Wes Streeting in US for Hegseth meeting as Ukraine tensions escalate – as it happened

I’m going to wind down our live coverage of UK politics today for now, here’s a quick run through the main things you should know: Defence Secretary Wes Streeting is due to meet his US counterpart Peter Hegseth at the Pentagon; Ukraine’s ‘betrayal’ by the Trump administration is a key issue as the UK has pledged to help faciliate reconciliation between Zelenskyy and Trump Nigel Farage says you can’t vet everyone as several Reform politicians were caught on camera making racist, violent remarks about Black, Asian and Muslim people.

He’s had to push back a party announcement as he scrambes with the fallout of the ITV exposure. Labour has instructed its local council groups to end power-sharing arrangements with their Green partners if they don’t condemn the party’s new ‘Zionism is Racism’ policy.

The Greens blasted this intervention into local politics as “undemocratic”. And in a significant case, Jeffrey Donaldson, the ex-DUP leader, has been sentenced today to 15 years in prison for child sexual abuse crimes against two women when they were minors. The judge said the former party leader, who’d reached the “very height of public office”, had shown not a shred of remorse or shame or regret for his crimes and “it is only through the courage, resourcefulness and determination of two young women that you’ve been brought to justice”.

Prosecutors said “this case shows that sexual abuse can be hidden behind a facade of respectability” but that “no individual, irrespective of their position, status or public reputation, is beyond the reach of the law.” Thanks very much for reading the blog today and feel free to get in touch with me or Andrew, who’s back next week.

A new undercover investigation which recorded Reform UK councillors and election candidates making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views “exposes a rotten core of racism and Islamophobia” within the ranks of Nigel Farage’s party, according to the Muslim Council of Britain.

Britain’s largest Muslim umbrella body was reacting after ITV News broadcast the first parts of a year- long investigation into Reform UK, which has led to a number of councillors standing down from the party and Nigel Farage postponing what was to be a major policy announcement today.

Dr Wajid Akhter, Secretary General for the Muslim Council of Britain told The Guardian: “To hear elected officials casually use dehumanising language, advocate for the mass deportation of British citizens, and discuss hiding their true agenda should ring alarm bells for every citizen committed to a tolerant and democratic society.

Islamophobia and racism are not isolated incidents within the party; they are systemic issues that continue to manifest despite repeated promises by the party leadership to clean house. Condemnations and rushed resignations after being caught on camera are no longer enough.

The leadership of Reform UK must take full responsibility for the culture of hatred that they have allowed to fester and mainstream within their organisation. Finally, it is telling that one of those exposed is a Solihull councillor and former Conservative. On promoting anti-Muslim hatred, there is a common thread from the Conservative Party normalising Islamophobia whilst in Government, to Restore, Reform and black-clad vigilantes intimidating innocent people on our streets today”.

These YouGov poll results will be pored over given the SNP conference is kicking off today – and PM Andy Burnham is due in town tomorrow. The poll’s results have 50% of those surveyed saying the Scottish National Party is “incompetent”, while 51% called it “untrustworthy”.

The poll shows First Minister John Swinney’s personal approval rating is down to 34% and 53% are unfavourable to him. The only party leader with a positive approval rating – across the UK not just in Scotland – is the prime minister. Burnham has an approval rating of 47% favourable, and 38% unfavourable.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has the lowest favourability rating among Scots. 74% viewed him unfavourably, including 61% who are “very unfavourable” towards him, while only 18% regarded him favourably. The Guardian’s Education editor Richard Adams has this dispatch on the government’s plans to help school students improve their speaking ability amid the influx of AI tools.

Saying that “practical skills are disappearing from practical subjects,” education secretary Lucy Powell told school leaders that the arrival of AI would mean changes in what is being taught in England’s schools. Powell said she wanted to expand on plans to give oracy - the skilled use of spoken language - the same status as literacy in classrooms, following the government’s recent curriculum review that recommended an oracy framework to match the existing frameworks for reading and writing used by schools.

Powell told an education conference in Birmingham: “With AI on the rise, we need to go harder on the skills that makes us human, like oracy. “That ability to articulate yourself confidently is central to success in work and in life, but for too long it’s been a marker of privilege.

Now it will become the right of every child - nobody left out because they can’t speak up.” Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, welcomed the emphasis on practical skills including oracy but said time would need to be made available.

