Politics latest: Starmer issues 'very clear' message for Putin; poll reveals Tory leadership favourite (2024)

By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor

Initial noises by the new government on defence have stirred fears among experts that repairing the UK’s war-fighting prowess is not a burning priority despite mounting threats.

Keir Starmer used a trip to Washington for a major NATO summit this week to declare a "cast iron" commitment to increased spending on the armed forces to 2.5% of national income, from just over 2%.

But that came without setting a clear timeframe, which immediately makes the promise look weak to allies and foes.

Confusion around UK's stance on defence

The government also revealed a "strategic defence review" will be launched next week – but ministers could not say when that would be concluded either other than "within the next year".

It means any certainty on the size, shape, and budget of the armed forces, hollowed out by decades of cuts under previous Conservative and Labour administrations, will not materialise until next summer.

At the same time, Sir Keir will pressure other European allies to spend more as NATO countries in Europe adapt to be less reliant on the US – a shift that will become more urgent if Donald Trump is re-elected.

"It's contradictory," a defence source said.

"The government will ask NATO members to spend 2.5% but will claim it won't do that itself until fiscal rules allow. To be honest, I'm confused."

Immediate challenge for new defence secretary

John Healey, the new defence secretary, has spent the past four years preparing for the job and is very well-informed about the challenges and complexities involved in rebuilding the armed forces, and also securing much better value for money from the defence budget.

It means he will surely have ideas already about what the outcome of the review will be.

He will also know without swift, significant investment, difficult decisions will have to be made to cut programmes that currently are not funded.

The Home Office has published the latest data on small boat crossings, and it reveals 419 migrants made the journey yesterday in six boats.

The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2024 now stands at a provisional total of 14,058.

That figure is 10% higher than at the same point last year, and is 6% higher than at this stage in 2022.

There were 29,437 arrivals across the whole of 2023, down 36% on a record 45,774 in 2022.

The new government has scrapped the Rwanda deportation scheme in the days since it entered office, and is working to recruit a new border commander to stop small boat crossings.

As we've been reporting on Sky News, police have launched a manhunt after the deaths of three women in Hertfordshire.

Officers say they are urgently trying to find 26-year-old Kyle Clifford, from Enfield, north London, who is wanted in connection with the incident.

The new home secretary has said she is being kept "fully updated" on the situation.

Yvette Cooper said in a post on X: "The loss of three women's lives in Bushey last night is truly shocking.

"My thoughts are with the family & friends of those who have been killed & with the community.

"I am being kept fully updated. I urge people to support (Hertfordshire Police) with any information about this case."

You can follow live updates on the manhunt here:

Sir Keir Starmer will shortly wake up in Washington DC to begin crucial talks with NATO allies about the collective defence, and in particular, providing Ukraine with the means to defeat Russia.

But between meetings with world leaders, the PM will find a couple of hours to watch England face the Netherlands in the semi-final of the Euros, alongside his Dutch counterpart.

The game is due to start half an hour before the conclusion of a meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NATO'sprincipal decision-making body).

The PM joked on the plane last night: "I have no doubt I will be passed lots of notes with really important information about the summit.

"But one or two of those notes, hopefully, will be an update on the score, because I'm not going to be able to get it otherwise."

PM's tribute to England star

The Arsenal-supporting PM also paid tribute to Bukayo Saka, the Gunners star whose stunning equaliser against Switzerland helped England book their place in the semi-finals.

"That was classic Bukayo," he said of the goal. "Cuts in from the right, and that shot is absolutely classic – inside the post. I've seen it so many times."

And he joked: "I’d remind you, England have not missed a penalty under a Labour government in 2024."

By Mark Kleinman, city editor

The new environment secretary has summoned the bosses of most of Britain’s water companies for urgent talks amid signs that Labour will take a tougher approach to regulating the industry.

Sky News has learnt that Steve Reed will hold talks with executives from all 16 of the suppliers in England and Wales, including Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Severn Trent.

The meeting will take place on the same day that Ofwat, the water industry watchdog, will publish draft determinations on companies' investment plans for the next five years.

The rulings, which will be made final by the end of the year, will be closely watched by investors in the privatised industry because of their implications for the suppliers' balance sheets.

Thames Water, which said itcould run out of money next Maywhen it reported annual results on Tuesday, is in the most precarious position of the 16 companies.

Temporary nationalisation remains a possibility for Britain's biggest water company, although Sir Keir Starmer's administration has already said that it does not intend to pursue such an outcome.

In opposition, Mr Reed - now Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - pledged to push for criminal sanctions against water company executives who failed to prevent sewage contaminating Britain's waterways.

A source close to Mr Reed said: "The last Conservative government weakened regulation allowing the sewage system to crumble and illegal sewage dumping to hit record levels.

"The election of this Labour government is a reset moment for the water industry.

"In the coming weeks and months, this Government will outline its first steps to reform the water sector to attract the investment we need to upgrade our infrastructure and restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health."

By Darren McCaffrey, political correspondent

If you wanted to gain a sense of how our politics has changed since last Thursday - yesterday was it.

As MPs gathered in the new House of Commons, the electorate got a first glimpse of the UK's new political landscape.

