Starmer latest: Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham hit out at PM’s pub tax grab

The United Kingdom will provide Ukraine with more than £500 million for new defence missiles and systems, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

Defence secretary John Healey said the UK will contribute £150 million for the first time to Nato’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (Purl), a programme designed to speed up the country’s air defence support.

A further 1,000 UK-made lightweight multirole missiles will be delivered to Ukraine as part of a £390 million deal.

The announcement comes as Mr Healey co-hosts meetings in Brussels with the 50-nation Ukraine Defence Contact Group and Nato defence ministers on Thursday.

Reform UK’s “flagship” local authority in Kent has passed its first budget despite warnings from opposition leaders of “extreme risk” and it being “potentially reckless”.

Kent’s Reform leaders have secured a 3.99 per cent council tax increase, 1% under the limit before a referendum is required, despite promising ahead of their election win not to raise tax.

But opposition bosses have criticised the move for not raising it to the maximum possible, which will leave the council with £10 million less for the next financial year that could have protected services and reserves.

They also pointed to a statement from the council’s head of finance, David Shipton, legally required to be considered for the budget, where he said: “The decision to raise the council tax household charge below the level permitted without a referendum poses a long-term financial risk as a result of the council tax income forgone.”

Both Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham have criticised Sir Keir Starmer’s pub tax grab as the prime minister fights for his leadership.

The two Labour figures, who have been tipped as potential rivals in a future leadership contest, suggested the Sir Keir should cut VAT to ease pressure on struggling businesses.

The former deputy prime minister, speaking at a nighttime economy summit in Liverpool, called for extra help for the sector to help struggling towns and cities.

During a question and answer session after her speech, Ms Rayner, forced from Government last year over a tax row involving her properties, said: “And I think that we’ve got to recognise the, it’s not even the double whammy, it’s not even the triple whammy.

“I mean, I talked about the challenges on business rates, the challenges on VAT. The challenges, yes, the minimum wage going up and the living wage and the costs of energy.”

Mr Burnham later supported a “VAT rate more consistent with what you find in Europe because of the social value that your businesses bring to places and towns that need that life injected into them,” according to The Telegraph.

“I personally would support permanently a lower business rates regime for hospitality businesses for exactly the same reason.”

Sir Keir Starmer should stand down if Labour comes third in the Gorton and Denton by-election, a trade union leader has said as she backed Angela Rayner to replace him.

Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), is the first leader of one of Labour’s affiliated unions to publicly back an alternative to Sir Keir as party leader.

She warned that a leadership challenge could come as soon as the end of the February, after a key by-election in which Labour risks falling behind Reform UK and the Greens.

Ms Eslamdoust told the Daily Telegraph: “If we were to come third, I think Keir’s time will be up.”

Angela Rayner has said the Government must listen to the struggling hospitality sector and recognise its “value not just in rhetoric, but in policy”.

The former deputy prime minister was speaking at Liverpool’s Night Time Economy Summit on “what we need to see from Labour in the future”.

She said: “If we’re serious about recovery, then we must fuel the recovery of them (businesses).

“That means recognising the value not just in rhetoric, but in policy. And this is where we must be candid.

“There is, without doubt, a clear divide between policy that truly understands the night time economy and policy that simply applies a one-size-fits-all approach.

“Too often, policy is done to this sector, not with it. And I recognise clearly and openly that more needs to be done to engage the industry directly and consistently and respectfully, to listen, to co-design, to recognise expertise where it exists.

“Because confidence in politics matters. Businesses need to believe that they will be treated fairly, that the rules won’t shift without warning, that the long-standing structural issues will finally be addressed, not deferred again.”

Ukraine’s allies should make sure 2026 is the year Russia’s war against Kyiv ends, the Defence Secretary has said.

Speaking after a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels, John Healey said Ukraine’s allies were “more united and more determined than ever”.

He said: “We will step up military assistance to Ukraine. We will step up pressure on Russia.

“And we want to make 2026 the year this war ends, the year we secure peace.”