“It is crucial that the ongoing review of the curriculum reduces other content in order to genuinely create the space to embed these skills, however. Teachers are already unable to cover the current curriculum in the time available.” Wes Streeting’s meeting with his US counterpart Peter Hegseth at the Pentagon later today will be his first since becoming Defence Secretary in July.

As my colleague Dan Sabbagh noted above – there are lots of issues on the agenda, Iran, Ukraine, and not least the growing US-Nato rift and Washington removing bombers from a UK air base earlier this month amid reports of a possible Iranian plot. Hegseth has also been heavily criticised for his annoucement that he is planning to livestream a public execution by military firing squad on December 3.

Streeting was asked on the weekend’s political shows his thoughts on such barbarity. He steered clear of any personal criticism of Hegseth saying only that the UK does not support the death penalty, and as such did not support such an event. PM Andy Burnham has described Hegseth’s proposed event as “abhorrent”.

UPDATE: The US President Donald Trump has called off plans to livestream the execution of the Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan. Trump had previously said he approved of his secretary’s plan but there has been so much backlash this week to Hegseth’s bloodlust including protest by former military chiefs.

Trump’s retreated from the idea, saying just now: “many very good and well meaing people would rather not watch him die.” I reported earlier that the Labour party has instructed all of its councils in power-sharing deals with the Green Party to end the coalition arrangment if their Green counterparts do not condemn the ‘Zionism Is Racism’ motion passed at the Green conference 11 days ago.

There are 18 such councils in the UK potentially affected. Labour has asked each council group to write to their Green partners for “reassurances” that they condemn the policy, which PM Burnham called antisemitic. If they don’t, Labour’s head office says the local Labour groups should end the power-sharing agreements.

The Green Party has responded saying such moves are “undemocratic”. “For the Labour Government to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism is disappointing and wrong. “Trying to tell local parties what to do and who they can work with is undemocratic. “Whilst Labour continue to try to meddle in our internal democracy, arm a genocide and lock up protesting pensioners, we will not take lectures from them.” The ultimatum will impact 17 councils across England and one in Wales, according to Labour.

These are: Derbyshire Dales (Lib Dem-led coalition) Broadland (Lib Dem-led coalition) West Suffolk (Labour-led coalition) Arun (Lib Dem-led coalition) Havant (Labour-led coalition) Lewes (Green-led coalition) Rother (Coalition led by local independent group) Runnymede (Coalition with Lib Dems, Greens and local independent group) Wealden (Green-led coalition) West Oxfordshire (Lib Dem-led coalition) West Sussex (Lib Dem-led coalition) North Somerset (Lib Dem-led coalition) West Devon (Independent-led coalition) Monmouthshire (Labour minority-led coalition) Coventry (Labour-led confidence and supply agreement with the Greens) Stafford (Labour-led coalition) Warwick (Green-led coalition) Sheffield (Labour-led coalition) The Liberal Democrats, who have also criticised the Green motion as “divisive” said they would leave it to thier local councillors to decide whether to end coalitions.

And for those who want to wade into the Manchester City football scandal, and what contacts the PM has had with the club, this week’s Politics Weekly episode delves into it. Andy Burnham has been accused of a serious misjudgment over his comments about meetings with Manchester City’s owners.

The Guardian’s policy editor Kiran Stacey discusses the controversy after returning from a trade trip to India with the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and the new Greater Manchester mayor, Bev Craig. On that trip Stacey discovered that a representative of the football club was also present.

Lisa Nandy says she may intervene in Sky’s £1.6bn deal to buy ITV’s media and entertainment division on grounds of there being a public interest to keep a diversity of news and media outlets in the UK. Ms Nandy said she may consider a more concrete intervention over concerns that Sky’s takeover would limit competition and narrow the range of views and programming in British media.

She’d be proposing new legislation if she took such action: “Having considered the anticipated merger, I am of the view that there are reasonable grounds to believe that it might affect availability of a wide range of high-quality and varied programming on the on-demand platforms that are now widely used by UK audiences.

“Consequently, if I decide to intervene on the basis of this new public interest consideration, I will bring forward legislation which amends section 58 of the Act to extend the application of the public interest consideration relating to the availability of a wide range of broadcasting to on-demand programmes.” I thought it worth highlighting some of the powerful messages we’re hearing from Northern Ireland today in the sentencing of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who’s been jailed to 15 years for the sexual abuse crimes he committed against two women when they were children.

