Sebastian Payne

Relations between Andy Burnham and Harriet Harman must be disintegrating quickly. After the leadership favourite abstained during last night's vote on the Welfare Bill, Burnham attempted to his logic on the World at One. Burnham said his mind hadn’t changed and he has always been in favour of a ‘reasoned amendment’ — but he was unhappy with how the vote went: ‘Let me be clear: this was still a compromise position and it wasn’t a strong enough position for me. But I as leader firstly would have opposed this bill outright last night and would do so if elected leader.

The row in Ukip over parliamentary Short money has finally been resolved. Guido reports that Douglas Carswell, the party’s sole MP, has been advertising for a £60k per annum speechwriter, funded out of public money. This is the first indication that Ukip is setting itself up as a proper Westminster party through use of Short money. To recap, the disagreement began after the general election, when a divide opened up between Carswell and Ukip HQ over whether to use some or all of the money allotted to it as an opposition party — known as Short money. Some kippers were keen take all of the available £670k, while Carswell was pushing for a more restrained approach.

The four Labour leadership contenders took part in another televised hustings today, this time chaired by Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics. With just over 50 days left of this contest, the candidates are now more comfortable in each other’s company and seem much happier to attack each other. Although no one spectacularly won or failed, a few moments did provide some insight into the current state of the race. Here are five key points from today’s hustings. 1. Corbyn is comfortable running as the far left candidate. The rise of Corbynmania has overlooked that he has no frontbench experience and little idea of how to do serious politics.

Tim Farron’s election as leader of the Liberal Democrats is the first piece of positive news for the party since its disastrous election result on May 7. The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale celebrated his victory over Norman Lamb at the Islington Assembly Hall last night. I want along to find out how the Lib Dems are feeling on the eve of what could be the party’s rebirth — or a further slide into the wilderness. A cheery crowd of 471 Liberal Democrat activists turned out to celebrate Farron’s victory right in the heart of the metropolitan liberal elite. For a party that wants to rebuild itself from the grassroots up, Islington was a curious choice of venue. The ubiquitous 'Winning here!

Tim Farron has been duly announced as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. The party revealed that 56.5 per cent voted for Farron to succeed Nick Clegg, compared to 43.5 per cent for his rival Norman Lamb. Although Farron was the favourite to win before the leadership race kicked off, Lamb has still put in a good showing, despite his lesser reputation. We can expect to see more of him too: Farron told Coffee House that Lamb will given a public role representing the party. And here was the result being announced by Deputy Returning Officer and CEO of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Gordon. https://t.

In an impressive cross-party signing, the government has appointed Lord Adonis, the former Labour transport secretary, to oversee delivery of the HS2 railway. Lord Adonis gave birth to the idea of HS2 prior to the 2010 election and has remained a vocal advocate for the project ever since. The transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said in a statement he was ‘extremely pleased’ that Adonis is joining the board of HS2 Ltd as a non-executive director. Adonis himself described HS2 as a project of ‘national significance’: ‘Patrick McLoughlin has been a powerful advocate for the project and the government has risen to the challenge of thinking about the long-term by putting in place a strong team to deliver it.

Liz Kendall spent an hour on Facebook this evening answering questions from Labour supporters. Those sitting on a social network on a Tuesday evening are clearly not entirely representative of the party’s membership, but this Q&A suggests Kendall has a perception problem in some quarters. The sheer vitriol of the comments from those who claim to be Labour supporters shows that some folks really do not like Kendall. Here is a selection some of the users had to about Kendall being a supposed closest Tory (these posts enviably had the most likes, far more than her responses): ‪Paul Whiteley‪: Hi Liz.....

Jeremy Corbyn is finally receiving the scrutiny he deserves. On Channel 4 News this evening, the hard-left Labour leader hopeful was quizzed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy on comments about engaging with 'friends'  in Hamas and Hezbollah over the Middle East conflict. Corbyn refused to apologise for using the word 'friends' and snapped several times at Guru-Murthy for not letting him finish a long-winded answer: 'I'm saying that people I talk to, I use it in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk. 'Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. What it means is that I think to bring about a peace process, you have to talk to people with whom you may profoundly disagree.

This podcast is sponsored by Berry Bros, The Spectator’s house red The crisis in Greece is rapidly turning into a tragedy. In this week's View from 22 podcast, Harry Mount and Vincenzo Scarpetta discuss this week's Spectator cover feature on the situation in Greece. What are the feelings on the streets of Athens about the crisis? Will Sunday's referendum mark the end of Syriza, or the end of the Eurozone? On politics, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth discuss how David Cameron can use the Greek crisis to his advantage when renegotiating Britain's relationship with the EU. We also look at the Airports Commission's decision to recommend a third runway at Heathrow Airport and whether it will lead to a major split in the Tory party.

Now that the Davies Commission has made its recommendation, the ball is back in the government's court. The biggest immediate challenge the government has to face is David Cameron’s 2009 remark that ‘the third runway at Heathrow is not going ahead, no ifs, no buts.’ As James noted at PMQs today, the Prime Minister’s body language did not suggest he is particularly favourable towards Heathrow. But now the Airport Commission report has been received by the government, the buck has been passed to the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. While Cameron said in the Commons that a decision will be made ‘by the end of the year’, McLoughlin said it would be by September.