Israel has condemned the “hostility and incitement” which it claimed led to Maccabi Tel Aviv saying it would not accept tickets for its match with Aston Villa.

The Israeli club’s announcement came amid efforts by ministers to overturn a ban on fans from the away team attending the Europa League match at Villa Park next month.

The Israeli embassy in the UK said it expected the UK authorities to ensure the safety of Jewish fans and their “full participation in public life”.

A minister has told Parliament four government departments were hit by yesterday’s glitch at Amazon Web Services.

Labour frontbencher Lord Leong said the Home Office, HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and the DVLA, which operates under the Department for Transport, had all been affected by the US-based glitch.

However, he stressed there was no evidence the transatlantic disruption had been caused by malicious activity, coming in the wake of a series of damaging cyber attacks against a series of well-known firms, including carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Marks & Spencer.

Britain has removed the rebel group which led the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime from its list of banned terrorist organisations.

The Government said the removal of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham would allow for closer engagement with Damascus at a time when Isis remains a “significant threat” in the country.

A third survivor of child sexual abuse has quit her role in the national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Elizabeth, not her real name, resigned from the inquiry’s victims and survivors liaison panel just a day after survivors Fiona Goddard and Ellie-Ann Reynolds also quit.

In a resignation letter posted on X, the survivor said she was “deeply concerned that there still isn’t a genuine understanding of the grooming gangs scandal, nor the lasting trauma it has caused”.

She said: “What is happening now feels like a cover-up of a cover-up. It has created a toxic environment for survivors, filled with pressures that we should not have to deal with”.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the inquiry into grooming gangs is “descending into chaos” while safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said allegations the inquiry is being diluted or intentionally delayed were “false”.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman has said officers should focus on tackling “real crime” and policing the streets after Britain’s biggest force indicated it would stop policing “toxic culture war debates”.

Scotland Yard’s announcement that it is no longer investigating non-crime hate incidents was described as “welcome news” by justice minister, Sarah Sackman, who said it would mean them ensuring the focus was on violent crime and anti-social behaviour.

The move came after it emerged Father Ted creator Graham Linehan will face no further action over social media posts about transgender issues.

Robert Jenrick has backed a ban on the burka in public places in Britain.

Asked about the issue during a TalkTV phone-in, the Shadow Justice Secretary said: “I probably would ban the burka.

“There are basic values in this country and we should stand up and defend them.

“And where you see them fraying at the edges or frankly being completely destroyed – whether it’s sharia courts or wearing the burka – these are issues we’re going to have to confront if we want to build the kind society that we want to hand onto our kids and grand-kids.”

His comments come after Reform MP Sarah Pochin sparked a fierce debate when she called for a ban at PMQs earlier this year.

Boris Johnson was pictured leaving the Covid inquiry after giving evidence this morning.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick and Shadow Attorney General Lord Wolfson have written to Lord Hermer to ask what role, if any, his office played in the collapse of the China spy case.

They said in their letter: “The collapse of the prosecution of Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry has gravely damaged confidence in both the rule of law and also the security of Parliament.

“There are now direct conflicts between ministerial assurances, including those given to Parliament, and what is now known about Whitehall’s involvement before the case was abandoned.

“The Attorney General and his office are uniquely placed to provide clarity and explain what actually happened.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the inquiry into grooming gangs is “descending into chaos”, as he repeated his call for a judge to be brought in to chair the process.

Mr Philp said the Government had been “forced” into announcing the inquiry in the first instance.

He said: “Perhaps that is why, months later, the Government has said nothing substantive publicly and their inquiry is descending into chaos. What we have heard publicly is that victims and survivors on the liaison panel have no confidence in the Government and no confidence in the inquiry.”

He said a liaison officer, Sabah Kaiser, should have no further role after saying that the majority of perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage was “destructive”.

He continued: “Victims and survivors have also questioned the suitability of former police officers or social workers to chair the inquiry. They do not believe people from professions that failed them so badly are suitable.

