In Scotland, First Minister's Questions is getting under way. Follow it here.

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Nigel Farage rejects suggestions he is riding a wave of Islamophobia.

"What I've said is this is the first ever migrant population that has come to this country that have within it a small number of people who actually want to get rid of our culture, destroy it and replace it with Sharia law. We've never faced this prospect before and that is deeply concerning to the British people."

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"I think we as a country beat ourselves up on this whole issue of race", Nigel Farage adds. "The reality is the world has moved on from 50 years ago when we brought this legislation in. We are the freest and easiest country and most relaxed country in the whole of Europe on the issue of race."

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More from Nigel Farage on the row surrounding his comments in a Channel 4 documentary. He says uncontrolled immigration from eastern Europe has driven down the price of Labour and led to increased unemployment, especially within the black community.

"I want to change the law so there is a presumption in favour of British workers", he sees. "I am not talking about changing the race relations act in this country."

Daily Politics
Live on BBC Two

Pollsters are busy crunching numbers ahead of the general election. But a website launched today aims to colour in the political map based purely on how much money is being bet on the result in individual seats around the UK. On Thursday's Daily Politics, presenter Jo Coburn will be talking to Andrew Whitehurst from the bet2015 site, external about the maths and methodology behind this map. Desktop viewers can watch the programme live from 12:00 GMT on the Live Coverage tab above.

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Hazel Blears says a new law on surveillance is needed because the current framework is "incredibly complicated". She says it's really difficult to see what capabilities the intelligence agencies have, how they are used and what protects individuals. Greater transparency, she says, will lead to "more public confidence".

International Development Secretary Justine Greening tells the House of Commons three military health workers are being flown back to the UK from Sierra Leone for treatment at the Royal Free Hospital after one of them tested positive for the Ebola virus. The other two personnel are being monitored having had contact with the first patient. The government has deployed 150 NHS staff to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone.

tweets, external: On way to Thanet South to find out what voters in seat Nigel Farage contesting think of his views on race laws

Paul Adams
BBC News

"Presenting the committee's findings, Hazel Blears was emphatic: the UK's intelligence and security agencies do not seek to circumvent the law. GCHQ's bulk interception capability does not amount to blanket surveillance. It is not collecting or reading everyone's emails. However, the former home secretary said her committee was recommending a complete overhaul of the current legislation governing what the agencies do. The current framework, she said, was unnecessarily complicated and opaque, something which she said had served to fuel public suspicion. The report says a new single act should be introduced in the interests of clarity and transparency."

Image source, Reuters

The New Statesman, external has a revealing profile of Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, who once worked as a journalist at the Financial Times before becoming Gordon Brown's chief adviser. Had Mr Balls been given the Africa job he had wanted at the FT he might never had entered politics, it suggests.

Image source, PA

The ISC report also finds one very serious example last year of a GCHQ employee deliberately conducting a number of unauthorised searches of communications data. The employee was suspended from duty on discovery of the searches and a full investigation was launched.

This abuse of the systems amounted to gross misconduct and the employee was sacked and their vetting status withdrawn.

The individual's may also have amounted to an offence under section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act.

This is the first known instance of deliberate abuse of GCHQ's interception and communications data systems in this way., the report says

tweets:, external It's outrageous how the media keep misrepresenting @Nigel_Farage, external by broadcasting what he says...

tweets, external: .@Ed_Miliband The laws don't represent these values, Ed. The British people do. We believe in Britain. You believe in bureaucracy.

Labour leader Ed Miliband is the latest to offer his view on Nigel Farage's comments on race discrimination laws.

Mr Miliband said Mr Farage's views are "wrong, divisive and dangerous."

He added: "I believe that Britain should be proud of the fact that we are a tolerant country, we're a country of different faiths, different backgrounds.

"I believe that the laws we have on equality are an incredibly important part of meeting the very British value of treating everyone the same whatever their religion."

Image source, PA

A new four person panel, including Professor Alexis Jay, has been revealed by Home Secretary Theresa May for the reformed statutory inquiry into child sex abuse.

Drusilla Sharpling, Ivor Frank and Malcolm Evans will also serve alongside Justice Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand judge, Mrs May said.

In a written statement to MPs, Mrs May said: "Survivors have been instrumental in the setting up of this statutory inquiry. Both Justice Goddard and I are clear that they must also have a strong voice in the work of the inquiry as it now moves forward.

"Justice Goddard will be writing to survivors and their representatives shortly to set out her intention to create a survivors and victims' consultative panel and to seek their views on how this will work and who should be on it.

"This panel will have a specific role and function within the inquiry."

A county councillor who has announced he intends to carry on in his role despite moving 4,000 miles way could be expelled from the Conservative Party, members have said. Brian Riley, Suffolk County Council member for Hadleigh, has announced he is to emigrate to North Carolina next month but believes he can carry on representing local people via email and Skype along with occasional visits back to the UK.

But South Suffolk Conservative Association said in a statement: "While we are sorry to see him leave, we are concerned that Councillor Riley will not be able effectively to serve his electorate from North Carolina.

"He was requested to resign, allowing a by-election to take place. In the absence of a resignation, we endorse the proposal of the Conservative group at the county council to withdraw the whip from Councillor Riley."

Home Secretary Theresa May has established an inquiry into undercover policing and the operation of the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad, to be led by judge Lord Justice Pitchford.

Here's our story on the Intelligence and Security Committee report on surveillance.

"We think there is a grey area between communications and content," Mrs Blears says. But she says the websites an individual visits could have some bearing on security issues. She adds the committee has seen bulk data sets, and is satisfied that the information was collected for a legitimate surveillance purposes.

Mrs Blears says: "The current legal framework is unnecessarily opaque and complicated" and should be replaced with a new law. "There is a legitimate public expectation of greater openness and transparency," she says, which would in turn encourage greater confidence in their work.

tweets, external: .@David_Cameron The people the law doesn't protect are British workers, black or white. Disturbing, though unsurprising, that u don't care.