Government says it will comply with high court ruling saying it must give Covid inquiry all documents it wants – as it happened

Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps, notebooks and diaries can be handed to the official Covid inquiry. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

4.15pm BST

Afternoon summary

• The government has lost its legal challenge to block Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApps, notebooks and diaries from being handed over to the official Covid inquiry, after a ruling by the high court.

• A Labour government would focus on ending poverty just as strongly as Tony Blair’s 1997 administration, Keir Starmer has said, as he set out the last of five self-declared missions, this one based around education and opportunity. There is a summary of his speech at 2pm and a summary of his Q&A at 12.40pm.

• Rishi Sunak faces the prospect of yet another byelection after a parliamentary report on groping allegations against Chris Pincher recommended that the former government whip be suspended as an MP for eight weeks.

• Rail ticket office closures will lead to job losses, a transport minister has said, as Conservative MPs raised “huge concerns” over the impact on passengers.

Keir Starmer speaking to climate campaigners who disrupted his speech on education and opportunity today. They accused him of committing a U-turn over Labour’s green investment pledge. He said they were wrong, and there was no U-turn. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated at 4.52pm BST

4.02pm BST

The punishment proposed for Chris Pincher is very light compared with what might happen to another professional in a similar case, lawyers are pointing out. This is from Harvey Knight, a partner and crisis management specialist at the law firm Withers.

If Mr Pincher had been a banker, he would have been treated far more harshly especially in such a well-publicised case. As soon as the incident was publicised, his regulator would be calling the bank, inquiring had he been suspended yet. There would then be an expectation that he would be disciplined within a short timeframe and summarily dismissed. His subsequent regulatory reference would be expected to ensure that he was in effect excluded from any further participation in regulated UK financial services and he may also have to face a regulatory investigation which could lead to him being formally publicly censured and banned by his regulator as well as having to pay a fine out of his gross income. So there is a profound disconnect between the standards and integrity expected of MPs and other UK workers and how, respectively, they are treated.

Updated at 4.09pm BST