Peers pass four amendments inserting safeguards into bill, including exempting migrants who helped British troops

Good morning. It is now more than five months since Rishi Sunak promised “emergency” legislation to address the supreme court judgment saying the government’s Rwanda deportation policy was unlawful. It has not proceeded at the pace of normal emergency legislation, but the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill is now expected to clear parliament within the next 24/36 hours, and it should become law by the end of the week. (It does not became law until the king grants royal assent, and it can take a few hours to get Charles to sign the relevant bit of paper.)

But before parliamentary officials can send the bill to the Palace, the Commons and the Lords have to agree, and there are still four outstanding issues unresolved. Last night peers passed four amendments inserting safeguards into the bill. They would:

The problem is, we have no evidence that Rwanda is safe. All the evidence that is put before us demonstrates that at the moment it is not. The supreme court said in November it wasn’t safe. We signed a treaty with Rwanda which was supposed to remedy the defects, and this Act will come into force when the treaty comes into force. But even the treaty itself accepts that signing the treaty doesn’t make Rwanda safe.

All this amendment would say is that, instead of us in parliament in London being expected to assert in legislation that Rwanda is safe, when the evidence is including, from the government itself last night, that it isn’t currently safe, it’s a work in progress – instead of having to sign up to that untruth, the government would invite the monitoring committee to certify that Rwanda is safe and when it is safe, the flights can begin.

And should by any chance Rwanda ever cease to be a safe country, well the monitoring committee should say that as well.

Keir Starmer takes shots at open goals while PM is running on fumes as the disasters keep coming

MDMA, before it was called ecstasy, was going to be called empathy, having been devised as a marriage counselling drug. The theory was that it would amp up your compassion and dial down your threat response to the degree that you’d be able to hear the truth with an open heart.

Then it turned out to be better as a party drug and was criminalised, and maybe it’s all for the best, but just once I would love to hear PMQs with everyone on E. Because a lot of what Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday was probably true: Keir Starmer, if he wasn’t Labour leader, probably would enjoy going back to being a lawyer. He probably did get a lot of satisfaction from successfully defending people’s human rights. “I would have thought that, out of everybody, [Starmer] would be the most grateful”, Sunak said of his – always subject to revision – plan to hold an election later rather than sooner. And isn’t that, if you think about it for five seconds, most likely true? Say what you like about the Labour leader, he’s no seat-of-pants merchant.

Prime minister faces questions from MPs after Lee Anderson’s defection and controversy over Frank Hester as poll says voters want new leader for election

Good morning. Hands up who’s heard of John Robert Clynes? He was leader of the Labour party at the time of the 1922 general election and, according to a new history of Labour in opposition, he is the only leader of the party ever to be defeated in a leadership challenge. That is extraordinary when you consider that, at least since the 1970s, Conservative leaders normally haven’t resigned at a time of their own choosing and, even if they have not all been forced out after a leadership contest, at least the last three quit because they knew defeat after a leadership challenge was otherwise inevitable.

All of this helps to explain why today is a tricky day for Rishi Sunak; as Conservative party leader, you are permanently on probation, and today he has a tricky “performance appraisal” with his employer – the 1922 Committee. He has also got PMQs, another form of performance review.

We are well and truly on the path to sustainably lower taxes.

We started that journey in the autumn with a 2p cut to national insurance worth £450 for the average worker on £35,400 a year. And the Chancellor cut taxes again in this month’s budget which now means that 27 million employees will get an average tax cut of about £900 a year.

We did this because I believe in the fundamental dignity of work. When people work hard, they should be rewarded, not taxed more. It’s not right that income from work is taxed twice, while all other income is only taxed once. This is why I have cut national insurance, the second tax on work, by a third in the last six months. And it is why my long-term plan, ultimately, is to cut it to zero.

Hester may be the Tories’ biggest donor, but this is not only an issue for one party as the Forde inquiry showed

• Diane Abbott accuses Tories of aiming to play ‘race card’ before election

As we move even closer to the general election, race, whether explicitly or implicitly, is at the heart of the debate in British politics. And the issue is not just about a particular political party, but all of our institutions.

