JD Vance claims he was not referring to Britain or France in jibe about European troops – UK politics live | Politics

Keir Starmer spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy this afternoon, Downing Street has said. A readout of the call is expected to be released soon.

Iran has been announced as the first foreign power to be placed in the enhanced tier of a new government scheme to protect the UK from covert foreign influence, PA Media reports. PA says:

Security minister Dan Jarvis told MPs the Tehran regime and its intelligence agencies would be placed on the top level of the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs) when it comes into effect this year.

Jarvis said Iran had become “increasingly emboldened, asserting itself more aggressively to advance their objectives and undermine ours”.

In a Commons statement on Tuesday, he said evidence of the Iranian regime’s direct action against UK targets has “substantially increased” in recent years, including of media organisations and journalists reporting on its violent oppression, and Jewish and Israeli people internationally.

He said: “It is clear that these plots are a conscious strategy of the Iranian regime to stifle criticism through intimidation and fear. These threats are unacceptable. They must and will be defended against at every turn.”

The minister said Firs is a “critical disruptive tool” the UK intelligence and law enforcement agencies need to degrade threats faced by the state.

Under the scheme, anyone who is directed by Iran to carry out activities in the UK, such as criminal proxies, must register it or face five years in prison, the minister said.

Firs was initially expected to come into force in 2024, but in August the new Labour government confirmed a delay to its implementation.

Jarvis told the Commons it is expected to have the scheme up and running by the summer.

It comes as the government has faced calls to place China in the enhanced tier of the scheme.

The designation would give ministers the power to require registration of a broader range of activities for specified countries, parts of countries or foreign government-controlled entities “where this is necessary to protect the safety of interests of the UK”, according to the Home Office.

Asked by shadow home secretary Chris Philp whether China will also be placed on the list, Jarvis said other announcements would be made in due course.

According to a story by Jack Elsom in the Sun today, “China will not be included [in the enhanced tier] to avoid a diplomatic spat with Beijing.”

Rachel Reeves has insisted “all options” are being considered after former prime minister Rishi Sunak urged the government to help Ukraine by seizing frozen Russian assets.

During Treasury questions earlier, Sunak asked:

Events overnight make it even clearer that Europe must find considerably more resources for Ukraine.

The chancellor has rightly continued our policy of using the interest on frozen Russian state assets to benefit Ukraine, but I believe now is the moment to go further and to actually seize those assets.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violates the principle of sovereign equality, providing a basis in international law for this, and by acting in concert with our allies we can ensure there are no risks to financial stability.

So can I urge the chancellor to push for co-ordinated action to seize those frozen Russian state assets, give that money to the Ukrainians so that they can defend their country and rebuild it too.

And Reeves replied:

Last week we expanded the sanctions on Russia, including looking at the financial services. This week we’ve both signed off a UK EF (export finance) package to provide more military support above and beyond our defence spending, as well as that loan repaid by the profits of those assets.

As the prime minister said yesterday, we would look at going further but as [Sunak] knows it is incredibly complicated to do that in line with international law, but we keep all options on the table because [Sunak] is absolutely right, Russia should pay for the damage that Russia has caused.

As PA Media reports, MPs have pressed for the UK and its European allies to seize Russian assets worth some $300bn, which have been frozen across the continent, to assist Ukraine with its war and rebuilding efforts. Germany and France meanwhile have reportedly started discussions of how €200bn euros (£165bn) of frozen Russian assets could be used as a way to hold Moscow to a potential ceasefire deal.

The Conservatives have urged ministers to take “robust action” against Chinese interference in the UK, claiming letters are being distributed to neighbours of Hong Kong refugees encouraging them to be turned into the Chinese embassy.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, raised the problem during an urgent question in the Commons. He said:

Bounties have apparently been placed on three people who are in the United Kingdom, amounting to approximately £100,000 each. Tony Chung aged 23, Carmen Lau aged 30 and Chloe Cheung, aged only 17. All of them fled Hong Kong owing to persecution.

