Burnham admits no current plan to hit 3% defence spending pledge ...Middle East

Andy Burnham has admitted there is no current plan to increase defence spending to three per cent of GDP.

The UK has already committed to raising dfence spending to 2.5 per cent by 2027 before moving to a target of 3 per cent in the next Parliament, and more recently, 3.5 per cent by 2035.

“We’ve got to work out the way of doing that,” Burnham told the BBC when asked about the target.

Commenting further of the defence investment plan, which current Chancellor, John Healey, resigned over during his time in the previous government, Burnham said the pair must make sure the plan is fully funded. There remains a £5bn blackhole in the current spending budget.

“The first challenge facing us both is to ensure that the defence investment plan is fully funded and that’s the thing that’s right in front of us and we need to work that through as we go towards the budget later this year,” he added.

What to know as police probe ‘donations by Richard Tice’s company to Reform’

Police are investigating donations to Reform UK by a company controlled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice.

Two payments of £250,000 were reportedly donated by Britain Means Business before the 2024 general election, when Tice was party chairman.

It comes after the Sunday Times reported earlier this month that £500,000 worth of direct donations to Reform from aristocrat Fiona Cottrell were being investigated by the Met over alleged donation offences.

Fiona is the mother of convicted fraudster George Cottrell, who is thought to have been bankrolling Nigel Farage behind the scenes for years.

Now, the BBC has learned two donations from Tice’s firm are also under investigation, with Tice saying the money was donated to the company by Fiona Cottrell.

What is being investigated?

The police probe is looking into alleged offences that money received by Reform UK which may have amounted to “the evasion of restrictions on donations”.

This could mean money from an “impermissible” donor, or using “false information” about the donation and where it came from.

Read more here.

The Cotswolds villages living in the shadow of the Iran war

In the otherwise quiet villages around RAF Fairford, residents are used to July being a noisy month. At the height of summer, hundreds of jets normally thunder overhead to take part in the world’s largest military air show.

It can be a smelly time, too. When the wind is blowing the wrong way during the Royal International Air Tattoo, the distinctive stench of aviation fuel can waft over the 6,000 homes nearby.

District councillor Michael Vann says “disgusting” plane spotters are also to blame. Erecting stepladders near the perimeter to get better photos of incoming aircraft, they wait for hours to get the best shots – but as there are no toilets nearby, some of them leave what he politely describes as “unmentionable things” behind on the grass.

This year, however, the air show was cancelled to the great disappointment of the local tourism sector. The airfield, leased to the US Air Force 75 years ago, was too busy hosting American heavy bombers setting off on long flights to attack Iran.

The resumption of Donald Trump’s war has now placed the area in Tehran’s crosshairs. The Iranian regime said this week that any base used to attack its territory was a “legitimate target” for its own forces.

The UK says it has only allowed the US to carry out “defensive” operations on flights from British locations.

But a statement from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – which the UK has proscribed as a terrorist organisation – singled out operations by “B1 aircraft flying from Britain’s Fairford airbase” this week and threatened reprisals.

Read more here.

Burnham admits no current plan to hit 3% defence spending pledge

Andy Burnham has admitted there is no current plan to increase defence spending to three per cent of GDP.

The UK has already committed to raising defence spending to 2.5 per cent by 2027 before moving to a target of 3 per cent in the next Parliament, and more recently, 3.5 per cent by 2035.

“We’ve got to work out the way of doing that,” Burnham told the BBC when asked about the target.

Commenting further of the defence investment plan, which current Chancellor, John Healey resigned over during his time in the previous government, Burnham said the pair must make sure the plan is fully funded. There remains a £5bn blackhole in the current spending budget.

“The first challenge facing us both is to ensure that the defence investment plan is fully funded and that’s the thing that’s right in front of us and we need to work that through as we go towards the budget later this year,” he added.

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