Can suggestions of a huge swing from Labour to the Scottish nationalists be believed? John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, has been examining the polls of voting intentions for May's general election.

Image source, PA

House of Commons
Parliament

Opening the day's second opposition debate, Shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan said: "It is unacceptable that so many people are unregistered and being deprived of their say in the way the country is run." He was disappointed that the government and the Electoral Commission were being, as he put it, "so complacent" about the state of the Electoral Register. What was needed, he said, was a goal for reducing the number of missing voters."

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have now moved on to the second of today's opposition day debates - on electoral registration. A new system of voter registration was introduced in June 2014 requiring people to register individually. Under the previous system, one member of each household filled in a registration form listing every eligible voter. In October, the Electoral Commission reported that 5.5m people had not transferred onto the new Electoral Register. Labour accuse the Government of an "act of democratic vandalism".

BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani looks at the background to Theresa May's announcement on the new inquiry into historical sexual abuse and examines why the two previous attempts failed to get off the ground.

Image source, PA

Away from Westminster, John Swinney has been unveiling details of the Scottish Government's Budget in Edinburgh. The SNP finance minister and deputy first minister said spending on frontline NHS services would increase by £383m next year.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers are embarking on the second of two report stage days on the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, external. The bill provides for the retention of communications information, exclusion powers and security. It incorporates government plans to stop people travelling overseas to fight for terrorist organisations and seeks to place an obligation on schools and universities to report suspected radicalisation of students.

Report stage, which follows the detailed scrutiny of committee stage, gives peers another opportunity to try to amend the bill.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs reject the Labour motion by 294 votes to 218, a government majority of 76. Business, Innovation and Skills Minister Nick Boles earlier told MPs that according to Treasury figures, Labour's plans for apprenticeships would cost £1.38bn in 2015/16.

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow business, innovation and skills minister Liam Byrne is now responding to the debate on apprenticeships behalf of Labour.

He congratulates the government on "building on the firm foundations" for apprenticeship growth left, he says, by the previous Labour administration. However the government's ambition has fallen short of the "level that is needed to get us out of the whole they put us in", he argues.

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, Labour's Adrian Bailey, says the investment in apprenticeships is not "addressing the skills imbalance" in the UK.

There has been only a small increase in the number constructions and engineering apprenticeships "which are incredibly important in the development of our economy" he warns.

House of Commons
Parliament

Business Secretary Vince Cable calls Labour "brave" for tabling a debate on apprenticeships.

The number of apprenticeships doubled to two million in this parliament and the proportion of advanced and higher apprenticeships has risen "systematically as a result of the reforms" brought in under this government, he says.

He tells MPs the only subject this government are more "confident about" is job creation - which is tabled for a backbench business debate next week.

In an interview with Mandy Rhodes for Holyrood magazine, external, Labour peer Maurice Glasman seeks to downplay the importance of Scotland to Labour's chances of victory at the forthcoming general election. He says a 1% or 2% swing to Labour in England would offset any losses in Scotland. "Labour has got to win the general election in England. If Labour had a very strong offer to England, it could win without Scotland," he adds.

Pressed on whether he thinks Ed Miliband is up to the job, Lord Glasman says: "He's the leader we've got." There is still a sense that people "don't quite know where we're at", he says, and adds that the party has a "huge amount of work to do to reconnect with people."

More about the medal for Britons who have travelled to west Africa to help the fight against Ebola. David Cameron told MPs he would recommend the new award to The Queen as a mark of the "immense debt of gratitude" owed to NHS medics, the armed forces, civil servants and aid workers.

Image source, PA

Labour MP Margaret Hodge says she will not be in the race to become the next London mayor and has urged the party to choose an ethnic minority candidate. Mrs Hodge, MP for Barking, had been touted as a potential candidate but had not officially put herself forward.

And speaking to the BBC, Mr Thomas said, "I absolutely back Labour and I absolutely believe in Ed Miliband.

"I've spent a significant amount of time with Ed Miliband going through the contents of my report talking through various policy areas and I believe that Ed Miliband has a compelling vision for what kind of country he wants to lead as PM and that kind of country it will look after the weakest people in society as well as the strongest people in society."

Moving briefly back to Bill Thomas, the man who helped draw up Labour's small business policies, and who shadow chancellor Ed Balls failed to name on Newsnight...

A former executive with Hewlett Packard Europe, Mr Thomas is on the board of the Co-operative Bank, chairman of the advisory board of Cranfield University School of Management and on the management and Board of Leeds University Business School. He is also a non-executive director of tech firms XChanging plc and GFI SA, and of construction giant Balfour Beatty. More on his background can be found in our news story.

Bookmaker's Ladbrokes, external say the SNP is now favourite in 40 out of 59 Scottish seats at Westminster. Ladbrokes say they are now sitting on "some hefty losses" if the SNP does as well as Lord Ashcroft's latest polling suggests.

tweets, external: A report on chocolate wars in the US & Forgotten that name? Ed Balls isn't alone.We offer tips for a Labour peer from a memory expert. 5pmr4

House of Commons
Parliament

Back to the House of Commons for a moment, where MPs are currently engaged in a Labour-led debate on apprenticeships. It is being kicked off by shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, who says apprenticeships have been "downgraded" under the coalition government. If Labour wins power in May, it would provide more and better quality apprenticeships, he adds.

The Independent

In the run-up to the general election, the Independent is inviting one contributor daily to describe what he or she would do as prime minister. Today's candidate is Andrew Harrop, external, general secretary of the Fabian society. His key aims? Higher living standards, less inequality and action on climate change.

House of Lords
Parliament

In the House of Lords, Lord Speaker Baroness D'Souza announces the death of Conservative peer Baroness Platt of Writtle. Lady Platt, who entered the House of Lords in 1981, died on 1 February, she informs peers.