The deputy PM said she would miss their “battle of the gingers” in a light-hearted reference with Oliver Dowden to their similar hair colours.

Angela Rayner and the Tory deputy had been speaking about the roles of King Charles and the late Queen in the Commonwealth.

She suggested she did not expect to face Dowden again at PMQs after the Conservative Party chooses a new leader on 2 November.

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‘Private citizens’

British obsession

Awkward spot

Health Secretary Wes Streeting will vote against changing the law on assisted dying, the BBC has confirmed.

Backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has put forward a bill proposing that terminally ill adults nearing the end of their lives get the right to choose to shorten their deaths if they wish.

But in a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday, Streeting said he did not believe the palliative care system was good enough to support assisted dying.

The prime minister has made clear the government will remain neutral on the issue and MPs will be given a free vote.

A similar move was rejected by MPs in 2015, but recent polling has consistently suggested a majority of the public supports a change in the law.

Cabinet ministers have been instructed not to campaign in public on either side of the issue, ahead of a vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29 November.

Dozens of Labour MPs are thought to be still undecided about the plans and Streeting’s intervention, first reported by The Times, could be especially influential because of his position as the health secretary.

It is also notable because Streeting voted for the legalisation of assisted dying the last time the Commons voted, in 2015 – meaning he has changed his mind.

Last month, he told the Financial Times he was “struggling” with the issue, saying he could “buy into the principle” of assisted dying but was “not sure as a country we have the right end-of-life care available to enable a real choice on assisted dying”.

Streeting is the second cabinet minister in two days to state their intention to vote against changing the law, after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told The Times of her “unshakeable belief in the sanctity and the value of human life” on Tuesday.

Leadbeater has said patients with serious illnesses are suffering “horrible painful deaths” and that “people deserve a choice”.

Her bill would restrict assisted dying to terminally ill patients, and would require two doctors and a judge to sign it off. But opponents say there are still serious concerns about safeguards.

Earlier this month, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told the BBC she was worried about the impact on vulnerable and disabled people, as well as the possibility of coercive control and the ability of doctors to predict how long a patient has left to live.

Assisted dying is generally used to describe a situation where someone who is terminally ill seeks medical help to obtain lethal drugs which they administer themselves.

Assisted suicide – intentionally helping another person to end their life – is currently banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

The bill would cover England and Wales, where – like Northern Ireland – assisting someone to ending their life is against the law.

In Scotland – where it is not a specific criminal offence but can leave a person open to a murder charge – a bill is currently being considered that, if passed, would give terminally ill adults the right to request help to end their life.

The government will revive a review into how police officers who take fatal shots in the line of duty are held to account following the shooting of Chris Kaba, the prime minister said.

The probe was initially launched by the previous government, but will now be completed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Sir Keir Starmer said it was important that the public have confidence in the police and that police have confidence in the government.

It comes days after police officer Martyn Blake was cleared of the murder of Mr Kaba.

“We are going to pick [the probe] up and complete that accountability review because it is important that the public have confidence in the police including of course the armed police,” Sir Keir said.

“It’s also important that the police know that we have confidence in them doing a very difficult job, so we will pick that up.”

He added that more details would be available later on Wednesday when Ms Cooper makes a statement in the House of Commons.

Under the current law, every armed police officer is personally responsible for their actions. Officers cannot use more force than is necessary to neutralise a threat.

A superior officer cannot tell a police officer to pull the trigger – nor can there be a pre-emptive tactical decision to shoot a suspect whatever the circumstances.

On Monday, police officer Mr Blake was cleared of murdering Chris Kaba, who he shot in the head during a police vehicle stop in south London two years ago.

It has since been revealed that Mr Kaba had shot a man in a nightclub days before his own death.

Reacting to the verdict Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said no police officer was above the law but said the force had been clear “the system holding police to account is broken”.

“I worry about the lack of support officers face for doing their best, but most of all, I worry for the public,” he said.

“The more we crush the spirit of good officers, the less they can fight crime – that risks London becoming less safe.”

Abimbola Johnson, a barrister on a scrutiny board set up by the National Police Chiefs Council in the summer to boost confidence among minority ethnic people, warned against using the Kaba case to push for legislative change.

“It is already extremely rare for us to see police officers being prosecuted under the criminal justice system for action they have conducted whilst in the line of duty,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

She added: “This is not a typical case, therefore, using this as a reason to push for legislative change, it doesn’t make sense, because this isn’t normally what would happen throughout the process.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has sought to play down the significance of alleged interference by the Labour Party in the American presidential election.

The Trump Campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in Washington seeking an immediate investigation – after the Head of Operations for the Labour Party, Sofia Patel, posted on social media that she had “ten spots available” for anyone willing to travel to North Carolina to campaign for Kamala Harris, adding “we will sort your housing”.

She said she had around 100 current and former party staff heading to America before polling day.

The post, on LinkedIn, has since been deleted.

Foreign nationals are permitted to serve as volunteers on campaigns in the US as long as they are not compensated, according to Federal Election Commission rules.

The complaint from the Trump Campaign is both pointed and theatrical.

“When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,” it read.

That is a matter-of-fact reference to US independence around 250 years ago.

On matters more contemporary it requests “an immediate investigation” into what it calls “blatant foreign interference”.

Speaking to reporters while flying to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa in the south Pacific, the prime minister said: “The Labour Party has volunteers, [they] have gone over pretty much every election.

“They’re doing it in their spare time. They’re doing it as volunteers. They’re staying I think with other volunteers over there.”

The Trump Campaign letter to the Federal Election Commission also says: “Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, director of communications, attended the (Democratic) convention in Chicago and met with Ms Harris’ campaign team.

“Deborah Mattinson, Sir Keir’s director of strategy, also went to Washington in September to brief Ms Harris’ presidential campaign on Labour’s election-winning approach.”

Ms Mattinson no longer works for the Labour Party.

Party sources say Mr Doyle and Mr McSweeney went to the Democratic Convention in their own time, and that the Democratic Party didn’t pay their travel and accommodation costs.

It isn’t clear who did.

Asked if the row risked jeopardising his relationship with Donald Trump, the prime minister said “no” – pointing to the dinner the two men had together at Trump Tower in New York last month.

“We established a good relationship. We’re grateful for him for making the time… for that dinner,” Sir Keir said.

“We had a good, constructive discussion and, of course as prime minister of the United Kingdom I will work with whoever the American people return as their President in their elections, which are very close now.”

Sir Keir has never met the Vice-President Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival.

But he has met President Biden several times since becoming prime minister in July.