Katy Balls

After a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn passed at 172 votes to 40, a Labour leadership election looks on the cards. With Corbyn vowing to stand again, his opponents hope that -- post-Brexit -- a high enough proportion of the membership will choose to oust him. Yet in a sign that a lot of the grassroots support remains for Corbyn, the trade unions are preparing to stand by their man. After the vote results were announced on Tuesday, Len McCluskey told MPs that if they wish to contest a Labour leadership, it must be done 'democratically through an election, not through resignations and pointless posturing'. He warned that 'Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters throughout the movement will be ready for it'.

As the pressure piles in from Labour MPs on Jeremy Corbyn to stand down in the wake of the referendum result, Alan Johnson has added his voice to the cause. Johnson -- who worked as the Chair of Labour In for Britain -- has sent an email to Labour staff in which he criticises Corbyn's leadership in the campaign. Johnson starts by praising several key Remain figures such as Brian Duggan, the head of the campaign. He then goes on to point some of the blame at Corbyn and his team -- writing that at times it felt as though the Leader's office were 'working against the rest of the Party and had conflicting objectives': It doesn't come as a huge surprise that Johnson is expressing dissatisfaction with Corbyn over the campaign.

The Shadow Cabinet fightback is on. After Hilary Benn appeared on the Andrew Marr Show to set out the reasons for a no confidence vote in Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell has appeared on the Sunday Politics to make the case for the Labour leader. While Benn -- along with a growing list of MPs who have today resigned from the front bench -- argued that Corbyn is not up to being leader, McDonnell has reminded MPs of his mandate. 'Jeremy's not going anywhere,' the shadow chancellor told Andrew Neil. 'He was elected nine months ago, the biggest mandate of any political leader in our country, and he is not going anywhere.' McDonnell has also attempted to put an end to speculation that he could succeed Corbyn.

After finding himself accused of putting forward a half-hearted case for Remain, tonight Jeremy Corbyn had the chance to prove the naysayers wrong in his first -- and final -- live television debate of the referendum. Yet instead of making a passionate plea for In, Corbyn used the Sky News debate to raise some of his own reservations with the EU. While Corbyn admitted that he is not a 'lover of the European Union', he argued that it is better to stay and fight from within than to leave and be left with greater economic problems. However, it's his answers dwelling on the EU's flaws which are most likely to be remembered.

Following the news that the Labour MP Jo Cox has died after being shot and stabbed in a brutal street attack, her husband Brendan has called on the public to 'unite to fight against the hatred that killed her'. A number of politicians have paid tribute to the MP for Batley and Spen -- who won her seat in the 2015 election -- describing her as a woman of 'remarkable spirit and passion'. Gordon Brown says that both he and his wife Sarah -- who worked closely with Cox on humanitarian issues -- will be 'forever scarred by this moment': 'Our memories will be for ever scarred by this moment. Our hearts will always be hurt at our country’s loss. Jo Cox was the most vivacious, personable, dynamic and committed friend you could ever have.

It's been over a month since Ken Livingstone found himself suspended from the Labour party over his claim that Hitler was a supporter of Zionism. Today the former Mayor of London was forced to face the music over his comments at the Home Affairs select committee on anti-Semitism. Although Livingstone has experienced a fall from grace since the comments, he was in a cheerful mood at the hearing. When he wasn't pitching for his own BBC history show on Nazi Germany -- 'I'd be delighted to do it' -- he was filling MPs in on all the 'well-educated' Jews who had stopped him in the street of late to offer their sympathies.

With Tory MPs disheartened after a 'pretty bare' Queen's Speech this morning, there was much for opposition parties to feast on in this afternoon's debate. As tradition dictates, the Queen’s speech debate begins with light-hearted speeches from two government backbenchers. This year Caroline Spelman gave the veteran's loyal address, while Dr Phillip Lee was picked to represent the newbies. Spelman – a former environment secretary – didn't manage to generate much laughter with her address. She said she was glad there were now more females in the Chamber than when she began her career in 1997 -- when only 18 per cent of MPs were women. Lee, the MP for Bracknell, did at least manage to crack a few jokes.

The last time George Osborne appeared before the Treasury Committee he had to face questions on his disastrous Budget. So given the low bar, you could be forgiven for thinking that today's session on EU spending would have been a walk in the park in comparison. However, the Chancellor was put through his paces by the committee -- chaired by Andrew Tyrie -- as several pro-Brexit MPs, including Jacob Rees Mogg and Steve Baker, took the opportunity to air their grievances with the Remain campaign. It was Osborne's doomsday Treasury Brexit report -- which claimed that British households would be left £4,300 worse off -- that gave him the biggest headache. The most interesting line to come from the session was Osborne's admission that the Treasury is planning for Brexit.

