Westminster today: Government announces pay rise for NHS staff after seven year cap - as it happened

All the live updates from Westminster

Bizarre exchange between Tom Pursglove and Theresa May at PMQs

The Government has announced a pay rise for NHS staff, seven years after the 1 per cent pay cap was introduced.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, told MPs that staff will see their salaries increase by between 6.5 per cent and 29 per cent, with the lowest paid workers benefiting most.

Earlier, Theresa May clashed with Jeremy Corbyn at the penultimate session of Prime Minister's Questions before Parliament's Easter recess.

The issue of council funding was at the centre of the heated exchange, with Mr Corbyn challenging the Prime Minister to explain the collapse of the Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council.

As it happened...

Key Points

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn clash over local government funding

[21 March 2018 15:44 · Kristin Hugo]

Here's the full story on Boris Johnson comparing Vladimir Putin's propaganda efforts to those of the Nazis...

[21 March 2018 16:12 · Kristin Hugo]

Sir Nick Clegg has launched a blistering attack on Theresa May over her alliance with the DUP.

The former deputy prime minister said Ms May's "marriage of convenience" with the party was preventing her taking bold decisions on the long-term future of the UK post-Brexit, and is therefore damaging the national interest.

Speaking about the Tory-DUP deal, he said:

"It complicates things enormously.

"It significantly restricts her ability to act more courageously on this crucial issue of the border issue.

"It has further hemmed in the ability of the British government to act wisely and courageously for the long-term future of the United Kingdom and also all these issues that affect the island of Ireland.

"It would seem in this great and historical moment, when so many things are at stake, pretty peculiar that a here-today-gone-tomorrow marriage of convenience between the DUP and Conservatives - because the Conservatives triggered and failed to win a general election - should be the thing upon which all these great decisions hinge.

"At some point Theresa May is going to have to take big decisions for the long-term future of the country, not just for the long-term future of this cobbled together majority she has assembled in Parliament."

[21 March 2018 16:25 · Kristin Hugo]

Downing Street has confirmed that, in addition to the Ministry of Defence contract disclosed earlier, two other government departments previously worked with the SCL Group, which owns Cambridge Analytica.  

SCL held a training contract with the Home Office in 2009 and a contract with the Foreign Office for a communications project in 2008/09, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

No departments have current contracts with SCL, the spokesman said.

[21 March 2018 17:09 · Kristin Hugo]

That's all from our live Westminster coverage today - thanks, as ever, for reading.