Chloe Cheung apparently was advised by the police to dial 999 if she felt under threat, which strikes me as an inadequate response. I understand that posters appeared near the home addresses of two of these people and letters were posted to their neighbours offering a reward if they were quote ‘delivered to the Chinese embassy’. This is completely unacceptable, cannot be tolerated, and robust action must be taken.

Dan Jarvis, the security minister, replied:

The safety and security of Hong Kongers in the UK is of the utmost importance, and the UK will always stand up for the rights of the people of Hong Kong. Let me also say to him that wherever we identify such threats we will use any and all measures, including through the use of our world class intelligence services, to mitigate the risk to individuals.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, urged the government to block plans for a new Chinese “super embassy” in London. “Everywhere that they have a super-embassy in the world you see extraterritorial activity grow massively,” he said.

Jarvis said Angela Rayner has yet to take a decision on the application, in her role as housing secretary.

The Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, a former army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has said that he is not convincted by JD Vance’s claim that his comment about “random country” troops did not refer to Britain or France.

In a conversation on social media, when challenged about Vance’s clarification, Obese-Jecty said:

Who else was he referring to Matthew? Britain and France have both committed to providing peacekeeping troops at scale.

Earlier, before Vance claimed his comment in an interview broadcast last night was not about Britain or France, Obese-Jecty posted this on social media.

“I was lucky to escape any real fighting,” JD Vance wrote in his 2016 memoir about his time as a Marine Corps journalist in Iraq.

I was part of British forces fighting in highly kinetic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter in response to Article 5 following 9/11.

The disrespect shown by the new US Vice President to the sacrifices of our service personnel is unacceptable.

Israel risks “breaching obligations under international humanitarian law” by blocking aid to Gaza, a Foreign Office minister has said.

Catherine West spoke as the government was also urged to support the international community in opposing what the chair of the foreign affairs committee described as Israel’s “long-term plan” to annex the West Bank.

West was responding to a Commons urgent question tabled by the Green party’s Ellie Chowns, who asked an urgent question in the Commons where she said Israel was “once again using starvation as a weapon of war”.

As PA Media reports, Israel has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza to try to get Hamas to accept a new ceasefire proposal and has warned of additional consequences, raising fears of a return to war. Israel’s preferred ceasefire plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners, a key component of the first phase.

Chowns told MPs:

These decisions coincide with the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, with negotiations on phase two barely begun, jeopardising the release of the remaining live hostages, plans for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a longer term peace agreement.

Does the minister agree that the Israeli government is again in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and of international humanitarian law?

West replied:

A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, such as that announced by the government of Israel, does risk breaching obligations under international humanitarian law and to answer her question directly, the UK government has been in touch with interlocutors to make that point.

Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool.

Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, said the Israeli government had a “long-term plan” to annex the West Bank, and asked how the government would oppose this “in these days of hard power”.

Thornberry recently visited the Middle East with other committee members and said they were “warned in Saudi Arabia, in Jordan, in the West Bank, and in Israel that the far-right government in Israel may have no long-term plan when it comes to Gaza, but there is a long-term plan when it comes to the West Bank, and that is annexation”.

West replied:

The UK government has taken a very tough position on attacks by some of the militant factions or groups who are attacking Palestinians in the occupied territories in the West Bank, and we are continuing to look at measures which are available to get our message across, not just in words, but in actions.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader who counts Donald Trump as a friend and who normally defends the Trump administration, has described JD Vance’s comment disparaging the value of “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years” as “wrong, wrong, wrong”.

Intepreting the comment as referring to the UK, Farage told GB News:

JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. For 20 years in Afghanistan, pro-rata, our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in, and we suffered the same losses.

We stood by America all through those 20 years, putting in exactly the same contribution. And alright, they may be six times bigger, but we did our bit. On this one, JD is wrong.

