Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has dodged a planned media event in Hamilton ahead of a by-election this week, PA Media reports. PA says:

The party leader was due to visit the town as part of campaigning in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse vote, with the party telling journalists a “walkabout” would take place in Hamilton.

While the exact location was not immediately made available to journalists, the party said it would inform those who were planning on attending.

As rumours swirled the event would begin in the car park of a Premier Inn in the town, reporters, photographers and broadcasters congregated there, waiting for around two hours for the Reform UK leader.

However, he did not appear at the event, which was scheduled to begin at 2.15pm.

Farage later posted pictures of a similar walkabout with candidate Ross Lambie as the one planned for Hamilton – but in neighbouring Larkhall – as well as another which appeared to have been taken in the back court of the party’s offices in the town.

No official reason has been given by the party for Farage not attending the event, but he had earlier accused the Herald of leaking the location of a press conference he was holding in Aberdeen, something which the paper has strenuously denied. [See 2.01pm.]

Here is PA Media’s summary of some of the main points from the defence review.

– Defence Secretary John Healey has pledged to “create a British Army which is 10x more lethal”, by combining capabilities with air-defence, long-range weapons and other technologies.

– The review has been drawn up with the government’s commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 in mind, and the authors say they are “confident” that it is “affordable over ten years”. However they say that given the “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”.

– Russia has been described as “an immediate and pressing threat”, as the invasion of Ukraine “makes unequivocally clear its willingness to use force to achieve its goals”. The report also states that Moscow’s “war economy, if sustained, will enable it to rebuild its land capabilities more quickly” in the event of a ceasefire.

– China is labelled a “sophisticated and persistent challenge”. The review warns that Beijing is “likely to continue seeking advantage through espionage and cyber attacks” and is expected to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

– The UK is already experiencing attacks targeting critical national infrastructure, and a war could see attempts to disrupt the economy as well as efforts to manipulate information and undermine community cohesion.

– As well as looking to prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems, the MoD should invest in the UK’s resilience of military space systems.

– A “small uplift” in the number of army regulars should be prioritised when the funding allows, and the number of active reserves should be increased by 20% when there is the money, which is likely to be in the 2030s.

– Personnel in back-office roles should also be moved into front-line roles with automation taking over a portion of jobs such as HR and finance.

– When it comes to army recruitment there should be a focus on speed, helping potential recruits get from the point of expressing an interest to beginning work more quickly. Officials should also look to the “gap year” model used in Australia, the report suggests.

– The review promotes an integrated force model, looking to breakdown distinctions between the army, navy and RAF to get them to a position where they are working as a combined operation. That comes after a change in April, which saw the chief of defence staff become the commanding officer of all of the service chiefs.

– More F-35 fighter jets will be required in the next decade, ministers have been told, and could mean a mix of those which are able to operate from an aircraft carrier and those which are not.

– Ministers have been told they should do more to ensure that the permanent joint headquarters at Northwood is resilient to both physical and cyber attacks given its importance.

– The National Security Council of ministers should review progress on the UK’s nuclear deterrent at least twice a year, the reviewers say.

– Healey has pledged to create a new “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels that can patrol the North Atlantic.

– He has also promised a “next-generation RAF” with “F-35s, upgraded Typhoons next-generation fast jets”.

– As part of plans to increase innovation, defence experts should have faculty positions in partner universities from the 2026/27 academic year.

In his respone to Cartlidge, John Healey, the defence secretary, repeated more or less word for word what he told the Times last week: “I have no doubt that we will meet our ambition to hit 3% of spending on defence in the next parliament.”

The Tories claimed this amounted to a firm commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2034 – something the government has denied.

But Healey believes this wording is consistent with the government’s position that at present 3% is just an “ambition”.

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, is speaking now.

He starts by saying that Healey was wrong to claim that exactly the same early access was offered to the opposition as when the Tories were in office. When Healey was shadow defence minister, he was allowed to see an early copy of a defence command paper, at 9.30am. But Cartlidge today was not offered that kind of access, he says.

But defence industry figures got the report from 8am today, he says.

He says the review is unravelling because they haven’t got a plan to fund it. He goes on: “An SDR without the funding is an empty wish list for ships and submarines”.

