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The architect of David Cameron’s policy on gay marriage is leaving Downing Street after losing a power battle with the Prime Minister’s new Election supremo. Andrew Cooper, Mr Cameron’s personal polling guru and a key modernising figure at No 10, is returning to his private business after being usurped by outspoken Australian ‘fixer’ Lynton Crosby. Mr Cooper, who became Director of Government Strategy two years ago, is a former member of the now defunct Social Democratic Party and lobbied Mr Cameron to ditch traditional Right-wing Tory values and policies on Europe, tax and crime in a bid to ‘detoxify’ the Conservatives’ ‘Nasty Party’ image. In contrast, Mr Crosby, who took charge of the Tory campaign machine in January on a £200,000-a-year deal, specialises in ‘dog whistle’ tactics – subtle appeals to voters’ underlying prejudices over issues such as immigration – which are designed to appeal to core Conservative voters. Defiant Mr Crosby denies using ‘dog-whistle’

Embattled Police and Crime Commissioner Ann Barnes is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on staff and personal advertising campaigns – despite describing her job as a ‘wilful waste of public money’. A week after being humiliated following the resignation of Paris Brown, her £15,000-a-year youth crime tsar, who posted a series of racist and foul-mouthed Twitter rants, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal that Mrs Barnes is using a further £90,000 of taxpayer funds to hire a chief of staff. The development comes just months after the 67-year-old recruited two special advisers on £5,900-a-month salaries, as well as paying a former Police Authority colleague £300 a day to advise her. More trouble ahead: Ann Barnes is facing calls to quit after losing the confidence of her officers She has spent a further £15,000 on a battle bus which she has dubbed ‘Ann Force One’. Her 30-page budget plan includes 16 photos of herself. Mrs Barnes, who from June 2005

A new TV cookery show is in the works which aims to feed on the current popularity for all things post-apocalyptic - including The Walking Dead - and the growing ‘prepper’ movement readying itself for the end of civilization as we know it. According to advertisements placed on the Reality Wanted website, a ‘major TV network’ has decided the time is right for an experimental cooking challenge show featuring contestants making ‘unexpectedly delicious’ meals from whatever is close at hand rather than worrying about what is currently in season or what has been sourced locally. TV production company Schweet Entertainment is looking for chefs to compete in ‘post-apocalyptic cooking challenge scenarios’ that will include using whatever is available to whip up a tasty meal without electricity or a fully stocked grocery store to help you out. An experimental new cooking challenge show is in the works that will feature contestants making delicious meals from whatever t

Victor Groves took the call at 5.43am last Saturday. The time is important, because at that moment life as they knew it stopped for Victor and his wife, Kate. Now their lives will forever be defined by ‘before and after’ 5.43am — when they learned that their daughter, Sarah, had been murdered while travelling in Kashmir. They had begged 24-year-old Sarah not to go to the region. Ownership of the territory is under dispute by India and Pakistan, and the area has for many years been targeted by terrorists and militants. So fearful were Mr and Mrs Groves for their daughter’s safety that they had booked a trip to Nepal, where they were planning to meet her at the base camp of Mount Everest next Friday. Scroll down for video Tragic: Sarah Groves, 24, from Guernsey, was found stabbed to death on a house boat in Dal Lake, in Srinigar, Kashmir The trip was arranged specifically to persuade Sarah to leave Kashmir, but tragically she died before that planned reunion w

Police started investigating 17-year-old former Youth Police and Crime Commissioner Paris Brown after discovering she used a racial slur in her Twitter profile. Miss Brown resigned last week after The Mail on Sunday revealed she used her personal Twitter account to make a series of offensive, racist and anti-gay posts. Kent Police are understood to be looking at tweets where Miss Brown uses the word ‘n*****’ – an offensive term for black people – in alternative spellings. The force also confirmed it has received more than 50 complaints but is yet to decide whether Miss Brown has committed any offence. Her account, where she posted or circulated more than 4,000 messages, was deleted last Saturday after this newspaper asked her to explain messages referring to drug use, underage drinking and threats of violence. Just hours after The Mail on Sunday revealed the foul-mouthed rants, Miss Brown’s boss, Ann Barnes, attempted to defuse the outrage by falsely claiming the me

Justice secretary Chris Grayling has banned prisoners from watching 18-rated DVDs as part of his plan to turn jails into ‘no-frills’ institutions. Violent and sexually explicit movies will be removed from prison libraries and inmates will no longer be able to receive them from visitors. Any such material found in cells will in future be confiscated. Computer and video games for over-18s were banned in prisons several months ago and now the Government has widened the net. Chris Grayling says he wants prisons to be 'spartan' places which people do not want to return to It comes after Mr Grayling, who took up his current post last September, told The Mail on Sunday that he wanted prisons to be ‘spartan but humane’ places to which people had ‘no particular desire’ to return.   More... London's ring of steel: Preparations in full swing ahead of Baroness Thatcher's funeral as police get ready to launch biggest security operation since the Ol

Former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell is demanding an apology from Theresa May after privately accusing the Home Secretary of masterminding his exit from Government over ‘Plebgate’. He is convinced he lost his job last autumn because of a police conspiracy – and that Mrs May was instrumental  in turning the Cabinet against him when his fate hung in  the balance. And he also believes she let her view that his position had become untenable become known to the media. Former Chief whip Andrew Mitchell (right) wants a personal apology from Theresa May (left) because he believes she turned Cabinet members against him during the 'Plebgate' row Mr Mitchell has admitted swearing when asked to take his bicycle through a side gate at Downing Street last September, but has always insisted police fabricated claims that he called them ‘f****** plebs’. He resigned in October after a police log, which appeared to corroborate the officers’ account, was leaked