Tory plans to deport some people who are legally in UK are ‘grotesque’, says Labour – as it happened

UK border checks at Heathrow Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

6.01pm BST

Early evening summary

• A frontrunner to chair the national grooming gangs inquiry has withdrawn his candidacy amid growing discontent from survivors over the government’s handling of the process.

• The Conservative MP Katie Lam was “broadly in line” with party policy when she called for very large numbers of legally settled people to be deported from the UK, Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson has said.

• The government is to delay publishing its long-awaited overhaul of special educational needs provision in England as ministers seek to build a coalition among parents to support its changes.

• Plaid Cymru has been making a last-minute pitch for votes in Caerphilly, where a Senedd byelection tomorrow could reshape Welsh politics. A poll last week suggested Reform is narrowly on course to win, in a seat that has been solidly Labour for generations. The poll also suggested Labour support has collapsed, and that Plaid Cymru could win. The byelection is being seen as evidence that Labour has lost its political dominance in Wales, and that next year’s Senedd elections will see Reform and Plaid vying for first place. Plaid’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said:

People are telling us they’re coming to Plaid in their thousands because they want us, they want that positive change, and not Reform’s division.

Only Plaid Cymru can beat Reform and a constituency poll last week clearly demonstrated it’s a two-horse race between both parties, with Labour trailing a distant third.

We are asking all voters who want to stop Reform to lend their vote to Plaid Cymru this time.

Steven Morris has more on the contest here.

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 6.02pm BST

5.46pm BST

I have updated the post at 1.48pm with fuller, direct quotes from Angela Rayner’s personal statement to MPs. You may need to refresh the page to get the update to appear.