Keir Starmer UN Speech - LIVE: PM tells Israel ‘no more excuses’ and calls on Hamas to ‘let the hostages go’

Sir Keir Starmer told Volodymyr Zelensky: “It’s very good to see you again and have this opportunity to talk about the challenges faced in Ukraine, and to reconfirm to you again our steadfast support for Ukraine, to pledge again our support for Ukraine in terms of capability, training and other matters, and to have the chance to talk through what more needs to be done.

“Because these are turning into crucial weeks and months, and so to have this opportunity to reaffirm the UK’s steadfast support to Ukraine is very important to us.”

Mr Zelensky said: “Thank you so much, Prime Minister, for these words, which are very important for us, for those strong steps that have been done by UK from the very beginning of full-scale invasion.

“Thank you that you are together with us during all this. You are right, as you said, a very challenging period.

“I also want to discuss with you some details how to strengthen Ukraine.”

Though Labour’s fingers were burned badly by the winter fuel row, the government must once again grapple with another controversial policy to pave the way for growth, writes Andrew Grice:

Sir Keir Starmer accepted £20,000 worth of accommodation to help his 16-year-old son study for his GCSEs, it has emerged.

The prime minister was asked by the BBC about a £20,437 donation from Labour peer Waheed Alli between May and July, confirming that the sum was for somewhere his son could study “peacefully”.

You can read the full story below:

While nothing is binding about the vote, it puts further pressure on the Labour leadership to act over its controversial decision and gives an indication of the strength of feeling among Labour members.

Earlier this month 18 Labour MPs signed an early-day motion opposing the means-testing of winter fuel payments, but the prime minister managed to stare down his backbenchers and stave off a wider revolt.

MPs voted 348 to 228 to axe the payment on 11 September, rejecting a Tory bid for the controversial policy to be blocked. Just one Labour MP voted against the cut, while another 53 abstained.

Russia is treating its own citizens as “bits of meat to fling into the grinder” in Ukraine, Sir Keir Starmer said as he urged Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.

The prime minister, speaking at the UN Security Council in New York, said Russia was responsible for “colossal human suffering” as a result of the conflict.

He said Russia, which is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council alongside the UK, was behind the “greatest violation of the (UN) charter in a generation”.

The annual tax-free winter fuel payment of between £100 and £300 was introduced in 1997 to help eligible pensioners meet the costs of heating their homes in winter. It was then expanded to all pensioners in 2000.

The government is facing opposition to its decision to means-test the payment, stripping it from millions of pensioners. It means those in receipt of pension credit or other certain benefits will continue to receive them but others won’t.

Some make the point that rich pensioners wrongly get the payment too, but the unions argue that a universal payment to all pensioners ensures nobody falls through the gaps.

Sir Keir Starmer says it was after this that “someone” offered to make a flat “available” for the junior Starmer - but claimed “no money exchanged hands”.

The prime minister‘s register of interests shows a declaration for accommodation provided by Lord Waheed Alli to the value of £20,437.28 from 29 May to 13 July this year. The election was called on 22 May.

GCSEs ended on June 19.

Speaking to Sky News from New York City, where he is attending the UN General Assembly, Sir Keir said that the election had been called “not when we expected it” and his son was in the middle of GCSEs.

Sir Keir explained: “I said, ‘we’re going to get you out of here and get you somewhere where you can just study and get to school and back without having to go through all of that’.

“And that’s when someone says, well, in which case I can make this flat available to you.

“It’s safe, secure, he can get on.”

The Prime Minister later went on: “I do think sometimes it’s important just to look behind the number and say, ‘what was the human story behind’”.

“I wasn’t going to let my son fail or not do well in his GCSEs because of journalists outside,” he added.

Lord Alli, 59, a former chair of online fashion giant Asos, is his largest personal donor.

Sir Keir Starmer said he has “long believed in borrowing to invest”, which can act as a “catalyst” for private investment.

Asked by reporters whether he was “talking the country down” ahead of his first budget in October, Sir Keir told the BBC: “I think if we’re going to have to take difficult decisions that we are, it’s important that we do the diagnosis.

“What’s the state of the country? What’s the state of the economy?

“And the two or three things I’d say that dominate are the £22 billion black hole, the Lord Darzi report into the NHS, which effectively said it was on its knees, and of course the terrible state of our prisons. Now you have to get the diagnosis right because then you’ve got to go on and say, right, it’s our responsibility.”

The Prime Minister told Channel 4 News: “I’ve always and long believed in borrowing to invest. I think it’s important to grow the economy.

“Our number one mission is to grow the economy, to make sure that by growing the economy, everybody is better off, living standards go up. That’s what I’m going to be judged on at the end of this term in Government and I know that.”