David Cameron may be “relaxed” about having some of his backbench MPs table an amendment to the Queen’s Speech that will call for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union but, strictly speaking, it is nothing to be relaxed about.

She’s gone from the left-wing establishment to celebrity status on the right. But will anyone buy her branded mugs?

Lord Hanningfield, the trougher in ermine, has extracted another wodge of cash from the public purse. The latest published list of expenses from the House of Lords shows that Hanningfield, who has done time in jail for fiddling expenses, claimed £3,600 in attendance allowances in December, lawfully this time.

They have called him a geek; they called him Red Ed. They have noted his resemblance to the jug-eared hero of Wallace and Gromit. But never in his 43 years has anyone cast Ed Miliband as “Action Man” – until now.

UKIP’s success in last week’s local elections is having an impact already. Nadine Dorries, who had the Tory whip taken away because of her appearance on I’m a Celebrity, has got it back, thereby heading off the risk that she might defect to Ukip.

As the Tories absorb the consequences of last week's local election results, some of them have apparently arrived at the brilliant solution that the first thing they must do is be nice to Nadine Dorries.

On an exceptionally good day for Ukip, one of their most extraordinary results was in Essex, where they had no county council seats until today but now have nine. The Tories lost 19 seats. There was a local issue at work here, a leading Essex Tory tells me: the “Hanningfield factor”. Lord Hanningfield is well known in Essex as the former council leader jailed for fiddling his Lords expenses.

Chris Grayling calls for greater transparency in the dealings of the Court of Protection, which has the power to split up families and send people to jail

Martyn Underhill, a former detective chief inspector who is now Dorset’s elected Police Commissioner, has announced on his blog that he is trying to organise commercial sponsorship to help all five police forces in the South-west cope with cuts in their budgets. “The police family in Dorset is living in austere times with a shrinking budget and workforce,” he complains. “We are the lowest funded force and have seen the worst cuts. This is wrong, and I will continue to fight this…. I see huge potential benefits to forming appropriate sponsorship relationships with reputable organisations.”

PM promised a “full investigation” of the allegations