“So will the minister accept this feedback and appoint a judge to lead the inquiry? Will the minister confirm the scope of this inquiry will not be diluted as both Fiona (Goddard) and Ellie-Ann (Reynolds) are now saying is happening, and confirm it will focus on the cover-up of the rape gang scandal, because the majority of perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.”

Downing Street has denied that the national inquiry into grooming gangs is in crisis, despite two survivors of child sexual abuse quitting their roles and the reported withdrawal of one of the candidates to chair the probe.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters: “No. The grooming gangs scandal, as we’ve said before, was one of the greatest failures in our country’s history. Vulnerable young people let down time and time again.

“We are working with victims from across the country, listening to their individual experiences, to finally get justice.

“And whilst we all want to get on with setting up the inquiry, our priority is getting it right.

“I’d point you back to the original child sexual abuse inquiry, which had three chairs withdraw before Professor Alexis Jay was appointed in 2016, two years after it started. And we’re determined not to let victims down again.”

School closures should be “a measure of last resort” in tackling any future events like coronvirus, Boris Johnson has told the Covid inquiry.

Appearing on behalf of children’s rights organisations, Steve Broach KC asked Mr Johnson whether he would accept “the reality was the government didn’t consider children as rights-holders in their own right, and were seeing them through the lens of virus transmission and prioritising enforcement of the rules”.

“I think that looking back on it all, the whole lockdowns, the intricacy of the rules, the rule of six, the complexity, particularly for children, I think we probably did go too far and it was far too elaborate,” Mr Johnson said.

“Maybe we could have found a way of exempting children.”

Boris Johnson has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry he was seeking clarification on December 28 on how mass testing would work in schools when they returned in January 2021, but did not think it was “undeliverable”.

“Some of the questions asked by you at this point seem like quite fundamental questions,” said Clair Dobbin KC, inquiry counsel.

She also asked why it had fallen primarily on the Department for Education and schools to deliver mass testing rather than a more shared effort.

“I didn’t think it was such an unreasonable thing to ask,” Mr Johnson said.

“I know it was onerous, but I believed they could do it given the alternative. And the alternative was again, more loss of learning, greater detriment to their pupils, about which they cared passionately.”

The summer 2020 exam results fiasco was “an accident” due to “improvising in exceptionally difficult circumstances”, Boris Johnson said.

The former prime minister told the Covid Inquiry: “I think it certainly was very undermining for the confidence of kids who thought they deserved a better grade, and it was a bad system.

“I’m afraid that it was an accident of the great difficulties we faced in improvising in exceptionally difficult circumstances.

“And I think most people, although they wanted it corrected and they wanted their kid, the individual students’ interests looked after, I think most people could see that.”

Earlier, he insisted the algorithm designed to prevent grade inflation “arose from good intentions” in an effort to “protect the integrity of the examination system”, but acknowledged it had “failed in that intention”.

The exam results fiasco in summer 2020 left Boris Johnson in a “homicidal mood” and he considered sacking then-education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, the Covid inquiry has heard.

The scandal saw the Department for Education forced into a U-turn after its algorithm intended to prevent grade inflation saw 40% of predicted results downgraded, resulting in public outcry.

During Mr Johnson’s evidence on the exam results, the inquiry was shown a WhatsApp message from the former prime minister to his then-chief adviser Dominic Cummings in which he said he was “back in chequers and in a thoroughly homicidal mood”.

He said: “We need a plan for the dept of education. We need a perm sec and we need better ministers and quite frankly we need an agenda of reform. We can’t go on like this. I am thinking of going into number ten and firing people.”

While the permanent secretary at the Department for Education left his job, Mr Johnson did not sack Sir Gavin.

The former prime minister told the inquiry: “I think if I look back at my handling of my beloved colleagues over the three-and-a-bit years I was in government, I can think of all sorts of changes I might have made.

