Today programme

David Cameron is heading off to a European Council meeting tomorrow, where talks will continue on reforming Britain's relationship with Brussels. But this will not yield results instantly, according to one of his predecessors. Sir John Major explained on the Today programme this morning why Thursday and Friday won't be 'high noon' for these talks: ‘It’s a process, there will be discussion aimed at an agreement. That discussion will take place, everybody will leave and state their own positions but underneath that, there will be a movement either towards an agreement or against and we won’t actually know about that until they come to the crunch sometime next year.

David Cameron will be making the case for bombing Syria in the Commons later this week and all eyes are on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour to see if they supports his proposals. On the Today programme, the shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle summed up the party’s current position as we wait and see: ‘We are in a position in which we will make a decision after the Prime Minister puts forward his rationale – that is the sensible way of doing it and we will do that.

Jeremy Corbyn’s controversial comments questioning the use of shoot to kill in terrorist attacks has led to a whole new round of criticisms — not least from his own MPs.

After the government’s humiliating defeats in the House of Lords yesterday over tax credits, how will it seek revenge on the upper chamber? Chris Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, spoke on the Today programme about the government's plans. On tax credits, he said ‘the Chancellor is clear, he will look again at the transitional arrangements’. But on the relationship between the Commons and the Lords, Grayling said a more careful approach would be taken — one that will be worked out ‘in the next few hours’: 'The first thing not to do is to react on the hoof to this. We have to have a measured look at what the Lords has done, what the constitutional arrangements have been, what they need to be.

Nicola Sturgeon has a plan about how to achieve another independence referendum, even if there won’t be a pledge for one in the SNP’s next manifesto. On the Today programme, Sturgeon pointed the finger at the Tories in Westminster — the bogeymen she believes will help the nationalists make the case for independence: ‘I think we do what we have done over a period of years: we continue to make the argument for the economic and social and political case for Scotland to be independent country and I believe very strongly the onus is on those who support independence to do that.

John McDonnell’s U-turn on backing the government's fiscal charter is just the sort of inconsistent positioning some in Labour fear will destroy the party’s reputation under Jeremy Corbyn. No one from the shadow treasury team was willing to speak on the Today programme about the U-turn so it was left to seasoned media performer Diane Abbott, now the shadow international development secretary, to defend the party’s position. In a rather bizarre interview, Abbott claimed that Labour was not in a shambles: ‘No, no, no, I think we’re in the right position to oppose Osborne’s mismanagement of the economy’.

Michael Fallon has been touring the broadcast studios this morning to send Russia a warning about its bombing campaign in Syria. On the Today programme, the Defence Secretary said Putin's actions are complicating an already difficult situation: ‘What it does do is complicate an already difficult situation and make it very much more dangerous because these planes are not being co-ordinated with the rest of the campaign and more importantly than that, the strikes don’t seem to be for the most part strikes against Isil. They are strike against other groups who’ve been fighting Assad and designed to prop up the Assad regime, the dictatorship in Syria, which of course has been the cause of Isil in the first place.

'Were we right to stop a massacre? Yes, we absolutely were,' said David Cameron on his Radio 4 Today programme interview. But the real question is different: were we right to depose Gaddafi, given the chaos (and bloodshed) that has followed in Libya? Are things so much better for the citizens of Benghazi (and the 80,000 souls in Sirte) now that Islamic State has moved in? The Prime Minister stopping a potential massacre at Benghazi was fairly uncontroversial. But should he have then pressed on to topple the Libyan and created the vacuum now being filled with sectarian warfare and the migration crisis? https://soundcloud.

George Osborne is the man who wants to build and plan. On the Today programme, the Chancellor explained he was creating a National Infrastructure Commission, headed up by former Labour peer Andrew Adonis, because ‘Britain is pretty rubbish at making big decision on infrastructure’: ‘I’m trying to shake the inertia of this country and say we have got to plan and build for the future and I think the best way to do that is to have an independent body outside the party political fight, trying to build a national consensus, telling us in a calm and expert way what the country needs for its future and then I want to go ahead and building it and make sure we’re providing the jobs and security for working people not just in this generation but the next.

Today marks one year since the Scottish independence referendum and many of the key figures are reflecting on how politics has changed. Alistair Darling, the former Labour Chancellor and leader of the Better Together campaign, spoke on the Today programme about Scotland, but it was the remarks on his own party that were the most striking. He said Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader thanks to the ‘disillusionment’ of people who are ‘fed up with the established order’. But Darling said ‘I honestly don’t know’ whether John McDonnell will ever become Chancellor: ‘Just at the moment, it seems to me to be difficult [to judge] but I’m willing to be surprised.

The government will push forward with its plans to cut £6 billion in tax credits today and the Commons vote is one that will split both parties. Many Conservative MPs are privately worried about how the party will be viewed for slashing tax credits — even if they agree with it in principle — while some in Labour are worried they will once again be seen as the party who are unwilling to reform welfare.

The government’s humiliating defeat on purdah is the first major victory for Eurosceptics in the battle on how the EU referendum is fought. Bernard Jenkin, one of the lead Tory rebels, appeared on the Today programme to explain why his gang took on the government last night: ‘They initially wanted to abolish the purdah rules altogether, which would mean going to back to the kind of referendum that Wales had in 1997 which was so roundly criticised by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, where the government was spending money and ministers were being deployed by the civil service to conduct the campaign. In the general election and local election, there is a very strong tradition that that should not happen.

Nigel Farage is kickstarting Ukip’s ‘No’ campaign this week, having grown fed up with the lack of momentum from other corners. On the Today programme, the Ukip leader explained he is happy to work with either of the two groups vying to be the designated the Out campaign by the Electoral Commission — the Matthew Elliot Westminster-based campaign vs.

Day after day, Labour's big beasts are being wheeled out one by one. Yesterday it was Neil Kinnock, today it’s David Blunkett's turn to warn against the impending doom if Jeremy Corbyn is elected leader. On the Today programme, the former home secretary made a coded attack on Corbyn, suggesting the party needs a leader who can win elections: 'I want someone who can be radical, can have a very clear vision of where Britain will be in five years’ time and above all can actually do something about winning. See, I’m speaking really as an activist: I’ve been a member for 52 years. 30 years of those years we’ve been in opposition.

The Labour leadership race is rapidly turning sour. None of the warnings from party grandees are denting Jeremy Corbyn’s support, so talk has turned back to whether candidates should drop out. Yvette Cooper’s campaign has called for Andy Burnham to quit the race. ‘If he isn't prepared to offer an alternative to Jeremy, he needs to step back and leave it to Yvette’, a spokesman said last night.