Politics latest: Starmer responds to petition demanding election rerun (2025)

Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, is speaking at a NATO cyber defence conference at Lancaster House, where he warns that for the UK and its allies, "cyberwar is now a daily reality".

Mr McFadden tells the audience the UK is locked in a "new AI arms race" with countries like Russia and North Korea - and security officials are countering their attacks both publicly and behind the scenes.

He says Russia is engaged in a deliberate attempt to "pick away" at state and public support for Ukraine by targeting the infrastructure of NATO members, such as financial services and energy and health care sectors.

'Appeasing dictators only encourages them'

Mr McFadden singles out the activity of Unit 29155, a Russian military unit the government claims has been behind a number of attacks in the UK and Europe.

But he says: "We know from history that appeasing dictators only encourages them.

"Britain learned long ago the importance of standing strong in the face of such actions.

"We will not join those voices of weakness who want to give Putin a veto over our help for Ukraine. We will not be intimidated by it, and we will never allow it to dictate our decisions or our policies."

As expected, Mr McFadden announces a new Laboratory for AI Security Research (LASR) will be set up to allow the UK to keep up with its adversaries - who include not only Russia, but Iran and China.

We've just had a response from the Labour Party to the new Tory leader's speech at the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference.

A Labour spokesperson said: "After weeks of campaigning against it, Kemi Badenoch is now refusing to say whether she would actually reverse the employer national insurance rise." (see previous post).

"The opposition seem to finally accept that the damage they did to the economy made tax rises necessary - but the least the public deserve is an answer on what their actual position is."

Kemi Badenoch next takes a couple of questions from journalists - the first coming from Sky's business and economics correspondent Gurpreet Narwan.

She asks the new Tory leader if a government under her leadership would reverse the rise in employers' national insurance (NICs) that was announced in the budget.

Mrs Badenoch says where she sees measures that "will obviously not work and will not raise any money, we will change that".

She points to her having already committed to reversing the changes to inheritance tax that are affecting farmers, and says the Tories did not set employers' NICs so high.

"One of the things we're going to have to do is rewire everything, so what I'm not going to do is comment on every bit of micro-policy," she adds.

Watch: The budget in 60 seconds

'Tax on jobs'

Of course, the hike to employers' NICs is expected to raise £25bn a year by the end of this parliament, and is one of the largest parts of the entire mammoth fiscal statement.

Mrs Badenoch goes on to say things "may change" in the coming years ahead of the next general election, but under the "first principles" she is returning to, employers' NICs is "a tax on jobs".

"So we need to make sure the balance is right," she says, and given that small businesses are saying this measure is "unaffordable", politicians should "look again" at it.

But she does not explicitly commit to repealing the measure, as she did with the hike in inheritance tax for farmers.

New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch opens her speech by asking a question: "How do you know whether a politician is actually going to do what it is they say they'll do?

"You can only look back on their track record," she says.

She says when she was business secretary, she "tried to lift the burden off businesses" by fighting with other departments over regulation, saying she saw herself as their "champion around the cabinet table".

"It is because I know that it is not government that creates growth - it is business. Government often needs to get out of the way," she argues.

'An unprecedented raid'

But people "want the government to fix everything", and "if you ever sound hesitant, they will make you out to be a cruel, unfeeling person, as I have discovered to my own personal cost".

That is "partly" how debt has reached record levels.

Reflecting on growth, Mrs Badenoch says Britain has not "done the work which is needed to understand what the root causes of our problems are".

She says she is "worried" that Labour is "not just repeating many of the mistakes which we made in government - they are doubling down on them, and combining them with an unprecedented raid on business".

'Capitalism is not a dirty word'

In terms of her own party, she repeats her oft-repeated desire to "return to first principles".

Those are "free and fair competition" in the market, and her party being "the party of business" of all sizes.

"Capitalism is not a dirty word, wealth is not a dirty word, profit is not a dirty word. But we need to start explaining how these things deliver for the people out there," she says.

The system is "broken", she asserts, and argues that "government itself must change... is growth is ever properly to return", which entails making decisions much quicker and being far more responsive to the needs of business.

Kemi Badenoch is speaking at the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference.

The Tory leader, a former business secretary, will be hoping to start repairing her party's relationship with the business world after a tumultuous final few years in government.

It also comes against the backdrop of discontent with Labour's budget, which placed significant tax rises upon employers.

