Diane Abbott suspended by Labour Party over race row letter

Diane Abbott has been suspended by the Labour Party over her claiming she stood by a controversial letter she wrote in 2023 comparing different types of racism based on colour.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

The move means the whip is automatically suspended in the House of Commons for the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, it is understood.

Ms Abbott was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party in 2023 after writing a letter to The Observer comparing racism experienced by people of colour with that seen by other groups.

She apologised for any anguish caused by the remarks, which drew criticism from Jewish and Traveller groups, and was readmitted to the party before the 2024 general election.

But speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Reflections on Thursday, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret.

Ms Abbott told the programme: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism, which is about colour, and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism, which is about skin colour, is the same as other types of racism.

“I don’t know why people would say that.”

She apologised for any anguish caused by the remarks that drew criticism from Jewish and Traveller groups.

The suspension comes less than 24 hours after the suspension of four left-wing rebels as Sir Keir Starmer attempts to reassert his authority.

The mother of the House, as the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, having entered Parliament in 1987, said she got a “bit weary” about people labelling her antisemitic and said she had “spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds”.

She said she was “grateful” to be a Labour MP but was sure the party leadership had been “trying to get me out”.

Ms Abbott is a close ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is now an independent MP having been expelled from the party. He is currently setting up a new party with another former Labour rebel, Zarah Sultana.

Ms Abbott served as Mr Corbyn’s shadow home secretary and has been a noted anti-racism campaigner.

However, she became embroiled in antisemitism allegations over her attitudes to Israel, an issue which has split the party.

One ally, Shami Chakrabarti, questioned whether the current Labour leadership, which has been accused of using the language of right-wing former Tory MP Enoch Powell over immigration, is fit to pass judgement on Ms Abbott.

She said: “People who are writing island of strangers speeches should be a bit slow to sit in judgement on Diane Abbott, who has been fighting racism all her life.”

Another ally, journalist Owen Jones, posted: “It is absolutely absurd that Diane Abbott was suspended for this. She’s describing the lived experience of anti-Black racism. She wasn’t saying Jewish people and Travellers don’t experience racism. She’s saying that racism takes different forms.”

The Independent has contacted Ms Abbott for comment.

16-year-olds to be given vote at next election in landmark change

The voting age is to be lowered to 16 in time for the next election, the government has announced in a move that would allow around 1.5 million more teenagers to cast a ballot.

The change will bring UK-wide elections in line with Scotland and Wales by the time the country next goes to the polls, due by the summer of 2029 at the latest.

The “seismic” development, which is part of a raft of measures set to be introduced through a new Elections Bill, is the biggest change to the electorate since 1969 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.

Keir Starmer encouraged 16 and 17 year olds to use their vote at next election.

No 10 said the PM would “absolutely encourage them to be as engaged as they can be in the future of their country”.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said: “For too long public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline.

“We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in UK democracy… and delivering on our manifesto commitment to give 16-year-olds the right to vote.”

Sixteen-year-olds already work, pay taxes and serve in the military, ministers point out.

Rushanara Ali, the minister for democracy, said the move would take “a generational step forward in restoring public trust and boosting engagement in UK democracy”.

But politicians from other parties have accused Starmer of trying to “rig future elections” with the change.

The PM insisted last year the issue was one of fairness. He said: “If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote.”

Across the world there are only a handful of countries where the voting age is less than 18. In 2024 only Nicaragua, Scotland (for devolved Scottish Parliament and council elections), the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Cuba, Brazil, and Austria had votes at 16.

Last year the then Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, who has since lost her seat and defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform party, put a video out on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that Starmer wants to “rig future elections”.

But Chris Annous, from pollsters More in Common, said expanding the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds “will have little impact on election results – outside of hyper marginal seats”.

A new poll has also found nearly half of 16 and 17-year-olds don’t think they should be allowed to vote.

The survey of 500 16 and 17-year-olds by Merlin Strategy for ITV News found that 49 per cent didn’t think the voting age should be lowered to 16, while 51 per cent said it should.

The plans will also see UK-issued bank cards as an accepted form of ID at the polling stations. A more automated voter registration system will also make it easier for people to register to vote, the government said.

New changes will also close loopholes that would allow foreign donors via ‘shell companies’ to influence UK political parties.

It follows reports earlier this year that Elon Musk was preparing to give $100m (£80m) to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, in what would have been by far the largest donation in British electoral history.

