Draft Referendum Bill is David Cameron’s final forfeit to Eurosceptics as he rules out further concessions

Oh, how they laughed. Explaining George Osborne’s absence from Treasury Questions, Chief Secretary Danny Alexander was on side-splitting form. “My right honourable friend the Chancellor is in Brussels today at the Ecofin council,” he told MPs, “exercising the considerable influence that Britain enjoys as a full member of the European Union.” Boom, boom!

Comedian Eddie Izzard has said he is prepared to take the flak for wanting to pursue a career in politics.

The original purpose for which the trade unions created the Labour Party was to get working-class representatives into Parliament. The old engineering union, the AUEW, which has now been absorbed in Unite, had a particularly strong record for taking members off the factory floor, training them up and getting them into Parliament.

The senior Labour peer Lord Ahmed resigned from the Labour Party on Monday evening over allegations that he made anti-Semitic comments in a television interview.

Neither arming the rebels nor military strikes can guarantee peace in a country where sectarian, tribal and democratic impulses are all present

Ed Miliband will today reject calls for Labour to respond to the rise of the UK Independence Party (Ukip) by promising a referendum on the European Union.

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.

Police “struggling to cope” with a flood of allegations resulting from the Jimmy Savile scandal have set aside £240,000 to hire former policeman as private detectives, it has been revealed.

Wanted US fugitive built new life in Kent

Iain Duncan Smith faced embarrassment after he was chided by the statistics watchdog over claims he made trumpeting the success of a Government key welfare reform.

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.

Stewart Jackson has refused to pay the £54,000 that Ipsa claims he owes on his home

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.