I was in the chamber of the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon for prime minister’s questions. I wanted to put a question to the the prime minister about Frank Hester and his racist comments . Over the nearly 40 years that I have been an MP, under any speaker of the House of Commons that I can remember, I would have been called. I thought, in particular, that I would’ve been called on Wednesday, because Hester’s abusive comments about me had led the news bulletins that day, and I was referred to several times in PMQs itself. I cannot say why Lindsay Hoyle would not call me. He claimed there wasn’t enough time after going through those listed on the order paper. But I’m not convinced – and, the truth is, he can call on whoever he likes.

Diane Abbott is the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington

Kevin Hollinrake says ‘on the basis he is not a racist, has apologised for what he said, yes’ party would be comfortable spending £10m donation

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have released a joint statement warning that Michael Gove’s new defintion of extremism could cause further “division” and threaten the country’s “rich diversity”.

Gove is set to unveil the government’s new definition of extremism on Thursday and use parliamentary privilege to name groups that he says fall foul of this new definition, despite pushback from government lawyers who have warned about the legal implications of doing so.

How our leaders respond to this is far too important for a new definition of extremism to be its cure.

Instead of providing clarity or striking a conciliatory tone, we think labelling a multi-faceted problem as hateful extremism may instead vilify the wrong people and risk yet more division.

2p cut to national insurance already reported and further tax cuts may come as chancellor announces spring budget

Jeremy Hunt has been talking about “great budgets” this morning. He did not quite say today’s would be in the list, but in a video broadcast on X this morning, the chancellor said:

Great budgets change history. The bit of history I want to change is to show people it is possible, if we stick to a plan through all the ups and downs, through all the challenges, it’s possible to have healthy growth, good public services, and to bring down taxes.

Commons descends into chaos in embarrassing tour de farce of loud yet meaningless posturing

At times like these we need the mind of Sherlock Holmes. “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” So we’re left with a crime scene for which the only explanation is that half the Tories must suffer from arrested development. Maybe they all fell on their heads at the same tea party while they were overdosing on sugar. Because this week’s prime minister’s questions turned into a total embarrassment. One that was cheered on by frontbenchers such as Johnny Mercer and Jeremy Hunt, who are too half-witted to understand what they are watching.

The Tory party has been unravelling for a while now. Arguably since 2010. But there’s no denying that the pace has ramped up significantly in recent months. Now it’s almost impossible to keep up. We seem to get through three or four news cycles between breakfast and lunch. If you stop paying attention for more than an hour, you are hopelessly lost. No chance of catching up. The world becomes a mystery.

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said the Conservative party had become 'the political wing of the Flat Earth Society' at PMQs on Wednesday, accusing the Tories of spreading conspiracies, following comments by Lee Anderson that the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, was under the control of Islamists and remarks made by the former prime minister Liz Truss about a shadowy cabal that included activists, the deep state and the Financial Times.

The prime minister hit back at Starmer, retorting that the Labour leader did not act when his party had an antisemitism problem under Jeremy Corbyn. Rishi Sunak said Starmer was too 'spineless, hopeless, utterly shameless' to address the issue, in a heated session in parliament

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The investment to improve parliamentarians’ security will include a dedicated police contact to liaise with over safety concerns

Sir Lindsay Hoyle , the Commons speaker, has welcomed today’s announcement about extra security for MPs. (See 9.13am .) He said:

I warmly welcome the government’s announcement of additional funding to protect our elected representatives and our democracy. It will enable us to build on the improvements we have made over the past two years, working with the police and Home Office to enhance security at MPs’ homes and offices, and crucially when they are out and about meeting their constituents.

I am particularly pleased that this funding will make it possible for all MPs - and in the forthcoming election period, all candidates - to have a dedicated police contact to liaise with on security issues.

Security measures for MPs will be bolstered with a £31m package that will include providing elected politicians with a dedicated police contact to liaise with over safety issues.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, who made the funding announcement, will meet with police chiefs on Wednesday to discuss what more can be done to improve the safety of MPs.