Bridget Phillipson defended Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, saying the PM sacked him “as soon as it became clear the full extent of what had been going on”.

Political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has faced considerable criticism over his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as US ambassador despite his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar calling for him to resign.

The prime minister had admitted to knowing about Lord Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with Epstein, but said the peer “lied repeatedly” about the extent of the relationship when questioned on it.

Under pressure from Labour MPs and opposition parties, the prime minister agreed to release all the documents relating to the appointment.

The Liberal Democrats will use a parliamentary debate on Tuesday to compel ministers to similarly release documents about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as trade envoy.

The former prince served as trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, and also faces accusations of sharing sensitive information with Epstein while in the role.

He was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, before being released under investigation.

Lord Mandelson’s arrest comes days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was taken into custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The former prince was released under investigation.

Despite being stripped of his title last year, the former duke of York is still eighth in line to the throne, and an Act of Parliament would be required to remove Andrew and prevent him from ever becoming king.

The UK Government will consider introducing such legislation once police have finished their investigation into the King’s disgraced brother, the Press Association understands.

The Lib Dems will table a humble address in the Commons – the same arcane mechanism the Tories used to press for the release of files on Lord Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador – in a bid to compel the Government to disclose information about Andrew, who served as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.

The motion will call for the release of papers relating to Andrew’s appointment to the post, including any vetting and any correspondence from Lord Mandelson.

Lord Mandelson has been accused of passing sensitive information onto paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein during his time as business secretary.

The allegations surfaced following the US Department of Justice’s document dump related to Epstein last month.

As part of the so-called Epstein files, emails from 2009 appear to show Lord Mandelson pass on an assessment by Gordon Brown’s adviser of potential policy measures including an “asset sales plan”.

He also appeared to discuss a tax on bankers’ bonuses and confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.

The emails appeared to be sent to Epstein after he became a convicted sex offender.

Following the release of the Epstein files, Lord Mandelson said he has “no recollection” of receiving payments totalling 75,000 dollars (about £55,000) from Epstein between 2003 and 2004 as bank details in the documents indicated.

Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Lord Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila Da Silva, in 2009, at the time the government was dealing with the financial crisis.

The arrest of Peter Mandelson is not as seismic as that of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor but it still has the capacity to shock.

Not so long ago, the very notion of the ‘Dark Lord’ of British politics, as Mandelson was known at Westminster, accompanying detectives to the police station to be questioned under caution would be unfathomable. This is someone who held not one but three Labour prime ministers in his thrall and the most senior Tories as well, as they marvelled at his ability to manipulate the message and his international connections.

No one did it better. He was part of the cabal that drove Tony Blair to the highest office and three general election victories. Even after being knocked back by scandal, he was rehabilitated by Gordon Brown. When Sir Keir Starmer secured the party leadership, he received a detailed memo from Mandelson outlining how Labour could win again. The next morning, Mandelson answered a knock at his door in Camden. There was Starmer in his tracksuit, having ridden his bike over from his home, desperate to learn more.

Sir Keir Starmer is chairing a cabinet meeting on Tuesday after his former US ambassador’s arrest.

Questions are mounting over the prime minister’s decision to appoint Lord Mandelson to the role.

The Metropolitan Police said just after 2am on Tuesday the former Labour minister had been released on bail pending further investigation.

My colleague Holly Evans reports:

Political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

The government is not seeking to reduce the number of children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) as part of its reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system, Bridget Phillipson has said.

The government has estimated one in eight children with an EHCP will move to an individual support plan when they are reassessed from the end of the decade, while the other seven will retain their EHCPs.

“That’s our best estimate,” the education secretary told LBC.

“This is not a number we’re chasing. There’s not a target. We’re not seeking to reduce the numbers. We are trying to deliver a system that provides better and more timely support for children.”

Asked if she could guarantee no child will lose support, she said: “I can, because they will get support under the new system.”

Political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

Bridget Phillipson has promised to continue to look at student loans amid criticisms over the amount of interest graduates on plan 2 loans are playing, but she refused to commit to changing the measure of interest.

Asked what the government was planning to do to fix the problem facing graduates, the education secretary said: “We are going to continue to look at this. I do recognise what James has set out.

“I would just add, in addition to what he’d said, that at the end of 30 years that will be written off in full”

Asked if she can promise to switch the measure of inflation to CPI from RPI, she told LBC: “No I can’t. As it well, I will answer as you say we didn’t bring this system in. We didn’t bring this system in, it operated from 2012 to 2023… the challenge with reforming the student finance system is that whilst it can often seem superficially attractive to do things like changing the interest rate, it doesn’t always have the desired effect in terms of making the system fairer, particularly for less well off students.”.

She added: “It’s a really complex system. It’s evolved over time. It’s not a system that I would have put in place, but we are where we are. We are going to look at if there’s anything that we can do on this of course, we keep it open and under review.”