Tuesday briefing: Inside the populist rightwing plan to split the Conservative vote

In today’s newsletter: Lee Anderson says he turned them down, but the party created by Nigel Farage will be trying to smoke out more Tory defectors

• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition

Good morning. Think of what Lee Anderson could do with £430,000: by his own dubious estimation, that’s about 1.4m nutritious meals. Sadly, we will never see exactly how many tins of beans the Conservative party’s deputy chair would buy, because, in a recording obtained by the Sunday Times, he says that’s the amount he turned down from rightwing Tory irritant and former Nigel Farage vehicle Reform UK to defect.

The money, it is alleged, would be paid as a guaranteed salary matching his MP’s income for five years if he were to lose his seat under the party’s banner. That claim is vigorously denied by Reform UK’s leader, Richard Tice, who says Anderson was merely offered “the chance to change the shape of the debate”.

Israel-Hamas war | Eleven more Israeli hostages have been freed from Gaza in return for 33 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, as the two sides agreed to extend the existing ceasefire by two days. Hamas said that the continuation of the ‘pause’ will continue under the same conditions after the intervention of Qatar and Egypt, mediators for the initial agreement.

Parthenon marbles | Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with Greek prime minister Kyiakos Mitsotakis at the last minute on Monday after his counterpart gave an interview calling for the Parthenon marbles to be returned from the British Museum. In a renewed row over the fate of the antiquities, which were taken from the Acropolis in the 19th century, Mitsotakis told reporters he was “deeply disappointed by the abrupt cancellation”.

NHS | Senior doctors reached a pay deal with the government on Monday, paving the way for the cancellation of strikes that could have hit the NHS during the usual winter crisis. The offer will mean an average 4.95% pay increase for the last three months of the financial year and some consultants seeing a 19.6% salary increase over the year.

Ukraine | The Ukrainian government is planning to change its conscription practices as it seeks to sustain fighting capacity after nearly two years of full-fledged war with Russia. Amid widespread conflict fatigue, the changes will use commercial recruitment companies to reassure conscripts they will be deployed in roles that match their skills and not simply sent to the front.

I’m a Celebrity… | The Guardian’s restaurant critic Grace Dent has told fellow contestants that her “heart is broken” as she left I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! on medical grounds. Dent had told fellow contestants she was struggling with her time in the jungle.