Isabel Hardman

Downing Street is trying to play down Sayeeda Warsi's  Eton Mess stunt on The Agenda last night. Asked what his response to her decision to hold up a front page saying 'Number 10 takes Eton Mess off the menu', the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'Look, I think that was in the light-hearted section of the programme. I'm not sure whether he actually caught the programme, as it happens.' He then added that the Prime Minister had 'spoken about the importance' of greater social mobility, and that the Chancellor had made similar comments to that effect yesterday. Both Warsi and Michael Gove were at Cabinet today, but the spokesman said there was no discussion either of the Etonian Problem, or of the need for ministers to stay on message.

Unsurprisingly, Michael Gove's FT interview in which he attacked the 'preposterous' number of Old Etonians around David Cameron - widely interpreted as a sally on behalf of George Osborne - has gone down like a lead balloon with the Prime Minister. I understand that Cameron had a stern word with the Education Secretary over the weekend, with one source telling me that 'he was torn a new one and given a right royal bollocking'. Cameron has made it very clear to Gove that his words were 'bang out of order' and that his aim is to focus on the Cabinet job in hand, not go on freelance missions. Meanwhile, those supporting Boris's leadership ambitions are deeply amused by the amount of energy being expended by the Osborne camp on furthering his prospects on the Tory backbenches.

Viviane Reding is a bit of a favourite among UK ministers. The European Commissioner for Justice has a knack of making such a good case for reform of Europe with her interviews and policies that Conservatives - and indeed Ukippers - are quite content for her to intervene as often as possible. This week, she's got another cunning plan that eloquently makes the case for reform of Europe - and ministers will be standing up to her again. Reding is expected to publish the second annual EU Justice Scoreboard on Monday:  it's a league table of all the EU member states' justice systems. At first glance, this sounds like a nice idea: compare the independence and efficiency of different justice systems to encourage under performing countries to improve.

The Tories have been hoping that their pledge for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU would split Labour – it was the rationale behind John Baron's regular pushes for legislation in this parliament for a referendum in the next, which David Cameron eventually satisfied as far as he could with the Wharton Bill. But so far the only dissenting voices on Ed Miliband's pledge today for an 'unlikely' referendum have been the usual suspects on the backbenches such as Graham Stringer and John Mann. That's hardly a 'furious backlash' and more expected and manageable rage – at present, anyway. It will be interesting to see whether there are many more senior figures who break cover or at least brief off the record about the Labour stance on this issue.

Why is Ed Miliband going to rule out a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU in a speech tomorrow? The Labour leader has written in the FT that he would legislate for a new referendum lock which would force an In/Out referendum if there was another transfer of British power to Brussels, which essentially means he supports the current situation under the Coalition. And he says in the piece that the transfer is unlikely in the next Parliament. Which means no referendum. He writes that Labour's position on Europe... "… is clear and principled: we strongly believe Britain’s future is in the EU. And my priorities for government after the next election are very different from those of the Conservatives.

What makes a good Secretary of State? Today Jeremy Browne was interviewed on the Daily Politics about what it's like to be a junior minister, from his experience of working in both the Foreign Office and Home Office. Towards the end, Jo Coburn asked whether it was true that he'd been given more freedom at the Foreign Office than he had when working for Theresa May at the Home Office. He said: 'Well that would be telling tales, but I think… anybody who's ever been in any workplace will know that some bosses are willing to give you a little bit more freedom and discretion and others are a bit more control freakish.

Nick Clegg's spring conference speech seems to have been written entirely with Nigel Farage in mind. The Lib Dem leader has decided to go after the Ukip chief, and today's address was the latest example of the old party of protest directly engaging with the new one. Where Farage had a slogan about loving Britain and voting Ukip (which would have been better if it hadn't been borrowed from the BNP), Clegg had a whole Love Actually-esque speech about it, ranging from affectionate asides about cups of tea and queues to this country's love of freedom and its generosity. It was pretty difficult to disagree with anything that the Deputy Prime Minister said about the lovely things about Britain.