UK politics: Labour MP calls for Starmer’s resignation to end ‘psychodrama’ – as it happened

Keir Starmer departs Downing Street for PMQs. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

5.30pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Cabinet ministers have expressed concern about Keir’s Starmer’s decision to sack Olly Robbins as the Foreign Office’s top official over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal as they warned him not to alienate the civil service, sources have told the Guardian.

• Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, has been summoned before the foreign affairs select committee as the Peter Mandelson vetting row continues to undermine Keir Starmer’s premiership.

• Britain’s high military dependence on the US is “no longer tenable” and the UK has to become increasingly independent of the special relationship with Washington, a former Nato chief has said.

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.

5.26pm BST

Peers inflict two defeats on government as crime and policing bill continues 'ping pong'

Peers have inflicted two defeats on the government in an ongoing dispute about the final details of the crime and policing bill.

The bill has gone through all its main Commons and Lords stages, and is now in “ping pong”, as the two houses send it back and forth as they try to resolve outstanding differences.

As the Press Association reports, peers have voted by 282 to 184, a majority of 98, to continue their standoff with MPs over how to crack down on for-profit fixed-penalty notices (FPNs).

In a defeat for the government, peers backed a proposal by the Lib Dem peer Lord Clement-Jones to have local councils strip private companies of their ability to fine people where they are found to have a financial incentive to issue FPNs. Ministers claim this is “disproportionate”.

And peers also voted by 281 to 190, a majority of 91, for a mandatory review of whether any Iran-related entities should be banned as terrorist organisations. The government says this is not necessary.