Donaldson as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party from 2019 to 2024 was one of the most powerful politicians in Northern Ireland; he had risen to the heights of public office. Throughout his trial he consistently denied the offences. Judge Paul Ramsey said there had not been “one word of regret, apology or shame from this man to at least provide his victims with some crumb of comfort”.

“It is only through the courage, resourcefulness, and determination of two young women that you’ve been brought to justice in respect of the crimes you committed against them when they were children.” His wife Eleanor Donaldson, 60, was also found to have aided and abetted his crimes on a trial of the facts.

The victims have issued statements through the police. Complainant A described how her childhood had been stolen from her. “For years I carried shame, anger and guilt, and questioned whether I was worth protecting or worthy of being loved. I learnt to survive by shutting away my emotions, trusting no one and expecting people to hurt me.

She said the Donaldsons “do not control me now”. “They forever changed me, but they will not take my future. The cycle is being broken and it ends with me,” she added. Complainant B said: “What happened took away my ability to trust people and, in all honesty, I don’t think I really know what trust or love truly is.

Nothing can ever change what was done to me. I wish it could.” Catherine Kierans, from Northern Ireland’s prosecution service said the case showed sexual abuse “can be hidden behind a facade of respectability”. “It also shows that no individual, irrespective of their position, status or public reputation, is beyond the reach of the law.” The DUP also issued a party statement, saying their first thoughts were with the victims.

“Regardless of status or position every individual must be held accountable for their actions. “He [Donaldson] deserves every day of the lengthy prison sentence he has to serve following the guilty verdict for preying on innocent child victims.” Nigel Farage has claimed that “the establishment” wants Reform UK “out of the picture” as he made his first public comments since the party was embroiled in a new crisis after a number of its councillors and election candidates were caught on film making graphic threats of extreme violence.

Speaking on the day after detail of an undercover ITV News investigation were broadcast, Farage said: “You cant vet for future comments. You can look at someone’s CV, you can look at someone’s social media. I can’t tell you want they say, I cant predict what they’re going to say after a drink, when they have been provoked by somebody, or egged on to say something.” “You can’t vet for future comments.

I promise you there are 20,000 councillors across this country, many of them would have all sorts of opinions but you will never see the focus on those parties, only ever on us, and we know that, the establishment wants us out of the picture.” A number of councillors have already stood down from the party, which said it was conducting an investigation over the first revelations from an ITV undercover investigation that aired on Wednesday.

Farage had postponed a major announcement that was due to take place in Essex on Thursday morning as the party tries to contain the fallout expected to come from further revelations in the coming days. Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds has issued these comments on Mahmoud’s visa threat.

“Rather than threatening to impose a ban on the few Eritreans who might ever be granted a visa and be permitted to depart from that country, the Home Secretary needs to address the shocking fall in asylum grants under this Government that has got even worse on her watch.

“Eritrea’s appalling human rights record includes arbitrarily detaining people forced to return, and indefinite and forced conscription in circumstances that in some cases amounts to slavery. “Politicians are once again failing us all and putting lives at risk by simply refusing to manage this country’s asylum responsibilities fairly and efficiently.

That is why our asylum system is in such a mess and contributes to a toxic environment where some people are so easily stirred to anger, hate and even violence against refugees who are fleeing war or persecution.” Home Office data shows just 77 work visas were issued to Eritrean nationals in the year to June, making up 0.03% of the total of 234,841.

Eritreans accounted for an even smaller proportion of study visas issued in the same period, at 0.01% (33 out of a total of 385,974). Some more on the visa ban Mahmood has threatened for Eritrean nationals to convince the east African country to take back people who haven’t passed the UK’s asylum seeker checks.

Britain and Eritrea have been locked in a battle over migrant returns for months. Essentially, the UK has been trying to restore a deal that had been in place from 2024 which saw Eritrea issue emergency travel documents to nationals without a valid passport so they could be deported to their home country.

But since March, Eritrea has rejected that deal. Diplomats had been trying to hash out a solution behind the scenes for months; Mahmood has now gone public with her ultimatum: “My message to the Eritrean government is simple: take back your nationals or face a complete ban on your citizens entering the UK.” Restrictions have already kicked.

