Starmer to hold first meeting with Biden at Nato summit as PM promises new air defences for Ukraine – live

Sir Keir Starmer will use the 75th anniversary of the Nato summit to call countries to increase defence spending in response to rising global threats.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the prime minister is launching a major review setting out plans to boost defence to its target of 2.5 per cent of GDP.

But he is facing pressure over when he will deliver on his campaign pledge with shadow defence minister James Cartlidge urging the prime minister to come clean and stop the “massive uncertainty”.

The Tory MP told Sky News: “By not announcing at the Nato summit that we are going to 2.5 per cent Keir Starmer has created massive uncertainty and I do think that will be damaging for our armed forces at the worst possible time.”

The prime minister is set to meet Jo Biden in the White House as the US president battles against Donald Trump to stay for second term.

Keir Starmer has insisted that his suggestion members of the House of Lords should retire at 80 is not a comment on Joe Biden’s ability to continue as US president:

Labour MP for North West Cambridgeshire Sam Carling is the youngest member of the new Parliament at 22 years old.

Mr Carling was directly followed by Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who swore in for the first time under the Reform banner after previously being elected a Conservative MP.

Mr Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, was joined by Reform colleagues Richard Tice MP for Boston and Skegness, and Rupert Lowe MP for Great Yarmouth.

Earlier in the session, Labour MP Clive Lewis (Norwich South), said prior to his affirmation: “I take this oath under protest and in the hope that one day my fellow citizens will democratically decide to live in a republic.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he is grateful to world leaders for taking steps to help his country’s air force get F-16s.

Posting on X, he said: “I anticipate that our air force capability coalition will be strengthened even further through the joining of new participants. F-16s bring just and lasting peace closer, demonstrating that terror must fail everywhere and at any time.

“Our team continues to work in Washington to reach agreements that are strengthening Ukraine’s defense capabilities.”

Ukraine remains at the top of this year’s Nato summit agenda with world leaders all committing to support the country with its war against Russia’s invasion.

When US president Joe Biden spoke to Sir Keir Starmer on the telephone following his UK election victory, he referenced the “special relationship” between the two countries – and now the prime minister is in Washington DC to cement that bond.

It is a relationship between nations that is embodied by that between the two leaders, and getting off on the right foot can be important.

Here is how first meetings between premiers have gone in recent times.

At just 0.5 points above 2001’s low of 59.4 per cent, this year’s election risked falling to a new record and was among the lowest turnouts in a century.

From 1924 to the year 2000, turnout didn’t dip below 70 per cent. In fact, the highest turnout in the past 100 years reached 83.9 per cent of eligible voters in 1950, when Clement Attlee’s Labour saw its majority shrink from 146 to 5.

But since the turn of the millennium, Britons in the 21st century have not been showing up to vote in such high numbers, and this may just be the new normal.

Our data correspondent Alicja Hagopian has the full analysis:

Downing Street has announced a list of new parliamentary appointments. The 13 Commons, who are not ministers but whips, will work with Labour MPs to ensure they are fully informed.

• Mark Tami MP as Treasurer of HM Household (Commons Deputy Chief Whip);
• Samantha Dixon MP as Vice-Chamberlain of HM Household (Government Whip);
• Chris Elmore MP as Comptroller of HM Household (Government Whip);
• Nic Dakin MP as a Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip);
• Vicky Foxcroft MP as a Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip);
• Jeff Smith MP as a Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip);
• Anna Turley MP as a Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip);
• Taiwo Owatemi MP as a Junior Lord of the Treasury (Government Whip);
• Christian Wakeford MP as an Assistant Whip, House of Commons;
• Gen Kitchen MP as an Assistant Whip, House of Commons;
• Keir Mather MP as an Assistant Whip, House of Commons;
• Gerald Jones MP as an Assistant Whip, House of Commons;
• Anna McMorrin MP as an Assistant Whip, House of Commons.

The prime minister has also appointed three whips in the House of Lords:

• Lord Kennedy of Southwark as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentleman at Arms (Lords Chief Whip);
• Baroness Wheeler MBE as Captain of The King’s Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard (Lords Deputy Chief Whip).

Lord Black, the ex-proprietor of The Daily Telegraph and a number of other world newspapers, is one of three peers leaving the Lords.

The Canadian-born British citizen served more than three years in prison after being convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007.

He was pardoned by then US president Donald Trump in 2019.

Lord Black was the former head of Hollinger International, which once owned The Daily Telegraph, Chicago Sun-Times, Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers in the US and Canada.

He was ennobled in 2001, having renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a Conservative peer.

His downfall came in 2007 when jurors in Chicago found that he and other Hollinger International executives swindled shareholders out of more than $6m (then worth around £3 million).

There are no records of Lord Black having spoken in the Lords and he had not voted since 2003.

Bridget Phillipson has pledged to deliver a “sea change” in early years as she called it her “number one priority”.

The new education secretary has said the Government will recruit more early years staff through a “re-energised” recruitment campaign.

Ms Phillipson visited a school-based nursery in East Croydon, in south London, today where she spoke to staff and children at the setting.

Ahead of the General Election, Labour said it would repurpose empty or under-used school classrooms in England’s primary schools to offer more childcare places at 3,000 new school-based nurseries.

In her first week as education secretary, Ms Phillipson said: “Early years is about more than just childcare – it’s about giving every child the best possible start in life, which is why it’s my number one priority and right at the centre of my vision for education in this country.

“We will deliver a sea change in our early years system, and that begins now.”

James Cleverly has said people smugglers have been “cashing in” after Labour scrapped the Rwanda scheme.

The shadow home secretary said the latest migration numbers show gangs are “cramming more vulnerable people into dangerous small boats”. 

Mr Cleverly tweeted: “The people smugglers are evil but they aren’t stupid. They’ve seen the first steps taken by Labour and moved quickly to cash in, cramming more vulnerable people into dangerous small boats.

“Without a deterrent, they won’t solve the problem.”

Provisional figures from the Home Office reported 419 migrants were detected crossing the English Channel on Tuesday.