Parliamentary briefing

Breakfast's Daisy Sampson brings you the latest twists and spins in our new parliamentary briefing slot every Tuesday through to Thursday at 6.20am.

MPs assembled for the start of the Parliamentary week to be told that Britain's preparations for possible military action against Iraq are being stepped up.

The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, updated the Commons with news that thousands more troops are being sent to the Gulf -- the most significant deployment so far in the continuing military build up.

But in spite of that, Mr Hoon again tried to reassure MPs that war is still not inevitable. If Saddam Hussein co-operated with the UN weapons inspectors there'd be no need for military action.

Also in Parliament on Monday, the deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, made a last-minute appeal to Britain's firefighters not to resume their series of strikes over pay and conditions.

With the next strike due on Tuesday Mr Prescott appealed to the firefighters: "Get back to the conciliation service, ACAS." His Tory shadow, David Davis, said lives were at risk and the government should "put politics aside and put the country first."

In the Lords, Conservatives predicted that the UK would become the "Number One destination" for legal, as well as illegal, migrants, when the next wave of new member states joined the EU.

Senior Tories said Britain should follow the example of other EU members and restrict workers from places like Poland and the Czech Republic taking jobs in the UK. A minister said the government did not expect what he called "a large flood" of migrants from eastern Europe, although Britain should welcome skilled workers from those countries.