John Healey must urgently divert spending from other Whitehall departments to fund defence because “the gloves are now off” when it comes to Russia’s hostile activity, military insiders say.
The Chancellor is expected to use his Budget on 28 October to fund the £4.7bn gap in the Defence Investment Plan left by Sir Keir Starmer, and is set to raid capital budgets across the Government to find the money.
But Labour and Conservative former defence ministers and military experts say Healey needs to go further and find more money for the Armed Forces to prepare for the escalating threat from Vladimir Putin.
What you need to know as Russell Brand trial continues
Russell Brand turned into a “wild-eyed maniac” as he tried to drag a TV worker into a toilet for a sexual encounter, a court heard as the celebrity’s trial continued on Friday.
What’s the story?
Brand, 51, is accused of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault, relating to allegations made by . Brand .
On Friday, Southwark Crown Court continued to hear details about the alleged incidents, which are said to have occurred between 1999 and 2009, when the actor and presenter was at the height of his fame.
A ‘wild-eyed maniac’
- The woman told the court on Friday that Brand was “affable” at first, but “suddenly turned into this wild-eyed maniac trying to pull me into the toilet”.
- Asked why she did not report the incident to police until 2023, when more allegations against Brand began to emerge, she replied: “There he is, one of the big assets at MTV and I have a mortgage to pay. Why make it hard for myself?”
- Brand is also accused of raping a woman he met after performing in a satirical cabaret show at the 1999 Labour Party conference.
- The woman told the court on Thursday that Brand turned “monster-like” and forced her on to a bed.
- Brand’s former flatmate, who composed music for the show, said on Friday that the accused was “very egotistical” and “erratic”.
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“I would also say I used to find him… erratic might be a slightly better term. Hard to predict.”
The ex-flatmate, Andrew Dobson, said Brand had a “huge preoccupation” with sex and spent nights out looking for women to sleep with. He said the troupe returned to their accommodation after the conference show without Brand, who reappeared the following morning. “I recall Russell coming in and there suddenly being an urgency to leave,” Dobson added.
Elon Musk unveils ‘flying’ Tesla
Tesla has showcased its latest iteration of its Roadster electric sports car. Elon Musk says the vehicle, which could become the fastest car ever made, can “fly”.
New features
Livestreamed online, the reveal showcased the at a test site in Texas on Thursday evening. The roadster was equipped with , designed in partnership with Musk’s aerospace company, Space X.
It also features an which allowed the car to cling to a vertical ramp and even drive upside down, as well as a and a with a and .
How fast will it go?
Tesla claims
0.81 secs
Tesla says the Roadster 2 will boast a 0-60 mile per hour (mph) time of 0.81 seconds.
If achieved, that would put it ever made.
230mph
It also claims the car will have a top speed of over 230 mph (370 km per hour)
Can it fly? Sort of…
During Thursday’s demonstration, the thrusters were used to lift the car off the ground, before it rotated in mid-air over a row of other vehicles and landed back down to earth on all four wheels.
The car also used its thrusters to control its landing after driving up and launching off a vertical ramp.
Musk hails ‘flying car’
- “Turns out the future does have flying cars,” Musk said afterwards.
- The original Roadster, released in 2008 and on sale until 2012, was Tesla’s first electric vehicle.
- This model, first teased in 2017 but routinely delayed, is said to be focused on ultra-high performance.
- Tesla has claimed production, originally slated for 2020 will commence in 2028.
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What else do we know?
In 2017, Musk claimed the Roadster 2 would be “the fastest sports car ever made, period”. In 2024, he said it would travel 1,000km (620 miles) on a single charge.
Aside from the production timeline of 2028, no further information on pricing or powertrain has been revealed. Some reports suggest it is set to be priced at upwards of $200,000 (upwards of £150,000).
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Watch: Musk unveils ‘flying’ car
All you need to know as Trump brands Zelensky ‘a disgrace’
Ukraine’s resumptions of strikes on Russian refineries is a “disgrace” that keeps global energy prices high, Donald Trump has said.
Ukraine renews strikes
The deteriorating relationship between Kyiv and Washington hit another low on Thursday. Declaring that Ukraine was breaking a ceasefire covering energy sites that Trump had announced, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised his American counterpart’s deal-making with Moscow.
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After Ukraine struck a Rosneft refinery south-east of Moscow that supplies the Russian capital, Trump said of Zelensky: “All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher. Well, I think that’s a disgrace.”
“There are a lot of targets you can hit, but when you shoot at diesel refineries where you make, you know, diesel oil, and we need that, the world needs that, he’s not doing a good service for the world,” he added.
Ukraine’s patience runs out
- Trump also said he is “not a big fan” of Zelensky, who he finds “more difficult to deal with than [Vladimir] Putin.”
