Starmer says most farmers won’t be affected by inheritance tax change as Clarkson tells rally it’s a ‘hammer blow’ – as it happened

Jeremy Clarkson at the farmers’ protest in Whitehall Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

6.01pm GMT

Early evening summary

• Keir Starmer has insisted that the “vast majority” of farmers will not be affected by the government’s decision to extend inheritance tax to cover some farms. Speaking at a press conference at the end of the G20 summit, he declined to directly criticise Jeremy Clarkson for spreading misinformation about the change, but he said “the facts speak of themselves”. He was speaking after thousands of farmers attended a protest in Westminster about the plans. (See 5.27pm.)

• Starmer has defended the decision to stop winter fuel payments for most pensioners after the DWP published figures showing between 50,000 and 100,000 pensioners could be pushed into poverty every year as a result. (See 5.05pm and 5.19pm.)

• Large UK retailers including Tesco, Boots, Marks & Spencer and Next have written to Rachel Reeves to say that a £7bn increase in annual costs after last month’s budget would lead to job cuts and higher prices.

• The health minister Stephen Kinnock has said he will vote in favour of the assisted dying bill next week, arguing that it is the “compassionate” thing to do and will not automatically place NHS palliative care services under extreme pressure.

5.49pm GMT

12 countries have signed up for UK-led 'clean power alliance', No 10 says

Twelve countries have signed up for the UK-led “clean power alliance”, as well as the African Union, Downing Street has announced.

Quite how much impact it will have on global climate policy remains to be seen. But Keir Starmer says it shows that “the UK is back in the business of climate leadership and that means working more closely with other countries to get off the fossil fuel rollercoaster and unlock the rewards of cheap, secure and clean power at home and abroad”.

No 10 says the alliance is backed by the African Union, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Morocco, Norway, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom, “with the support of” the United States and the European Union.

In a news release explaining what this will do, it says:

At the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the prime minister and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed the new partnership, saying that it will speed up the global drive for clean power by uniting developed and developing countries across the north and south.

The alliance of countries will work together and share expertise with the goal of meeting the COP28 commitments to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency.

The Global Clean Power Alliance will have ‘missions’ to address the most critical energy transition challenges. The first of these is the finance mission, which will be published today and co-chaired by Brazil, will harness the political leadership needed to unlock private finance on a huge scale, so that no developing country is left behind.

And Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said:

Brazil signing up to our finance mission is a huge vote of confidence ahead of the crucial COP30 summit in Belem next year, sending a strong message to the world that together we can accelerate the clean energy revolution.