Newsnight

Concern about how the Labour leadership contest has been run is spreading throughout the party. The former home secretary Charles Clarke, who has voted Kendall 1st, Cooper 2nd and Burnham 3rd, told Newsnight he was very disappointed in the contest and raised the prospect of legal challenges to the result: ‘I think it’s been a disaster unfortunately. I am very sad about it. I wrote about it immediately after the election — it was very important to get through to have a process where people had confidence in the election process. ‘We’ve got legal challenges, I think there may be still further legal challenges about the process; issues about who can, who can’t vote.

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership bid has so far managed to inspire a legion of new supporters to join the Labour party. Alas, his unexpected popularity is also causing a problem for some members of the media. After the Guardian launched an in-house investigation into whether their own Corbyn coverage was bias against him, Emily Maitlis, who has interviewed him for tonight's Newsnight, has written a gushing blog post titled 'Prepping to meet "the man of the moment"'.  In it, she says that his tendency to veer off from textbook politician answers caused her a problem when preparing for the interview: 'On the train to Leeds my producer Ed Brown and I are putting together a list of questions for Jeremy Corbyn.

Last night Derek Hatton claimed that he has successfully rejoined the Labour Party 29 years after they expelled him. Hatton -- who joined Labour with the Trotskyist group Militant -- boasted about his membership on Newsnight while defending Jeremy Corbyn. 'In my pocket I've got a Labour Party card,' he said, after tweeting a picture of his card earlier this year: https://twitter.com/DegsyHatton/status/603809448004562944 While he may have the card, Mr S is sorry to report that he doesn't have a vote. The Labour Party are adamant that he is not a member. Bizarrely they say cards are sent out automatically before the membership is approved: https://twitter.

Rachel Johnson has never been shy of using her Notting Hill neighbours as a source of 'inspiration' for her series of chick-lit Notting Hell books. Her latest book Fresh Hell is no exception. It follows a character rallying against a major basement conversion in a storyline not dissimilar to Johnson's own efforts to oppose her neighbour's plans for such underground developments. However, another plotline in the book has caught Mr S's eye. The novel follows Notting Hill journalist Mimi going on Newsnight - the current affairs programme which Johnson has appeared on in the past - to name and shame her basement digging neighbour.

The one memorable moment from last night's Labour leadership debate was Liz Kendall's remark that ‘country should come first’, with regards to another leadership contest before 2020. It was a swipe at Andy Burnham, who had said that the ‘party should come first.' Team Kendall is understandably pleased at the Vines and clips of this exchange. It has given her campaign some crucial momentum and ensures that the contest remains a three-horse race. In a debate that was otherwise pretty uneventful, this exchange is likely to stick with both Burnham and Kendall. But a source on Burnham’s campaign suggests that the remark has been misinterpreted: ‘Andy clearly meant “party before individuals and candidates.

Tonight’s Newsnight Labour leadership debate is a sink or swim moment for Liz Kendall. So far, there has been a lot of talk about Kendall's candidacy and her potential to be a reforming leader. But until now, there hasn’t been a lot of proof to back that up. Some have been whispering that she doesn’t perform well under sustained pressure; others have likened her supporters to the Taliban. Either way, tonight’s debate is her opportunity to show that she is credible — as well as hopefully answering the crucial question of what, if anything, she stands for. It’s a mistake to label Kendall as just the Blairite right-wing candidate. Again, she has the potential to have far broader appeal, what could be described as 'New with a touch of red.

Nominations for the Labour leadership contest may have only been open for 24 hours but Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall already have enough to support to make it onto the ballot paper. There are, though, still around 70 MPs who have yet to declare their intensions — see who they are here. All of the leadership campaigns are predicting that the contest is set to be either a two or three horse race, with most of these undecided backing Burnham, Cooper or Kendall. But let us not forget Mary Creagh and Jeremy Corbyn, who are still in the race and there are enough undecideds to put both of them onto the ballot paper. Few in Labour are expecting Creagh to garner the 35 nominations needed.

David Cameron didn’t answer the question today at PMQs despite Ed Miliband repeating it five times. But in a rowdy chamber, it didn’t seem to matter as Tory MPs roared their approval at Cameron’s one liners. Cameron, in reference to Ed Balls’ disastrous slip on Newsnight last night, quipped ‘Bill Somebody is not a person, it’s Labour policy’. Miliband wasn’t helped by how technical the question he was asking was. It, according to Labour sources, related to something called Schedule 19 which governs the taxation of share purchases made by hedge funds through investment banks. Now, Labour will argue that it illustrates their general point that the Tories are the party of ‘Mayfair hedge funds and Monaco tax avoiders’.

Since Jeremy Paxman quit Newsnight last year, he has hardly been discreet with regards to his feelings about the BBC's flagship current affairs show, claiming it is run by 12-year-olds. Now, he tells this week's Radio Times what programmes he has been enjoying of late, and surprise, surprise, Newsnight isn't one of them. 'I'm watching Take Me Out and listening to the World Service, where there's still real news,' he says. Paxman's penchant for ITV's dating show aside, could he be alluding to the direction Newsnight has taken under Ian Katz? In an interview this summer, the Newsnight editor went so far as to admit Paxman found his ideas 'infantile'. 'He’s dyspeptic about pretty much everything.

Michael Gove pitched up on Newsnight yesterday to give one of his typically confident performances to the programme. Apparently CCHQ don't believe any floating voters watch the BBC's flagging current affairs show. The Chief Whip was removed from his previous role as Education Secretary because of poor poll ratings with floating voters, and senior Tories involved in that move were keen that he only be unleashed in controlled circumstances, despite being dubbed one of the new ‘ministers for broadcast’. So Gove wasn’t there to persuade wavering mothers in Bolton, but he was trying to persuade those who were watching that the Tories remain confident they can win a majority in May.