The changes will also allow the Electoral Commission to take action and enforce heavier fines of up to £500,000 on those who breach political finance rules, and enable tougher sentences for those who abuse election campaigners.

The reforms come as the official watchdog the Electoral Commission reported that spending at last summer’s general election hit a record high of £94.5 million, including £69.3 million spent by political parties.

Labour outspent its rivals, shelling out £30 million during the campaign, more than twice the amount it spent five years earlier, while the Conservatives spent £23.9 million and the Liberal Democrats £5.6 million.

Reform spent £5.5 million, the Greens £1.7 million and the SNP £799,000.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director of the IPPR think tank, said the changes were “the biggest reform to our electoral system since 1969”, when the voting age was lowered to 18.

He said: “Barely half of people voted in last year’s general election. Our democracy is in crisis, and we risk reaching a tipping point where politics loses its legitimacy. The government has clearly heard these alarm bells.”

No 10 “absolutely rejected” claims that the reform was being brought in to shore up the government’s vote.

John Torode ‘preparing to sue’ BBC for ‘unfair’ MasterChef sacking

John Torode is “preparing to sue” the BBC after being sacked from MasterChef for using “an extremely offensive racist term”.

Torode’s firing from the series arrived following a seven-month investigation into the behaviour of his co-star Gregg Wallace, which upheld an allegation that Torode had used racist language.

The celebrity chef said he had “no recollection” of making the comment and “does not believe that it happened”, claiming: “The enquiry could not even state the date or year of when I [am] meant to have said something wrong.”

It’s been reported that Torode is looking to take legal action over his sacking, with a source telling The Mirror: “John is preparing to launch the lawsuit against the BBC. He wants to pursue them for unfair dismissal.

“He’s telling people there is no proof of his supposed comment. It was not in a work capacity, it was just hearsay. John is determined to clear his name.”

Torode also claimed he discovered he’d been fired after reading media reports online.

His agent was reportedly called 11 minutes before his sacking was announced to the public and “hadn’t [had] a chance to call him” before the BBC and MasterChef production company Banijay UK released their statements.

On Tuesday (15 July), BBC director-general Tim Davie told BBC News that, while he was not directly involved with the matter, he was told of the recommendation to not renew Torode’s contract and was “happy that the team were taking action”.

When asked exactly what Torode had said, Davie replied: “I’m not going to give you the exact term, because I think, frankly, it was a serious racist term, which does not get to be acceptable in any way, shape or form.”

According to The Times, Banijay’s decision was spurred on by Torode’s attempts to avoid being mired in the Wallace scandal, which saw him enlist lawyers.

“In the end, it was easier for us to say that’s that, “a BBC source said, with another stating: “We saw the allegations, we took them very seriously and we were clear it needed to be dealt with. Do you want to drag the show through months of ‘he said, she said’ or do you just want to move on?”

The report was initially investigating Wallace’s behaviour, and substantiated 45 claims of misconduct against Torode’s co-host, including one of unwelcome physical contact.

Wallace, who joined the revamped version of the show with Torode in 2005, has also been fired, and has previously accused the BBC of exposing him to “trial by media”.

The Independent has contacted the BBC and Torode for comment.

How Jeffrey Epstein could finish Trump from beyond the grave

Who owns Maga? I mean, not literally, of course. Maga is an idea rather than a thing. It is not a shop or a book. There are no bricks and mortar – although if I could have had 10 per cent from every red Make America Great Again cap sold, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this article.

The reason I pose the question is that when there was a rumbling disquiet over sending bombers to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president swatted his Trumpland critics who said this wasn’t true to the core principles of Maga and America First.

He more or less said, “I invented Maga, so Maga is what I say it is.” It worked. His detractors huffed and puffed a bit, but then they went quiet. The Maga coalition fell into line behind their hero.

But over Jeffrey Epstein – the disgraced millionaire and paedophile who died in custody awaiting trial – it’s all rather different. Here, the Trumpland critics are getting noisier, and their numbers are swelling. For the first time, the base is not buying what Donald Trump is selling. Or to put it another way, someone who died six years ago is posing the greatest challenge to the president’s authority since he returned to the White House in January.

It is replete with irony. Let’s face it, over the years, it has felt that Trump has been a one-man conspiracy theory generator, most famously of all, his “birther” theory: that Barack Obama was not born in the US, he was born in Kenya and was therefore ineligible to be US president.