Watch Ms Badenoch's speech live in the stream below:

The environment secretary has been speaking to broadcasters about the government's response to this weekend's devastating flooding, and hit out at the Tories for the state of flood defences.

Steve Reed said he has been "kept updated" on the situation, and has today held an "emergency meeting" with the Environment Agency.

He offers his "sympathies to everybody who's been affected", and gives thanks to emergency services on the ground.

Asked if there will be emergency funding, the minister said agencies are offering "whatever support they can".

He also said additional support has been offered to the Welsh government, but "they haven't said that they need that" yet.

'Climate change has worsened floods'

Asked about the state of the UK's flood defences, Mr Reed said: "This government inherited from the previous government flood defences that are in the worst condition on record.

"Now we've allocated in the budget £2.4bn to upgrade our flood defences, better maintain those we already have, build new flood defences to keep people safe.

"That will make a difference and that's what we need to do to cope much better with the impact of climate change that we're seeing with these floods."

Asked how quickly the improvements will happen, Mr Reed said work is already under way, and it will continue over the next two years.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are both on the defensive today, as the prime minister grapples with grim polling numbers and the chancellor faces criticism from the business world.

Here are the main things you need to know:

• The prime minister has admitted he's "not surprised" by some two million people signing a petition calling for an election rerun;
• Starmer told ITV's This Morning he often reminds himself "very many people didn't vote Labour", with recent polling having suggested he's now less popular than Nigel Farage;
• "There will be plenty of people who didn't want us," the PM said, but he remains focused "on the decisions I have to make every day."

• Rachel Reeves has been warned she can "never again" target businesses with tax rises like she did in the budget;
• The head of the Confederation of British Industry praised Labour's bid to restore stability to the economy, but said tax rises had damaged business confidence and growth potential;
• But our business and economics correspondent Gurpreet Narwan said the chancellor seems willing "to have a fight" with business - she'll be defending her decisions at the CBI conference later.

• The government has announced plans for bar staff to be trained to deal with drink spiking incidents;
• And former health secretary Sajid Javid is giving evidence at the COVID inquiry, which you can watch live in the stream at the top of this page.

We'll bring you coverage of the chancellor's appearance at the CBI conference later this afternoon.

Any major updates from the COVID inquiry will also be here, as will tributes from MPs to the late John Prescott, with time set aside in the Commons later to honour the former deputy PM.

There'll also be a statement on flooding caused by Storm Bert.

Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge will be live from 7pm.

Stay with us for updates and analysis through the afternoon.

Downing Street has said the Foreign Office is "supporting the family of a British man being held in detention" by Russian forces after fighting for Ukraine.

In a widely circulated video posted on Sunday, the man says his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson, aged 22.

He says he is a former British Army soldier who signed up to fight for Ukraine's International Legion.

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, was also asked a short while ago about the man's plight, and replied: "I have been updated about that development in the last couple of days and of course we will do all we can to offer this UK national all the support we can."

How can government help?

The PM's spokesperson was asked what the government's position is on British nationals fighting for Ukraine, and he slightly sidestepped the question, noting they have a "limited ability to support fighters who are detained or mistreated".

Asked for confirmation that the man is a mercenary and not connected to the British government in any way, the spokesperson could not comment.

It might not quite be a hostile crowd, but it may well be a sceptical one when the chancellor addresses the CBI conference later.

The annual Confederation of British Industry event is the first since she delivered her budget last month.

Our business and economics correspondent Gurpreet Narwanis there, and notes the stark change in tone after several years of Rachel Reeves "trying to woo businesses at events like these".

Firms were left "completely caught off guard" by the scale of tax rises in her budget, notably the £25bn worth of national insurance increases.

"Many businesses are now warning prices will go up, that they'll have to curtail pay rises, to reduce headcount," says Gurpreet.

But Reeves "feels like she's not really budging".

"What alternative did I have?" seems to be the message, says Gurpreet.

"If the public want better public services, where would you have got the money from?

"It very much sounds like she's willing to have the fight."

Watch: How the budget may impact employees

The pandemic may feel firmly in the rear-view mirror, but the public inquiry into the government's handling of it is very much steaming ahead.

The inquiryis currently examining how healthcare systems coped during the pandemic.

Giving evidence today is former Tory MP Sir Sajid Javid, who served as health secretary from June 2021 until July 2022 when he resigned alongside then chancellor Rishi Sunak, beginning the collapse of the Johnson government.

Watch live in the stream below, and we'll bring you any key bits of testimony right here in the Politics Hub.