Boris Johnson news – live: New prime minister to be revealed on 5 September

Jeremy Hunt has pledged to increase defence spending and cancel “unthinkable” planned cuts to the size of the Army in the face of the threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The Tory leadership hopeful said he would spend 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy, on defence by 2028 if he were elected to succeed Boris Johnson.

The former foreign secretary would also stop the cuts set out in the 2021 Spending Review in his first Budget, as “now is not the time to be reducing the army by nearly 10,000 personnel”, according to a press release from his leadership campaign.

Mr Hunt said: “Whatever other pressures we face, tumbling down the Nato defence spending league table simply cannot be an option for Global Britain.

“We’re facing a long-term war of attrition in Europe, so we have to get real about the implications for our defence budget.

“The planned cuts to our armed forces are now unthinkable; we must put our money where our mouth is and prove that we understand the first duty of government is keeping people safe”.

The pledge would amount to an extra £86 billion cumulatively over the next five years in order to reach the 3% goal, according to the campaign’s estimates.

Conservative leadership hopeful Suella Braverman has vowed to tackle “stubborn” working-age people who “refuse” to get jobs to help cut the cost of government and fund a “radical” plan to slash taxes.

The attorney general said: “In so many areas we are spending too much in an inefficient way.”

That included looking at the “size of government department budgets”, she said. But she insisted spending could be cut without dramatically reducing public services.

She added: “It’s about spending money more smartly and I think we waste too much money.

“I think there are too many people in this country, for example, who are of working age, of good health and who are choosing not to work full time and they are taking benefits.

“Whilst universal credit did a very good amount of work to stamp out that welfare dependency, we still have a stubborn tail of the population that refuses to enter into economy activity.

“I think we have to introduce much more rigour and incentive to get people into work.”

Penny Mordaunt and Kemi Badenoch are the favourites to become the new Tory leader among the party faithful, a new poll has indicated (Joe Middleton writes).

Conservative Home – a news and analysis blog popular with grassroots activists – conducted a survey of its readers and the top candidate to replace Boris Johnson is Ms Mordaunt.

The international trade minister, who was previously at the Cabinet Office, got 19.6 per cent, with Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister coming a close second with 18.7 per cent.

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak, who currently has the most MPs backing him at 37, came in third place on 12.1 per cent.

Brexiteer Suella Braverman, who has vowed to withdraw Britain from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if she wins, came in fourth with 11.5 per cent.

Jacob Rees-Mogg will not stand in the Conservative leadership race, according to a political correspondent for The Daily Telegraph.

The minister for Brexit opportunities was considering a bid to be next prime minister but has ruled himself out as he did not want to be another candidate for the party’s right wing in an already crowded contest, Christopher Chope said.

The veteran reporter quoted Mr Rees-Mogg as saying: “I am not standing. I want to unite rather than further fracture the Right.”

The Tory right wing already had strong representation in the contest from Liz Truss and Suella Braverman, with Priti Patel thought to be considering standing.

Steve Baker, a prominent Brexiteer who is backing Ms Braverman, earlier told Mr Rees-Mogg not to enter, warning of “fragmentation” in the party.

He said: “I love Jacob like a brother but he wouldn’t win a general election, I’m quite sure, so I hope to dissuade him, amongst others. It’s a nonsense to have candidates standing all over the place.”

A controversial move to allow agency workers to be brought in to replace strikers has been approved by MPs.

The government put forward the proposal before Boris Johnson agreed to step down in response to the rail dispute which has seen thousands of workers go on strike in recent weeks.

Unions and opposition parties accused the government of acting cynically and endangering public safety.

TUC general secretary said last night: “The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. The government wants to undermine this right and deploy agency workers as strike breakers across the economy – including on the railways.

“Using agency workers to try and break strikes would put these workers in an appalling situation, worsen disputes and poison industrial relations.

“Bringing in agency staff who haven’t been fully trained to deliver specific public-service roles could endanger the public too.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said the move went against the government’s own interests. “Undermining strike action will make it harder to find a resolution, resulting in more and longer strikes,” she said.

MPs backed the measure 289 to 20, a majority of 87.

Candidates in the Tory leadership race will need 20 nominations to get on the ballot paper, the 1922 Committee has decided.

This would rule out several of the candidates on the crowded shortlist of 11.

Given there are 358 Tory MPs, the numbers are there in the parliamentary party for all candidates to make the list but they may not all all get an even 20 as calculations about likely results play in the minds of backers.

At the latest count, only Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt would make the list but scores of Tory MPs have not publicly announced who they support.

The threshold has been doubled from the 2019 leadership race, when 10 candidates secured the 10 nominations needed to enter the race.

Sajid Javid exploited a tax loophole to benefit from non-dom perks while working in the Treasury as a ministerial aide, The Independent understands.

The Conservative leadership hopeful, who on Monday called for greater scrutiny of candidates as he launched his campaign, would say only that he gave up the controversial tax status “before entering public life” and refused to answer further questions on his tax affairs.

But according to sources familiar with Mr Javid’s tax planning, while the former health secretary gave up non-dom status in 2009, he preserved some of the tax benefits through an offshore trust until 2012. This step, which is entirely legal, allowed him not to pay UK income tax on some foreign income from investments. From 2011, Mr Javid worked in the Treasury as a ministerial aide to then chancellor George Osborne.

Anna Isaac reports.

Boris Johnson’s new education minister argued against free school meals and said he did not believe families could not afford food, it has emerged (Jon Stone writes).

Brendan Clarke-Smith was appointed a minister at the Department for Education on Friday to fill a vacancy left by a wave of resignations.

In October 2020 the Bassetlaw MP used a speech in parliament to complain that free school meals amounted to “nationalising children”.

He has also said he believed it was “simply not true” that “people can’t afford to buy food on a regular basis”.

Opposition MPs said it was a “complete disgrace” to make Mr Clarke-Smith an education minister given his views.

A Conservative MP has offered to return to the classroom to help if teachers go on strike.

Both the National Education Union and NASUWT have threatened strikes over pay in the autumn term.

Jonathan Gullis, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, told the Commons: “As a former teacher, as a former trade union representative, I’m more than happy to go back in any classroom to help out when you have the disastrous ‘not education union’ threatening to bring down schools in this country.”

Business minister Jane Hunt also moved a second motion to increase the level of damages a court can award in the case of “unlawful strike action”.

Ms Hunt said it has long been the case that employers can bring a claim for damages against a trade union for such action, but told MPs the regime has not been reviewed since 1982.

She said: “The maximum award of damages which could be made against the smallest unions will increase from £10,000 to £40,000 and for the largest unions will increase from £250,000 to £1 million.”

Train drivers have voted overwhelmingly to strike over pay, increasing the threat of huge disruption to rail services this summer.

Members of the drivers union Aslef at eight train companies backed campaigns of industrial action.

Aslef members at Chiltern, LNER, Northern, TransPennine Express, Arriva Rail London, Great Western, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains voted by around 9-1 in favour of strikes on turnouts of more than 80 per cent.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said staff had taken a real-terms pay cut over the past three years.