No 10 declines to comment on White House claim that Europe facing ‘civilisational erasure’ – as it happened

Keir Starmer speaking during a visit to McLaren Automotive in Surrey on Monday Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

5.45pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met the leaders of the UK, France and Germany in London amid heavy pressure from the Trump administration for Ukraine to cede territory it holds to bring the war to an end quickly. For the latest updates, do read Matty Edwards and Jakub Krupa on our live blog.

• A nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs must “consider the role of ethnicity, religion and other cultural factors”, the opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said.

• Police are looking into allegations Reform UK breached electoral law during its campaign to win Nigel Farage’s Commons seat at last year’s general election.

• Downing Street has defended Britain’s record on freedom of speech – while declining to comment on a White House policy document saying Europe is at risk of “civilisational erasure”. (See 2.12pm.)

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.

5.39pm GMT

Government's ID scheme 'fundamentally un-British', MPs told

Conservative MPs have turned out in large numbers to criticise the government’s plans for a digital ID scheme.

They are in Westminster Hall, where a debate is being held on a petition submitted to the Commons saying the government should rule out digital ID cards. Almost three million people have signed it.

(Minister say it is wrong to talk about a proposed ID card, because they want to introduce a scheme for digital ID that would not even use cards.)

Opening the debate as a member of the petitions committee, Robbie Moore, a Tory, said that this is the fourth highest number of people ever to sign an electronic petition to parliament.

He said that the plans were “fundamentally un-British” and that they were opposed by MPs from all the main opposition parties. And even some Labour ministers are on record as criticising the plan in the past, he said.

The plan would cost £1.8bn, he said. And it would reverse the principle that that citizens should only hand over their data with consent, he said.

As he gave the opening speech in the debate, several Conservative MPs, including Mark Francois, Wendy Morton, Kieran Mullan and Neil Hudson, intervened to say they agreed.

The Labour Jonathan Brash also intervened. He said many constituents had contacted him to say they were worried about the plans. He said one of the problems was that the plan was announced (in a speech by Keir Starmer, just before the Labour conference), but without any of the details being available.

Moore ended his speech saying: “I am not a tin of beans and I do not need a barcode.”