Nandy says it was wrong to exclude Maccabi Tel Aviv fans as safety option for Villa match given rising antisemitism – as it happened

6.15pm BST

Early evening summary

• Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has defended the government’s decision to intervene to try to get the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending an Aston Villa match in Birmingham next month overturned. Answering an urgent question in the Commons, she said that the decision raised a wider issue of principle, and that people should not be excluded from a match just because they are Israeli and Jewish. She accepted that there were concerns about the behaviour of some Maccabi fans. But she said the police decision to exclude fans was taken “in no small part” because the police feared they might be attacked in Birmingham just because they were from Israel. She said the government was offering extra resources to the police in the hope they would find a way of ensuring the fans can safely attend. (See 4.46pm and 5.03pm.)

• Reform UK has suspended four councillors on its showcase county council after a leaked video showing bitter divisions in their ranks.

• Keir Starmer will travel to the Amazon rainforest for the UN climate summit next month, Downing Street has confirmed, after weeks of speculation that he would not.

• A new definition of Islamophobia being considered by UK ministers is expected to protect the freedom to criticise Islam, the Guardian understands.

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.

6.05pm BST

The Labour deputy leadership contest concludes this week, and the winner will be announced on Saturday. Here is Jessica Elgot’s account of how it has unfolded.