It is “a fantasy fleet”, he says.

Cartlidge says the plan is only sustainable with defence spending rising to 3% of GDP. But the government has not made that commitment, he says.

Healey says the government has already shown it is committed to delivering on defence.

The world is more dangerous, he says.

War fighting readiness means stronger deterrence. We need stronger deterrence to avoid the huge costs human and economic that wars create, and we prevent wars by being strong enough to fight and win them.

He says the government will create a “new hybrid navy” by building new attack submarines, cutting-edge warships and new autonomous vessels.

There will be a new generation RAF, including F-35s and upgraded Typhoons.

And he says the MoD will make the army “10 times more lethal by combining future technology of drones, autonomy and AI with the heavy metal of tanks and artillery”.

John Healey, the defence secretary, is making his Commons statement about the strategic defence review (SDR).

He starts by saying:

The SDR is our plan for change for defence, a plan to meet the threats we face, a plan to step up on European security and lead in Nato, a plan that learns the lessons from Ukraine, a plan to seize the defence dividend from our record increase in defence investment to boost jobs and growth throughout the United Kingdom, and a plan to put the men and women of our armed forces at the heart of our defence plans – better pay, better kit, better housing. Through the SDR, we will make our armed forces stronger and the British people safer.

Rajeev Syal is the Guardian’s home affairs editor.

Robert Jenrick’s demand for armed prison guards (see 11.54am) has been described as “headline-grabbing nonsense” by a union leader.

Tom Wheatley, the president of the Prison Governors’ Association, told the Guardian:

The firearms/lethal force armouries suggestion is just headline-grabbing nonsense.

If this was needed, why wouldn’t armed police be deployed rather than creating another trained force in our service?

It is likely that the lord chancellor [Shabana Mahmood] is considering wider use of protective body armour, but the focus should be on the need for more investment to counter drones and serious organised crime.

Lisa Nandy has removed herself from the final decision over who will lead the new football regulator, after it emerged the preferred candidate had donated to the culture secretary’s Labour leadership campaign, Michael Savage reports.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, told MPs that people smugglers will have made millions from people crossing the Channel in small boats this weekend. On Saturday 1,195 people arrived in 19 small boats – the highest daily total for 2025.

Cooper also said she was pushing the French to swiftly implement their pledge to get rid of the law stopping their police officers from intercepting boats carrying asylum seekers once they are in the water.

Speaking during Home Office questions earlier, Cooper said:

The house will also have seen the disgraceful and unacceptable small boat crossings on Saturday. No one should be making these journeys. Criminal gangs will likely have made millions of pounds this weekend alone.

The gangs are increasingly operating a model where boats are launched from further along the coast and people climb in from the water, exploiting French rules that have stopped their police taking any action in the sea. This is completely unacceptable.

The previous government raised this with France for years, but to no avail, and I have raised it with the French government since the summer. The French interior minister and the French cabinet have now agreed their rules need to change. A French maritime review is looking at what new operational tactics they will use, and we are urging France to complete this review and implement the changes as swiftly as possible.

I have been in touch with the French interior minister who supports stronger action again this weekend, and there are further discussions under way this week. I will update the house in due course.

The urgent question is now over. James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, is making a point of order. He says he found out over the weekend that journalists were being invited to read the strategic defence review from 10.30am this morning. He says he then asked the government if he could get a copy this morning. He says he was told he could not. He says he has also been told that defence industry representatives were able to see it from 10.30am. Yet it is market sensitive, he says.

Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says that if industry figures were given access to the report this morning, then there was “something fundamentally gone wrong here”.

He says he hopes that the minister will find out what happened.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, says this morning the Telegraph was running an article by someone who claimed they had read the defence review.

Helen Maguire, the Lib Dem defence spokesperson, says she was offered a briefing on the defence review this morning. But she was told she could not have a copy.

Hoyle says, given copies of the document are stored in the vote office in the Commons, MPs should be allowed to get them now – until having to wait until the oral statement has been delivered, which is normal practice.

Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, says as she understands it the procedure is for this to operate like a budget, where the vote office only releases the documents to MPs after the chancellor has spoken.

