Paul McNamara , Policy Correspondent

Inflation is down, falling just over 1% last month, but prices are continuing to rise – just more slowly than they were before.

It’s exactly two years since the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan – forcing thousands of people to flee to Europe, in fear for their lives.

Ministers are coming under renewed pressure to tackle the number of people crossing the channel in small boats – after six people died at the weekend making the journey.

More than seven and a half million people in England are now waiting for routine hospital treatment – the highest figure since records began – and three million higher than before the pandemic. 

It’s not so much his controversial views on asylum seekers which are causing ructions in the Tory party, but senior MP Lee Anderson’s claim that the government had “failed” to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats hasn’t gone down quite so well. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick took pains this morning to distance himself from that.

New polling – given exclusively to Channel 4 News – shows a Labour landslide victory with around 460 seats and the Conservatives reduced to 90 seats – if there were an imminent general election.

The job of the Professional Enablers Taskforce is to root out corrupt immigration lawyers.

Rishi Sunak might be famously teetotal but he chose a beer festival this morning to talk up the government’s changes to alcohol duty – which will mean most drinks becoming more expensive.

London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has got the green light to extend his controversial ultra low emission zone, Ulez. The High Court has thrown out a challenge by five Conservative-led outer London councils to stop it expanding to cover the whole of the city. 

The boss of NatWest, Dame Alison Rose, has resigned after admitting she gave information to the BBC about Nigel Farage’s relationship with the bank, and had made a “serious error of judgement”. 

The boss of NatWest Bank has admitted to a “serious error of judgement” by discussing the bank’s relationship with Nigel Farage.

The Conservatives are facing a big battle later this week in three by-elections in Somerton and Froome; Selby and Ainsty; and Uxbridge and South Ruislip – which are expected to be heavily contested by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Councils in England and Wales are pushing for a ban next year on single use vapes saying they are a danger to the environment as well to health, particularly that of children. 

One in twenty adults in the UK have run short of food, and couldn’t afford to buy more – according to official figures on the cost of living crisis.

Successive governments have failed to grasp and respond to the scale of the threat posed by China, according to a wide-ranging report published today by the Intelligence and Security Committee.