No 10 rejects claims PM received Taylor Swift tickets as ‘thank you’ for security measures – as it happened

Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, attend a Taylor Swift concert at Wembley Photograph: @Keir_Starmer/X

5.41pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has twice refused to rule out a rise in employers’ national insurance contributions in the budget, stressing Labour’s manifesto promise was that it would not raise taxes on working people.

• British employers have warned that a rise in employer national insurance contributions in the budget could hit hiring and limit pay rises, hurting businesses including pubs, hotels and restaurants.

• An undercover police officer has admitted that he spied on Keir Starmer while he was a radical barrister, a public inquiry has heard.

• The UK Foreign Office has announced sanctions against seven organisations that support illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but held back from penalising two extremist members of the Israeli government as the former foreign secretary David Cameron had been planning.

• Boris Johnson’s memoir, Unleashed, sold 42,528 copies in its opening week after being published on 10 October, making it the bestselling book of last week.

• Downing Street has rejected suggestions that Keir Starmer received Taylor Swift tickets as a “thank you” after she was given taxpayer-funded police security while performing in London. (See 1.29pm.)

5.30pm BST

Campaigners urge government to launch consultation on full Lords reform, with citizens' assembly, as soon as possible

Democracy campaigners have argued that the government’s House of Lords reform bill being debated today does not go far enough.

In a joint statement, 10 democracy campaign groups have said that, although the bill getting rid of hereditary peers is a “laudable first step”, the government should launch a consultation on wider Lords reform as soon as possible. They say:

We’re calling on the government to deliver on its manifesto promise of a proper consultation on the future of the Lords, including via a representative citizens’ assembly, to let the people decide who should be holding politicians to account and making sure laws are sensible and fair.

Continuing a system of political appointees risks accusations of cronyism and conflicts of interest. We need a second chamber that makes the most of the views and experience of a much more representative group.

We call on the government to announce a timeline for the public consultation on wider Lords reform, and the means for doing it effectively, as soon as possible.

We believe that a citizens’ assembly as part of a national conversation would help ensure this public consultation would bring together people from all walks of life, to hear from experts, deliberate and make recommendations to be implemented by the government.

The groups that have signed the statement, sent to the Guardian, are: the Democracy Network, Unlock Democracy, Involve, Citizen Network, Community Organisers, the Sortition Foundation, Independent Constitutionalists UK, 38 Degrees, Politics for the Many and Compass.

In a separate move, almost 300,000 people have signed an online petition at Change.org saying the 26 Church of England bishops should be removed from the Lords.