John Healey, the defence secretary, intervenes and in effect overules her. He claims that the Ministry of Defence has just followed the procedure that applied to the last defence review. But he says he would be happy for MPs to get copies from the vote office now, instead of having to wait until the statement starts (at about 5pm.).

Hoyle says he hopes the document will be released immediately.

The government has been urged to review electoral law to beef up protections for candidates, a report from the Speaker’s Conference has proposed. In an interim report published as part of an inquiry into the abuse and intimidation of MPs and election candidates, the Speaker’s Conference said:

When it comes to tackling harassment, abuse and intimidation of candidates, electoral law is not fit for purpose. Whilst there are specific offences designed to deal with these issues, they often lack clarity, are outdated, or do not reflect challenges of the modern context. Because of one or all of these factors, the existing offences are little used and ineffective.

A Speaker’s Conference is a cross-party committee, set up with the Commons Speaker as chair, to consider a matter relevant to parliament. It takes evidence and deliberates like a select committee.

In the next stage of its work on this topic, the Speaker’s Conference will consider the role of social media.

Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons is responding to the urgent question about announcements being made outside the chamber.

She started by saying that the government remained committed to the rule that major announcements should be made in the Commons first when it is sitting. She said that the Commons was still in recess until 2.30pm this afternoon, and she said that the full text of the strategic defence review has not yet been published. And she cited examples of when the government has made announcements to MPs first.

Jesse Norman, her Tory shadow, said that Powell was close to showing contempt for parliament. He said that journalists were allowed to read the strategic defence review on an embargoed basis from 10.30 this morning. But the opposition was only given a copy five minutes ago, he said. He said the government was restricting access until now “precisely in order to avoid parliamentary scrutiny”.

Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, is making a statement to MPs saying he is “disappointed” that the government has again broken the ministerial code by making an announcement about the strategic defence review outside parliament.

He says it is the government’s code, not the Commons’s code. But this breach is “blatant”, he says.

He says he has asked the chair of the public administration and constitional affairs committee to consider holding an inquiry into this.

(Hoyle is right to say that the government has breached the spirit of the ministerial code. But he started by saying that the government published the strategic defence review this morning. He was wrong about that. The government briefed on the contents of the review, but the document itself has still not been published.)

A local government leader has dismissed as pointless a Reform UK plan to use Doge-style teams to expose “wasteful spending” by local authorities.

As the BBC reports, Reform is starting with Kent, where the new Reform-led administration is going to send in a Doge team led supposedly by “one of the UK’s leading tech entrepreneurs”.

Commenting on the plan, Zia Yusuf, the Reform chair, said:

For too long British taxpayers have watched their money vanish into a black hole. Their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed, their local services keep getting cut. Reform won a historic victory on a mandate to change this.

As promised, we have created a UK Doge to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Starting with Kent, our team will use cutting edge technology and deliver real value for voters.

Reform has named its initiative after the President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, the team led by Elon Musk that was supposed to slash $2tr from the federal budget. Musk has now left, having alienated many of Trump’s cabinet, who resented his interference with their departments, dismantled many government programmes much valued by people who relied on them (especially US aid), while only achieving a fraction of the savings he originally hoped to obtain. Nick Robins-Early has a good assessment here.

Commenting on the Reform plan, John Merry, a Labour depuy mayor in Salford and chair of Key Cities, a cross-party network for 25 city local authorities, said:

The absolute last thing local authorities need right now is Doge. Local government finances are under immense strain after years of underinvestment, and without urgent and sustained support, councils will struggle to deliver the public services that underpin election promises and national policy ambitions.

As chair of [Key Cities], I hear daily from members facing mounting pressures across vital services like Send, social care, and homelessness. Our most recent survey found that many councils are already turning to financial reserves and service redesigns as a means of staying afloat, with asset sales, salary reductions, and redundancies under active consideration.

In this context, it is difficult to see how Reform’s Doge initiative offers any meaningful solution. What councils need now is not inefficient cost cutting at the margins, but a serious commitment to long-term funding reform—one that aligns grant allocation with local needs and supports a resilient foundation for economic growth.

My colleague Jessica Elgot has offered an alternative take on Bluesky.

Reform DOGE is a very good thing tbh. It should be encouraged. Let them see where the money is actually going and then still pretend there are billions to cut on woke.

