• Chris Grayling, leader of the House of Commons has said it would be "disastrous" for the UK stay in an unreformed European Union

• Key details of an internal Labour Party report on why the party lost the general election have been leaked to the BBC's Iain Watson

• A European Union deal on David Cameron's demands is expected next month. Jonathan Faull, who is leading the Commission's negotiations with the UK, said there was "good prospect" of it, but admitted the talks had been "difficult".

• Star Trek actor Willion Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, backed a debate in the Commons on space exploration.

• Labour peer Baroness Jowell has questioned whether Jeremy Corbyn would be able to win the 2020 general election and form a government.

The Spectator

The Spectator's Isabel Hardman, external sets out why she thinks Labour needs a report into why it lost the general election.

She writes:

The Huffington Post

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged the international community to take action over Syria's refugee children by creating a new way to deliver education in emergencies.

Writing in the Huffington Post, external he said: 

The Huffington Post

Labour MP Wes Streeting has condemned the government as "underhanded and undemocratic" for not allowing time for debate on student grants in the House of Commons.

Writing for the Huffington Post, external he said:

Image source, OBV

Home Secretary Theresa May and former footballer Sol Campbell were among the guests at an event on Wednesday evening to celebrate the record number of black and minority ethnic (BME) MPs.

Organisers of Operation Black Vote (OBV) said the number of BME MPs had increased from five in 1996 when the organisation was formed, to 41, or 6.3% of all MPs.

OBV's Simon Woolley said:"British politics and British society greatly benefits when we can utilise diversity’s teaming talent pool."

Theresa May said much progress had been made since she entered Parliament 18 years ago, when the Commons was "too white, too male, and with too many people from the same walk of life". 

But she said more needed to be done - and she also highlighted efforts to "open up the closed shop of policing and ensure that police forces properly reflect the communities they serve".

The Daily Politics

Plaid Cymru leader Leane Wood criticised David Cameron's decision to allow his cabinet to campaign on either side of the EU referendum, calling it a "mockery". She warned it would confuse votes and make the 'In' campaign "more difficult", and said Wales should not be pulled out of the EU against its will.

House of Commons
Parliament

Yvonne Fovargue, shadow business, innovation and skills minister, welcomed the debate but criticised the "ad hoc" nature of government funding which she said hindered strategic planning. She highlighted how space industry research had brought benefits to disaster relief, medicine and transport.

House of Commons
Parliament

Business minister George Freeman called the UK space sector "an undoubted and massive success story". He said the government's national space policy demonstrated a long term commitment to the industry, but he said he wouldn't "pre-empt" the process of selecting a spaceport adding it would be done "fairly" and "openly". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Alan Brown, MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, faced calls of "shame" from other MPs after admitting he had not watched the early Star Wars movies (he said he had watched the more recent ones with his children). He said in the past he had objected to spending money on vanity projects rather than working to improve social justice, but believed a thriving space industry could bring significant benefits to the UK population. 

House of Commons
Parliament

The debate in the Commons on space exploration has finished, but here are some highlights:

Carol Monaghan, MP for Glasgow North West, said she had been asked if the debate was "really that important". Her answer was that she believed it was "crucial" because the space and defence industries were the only ones that really pushed innovation, producing spin off technologies and products such as prosthetic limbs, foam mattresses and artificial satellites. 

Image source, Getty Images

UKIP MEP Louise Bours has accused "Labour’s so-called feminists" of "putting their own political future ahead of the safety of British women" by not speaking about alleged sex attacks on women by migrants in Germany and Sweden on New Year's Eve.

The Daily Politics

The government will announce by the autumn the "sink" estates identified for demolition and regeneration in England, Housing minister Brandon Lewis said.

Speaking to the Daily Politics, Mr Lewis could not give a timetable for the work, saying it "will depend on what the local areas want to do", and adding that the government did not want to "impose" the changes.