- Zelensky said Ukraine’s patience ran out as Russia continued to strike energy facilities in spite of Trump’s supposed ceasefire.
- It also came after Ukraine claimed earlier this week that Elon Musk’s SpaceX had imposed a speed limit on its Starlink terminals mounted on Ukrainian drones.
Inside Trump’s destructive feud with Zelensky
The great personal clash of this conflict is not between the entrenched protagonists, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, but between a Ukrainian leader facing a fifth winter of war and a US President whose tepid support for Kyiv has morphed into all-out hostility.
Norwegian teen hitman hired by Iran-backed gang jailed for 20 years
A teenage hitman from Norway has been locked up for 20 years for plotting a murder on British soil on behalf of an Iran-backed international crime gang.
What happened?
was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday to 20 years in prison for plotting a killing on British soil on behalf of an Iran-backed international crime gang.
Natland, 19, had agreed to shoot an unknown target for 25,000 euros (£21,500) in March last year. The court heard Natland was a “popular” student and talented footballer before he “went off the rails”.
How it unfolded
Natland is said to have been controlled by an English-speaking boss called Agent 47.
- He took a flight from Stavanger to Manchester Airport on a temporary passport on .
- Natland was stopped by Border Force officials, who bailed him to return to the airport for the next direct flight home.
- He instead took a taxi to Huddersfield, where he picked up £2,000 in cash, two guns and bullets.
- Natland was directed to a stolen Nissan with false plates for use in the killing.
- In his hotel room, he bragged of having “bangs in the bag” to his girlfriend and took selfies with the guns and cash.
- At 5.15am the next day, armed police arrived to arrest him.
In a ‘pickle’
- Natland, who emerged smiling in boxer shorts, pretended to shoot an officer with his empty hands.
- Police seized a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, 12 rounds of live ammunition, gloves and the cash.
- Natland admitted possessing the firearms and ammunition.
- He claimed he would have shot himself in the foot to get out of the “pickle” he was in.
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Who was Natland working for?
The court heard Natland was referred to as “Generalen” who was working for the proscribed Swedish Foxtrot gang, which is backed by the Iranian regime and is known for deploying children as young as 13 in drug smuggling and violent crimes.
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Giving evidence before he was found guilty of conspiracy to murder, Natland claimed he wanted to look “cool” to his peers, but it was just “bravado” and .
Despite having supportive parents, Natland’s life went downhill after he became addicted to drugs and he was placed in rehab and a care home, the court heard. Paul Hynes KC, defending, highlighted Natland’s young age at the time of the offending and claimed he did not present a danger in the future.
Other charges
- “Generalen”, Natland’s 17-year-old recruiter, was convicted in Norway of attempting to “contribute to murder” in May last year.
- Three more people have been charged by Norwegian police. A decision is yet to be taken by prosecutors on indicting them.
- The identity and whereabouts of Agent 47 remain unknown.
Father fined after son’s fatal fall from Cyprus hotel
A British man has been handed a 3,000-euro (£2,500) fine after his two-year-old son fell nearly 40 feet to his death from the fourth-floor window of a hotel in Cyprus.
What happened?
Joshua Foster thought the window of their holiday apartment was closed when he placed the boy on a sill to show him the view of a waterpark and “lost control” of him, the court previously heard.
The boy fell from the fourth floor of the five-star on 12 July, the first day of the family’s holiday.
More details
- Foster’s lawyer told the court the boy noticed a waterpark outside as the family waited for an elevator.
- The lawyer said Foster pushed the lift button, placed the child on the windowsill and the “inconceivable” unfolded before he could react.
- Foster thought there was protective glass and did not realise that section of the 2.85 metre (9.3ft) wide, 1.2 metre (3.9ft) high window was open, it was said.
- The boy was taken to hospital but despite efforts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead.
The 37-year-old auditor, whose lawyer said he has no previous convictions and showed “clear” remorse, was held in custody for eight days immediately after the incident.
Foster appeared at Paphos District Court on Friday for sentencing having pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act.
After holding back tears as his sentence was read out at the 25-minute hearing, Foster hugged his lawyer and parents.
Why heat pump prices are set to fall
Boiler manufacturers could face having their targets for selling heat pumps more than doubled by 2030-31 – even as ministers consider cutting the grants that help households pay for them.
What’s the latest?
It was reported on Monday that Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has been asked to identify savings at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), with hundreds of millions of pounds potentially coming from the .
The scheme offers towards eligible heat-pump installations – which can cost up to £15,000 – off the gas grid that replace oil or LPG heating.
Potential impact
80,000
Since 2022, the scheme has supported nearly 80,000 heat pump installations.
Heat pumps can involve higher upfront costs than conventional gas boilers.