And, under the heading “Exclusive: Doge Kent’s report in full”, my colleague Peter Walker has posted the famous Barnet graph of doom – a chart originally produced 14 years ago showing how the rise in demand for adult social care and children’s services would eventually leave councils with no money to spend on anything else. Many council leaders feel as if that point has now arrived.

Rachel Reeves is under renewed pressure to spend billions more on affordable housing, after an industry report suggested the government had significantly overestimated how many new homes would be built over the next few years, Kiran Stacey reports.

The Green party has described the strategic defence review as too militaristic, and urged the government to focus more on development. In a statement, Ellie Chowns, who speaks on defence matters for the party in the Commons, said:

Security is not just based on arms expenditure and threats, but on real leadership that uses diplomacy and development too. There must be a real commitment to an international order based on human rights, equality and genuine cooperation.

To avoid the horrors of war and armed conflict, we need to look at the deeper causes of insecurity, including poverty and climate breakdown. This is why the Green party strongly supports the restoration of the international aid budget to at least 0.7% of GNI. And we will continue to argue that real patriotism means ending UK-made weapons or components being sold to dictators, human rights abusers or for use against civilians anywhere in the world.

The prime minister has talked up the boost to jobs and the economy through increased defence expenditure, but there are many more jobs to be created in the clean, green - and peaceful - economy, a sector growing four times faster than the rest of the economy. This is where the government’s focus for investment should be.

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

The editor of the Herald newspaper in Glasgow has accused Nigel Farage of borrowing Donald Trump’s “low tactic” of smearing the media after he alleged a Herald reporter leaked the location of his press conference in Aberdeen to protestors.

Towards the end of the event, which was being streamed live by Reform, Farage turned to the Herald’s political editor, Andrew Learmonth, and alleged Learmonth was “involved” in the protests. Farage alleged the newspaper had a “protests correspondent” who knew more about the demonstration than Reform did.

Catherine Salmond, the Herald’s editor, said the allegation was false. She said:

The responsibility of a trusted news brand is to act with integrity. The idea that the Herald was involved with protests in Aberdeen against Nigel Farage and Reform UK is ridiculous.

Our job is to report on the truth and to hold those who do not tell the truth to account.

Attacking the media has become commonplace under Donald Trump in the US and today we have seen it here in Scotland, by Reform UK, against the Herald. A low tactic and one we should all stand against.

After other journalists challenged Farage, by pointing out that many media organisations had several reporters covering his visit, he then suggested another reporter present at the event must have leaked the location.

This location was only send to you guys. It wasn’t put out from the public wires. We didn’t put it out to our membership, so it came from one of you.

Reform has no proof that is accurate. Farage later pointed to a tweet from a Herald reporter asking protestors to contact him as evidence of collusion, but that was published on X more than a day before the event location was given to attendees.

Farage is highly sensitive about his security. As well as previous attacks by protestors using milk shakes, Farage was involved in a notorious incident in 2013 when a press event organised by Ukip on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh was besieged and then cancelled after scores of protestors turned up. Twelve years later, Farage is still talking about the incident; he brought it up in his interview with the Scottish Sun published today.

You may wonder how Keir Starmer expects “every citizen” to contribute to the defence of the UK. (See 12.24pm.) Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has provided one answer – paying more tax.

In an interview with Times Radio, Johnson said that he thought the government would need to announce “chunky tax increases”. He said:

It looks like the government wants to reinstate the winter fuel payment. It’s thinking about the two-child limit for benefits. We’ve got a spending review next week. And if we’re really going to spend another £10-15bn a year on defence, whilst inevitably we’re going to spend more and more on health and pensions and so on, you really do have to ask that question, what are the choices that you’re going to make?

And, bluntly, it really does seem to me that the only choice that is available, if we’re going to go through all of those things, is some really quite chunky tax increases to pay for it. But, of course, that’s not something the prime minister or the chancellor is willing actually to say.

The IFS and Stop the War are not normally seen as ideological bedfellows, but in his interview Johnson also backed one of the arguments being made by Stop the War about the strategic defence review. (See 12.14pm.) He said spending money on weapons is not the best means of promoting growth.

