After more than three years, life on the run comes to an end for party's biggest – and most criminal – donor

The convicted fraudster who gave the Liberal Democrats their biggest ever donation has been arrested in the Caribbean after more than three years on the run.

News International has taken on a former speechwriter for Paddy Ashdown and press secretary to Charles Kennedy in a fresh bid to cope with the deluge of global media coverage that has engulfed the company over the phone-hacking scandal.

Political plotting is harder in an open-plan office. After three decades, the Liberal Democrats are to quit the wood-panelled rabbit warren of their Cowley Street headquarters for minimalist offices in one of the most exclusive streets in Westminster.

Campaigning for the historic referendum on voting reform burst into life yesterday as Ed Miliband joined Liberal Democrats and Greens in a cross-party push for a Yes vote.

Members of the public will be given a formal role in the choice of Labour's policies, candidates and future leaders under far-reaching reforms to be unveiled today.

Cabinet tensions over the electoral reform referendum burst into the open last night after a senior Liberal Democrat minister challenged the Conservative Party chairman to disown the "scaremongering" and "gutter politics" of the "no" campaign. Chris Huhne tore into its claim – reinforced in an advertising campaign – that a "yes" result in the poll on 5 May over replacing the first-past-the-post system with the alternative vote (AV) would cost Britain £250m.

A cross-party rally in support of changing the voting system will go ahead without Nick Clegg after the Liberal Democrat leader dropped his demand to be on the platform.

Relations between Labour and the Liberal Democrats were back in the deep freeze yesterday after Ed Miliband branded Nick Clegg a vote-loser and refused to share a platform with him. Liberal Democrats accused Labour of "student politics" after Mr Miliband declined to appear alongside Mr Clegg at a rally to campaign for a Yes vote in the May referendum on electoral reform. Both leaders support a switch to the alternative vote (AV) and, despite Labour's anger at the Liberal Democrats for entering into a coalition with the Conservatives, figures in both parties who want to keep alive the prospect of a Lib-Lab deal after the 2015 election had hoped that co-operation on electoral reform might break the ice. Mr Miliband had agreed to share a platform with the former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, but pulled out after Mr Clegg insisted on taking part. Today's rally has now been called off.

England will lose 31 MPs, Wales 10, Scotland seven and Northern Ireland two under changes to reduce the size of the House of Commons from 650 to 600, it was announced today.

Despite a varied career encompassing almost six decades of film, television and stage work, Nicholas Courtney will always be remembered for one role above all others.

The Tories have no chance of winning next month's key Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable declared today.

Vince Cable the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, disclosed last night that he would vote in favour of raising student tuition fees in next week's crucial Commons vote, only to backtrack in a later interview. Mr Cable, whose department has responsibility for universities, said: "Obviously I have a duty as a minister to vote for my own policy – and that is what will happen."