What now?
The potential cuts could make heat pumps harder for some households to afford.
That’s because it comes as manufacturers face stronger incentives to obtain credits for qualifying installations.
Proposed changes
- Ministers have proposed raising the target for heat pump installations in proportion to boiler sales – with payments required for falling short.
- The proposed changes would raise the target from 8 per cent of relevant boiler sales in 2026-27 to 18 per cent by 2030-31.
- Part of the Clean Heat Market Mechanism, the plans are subject to consultation and not yet final.
Lower prices?
However, industry insiders said that increased targets could actually lead to lower prices as manufacturers compete.
This happened with the electric vehicle mandate as makers offered bigger discounts if they were failing to reach their targets.
Part of wider plans
The Government says the targets were set on the basis that they could be met through supported installations in existing buildings, with eligible new-build installations providing an additional route to compliance.
The DESNZ estimates the proposed 18 per cent target would equate to up to 236,000 heat pumps in 2030-31. The Government’s wider ambition is to install over 450,000 heat pumps a year by 2030, including about 250,000 in existing homes.
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The numbers that show where Trump has really damaged his own party
Donald Trump’s popularity has plummeted this year, as the repercussions of his war with Iran drag on, hitting his Republican Party’s chances of holding on to power in next month’s crucial midterm elections.
Where Trump’s approval has fallen the most
In ruby red Texas, Trump has dropped 27 per cent from a net positive approval rating to a net negative of 21 per cent.
- 55 per cent of voters in Ohio opted
for Trump in 2024. Now polling shows
55 per cent disapprove of his performance. Other states like Kentucky, Wyoming and Oklahoma have also seen sharp drops for the President.
A knock-on effect for Republican candidates
Trump’s popularity has taken a hit in every US state, but the most dramatic declines have been in parts of the country that backed him in 2024, leaving Republican strategists scrambling to manage the fallout.
In every key battleground state, his abysmal approval ratings seem to be harming Republican candidates, while boosting their Democrat rivals.
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Which seats are up for election?
Thirty-five of 100 seats in the Senate are being contested this year, with Democrats needing to make a net gain of four to take control of the upper chamber.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, with
the Democrats likely to win a majority. Trump’s Republican Party currently holds
a majority in both chambers.
Meet the youngest generation of Trump voters now turning their backs on Maga
For the young people whose first ever presidential vote was in 2024, the past few years have proved a brutal lesson in the realities of national politics.
Moscow’s heightened “grey-zone” activity and recent drone strikes on merchant shipping in the Black Sea in the past fortnight, killing a number of civilian crewmen, have alarmed defence industry insiders, who believe that a major hybrid warfare attack on the UK by Russia could be imminent.
It has even led to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting toughening the UK Government’s rhetoric against Russia, by labelling its grey-zone activity as “state-backed terrorism”.
But the Chancellor is likely to hold off from major decisions on funding the Armed Forces and kit until next year’s spending review, which could be as late as autumn 2027.
How the scale of the threat is growing
The messages from the UK Government’s own ministers and senior officials about the dangers posed by Moscow could not be clearer.
Streeting told the House of Commons Defence Committee this week that while the British public should be “alert but not alarmed” to the growing threat, “every single day Russia is testing us”.
And on Wednesday, UK politico-military counsellor Arron Newble warned fellow European states that the levels of spending on defence by Moscow – 44 per cent of federal budget outlays in the first half of 2026 – showed Russian “society is being reorganised around war”.
Former Labour defence secretary Lord Hutton told The i Paper that Streeting had “called it right” when describing Russia’s activities as “state-backed terrorism”.
The Kremlin’s involvement in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive material in London in 2006 and the Salisbury poisonings of 2018 pass the “terrorist threshold”, Hutton said.
He added: “We’ve got to understand that the gloves are off, and [that] this is a very serious situation we’re facing.
“I think it would be better if we heard more from Government about the nature of these Russian threats and operations against the UK and our allies, because only then I think will the public really genuinely come to understand the seriousness of the situation and why so many people are saying now that we really have to invest significantly in our Armed Forces.”
What is needed immediately
When he stands to deliver his first Budget on 28 October, Healey is expected to outline how he will fund the £4.7bn shortfall in the Defence Investment Plan – the blueprint for boosting the UK’s military industrial base unveiled by the Starmer government in July.
Gen Sir Richard Barrons, co-author of the Strategic Defence Review, told The i Paper: “I think the die is cast for the Budget. The first challenge to overcome is making sure that the £4.7bn for the DIP that still needs to be identified has been found and allocated.
“Other than that, I think the current DIP settlement will be as good as it gets for this Budget.”
Barrons urged the Ministry of Defence to advance talks with the City and private sector about how private capital and expertise can be brought in to augment the public sector.