[Higher spending on defence procurement] will certainly help in particular localities ... But is spending this money on defence specifically the best way of achieving growth? No, of course it’s not, because if you wanted to achieve growth, then you would spend that money on things that were directly related to that.

Downing Street has published the text of Keir Starmer’s speech this morning about the strategic defence review.

Here is the passage in full where he said “every citizen” has a role to play in the defence of the country. (See 10.12am.) He said:

Nothing works unless we all work together.

From every man and woman serving in uniform,

To the workers building the next generation of subs in Barrow …

From the brilliant workers and apprentices right here in Govan …

Building the new Type 26 frigates – like the two you can see being built behind me today …

To our tech experts, our scientists, our engineers –

Who are pioneering battlefield innovations and cyber defences –

Every part of society …

Every citizen of this country …

Has a role to play.

Because we have to recognise that things have changed.

In the world of today –

The front line, if you like, is here.

The threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable…

Than at any time since the Cold War.

The Stop the War campaign has said that the government’s plans to raise defence spending while cutting welfare are “grotesque”. It also says that moving the UK to “war-fighting readiness” (see 10.18am) only makes conflict more likely, and that Russia “poses no threat to Warsaw or Berlin, let alone London”.

In a statement about the strategic defence review, Chris Nineham, the group’s vice chair, said:

Increasing defence spending to up to 3% of GDP, procuring more and more weapons of war, including the commissioning of 12 new attack submarines, investing £1.5bn for more munitions factories and £15bn for nuclear weapons production, and all the while slashing welfare, is simply grotesque.

Keir Starmer, John Healey and the Ministry of Defence have spent the days before the release of this spending review painting a picture of the most heightened military and security threat since the end of the cold war. They say they want the UK to move to ‘war-fighting readiness’, but talking up a new era of threat while tying an ailing economy even more to military production only makes the threat of war more likely.

The reality is that Russia’s economy is roughly the size of Spain and Putin is vastly outnumbered militarily by Nato powers. He has barely occupied 18% of Ukraine and poses no threat to Warsaw or Berlin, let alone London.

The pledges in this review are even more grotesque given the eye-watering record profits being made by the arms manufacturers and their shareholders as a result of the endless conflicts which are only perpetuated by these levels of increased defence spending – paid for with our tax pounds and by slashing the welfare budget.

The claim that building more munitions factories and submarines will help British jobs should fool no one. As the Alternative Defence Review explains, military spending generates a smaller economic multiplier than any other public investments, meaning it generates less overall economic activity and fewer secondary benefits than spending on essential services and infrastructure.

Spending on agency staff across the NHS in England dropped by almost £1bn in the last financial year, ministers have said, after a pledge by Wes Streeting to cut the amount going to agencies by 30%, Peter Walker reports.

Rajeev Syal is the Guardian’s home affairs editor.

The prison officers’ union has poured cold water on the Tories’ demand for guns in prisons following high profile attacks on guards.

Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, told the Guardian:

We are asking for tasers and the use of non lethal options . If we ever needed firearm support we have an agreement with chief constables to provide mutual aid. The Tories think we need this level of protection but we need to exhaust all other options first including adequate protections for staff and supermax facilities.

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said yesterday that some prison officers should have access to firearms to counter “out of control” Islamist gangs and violent prisoners. He also called for high-collar stab vests to be provided to frontline officers right away, citing the threat from inmates after recent attacks on prison officers.

In an article for the Telegraph Jenrick said:

Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control. It’s a national security emergency, but the government is dithering. If they don’t act soon, there is a very real risk that a prison officer is kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty, or that a terrorist attack is directed from inside prison.

Jenrick said he had commissioned Ian Acheson, a former prison governor, to carry out a rapid review. He said:

We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails. That means arming specialist prison officer teams with Tasers and stun grenades, as well as giving them access to lethal weapons in exceptional circumstances.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has used a press conference in Aberdeen to announce the defection of a Tory councillor to his party. He said:

One of the reasons that we’ve been doing well in Scotland is we’ve been attracting some very, very good, fresh talent. There have been several Conservative councillors that have come to us, and there’ll be a Labour councillor coming to us this afternoon when we get to Hamilton.