From today, Eritrea’s diplomats are facing limits on how far they can travel outside of London without seeking foreign office permissions. And fast-track visa processing has been halted. Andy Burnham has “apologised” and corrected the record after saying an “individual” was “responsible for the murder” of Ann Widdecombe, PA reports.

The PM was accused of a “breach of the presumption of innocence” by the Tories after his comment during Prime Minister’s Questions. While No 10 declined to comment on Wednesday evening, Burnham has now corrected Hansard, the official record of government. A Downing Street spokesperson said: A correction has been issued to Hansard, and that will be published in due course.

Asked if the PM understood the code, they said: The fact that we have issued an update speaks for itself. Burnham referred in the chamber to the “individual responsible for the murder” of Widdecombe – a former Conservative minister and Reform UK’s justice spokeswoman – despite the legal process still being in its early stages.

John Healey has promised to use his first budget in a fortnight’s time to offer consumers and businesses a “breathing space” while sticking to Labour’s fiscal rules. Speaking to journalists in Bangkok, where he has been attending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings, the chancellor said he was conscious of rising costs.

I want the budget to be a budget that gives Britain a bit of breathing space – but also reinforces the strength of our fiscal plans and the strength of our resilience and our economy for the future. The government has already cut VAT on electricity bills, but Healey is expected to announce a further package of energy support at his 28 October tax and spending statement, before what is expected to be a sharp rise in the energy price cap in January.

He said: The prime minister’s talked about recognising the cost of business, not just the cost of living. Healey also reiterated his insistence that he will be sticking to the spending plans set out by his predecessor, Rachel Reeves, at last year’s spending review – and cabinet colleagues will have to find any additional resources within their existing budgets.

When the second half of a spending review is in place, there are pressures on departments, and colleagues are doing a good job of managing with what they’ve got. You have to reprioritise if you want to do fresh things. As we’ve been reporting, former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been sentenced to a total of 15 years for sexual offences against two women who were children when he abused them three decades ago.

You can read our full report from my colleague, Ireland correspondent Rory Carroll, here: Britain’s AI Security Institute is “no longer enough” to keep the country safe and the government should bring forward statutory AI protections, the chairman of the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee has warned.

Liam Byrne, the Labour former minister, said the Cyber Resilience Bill could be used to bring the statutory protections into law. It is currently making its way through Parliament, having passed its initial stages in the House of Commons earlier this year. Speaking in the Commons today, Byrne said: We are blessed to have the AI Security Institute in this country, but it’s no longer enough.

So, will ministers confirm that we will have Government amendments at report stage of the Cyber Resilience Bill to ensure that we have statutory AI protections to keep this country safe? AI minister Kanishka Narayan said he would work with MPs across the House “on ideas for the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, looking in particular at protections on AI security”.

The Scottish National Party’s conference kicks off today, and as my colleagues Patrick Greenfield and Eve Livingston write, this year even Andy Burnham has been invited But by the time John Swinney stands up to address members on Saturday afternoon in Aberdeen to reinvigorate the case for a second independence referendum, his party may regret giving the UK prime minister so much prominence in the conference buildup.

Burnham is expected to visit Scotland on Friday – the middle of the event – in a thinly veiled attempt to overshadow the SNP gathering. While he will be in a different venue, the former Manchester mayor’s presence in Scotland will loom large over the event. Since taking over at No 10 in July, Burnham has largely avoided direct confrontations with his political rivals, rarely attacking Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch.

But he has taken a different approach with the Scottish first minister. The SNP leader was the only politician from a rival party, apart from Margaret Thatcher, that Burnham mentioned in his keynote address to the Labour party conference last month. He reflected on Swinney’s prediction that he would be the last prime minister of the UK at a meeting of separatist parties Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to mark the first time all three devolved parliaments were governed by nationalists.

Swinney inadvertently did so on the day Burnham’s father died. “I quote that not to seek sympathy,” Burnham said, holding back tears. “Nor to criticise John Swinney. I relay it because I want you to know how it made me feel. Utterly determined to prove him wrong.” Beyond ruling out a second independence referendum, recent British prime ministers have often paid little attention to Scottish internal affairs.

