UK politics: No 10 says Starmer found Mandelson’s emails to Epstein ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

Peter Mandelson and Keir Starmer earlier this year. Photograph: Carl Court/Reuters

5.40pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has sacked Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. And here is a list by Jessica Elgot of potential candidates to replace him.

• The Liberal Democrats have called for a review of government vetting procedures following a Sky News report saying “the security services expressed concern about the appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, but No 10 went ahead anyway.”

• The Labour party will later tonight announce how many MPs have got the required nominations to stand for depuy leader. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has already passed the 80-MP threshold and Lucy Powell, the former leader of the Commons, seems likely to be the only other participant in the contest. (See 9.26pm.) Bell Ribeiro-Addy has confirmed that she did not get enough support.

Unfortunately, I have not secured the high number of nominations required to proceed in the deputy leadership contest. I am disappointed that the full range of Labour members’ views will not be represented on the ballot paper.

• Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Nigel Farage to clarify whether he saved tax on a house in his constituency, after a BBC investigation questioned whether his partner did, as Farage has said, buy the home with her own money.

• The General Medical Council is examining comments by a controversial doctor who used a speech at Reform UK’s conference to link Covid vaccines to cancer in the royal family, amid mounting condemnation of him by senior medics.

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.

Updated at 5.41pm BST

5.33pm BST

Braverman says pulling out out of ECHR could lead to referendum on Irish reunification

Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent.

Suella Braverman has hinted that a referendum on Irish reunification might end up being a result of the UK pulling out of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), arguing that Northern Ireland should not be able to effectively block this from happening.

The Conservative MP and former home secretary was speaking after an event in London alongside Tory peer David Frost and Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, about how and why the UK could quit the convention.

The cross-party line up did not, however, mean she was about to defect, Braverman said.

I’ve been elected as a Conservative member of parliament. I’m very grateful to the people of Fareham and Waterlooville, thousands of them, who sent me back to parliament, and I’m here doing my job for them.

Questioned on the potential repercussions for peace in Northern Ireland, where the ECHR forms part of the Good Friday accord, Braverman said this need not be a barrier – even suggesting that this would be the case if it helped push a vote on a united Ireland.

It’s worth remembering that the unionists didn’t agree to the Windsor framework or the Northern Ireland protocol, and yet the UK government proceeded nonetheless.

I think that same principle can be applied in this context, and it does suggest that the principle of consent has been significantly weakened over time. Listen, if there needs to be a border poll, then you know, the people should have a vote. I think the unionists are confident about the position.

But ultimately, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It is not some disjointed, detached outpost subject to its own separate laws. If the UK, United Kingdom, leaves the European Convention on Human Rights, so must Northern Ireland.