But Duncan Massey has been not just a city councillor here in Aberdeen over the course of the last few years, but is somebody who has spent 20 years working in the oil and gas industry, and it’s my happy duty to welcome Duncan as a Reform councillor here in the city of Aberdeen today.

Massey is the 13th defection to Reform in Scotland, Severin Carrell reports.

Farage was speaking at a news conference attended by some business figures from the oil and gas industry. Reform is opposed to net zero measures to reduce carbon emission, and Farage said 2025 would be a record year for fossil fuel consumption. He said:

We can con ourselves as much as we like, there’ll be more coal burnt this year than has ever been burnt in the history of mankind. And the same applies to the use of gas and oil, even the most ardent opponent of net zero has to accept the world will still be using oil and gas.

Reform’s net zero policies have been strongly criticised by experts.

Q: [From the Guardian’s Kiran Stacey] Will you rule out going back to the aid budget to fund raising the defence budget to 3% of GDP?

Starmer says cutting the aid budget was a difficult decision. He wants to work with other countries to get more money into aid spending. He says the best way to raise money for more public spending is by promoting growth.

Starmer says the world has changed, and that means “the front line, if you like, is here”.

He says the strategic defence review is “a blueprint to make Britain safer and stronger, a battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come”.

He says the government will deliver three fundamental changes.

First, it is moving to war-fighting readiness.

We are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces.

When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready, and frankly, to show them that we’re ready to deliver peace through strength.

Second, everything the government will do will add to the strength of Nato, he says.

And, third, the government will “accelerate innovation at a wartime pace”, he says. He says he wants the UK to be “the fastest innovator in Nato’.

UPDATE: This post originally quoted Starmer as talking about “a battle-ready, bomber-clad nation”. That was a transcription error. In fact, he talked about making Britain a “battle-ready, armour-clad nation”. I’m sorry for the mistake.

Starmer says when he visited the nuclear submarine, the crew had an unofficial motto, “nothing works unless we all work together”.

He says defence policy should work in the same spirit. He says “every part of society, every citizen of this country, has a role to play” in protecting the country.

UPDATE: See 12.24pm for the full quote.

Keir Starmer is giving his speech in Glasgow now on the strategic defence review.

He starts by recalling his recent trip to visit the crew of a nuclear submarine as they returned to the Clyde after a long mission.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is in Scotland today, where he is holding a press conference in Aberdeen this morning and campaigning in Hamilton ahead of the byelection in the afternoon.

In an interview with the Scottish Sun published to coincide with the visit, Farage claims that Reform UK is offering “down to earth pragmatism”, not racism, as the SNP says. Farage told the Sun:

The Scottish establishment can hold me up to be the bogeyman, they’ll go on doing all those things.

But if people actually listen to what I have to say, they will not draw the conclusions that Swinney has drawn that this is somehow a racist, intolerant movement.

They’ll not draw the conclusion that I want to destroy the planet. What I’m offering people actually is down to earth pragmatism.

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, explained why he saw Reform UK as racist in a speech in February. He has revived that line of attack recently, condemning a Reform advert attacking Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, as racist.

Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor.

More than 300 British health consultants and surgeons, as well as 1,100 NHS doctors, including many that have worked in Gaza, have joined forces to urge the Labour government to demand basic health services are protected and restored in Gaza.

In total 2,200 health workers have signed the open letter over the past three days that claims Israel is mounting a calculated assault on healthcare itself, as well as the Palestinian people.

It is one of the biggest interventions by UK health care professionals since the once total blockade of humanitarian aid started in March and came as the Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said the “reports of deaths near an aid delivery centre in Rafah were appalling and highlight the desperate need to get aid in”. The cause of the undenied mass casualties is disputed, with the Israeli Defence Forces insisting it was not involved.

The British health professionals include many who have volunteered to work in Gaza’s hospitals such as Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon and professor of conflict studies.

In their open letter adddressed to Keir Starmer the medics say:

Israel must allow partners to operate in line with humanitarian principles and deliver lifesaving aid.

In our respective professions we uphold a commitment to dignified care-giving and the sanctity of human life. These moral and political commitments demand that we act, not only to treat illness and injury, but to prevent harm and redress the underlying determinants of injury, trauma, and poor health …

Essential clinical equipment has been repeatedly and meticulously destroyed by the Israeli military. Healthcare workers in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine have been targeted, killed, injured, detained and tortured simply for providing healthcare.

