Donations to political parties rose to just under £9 million in the first quarter of 2012 - up £1.9 million on the previous three months, Electoral Commission figures show.

David Cameron was urged to "come clean" yesterday and order a fully independent investigation of Conservative fundraising methods after it emerged that the party's internal inquiry into the cash-for-access scandal has no specific mention of the Prime Minister or Downing Street in its remit.

Sir Harold Evans, editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, described his former employer Rupert Murdoch as "evil incarnate" in his evidence yesterday to the Leveson Inquiry.

Mary Beard's ancient Rome was a dangerous city where people got by on their pluck and wits

Two suspects in Scotland Yard's phone-hacking inquiry have been rebailed.

The Conservatives' smooth PR mask slipped as scandal and silliness reigned

Extent of Whittamore's inquiries into private lives on behalf of national newspapers revealed

The Conservative Party today published a list of major party donors who have attended dinners with David Cameron at 10 Downing Street.

Viewpoint: As news organisations have cut numbers, charities have availed themselves of the skills of experienced reporters

A Conservative Party treasurer was last night forced to resign after being filmed offering secret meetings with the Prime Minister in return for annual donations of £250,000.

An official report criticising relations between Scotland Yard and the media reads like an "East German Ministry of Information manual", a senior crime correspondent told the Leveson Inquiry today.

The Speaker of the Commons is to call "last orders" on the parliamentary drinking culture, it emerged yesterday. With plans to change opening hours, bar prices and tab debts, and to instruct staff not to serve "tired and emotional" members, John Bercow is said to be anxious that a crackdown on inebriation addresses the problem of the Commons' public image following the recent drink-fuelled misadventures of the MP Eric Joyce.

James Murdoch followed up his resignation as chairman of News International with the decision to quit the board of Sotheby’s, the international auctioneers where he has been a director since 2010.

Letters overturn official history and show that tycoon briefed PM at Chequers before he was allowed to expand his empire