The Obama White House initially tried to laugh it off, but the conspiracy theory just wouldn’t go away. So, eventually, they produced his birth certificate, which states quite clearly that Obama was born in Hawaii. But then those who bought into the theory said this was the summary birth certificate and not the full thing. And so it went on.

The lesson that Obama’s inner circle drew from this is that while you may be able to shrink a conspiracy theory by peeling off rational, fair-minded citizens, and while you may be able to get people to look away and focus on something else, you can never kill off a conspiracy theory completely. It’s like Japanese knotweed – or moths in your wardrobe.

And if anyone should know that, it’s Trump. He’s getting increasingly tetchy and cross that the American public – and his supporters in particular – won’t accept the findings of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, that with the Epstein conspiracy theory, there is nothing to it. Please move on. Nothing to see here.

Because, of course, the conspiracy theory was originally generated in Trumpland. It’s been talked up by the vice-president, JD Vance, and by the president’s son, Don Jr. And it roughly goes like this: Epstein had a client list of all the sleazy millionaires and politicians he’d entertained on his island of horrors where underage girls were forced to perform sexual acts for these powerful men – some of them supposedly prominent Democrats.

When he was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, it wasn’t suicide – as the post-mortem found. It was murder, they claimed. According to conspiracy lore, he had died because those powerful forces, whose names were in his little black book, wanted him dead before he could take the stand at a trial and implicate them.

Even Bondi is on record with her past promises of releasing a “truckload” of bombshell FBI documents on Epstein. She told Fox News in late February that she literally had possession of the convicted sex offender’s supposed black book of prominent figures who engaged in illegal sexual activities. “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review,” the attorney general told Fox News anchor John Roberts at the time. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.”

Compare this to the Department of Justice and FBI’s two-page unsigned memo released last week, concluding that the agencies had found no evidence that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019. Additionally, they were unable to find any list of powerful clients that Epstein was attempting to blackmail for having sex with underage girls.

The conspiracy theories had also been advanced relentlessly by the likes of Kash Patel – now head of the FBI, and his deputy (the former right-wing podcast host) Dan Bongino – and millions of Maga supporters bought into it with gusto. It was another slam-dunk, deep state cover-up if ever there was one.

All of which has left the attorney general and president looking as though they are isolated and swimming against the tide when they keep insisting the Epstein file is a great big nothingburger. Rumours have swirled that Bongino could resign his post over it.

The Epstein court documents are held by the federal judiciary — a branch exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Trump’s reluctance to release them is making him appear increasingly out of kilter with his base – something that just doesn’t happen.

He’s calling the Epstein story “boring” and said it was only being advanced by “bad people”. It’s a hoax. On his Truth Social platform, he called the Epstein conspiracy theory ‘bulls***’ – and referred to those who bought into it as his “PAST supporters” (His capitals, not mine) – as if there would be a process of excommunication for these apostates to the Maga faith.

Even the most pliant and obsequious lapdogs are growling and showing their teeth. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House – who it sometimes feels was put on God’s earth purely to make Trump happy – is demanding the justice department publish everything it has on Epstein’s death. Republican congressmen are openly saying they don’t believe or trust what the administration is telling them.

There was a rally hosted by the former Fox TV presenter Megyn Kelly and right-wing radio host Charlie Kirk – two very prominent influencers – where they asked the 7,000-strong audience whether they buy the “nothing to see here” explanation. The hall is unanimous. They don’t. They believe there’s been a cover-up.

There is one other danger for Trump. And that is it generates a conspiracy theory in the opposite direction: that it is the president who has something to hide and is creating a cover-up to protect himself; that Epstein did have a list – and Trump’s name was on it. After all, that was the allegation made by Elon Musk when they had their Semtex-rich falling out a few weeks back. I should add that there is no evidence of that, although Epstein and Trump knew each other and have been photographed together.

It’s not quite Dr Frankenstein losing control of the monster he created, but if you live by the conspiracy theory – as Trump has done – you can die by it too.

‘Lunch thief’ sues after getting fired for eating coworker’s food

The longtime produce manager at a renowned New York City gourmet store was summarily fired after 20-plus years of service for “inadvertently” eating a coworker’s lunch, plunging him into a deep state of despair and prompting a scathing human rights lawsuit against his former employer.

Israel Xicohtencatl, 42, has “experienced profound shame and embarrassment, particularly given that his termination was witnessed by coworkers and became known throughout the workplace, damaging his professional reputation and standing in the community,” according to the suit.

