Global Counsel, lobbying firm set up by Mandelson, went bust owing £4.5m just before his arrest – as it happened

Peter Mandelson walking his dog near his London home earlier this week Photograph: James Manning/PA

5.48pm BST

Afternoon summary

• The Foreign Office refused to hand over a summary of Peter Mandelson’s security vetting to the civil servant tasked with compiling documents detailing his appointment as ambassador to the US, she has told a Commons committee.

• A former Labour MP has joined opposition parties calling for Keir Starmer to face a Commons committee to examine whether the prime minister misled parliament as the government’s crisis surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington continues.

• The Foreign Office unit tracking potential breaches of international law by Israel in Gaza and more recently Lebanon has been closed because of cuts within the department, the Guardian can reveal.

• The UK government budget came in below its annual borrowing target by £700m, official figures show – but the Iran war is likely to blow a hole in Rachel Reeves’s carefully calculated fiscal “headroom” over the coming months.

• Zack Polanski, the Green leader, has said that he hopes to replicate the success of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani as he pledged to bring high streets back to life. On a campaign visit in Manchester, he said that he had met members of Mamdani’s team. He said:

It was a real privilege to meet with members of his team, and this has happened various times, hear how they were so successful.

I think the key point I hear over and over again though and agree with entirely is that it’s less about the tactics, sure his social media is phenomenal, his method of communication is phenomenal, but more than anything it was about the message.

It was about the message of communities coming together, challenging the wealth and power of multimillionaires and billionaires.

It was about communities finding their voice, communities being supported by politicians.

That’s what Zohran’s done to make New York a more affordable city and it’s what I intend to do in this country to make sure it’s a country that everyone can afford to live in.

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.

5.35pm BST

Half of Welsh voters say they may change mind about how they vote in Senedd election before polling day, poll suggests

One of the features of modern politics is electoral volatility. Voters don’t stick to the same party. The Economist published some research recently saying: “In 2024 some 40% of Britons who had voted in 2019 switched parties, the highest share since the 1930s. If a general election were held tomorrow, by our calculations nearly 50% of voters would switch parties.” And there is some fresh evidence of that today in research published by Ipsos.

It has published polling relating to the Senedd elections in Wales. Summing up the findings, Gideon Skinner, head of politics at Ipsos, says:

Our latest findings suggest a Welsh electorate that is currently weighing its options amidst significant pessimism about the economy and public services, and dissatisfaction with the performance of the Welsh Labour government. While Plaid Cymru holds a slight lead in voting intention, have the most popular leader, and are strongest on standing up for the interests of Wales, they still have to convince the public they are ready for government and can deliver on the key issues.

But the poll also shows that more than half of respondents (polled at the start of April) said that, even though they had a preference, they might change their mind before polling day.