Burnham has already said there is “no clear consensus” for another vote. But unlike his predecessors, he has decided to take on the SNP by loudly make the case for the union on Scottish soil. Burnham presents a new challenge for the SNP as they seek to re-energise the case for Scottish independence.

Swinney has said he wants a new vote before 2031. The separatists have grown used to facing off against rightwing, pro-Brexit governments in London during two decades in power in Holyrood, making it easier to argue that Scotland’s interests have been dismissed.

Burnham’s devolution agenda, openness to exploring a return to the European Union and £2 bus fares are harder to confront. Defence secretary Wes Streeting is in Washington DC to meet US counterpart Pete Hegseth at a sensitive time when relations between the two normally close allies are strained by tensions over Ukraine, Iran and the Middle East.

The meeting is due to take place at lunchtime in the Pentagon a day after Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited London and said he felt betrayed by the US decision to throttle military access to the Starlink satellite internet system. The UK finds itself in the middle of the deepening US-Ukraine dispute, and on Wednesday prime minister Andy Burnham met Zelenskyy and promised that he would engage in “laying the ground” for a reconciliation with US president Donald Trump.

At the same time, the UK faces questions about its ability to safeguard US military bases in Britain to the satisfaction of Hegseth, more than one of which has been targeted by Iran, leading to the recent withdrawal of 12 B-1 bombers from Fairford. The US is also weighing up whether it wants to help Saudi Arabia in the fast developing conflict with Yemen’s Houthis at a time when it is trying to step away from a fresh outbreak of fighting with Iran before midterm elections next month.

That presents the UK with a difficult choice, because while the UK has largely kept out of the Iran war, it has acted as a junior partner with the US in joint in a series of air strikes on the Houthis during 2025 and early 2025. Labour recognises that engaging in fresh bombing in the Middle East could be a difficult sell to the British public when Trump’s war in Iran is being blamed for cost of living pressures and increased energy prices at home.

Prior to meeting Hegseth, Streeting will also appear at the CSIS thinktank, at a session entitled “the future of UK-US defence cooperation”. Prior to his flight to the US, Streeting sidestepped the tricky geopolitical issues and emphasised that he hoped that in future “Britain and America can lead the next generation of defence innovation”.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) in Northern Ireland, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for historical sexual offences against two women when they were children. My colleague Taz Ali has live coverage of the sentencing here: Donaldon led the DUP from 2021 until 2024.

He was convicted in June of one count of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault and four counts of gross indecency for crimes committed between 1985 and 2008. Judge Paul Ramsey said Donaldson had “doubled down on his denials” since his conviction. “There has not been, and doubtless will not be, one word of regret, apology or shame from this man to at least provide his victims with some crumb of comfort,” he said.

He added Donaldson had experienced a “catastrophic descent into disgrace”. Labour says it’s told all of its local councils who share power with the Green Party to review their agreements after the Greens passed a “Zionism is Racism” motion at their autumn conference earlier this month.

If Green coalition partners don’t agree to condemn the policy, the Labour council groups have been instructed to terminate existing power deals. Yesterday Andy Burnham in PMQs condemned the Greens motion- which wasn’t supported by most of the party’s MPs, but was passed by a majority of members – as “wrong” and “antisemitic”.

He ruled out Labour doing deals with the Green party: We cannot support a partnership with a party that holds [the] position that has recently been adopted. Following from the Zelenskyy visit to Number 10 yesterday, John Healey has wrapped up his meeting with the UK press pack in Bangkok with a heavy hint that he is preparing to offer more support to Ukraine at the budget.

Healey, who was of course defence secretary earlier this year, said: “Now is the time to step up pressure on Putin and step up support for Ukraine.” Asked if that could come as soon as the budget, Healey said: “I’m working on different ways we can step up support for Ukraine, military, diplomatic, and economic, and you know, if anybody needed any reminder of that, it’s what we see coming out of Ukraine, with Putin targeting these energy systems, leaving thousands without power, as we’ve got a harsh winter approaching.

The future of Ukraine is the future of European security, and that’s that’s why it’s so crucial that Putin doesn’t prevail.”d Yesterday, Andy Burnham hosted Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Number 10 in a significant show of support, after recent attacks by the Trump. The US president has swung back to hostile rhetoric against the Ukrainian leader, calling for Zelenskyy to be replaced after also announcing a deal between the US and Russia to buy cheaper diesel.