This is not collateral damage - it is a calculated assault on healthcare itself, and on the future of the Palestinian people.

The authors of the letter urge the UK government not only back a complete arms embargo and a full ceasefire, but they also call for “unimpeded independent humanitarian access to independent neutral humanitarian agencies”.

The health workers also call for more Palestinian students to study in the UK, and for more Palestinian patients to be treated in UK healthcare.

Other signatories include: Prof Nick Maynard, consultant upper GI surgeon at Oxford University hospitals; Dr Rachel Clarke, palliative care physician and bestselling author; Prof Tim Goodacre, plastic surgeon; Dr Deborah Harrington, consultant in obstetrics and fetal medicine at Oxford University hospitals; and Dr Victoria Rose, consultant plastic surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital in London.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has criticised Keir Starmer for not setting a firm date for getting defence spending up to 3% of GDP. (See 8.24am.) Commenting on Starmer’s Today interview, Davey said:

Keir Starmer is showing a concerning lack of urgency on reaching 3%.

With Putin waging war, Trump undermining NATO and conflicts raging, we must deliver for our armed forces and Britain’s security in an increasingly unstable world. Anything less would be a dereliction of duty.

I once again urge the prime minister to convene cross-party talks to allow us to get to 3% as soon as possible, and faster than 2034.

Q: The Labour party wants you to spend more on welfare. Is that the reason you cannot commit to raising defence spending to 3% of GDP?

Starmer says he does not accept that characterisation.

He repeats the point about not being willing to make a commitment to 3% until he can explain how it will be funded.

We had a commitment for 2.5% by the end of this parliament. We pulled that right forward to 2027.

We showed that when we say there’s a new era of the defence and security of our country, is our first priority – as it is – that we meant it. We take the same approach to 3%.

But I’m not going to indulge in the fantasy politics of simply plucking dates from the air until I’m absolutely clear that I can sit here in an interview with you and tell you exactly how that’s going to work, because I take the defence and security of our country extremely seriously.

Q: Will you put taxes up to do this?

Starmer says the problem for the economy in recent years as been low growth. “I don’t think you can tax yourself to growth,” he says,

Q: But Gordon Brown knows that, and he thinks a £3bn tax on online gambling would still be justified.

Starmer says he is looking at non-tax measures to promote growth.

Q: Do you agree with Gordon Brown that a Labour government should not deny a third child benefits?

Starmer says he is proud of the way the last Labour government drove down child poverty, and determined that his government will do.

He says he is “clear in his own mind … and determined that that is what we will do”.

Q: You have stuck to tough choices in some areas, like cutting aid spending. So why did you reverse the “tough choice” decision on cutting the winter fuel payment?

Starmer says the government had to take that decision because there was a black hole in the govenrment’s finances. But the economy has now stablised, he says.

Q: But the government has less money now than it had last year, not more money. And in Scotland the SNP government ruled out cutting winter fuel payments.

Starmer again says that the government had to fill a £22bn black hole in the government finances.

Q: Why won’t you tell us now what you will do to reverse the decision?

Starmer says he will have to be clear where the money is coming from. He goes on:

But I take your point, which is that if we want to look again at which pensioners are eligible, then the sooner we have clarity on that, the better.

Q: There is a spending review next week.

Starmer says there are “lots of moving parts” in the spending review.

Robinson says he is taking that answer as meant that “we won’t have to wait until the winter” until we learn how the government intends to restore the winter fuel payment. Starmer does not challenge that.

This is significant because two weeks ago, when Starmer announced his winter fuel payments U-turn, he said details of how the government intends to increase elibiligity for it again would not be announced until the next fiscal event. At the time government sources said that meant until the budget in the autumn.

The winter fuel payment used to be paid to all pensioners, but last year it was restricted to just the 1.5 million who claim pension credit.

Setting a higher threshold is complicated. One theory is that the government will restore it to all pensioners, but use the tax system to recoup it from higher-rate taxpayers.

Starmer repeats his claim that he has an ambition to get defence spending up to 3% of GDP in the next parliament.