It says potential employers “have questioned the circumstances of [Xicohtencatl’s] termination, forcing him to repeatedly explain and relive the humiliating experience, further compounding his emotional distress.”

Xicohtencatl claims in court filings obtained by The Independent that he is not the first person to be dismissed over such an error by Citarella Gourmet Market, which opened in 1912 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“Plaintiff is aware of at least one other colleague with similar tenure who was terminated for the minor infraction of drinking a soda that belonged to another employee,” Xicohtencatl’s complaint states.

The chainlet, which ships nationwide, has since expanded to the Hamptons and Connecticut, and owner Joe Gurrera is well-regarded for his popular cookbook, Joe Knows Fish.

Xicohtencatl’s situation is reminiscent of a 2017 case that made international headlines, when a German daycare worker was fired without notice for eating a chocolate bar belonging to a colleague. The 64-year-old woman, who had been employed by the facility for more than 30 years, took her employer to court, arguing that she should have been given a warning, instead of being let go. Following an extensive legal battle, a judge ordered the alleged chocolate thief reinstated, as she had replaced the $3 chocolate bar following the dust-up.

Citarella owner Joe Gurrera did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Xicohtencatl’s nightmare began on May 28, 2025, when he accidentally grabbed and ate a bagged lunch that belonged to a colleague, according to his complaint, which was filed Wednesday in state court.

“Upon realizing his honest mistake, [Xicohtencatl] immediately sought to identify the owner of the lunch, offered a sincere apology, and proposed to purchase a replacement lunch for the affected coworker,” the complaint states.

But, despite Xicohtencatl’s “immediate acknowledgment of the error and his offer to remedy the situation,” he was immediately fired by Citarella’s head of security – a move formalized in a termination letter the following day, according to the complaint.

This, the complaint alleges, was part of a “systematic campaign [by Citarella] to terminate employees who have worked for the company for more than twenty (20) years, using minor infractions as pretextual reasons for termination.”

Xicohtencatl was earning $25 an hour when he was let go, according to the complaint.

“This pattern suggests that [Citarella] is attempting to reduce labor costs by eliminating higher-paid, long-tenured employees who have earned higher wages and benefits through their years of service,” the complaint argues. “Defendant’s stated reason for termination – accidentally eating the wrong lunch – is pretextual and masks the true discriminatory motive.”

The complaint calls the severity of the punishment “grossly disproportionate,” and describes Xicohtencatl as a “loyal” employee. At the same time, it claims that younger employees “who commit similar or more serious infractions are not subjected to immediate termination.”

The “sudden and unjustified termination” has caused Xicohtencatl “severe emotional distress, humiliation and feelings of worthlessness after dedicating over two decades of his life to faithful service” with Citarella, the complaint maintains.

In the aftermath, Xicohtencatl has suffered from anxiety, depression and insomnia, according to the complaint, which says that the “abrupt end” to the Brooklyn resident’s career “has left him feeling betrayed and discarded, as if his years of loyalty, dedication, and hard work meant nothing to his former employer.”

Without a stable daily work routine, Xicohtencatl is now bereft of the “structure, social connections, and sense of accomplishment that his job provided for over 20 years,” the complaint states. It says the firing has also stripped Xicohtencatl of his “sense of purpose,” and his self-esteem has been “severely damaged… causing him to question his abilities and worth.”

Additionally, Xicohtencatl’s complaint contends he has been unable to find a new job, as questions inevitably arise during interviews about the circumstances of his ouster from Citarella. The gap in employment on his resume has added to Xicohtencatl’s troubles, as has his inability to use Citarella as a reference when seeking work, according to his complaint.

“The financial uncertainty and loss of steady income has created additional stress and anxiety for Plaintiff, who must now worry about meeting his basic living expenses and maintaining his standard of living,” the complaint states. “… The prolonged job search has taken a toll on Plaintiff’s mental health and self-confidence, creating a cycle where his emotional state affects his ability to present himself favorably to potential employers.”

Xicohtencatl has now lost faith “in the fairness of the workplace,” and has been “robbed… of the opportunity to retire with dignity on his own terms,” the complaint goes on.

“Plaintiff continues to suffer ongoing emotional distress, including feelings of rejection, abandonment, and loss of dignity, which have persisted long after the initial termination and continue to affect his daily life and wellbeing,’ it concludes.

Xicohtencatl is suing Citarella for age discrimination under the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws, claiming the company wants senior employees gone because they earn too much.

