Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments of the day:
Voting has opened in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth in byelections seen as crucial in gauging the electoral fate of Rishi Sunak, but difficult to predict. The Conservatives are defending majorities of nearly 25,000 in Mid Bedfordshire and close to 20,000 in Tamworth, which would normally point to an easy hold. However, their chances will be hampered by the party’s dismal poll ratings and the records of departing MPs.
Rishi Sunak has said it is important that the war between Israel and Hamas does not escalate to the wider region. During his visit, the British prime minister told Benjamin Netanyahu that the UK “absolutely supports Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international law”.
Sunak, who was visiting Jerusalem a day after Joe Biden did, flew to Saudi Arabia to meet the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, No 10 said.
More than 60 international charities – including Action Aid UK, Bond, Cafod, Christian Aid, Islamic Relief, Médecins Sans Frontières UK, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK – have signed a statement calling on the UK government to step up its efforts to secure an urgent ceasefire in Israel and Gaza following the bombing of al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza and the escalating instability and humanitarian crisis in the region.
Nine members of the Glasgow Kelvin constituency Labour party executive committee have resigned in protest over Labour’s stance on Gaza. The group accuse the party leadership of “stifling” debate on the situation in Israel and Gaza.
The government’s new law aimed at giving more support to renters, including banning no-fault evictions, will make its first appearance in parliament on Monday, Penny Mordaunt has said. The Commons leader said the renters reform bill would have its second reading in the Commons on Monday 23 October, PA reports.
A coach carrying asylum seekers to be accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm arrived at Portland Port in Kent. People protesting against the use of the barge also gathered at the gates of Portland Port on Thursday as the asylum seekers were brought back on board.
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Updated
Rishi Sunak’s controversial fund to support startups during the Covid pandemic invested nearly £2m in companies linked to his wife, Guardian analysis has found.
Carousel Ventures, a company part-owned by Akshata Murty’s venture capital firm, got an investment of £250,000 from the Future Fund to help fund its ownership of a luxury underwear business called Heist Studios, it can be disclosed.
It is the fourth business linked to Murty revealed to have received an investment from the fund set up by Sunak to support startups when he was chancellor during the Covid pandemic.
None of Murty’s investments that benefited from the Future Fund appear publicly on Sunak’s register of ministerial interests. Critics have raised concerns over a lack of transparency and the potential for a perceived conflict of interest given Sunak launched the scheme to help startups – a sector in which his wife is a known investor.
Other investors in Carousel Ventures via an intermediary fund include Andrew Griffith, a Conservative MP who is now a Treasury minister under Sunak, and Brent Hoberman, a businessman who publicly pleaded with Sunak to bring in such a scheme and “save our startups”.
The £250,000 loan to Carousel Ventures has now been converted into equity, so the UK taxpayer owns a small stake in the “revolutionary shapewear” company.
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