UK politics news: Bullying probe ‘finds Priti Patel broke rules’ as Brexit talks paused after EU official catches Covid

Diane Abbott, who served as shadow Home Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn has somewhat unsurprisingly come out in favour of the former leader.

One of the key tasks for whoever was to follow in Mr Corbyn’s footsteps was always going to be uniting the party after years of infighting between moderates and leftists.

It appears the country doesn’t believe that’s going too well - according to this YouGov poll.

The £16.5 billion was more than expected, Kim Sengupta writes, but we will have to wait until Rishi Sunak’s announcement next year to see where the money will go.

More below:

Always worth remembering the Parliamentary Labour Party are just one of a number of factions Sir Keir is going to have keep on side.

Here is one of his councillors from Lancaster announcing she and her colleagues will be stepping away from the party following the refusal to allow Mr Corbyn the whip.

And here is former MP Thelma Walker:

Millions of children could be at even greater risk of online exploitation and abuse unless the government steps in to replace “vital” funding after Brexit, police, charities and teaching unions are warning.

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The Conservative Party said a Tory MP who mentioned “Anglo-Muslim relations” in a now-deleted tweet will not face further action.

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The prime minister is due up in the next 20 minutes or so to unveil a new raft of military spending - £16.5bn for initiatives including the development of a UK ‘space force’.

More on what we’re expecting here:

Downing Street said plans for the replacement for England's lockdown measures and proposals to ease restrictions over Christmas would be set out next week.

A No 10 spokesman said: "We obviously keep the case numbers under review and we will continue to do so going into next week when we will set out more details of the next phase, post-December 2."

Pointing to Boris Johnson's view that "whilst Christmas will be a little bit different from normal this year, we continue to hope to ensure that families can spend Christmas together".

"We will set out our plans next week."

For all the latest, I will refer you on to my colleagues on the Coronavirus live blog.

Johnson’s military spend pledge has kicked off in parliament, confirming he will be spending an additional £16.5bn over the next four years.

"The era of cutting our defence budget must end, and it ends now", he told the Commons.

He added the new funding would exceed its Nato pledge to exceed the spend of any other Nato member except the US, outstripping other European nations.

Boris Johnson said the era of cutting the UK's defence budget must end.

He told MPs: "For decades, British governments have trimmed and cheese-pared our defence budget and if we go on like this, we risk waking up to discover that our armed forces, the pride of Britain, have fallen below the minimum threshold of viability.

"And once lost, they can never be regained. That outcome would not only be craven, it would jeopardise the security of the British people, amounting to a dereliction of duty for any prime minister.

"So I refuse to vindicate any pessimistic forecasters there may have been by picking up the scalpel yet again. Based on our assessment of the international situation and our foreign policy goals, I have decided that the era of cutting our defence budget must end, and it ends now.

"I am increasing defence spending by £24.1 billion pounds over the next four years.

"That's £16.5 billion more than our manifesto commitment, raising it as a share of GDP to at least 2.2%."