GB News says Farage around the same time Vance put out his own statement on social media saying that he had been misunderstood and that he was not referring to Britain, or France. (See 12.39pm.)

Other events in the world are attracting more attention, but the Guardian is still publishing stories based on its investigation into the business interests of members of the House of Lords. As Rowena Mason reports, Iain McNicol, a former Labour party general secretary who is now a peer, wrote to the Treasury on behalf of a cryptocurrency firm that was paying him as an adviser, raising questions about whether this was within the rules.

And, as Henry Dyer and Rob Evans report, following Guardian stories published last week, Lord Evans of Watford, the Labour peer facing cash-for-access questions, is now under formal investigation by the Lords standards watchdog.

Kemi Badenoch has defended JD Vance over his comment about “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years” not being able to provide a good security guarantee for Ukraine. (See 10.36am.) Even though her shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, said the comments were “deeply disrespectful” because he was confident that Vance was referring to Britain and France (the two countries that have taken the lead in saying they would provide troops), Badenoch said Vance was being misinterpreted.

Asked for a reaction to Vance suggesting that Britain was just a “random country”, she told GB News:

Well, I know JD Vance quite well. I’ve looked at the comments. I don’t think he actually said that.

A lot of people are getting carried away. They’re saying loads of things and getting quite animated. Let’s keep cool heads.

America is our closest ally, and I believe the President Trump and JD Vance want peace. They’re looking after their national interest. We need to do so.

Asked if she thought Vance was talking about France, not Britain, Badenoch said she was “not getting into that speculation” and ended the interview.

Badenoch met Vance for dinner when she visited Washington in December. They had previously met before, when she was business secretary and he was a senator, and it is understood they keep in touch and exchange regular text messages.

No 10 plays down significance of Trump halting aid for Ukraine, saying UK and US ‘on same page’ in wanting secure peace

Pippa Crerar

Keir Starmer said he was going to stick to his Ukraine peace strategy when he spoke to his cabinet this morning. And he seems determined to avoid being “derailed” (as Angela Rayner put it – see 9.12am) by President Trump halting military aid to Ukraine. This is what the PM’s spokesperson said in his readout of Starmer’s Ukraine comments at cabinet.

The US is an indispensable ally of the UK, and our two countries are deeply intertwined when it comes to security, intelligence and defence, as well as trade and investment, and [the PM] was pleased to have agreed with President Trump to work at pace on a new economic deal focused on AI and tech.

He had spoken to President Trump twice over the weekend and again last night, in addition to the conversations he had had with President Zelenskyy, President Macron and other leaders in recent days.

The prime minister emphasised that everyone was aligned in pursuit of a plan that will bring lasting and durable peace to Ukraine.

The prime minister was clear that such a peace would need to be backed by strong security guarantees, including a “coalition of the willing” of those ready to defend and guarantee the peace, with US backing to deter Putin from returning. And any deal must be based on a strong, sovereign, and secure Ukraine.

He said he would continue to have conversations at pace and reiterated the importance of this work for British security.

During the lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson played down suggestions that No 10 was “ambushed” by President Trump’s decision last night. (A few hours earlier, Starmer told MPs that he did not expect the US to cut off military aid for Ukraine – see 9.12am.) “Things are moving at pace, and there are discussions happening every day in terms of progressing towards the outcome that we all want to see in relation to a durable peace in Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. But he also insisted:

We’re all on the same page in relation to what we want to achieve, which is a secure and durable peace.

Asked if the government was disappointed by Trump’s decision, the spokesperson said that the UK and the US were “completely aligned” in wanting a “secure and durable peace”.

The i is reporting that countries like countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain, could be asked to contribute to the Europe-led force that could protect Ukraine as part of any peace deal. Asked about the claim, the spokesperson said other countries would be free to join the “coalition of the willing”, but he would not say if Middle Eastern countries were actively being encouraged to participate.