Susana Mendonca
BBC Radio London Political Reporter

The London Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan has been accused of stabbing his party leader in the back at a debate in central London last night. 

The Respect candidate George Galloway - who was expelled from the Labour Party more than a decade ago - told the audience that Mr Khan had "stabbed" Labour leader and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn "in the back, in the front (and) in the side". 

Image source, bb

Mr Khan responded: "My job description is to be the best fighter, the best champion, the best advocate for London."

The wide ranging debate, hosted by the Evening Standard newspaper, covered everything from housing and transport to radicalisation. The election to select London's next mayor is in May. 

Susana Mendonca
BBC Radio London Political Reporter

The Conservative London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith has described the EU is "undemocratic" but said that "as a courtesy to the prime minister" he would not yet take a position on whether he favoured Britain leaving or remaining in it. 

Mr Goldsmith said he'd wait until the renegotiations were complete before taking a position. He was speaking at a debate last night with the leading London mayoral candidates organised by the Evening Standard. 

His main rival, Labour's Sadiq Khan, told the audience that London needed a mayor "who's campaigning with David Cameron and George Osborne... to keep us in the EU".

Susana Mendonca
BBC Radio London Political Reporter

The leading contenders in the London mayoral race have clashed on the issue of Tube strikes in the latest London mayoral debate, which took place last night hosted by the Evening Standard. 

Conservative Zac Goldsmith said he had stood against union bosses and accused his Labour rival of being a union man who would be unable to deliver. 

But Sadiq Khan insisted he would stand up to the unions when needed and talk to them to avoid strike action.

Some commentators online have been giving non-too serious responses to the question posed by the Daily Mail's front page today...

Image source, EPA

Syrian peace talks have been undermined by a sudden increase in aerial bombing and military activity in the country, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in London on Thursday, urging a return to the negotiating table.

"It is deeply disturbing that the initial steps of the talks have been undermined by the continuous lack of sufficient humanitarian access, and by a sudden increase of aerial bombing and military activities within Syria," Mr Ban told the donor conference.

He said the coming days should be used to get back to the negotiating table, rather than to secure further battlefield gains.

The Syrian talks in Geneva were suspended late on Wednesday.

The Daily Politics

Speaking at a conference to address funding for Syrian refugees, David Cameron says:

The Daily Telegraph

Trade union funding reforms could see the Labour Party lose around a quarter of its annual income, The Telegraph reports, external.

"Under reforms proposed in the Trade Union Bill, public sector bodies will be banned from automatically deducting subscription fees from workers' wages," the article says.

Image source, Getty Images

Conservative former deputy speaker Nigel Evans has confirmed to the BBC he will vote for Britain to leave the European Union. 

Mr Evans had previously hinted this would be his position - but says he has now made up his mind.

"I'm certainly going to vote to leave the European Union and I suspect a number of my constituents are going to do so also," he told the BBC.

Mr Evans said the proposals published earlier this week were "somewhat diluted" compared to what was set out in the Conservative manifesto, which he called "a big disappointment".

The MP for Ribble Valley said he believed the referendum could "go any way" but that people would vote based on what they believed was best for their families, not the proposals set out this week.

He said cabinet ministers who wished to leave had had a "stranglehold" put on them. "It seems to me as if the pistol has already been fired, and the 'In' campaign, led by the prime minister, has already started," he said.

He went on to say it was a "shame" David Cameron was not allowing cabinet ministers to campaign in any way they wished straight away.

The Times

Transport Minister Claire Perry claims the UK's railways were "worse before privatisation" in an article in The Times, external.

Since privatisation, "passenger numbers using Britain’s railway have doubled to a level not seen since the 1920s," she says.

Image source, PA

Lord Roper, who died aged 80, is described by the Daily Telegraph, external as "a low-profile Labour frontbencher and academic who switched to the SDP" before becoming Liberal Democrat chief whip in the Lords.

In an obituary, the paper describes him as "exerting considerable influence" over the "Gang of Four" - the break away group of moderate Labour MPs that formed the SDP in the early 1980s.

"Though an infrequent speaker in the Commons, Roper was instantly recognisable," the Telegraph said.

"Always with a file of papers under his arm, he would digest the proceedings at the Bar of the House before moving, as if on castors, to his seat."

Lord Roper won the safe Lancashire seat of Farnworth for Labour in 1970. As Labour turned against Europe, he argued that EC membership would benefit working people.

He served as a junior defence spokesman under Labour leader James Callaghan, before joining the SDP.

He was created a life peer in 2000 and a privy counsellor in 2005. His daughter survives him. 

Gordon Brown, Labour's former prime minister and now UN special envoy for global education, has called for "an initiative as ambitious as the postwar Marshall plan to address the chaos of 12 million Syrians displaced from their homes". 

The Marshall plan was a US aid package designed to help rebuild Western Europe after the Second World War. 

The Guardian

Writing in the The Guardian, David Cameron says: "Syrians want to go home and rebuild their country - I intend to help them."

He adds that the donor conference in London, which aims to raise £6.2bn ($9bn; €8.3bn) for those affected by the war in Syria, seeks to change "a critical shortfall in life-saving aid".

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

International Development Secretary Justine Greening has urged other countries to step up their response to the crisis in Syria.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 

Image source, Financial Times

The Financial Times says Boris Johnson is expected to back the "In" campaign after a plan by David Cameron to "unveil a new UK sovereignty law".

Image source, The Times

The Times has a front page story saying that Justice Secretary Michael Gove is "torn between personal loyalty to the prime minister and his conscience" about whether to back the "In" or "Out" campaigns.

Image source, Daily Express

The Daily Express says David Cameron's proposed reforms to the UK's relationship with the EU are "falling apart". It reports that Brussels could block his plan to restrict certain benefits for workers from other European Union countries.