Q: But “ambition” is not a commitment. I can have a commitment to lose weight. That does not mean it will happen.

Starmer defends not making a firm commitment.

He says, during the election campaign, he said he wanted defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP, but did not set a date because he did not have a plan for achieving that.

What I said at the election in 2024 is that we would get to 2.5% and I was pressed time and again ‘what precise date’ and I said ‘as soon as I can be absolutely clear with a firm date, a firm commitment that we will keep to’, because I had seen the previous government make commitments about this percent or that percent with no plan behind it, I’m not going down that road.

He only set a date for 2.5% when he had an economic plan for achieving it.

He goes on:

What you can take from this is, yes, that 3% but I am not, as the prime minister of a Labour government, going to make a commitment as to the precise date until I can be sure precisely where the money is coming from, how we can make good on that commitment, because I don’t believe in performative fantasy politics, and certainly not on defence and security.

Nick Robinson is interviewing Keir Starmer on the Today programme now.

Q: What do you mean when you say you want the UK to be “war ready”?

Starmer says the world has changed.

There is greater instability on defence and security than there has been for many, many years, and greater threats, and that’s obviously having a direct impact back into the United Kingdom. Hence the review. I wanted a review that told me the challenges we’re actually facing and likely to face for the foreseeable future.

Starmer says the best way to prevent conflict is to deter it. That is why Nato is so important, he says.

As mentioned earlier, the Ministry of Defence has been trailing parts of the strategic defence review for days. Here are three press releases they issued last week and over the weekend.

More than £1 billion to be invested in pioneering ‘Digital Targeting Web’ to spearhead battlefield engagements, applying lessons learnt from Ukraine to the UK Armed Forces.

More than £1.5 billion extra for forces family housing means more than £7 billion to be spent on military accommodation in this Parliament, tackling the poor state of forces accommodation across the country.

The UK will build at least six new munitions and energetics factories and thousands more long-range weapons to strengthen Britain’s Armed Forces and create new jobs across the country.

And here is an extract from the news release issued overnight, saying Keir Starmer will announce the commissioning of up to 12 new attack submarines. The MoD says:

The prime minister will announce … that the UK’s conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet will be significantly expanded, with up to 12 new SSN-AUKUS boats to be built.

The increase in submarines will transform the UK’s submarine building industry and, following the £15 billion investment in the warhead programme outlined, will deliver on this government’s Plan for Change, supporting 30,000 highly skilled jobs up-and-down the country well into the 2030s, as well as helping work to deliver 30,000 apprenticeships and 14,000 graduate roles across the next ten years.

The announcement comes as the government unveils its new strategic defence review tomorrow. The externally-led review is expected to recommend that our armed forces move to warfighting readiness to deter the growing threats faced by the UK. The report makes 62 recommendations, which the government is expected to accept in full.

Good morning. In his great history of 20th century Britain, The Rise and Fall of the British Nation, David Edgerton uses the phrase “warfare state” to describe the UK under the post-war Attlee government, and its successors. He does so to make the point that, although we think of that period as the era of the welfare state, defence spending was still huge (around 10% of GDP in the early 1950s). Keir Starmer is not going to get anywhere close to that, but “warfare state” still feels like a useful term to describe at least the direction in which he wants to shove Britain, as the strategic defence review being published today will indicate.

Starmer will be interviewed on the Today programme shortly. Here is Dan Sabbagh’s overnight preview story on what the defence review will say.

And here is Dan’s analysis, based on what we know so far about the document (which is quite a lot, because the Ministry of Defence has been trailing bits of it for days).

Here is the agenda for the day.

8.10am: Keir Starmer is interviewed on the Today programme.

9.30am: The Speaker’s Conference on the security of candidates publishes an interim report.

10am: Starmer launches the strategic defence review at an event in Glasgow, where he will be taking questions from journalists.

10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference in Aberdeen. Later, in the afternoon, he will be campaigning in Hamilton, where there is a Scottish parliamentary byelection on Thursday.

2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 3.10pm: Peers debate Commons amendments to the data (use and access) bill, in the latest stage in the stand-off between the two chambers over AI and copywright law.

After 3.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the strategic defence review.

3.45pm: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

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