Summary

  • Nigel Farage vows to remain UKIP leader, despite a row over his leadership of the party

  • The rift developed after election campaign chief, Patrick O'Flynn, attacked Mr Farage's aides via a newspaper article

  • Chancellor George Osborne sets out plans to give English cities powers over housing, transport, planning and policing

  • Mary Creagh and Yvette Cooper announce bids to become Labour leader, joining Andy Burnham, Chuka Umunna and Liz Kendall

  • Tim Farron joins former minister Norman Lamb in the race to succeed Nick Clegg as Liberal Democrat leader

Live Reporting

Andy McFarlane and Dominic Howell

  1. UKIP 'needs softer approach'

    BBC News Channel

    Stuart Wheeler

    Stuart Wheeler - who has been one of UKIP's main financial backers - tells the BBC News channel that he is "still a great supporter of the party" but he thinks Nigel Farage should stand down.

    I don't believe he should be the leader now. He's been a terrific leader, but the great thing now is to win the in-out of Europe referendum. And I think we now need a softer approach - there are 3.8 million people who voted for us in the election, almost all of them will naturally vote out. So we are not trying to get them - we are now trying to get the block of undecided people who haven't made up their mind - and I think they need a rather softer approach.

  2. Osborne: we'll deliver devolution

    Manchester Town HallGetty Images

    "We'll deliver the devolution to Scotland and to Wales that we promised," says George Osborne, but the Queen's Speech will feature a bill to deliver "a radical new model of city government" in England.

    Powers over local transport, housing, skills, healthcare and the economy would be devolved, provided cities agree to have elected mayors to be responsible for administering them.

    London has a mayor and Manchester has agreed to have one, he adds.

    I will not impose a mayor on anyone but nor will I settle for less. My door is open to any other major city that wants to take this bold step into the future.

  3. Why Manchester?

    George Osborne defends his decision to initially favour Greater Manchester for more powers.

    "If I had tried to deliver simultaneously new devolution settlements in every major city at the same time, and tried to get every city authority to accept new elected mayors, it simply would not have happened."

    He adds:

    If I could work with you to to achieve this new model of civic leadership and local power here in Greater Manchester, I could hold it up to the rest of the country as an example of what was possible."

  4. Norman, 'nuff said, init

    Dappy, yeah y'know, Dappy. Dappy? That famous Lib Dem? Well, apparently he is backing Norman Lamb in the so far two horse race to lead the Liberal Democrats. (It's probably just going to be the two of them, as that is already a quarter of the parliamentary party.) The other contender is Tim Farron, who confirmed today that he is running.

  5. Should union strike laws be toughened up?

    The Daily Politics

    As the government prepares to toughen up strike laws ahead of union members going on strike, Andrew Neil spoke to Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O'Grady.She said: “I think a lot of people do smell a rat here. This is double standards. What about the 15% turnout on police commissioners? What about the EU referendum? Are we going have a 40% ‘yes’ threshold for that one? I think most people will see it as one rule for politicians and other for working people.”

    Watch the debate

    Frances O'Grady

  6. Osborne: close wealth gap

    Back to the serious stuff.

    "To really close that long-term wealth gap, we need to take further radical action," Chancellor George Osborne tells his Manchester audience.

    He set out his vision for a "northern powerhouse" at the city's Museum of Science and Industry last year.

    It was a vision based on the solid economic theory that while the individual cities and towns of the north are strong, if we enable them to pool their strengths, they could be stronger than the sum of their parts.

  7. Twitter reacts to UKIP row

    Looks like a few people are having some fun over UKIP's "civil war".

  8. Osborne: Decline of the north not inevitable

    George Osborne

    George Osborne is speaking in Manchester about his plans to give more power to English cities.

    "We should not accept that, relative to the rest of the country, the decline of the north of England is inevitable," he says.

    Our economy has become unbalanced and our capital city has begun to dominate more and more. The answer is not to pull London down. It's to all of our benefit that we have one of the great global capital cities in these isles. What we need to do is build up the rest of our country."

  9. What will the new Parliament look like?

    Mark D'Arcy, BBC parliamentary correspondent

    Houses of ParliamentPA

    It will seem very strange.

    David Cameron will deliver a Queen's Speech. Harriet Harman, as acting Leader of the Labour Party, will respond for the opposition. In due course the leader of the third party will rise - not a Lib Dem, but the SNP's Angus Robertson.

    It will be a sight as jarring as the appearance of Lib Dems on the government front bench in 2010. And somewhere in a corner, pushed out of their previous front-bench perch, the remaining Liberal Democrats will gather.

    Read more from Mark.

  10. 'We've got to win back those votes'

    Yvette Cooper

    Yvette Cooper speaks to BBC News in Birmingham, where she is launching her campaign for the Labour leadership.

