Only 21% of Britons believe Labour’s claim it’s not returning to austerity, poll suggests – as it happened

Prime minister Keir Starmer. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

6.01pm GMT

Early evening summary

• The transport secretary has given formal approval to the controversial and long-delayed £9bn Lower Thames Crossing, Britain’s biggest road-building project.

• Only 21% of Britons believe the government’s claim that the country is not returning to austerity, according to a poll published on the eve of the spring statement. (See 5.27pm.)

• The implementation of a new assisted dying law in England and Wales has been delayed to 2029, throwing its future into question as its introduction coincides with the next general election.

• A company managing hotel accommodation for thousands of asylum seekers has been axed by the Home Office due to performance concerns and replaced by the firm that ran the Bibby Stockholm barge.

• Kemi Badenoch enjoyed a £14,000 week-long “residential” with her family along with a small group of the shadow cabinet courtesy of the Tory donor Neil Record, who chairs a climate sceptic lobby group.

• Accepting free concert tickets is “not appropriate”, Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, has said, in an apparent criticism of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who received tickets to watch Sabrina Carpenter.

• Ministers have been accused of turning a “blind eye to slavery” by ordering Labour MPs to remove legal protections to stop money being spent by state-owned Great British Energy on solar panels manufactured by forced labour in China.

• Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has accused “leftwing” teaching unions of poisoning the minds of young people “against everything this country has ever stood for”.

• Rupert Lowe has accused Reform UK of “woke HR lawfare” after it published a report from a KC saying there was “credible evidence of unlawful harassment of two women” by Lowe and “male members of his team”. Lowe denies the allegations, but Reform has said the MP has now been expelled from the parliamentary party. Lowe claims he is being victimised because he has publicly criticised Nigel Farage. (See 4.02pm.)

Updated at 7.46am GMT

5.39pm GMT

Assisted dying law thrown into doubt as plans for rollout delayed by two years

The implementation of a new assisted dying law in England and Wales has been delayed to 2029, throwing its future into question as its introduction coincides with the next general election, Eleni Courea reports.

Updated at 5.40pm GMT