“But I don’t think there’s any point in speculating about it now, except I think that on the whole, given the difficulties that we faced, I think that the department under Gavin did a pretty heroic job in trying to cope with Covid, and that was my judgment.”

Prince Andrew should “leave public life forever” and receive no “subsidy from the taxpayer whatsoever”, Robert Jenrick has said.

The shadow justice secretary told the BBC: “He has to make his own decisions as to what he feels he should do, but I think that he has behaved disgracefully.

“He’s embarrassed the royal family time and again.

“He should really now leave public life forever, stop having any subsidy from the taxpayer whatsoever, and go and lead an entirely private life.

“The public are sick of Prince Andrew and the damage that he’s done to the reputation of our royal family and this country.”

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is in the lead on 26% in the latest YouGov poll, down one point from the week before.

Labour and the Tories are both unchanged on 20% and 17% respectively. The Lib Dems and the Greens are both on 15%.

The poll of 2,396 people was carried out from October 19-20.

Boris Johnson has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry he regrets “that we got the wrong initial model” for replacing exams in the summer of 2020.

He was asked by inquiry counsel Clair Dobbin KC if he recognised what happened with assessment during summer 2020 was “really damaging” to children.

“We had to find a way of adjudicating on the academic achievement of the kids that didn’t involve an exam,” he said.

“And Ofqual came up with this system. I was not expert enough to comment on it, on whether it was viable or not, but plainly it let down a lot of kids whose grades didn’t reflect their abilities and their achievements.

“And so to answer your question, yes, I regret very much.

“Amongst the things I regret and I take responsibility for, is that we got the wrong initial model for how to have a substitute exam.

“What I would say in our defence is it wasn’t easy to come up with the right model.”

Boris Johnson denied there had been a “dereliction of duty” in failing to plan for school closures during the pandemic, but said officials had been “overwhelmed by the speed of events”.

Former Department for Education schools director-general Sir John Coles had previously told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry it was an “extraordinary dereliction of duty” for the DfE not to plan for school closures earlier in March 2020.

But on Tuesday, Mr Johnson told the inquiry: “It felt to me as though there had been abundant discussions about closing schools, and it felt to me, to the best of my recollection, as though the department was aware of this, and I assumed that they were planning for it.

“When I look at that document of March 15, it seems to me to suggest that a great deal of work and thought had gone into the key issues.

“So I’m not, respectfully, I’m not inclined to accept the idea that people fell down gravely in their duty.

“I think people were overwhelmed by the speed of events and when the facts changed they had to change policy and I had to change policy.”

Former prime minister Boris Johnson said he would accept the “full horror” of coronavirus was “slow to dawn on government”, in his evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Earlier on Tuesday, he told the inquiry he accepted that from February 4 2020 it was being advised by Sage (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) that school closures “were at least in contemplation”.

“Don’t forget, we didn’t know the effect this disease had on kids. We didn’t know much about the transmissibility of the disease. There were all sorts of things that were simply unknown and difficult to plan for,” he said.

“And the thing was moving very fast.

“And from the point of view of Number 10, we were focused very much on trying to stave off, trying to avoid an appalling public health crisis. And we were focused on getting enough ventilators, on getting enough PPE, trying to avoid a significant number of casualties.

“And I think it’s important for the inquiry to focus, to remember that at the time that the school closures were first mentioned, they were seen as something you put in at the peak of the pandemic, and we didn’t think we were yet at the peak of the pandemic.”

Boris Johnson denied that the Government had failed to plan for coronavirus school closures.

The former prime minister told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: “I’m not sure I agree with the idea that there was no planning for school closures, because if you look at the sequence from February onwards, it’s clear that Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) is talking about the possibility, the Cabinet is discussing it in March.

“Certainly I remember the subject coming up repeatedly.”

Mr Johnson added that he had received a note from the Department for Education on March 15 asking for a meeting on the subject “in which they go over all kinds of stuff that are going to be necessary to enact school closures”, including safeguarding, exams and teacher training.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnon has begun giving evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry.

