Early evening summary
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has told MPs that Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, will be treated as a terrorist in jail because he was convicted for a terrorist offence. (See 2.23pm.)
Jones is now taking questions from journalists.
Q: Will you look at cutting, or freezing, the size of the civil service. Polling shows that is what voters want. It is more popular than benefit cuts?
Jones says he does not see cutting the size of the civil service and cutting the welfare budget as an either/or. He says the idea of a zero-based review is to go back to first principles and see where money should be spent.
Q: You previously voted against a third runway at Heathrow. What do you feel about the fact the chancellor is now in favour?
Jones says that story is “speculation”, and so he won’t comment.
Q: Do you aim to reduce the rate at which sickness benefit spending goes up? Or do you want to actually cut it?
On welfare, Jones says there are two groups people are particularly worried about. There are people who are too ill to work. The government wants them to be in work, and a green paper is coming out soon.
And the other group is people making fraudulent claims, he says. The DWP will get extra powers to tackle organised crime in the system, he says.
