MPs vote in favour of referenum on AV – 8 in the morning, February 10th

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

* MPs last night voted 365 to 187 in favour of a referendum on changing the voting system to AV.

* David Miliband has called for a wider “reset referendum” to ask voters to give a view on how representatives become members of the Lords and Commons; the “organisation” of local government; and the possibility of bringing in fixed-term parliaments.

* A Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has hit out at George Osborne’s plans to close the FSA, as the top regulator resigned “causing confusion and instability at the heart of financial regulation. [Osborne’s] credit rating among City professionals is now BBB at best, with a serious risk of a downgrade to junk bond status”.

* Osborne’s inexperience unnerves the City, reports the Guardian.

* Election counts will have to begin within four hours of polls closing under proposals backed by the Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

* Labour breached privacy rules by making unsolicited automated phone calls to almost half a million people without their consent, the Information Commissioner’s Office has ruled.

* More than 70 councillors have written to the Times calling Gordon Brown’s social care plans ill conceived and likely to put pressure on the social services system.

* Nine peers hae been cleared over their epenses claims.