Early evening summary
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has claimed that support for his party is surging in London, following the announcement that five Labour councillors in Brent have defected. (See 5.16pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Updated
Ian Murray says he still doesn't know why he was sacked as Scottish secretary - and his wife was 'absolutely furious'
Ian Murray was sacked as Scottish secretary in the reshuffle in September – but returned to government just a day later as a minister of state covering creative industries and digital government, based in the culture department and the science department.
You might assume he was not happy with his demotion. But, according to an interview with Holyrood magazine, the person who was really furious was his wife. Murray told the magazine:
It’s fair to say that Mariam was absolutely fucking furious … She thought I was massively underappreciated, because she’s seen it from her side about how much I was balancing family life, parliament, being one of the new 37 Scottish MPs, being in government, the travelling up and down, not just in the constituency, but also around Scotland, and all the rest of it. But she was most angry about the fact that the prime minister didn’t have an explanation.
Murray said he had still not been told why he was sacked. And, if Keir Starmer planned to offer him the replacement job, he said he did not know why he was not told that at the time.
My big questions about coming back into government were, why was it not offered to me at the time – and it wasn’t – why has the decision now been made and why? If I’m not good enough for the Scotland Office, why am I now number two in two major UK departments?
Murray was replaced as Scottish secretary by Douglas Alexander, who did the job before as one of several cabinet jobs he held under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
