99 m. ago UK foreign aid: How much is spent and who receives it as Starmer slashes budget

UK foreign aid will be slashed from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of GDP to fund an increase in defence spending

Economics

3 h. ago Watch: Starmer defends cutting foreign aid budget to boost defence spending

Watch as Sir Keir Starmer holds a press conference on Tuesday, 25 February, after announcing he will slash the foreign aid budget to hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP to counter “tyrants” like Vladimir Putin.

Economics

3 h. ago Starmer slams accusation he is ‘Farage in disguise’ over defence spending increase

Sir Keir Starmer dismissed an accusation he is "Nigel Farage in disguise" over his plans to slash the foreign aid budget to hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP to counter “tyrants” like Vladimir Putin.

Politics

3 h. ago We must stop Putin in Ukraine to protect Europe: Keir Starmer puts UK on a war footing by increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP

The Prime Minister pledged to accelerate an increase in the UK's defence spending in the face of Russia's belligerence and growing US indifference to European security.

Politics

3 h. ago Starmer announces big cut to UK aid budget to boost defence spending

PM confirms rise in military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than plannedUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has announced drastic cuts to Britain’s international aid budget to help pay for a major increase in defence spending, amid fears over Donald Trump’s commitment to European security.The prime minister said the UK government would increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – as he prepared for what is likely to be a diplomatically fraught visit to Washington DC this week. Continue reading...

Economics

4 h. ago Watch live: Starmer defends cutting foreign aid budget to boost defence spending

Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer holds a press conference on Tuesday, 25 February, after announcing he will slash the foreign aid budget to hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP to counter “tyrants” like Vladimir Putin.

Economics

7 h. ago Starmer must take baton from Macron in effort to sway Trump on Ukraine

UK and France need to convince US to align with them over Ukraine, while at the UN Trump openly sides with RussiaKeir Starmer, when he visits the White House on Thursday, will have to pick up the many loose threads left by another chaotic day of diplomacy in the US in which America voted with Russia at the UN to protect Vladimir Putin from criticism over the invasion of Ukraine, and then saw Trump make assurances that Putin was happy for European forces to enter Ukraine – only to be contradicted by Moscow hours later.Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has been working in lockstep with the UK in a way the two countries have failed to since Brexit, and the aim was for the two leaders of Europe’s major military powers to use their visits this week to operate as a pincer movement pressing Trump to question Putin’s trustworthiness and more broadly to accept that America’s future still lay as a partner with Europe. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago Keir Starmer vows to slash aid spending to pump 2.5% of GDP into defence by 2027 in dramatic statement to MPs ahead of 'mission impossible' trip to meet Trump in White House

In a dramatic Commons statement, Keir Starmer finally laid out a trajectory for boosting the military amid rising alarm about America withdrawing support.

Events

8 h. ago UK defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 with aid budget slashed to help fund move

Keir Starmer says now is the time to deepen European security, as he announces move in the CommonsThe rightwing historian Niall Ferguson is in the audience for Badenoch’s speech, according to James Heale from the Spectator.Niall Ferguson spotted at Kemi Badenoch’s big speech on foreign affairs hearing we might get some policy tooTractors’ horns interrupt Badenoch’s speech shortly after she begins speaking. Attendant spinner heard swearing furiously Continue reading...

Economics

8 h. ago Kremlin disputes Trump claim Russia would accept Nato peacekeeping troops in Ukraine – live

Kremlin says it has nothing to add to the foreign ministry’s position on the unacceptability of Nato peacekeepers in UkraineUkraine’s presidential press service has issued a photograph showing president Volodymyr Zelenskyy introducing the world leaders visiting Kyiv some new developments in Ukraine’s defence industry.British prime minister Keir Starmer is set to announce a cut to the country’s aid budget to immediately hike defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, ahead of his visit to the White House on Thursday, according to The Sun. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago Starmer slashes aid to fund biggest increase in defence spending since Cold War

Sir Keir Starmer set out plans for defence spending to reach 2.7% of gross domestic product in 2027.

Economics

8 h. ago Donald Trump talks call for 'strong' Keir Starmer to save Europe from wider war

Keir Starmer will meet with Donald Trump in Washington DC this week in what has been called one of the most important meeting between a UK Prime Minister and a US President in decades

Politics

19 h. ago Boris Johnson urges Keir Starmer to boost UK defence spending to 3% of GDP

Speaking from Kyiv on the third anniversary of the start of the conflict, he demanded a rise to at least three per cent of GDP to help guarantee European security against Russian aggression.

Politics

21 h. ago Trump suggests it will be Europe that guarantees peace in Ukraine

The role of the US in any future deal is likely to be among the topics up for discussion later this week when Sir Keir Starmer heads to Washington.

Politics

27 h. ago Jeremy Hunt says welfare cuts would let Starmer commit to 3% defence spend now

Mr Hunt said the UK raising defence spending to match the US relative to GDP would secure the future of Ukraine and of Nato.

Economics

33 h. ago Keir Starmer warns 'Europe will be next' if Ukraine falls to Russia

The Prime Minister also told world leaders that Donald Trump had "changed the global conversation" about the war.

Events

48 h. ago Bridget Phillipson blows hole in Sir Keir Starmer's tough talk on defence

The Education Secretary said Labour 's manifesto pledge of hiking it to 2.5 per cent was an 'ambitious' target and suggested it would not be further increased despite calls to do so.

Politics

54 h. ago Starmer must be ‘as tough as Churchill’ in talks with Trump, says top political biographer

Exclusive: Sir Keir Starmer must stand up to Donald Trump and show Europe is strong enough to be ‘challenge and threat’ to US and Russia, says Britain’s leading political biographer Sir Anthony Seldon

Politics

56 h. ago Starmer warns against Ukraine peace talks without Kyiv ahead of Trump meeting

The Prime Minister said first-hand experience of visiting Ukraine had made him ‘more determined’ to ‘stand up’ for the country.

Events

56 h. ago Starmer backs Trump’s calls for Nato allies to boost defence spending in stirring speech ahead of US visit

Ahead of a meeting with the US president, Sir Keir Starmer said the UK and Europe ‘have to do more for our defence and security’

Politics