The government benches heaved with Labour MPs for the first time in more than 14 years.

When I say heaved, it was packed with the Commons - deliberately built post WWII to be too small - unable to accommodate the 412 Labour members of parliament.

They sat on the stairs, many stood at the back, others were forced upstairs to the gallery.

It was a different story on the Conservative benches, glum of face - at one stage MPs were told to bunch together to make it look busier.

And the Liberal Democrats, with their record-breaking 72 members (the most for a third party in more than 100 years) have supplanted the SNP, who have been consigned to seats towards the back.

This parliament does not just look different from a party point of view but, as Sir Keir Starmer pointed out in his first speech as prime minister, from the despatch box, the most diverse too.

Of the 650 elected last week, 335 have never been an MP before. Some 263 members are female - more than 40% for the first time.

Ninety MPs are from an ethnic minority background - 14% - up from 66 in the last parliament.

Then there are the new, if familiar faces too, an emotional Diane Abbott who is now mother of the House and of course, Sir Lindsay Hoyle was very happy to be dragged back to the Speaker's chair.

Jeremy Corbyn has been returned, and there are now four Green MPs.

But it will take a little getting used to watching Nigel Farage, on the floor of the House, exchanging words with the new prime minister, Sir Keir.

Yesterday was full of pleasantries, frankly excitement and, at times, bewilderment among the new members.

Our new politics, with such a large parliamentary Labour Party, will be different - but be in little doubt the rows and divisions which define this place won't take long to emerge.

After the Conservative Party lost the general election, Rishi Sunak announced he would resign as leader "once the formal arrangements for selecting my successor are in place".

So how could the next leader be selected?

1922 committee

The body that governs Tory party leadership races is their backbench committee of MPs, the 1922 Committee.

Last night, Tory MPs elected a new chair - Bob Blackman.

Decisions can now be taken about the timeframe and process of the leadership contest - although it is unclear when that will happen.

Rishi Sunak's role

As it stands, the former PM remains leader of the party and leader of the opposition. He has appointed a shadow cabinet and will fulfil the constitutional requirements of the role - for now.

Mr Sunak could agree to stay as party leader until a permanent successor is selected - in which case he will continue to carry out the opposition leader role, including facing Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.

But he could choose to step down before the contest is concluded, which he seemed to suggest in his resignation speech.

That would mean an interim leader would have to be chosen (that could fall to Oliver Dowden, who is the interim deputy leader - or Tory MPs could choose someone else entirely).

Will the party members have a say?

There is a broad consensus among Tory MPs that members should get a vote on who the new party leader should be.

Short vs long

Some Tories have proposed the contest should be short, so the new leader can be in place to challenge the Labour government as soon as possible - particularly when they present their first budget in the autumn.

The new 1922 committee chair told Sky News yesterday that his colleagues have expressed "a range of views" - but a consensus appears to be emerging that a long leadership contest is the right thing to do to ensure there is full debate on which direction the party should take.

It could mean that nominations for the new leader don't even open for a number of weeks, and then MPs could whittle down the number of candidates - or not, and members could choose between multiple people.

There have been suggestions that the contest should not conclude until after the party's conference in early October, like when David Cameron won back in 2005, so that the contenders effectively audition in front of the membership.

After the Tories' devastating election loss, eyes are turning towards the leadership contest to elect Rishi Sunak's successor.

We asked shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge for his view on how quickly a new leader should be chosen.

He replied: "I think the view of colleagues is that we, within reason, we want to take our time, make sure we make the right decision."

The "millions" who usually vote Conservative but chose not to last Thursday "will expect us to reflect, to look at what happened".

He went on: "People were exasperated. But they want to see us take the time to make the right decisions so that our new leader has a positive alternative to Labour come the next general election."

Mr Cartlidge did not want to say who he will support as the next leader, saying there are "several colleagues who've got a very good background".

He added: "It's not just about the people, it's about, you know, what are the policies? Because I think the big thing is we've got to reconnect with the British public."

We've just heard from the shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, and he said that Sir Keir Starmer not setting a date for reaching defence spending of 2.5% of GDP will be "damaging for the armed forces".

He lamented that the new PM "had an amazing opportunity" to announce that he was raising defence spending at the NATO summit in Washington DC that kicks off today.

"I think this would have been a really powerful signal to send. Instead, it's created delay, and I think that it could be damaging."

Challenged on the fact that the Tories did not raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP when in office, he said they went in to the election with a "clear, funded plan" to do so.

Back in 2010, the Conservatives actually cut defence spending, and Mr Cartlidge said that at the time, "there was a letter left that there's no money left", and so they"had to prioritise sorting out the public finances".

He went on to say that when Rishi Sunak was chancellor, they announced the biggest uplift in spending since the Cold War.

But pushed by Sky's Kay Burley on the fact that the Tory government chose not to raise spending to 2.5% of GDP, he pointed to the sharp rise in inflation, driven by the war in Ukraine, which pushed up equipment prices.

He went on to say that there is "pressure on the current equipment planning" due to those inflated prices, and so the new PM's decision not raise defence spending immediately will leave "some really difficult decisions" around defence procurement.