Chinese spying amounts to interference in UK democracy, minister says, after MI5 warns MPs – as it happened

The House of Commons in Westminster, London. Photograph: Maureen McLean/Shutterstock

5.40pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Labour has said that Nigel Farage urgently needs to explain himself in the light of the Guardian’s report quoting multiple contemporaries who say they remember him making racist and antisemitic comments when he was at school. (See 5.20pm.)

• MI5 has issued an espionage alert to MPs and peers warning that two people linked to the Chinese intelligence service are actively seeking to recruit parliamentarians.

• Shabana Mahmood is facing demands for compassion and clarity after it emerged that only a “few hundred” asylum seekers would initially be permitted to come to the UK under three new schemes for refugees.

• Keir Starmer has warned senior ministers and officials to stop briefing against one another and leaking details of the budget as he pleaded for his embattled government to unite.

• New legacy legislation will address “unfinished business” from the Troubles, Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, has said. As PA Media reports, a commission to investigate Troubles-related killings and a separate information recovery body will be established under the Northern Ireland Troubles bill. A new statutory advisory group will also be established to ensure victims and survivors of the Troubles, including from a service background, are heard by the commission. Speaking at second reading, Benn gave his assurance that “anyone who was previously involved in paramilitary activity will not be appointed to the victims and survivors group”.

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.

5.33pm GMT

Keir Starmer’s ratings are dire at the moment. Today the Times is reporting YouGov polling saying 45% of Labour supporters think he should stand down as PM, either now or before the election.

But, in a speech tonight, Lord Hermer, the attorney general, and a friend of Starmer’s from the time when they were legal colleagues, will defend the PM. He will cite the Hillsborough law as an example of how Starmer is someone determined to do the right thing.

As Kevin Schofield reports for HuffPost UK, Hermer will say:

When the law helps extend rights and delivers justice where it’s most needed, it earns not just respect, but belief. Not as a shield for the status quo, particularly when that status quo may fail too many. But as a promise that across the country, we all stand equal before the law, and no one stands alone.

That’s what this prime minister believes in – the idea that power can be rebalanced, that the law can and should evolve to meet the changing needs of society.

Injustices can be addressed, wrongs can be made right, through graft, patience and, above all, determination. That’s the story of the man I know, Keir Starmer.

Populists to the left and right say you don’t need any of that. Just ban this thing, leave this convention. All will be well. But who is left to pick up the pieces, when it all goes south? Working class people. Like the family Keir Starmer grew up in.