UK politics: Reform UK suspends mayoral candidate after he described Jewish security group as ‘cosplayers’ – as it happened

Chris Parry Photograph: Paul Jacobs/pictureexclusive.com

5.30pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Rachel Reeves has ruled out universal support to deal with any future rise in energy bills, saying any government help would be targeted, and criticised the support offered by Liz Truss’s government as unaffordable and irresponsible.

• Ministers have said expanding North Sea drilling would put the UK at further risk from volatile fossil fuel markets, amid calls from the Conservatives and some Labour MPs to breach the manifesto pledge of no new oil and gas licences.

• Reform UK has suspended one of its key mayoral candidates after he described members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch group as “cosplayers” and likened them to “Islamists on horseback”.

• Ed Davey has accused Reform UK and the Conservatives of importing “Trump-style divisive politics” as he launched the Liberal Democrats’ 7 May local elections campaign, promising the party would focus on “fixing things for your community”.

• Labour lost significant numbers of white working-class voters to the Greens in Gorton and Denton, the party’s postmortem has concluded, after it came third in the Greater Manchester byelection last month.

• Defence manufacturers are going bust while others have been left in “paralysis” and “bleeding cash” as they wait for a long-delayed UK military spending plan for the next decade, MPs have heard.

• Men and boys need as much protection as women and girls from harmful influencers and “the worst parts of the internet”, a group of MPs have told Ofcom as they called for the regulator to give specific guidance to online platforms.

5.19pm GMT

Reform UK calls on Football Association to drop its diversity strategy, calling it 'inherently racist'

Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary who is now Reform UK’s education and equalities spokesperson, has written to the Football Association urging it to abandon its diversity strategy. In an open letter, she claims that white working class boys are being disadvantaged because the FA has set a target for 25% of coaching staff to be black, Asian or from a minority background by 2028. She says this policy is “fundamentally flawed” and “inherently racist”.

She says:

The @FA Football Association wants to mandate that 1 in 4 football coaches come from a Black, Asian or other minority background.

As the saying in football goes, this is utter woke nonsense. The game’s gone.

Fans don’t care what the coach looks like. They just want the best person for the job, based on merit alone. That’s what gets results.

Not tokenism.

I’ve written to the FA urging a rethink. I’m happy to help them draw up a fairer policy.

Let’s kick racism out of football, including anti-white racism.