Rishi Sunak has hinted he may cut fuel duty in Wednesday’s mini-budget, declaring that he does not believe prices at the pump should be “prohibitively expensive”.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Labour would not oppose the move, which has been demanded by a group of 50 Tory MPs to ease the cost-of-living crisis hitting millions of families.

Days ahead of his crucial spring statement, Mr Sunak hinted he is ready to help families with soaring bills, but admitted: “I can’t solve every problem.”

The chancellor urged voters not to be “scared” by the looming cost-of-living crisis, and promised: “Where we can make a difference of course we will.”

But he appeared to acknowledge that whatever package he delivers will not be enough to cushion the blow of historic surges in the cost of petrol, heating and other essentials, telling voters: “It’s not going to be easy.”

Read the details in this report by Andrew Woodcock.

The Ukraine crisis shows Boris Johnson must drop his opposition to a defence pact with the EU to allow the UK to quickly deploy forces around Europe, a Tory group says.

The Conservative European Forum (CEF) wants Britain to join projects run by an EU body called Permanent Structured Cooperation in Defence (PESCO) – a bid to create a common defence policy.

As a first step, it argues that the prime minister should sign up to its Military Mobility project, to ease bureaucracy preventing the quick movement of military personnel and assets.

Rishi Sunak has distanced himself from Boris Johnson’s comparison of the Ukraine war with Brexit, saying the two situations are “not directly analogous”.

In an awkward exchange on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the chancellor declined to repeat the parallel made by the prime minister, insisting that Mr Johnson himself had not intended to draw a direct comparison.

“I don’t think those two situations are directly analogous,” said Mr Sunak. “Clearly they are not directly analogous and I don’t think the prime minister was saying they are directly analogous.”

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.

There were calls for the prime minister to be excluded from next week’s European Council meeting, where Mr Johnson is hoping to join EU leaders to discuss the Ukraine crisis with US president Joe Biden.

Speaking to the Conservative spring conference in Blackpool on Saturday, Mr Johnson said that the world faced a moment of choice between “freedom and oppression” and criticised those who believe it is necessary to “make accommodations with tyranny”.

Read this report by Andrew Woodcock.

Prime minister Boris Johnson is set to host a meeting on removing barriers to increase UK’s nuclear power output, No 10 has announced.

Mr Johnson will chair a roundtable of leaders in the nuclear industry at Downing Street to discuss domestic nuclear projects as he prepares to publish his energy security strategy this month.

As he looks to wean Britain off dependence on Russian oil and gas following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Johnson has argued that investing in domestic nuclear and renewable energy could be the key to establishing a standalone energy policy.

Liz Truss condemned the “abduction and deportation” of Ukrainians in the besieged city of Mariupol, following a claim from a Ukrainian MP that the locals were being forced to relocate to “distant parts of Russia” to work in slave-like conditions.

The foreign secretary tweeted that she was “appalled” by the reports as she pledged to hold Russian president Vladimir Putin to account for his treatment of civilians during the invasion.

Mariupol is in the throes of a humanitarian crisis after being encircled by Russian troops and being cut off from energy, food and water supplies amid relentless bombardment for several weeks.

“I am appalled by Russian atrocities in Mariupol, including attacks on schools sheltering civilians and the abduction and deportation of Ukrainians,” tweeted Ms Truss. “Putin is resorting to desperate measures as he is not achieving his objectives. Putin and his regime will be held to account.”

Earlier, speaking to Times Radio, Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said that she received information from the port’s mayor that citizens were effectively being “relocated” by Moscow, following “the logic of Nazi Germany”.

Boris Johnson has vowed to “advance” Kyiv’s interests” at this week’s Nato and G7 meeting as reaffirmed UK’s support for Ukraine while speaking with president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday afternoon.

Condemning the “abhorrent attacks” by the Russian invaders “on innocent civilians” in Mariupol, the prime minister also sought Ukrainian leader’s latest assessment on the country’s military requirement.

The prime minister also expressed his admiration for the bravery of Ukraine as he affirmed the commitment to step up “military, economic and diplomatic support” in order to help bring an end to this terrible conflict.

Welcome to The Independent’s UK politics liveblog for Monday, 21 March 2022.