He’s also ordered Ukraine to stop its long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries – something Ukraine had complied with for a few days until the Russian strikes kept coming. Zelenskyy has told the FT newspaper “we’re done” with the pause. Kyiv is also chasing answers from Washington on what has happened with a slowdown or drop-out in the military version of the Starlink satellite service- known as Starshield- which Ukraine relies upon for military operations.

Elon Musk has tweeted that the service is controlled by the US government, which decides any limits on speed. Yesterday at Downing Street, PM Burnham vowed that Britain stood behind Zelenskyy and also discussed how the UK could “accelerate defensive support to Ukraine” ahead of a dreaded winter.

And to another key story today on immigration – Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned that Eritreans could be blocked from coming to the UK unless the east African country accepts more rejected asylum seekers and criminals. As The Guardian’s Home Affairs editor Rajeev Syal writes: VIPs and officials from the east African country have already been stripped of fast-track access to UK visas after their government refused to cooperate with the return of its nationals, the home secretary said.

The warning comes after Eritrea abruptly withdrew returns cooperation earlier this year, the Home Office said. The UK should not get drawn into rejecting applicants for asylum from Eritrea, refugee organisations have warned, because it is a war-torn country and the UK usually accepts the vast majority of applicants, who are often escaping famine and conflict.

Eritreans were the most common nationality arriving by small boat in the year ending June 2026. Returns arrangements are vital for removing people who have been refused asylum and foreign criminals. Mahmood said: “Eritrea has had every chance to accept the return of criminals and those with no right to be in the UK.

Unlike other countries, it has refused. “My message to the Eritrean government is simple: take back your nationals or face a complete ban on your citizens entering the UK. “I will not hesitate to impose further measures on other countries refusing to cooperate.” The move follows similar threats of visa sanctions against Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025.

Angola and Namibia subsequently agreed to cooperate with demands on migrant returns, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced visa restrictions before reaching an agreement with the UK in February. Just over 100 refused asylum seekers from Eritrea have been deported – a figure comprising less than 4% of the 2,626 people whose claims were rejected in the past four years.

Nearly 6,000 Eritreans have reached the UK across the Channel in the year to June, the highest number of any nationality. Quick reminder to anyone not super across what banks have to pay in taxes, their current rate is a 3% surcharge on profits, on top of the 25% corporation tax rate.

All banks operating in the UK – both British and foreign – pay this levy, and the sector has recorded tremendous profits in recent years driven by higher interest rates. (Markets are also assessing that the central bank will most likely raise rates next month to 4%.) Taxing the big banks a little bit more has long been mooted as a voter-friendly way for Healey to raise some cash.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to joined the banks today though in criticising against the measure. The argument is that it would damage the UK finance sector’s international competitiveness, drive businesses out of the country, and/or that banks might just pass on the costs to customers.

Tory shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith has argued: “Britain needs growth but a raid on the financial services sector will stifle it.” Healey is meeting with UK journalists now at the IMF in Bangkok, including my colleague Heather Stewart. The August print – a 0.1% growth instead of the predicted 0.1% contraction – would have been very welcome news this morning, but he still faces a major challenge trying to find cash going into his 28 October budget.

The idea of raising taxes on bank profits has been floating around, and Healey is asked on this. He replies: “I don’t want anybody to try and read in or second guess what [we may] do in two weeks’ time. My observations on the banks are just that people too often see them as a big distant financial institutions, when they are hardwired into the economic fabric of this country and our future prospects.

That said, you know I’ve got decisions to take in the in the budget, and I will. I’ll set those out in two weeks’ time. Healey added that his “special responsibility as Chancellor is to protect the resilience of the British economy for the future”. He also repeated comments welcoming the IMF’s support for the UK’s fiscal plans.

To just go back to that GDP uptick briefly, John Healey is at the IMF/World Bank meetings in Bangkok and is due to speak shortly. I’ll bring his comments here courtesy of my colleague Graeme Wearden’s reporting over on our business live blog. Basically, the UK economy is still weak but performing slightly better than earlier gloomy predictions; the IMF in fact this week raised its growth forecast to 1.£3% – up from its April prediction of 0.8%.

Analysts are saying, at this rate, the UK is on track to be the second- best- performing G7 economy this year. Entering the conference centre this morning, Healey said in brief remarks: “I’m pleased the IMF here in Bangkok have backed our economic plans in London.

