🚨 NEW: The Government has announced headphone dodgers on trains will face fines of up to £1,000 as a nationwide campaign launches today

🚨 NEW: The Government has announced headphone dodgers on trains will face fines of up to £1,000 as a nationwide campaign launches today

Lib Dem leadership showdown: - 4-hours has been carved out in MPs' diaries for their meeting at 5pm today, to accommodate requests from more than 40 people to speak (and breaks in proceedings for votes). Roz Savage, as chair of the parliamentary party, will chair the meeting. - So far, I've counted 21 MPs who've explicitly - or at least appeared - to back Ed Davey. That leaves a *lot* still undeclared. The rebels need 18 (or 25% of MPs) to force a no-confidence vote. - Davey's critics are digging in - and hoping his performance tonight swings sceptics in their favour. They say even if he survives tonight, it's a matter of "when, not if" he goes. - Davey's allies accuse the rebels of "trying to create chaos at a pivotal moment, with the timing of the next general election up in the air". He has spoken to some MPs to encourage them to speak in support of him tonight. - Some MPs privately think Davey should go, but are divided over who should replace him - further splintering the rebels.

EXCLUSIVE: Reform UK did not break any laws when senior party figures were recorded by undercover journalists discussing a £500,000 gift from a foreign donor, an internal investigation has concluded. A 27-page report, commissioned by Reform, after a Channel 4 investigation into funding also cleared the party of wrongdoing over the funding of three opinion polls. 🔗: telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…

I’ve taken the decision not to stand as Lib Dem candidate in Edinburgh West at the next GE. It has been a fantastic decade. I want to thank @EdwardJDavey for all his support over the years. I’m confident our next chapter will be even more successful and I’m sad I won’t be there.

For all their flaws, the Lib Dems are, by far, the best major party when it comes to trans rights. Fair play to them for fighting the good fight

🚨 NEW: Ed Davey has announced the Lib Dems would raise the 40% income tax threshold from £50,270 to £56,000 The tax-free personal allowance would also be increased to £15,000 so 2.5 million people don't pay income tax or NI

Paddy Ashdown would never have supported this I disown the Lib Dems

Farage has always behaved as though the rules apply to everyone but him. These allegations against Reform look like the latest example. Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson @LisaSmartMP has written to the police and the electoral commission asking them to investigate.

If Reform gain power Nigel Farage says his party will "declare a national emergency" and recess will be cancelled "Parliament will sit, if necessary, for 24 hours a day," he adds Follow live: bbc.in/4zXxjsM

“It worked, boom.” That’s Nigel Farage celebrating a Reform UK plot to break election law - by having a US company secretly pay for three influential political polls that benefitted the party. Earlier in the investigation, Reform’s Head of Policy James Orr and senior advisor Dan Jukes arranged for a Verbatim reporter to pay for the polls through a US company. Orr and Jukes believed the firm was run by the reporter’s American father. Mr Farage was filmed by undercover reporters from @Verbatim_Media as part of a year-long investigation that Channel 4 News has thoroughly checked and verified. This meeting took place in his Clacton constituency in July - when Mr Farage was fighting a by-election he called after separate allegations about his finances. Watch the full investigation on YouTube.