Labour suggests PM misled MPs when he said government definitely taking P&O Ferries to court – as it happened

5.30pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• P&O Ferries broke the law by choosing to sack 800 workers without consultation because “no union could accept our proposals”, the firm’s boss has admitted.

• Rishi Sunak has said more financial support could be announced later this year to tackle soaring energy bills but stressed he could not solve “every problem”, after criticism of the mini-budget designed to tackle the cost of living crisis.

• Sunak’s spring statement will push 1.3 million people – including half a million children – below the poverty line next year while raising tax to the highest level since the second world war, according to leading economists.

• Russia has been hit with 65 new sanctions by the UK, in a move the Foreign Office said was designed to target “key strategic industries and individuals” as the war in Ukraine entered its second month.

• Boris Johnson has described Russian plans to host the 2028 men’s European Championships as “beyond satire” and recommended the tournament be hosted by Ukraine, despite the UK and Ireland’s joint bid.

• Michael Grade has been chosen as the government’s choice to oversee the media regulator, Ofcom, ending one of the more controversial and drawn-out government recruitment processes in recent British political history.

Boris Johnson speaking during a press conference at Nato HQ in Brussels. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 5.47pm GMT

5.19pm GMT

Brandon Lewis says he will take legal steps to ensure abortion services fully provided in Northern Ireland

The UK government is taking legal steps to override the Northern Ireland executive and directly instruct the nation’s health trusts to provide abortion services, warning it will “take the necessary powers” to directly commission services if “urgent progress” is not made.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, set out the UK government’s legislative options in strong language in strong language today after it became “increasingly clear” that the Northern Ireland Department for Health will miss the end of March deadline to fully commission abortion services in Northern Ireland.

In a written ministerial statement Lewis said planned regulations would “remove the need for executive committee approval before services can be commissioned”, which has been a major obstacle to the commissioning of abortion services in Northern Ireland.

Terminations have been legal in Northern Ireland since 2019, but services have not been commissioned and individual clinicians have worked to provide a piecemeal service. A high court judge ruled in October last year that Lewis had failed to uphold his duties to provide full abortion services in Northern Ireland after a judicial review was brought by a woman told to travel to England for an abortion during the pandemic.

Abortion was legalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019 after a Westminster vote led by the Labour MP Stella Creasy took advantage of a paralysed Stormont, despite an 11th-hour attempt by the region’s assembly to block change. Officials confirmed termination could go ahead in April 2020 after the threat of legal action by pro-choice campaigners.

Creasy, whose amendment paved the way for the change in the law, said women in Northern Ireland had been waiting for equal access to their human rights for three years. “It is now imperative that the government confirm the timetable for action and what sanctions they will use should anyone try to prevent progress in delivering services to ensure that there is no further delay,” she said.