Liz Truss – live: Sunak ally claims frontrunner win ‘not cut and dried’ as voting to end

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has said the UK has “no easy options” when it comes to the “headwinds” facing it.

The country has been buffeted by a steep rise in inflation and by a significant leap in energy and food prices.

Mr Zahawi said the government will apply some lessons it learnt from the pandemic, adding that he was looking at options to support the public.

Not allowing the Commons inquiry to investigate whether Boris Johnson’s Partygate denials would amount to a “cover-up”, Labour’s shadow Commons leader has said.

Thangam Debbonaire told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “This current prime minister needs to be able to show – and the investigation’s got to be free to investigate this – that he corrected the record at the earliest possible opportunity.”

She added: “Otherwise, I’m afraid to say, it just looks like the sleaze and the lies and the cover-ups that people have described it as.” 

Thérèse Coffey is tipped to take on the role of health secretary if Liz Truss wins the Conservative leadership contest, The Independent understands.

Two sources said that Ms Coffey, a long-standing ally of Ms Truss, was a favoured candidate for the position as NHS backlogs are considered a critical issue ahead of the next general election, expected in 2024.

The move would mark a promotion for Ms Coffey, from her current role as secretary of state at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Meanwhile, Priti Patel has told staff that she expects to leave her role at the Home Office.

“She’s been clear to staff that she doesn’t expect to remain, that’s been made very clear to staff,” a home office source said.

Labour MP Chris Bryant has condemned Lord Pannick’s legal opinion about the parliamentary inquiry into whether Boris Johnson mislead parliament, branding it “wrong on several counts”.

The government-commissioned advice suggested the privileges committee was “unfair” not to probe whether or not the prime minister had deliberately lied to his peers.

Mr Bryant, the privileges committee chair who has recused himself from the investigation, described Lord Pannick’s option as “bizarre”, saying it lacked formal status.

“Firstly, he fails to mention that the motion that charged the Committee makes no mention of ‘intentionally misleading,” he tweeted.

“Nor does he acknowledge that many aspect of Standards processes have changed over the years, including the introduction of the right of ministers to correct the record through a Written Ministerial Statement – which was used 200 times last year,” he added.

The Labour politician pointed out that Mr Johnson himself used the procedure earlier this year to correct his false statement that Roman Abramovich had already been sanctioned.

Mr Bryant said the prime minister should stop trying to “cow” the inquiry. “If Johnson has a good case to make, he’ll be vindicated. If not, he should take his punishment,” he explained.

Finance ministers of the G7 group of leading democracies have agreed a global price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products.

Extinction Rebellion has confirmed that 50 of its supporters are involved in “non-violent” action at the Palace of Westminster, including three people who have superglued themselves to the speaker’s chair.

The environmental group said “new, fairer politics” could only be achieved through civil disobedience.

Alanna Byrne, of Extinction Rebellion, said: “It is possible to change things and update politics so it really represents ordinary people.”

“But to create a new, fairer politics will require first thousands, then millions of us. It will require sustained culture-shifting civil disobedience, until we become impossible to ignore,” she added.

“Then, when there’s enough of us, positive change will become inevitable.”

Joe Short, an XR protester from Bristol, chained himself to the entrance gates at the Palace of Westminster on Friday.

“I have locked myself to the railings outside the Houses of Parliament,” he said.

“It is part of a bigger protest which is about climate inaction but it is also about a citizens’ assembly which is an alternative form of democracy which could be much more effective at dealing with problems like climate change.”

Boris Johnson has been accused of cronyism after giving a plum job to the author of a book praising him.

Harry Mount, who wrote a book about the “wit and wisdom of Boris Johnson”, will now help oversee peerages as part of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

Labour said the prime minister was using his final hours in office to “hand out more jobs for the boys”.

As expected, Lord Pannick’s legal advise to the PM about the Commons investigation he faces has been made public.

Lord Pannick said an inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament is being conducted by an “unfair procedure” which would be ruled “unlawful” by courts.

The opinion was commissioned by the Cabinet Office.

The Commons privileges committee is investigating whether Mr Johnson’s denials of lockdown-breaching parties at No 10 amounted to a contempt of parliament.

Andrew Woodcock has more on this breaking story:

MPs charged taxpayers almost £200,000 for energy bills and other utilities at their second homes over the past year, new analysis by The Independenthas found.

Campaigners said the findings showed that Britain’s elected representatives were partly “insulated” from financial pain during the cost of living crisis, since much of their energy costs are covered by the public purse.

Adam Forrest has this exclusive: