Rochdale by-election – live: Voters go to polls in contest overshadowed by Gaza war

Here’s the option that’s the lesser of two evils, says John Rentoul:

Here are the written ministerial statements due to be made in the Commons on Thursday:

– Minister for the Cabinet Office: Transforming for a Digital Future: February 2024 progress update.

– Secretary of State for Defence: Contingency Fund Advance: Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme.

– Secretary of State for Defence: Contingency Fund Advance: MOD 2023-24 funding.

– Secretary of State for Health and Social Care: England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2024

– Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Local Government Finance Update.

Britain’s social fabric is “under threat” from antisemitism, Rishi Sunak told Jewish leaders at a dinner.

The prime minister made the comments at an event held by the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that aims to protect Jewish people from antisemitism and other threats.

“The whole fabric of our nation is under threat,” Mr Sunak said at the dinner, in comments reported by the Politico website.

He also criticised pro-Palestine protests, saying there was “no context” in which it was acceptable to beam antisemitic tropes onto Big Ben.

Mr Sunak was referring to an incident last week where protesters projected “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” onto the Elizabeth Tower as MPs debated calls for a Gaza ceasefire last week.

He also committed the government to giving the CST £18 million over the next four years and vowed to call university chancellors to Downing Street to discuss the safety of Jewish students on campus.

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Rishi Sunak has claimed the UK is descending into “mob rule” as he warned police must take urgent action or risk losing public confidence.

The prime minister demanded a crackdown on protests as he pledged to do “whatever it requires to protect our democracy”.

The government is forking out £15 million a day on putting up asylum seekers in hotels, spending £4.3 billion more of taxpayer money than budgeted on asylum support in the last year, Labour has said.

The opposition party pointed to Treasury figures estimating the Home Office spent £5.4 billion on asylum accommodation and support.

The Rochdale by-election campaign was one of the most chaotic and divisive in recent memory.

Candidates received alleged death threats, wore stab vests while vandalism was reported in the Greater Manchester town.

Labour’s campaign was torpedoed days after launch after a recording surfaced of its candidate, Azhar Ali, speaking at a party meeting suggesting Israel was complicit with the massacre of its own people in the October 7 terror outrage.

Government minister Damian Hinds said there would be a “respectful and important debate” if the issue of assisted dying returned to the Commons.

The education minister has not backed changing the law when the Commons has debated it in the past, but told Sky News he had “entire respect” for Dame Esther Rantzen’s campaign for a fresh vote.

“Being able to talk about some of these issues publicly I think does a great service to public debate,” he said.

“But there will still be a – as and when any such vote comes to the House of Commons – there’ll be a respectful discussion and consideration of the issues.”

Asked if he would change his views, Mr Hinds said: “I can never say for sure, because that’s the way that we have democratic decision-making in this country.”

But he stressed that “these are not government decisions, they are for individual Members of Parliament to come to a come to a decision of conscience”.