Rachael Maskell ‘upset’ for Labour party as she confirms her suspension – as it happened

Rachael Maskell MP. Photograph: House of Commons

5.30pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has removed the Labour whip from four MPs for repeatedly breaching discipline and stripped three further Labour MPs of their trade envoy roles in an effort to assert his control over the party.

• Conservative former ministers have “serious questions to answer” over the secret scheme to resettle Afghan nationals named in a data breach under the previous government, Keir Starmer has said.

• HM Revenue and Customs has been sharply criticised by parliament’s spending watchdog for being unable to track how many billionaires pay tax in the UK. As Richard Partington reports, in a highly critical report on the collection of tax from wealthy individuals, the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said HMRC could not say how much the super-rich either contributed to the exchequer or avoided. Commenting on the story, the Green party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

We all know the super-rich are dodging tax, but you would hope those in charge of collecting them would at least know how much the country is losing.

Labour has spent its first year in government attempting to balance its books on the back of the most vulnerable, all the while neglecting to fix the fundamental unfairness at the heart of our economy.

Rather than the government making more cuts to public services, it must commit to making the super-rich pay their fair share, and it must properly resource HMRC to chase the tax revenue it’s already owed.

• A Reform-led council is thought to have become the first in the UK to rescind its climate emergency declaration, a move condemned as “a very dark day” for the authority.

• The Foreign Office will dispatch the UK’s anti-corruption champion, Margaret Hodge, to the British Virgin Islands (BVIs) to find out why the offshore haven is dragging its feet on proposals designed to fight financial crime.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Updated at 5.32pm BST

5.26pm BST

The Labour MP Richard Burgon, secretary of the Socialist Campaign group of MPs, has issued this statement about the suspension of four MPs.

My full support to my Labour colleagues who have been suspended over opposition to disability cuts.

Alongside nearly 50 of us, they were simply standing up for their disabled constituents and following their consciences.

Challenging policies that harm our communities, that damage Labour’s support and that make a Reform government much more likely is a key role of Labour backbenchers. The Prime Minister should be listening to these voices, not punishing them.

After the suspension of myself and others last year for opposing the two-child benefit cap, I had hoped the leadership would take a different approach to backbenchers. Sadly, it isn’t yet doing so. To help stop a Reform Government, it really must do so.