    Ms Cooper acknowledges that Labour has lost ground to other parties.

    We've got to win back those votes and I think that is about making sure that people have the confidence that we can match their ambitions for the future, in order to drown out the Tory and UKIP voices of fear."

    She adds: "In the end the only way to do that is to be listening to people's concerns about the country, not just looking inward at the Labour Party and certainly not looking back to the old remedies of the past, be it Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or any of the remedies of the past." 

    Andy Burnham, Chuka Umunna and Liz Kendall are also in the race.  

  11. MSPs - new powers 'need extensive redrafting'

    Committee reportAndrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament

    Away from the UKIP row, the Scottish Parliament's published its report on plans for new powers for Scotland.

    Following the "No" vote in last September's independence referendum, the then Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government appointed Lord Smith of Kelvin to look into devolving more powers to Holyrood.

    The Devolution (Further Powers) Committee said the UK government's draft legislation did not meet the "spirit or substance" of the Smith commission proposals, adding that parts of the plan required "extensive redrafting".

    A spokesman for the UK government's Scotland Office responded by saying there would be a full parliamentary discussion to follow.

  12. Lunch with Nigel remembered... just

    Contributing editor of the Spectator tweets:

  13. Farage 'error of judgement'

    UKIP MEP Patrick O'Flynn has told the BBC it was an "error of judgement" for Nigel Farage to say he would quit as party leader if he failed to win in South Thanet. He also criticised the "aggressive", American-style briefing he claimed was going on against individuals in the party.  He said he would like to see Mr Farage take advice from a "wider circle" of senior advisers, so that "we can get back to seeing the best of Nigel".

  14. 'Livid' at 'ill-disciplined' UKIP

    As a UKIP voter I am livid the party is so ill disciplined to air its differences in public just at a time when they have a responsibility to the 4m voters who voted for them and as the EU referendum becomes reality. Farage has taken the party a long way but should have resigned and thrown his hat into a leadership campaign as he originally stated. Carswell is right to refuse to claim full £600k, O'Flynn is right about collective policy decisions and responsibility and Bloom is right to say there should be a leadership contest. I really feel like cancelling my membership if senior figures can't unite, resolve issues out of the public light and represent the 4m.

    Jason, Coulsdon

  15. Who's who in the UKIP drama

    Just in case you're wondering what all the UKIP fuss is about here's a helpful and hopefully quick guide.

    Patrick O'Flynn is a former political editor of the Daily Express who joined UKIP a couple of years ago. He is the party's MEP for the East of England and their economics spokesman.

    Matt Richardson has been UKIP's party secretary and a member of the National Executive Committee for about a year or so. A barrister by trade he was brought in, according to the Daily Telegraph  to stop "all the bad stuff" that was happening in UKIP getting out to the media. (Well done Matt). 

    Rahem Kassam is the UKIP leader's election strategist.

    A fan of trolling left wingers on social media with a penchant for guns according the the Daily Mail , he has worked for a host of think-tanks and blogs in recent years – from The Henry Jackson Society and The TaxPayers’ Alliance to The Commentator. 

    Mr O'Flynn told The Times today that Mr Farage had come under a “Tea Party, ultra-aggressive American influence”. His remarks, the newspaper said were "unmistakably a broadside against a team of relatively new advisers that include Raheem Kassam, a former staffer at the right-wing American website Breitbart, and Matthew Richardson, a barrister who has spoken at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington." 

  16. One more bottle to go

  17. UKIP's 'back bench rebellion'

    I love the fact that there’s already a back bench rebellion with only one MP.

    Could you imagine the fall out if there were at least six of them!

    PHEW – we dodged a bullet there.

    Robert J Brown, South Norwood

  18. UKIP row analysis

    Robin Brant
    Political Correspondent

    Nigel Farage and Patrick O'FlynnGetty Images

    There is now a very clear divide at the top of UKIP. On one side there is Patrick O'Flynn, Douglas Carswell and another senior official who was prominent during the election campaign.

    On the other side is Nigel Farage, a tight circle of senior aides and the millionaire donor Arron Banks.

    The key moment that led to this was the leader's decision to stay on.

    Mr Farage said he was "persuaded" by "overwhelming" evidence from UKIP members that they wanted him at the top.

    It surprised some, including the party's only MP Mr Carswell. It's what lies behind Mr O'Flynn's claims that UKIP could be seen as an "absolute monarchy".

    The dispute is now very public and very nasty. Close allies of Mr Farage have used unprintable four and five letter words in texts to me to describe Mr O'Flynn and Mr Carswell.

    All this just days after the party amassed a massive four million votes in the general election and installed itself as the challenger to Labour in the north of England.

  19. UKIP chief of staff Raheem Kassam 'not quitting'

    BBC political correspondent tweets:

  20. Farage 'exhausted and in pain'

    BBC assistant political editor tweets: