Day: August 19, 2025
Ministers plan to step in earlier on developments, such as the expansion of Heathrow airport in London, to resolve issues
The prime minister has “done a good job” to help keep Europe united in its support for Ukraine, according to the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Davey praised Keir Starmer’s approach along with fellow European leaders but said the UK needs to do more to strengthen Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s negotiating position, ahead of a potential one-to-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
We need to make sure that European alliance is holding and, to be fair to the prime minister, he has done a good job in keeping that coalition of the willing together with European allies.
But … we are not doing enough to help Ukraine and strengthen its negotiating hand.
We have this idea of some sort of security guarantee with American involvement, it’s a little bit vague but I fear with what they are talking about with land deal is a price that we cannot let Ukraine pay. Ukraine won’t want to pay it.
I think if you appease an aggressor like Vladimir Putin, we know in history that it ends in a bad way.
Sadiq Khan said Labour supporters would be “delusional” if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024, as he admitted its first year in office has been difficult. The London mayor told an audience at the Edinburgh festival fringe that Labour needs to “really pick things up”.
Keir Starmer has been urged to recall parliament to “impose immediate sanctions” on Israel in a joint letter signed by politicians in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The letter urges the prime minister to “act now” to exert pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza and for an end to arms sales to Israel.
Downing Street has suggested that Keir Starmer would back a Ukraine peace deal without a ceasefire as a precondition as the UK’s prime minister and other European leaders join Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for Ukraine talks with Donald Trump.
The watchdog that monitors government ministers’ professional appointments after leaving office has been criticised for clearing Grant Shapps, a former Conservative defence secretary, to join Cambridge Aerospace as long as he promises not to work on defence matters.
Alex Salmond’s niece has accused Nicola Sturgeon of tarnishing her uncle’s reputation when he is no longer able to defend himself in order to promote her memoir.
More than £300m given to English councils to help Ukrainian refugees into accommodation has not been spent, while thousands of them face homelessness.
Patients in England now have greater access to important tests such as MRI scans and endoscopies in the evenings and weekends, the government has said, after increasing the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offering out of hours services.