Sunak cites ‘confidential’ inquiry as he refuses to answer questions over aide and election date bet – as it happened

PM again declines to say whether he told Craig Williams in advance about his decision to hold the election in July Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

6.16pm BST

Early evening summary

• The number of Metropolitan police officers under investigation over bets on the timing of the general election has risen to at least seven, the force has said.

• Keir Starmer has admitted for the first time that he would not return people to Afghanistan, after a bitter exchange in Wednesday night’s debate where Rishi Sunak mocked him for planning to “sit down with the ayatollahs” to negotiate return agreements.

• Labour would rather have stability in the UK’s relationship with Europe than try to seek accelerated economic growth by rejoining the EU’s single market or customs union, Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, has said.

• The number of people dragged into paying income tax in the UK has leapt by an estimated 4.4 million in three years because of the government’s freeze on thresholds, official data shows, a statistic likely to reignite the election debate on tax.

We will be starting a new live blog later tonight to cover the Northern Ireland debate on BBC, starting at 9pm.

6.02pm BST

3m people watched Sunak v Starmer, but twice as many watched Georgia v Portugal, figures reveal

British television viewers preferred Georgia v Portugal over Sunak v Starmer last night, with the final televised leaders’ debate losing a ratings battle to live Euro 2024 football.

BBC One’s final head to head between the two main candidates to be prime minister peaked at 3m viewers, with audiences possibly suffering from election ennui.

ITV’s offer of a more competitive contest featuring an unexpected victory for the underdog attracted a peak of 6.4m viewers, as Georgia celebrated a historic victory.

Televised debates have continued to shape this election, even though their live audiences have been around 60% lower than when they were first introduced at the 2010 election.

Many millions of people will see and hear clips from the debates on news bulletins, even though they didn’t watch the live programmes.