“This is very likely to be a much more promising way of funding defence better and sooner than trying to squeeze more public money in the short term.”
Britain has some air defence from drones and missiles, but this is not comprehensive and the only protection from ballistic missiles is from interceptors on board Type 45 Destroyers, which have to be in UK waters at the time.
The UK also has depleted ammunition stocks, with missiles being supplied to Ukraine for the past three years, and shortages of operational heavy armour. It also lacks ground-based air defence systems.
Last year’s Strategic Defence Review also said more early-warning aircraft and radar “would enable
the UK to maintain round-the-clock airborne surveillance”.
It added that the “the uncrewed aircraft Reaper and its successor Protector have been highly successful. Protector should be enhanced with maritime surveillance.” It called for new fast jet trainers, an upgrade of RAF Brize Norton and more RAF transport aircraft.
Military insiders want the Chancellor to go further
Defence spending as a share of GDP is set to rise to 2.7 per cent next year, but the UK has to meet a Nato commitment to spend 3.5 per cent by 2035.
Healey is under pressure to pledge reaching 3 per cent by 2030 as a “waymarker” to reassure Nato allies and the defence industry – particularly because intelligence suggests Russia could launch a military strike on the alliance by the end of this decade.
It was the Chancellor himself who, when he resigned as defence secretary in June, complained that the government was not committing to the 2030 date.
His Labour predecessor Lord Hutton said the Chancellor had to go faster on ramping up defence spending.
Hutton added: “I don’t dispute it’s difficult for him. He’s in a very tight straitjacket when it comes to public spending, but how many times have we heard people say it’s the government’s number one priority?
“But somehow that never seems to translate into additional resources being available. I think there’s a very high level of concern about that. I’ve made the case that we need right now a national rearmament programme, and it should start now.
“The thing about putting the extra spending off into the spending review, that doesn’t start to change departmental budgets until 2028. That’s too late.”
The Conservatives have pledged to increase spending to 3 per cent by cutting the welfare bill – which would allocate an extra £10bn a year for defence, £1bn of which would go towards their plan for a “Britannia Shield” to protect the UK from missile attacks.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge said: “Instead of prioritising social security over national security, Labour urgently needs to set out a clear plan to get to 3 per cent, as we have done.
“John Healey resigned as defence secretary over the need to get to 3 per cent. Now that he is Chancellor he has nowhere to hide. Instead of yet more dither and delay, he must use the Budget later this month to set out his plan for 3 per cent.”
Barrons said: “The clock for confronting Nato and therefore the UK is owned firstly by Russia and what it decides to do in and around its struggling war in Ukraine and later with China as it advances beyond everybody else in many forms of military-relevant technology.
“So the current predicament whereby the Government plans to get defence to a better, more transformed place over 10 years remains firmly at odds with a darker world which could present serious risk of confrontation and conflict much sooner, maybe even next year.
“It is becoming supremely important that the public and private sector accept that the chances of being bounced by events is now very high and very dangerous.”
What should be cut to pay for it?
The UK spends about 10.9 per cent of GDP on welfare – which includes pensions as well as benefits – or around £334bn, and military experts have long called for this budget to be cut to fund defence.
But insiders say there are other areas that could also be targeted, including capital spending across Whitehall departments and even making the case for an increase in income tax.
Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood said: “Welfare is the obvious starting point. But given it’s our economy in the crosshairs – and if hit would be far more costly in the long run, we may need to consider a 1p increase in income tax.
“Where Government is failing is explaining the scale and imminence of the threat. If the British people were better informed about what’s coming over the hill [grey-zone attacks on the UK mainland] there would be more support for limited, ring-fenced tax rises.
“[For] example, the taxpayer cost on the [cyber attack] hit to Jaguar Land Rover was over £1bn. This type of attack will increase, along with sabotage and drone attacks unless we upgrade our resilience.”
Hutton said capital spending had to be prioritised “because primarily it’s a capital problem about getting new equipment, and investing in new kit”.
He cited the case of the government’s walking and cycling strategy, which is costing the state £4.5bn over the next four years, as something that could be cut to pay for defence.
The ex-Labour minister said that this expenditure “really sticks in my throat”, adding: “I think we should stop that and transfer that money. That’s a billion pounds a year extra for the MoD straight away.
“I think welfare spending needs to come down, but I’m not in favour of doing what the Conservatives suggested, which is to just slash benefit levels. That’s absolutely looking at the problem through the wrong lens.
“We’ve got to get more people into work. We’ve got to be tougher, I think, with particularly some benefit claimants about actively seeking work. We’ve certainly got to sort out the shambles of the sickness and incapacity benefit system, which is just leeching money and actually not doing its job at all in helping people get back into work.”