He is seeking reinstatement, plus back pay and front pay, bonuses and other lost benefits, compensatory damages for emotional distress and punitive damages to be determined by a jury, plus attorneys’ fees.

Citarella now has three weeks to file a response to Xicohtencatl’s claims.

When my friends were facing cancer, a community of people stepped up

When I was younger, I used to worry incessantly about my parents getting cancer. I’d lay awake at night, ruminating on what would happen to my brother and I if they did. Who would support us? Thankfully, both are still cancer-free, well into their seventies.

However, now that I’m a parent myself, I worry about my children. Many people believe that cancer only really happens to people in old age, but that’s just not true. One beloved friend’s daughter died of leukaemia in 2020, aged just five; an unthinkable horror that changed the lives of everyone who knew her and her family.

And with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that almost 3.5 million people in the UK are living with cancer, I also worry about my friends – parents themselves, their lives touched by cancer. One friend sat me down in our favourite local café, our toddlers playing at our feet, to break the news that she was about to undergo a double mastectomy. We cried together.

Another friend, Sarah, a single parent to two teenage girls, was diagnosed with breast cancer the day before we heard that King Charles had cancer, and a month before the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, announced her own diagnosis in March last year. It seemed like cancer was everywhere.

As a result, Sarah put 2024 on hold – she missed her daughter’s last sports day and last concert at primary school and had to find a whole new way of co-ordinating family life.

“I’m lucky in some ways that my children are teenagers, so they are able to look after themselves to some degree – but I’m also a single parent, so there are some things that they can’t do, or struggle with, due to their age,” she tells me.

“I have even set up multiple alarms on our Alexa reminding them to put their packed lunches in their bags or leave for school, just in case I can’t get up.”

Sarah says she thought she knew quite a lot about cancer prior to her diagnosis, but now admits she “really didn’t”. She explains: “There are so many terms and procedures to understand – stages and grades, not to mention over 100 different chemotherapy drugs.”

Sarah tells me about the exhausting cumulative effect of chemotherapy, which she endured every three weeks during her cancer treatment: “After the very first lot, I slept for a few hours and felt much better pretty quickly. For my last rounds, I slept for 48 hours solid and even days later, I needed to have a nap in the middle of the day and was in bed by 8pm.”

Sarah’s now finished chemotherapy and, a year on from her diagnosis, is turning 50. She’s throwing a huge party to celebrate not only the birthday milestone, but getting over this “annus horriblis” – a year she couldn’t have gotten through without the people around her.

“People can do so much for us when we are unwell – and I am forever grateful,” she says. “I’ve been really overwhelmed by the support that my friends have given me; from ferrying around my children to and from after-school events and sleepovers when things get bad, to my 75-year-old neighbour mowing the lawn. One friend popped round with a huge pot of pasta sauce and I even had a gift box from a recruiter at work.”

What talking to my strong, resilient friends about their cancer journeys has made me realise most, is the power of community: for when we receive the worst news imaginable, what we need is people around us to see us through. A community of other women: friends, school mums, neighbours.

They had people willing to make them food, pick up their children, go shopping for them or to just sit with them and listen. They had support when they decided to raise money for cancer support charities, when they did fundraisers such as hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning.

It takes a village to raise a child – and that village will be with you every step of the way when you need them most.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Syrian leader says Israel turning country into ‘theatre of chaos’

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has accused Israel of trying to turn Syria into a “theatre of endless chaos” in the wake of IDF strikes on Damascus.

In a televised speech on Thursday, the Syrian leader promised to protect the country’s Druze citizens as government forces withdrew from the southern province of Sweida, where clashes have erupted between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias.

Bedouin clans had fought alongside government forces against the Druze groups.

A ceasefire between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters, mediated by the US and Turkey, appeared to be holding as of Thursday evening. Under the agreement, Druze factions and clerics have been appointed to maintain internal security in Sweida.

“The Israeli intervention, which has consistently targeted our stability and sown discord since the fall of the former regime, now seeks once again to turn our sacred land into a theatre of endless chaos,” Mr al-Sharaa said in a televised address from an undisclosed location.

The violence escalated on Wednesday when Israel hit Damascus with airstrikes, damaging the defence ministry and striking near the presidential palace.

Western diplomats were passing near the ministry in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness. Nobody in the convoy was injured.

Israel has demanded the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from the south, citing its responsibility to protect the Druze population in Syria.

