Defence secretary says he hopes to deploy British troops to Ukraine - as it happened

The UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, has written in the Sunday Telegraph saying he wants to deploy British troops to Ukraine as it would signal an end to Russia’s war, days before the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion. Here is an extract from what he wrote:double quotation markThere is no heavier burden on any defence secretary or any government than committing our armed forces on operations.I want to be the defence secretary who deploys British troops to Ukraine – because this will mean that this war is finally over.It will mean we have negotiated peace in Ukraine. And a secure Europe needs a strong, sovereign Ukraine

Consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson falls into administration

The consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson has collapsed into administration, after a number of clients cut ties with the company over the former ambassador’s relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010, said on Friday that it had stopped trading and its staff in the UK were being made redundant.The London-based company employs about 100 people, the vast majority of whom are based in the UK. It also has employees in Berlin, Brussels, Doha and Singapore.Administrators at Interpath said Global Counsel had “no option” but to enter administration after a number of its clients cut ties with the business, despite its attempts to distance itself from Mandelson and its other co-founder, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser

The minister and the alleged smear campaign: key unanswered questions

The Cabinet Office minister at the centre of a growing scandal over an alleged smear campaign in which he falsely linked journalists to a “pro-Kremlin” network is facing mounting questions over the candour of his public statements.Josh Simons ran Labour Together, a thinktank that faced press scrutiny in November 2023 over £730,000 in undeclared political donations.Simons commissioned an American public affairs company, Apco, to investigate the sourcing of the story, which appeared in the Sunday Times. The story was based on documents obtained by the freelance journalist Paul Holden, which were due to feature in further stories published by an American journalist, Matt Taibbi.The Labour minister has conceded that Apco “never fully got to the bottom” of the sourcing of the story

Reform would create ICE-style agency and end leave to remain, Zia Yusuf to say

Reform UK would create an ICE-style agency dedicated to deporting hundreds of thousands of people, as well as terminating the status of those with indefinite leave to remain (ILR), the party will say.It would also ban the conversion of churches into mosques and fund a radical expansion of stop and search, the party’s new home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, will also say in a speech on Monday. The deradicalisation programme Prevent would also have its mandate redrawn to focus on Islamist extremism.Labour said the plans were divisive and showed that Reform was planning “to deport people who have followed the rules, worked hard and built their lives here – our friends, neighbours and colleagues”.The Labour party’s chair, Anna Turley, said the policies were “a direct attack on settled families and fundamentally un-British”

UK reports record-breaking budget surplus of £30.4bn in surprise boost for Rachel Reeves

The UK government has posted the biggest ever budget surplus, official figures show, after a large increase in self-assessment and capital gains tax receipts.In a boost for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the run-up to her spring statement next month, public sector finances recorded a surplus of £30.4bn in January, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was double the surplus recorded in January 2025.The figure is the largest monthly total since records began in 1993 and much higher than the forecast of £24bn made by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government’s official forecaster, and a poll of City economists

Starmer appoints Antonia Romeo as head of civil service

Keir Starmer has appointed Antonia Romeo as the cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, and praised her drive and professionalism.The appointment comes after high-profile criticism of Romeo from a former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office, Simon McDonald. Romeo has been highly praised by other previous secretaries of state as well as the current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood.Romeo, the longest-serving permanent secretary in the civil service, has a reputation as a reformer and has been a more prominent public figure than many of her contemporaries.She has previously faced accusations of bullying related to her time as consul general in New York in 2017 but was cleared by the Cabinet Office