UK politics live: No 10 rejects new accusations over Taylor Swift ticket and police escort row

The prime minister said the investment summit on Tuesday was a huge success.

He said: “These are investors with a huge amount of capital to to invest, but can choose where they invested. We made the case that now is the time to invest in Britain, and yesterday we’re able to announce £63bn pounds of inward investment into Britian.

“But for viewers what that means is investment into projects that are secured jobs in every part of the country.”

The prime minister is now being interviewed outside Downing Street.

Speculation that Labour is considering raising employer national insurance tax contributions has been renewed after Rachel Reeves refused to rule out the measure yesterday.

The hike would bring the levy up from its current flat rate of 13.8 per cent, with experts predicting it could raise around £17bn a year.

She said: “We are going to need to sort of close that gap between what government is spending and bringing in through tax receipts. But we are going to be a government that sticks to our manifesto commitments,” meaning not raising taxes on working people.

A Treasury source has also previously indicated that it is the view of the government that the move would be considered as a tax on business, and not working people, saying: “The commitments in the manifesto were clear and about protecting the incomes of working people.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Paul Johnson has called this into question, saying the move would be a “straightforward breach” of the Labour manifesto. However he added that it’s unlikely the party would be unable to avoid doing this in some way.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said it would be “absurd” for Labour to hike national insurance for employers and claim it was not a breach of the party’s manifesto.

Speaking to Sky News, he said Labour has “boxed themselves in” by “claiming they were not going to be a party that was going to have to put up taxes”.

Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the President of Cyprus to Downing Street, after the island played a central role in early efforts to get aid into war-torn Gaza.

Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides made a whistlestop visit to No 10 before he heads to the United Nations in New York, where he hopes to open talks aimed at ending the decades-long ethnic divide on the island.

A UN buffer zone extends across Cyprus, dividing the Greek south from the north-eastern portion of the island, which is administered by an ethnically Turkish government only recognised by Turkey.

As the two sat for the media at the start of their meeting, the Prime Minister said: “It is my privilege to welcome you here and it is fantastic we have got this opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest, a long and very important history between our two countries.

“Both at the country to country level, but also at the people to people level.

“We have a very proud community here and it gives great strength to us as a country.”

The Independent’s political editor David Maddox and Whitehall editor Kate Devlin were Scottish politics reporters at the height of Alex Salmond’s powers. David writes about the political giant he knew with memories from Kate.

Watch back Sir Keir Starmer’s speech to the International Investment Summit 2024 on Monday, 14 October.

Robert Jenrick would “poison” the Conservative Party and wants to go further to the right than Nigel Farage, an influential former Tory MP claimed.

In a damning assessment of the former immigration minister, Matthew Parris dubbed him a “slick, smooth-tongued salesman with all the attributes of a crowd-pleaser, except the ability to please a crowd”.