“We have set forth a clear policy: demilitarisation of the region to the south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights and to the Druze Mountain area,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He claimed Damascus had broken this policy.

“The regime sent troops south of Damascus, into the region that has to be demilitarised, and began slaughtering the Druze,” he said. “That we could not accept in any way, and I therefore directed the IDF to take action – and take powerful action.”

Since fighting broke out, Israel has launched dozens of strikes against government troops and convoys and warned it could escalate its involvement.

Armed confrontations broke out between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin tribes after a Druze merchant was abducted on a highway on Sunday.

The situation worsened when government troops attempted to restore order but ended up clashing with local Druze fighters.

In Sweida, a local Druze journalist – who asked not to be named for security reasons – told The Independent that the national hospital in the city was packed with bodies, most of them civilians.

“There are more than 500 bodies of those killed in the National Hospital in Sweida – almost all of them civilians. There are women, children, people shot in the head,” he said.

Fadel Abdulghany from the Syrian Network for Human Rights said they had documented at least 207 people killed, including six women, six children and two medics.

He said the death toll is probably far higher than that, as the number does not include combatants killed in battle, but instead focuses on those who were subjected to summary executions, other violations and those killed in Israeli strikes.

“This not a final death toll, it’s increasing – there are cases we haven’t been able to reach,” Mr Abdulghany told The Independent.

“The core of the problem is everything has been a mess – there is no real political inclusion [since the fall of Assad], it feels like major centralisation.”

Ryan Marouf of the local TV station Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man. “People are looking for bodies,” he said in a voice recording.

The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shia Islam. It is deeply suspicious of Mr al-Sharaa’s government.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said the “painful blows have begun” in a post on X, alongside a video of a Syrian presenter interrupted live by an airstrike on Syria’s defence ministry.

The explosion caused the camera to shake and the presenter quickly took shelter. A large explosion erupted behind her, with smoke billowing from the scene.

In a separate TRT video, a presenter is shown ducking as a burst of red flares up before the building is engulfed in smoke.

An Israeli military spokesperson said: “The IDF struck the entrance of the Syrian regime’s military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria.

“The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime’s actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. The IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios.”

Mr Netanyahu has said he is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Tensions between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters have continued since Sunni rebels led a lightning assault to topple former president Bashar al-Assad in early December.

Yellow weather warning for thunderstorms and torrential rain issued by Met Office

A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms has been announced across large parts of the UK for Friday and Saturday, with heavy, thundery rain likely to lead to disruption.

London, the Midlands, and the North East and West of England can expect torrential rain with potential flooding, with the warning in place from 9pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday.

The forecaster said: “Thundery rain will reach the south of the warning area later Friday before spreading north to affect much of England through Saturday.

“Rain will likely be locally torrential, bringing 20-30 mm in less than an hour in many places, with 60-90 mm in less than three hours possible in a few places.

“Whilst rain will clear from the south of the area by early Saturday afternoon, further thunderstorms are likely to develop here. As well as heavy rain, impacts from frequent lightning, gusty winds and large hail are also likely.”

Across other parts of the UK, temperatures will climb to 28C with a chance of 29C on Thursday, before peaking at a potential 30C in London on Friday in another burst of hot weather.

Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said: “This heat is not going to be as widespread as what we’ve just come out of, areas to the north aren’t going to be seeing the same highs.

“The heat we had last time was home grown, it wasn’t that humid, but because this heat is coming in from the south westerly direction, it is more humid. It’s going to be feeling more sticky.”

In Northern Ireland, a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms is already in place from 11am on Thursday until 8pm this evening.

It comes as Southern Water has become the latest company to bring in a hosepipe ban, to protect rare chalk stream habitat, as England battles exceptionally dry weather.

The company said restrictions on hosepipes for activities such as watering gardens, filling paddling pools or washing cars would come in for households in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Monday.

It is the latest announcement by water companies bringing in hosepipe bans in response to the driest start to the year since 1976 for England.

Rainfall across England was 20 per cent less than the long-term average for June, which was also the hottest on record for the country, with two heatwaves driving unusually high demand for water, the Environment Agency has said.

Drought was declared in East and West Midlands on Tuesday, with the region joining swathes of northern England in drought status.

Yorkshire Water became the first major water company to bring in a hosepipe ban which came into effect last Friday.

South East Water has announced a hosepipe ban in Kent and Sussex from Friday, and Thames Water is bringing in a ban from next Tuesday for customers in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, most of Wiltshire and some parts of Berkshire.