David Cairns, Scotland Office minister, has resigned, saying

The issue of leadership and direction are being discussed and argued over, and to go on denying it is hardly credible.

To that end I believe that the time has come to take the bull by the horns and allow a leadership debate to run its course.

I know that it is incompatible to hold this view and to remain a serving minister, and although it had not been my intention to resign, I have reluctantly concluded that it is the only honourable course of action left open. (BBC)

For details of the three previous …

A quick piece of breaking news: I’d blogged before about the way in which a taxpayer-funded magazine from Labour MP Glenda Jackson was being used to gather canvassing data for the Labour Party. She has now agreed to pay back in full the costs of the magazine, including postage.

Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, was sacked as a Labour whip after calling for a leadership contest.

Joan Ryan, Labour MP for Enfield North, was sacked as Gordon Brown’s Cyprus advisor and a Labour Party Deputy Chair.

Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, quit as Brown’s Special Envoy for Forestry (though that didn’t stop Gordon Brown subsequently trying to sack him anyway) accusing Brown of, “vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand.”

So far, twenty-odd Labour MPs are calling for a leadership contest, either in public or in private – and …

As the Daily Telegraph reports:

He told the party’s Bournemouth conference he will take time off when his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez gives birth. She is due in February.

Mr Clegg, 41, told delegates: “Yes I will take paternity leave, absolutely and unambiguously yes.”

Nick explains further in The Independent:

He said: “If I’m given a choice between spending an evening in a Westminster bar with other politicians or reading a book to my children, it’s a no-brainer.”

The Liberal Democrat leader added: “We are mothers and fathers before we are politicians. We’ve got a long way to

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