James Landale
Deputy political editor

Image source, Reuters

For some of us, happiness is a loving family and a fulfilling job. For others, it is a warm gun or even a cigar called Hamlet. But today the Cabinet Minister Oliver Letwin suggested that what makes people really happy is a nice bit of power devolved away from Whitehall.

Mr Letwin, a cheerful soul who glories in the title Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told an audience in London that the ability of people to run their own lives was a huge source of happiness. Swiss research, he said, had proved it.

And this was why the government was determined to devolve more power away from London and give people in England a greater say over things like housing, transport and local taxes.

Yes, he wanted to make government more joined up, have decisions taken closer to communities they affect and give people the chance to make their own choices about the places where they live. But he also wanted to make people happier.

He told the Institute for Government:

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited a housing estate in Stevenage this morning where he toured a new social housing development.

There he was asked whether he agreed with Chris Grayling that the UK's current terms of membership were 'disastrous' for the country.

He replied: 

Image source, Getty Images

The Ministry of Defence has spent £910,000 on bearskin, rabbit and fox fur hats since 2008, the Press Association news agency reports - with the bulk of the cash being spent on bearskins.

The MoD said 925 bearskin ceremonial caps, made famous by the Royal Guard, have been purchased since 2008, when a global economic downturn began.

Spending on the caps, sourced from Canada, increased in 2015 to £149,379 from £136,671 in 2014 and £65,108 in 2013 - with the total since 2008 amounting to £880,163.

Defence Minister Philip Dunne said: "The Ministry of Defence does not buy bear pelts; it buys ceremonial caps direct from suppliers who source pelts from animals culled as part of a programme to manage the wild population licensed by the Canadian government."

Image source, Getty Images

Responding to Donald Trump's latest comments in a war of words, Mr Salmond said: "The problem for Mr Trump lies not with his golf courses, but with him. The golf courses are excellent. 'The Donald' isn't.

"Unfortunately, his claims of the level of future investment in Scotland bear no resemblance to the reality of the last eight years."

Mr Salmond also claimed Mr Trump was "out of date" with his remarks about the Lockerbie bomber.

He said: "Megrahi's release was in 2009. Since then, the SNP has won an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament and 56 seats out of 59 in a UK general election.

"On Megrahi, Trump is like a cracked gramophone record playing in a digital age."

Inviting the presidential hopeful to talk to him directly, Mr Salmond added: "I suggest instead Mr Trump calls into LBC next Wednesday at 1600 [GMT], where he can ask me anything he likes."

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has declared Alex Salmond "an embarrassment to Scotland" after comments by the MP on his radio show.

The property developer established the Trump International Golf Links at the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire and had the support of Scottish ministers before a fall-out over a proposed offshore wind farm project which he claims will spoil the view from the resort. 

Mr Salmond told a caller to his LBC radio show:

"I've kind of changed my mind about Donald Trump and there's two reasons for that. Having secured his development, which was controversial, he then objects to other developments, like the offshore wind demonstrator - which would be generating some badly-needed jobs in the north-east of Scotland. Secondly, his comments about banning all Muslims from America. If anybody else was saying that sort of thing, if it was a preacher or something, he'd be banned from the UK for that sort of racist stuff."

Republican presidential candidate Mr Trump responded by saying Turnberry had suffered from under-investment until he took the reins and accused Mr Salmond of destroying sections of Scotland's landscape with wind turbines.

He also recalled the Scottish Government's "disgraceful" decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi on humane grounds in 2009.

Mr Trump said in a statement: 

The government has published its new guidelines for consultations. It includes twelve consultation principles , externalincluding the aim of government responding to consultations within 12 weeks.

In a written statement, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin said: 

The Daily Politics

Former boxing promoter Kellie Maloney told the Daily Politics she was "so pleased to be able to put my passport as a female, and my driving licence", during a discussion with MP Maria Miller on calls for official records to be 'de-gendered'.