Daniel Korski pulls out of race to be Tory candidate for London mayor, blaming ‘false’ groping claim – as it happened

Daniel Korski said ‘I have decided, with a heavy heart, to withdraw from the Conservative mayoral contest.’ Photograph: Ian West/PA

5.50pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Daniel Korski, one of three candidates on the shortlist to be the Conservative candidate to run for London’s mayor, has dropped out after a woman accused him of groping her 10 years ago.

• Peers have inflicted two defeats on the government over the illegal migration bill. In the first, they voted by a majority of 43 to insert a clause in the bill saying saying nothing in it would require any act that would breach the UK’s obligations under various human rights treaties. And in the second, which took place just now, they voted by 219 to 177 – a majority of 42 – in favour of an amendment tabled by the crossbench peer Lord Carlile saying the duty to deport in the bill would only apply to people arriving in the UK after it came into force, not retrospectively, as the government proposes. The debate is still going on, and further votes are expected.

• Contingency plans for the collapse of Thames Water are being drawn up by the UK government and the industry watchdog amid fears that Britain’s biggest water company cannot survive because of its huge debt pile.

• One in 10 GCSE-year pupils have been absent from school in England each day this year, up 70% since before the Covid pandemic, a Guardian investigation has found.

Rishi Sunak at PMQs. Photograph: Uk Parliament/Reuters

Updated at 5.51pm BST

5.35pm BST

Ken Clarke tells peers he's backing illegal migration bill because he has not heard any alternative solution

There was some surprise good news for the government in the Lords debate on the second set of amendments to the illegal migration bill. Ken Clarke, the former chancellor who is now normally seen as being on the most liberal wing of the Conservative party, told peers that he was supporting the government on the bill. He voted with the government in the first division (on amendment 5), and when he spoke he said that previously he had not declared his views on the bill.

He said that when it originally came to the Lords, he was in a “very, very troubled state of mind” because he found it hard to support. But he said that he accepted something needed to be done about people crossing the Channel on small boats, and he said the bill’s opponents did not have an alternative solution. He said:

Concern about these dinghies and fishing boats bobbing on the ocean is actually beginning, if we’re not careful, to re-arouse all the bad feelings that we used to know from 20 or 30 years ago. That’s why over 60% of our population wish to stop illegal immigration.

I’ve sat and tried to listen for a solution. Sadly, the only solution being put forward is this rather extraordinary one by the government, that we simply cease to entertain illegal immigration and deport to safe places. I have not heard a single alternative policy put forward. I’m not sure it will work but I’m still to hear anybody else offer anything but the possibility of litigation, or huge numbers of people coming here as the practice of trying to get over the Channel grows.

Ken Clarke Photograph: HoL

Updated at 5.38pm BST