One of the survivors who resigned from the Government’s grooming gangs inquiry said she feared the issue was going to be “brushed under the carpet”.

Ellie-Ann Reynolds told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The way that they’re watering it down is pretty much going to brush grooming gangs under the carpet again.

“And grooming gangs have been brushed under the carpet now for numerous years, and it’s about time that people started making a stand and people started exposing what’s going on in our country.”

She added: “In my opinion, I think that this panel is aiming to prevent the truth from coming out about the fact that we do have grooming gangs in the country that are predominantly Asian, Pakistani men.”

Sir Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelensky and leaders from across Europe have said the current front line in Ukraine “should be the starting point of negotiations” for a peace deal.

The leaders – including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen – said: “We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.”

The statement follows reports that US President Donald Trump had tossed aside maps of the front line in Ukraine and suggested Mr Zelensky surrender the entire eastern Donbas region to Vladimir Putin during tense White House exchanges last week.

Victims of grooming gangs are “at the forefront of our minds”, a Cabinet minister has said.

Asked about the resignation of two survivors of abuse from their roles in the national grooming gangs inquiry, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the Government was “determined to deliver the justice and the information and the truth” for victims.

He told Sky News: “They are at the forefront of our minds at this moment.

“I cannot give a running commentary on an inquiry which is currently being assembled. Let’s just see where this inquiry goes, let’s just see what is announced when the inquiry is complete and ready to go, and at that point we have this discussion.”

He added: “We are determined to get this right.”

UK Government borrowing rose in September to the highest amount in five years, piling more pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves over the nation’s public purse.

Public sector net borrowing rose to £20.2 billion in September, £1.6 billion higher than the same month last year, the Office for National Statistics said.

ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said: “Last month saw the highest September borrowing for five years.

“Debt interest, the cost of providing public services and benefits all increased compared with last year, more than offsetting the rise in receipts from central government taxes and national insurance contributions.

“Likewise, the first six months of the financial year saw the highest overall deficit since 2020.”

Boris Johnson has been pictured arriving ahead of his appearance at the Covid inquiry.

Nigel Farage vowed to ditch the Chagos Islands agreement if Reform UK wins the next general election.

The Reform leader told GB News: “When the Americans realise that actually Mauritius is not a trustworthy nation. They’re bankrupt. They need the money. They will not honour this treaty. They will be in a very different place.

“I would put it that this deal is un-British. It’s against our national interest. There is no upside, there is no gain.

“I can assure you that a future Reform government will not honour this treaty.”

The resignation of two survivors from the grooming gangs inquiry has “cast a real shadow” over the Government’s efforts, Robert Jenrick has said.

The shadow justice secretary told BBC Breakfast: “I’ve read the letters that they’ve written, and I thought they were very powerful indeed and cast a real shadow over the Government’s efforts to create this national grooming gang inquiry.

“Look, the Government didn’t want to have this inquiry in the first place, and they’ve been dragged to the point of starting one.

“And now to have survivors’ very, very powerful testimonies, people who should have been at the heart of this inquiry, feeling that they’re being excluded, that they can’t even ask questions in meetings, that they’re being shut down, that the scope of the inquiry is being changed so that it doesn’t really focus on the heart of the matter, which is grooming gangs, rape gangs, group-based activity, is a real, real disappointment from the Government. They’ve got to take action now and grip this.”

Legislation which would hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was passed by MPs last night despite opposition from the Tories and Reform UK amid concerns over China.

The Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill was passed at third reading by 320 votes to 171, majority 149.

It follows a treaty signed by the UK Government in May to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to Mauritius.

Britain will retain control over the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia for at least 99 years, at an average annual cost of £101 million, under the agreement.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson will give evidence to the Covid inquiry today.

He is due to appear before the panel at 10am, with questions expected to focus on schools during the pandemic.