The Government faced a growing outcry tonight after announcing that legislation is to be introduced as soon as possible to cap redundancy payments to civil servants.

Former Labour ministers were handed more than £1 million in severance pay at the General Election, official figures showed today.

This week Londoners will mark the fifth anniversary of the 7 July terror attacks, which killed 52 people and injured 750 in the capital. They will do so against the backdrop of a depressing political row about the funding of police operations designed to ensure that Britain never again suffers such an atrocity.

Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer was publicly rebuked by a Government minister today after warning that planned spending cuts could not be delivered without increasing the risk of a terrorist attack.

More than 140 quango chiefs earn more than the Prime Minister, with large sums going to the key figures behind the preparations for the 2012 London Olympics, the Cabinet Office disclosed last night.

Hundreds of Government websites are to be axed in a bid to to save millions of pounds, it was announced today.

Why is she in the news now?

Well, Martha was appointed the "UK Digital Champion" by David Cameron, advising the Government on how to get more users and services online and therefore save money for, well, just about everyone.

Technology isn't always exciting, he said, knowing that most people are already aware of this, and I may as well be telling them that England don't always beat mediocre opposition at football.

David Cameron's chief spin doctor, Andy Coulson, is the highest-paid political adviser in the Government, earning more than Nick Clegg and only £2,500 less than the Prime Minister. The former News of the World editor, who was drafted in to run Mr Cameron's media strategy in 2007, receives £140,000 a year as director of communications at No 10, according to Cabinet Office figures unmasking the pay given to Whitehall's army of 61 special advisers.

The coalition is pushing ahead with efforts to slash the deficit today after George Osborne appealed for the public to help identify where cuts can be made.

David Laws has briefed his successor as Chief Secretary to the Treasury on the momentous task he faces in slashing spending, ministerial sources said yesterday

David Cameron stepped up demands today for a "brief but comprehensive" inquiry into the Government lobbying row.