They say the UK stands out on growth despite the deep economic shocks that are affecting worldwide at present. They say Britain stands out on our plans to get to grips with the big borrowing costs by previous governments. They also say it’s important to stay the path, and I will follow that as I prepare my budget in two weeks’ time.” Reform leader Nigel Farage has postponed a major announcement that was due to take place in Essex this morning after an ITV investigation aired last night showing party councillors and election candidates making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views.

Three councillors have already stood down from the party, which said it was conducting an investigation over the first revelations from the ITV undercover investigation. More are expected from the undercover filming of senior Reform politicians and officials working at its UK headquarters.

Farage has made repeated pledges over the last two years to rid Reform of “extremists” and “bigots” and introduce vetting. The party says it carries out vetting checks on everyone who wants to stand for election. However, the first clips from ITV’s year-long undercover investigation showed Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull, calling Asian homeowners “parasites,” and stating that “no more than 1% of [the] British population can be non-white”.

Feeney won seats on Birmingham city council and Solihull Metropolitan borough council and was then appointed deputy mayor of Solihull. He has announced that he has left Reform “for personal reasons”. Other candidates were recorded making comments of extreme violence and sharing deeply misogynistic and racist views, including a Bromley councillor calling for King Charles to be killed and another councillor who made disturbing sexual and misogynistic comments about female colleagues.

Feeney was filmed with other candidates who went on to become councillors, Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan, talking about where a local mosque might be built. After they make extreme racist comments in the discussion, Feeney says: “Oh god, we’re all going to end up in the papers”.

Chris Whelan announced he had resigned from Reform on 12 October “on personal and health grounds”. Campbell is still in post. Dame Julia Unwin, chairwoman of the Charity Commission, is expected to deliver the following remarks at the AGM today in central London, condemning the harassment and abuse of RNLI rescuers.

“I want to use this opportunity to condemn in the strongest terms the thuggery and intimidation that volunteers of the RNLI have faced over recent weeks – and indeed over months and even years. “Charities must only do things that meet their purpose and objects.

“For the RNLI that means rescuing people in peril in the sea. “It is not their right to do so. “It is their absolute duty. “The charitable sector must have the courage to tolerate vigorous debate, individual charities must accept that people might disapprove of their work, for reasons of values, politics, faith or identity.

“We should in fact welcome differences of view as evidence that we are living in a society in which everyone has freedom of conscience. “But we must never grow accustomed to criminal or para-criminal abuse.” Good morning and welcome to our UK politics live blog, I’m Frances Mao stepping in for Andrew Sparrow today.

The UK economy’s 0.1% growth figure this morning is better than expected – markets had prepared for a slight contraction for August but once again, AI spending has boosted the economy. That headline figure doesn’t mask the deeper issues though of rising inflation and government debt; fevered speculation continues on how Healey will address this in his first budget in two weeks time.

Kemi Badenoch is expected to join the City’s critical chorus in denouncing the idea of slapping higher taxes on the banks. Meanwhile, the charities regulator today is expected to lambast the “thuggery and intimidation” faced by Royal National Lifeboat Institution volunteeers in recent weeks, following anti-migrant demonstrations.

The charity, which saves lives at sea, had to temporarily pause its work at Portsmouth after facing a barrage of abuse from far-right groups and agitators calling the lifesavers “traitors” after instances when they helped rescue asylum seekers on small boats. In addition to those threats, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has previously called the RNLI a “migrant taxi service”.

Yesterday, the Guardian reported Farage’s call for NGOs and their volunteers who help asylum seekers to face criminal prosecution. Talking to a rightwing US podcaster he claimed such groups had “actually aided and abetted criminality in absolutely every way”. When asked if he believed “in criminal penalties for those who facilitated this invasion of the English Isles”, he replied: Totally, totally.

The role of the NGOs, the role of those that are sponsored by taxpayers’ money, because they’re nice, they’re good, they’re kind. They have actually aided and abetted criminality in absolutely every way. These are people [who are] are deluded – deluded, hard-left socialist Marxists, who don’t believe in countries, don’t believe in borders, don’t believe in identities, are intent on destroying everything that exists.

The Charity Commission head is expected to warn against a “normalisation of violence” against workers.