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
We've had it confirmed. UKIP party secretary Matt Richardson has resigned the party has told the BBC. his resignation will now be considered by UKIP's NEC.
NIgel Farage's election strategist Rahem Kassam is staying on however.
The Press Association joins Guido Fawkes in reporting that UKIP party secretary Matthew Richardson, one of the aides reported to be the target of Patrick O'Flynn's attack, has offered to quit.
"I understand that he has offered his resignation," a UKIP source said.
The Daily Politics
"We're not actually extinct yet. So maybe that's a bit premature I think," former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik tells the Daily Politics, when confronted with a new mock party logo that features a dodo.
He thinks the Liberal Democrats can get back "into the teens at the next time" - he's talking about the number of seats - and then the twenties. But it will take two elections to get back to that point, he says and the new leader is going to have to work very hard from the ground up to get them there.
It's worth pointing out that at 20-odd MPs, the LIb Dems would still have less than half the number of seats they had before last Thursday's bloodbath. That's where we thought they would be now, not by 2025!
Guido Fawkes
Blogger Guido Fawkes, external reports Matt Richardson, believed to be one of the UKIP party officials attacked in Patrick O’Flynn's Times article this morning has offered his resignation.
UKIP donor Stewart Wheeler has told the BBC he would like Nigel Farage to step down, at least for the moment.
He adds:"If wants to put himself up in an election then he has every right to do so though I personally would prefer someone else now."
UKIP's only MP Douglas Carswell has said rumours he is about to quit the party are "absolutely" not true as the leadership crisis at the top of the party continues to unfold.
He's out of the race folks (Was he ever really in? We know there are only eight of them now but). Having hinted earlier this week he was considering running for the Lib Dem leadership Greg Mulholland has thrown his weight behind Tim Farron.
That's Mr Farron's nomination sorted then. Now, how's he going to win over Nick Clegg?
The Daily Politics
"I certainly don't agree with anybody's attack on anybody, I certainly don't agree with anybody's attack on Nigel Farage, Mr Stanbury tells the Daily Politics regarding today's fall out over Patrick O'Flynn's article inThe Times, external.
He adds he thinks personal attacks are beneath Mr O'Flynn and beneath the party.
He says "it is for others to consider their position" when asked whether Patrick O'Flynn should quit the party.
Quote MessageIf the NEC [Naitonal Executive Committee] unanimously back me that's not my fault is it?
The Daily Politics
Steven Stanbury, UKIP''s parliamentary candidate for Forest of Dean tells the Daily Politics that UKIP voters should expect a "more professional approach" from the party "and not the selfish self-indulgent attacks that we are seeing".
He adds UKIPs election strategy proved to be very successful.
He points out UKIP won several council seats on the night of the general election. He adds all the other parties were squeezed by the Scottish National Party (SNP) "fear factor".
Many people, he claims, told him on the doorstep that they were going to vote UKIP locally but not nationally because of the fear of a Labour-SNP coalition government.
Sky News
Patrick O'Flynn tells Sky News Nigel Farage should recapture the optimistic "cheeky and daring" persona that served UKIP so well in the local elections last year and lead UKIPs campaign ahead of the In/Out referendum on Europe.
But he attacks the advisers around Mr Farage. Equally some of those advisers have attacked Mr O'Flynn saying he is a "scribbler with a single tier education" among a number of insults.
Mr O'Flynn tells Sky News "there are poisonous influences [within UKIP] that need to be removed."
Image source, PADavid Cameron will visit Scotland on Friday and is expected to meet First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for their first face-to-face talks since the general election, Downing Steet says.
Mr Cameron and Ms Sturgeon spoke by phone within hours of the election results coming in on 8 May, when the prime minister restated his commitment to "governing with respect and implementing devolution" along the lines of the cross-party Smith commission agreement.
Following the brief call, Ms Sturgeon said she "made it clear" to Mr Cameron that "it cannot be business as usual".
She later described the Smith Commission template as "a strong starting point" which "does not go far enough".
The Daily Politics
Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn are joined by Conservative peer Lord Finklestein to discuss the latest Westminster news.
UKIP’s director Steve Stanbury will look at party campaign chief Patrick O'Flynn’s comments about Nigel Farage, the Guardian’s Rafael Behr will talk about the Labour leadership contest and TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady will be asked about strike laws.
Also coming up are commentator Iain Martin on the Tory modernisation plan and former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik on his party’s leadership contest.
The Daily Politics is live on BBC2 from 12:00 BST, with viewers in Scotland joining from 12:30 after First Minister's Questions. Desktop readers can watch on the Live Coverage tab above.
Spectator assistant editor
A firm rejection of the Spectator, external story by Dan Hodges, which painted a bleak picture of Labour's election campaign.
BBC News Channel
Image source, PAMr Leslie adds:
Quote MessageLabour supports genuine devolution to all parts of England, as well as to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But communities have heard promises before and they will be no clearer today about looming decisions on funding. Devolution needs to be part of a UK-wide plan, not a series of one-off deals done by the chancellor. The government's piecemeal approach threatens to leave many areas behind. In the last Parliament, the most deprived communities were hit the hardest and the North had bigger reductions to local government budgets than in the rest of the country."
BBC News Channel
Labour's new shadow chancellor, Chris Leslie, tells the BBC News Channel that his party would welcome the Conservatives' proposals for devolution if they are "genuine".
But he says we've been here before over the last five years and that the country needs a "proper well thought through" plan.
Quote MessageEverybody supports genuine devolution as long as it is genuine - but there are a lot of local authorities across all sorts of political parties who are wondering what really is the chancellor's agenda here. Are we hearing the sound of the axe being sharpened what exactly is coming down the track? And I think its that's the sort of information that we now need from the chancellor."
BBC Radio 5 Live
Image source, APThe Edstone has been discovered! Possibly.
Remember how Labour leader Ed Miliband carved six election pledges in stone a week before the election? Well apparently the last time it was seen was in a car park in Maidstone, BBC Radio 5 Live reporter, Stephen Chittenden says.
He adds that Patrick Wintour of the Guardian suggested on Twitter last night it is in a garage in south London. But it appears the search continues for the 8ft limestone monolith.
Perhaps whoever finds the Edstone should become the next Labour leader, a bit like the Arthurian Excalibur legend? A novel idea admittedly but maybe not as bonkers as it might sound. The Daily Mail, meanwhile, is apparently offering a case of champagne to the person that finds the two tonne piece of rock.
Victoria Derbyshire
Norman Smith says the row between UKIP officials and MP Douglas Carswell over public money paid to MPs "underlines the tension, the civil war brewing within the party".
Nigel Farage's people thought it wasn't up to Mr Carswell to decide to reject the money, he adds.
Quote MessageI suspect, one way or another, we are heading for a leadership contest, whether with the acquiescence of Nigel Farage or whether it is forced on him."
Norman Smith
Victoria Derbyshire
Former UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom says Douglas Carswell "should step forward now" and run for leader.
"For the good of the party they should unite behind him," he tells Victoria Derbyshire.
"But I don't think he wants it. It's a poisoned chalice."
And Mr Bloom has some strong words about the way UKIP has been run under its current leader.
Quote MessageAny criticism of Nigel is seen as disloyalty to the cause. We saw that before, did we not, in the 1930s."