• Prime Minister's Questions has dominated the day at Westminster as David Cameron and Ed Miliband clashed over the TV debates

• Schools in England and Wales are to be given the power to hand top performing teachers a pay rise of up to 2%, with the armed forces, doctors, dentists, prison officers and senior civil servants set to get an average pay rise of up to 1% in 2015-16

• MPs have voted in favour of standardised cigarette packaging in the UK

• David Cameron has had his say on suspended Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, describing him as a "huge talent"

• Organisers of a digital election debate said they would hold it on 26 or 27 March to meet a deadline set by Downing Street

Thanks for joining us tonight, we'll be back from 06:00 GMT on Thursday with more rolling coverage.

tweets:, external .@LiamFoxMP on the coalition: "What started up as great romance ended up as doing it for the children and sleeping in separate rooms"

Responding to news of the teachers' pay settlement, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT union, says: "The fact that the review body has recommended breaking the Treasury's pay cap, albeit only for some teachers, demonstrates the review body recognises there is a real issue in terms of the adverse impact the coalition government's public sector pay policy is having on teacher supply."

tweets, external: YouGov/Sun poll tonight - Labour lead by one: CON 34%, LAB 35%, LD 7%, UKIP 14%, GRN 5%

BBC Newsnight

Discussing coalitions, former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell says he thinks a minority government would be "the worst of all worlds at the moment". He also doubts predictions that the Lib Dems will be "decimated" on 7 May will turn out to be accurate. For the Lib Dems, Julia Goldsworthy says her party "went into (coalition) with our eyes open - we knew it would be challenging".

BBC Newsnight

Newsnight has been looking back at how the coalition has worked out in practice. Former Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne says it would have been better for Nick Clegg to have been made either foreign or home secretary, as well as deputy prime minister. Former cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell says the alternative vote referendum - pitting the two parties against one another - was about the worst thing to happen in terms of coalition stability. You can watch on the live coverage tab above.

As well as teachers, government sources have told the BBC pay settlements will be announced tomorrow for the following workforces:

• The armed forces

• Independent contractor GPs and dentists

• The prison service

• Senior military and judiciary

The government said it had accepted pay review bodies' recommendations for these groups, who would receive an average of a 1% increase.

tweets, external: The Mirror's @Kevin_Maguire "The old party allegiances have been dying for some time...both Conservative and Labour"

Chris Mason
Political correspondent, BBC News

tweets:, external Been up since 3am for @bbcworldservice so definitely bedtime. Back up at 4am to launch exciting new @BBCRadio4 'The Listeners' Election.'

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan tells the BBC the flexibility to give schools in England and Wales the power to raise teachers' pay by up to 2% from September is possible because of the "strong economy". It has always been the government's policy to recognise the contribution of the best-performing teachers, she says. "This is particularly important for those who have been in the profession for a few years and are very important to the future of their schools."

The Mail's splash for Thursday is looking ahead to next week's Budget:

Image source, Daily Mail

Image source, PA

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna tells LBC Radio the first-past-the-post system will "come under pressure more" and should be scrapped in favour of a more proportional system even if that means permanent coalition government. The comments come days after Ed Miliband dismissed the prospect of pursuing electoral reform if he becomes prime minister, saying he would not put his energies into "a big debate about the electoral system". But Mr Umunna said the need to change Britain's voting system to reflect a new era of multi-party politics cannot be ignored. "We have a first-past-the-post voting system that I don't like. I am an electoral reformer... I believe we need to change the way we do politics and that includes changing our voting system," he said.

Time for the 22:00 news - here's a reminder of today's top political stories:

• PMQs got personal as David Cameron and Ed Miliband clashed over the TV debates

• MPs voted in favour of standardised cigarette packaging in the UK

• David Cameron has had his say on suspended Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, describing him as a "huge talent"

• The government is understood to be planning to give schools in England and Wales the power to raise teachers' pay by up to 2% from September

Amid suggestions of a rift in the coalition over the issue, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the settlement was affordable and the government should be "as generous as it can be", where possible, to public sector workers. The Lib Dem leader told the Daily Mail online, external that there was "quite a fierce debate" going on in government about the issue. "The recommendation is that for some teachers, it depends where they are on their pay band, they get a 2% increase," Mr Clegg said. "That's being resisted by George Osborne. I just think it's affordable, it wouldn't cost us the earth, it's recommended and we should get on and do it."