Energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng denied there is a culture of misogyny in Parliament, instead blaming it on a few “bad apples”.

Insisting that it is a safe place for women to work, the minister backed the resignation of Tory colleague Neil Parish for twice watching pornography in the Commons.

The incident has also drawn concern from Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who demanded “radical reform” to working practices after a string of bullying and sexual misconduct offences involving MPs surfaced.

Read the details in this report:

Chancellor Rishi Sunak allegedly ignored a Ministry of Defence informing his that the UK might fail to meet its Nato spending commitments by 2025.

In a letter to the Chancellor, defence secretary Ben Wallace sounded alarmed over real-terms cut in security spending as he warned Mr Sunak that Britain might not meet 2 per cent spending commitment because of rising inflation, reported the Sun.

While the chancellor did not increase defence spending in his statement, the Treasury also did not deny his failure to respond to Mr Wallace’s letter.

Prime minister Boris Johnson is considering giving the right to buy homes to the tenants renting them from housing associations.

The Prime Minister told officials to draw up the plans in the last fortnight to help young people struggling to get on to the property ladder in England, reported the Telegraph.

The proposal for renters to be able to purchase their social homes at a discounted price is not new and has previously appeared in David Cameron’s 2015 Conservative manifesto.

Political parties should not ignore the impact of Brexit in their campaign “simply because it may be politically uncomfortable or inconvenient”, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said.

Slamming the Conservative party, Mr Blackford said: “The Tory-made cost-of-living crisis is the most immediate pressure and priority facing households across Scotland and the UK.

“The reality so far is that the UK government has failed to properly lift a finger to protect households.

“If we are to effectively tackle every layer of this emergency, it is vital that we face all the driving factors behind these soaring costs.”

Former Scottish conservative leader urged pro-UK voters to not reward SNP for “failure” and hold them to account on 5 May.

Slamming first minister Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson said that she is treating Scots as “fools” over the ferries scandal, which has engulfed the SNP in recent weeks.

Opposition is also criticising the Scottish government over significant delays and overspends on new ferries being built at the Ferguson shipyard, Inverclyde.

“The failing record of Nicola Sturgeon and her candidates is on the ballot paper this Thursday,” said Ms Davidson.

“They’ve left Glasgow filthier than ever before. They’ve left drug deaths to spiral in Dundee. They’ve got plans to make it unbelievably expensive to drive to work in our capital city.”

Britain remains the “world leader” in hiding dirty money despite recent efforts to crack down on oligarchs’ illicit wealth, a leading sanctions expert has told The Independent.

Bill Browder urged Boris Johnson’s government to get to grips with the “enabler community” of lawyers and accountants in London suspected of helping kleptocrats from Russia and elsewhere protect their assets.

The Vladimir Putin critic – who campaigned for the “Magnitsky” human rights sanctions introduced by many western governments – said the UK government must now force so-called enablers to share more information with the authorities.

Read the exclusive interview by Adam Forrest.

Boris Johnson’s “anti-woke agenda” has helped fuel the rise in misogynistic behaviour in parliament, one of Labour’s most senior women MPs has said.

Margaret Hodge’s comments came after the resignation of Tory MP Neil Parish for watching porn in the Commons chamber, and amid a flood of complaints about women at Westminster being groped, objectified and belittled because of their sex.

Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is to convene a once-in-a-generation conference to bring parties and parliamentary authorities together to find solutions to the problem of bullying and sexual harassment.

But cabinet minister Kwasi Kwarteng denied there was a culture of misogyny in parliament, blaming the string of recent cases on “bad apples” among MPs.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.

Water companies dumped sewage in public swimming spots for more than 160,000 hours last year, research released by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Data from the Environment Agency showed that 25,000 sewage releases took place in coastline bathing spots in areas popular with families and holidaymakers, such as Scarborough South Bay in Yorkshire and Clevedon Beach in Somerset.

The research comes after water companies admitted to discharging raw sewage into England’s rivers, estuaries and seas around 1,000 times a day during the last year.

Joe Middleton has the details.

Candidates from left-of-centre parties will outnumber those on the right by more than two to one in this week’s local elections in England, creating an inbuilt advantage for the Conservative Party, new research has shown.

In almost half (43 per cent) of wards being contested, the Conservatives are the sole right-of-centre party against three contenders from the left of centre – Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens – effectively splitting the “progressive” vote in a way that makes it easier for Boris Johnson’s party to win.

And in another third (36 per cent) of battles, the Tories are the sole “conservative” representative fighting candidates from two “progressive” parties. Out of almost 3,000 council seats up for grabs, only 15 (0.5 per cent) will see more conservative than progressive parties on the ballot paper.

Labour is demanding an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs to clear up whether any government minister with responsibility for tax policy has ever benefitted from undeclared tax arrangements as a result.

The call comes after The Independent revealed the non-dom tax status enjoyed by chancellor Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty, as well as questions over health secretary Sajid Javid’s use of an offshore trust while working as a Treasury adviser.

In a letter to HMRC, seen by The Independent, Labour Treasury spokesperson James Murray called for an investigation to provide “full clarity that no sitting government minister who has been involved in any way with shaping tax policy has benefitted from those policies through personal and previously undeclared tax arrangements linked to offshore tax havens”.

Read the details in this exclusive by our political editor Andrew Woodcock.