Ed Balls says Starmer should perform ‘big U-turn’ and drop £28bn as size of green jobs plan – as it happened

Keir Starmer with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at the Fergus gas terminal in Peterhead, Scotland. Labour has made a £28bn green investment pledge. Photograph: Labour Party

5.00pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Ed Balls, a former shadow chancellor, has said that Keir Starmer should perform a “big U-turn” over the commitment to spend £28bn a year on green investment. (See 4.20pm.)

• Nicola Sturgeon described Boris Johnson as “a fucking clown” as he announced a second Covid lockdown in October 2020, telling her chief of staff: “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”

• Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has apologised “unreservedly” to the Covid inquiry, and to people who were bereaved during the pandemic, for the government’s “poor handling” of requests for messages. (See 2.15pm.)

• The UK would break international law if it ignored emergency orders from the European court of human rights to stop asylum seekers being flown to Rwanda, the head of the court has said.

• Chris Philp, the policing minister, has admitted that a previous government crackdown on zombie knives contained an obvious loophole. (See 9.24am.)

• The British Polling Council (BPC) is looking into controversial YouGov polling used by Conservative plotters to call for Rishi Sunak to be ousted.

• David Cameron breached “proper process” when he appointed Michelle Mone to the House of Lords in 2015, David Mundell, who was the Scotland secretary at the time, has said.

• More than one in 100 children in England were homeschooled last summer term, with many parents citing lifestyle or “philosophical reasons” for abandoning traditional classrooms.

Humza Yousaf arriving to give evidence to the UK Covid inquiry in Edinburgh this afternoon. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Updated at 5.09pm GMT

4.40pm GMT

Sunak restates his determination not to let 'foreign court' stop deportation flights to Rwanda

Rishi Sunak has restated his willingness to defy the European court of human rights if it imposes an injunction to stop a deportation flight taking off to Rwanda.

Speaking to broadcasters after the president of the European court of human rights, Síofra O’Leary, said that defying such an injunction would break international law, Sunak repeated a line he has used repeatedly in recent weeks. He said:

I’ve been very clear, I won’t let a foreign court stop us from getting flights up and running and establishing that deterrent.

The bill that we’ve just passed through the House of Commons has a specific power in it that says ministers will get to make those decisions, I would not have put that power in there if I wasn’t prepared to use it.

Sunak’s comments have been welcomed by Conservative MPs, although hardliners want him to go further and to commit to definitely defying ECHR injunctions. They tried to insert a clause to this effect in the Rwanda bill, but the government did not accept it.

Earlier No 10 argued that, given the changes made to the policy, the ECHR would not need to issue an injunction in the way it did in 2022. (See 12.48pm.)

Updated at 4.43pm GMT