David Cameron promised to cut the number of government advisers, but it was revealed yesterday - in among dozens of government announcements - he has employed more since the general election.

The prime minister has 32 special advisers - commonly know as Spads - up from 26 last year. 

It is expected to cost the government £8.4 million this year, external. Although overall the cost of Spads has decreased since the coalition government ended, it is still higher than during Gordon Brown's time in Downing Street.

The two highest paid are Mr Cameron's chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and communications chief Craig Oliver both on £140,000.

Chancellor George Osborne has 11 staff to advise him - four are on a special Council of Economic Advisers - while most other ministers have two or three advisers.

Labour have accused the government of "breaking their promises". Deputy Leader Tom Watson said: "Taxpayers are picking up an ever larger bill for Tory spin doctors".

Labour minister Jon Ashworth said Mr Osborne had given one adviser Thea Rogers, a former BBC producer credited with improving the chancellor's image and encouraging him to go on a diet, a 42% pay rise.

He said Mr Osborne had "one eye on the leadership" as he built "his empire within government"

BBC News Channel

Image source, PA

Matthew Goodwin, the author of a book on UKIP's rise, says Friday's row between Nigel Farage and Douglas Carswell marks a re-opening of the "significant civil war" over the party's direction which took place after the general election. 

Since then, he tells the BBC, there has been an "uneasy ceasefire" but the poor result in the Oldham West and Royton by-election and the realisation that the EU referendum campaign is round the corner have brought it to the fore again. 

He says Mr Carswell is concerned about the fact UKIP is not getting the same level of support as other right-wing, populist parties in Europe but also that Mr Farage's association with the EU leave campaign may be holding it back in the polls at a time when conditions are in its favour. 

However, he says the UKIP leader remains "incredibly popular" with both party members and "the people who matter" at the top of the party and questions whether there is anyone else with the "Farage factor" - who can deliver a pithy soundbite, rally the troops and put the work in round-the-clock - waiting in the wings to replace him. 

Yesterday the government said it would not ban the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, but said the organisation had "ambiguous relationship with violent extremism".

David Cameron said the group will be kept under review, while the Muslim Brotherhood said they would legally challenge the "deeply flawed" findings.

The review has taken two years to complete and was ordered after pressure to ban the group.

Read more from the BBC's Dominic Casciani here

A report into UK immigration has found 10,000 cases of asylum seekers were not being tracked by the Home Office.

The report added there was a reluctance to find these people as it "was not a priority and was considered a drain on resources".

From September there were also over 30,000 failed claims of asylum but they had not been deported or given rights to stay longer.

David Holt, the author of the report, external, said failing to deal with cases in a "timely manner was inefficient as well as ineffective". He went on to say the more time it took the more likely individuals would be harder to remove as they would form local ties and perhaps have children in the UK. 

The Home Office said they were taking "significant steps" to address the findings and added they had successfully removed 79,000 people in the last two years.

As promised, We are sifting through the 36 ministerial statements and 424 documents released by the government yesterday to bring you some of the key announcements. We're kicking off with a report into asylum seekers and immigration in the UK.

Image source, EPA

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has accused David Cameron of "governing from the shadows".

He concedes Labour could also be accused of a lack of transparency when they were in power but argues that the public will not wear it any longer.

In a speech this morning, he will highlight what has been dubbed Mr Cameron's "take out the trash" day - a deluge of government announcements that came out yesterday, as Parliament rose for the Christmas recess.

Labour were not above this sort of thing when they were in power of course - but rest assured we are ploughing through the documents to bring you the highlights on the live page. So stay tuned. 

Here is what Tom Watson will say in his speech

Vote Leave, one of the two cross-party groups campaigning for EU exit, has responded to last night's talks by reiterating its view that David Cameron's demands are "trivial". Its chief executive Matthew Elliott suggested the seriousness with which the other EU members were taking it could be summed up by the fact the reference to the negotiations in the EU Council communique only extended to two sentences. 

Image source, AFP

Arriving for the second day of the EU Council meeting in Brussels, Belgian prime minister Charles Michel had this to say about progeess on the UK's renegotiations. 

Gavin Hewitt
BBC chief corrrespondent

All the right soothing words were used during the Brussels evening. David Cameron spoke of "good progress" and "a pathway to a deal" - but for the moment there is deadlock.

The prime minister addressed the other leaders for 45 minutes.

UK officials wanted to point out that this had never been done before, as if the length of his appeal were somehow significant.

Yes, the mood of the meeting was generally positive but the outline of a deal is as elusive as it was.

There was much talk of compromise and indeed there is a rich vein of goodwill towards keeping the UK in the EU, but there was little or no flexibility over David Cameron's most contentious demand - withholding benefits to EU migrants for four years.

Read Gavin's full blog

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has told Douglas Carswell - the party's only MP- to "put up or shut up". 

Mr Carswell told BBC Essex the party needed a "fresh face".

Mr Farage said UKIP are "a very united party" and "unanimously" behind his leadership. He said Douglas Carswell is "completely out on a limb" and he "must put up or shut up".