A brief break in the clouds over Stansted Airport in Essex teased yesterday’s winter solstice sunrise

Even closer than the Brexit referendum - MPs tied 100-100 in their vote on the Lib Dems' UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill.

Expanded licensing powers for the Mayor of London will "create the conditions for London’s night-time economy to thrive", says Miatta Fahnbulleh www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-...

Peers took 4h44 to debate just 21 amendments to the assisted dying Bill - and there are now more than 1,000 to get through.

After the review into Sara Sharif’s murder, Will Forster last week described “constant management failures” at Surrey County Council. “I don’t have faith and trust that they’ll put this right,” he tells me.

“It’s the hokey cokey Budget – one minute it’s in, the next minute it’s out" Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said a minister of old "would be resigning for anything that was released", as James Murray took questions about pre-Budget briefings.

Peers debated assisted dying and the devolution settlement as they began line-by-line scrutiny of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Benefit claimants risk falling victim to Government “mass fishing” exercises, as ministers receive new powers to look at bank account details to tackle fraud, says Steve Darling. www.independent.co.uk/money/govern...

Hiding money away in British overseas territories has a knock-on effect for British families, a Labour MP has warned. www.independent.co.uk/news/busines...

Labour backbenchers David Smith and Maya Ellis challenged Treasury ministers to consider tweaking their plan to bring farms into inheritance tax www.independent.co.uk/news/busines...

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged Home Sec Shabana Mahmood to “look at the very serious problem of some trains operating without any staff on at all”. www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Are ferry firms leaving island and river communities high and dry? Joe Robertson has tabled the Ferry Services (Integration and Regulation) Bill in an effort to bring boats more in line with buses and trains. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

There are “no current plans” to ban VPNs, but “nothing is off the table when it comes to keeping children safe”, a tech minister has said. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Football fans have “ingenious ways” of breaking into grounds, a Labour peer has warned. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

“A food allergy enthusiast will claim they saw a potato which has made them go blind.” Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest, who is opening The North Star in Brighton with her charity Team Domenica, reads some advice she got from Jeremy Clarkson about running a pub.

"How people get to and from an airport is as important as the number of flights and planes that are landing and taking off," says Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Scotland lands the most fish by quantity and value out of the four UK nations, but will get less than 8% of a new fund for fishing and coastal communities. This is "ocean-going madness", says Alistair Carmichael. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

A postcard from Budva 🇲🇪

Labour has "no plan" to ease the debts blighting English councils, one Unite delegate warned on stage at the party's conference. Unite the Union is behind the long-running Birmingham bin strike hellorayo.co.uk/hits-radio/b...

"Let’s ban fracking," says Ed Miliband, as he warns it is "dangerous and deeply harmful to our natural environment" www.independent.co.uk/news/busines...

EXC: When Reform UK overturned a 14,696 majority in the only by-election of the Parliament so far, it was a "wake-up call" for Sir Keir Starmer, Labour's losing candidate tells me www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

In a blow for Sir Keir Starmer and the Government, Labour conference has approved a motion which says Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

After a brief speech, where he said his “marching orders” to “get Britain building again” came directly from Sir Keir Starmer, Steve Reed signed bucket hats, caps and t-shirts.

It’s not even day one proper and the bucket hats are out

Sir Keir Starmer is heading for the Labour conference in Liverpool, which begins this weekend. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Sir Keir Starmer will pitch the idea of “difference under the same flag”, days after St George’s crosses appeared on landmarks such as the Westbury White Horse and Nottingham’s Goosey the Goose www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

This summer, Nigel Farage "has been allowed to hog the political microphone", says Labour deputy leadership hopeful Lucy Powell in her pitch to voters ahead of this weekend's conference www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

“Small numbers – I accept we want to ramp that up but we’ve been able to prove that you can actually remove people,” Sir Keir Starmer tells Kit Bradshaw as he faced questions about the one in, on out deal with France www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Royal Navy crews shadowed the Russian warship RFN Neustrashimy and freighter Sparta IV through the North Sea and English Channel www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

EXC: "We’re British citizens under attack," says Louie-Joe Findlater, from Poole, who is travelling to Gaza as part of a 52-boat flotilla www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Mandatory digital ID risks pushing “unauthorised migrants further into the shadows”, the leaders of eight civil liberties groups have warned in a letter to Sir Keir Starmer. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

EXC: West Midlands manufacturing faces a "real cash crunch" amid cyber attack disruption at Jaguar Land Rover, says Labour MP Antonia Bance www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news...

A postcard from Podgorica 🇲🇪

The UK has joined the multinational scramble to bring the High Seas Treaty into force, which can only happen once 60 countries become legally bound by it www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Conservative former PM Theresa May fears the assisted dying Bill "effectively says suicide is OK”, and warned it could lead to a future "cover-up".

EXC: “I do remain confident that the will of the public will be respected, as will the will of the elected chamber,” Kim Leadbeater tells me after peers began their Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill debate www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

I married Michael and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 📸 Christopher Turner

London and Moscow traded sanctions after a pair of summits on Friday and Monday, when US President Donald Trump said “everyone is happy about the possibility of peace” in eastern Europe. www.independent.co.uk/news/busines...

EXC: The leader of Epping Forest’s neighbour council, Broxbourne, will gather “more detail about what Epping has done”, and could use the High Court’s decision as a launchpad for legal action to shut a hotel thought to be housing asylum seekers in Cheshunt.

EXC: Green leadership hopefuls Adrian Ramsay (running jointly with Ellie Chowns) and Zack Polanski have vowed to take their party into a fight against Labour, as they enter their final fortnight on the campaign trail. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

It was "pure chance" a 10m-long small boat carrying 106 people in the English Channel stayed afloat for more than 15 hours at sea, the Government says. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Police's use of live facial recognition has "been a bit of a Wild West" so far, Baroness Chakrabarti has warned www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was in Little Walden today, where she tried her hand at harvesting wheat in a Claas Lexion combine harvester

Where there is “evidence that legal routes to visas are being misused”, the Government will “tighten up the rules to stop that abuse happening”, the border security minister said. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Former prison governor and new Reform UK justice adviser Vanessa Frake accused previous governments of having “failed and failed miserably” on crime and punishment. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

💩 Wild swimmers in Derbyshire and Staffordshire try to avoid getting a “Trent tan” when they’re in the water, says Samantha Niblett, who suggested cleaner rivers could “encourage more great exercise”.

An 🇪🇺 ban on carrying chickens by their legs is due to come to an end in Great Britain next week. But catching and carrying hens in this way “causes injury, pain and unnecessary distress”, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay tells me. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Ministers have been urged to clarify their “hopelessly confused” position on the age of majority, after they set out plans to give 16-year-olds the right to vote www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Embassies owe Transport for London millions after not paying the congestion charge. A Foreign Office exercise since April has shaved £7,430 off their debts, and peers have suggested missions should face having their vehicles clamped.

“We are indeed surrounded by cancer,” Allison Gardner told the Commons as she welcomed plans to link rare cancer patients with clinical trials www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...