Top Home Office mandarin knew of Braverman’s alleged speeding request

Permanent secretary told about alleged request in autumn, say sources, as home secretary fails to calm Tory nerves in Commons

The most senior civil servant in the Home Office was made aware of allegations that Suella Braverman wanted civil service help in dealing with a speeding fine, the Guardian understands.

The development raises questions about how many other senior officials and ministers across Whitehall were then informed about the claims, and puts pressure on the prime minister to order an investigation into the allegations.

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Ex-Mubarak minister Mohamed Mansour donates £5m to Tories

Tory senior treasurer Mansour says he wants to assist ‘very capable prime minister’ Rishi Sunak

The Conservatives have accepted a £5m donation from an Egyptian-born billionaire who served as a minister in the government of the former president Hosni Mubarak.

Mohamed Mansour, who was made senior treasurer of the Conservatives in December, announced he had given the sum to the party, its biggest one-off donation for more than 20 years.

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Major Tory donor investigated over fraud and money laundering allegations

Indian rice tycoon Karan Chanana, who gave the Conservatives more than £220,000, is under scrutiny by India’s finance ministry

A leading Tory donor who has given more than £220,000 to the party is being investigated over allegations of fraud and money laundering.

Karan Chanana, head of the global rice brand Amira, is being investigated in India over claims that tens of millions of pounds of bank loans were unlawfully diverted into shell entities. Chanana has not responded to the claims.

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Rishi Sunak: Britain has moved on from judging people for being rich

PM says Labour criticism of family tax arrangements doesn’t bother him, as rich list shows he and his wife have lost £200m

Rishi Sunak has said he is “not bothered” by Labour’s criticism of his wealthy family’s tax arrangements and thinks the UK has “moved beyond” judging people on their money, as a new estimate said the UK prime minister’s fortune had fallen to around £500m.

Sunak, who is the wealthiest British prime minister ever on account of his wife’s shareholdings, said he did not pay attention to Labour’s personal attacks on his finances.

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Sunak to urge G7 support for collective action against ‘economic coercion’

Leaders expected to form council that will discuss response if states such as Russia and China boycott trade for political reasons

The UK and other G7 countries are planning collective action against Russia and China if they threaten trade boycotts for political reasons, announcing a new body to deal with “economic coercion”.

Rishi Sunak will urge “bold and pragmatic collective action” against hostile states that stop trading with other countries when they disagree with their geopolitical decisions.

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Rishi Sunak says he is ‘crystal clear’ that he wants to reduce immigration – UK politics live

Latest updates: prime minister says he wants level of net immigration to fall below the 500,000 it was when he took over

It is a topic Rishi Sunak would no doubt prefer to avoid: the record-breaking jump in net immigration – soon to be revealed in official figures – which is already causing increasingly fractious rows within his cabinet.

Even a trip to the G7 summit in Japan was not far enough, with reporters on the flight asking directly whether the prime minister intended to stick to Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto pledge to bring net immigration down.

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Rishi Sunak’s upbeat view on economy stokes claims he is out of touch

On flight to Japan for G7, PM says ‘economic optimism is increasing’ and insists Brexit is working

Rishi Sunak has been accused of being out of touch with ordinary families after claiming the economy was looking up and people’s household incomes were “hugely outperforming” expectations despite the cost of living crisis.

On a flight to Japan for the G7 summit of world leaders, the prime minister said that despite consumers struggling with high inflation and the cost of food and energy, there were “lots of signs that things are moving in the right direction” with the economy.

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House prices need to fall relative to income, Keir Starmer says

Labour leader accuses Conservative government of killing the dream of home ownership

House prices need to fall in relation to people’s incomes, Keir Starmer has said, in a sign the Labour leader is willing to take on the objections of existing homeowners to get more people onto the property ladder.

Starmer told the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference on Wednesday that he believed prices should come down to make homes more affordable as he accused the Conservatives of killing the dream of home ownership.

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No 10 food summit ‘no more than a PR stunt’ and failed to tackle key issues

Rishi Sunak’s Farm to Fork meeting, the first of its kind, failed to address solutions to inflation, soaring costs and food security, say attenders

Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street food summit has been described as “empty" by food and farming industry representatives, who rounded on the prime minister for failing to discuss soaring inflation or set out measures to safeguard British food production.

The Farm to Fork summit, the first meeting of its kind, brought together farmers, food producers and some of Britain’s largest supermarkets.

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UK will end up like Russia if it ignores European court of human rights obligations, Sunak told – as it happened

President of Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly says UK faces exclusion if it choses to ignore its obligations. This live blog is now closed

Today the BBC is reporting that Javad Marandi, a businessman whose foreign companies were part of a global money laundering investigation, is a major donor to the Conservative party. Marandi, who strongly denies wrongdoing and who is not subject to criminal sanctions, has been named after losing a legal battle with the BBC to protect his anonymity.

There will be an urgent question on the case at 12.30pm, tabled by the SNP MP Alison Thewliss. According to the Commons authorities, she has tabled a question asking a Home Office minister to make a statement “on the implications of the National Crime Agency’s investigation into Mr Javad Marandi”.

Rishi Sunak’s food summit is little more than a stunt to hide years of inaction from his government.

The Tories’ shambolic handling of food security has resulted in huge vegetable price increases across the country.

No ifs, no buts, supermarkets must cut these basic prices now.

Rishi Sunak needs to grow a spine and stand up for struggling families and pensioners by demanding supermarkets slash prices. They have no excuses, wholesale prices are down, yet food prices are up, with their profits soaring.

