Keir Starmer has suspended four Labour MPs for persistent breaches of party discipline, it has emerged. The prime minister decided to lay down the law after dozens of his own backbenchers rebelled against the government’s welfare cuts.

Keir Starmer has said the Tories “have serious questions to answer” over the Afghan data leak scandal – and he is right to do so. The Conservatives took the unprecedented action of using the courts to prevent the public from finding out about the catastrophic error, which only came to light yesterday after the super-injunction was finally lifted.

Defence Minister John Healey told parliament a UK official had accidentally leaked a spreadsheet containing the names and details of almost 19,000 Afghans who had asked to be relocated to Britain.