UK politics live: Starmer pays back £6,000 in gifts amid donations row as Lord Alli faces interest probe

James Cleverly’s speech seems to have impressed the shadow minister for women and equalities.

The Tory leadership candidate’s message calling the party to be “more normal” and “sell Conservativsm with a smile” has charmed Mims Davies.

The MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield put her weight behind Mel Stride at the beginning of the contest, but has now backed the former home secretary.

Praising her colleague, she wrote: “James has shown he’s a standout candidate-with the positivity, reach, experience and charm to be our next leader and our future PM.”

Sadiq Khan will pledge to lobby Labour ministers for investment in new transport projects in London costing billions of pounds.

The capital’s mayor will make the commitment in a speech on Wednesday night, in which he will declare that “when London builds, Britain benefits”.

Mr Khan wants to secure funding to extend the Bakerloo Tube line from Elephant & Castle to Lewisham.

A Transport for London document published in February stated that the estimated cost of the project would be between £5 billion and £8 billion.

The mayor will seek investment for a new rail service named the West London Orbital on existing lines in west London.

The most recent published capital cost estimate of the scheme was £273 million in 2017/18 prices.

Mr Khan wants funding for extending the Docklands Light Railway from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead, which has previously been expected to cost around £1.7 billion.

He will also attempt to secure a long-term funding packages for TfL, after the previous Conservative government only issued short-term deals.

With Keir Starmer in Brussels to restore post-Brexit relationships with European leaders, Ian Bond suggests ‘low-key’ is the name of the game when it comes to influencing foreign policy:

Sir Keir Starmer said it was right for him to repay £6,000 of donations and repeated pledges to create rules around donations.

“Because until now, politicians have used their best individual judgment,” the prime minister said.

In Brussels after meeting Ursula von der Leyen, he said: “We came in as a government of change.

“We are now going to bring forward principles for donations, because, until now, politicians have used their best individual judgment on a case-by-case basis. I think we need some principles of general application.

“So, I took the position that until the principles are in place it was right for me to make those repayments.”

Sir Keir has paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality he received since the election, No 10 revealed earlier.

Sir Keir Starmer says the UK is putting our relationship with Europe on a “more solid, stable footing”.

He told reporters he had agreed with resident of the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to hold regular UK-EU summits at leader level, starting with a summit in the first half of next year.

He said they had agreed that they could do more together in a few key areas, “in particular, promoting growth and prosperity, working together on shared challenges like climate change, energy security and illegal migration, and strengthening our shared security and stability”.

Sir Keir Starmer has paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality he received since entering No 10 after a row over ministerial donations, it’s been revealed.

The prime minister is covering the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four to the races and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.

Sir Keir and other cabinet members – who vowed to “clean up” British politics – have faced weeks of criticism for accepting tens of thousands of pounds worth of freebies from wealthy donors.

The prime minister has committed to overhauling hospitality rules for ministers to ensure better transparency about what is provided following the backlash.

On Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister has commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code.

“Ahead of the publication of the new code, the Prime Minister has paid for several entries on his own register. This will appear in the next register of members’ interests.”

In a joint statement, Sir Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to work “at pace” to take forward “an agenda of strengthened co-operation”.

The prime minister and European Commission president will meet again this autumn and there will be regular leader-level EU-UK summits, with the first expected in early 2025.

The joint statement said they “underlined their mutual commitment to the full and faithful implementation” of the existing post-Brexit agreements, and they “reaffirmed their mutual commitment to uphold international law and to the European Convention on Human Rights”.

It added: “They agreed a stable, positive and forward-looking relationship was in their mutual interests and provided the basis for long-term co-operation.

“They agreed to take forward this agenda of strengthened co-operation at pace over the coming months, starting with defining together the areas in which strengthened co-operation would be mutually beneficial, such as the economy, energy, security and resilience, in full respect of their internal procedures and institutional prerogatives.”