Although Labour MPs have been encouraged not to brief what happens at meetings of the PLP to lurking journalists, Jeremy Corbyn's team have no issue briefing out what the leader will say at the meeting before it even occurs. Today hacks were told that Corbyn would use the meeting to clampdown on party in-fighting as members are sick of MPs 'parading on the media to give a running commentary'. However, what he actually said is another story. The Labour leader toned down his prose considerably -- presumably in the quest for party unity -- even though his harsher warning was already readable online. Despite this slip-up, the meeting was one of the cheeriest since Corbyn became leader.

After Prime Minister's Questions turned into 'Questions for the Leader of the Opposition', David Cameron did at least face some scrutiny today in the form of the Liaison Committee. Summoned before its chair Andrew Tyrie to answer questions on the EU referendum, it was clear that Cameron would rather not be there -- having tried to get out of attending back in April. Things got off to a tetchy start as Tyrie attempted to pin the PM down on whether he would have campaigned for Brexit had his renegotiation fell through. The pair then bickered over whether Tyrie's question could be classed as hypothetical: AT: I'm asking you a real question -- not a hypothetical one -- which is would the current arrangements in the EU be so unsatisfactory that you would be arguing we should leave?

As the European referendum campaign gains momentum, the London mayoral election has had to take a backseat in recent weeks when it comes to setting the news agenda. Tonight the mayoral candidates had a chance to turn this around as part of the BBC's London's Mayor debate. While Respect candidate George Galloway was left out of the line-up, the five main candidates -- Zac Goldsmith, Sadiq Khan, Caroline Pidgeon, Sian Berry and Peter Whittle -- joined Andrew Neil for the biggest debate of the campaign. With the election widely seen to be a two-horse race between Khan and Goldsmith, the pair dominated the evening as their campaign feuds bubbled to the surface. The first topic on the agenda was security.

As expected, there was one topic which dominated Treasury Questions today and that was the EU. The Chancellor did his best to hold his nerve as he faced strong opposition -- in the shape of MPs in his own party. It's a rare occasion when George Osborne is able to find more support in the Labour benches than his own but that's what happened today as Tory MP after Tory MP went into attack mode over the government's handling of the EU referendum. Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Treasury Committee, gave the criticisms an air of authority as he kicked things off by calling Osborne out on the use of Article 50 -- which spells two years of negotiations after an initial no vote under the Lisbon treaty, which covers a country leaving the EU.

David Cameron's two hour Cabinet meeting is now over, and the campaign has now started. His Cabinet members are now free to back (or oppose) Brexit, here is a list of who's saying what. Out camp Michael Gove: The Justice Secretary is to back Out. Entering No.10 he informed reporters that he would be making a statement after Cabinet -- only to head straight from Downing Street to Vote Leave's HQ --where the Cabinet members who are backing Brexit have gathered. Gove has issued a statement -- via Vote Leave -- describing the decision as the 'most difficult' of his political life: 'I don’t want to take anything away from the Prime Minister’s dedicated efforts to get a better deal for Britain. He has negotiated with courage and tenacity.

The first week of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in September was reminiscent of a The Thick of It omnishambles. The Labour leader pulled out of scheduled media appearances, ran away from camera crews, was falsely accused of stealing sandwiches from war veterans and suffered the misfortune of having hacks eavesdrop his shadow cabinet deliberations. Four months on and — although one could argue that his leadership remains chaotic — things have certainly improved. He now has a loyal team in place, his office is made up of a mix of those behind his leadership bid and trusted allies. Yet with a larger schism than ever existing between the PLP and the leader’s office, his closest allies are regarded with suspicion by many.

Although Michael Dugher is now Labour's shadow culture secretary, his predecessor Chris Bryant is still keeping a close eye on the issues. He took part in a panel discussion on the future of the BBC as part of the Labour fringe. During the talk Bryant was asked about reports last week that Channel 4 is to be privatised. The news broke after a government official was photographed entering 10 Downing Street with a document about privatisation proposals. Bryant says the document is proof that the government have 'been fibbing throughout the summer' about Channel 4.

It’s Notting Hill Carnival this weekend. Two days of skanking, dutty dancing and daggering (the dance, rather than the weapon). No carnival experience would be complete without rum punch and jerk chicken, or for that matter crime, cannabis and cocaine. Drugs are part of the fun at Europe’s biggest street festival. There were 76 drug arrests at the festival last year, and 88 arrests made before the party even started as part of a dawn raid seizing machine-guns and crack. Not that partygoers are about to let a little thing like the law get in the way of their bank holiday. A survey earlier this summer from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs claimed London is the city with the highest concentration of cocaine in sewage in Europe.