UK politics live: Wes Streeting hints budget cuts will go further than axing winter fuel payment

The foreign secretary will discuss deepening defence, security ties with Norway and tackling threats from Russia when he meets his Norwegian counterpart on Wednesday.

David Lammy called Norway “our eyes and ears in the High North” and “a key ally in the defence of Nato’s northern flank” ahead of a trip to the country.

He will visit Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the country’s military command centre, with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

The UK and Norway will agree to further intelligence sharing and cooperation to counter Russian disinformation networks in Europe and beyond, the Foreign Office said.

Conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has written a letter to the Attorney General calling for a review of Huw Edward’s sentence.

Disgraced former BBC presenter Mr Edwards was spared jail after admitting accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

“As the Shadow Security Minister, it is my duty to ensure that justice is served in a manner that reflects the severity of the crimes committed, particularly those involving the possession of indecent images of children,” he wrote in the letter.

My colleague Tara Cobham looked at some of the reasons why Mr Edwards was spared jail, including his mental health, low risk of reoffending and no previous convictions.

You can read the full article here.

Chair elect of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Emily Thornberry said she is “really concerned” about an attack in Lebanon that killed at least nine people, including members of the militant group Hezbollah, and injured more than 2,000.

Speaking on Sky News’ breakfast programme, she said: “We are really concerned about what is happening now in Lebanon. I think the big question is: why? Why is this happening now? And what will the result of that be?

“It seems to be yet another escalation of the conflict which is happening in the Middle East which will affect all of us. And it is very worrying indeed, of course it is, and what the response will be. And is this the first step, and what will Israel do next? Is it part of a larger plan?

“It is very worrying and I would certainly be expecting Israel’s friends to be speaking very seriously to them, and saying: ‘What on earth are you doing? Why is this happening now?”

The Independent’s Archie Mitchell reports:

The Independent political correspondent Archie Mitchell delivers his analysis of Sir Ed's keynote speech

Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has urged the government to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, describing it as the “world’s chief sponsor of terror”.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: “David Lammy told how Labour’s government would ban the IRGC, again and again. Now, he tells us climate change is a bigger threat.”

Mr Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced sanctions against more than 400 IRGC-affiliated people and entities earlier this month, and said he will soon introduce further regulations to “bolster existing bans on the export of goods and technology significant to Iran’s production of drones and missiles”.

Mr Jenrick was among Conservatives who called for the organisation to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, but then-foreign secretary Lord Cameron said in April that such a move “would effectively end diplomatic relations” with Iran and would in many way weaken Britain’s hand.

“When it comes to delivering a very direct message to the Iranians... I want to have that conversation myself, I don’t want to ring up my French counterpart and say ‘could you message the Iranians with this message?’,” Lord Cameron said at the time.

The row over Sir Keir Starmer’s acceptance of tens of thousands of pounds-worth of gifts has continued this morning, as The Telegraph reported that his wife Lady Victoria accepted free Taylor Swift concert tickets.

While the pair were photographed attending the singer’s Eras tour at Wembley Stadium in June, it is alleged that Lady Victoria – and several cabinet members – also acceped free tickets to another of the star’s concerts in August.

Wes Streeting, Darren Jones and Bridget Phillipson also declared their tickets and they have appeared on their register of member’s interests.

Although it is within the rules for MPs to accept gifts and tickets, Sir Keir has been facing questions over the numerous gifts he has accepted after initially failing to declare a £5,000 donation from ex-Asos chair Lord Waheed Alli to pay for dresses for his wife.

His register of interests shows the PM accepted some £65,000 in tickets in the nine months to May. He has previously said that he requires hospitality tickets to watch Arsenal play football as he is now unable to sit in the stands without security.

Former Tory prime minister Sir John Major has lambasted the scheme pursued by Rishi Sunak’s government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as “un-Conservative, un-British ... and unconscionable”.

Sir John told the BBC he had not made any public pronouncements for some time because he found little to like about the last Tory government, describing the plans first set in motion by Boris Johnson to fly asylum-seekers to East Africa as worse than the 18th century deportations of convicts to Australia.

And, in a devastating assessment of Brexit, he agreed with former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair that far from reducing immigration as promised by Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and others, it had in fact increased immigration and replaced Europeans with more people from other parts of the world.

Our political editor David Maddox has more in this report:

Sir Ed Davey said he would like to see Kamala Harris defeat Donald Trump at the US election in November.

People who are “decent, kind, united” are “the true patriots in our country”, the Liberal Democrat leader told delegates and activists at the Lib Dem conference Brighton.

Sir Ed added: “Conference, we will never stop applauding our patriots in our country. Conference, these are the values our politics needs now, more than ever to resist the rise of the extremists - not just at home but around the world too.

“With Vladimir Putin waging his brutal war in Ukraine, with the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on October 7, hostages still held captive, the continuing illegal occupations, and the threat of regional escalation, with the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency.

“How I hope and pray to see Kamala Harris defeat him this November. At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail: decency, compassion, community, respect for the rule of law.”