As the Politics Live Page retires for the night, time for a quick look back at the main stories of the day:

David Cameron has been in Latvia for EU talks and has told other leaders of changes Britain wants.

He's said reforming the EU won't be easy, but he's confident he can get a better deal for the UK. 

Former Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael has admitted authorising the leak of a memo which suggested Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, wanted David Cameron to remain as prime minister.  

The TaxPayers' Alliance have attacked a decision to give members of the Welsh Assembly a £10,000 pay rise next year.  It's calling for a re-think. 

Its chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: 

The former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls says he's going to be supporting his wife Yvette Cooper in her bid for the Labour leadership, but that he won't be "playing any part in her campaign".

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson, he said he would do more to "help the family" while the shadow home secretary was busy with her campaign.

"While you never say never...the next phase for me is going to be outside of politics. But there's ways in which you can make a difference in the world outside of parliament and that's something I'd like to do. Who knows if there'll be a chance to be in public service again in the future. But for me now, out of politics is where it is."

And he added: 

In his first interview since Labour lost the election the former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has told the BBC of his "sense of loss" at Labour's defeat and said losing his own seat was "a symbol of the vibrancy of our democracy."

Asked by the BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson about election night, he said: "I always knew if the Tories won a majority I was probably a goner, but the reason I travelled 7,500 miles and went to 45 seats was because I was fighting to win."

He said politics was "a brutal business," because he'd felt it was "a real possibility" his party might have won and he might have become Chancellor.

Ed Balls defended Labour's record on spending in government. He said Labour should have been more pro-business and that he'd wanted to be..."but I also backed Ed Miliband 100%".

Image source, Science Photo Library

An update on another issue which cropped up at David Cameron's news conference in Riga this afternoon ...

The prime minister seemed to back Home Secretary Theresa May over her pre-election plans to give the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom greater powers to tackle extremists. 

A letter leaked to the Guardian, external from the then Culture Secretary Sajid Javid warned against proposals to allow the regulator to vet television programmes for extremist content before they air. 

But the PM told journalists: 

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says the leaking of a memo which alleged she would have preferred David Cameron to win the general election over Labour was a "blatant election dirty trick".

The Lib Dem MP and former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has admitted he approved a controversial leak to the Daily Telegraph in the run-up to the general election.

Nicola Sturgeon said: "Alistair Carmichael has written to me accepting that the account of my conversation with the French Ambassador was not correct, and apologising for what was a blatant election dirty trick in having it leaked. 

"I accept his apology, but the real issue is that he should be apologising to the people of Orkney and Shetland, because he clearly contested the election on false pretences."

She added: 

EU leaders have been reacting to the message David Cameron took to the EU talks at Riga in Latvia. 

Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb said: "Finland is very much in favour of the pro-reform agenda that David Cameron drives. We believe that there are issues that can be discussed with Britain." 

Dara Murphy, Europe minister for the Republic of Ireland, said Taoiseach Enda Kenny would be meeting Mr Cameron early next month to discuss his plans. Estonian prime minister Taavi Roivas said he was "open to discussion" but warned that he would oppose any attempt to roll back the free movement of labour within the EU. 

Image source, AP

Lib Dem Alastair Carmichael says he will not accept the ministerial severance payment normally due to ministers when they leave office, after it emerged he was behind a leak that suggested Nicola Sturgeon preferred the idea of David Cameron remaining in Downing Street over the former Labour leader, Ed Miliband.

He told the BBC: "I accept full responsibility for what's happened here. This happened in my department while I was Secretary of State. It involved my special advisor. It was something that I could have stopped and very much should have stopped."

Mr Carmichael said he deeply regretted his actions and added: "For the consequences of that error of judgement I've apologised to the first minister and to the French ambassador.

"If I were still a cabinet minister at this point I would tender my resignation.

"Obviously the Liberal Democrats are no longer in government so I am not, but I have said to the cabinet secretary that I will not accept the ministerial severance payment.

"I've said in the past I don't think that would be appropriate in other cases and I'm not going to do it myself."

Details of an inquiry into why the opinion polls were so wide of the mark in the run up to the general election have been revealed. 

An eight-member panel is being set up by the British Polling Council and the Market Research Society and aims to pin-point why the polls were wide off the mark.

It is due to report its findings by the beginning of March next year and will make recommendations for future polls. 

Figures out this afternoon from the health regulator, Monitor, show that England's leading health organisations - known as Foundation Trusts - have run up their first annual deficit. BBC health editor Hugh Pym says the total deficit - run by both the foundation trusts and the rest of the NHS trusts - is around £800m.  That compares with a shortfall of £115m the previous year. A big rise in spending on agency nurses has contributed to the deficit.

The former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has admitted that he was behind a leak to the media of a controversial memo which suggested Scotland's first minister wanted David Cameron to remain as prime minister.

BBC political correspondent Tim Reid says Mr Carmichael gave permission for his former special adviser to disclose the confidential memo to the Daily Telegraph during the general election campaign.

Mr Carmichael says it was an "error of judgement" and if he'd still been a cabinet minister today he would have resigned. He's written to Nicola Sturgeon to apologise - describing it as a "breach of protocol".

There's been an inquiry in to the leak, which concluded that Mr Carmichael "could and should have stopped the sharing of the memo".

The document concerned was written by a civil servant in the Scotland Office and suggested that Nicola Sturgeon had told the French Ambassador that she would prefer David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister and that Ed Miliband wasn't prime minister material.

Mr Carmichael has admitted that he should not have let Mr Roddin leak the memo and accepts "full responsibility for the publication".

Image source, Getty images

The Prime Minister told reporters he had not been "met with a wall of love" at the EU meeting of leaders in Riga, Latvia.

He has been paving the way for talks on changes to Britain's relationship with the EU.   

Asked if he would recommend leaving the EU if he did not get what he wanted in future negotiations, David Cameron said he had set out the main issues, which he thought were deliverable, but had always said he would "rule nothing out".

We have some serious problems with the way things work in the EU, David Cameron tells reporters. There are many other things that Europe needs to discuss,  but I think other leaders can see that there has been an election and the EU should see that Britain has a mandate for changes. But he stresses that today's talks were "not the start of detailed negotiations".