Boris Johnson ‘uncomfortable’ that Mail on Sunday editor was summoned by Speaker over Rayner article – as it happened

6.02pm BST

Early evening summary

• An investigation has been launched by the government chief whip into reports that a Conservative frontbencher watched pornography on his phone in the Commons chamber.

• Boris Johnson has been branded the “Comical Ali of the cost-of-living crisis” by Keir Starmer, who accused the government of burying its head in the sand and standing by while inflation spirals and taxes rise for many.

• No 10 has said Johnson was “uncomfortable” about the attempt by Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, to summon David Dillon, editor of the Mail on Sunday, to a meeting to discuss his concerns about the paper’s much-criticised article about Angela Rayner. (See 2.34pm.) Dillon said last night he was refusing to attend. (See 9.27am.)

• Rayner has hit out at claims that she viewed “sexist slurs” made against her as a joke.

• Lowering food tariffs will not solve the cost-of-living crisis and it would be “misleading” to suggest as much to consumers, the president of the farmers’ union said after reports ministers were considering slashing import taxes.

• Rishi Sunak has been cleared of breaching the ministerial code over his wife’s tax affairs, in a report by the cabinet’s ethics adviser, Lord Geidt.

• A £25m “fraud squad” is to be launched after MPs criticised the government’s failure to crack down on criminals who stole billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash through Covid support schemes.

Updated at 6.14pm BST

5.56pm BST

MPs vote to reinsert provisions into elections bill seen by critics as threat to independence of Electoral Commission

In the latest instalment of the end-of-session parliamentary ping pong, MPs have voted down changes to the elections bill favoured by the House of Lords.

In two divisions, MPs have rejected an attempt by the Lords to remove a section of the bill giving ministers the power to issue directions to the Electoral Commission, the body that regulates elections, in the form of a “strategy and policy statement”. In a third division, MPs also rejected a Lords amendment that would have expanded the list of documentation accepted under the new rule in the bill requiring voters to have photo ID.

The “strategy and policy statement” proposal has been strongly criticised by the Electoral Commission itself, the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee and the committee on standards in public life, which said it was “deeply troubled by the long-term risk to our democratic system that is inherent” in the plan.

In the debate this afternoon Kemi Badenoch, the levelling-up minister, said these criticisms were misplaced. She said:

It has been claimed by some parliamentarians that this duty to have regard to the strategy and policy statement will weaken the operational independence of the commission. That is not correct. This duty will not allow the government to direct the commission’s decision-making nor will it undermine the commission’s other statutory duties or displace the commission’s need to carry out those other duties.

Updated at 6.12pm BST