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Afghan families in Yorkshire issued with eviction letters from Suella Braverman

Refugees, including a special forces soldier and a political adviser, receive ‘notice to quit’ letters from home secretary

Afghan refugee families uprooted from London to Yorkshire earlier this year have been issued with eviction notices in the name of Suella Braverman.

This will be the fourth time that some of the families have been forced to move home, sometimes leaving jobs and schools, since being airlifted out of Kabul to the UK in August 2021. They were invited to the UK under Operation Pitting because at least one family member worked closely with the British authorities and it was believed that their lives would be at risk if they remained in Afghanistan.

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Keir Starmer confirms Labour considering extending vote in general elections to EU nationals and 16/17-year-olds – UK politics live

Labour leader also refuses to rule out deal with Lib Dems, saying he wants outright majority but will ‘see what situation is next year’

Q: Would Labour repeal the Public Order Act?

Starmer says Labour was opposed to it as it was going through.

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Grant Shapps says Brexit lets UK control immigration, as record rise expected

Minister points to arrivals from Ukraine and Hong Kong as government sources confirm record increase is likely

Grant Shapps has stressed the importance of post-Brexit controls on work visas after government sources confirmed that ministers are braced for a record increase in immigration figures this month.

Reports have suggested that official data will show annual net immigration of between 650,000 and 997,000 fuelled by a rise in non-EU immigration from people entering the UK to work and study.

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Boris Johnson’s disciples gathered to sing the old hymns. But are they a real threat to Sunak?

Familiar faces on the Tory right met in Bournemouth to pour scorn on the government. And they can certainly make the PM’s life harder

• Read more: Tory anarchy breaks out as revolt looms on Brexit laws

It was billed as the launch of a campaign to hand more power to Tory members. It was not, its organisers repeatedly insisted, a group aiming to reinstall Boris Johnson as party leader – or cause trouble for Rishi Sunak. It was about “taking back control” of the Conservative party for the grassroots.

Yet as the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) met for its inaugural gathering in a sunny Bournemouth on Saturday, it was less than 15 minutes after Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns had belted out the national anthem that Johnson’s name was first uttered on stage.

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Priti Patel to blame local election losses on Tory leadership in speech

Witham MP expected to attack ‘those in power’ for sidelining party’s grassroots at conference of pro-Boris Johnson group

Priti Patel will attack the Conservative party leadership, blaming heavy local election losses on “those in power and control”, in a speech on Saturday.

The former home secretary is expected to accuse the Tory leadership of having “done a better job at damaging our party” over the past year than Keir Starmer’s Labour party or leftwing campaign groups.

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Tory voters in Surrey defiant after backing Lib Dems in local elections, poll shows

Focus group of blue wall residents believes Sunak is ‘out of his depth’ and that Britain needs change now

Blue wall Conservative voters in Surrey are far from impressed with the government’s obsession with culture wars, and remain unrepentant for tactically backing the Liberal Democrats at last week’s local elections.

The prime minister still looks “out of his depth”, uninspiring and unable to set out a straightforward vision six months in the job, according to a panel of Surrey residents who backed the Conservatives at the 2019 election. They believe “the country needs change now”, and the Tories need some time in opposition to sort themselves out.

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Senior civil servants vote to take a stand against bullying from politicians

FDA union votes to use ‘all means available’, including ‘targeted legal action’ in wake of Dominic Raab scandal

Senior civil servants have voted to take a stand against inflammatory language from politicians and in favour of legal action to combat bullying, as former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dominic Raab renewed their attacks on officials.

Members of the FDA union passed a motion in favour of using “all means available” to challenge bullying and harassment of officials, including “use of targeted legal action”, in after the scandal that forced Raab to resign.

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Kemi Badenoch criticised by ERG chief and other Tories over ‘massive climbdown’ on retained EU law – UK politics live

Business and trade secretary answers urgent question in Commons on retained EU law

Sir William Cash, chair of the European scrutiny committee, used his follow-up to his urgent question to say that Kemi Badenoch has declined three times to appear before this committee to discuss this issue.

He said the new amendments to the bill announced yesterday have not been scrutinised by the Commons.

The amendments published today, apart from her very short written ministerial statement yesterday and her article in the press today, are not accompanied by any explanation to this house despite the utter reversal in vital respects to the bill as passed by this elected house, why not?

The amendments have not been subjected to any analysis or questioning by this house, which is now essential given the fundamental change in government policy. This house is being treated in a manner which is clearly inconsistent with clear promises already made.

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Liz Truss’s plan to visit Taiwan called ‘worst kind of Instagram diplomacy’

Alicia Kearns, foreign affairs select committee chair, launches blistering attack on former prime minister

The Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee has launched a blistering attack on Liz Truss over the former prime minister’s planned trip to Taiwan, calling it “the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy”.

Alicia Kearns said she thought Truss’s trip planned for next week was little more than a vanity project aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief spell as prime minister last year.

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Archbishop of Canterbury’s attack on illegal migration bill ‘wrong on both counts’, says minister – as it happened

Justin Welby says bill is ‘morally unacceptable’ and rules on protection of refugees are not ‘inconvenient obstructions’. This live blog is closed

In the House of Lords peers are just starting to debate the second reading of the illegal migration bill.

Simon Murray, aka Lord Murray of Blidworth, is opening the debate. He is a lawyer who was made a Home Office minister, and a peer, when Liz Truss was PM.

We now face a perfect storm of factors driving more people into homelessness while giving us fewer good options to help them when they do. These factors include soaring private rents (above the benefit cap), private landlords leaving the sector, a national shortage of affordable housing, and a backlog of court cases after Covid-relating housing support was removed. At the same time, we have a cost-of-living crisis which is reducing real-term incomes and putting further strain on relationships.

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