Paul McNamara , Senior Political Correspondent

Polling stations across Wales, Scotland and parts of England are open for local and national elections.

The Green Party Leader, Zack Polanski, has apologised for sharing a post criticising the actions of the police officers in the Golders Green attack.

The national terror threat level has been raised to severe after yesterday’s attack, and protesters from the Campaign Against Antisemitism have begun gathering outside Downing Street for what they call a “national emergency rally”.

When voters in England go to the polls on May 7th, more than a third of the councillors up for re-election will be in London. 

Keir Starmer has repeatedly signalled he wants closer ties with Europe, from the economy to defence and security, but has not yet said what that will look like.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “furious” that the Foreign Office did not tell him that Lord Mandelson had failed security vetting to become the US ambassador.

The government appears to be at war with its own officials in the Foreign Office tonight after it emerged that Peter Mandelson failed his UK security vetting and was still appointed US Ambassador.

The Defence Secretary John Healey has said that the UK tracked a covert Russian submarine operation in the North Atlantic for a month before they retreated. He said earlier this year the UK, in tandem with Norway and other allies, responded to “increased Russian activity” over vital undersea infrastructure.

The mistreatment of women in the military is not new. For decades, there have been harrowing reports of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. For the past three years, victims of crime within the forces have been supported by a specialist unit. Its typical workload? Some 500 cases at a time. Now Channel 4 News has…

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned that the coming months won’t be easy because of the impact on living standards of the Middle East war, but he said Britain would emerge stronger.

Reform UK are launching their campaign for May’s local elections this evening in Sunderland.

The government announced this evening that the US could continue using UK bases for “defensive operations” to strike at sites which Iran is using to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Petrol Retailers Association has met the Chancellor and energy secretary in Downing Street – despite threatening to pull out over what they called “inflammatory language”.

The government has been trying to push through reforms to the courts system that will reduce defendents’ access to jury trials. 

Senior political correspondent Paul McNamara spoke to the deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and began by asking him about the use of UK bases.