currently got running Britain”

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Earlier, Tory MP Marie Caulfield told Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio 5 live that the government's intention to scrap bursaries for nurses and midwives and replace them with loans was "not thought through".

She said: "As a nurse and someone who went through the bursary system, and someone who came from a very working class background... I wouldn't have gone into nursing if I'd had to pay for it."

On Saturday, student nurses and midwives held protests over the plans. Full story here.

The former shadow Europe minister, Pat McFadden, who was sacked by Jeremy Corbyn earlier this week, says there is "an obligation and a responsibility on the Labour party" to have a clear position on the EU, despite "whatever else is going on" in the party. 

Speaking on the Murnaghan programme on Sky, Mr McFadden says "whatever the consequences of the reshuffle, I hope they don't mean a watering down of the position we have had up until now which has been very clearly for Britain to stay in the EU". 

Asked if he was confident that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was of a similar view, Mr McFadden adds "look he comes from a more Eurosceptic background but he has made quite a number of statements that Labour will campaign to stay and he said it in the House of Commons chamber this week". 

Labour PartyCopyright: Labour Party

The issue of nuclear deterrent has once again been brought to the fore for the Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn replaced Maria Eagle as shadow defence secretary in his recent reshuffle with Emily Thornberry - who supports unilateral nuclear disarmament.

However, shadow education secretary, Lucy Powell, told the BBC's Sunday Politics that she backed Trident as a nuclear deterrent, and believed that Mr Corbyn's anti-nuclear view would not become party policy.

Quote Message: Well that is his position - but let's see how this process goes forward. I have not had a discussion with him about Trident at all. We have not had a discussion in the shadow cabinet about this topic, yet, either. We do have a very clear policy-making process... look in my experience of these things, you know it never actually turns out to be as binary as everybody wants it to be" from Lucy Powell Shadow education secretary

Well that is his position - but let's see how this process goes forward. I have not had a discussion with him about Trident at all. We have not had a discussion in the shadow cabinet about this topic, yet, either. We do have a very clear policy-making process... look in my experience of these things, you know it never actually turns out to be as binary as everybody wants it to be"

Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb has spoken on the junior doctors' strikes due to happen on 12 January.

He says it's "critically important that we find a solution to this".

He adds that it's a "misplaced fight to pick on behalf of the government".

He also says he thinks the government has "not quite properly worked out" what it hopes to achieve.

Labour's Clare Short - former international development secretary - tells Murnaghan the sexual assaults which have recently taken place in Cologne, Germany will have consequences.

Victims said the attacks were carried out by men of North African and Arab appearance.

"I think it will affect the numbers [of migrants] Germany will take on, but that was coming anyway," she says.

A statement issued by Cologne police on Saturday, quoted by AFP news agency, said the number of reported violence cases had reached 379 - 40% of which were cases of sexual assault.  

Read more here.

Liam Fox has also spoken about the forthcoming junior doctor strikes.

He tells Murnaghan: "I've never been much in favour of  denying people the right to strike.

"But even now I would say to them think carefully about where this will take patient care."

Dr Liam Fox - a former defence secretary - tells Murnaghan on Sky: "We have to make our own laws in this country, I think we should control our own borders.

"If you don't make your own laws and control your own borders you are not a sovereign country."

He then says he thinks the UK should not be a part of the EU.

Across the pond, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has been urged to apologise to a Muslim protester who was ejected from one of his rallies.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says Rose Hamid's eviction from the rally in South Carolina sent a "chilling message to American Muslims".

Ms Hamid was removed after making a silent protest on Friday.

Mr Trump's proposed ban on Muslims entering the US has been widely condemned.

Full story here

Tory MP David Davis says  David Cameron made it clear in Marr's interview this morning that "the government machine will go gangbusters on one side of the [EU] argument" - as in to stay a part of the union.

Mr Davis adds: "The prime minister said today 'there are no plans for Brexit' - that's really serious because it's a very complicated operation to carry out if it happened."

Conservative MP and eurosceptic David Davis had earlier told 5 live Pienaar's Politics he will vote to leave the EU.

Quote Message: There's nothing in what the prime minister has said today - or indeed what he's said in the last year - that makes me think he's even trying for the necessary things to stay in

There's nothing in what the prime minister has said today - or indeed what he's said in the last year - that makes me think he's even trying for the necessary things to stay in

Tory MP David Davis tells the BBC's Sunday Politics: "People will not make the decision on the basis of which nice pretty face is leading the campaign."

He says instead it will be about jobs and economics.

When asked about the influence of UKIP's Nigel Farage, he says "again I don't think the personalities matter".

Tory MP for Lewes, Maria Caulfield, has been interviewed by the BBC Radio 5 live's chief political correspondent John Pienaar, and gave some interesting answers...

The chairwoman of a Labour pressure group has resigned from a party policy review group because she feels it is impossible to work with the leadership.

Alison McGovern told the BBC the shadow chancellor had suggested the group she chairs, Progress, co-ordinated the resignation of three shadow ministers.

Read more here.

Watch David Cameron tell Andrew Marr he wants and there should be a "big shift towards more affordable housing to buy".

Pregnant Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has spoken about recent allegations that she was severely reprimanded for breaking House of Commons protocol after she left a debate because she was hungry. 

The Evening Standard reported that Ms Siddiq was told she had "made women look bad".

But she told Dermot Murnaghan's show: "I did break protocol. It was nothing to do with my pregnancy, I was just hungry."

David Cameron says he'll stay on as prime minister - even if he loses the UK's referendum on its EU membership.

The PM told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show he did not think quitting the EU was "the right answer" but the government would "do everything necessary to make it work" if the UK voted to leave.

He also said he was hopeful of a deal by February on the EU reforms he wants to secure before holding the vote.

The in-out referendum has been promised by the end of 2017.

Full story here