New F-35 fighter jets are needed to respond to "rising nuclear risks", Defence Secretary John Healey has said. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer is attending a NATO summit at The Hague, having called on the Middle Eastern nations to maintain the pause in hostilities.
Wednesday 25 June 2025 08:09, UK
Sir Keir Starmer walked straight past a group of waiting journalists as he arrived at The Hague for the second day of a NATO summit this morning.
Arriving at the venue, the prime minister rushed through the same area that other world leaders - including Mark Rutte, the general secretary of NATO - stopped to give remarks.
More people than ever are struggling to live on their current income - while just a third say they are living comfortably, according to new research.
Rising prices and sluggish pay increases have put many people's finances under strain in recent years.
A record 26% now say making ends meet is difficult. Before the pandemic, it was 16%.
Two-thirds also say their incomes haven't kept up with inflation, according to the British Social Attitudes report.
That's only marginally better than the 70% recorded during the height of the cost of living crisis in 2023.
Frozen tax thresholds also appear to be hitting home, with 61% saying taxes on low earners are too high, while 44% believe middle income earners also pay too much.
Those figures are up nine points and 13 points respectively since 2016.
Sky News' Sam Coates and Politico's Anne McElvoy serve up their essential guide to the day in British politics.
Today, Labour is still reeling by a rebellion by 1 in 4 of its MPs over welfare cuts, how can Chancellor Rachel Reeves and PM Keir Starmer recover the numbers and avoid a political humiliation?
The government鈥檚 working majority is 165, so it only takes 83 Labour MPs to vote with a united opposition and this bill is dead, and along with it a lot of this government鈥檚 political and moral credibility.
And Sam been sent a draft of part of the latest NHS 10-year plan about alcohol treatment.
Next, Defence Secretary John Healey is asked about a pledge by the government to spend 5% of the UK's GDP on defence by 2035.
The minister is asked whether this is a credible goal, and whether Labour is simply leaving the hard work to the next government.
Healey says: "All 32, nations in NATO will sign up to a new benchmark, a new NATO target, if you like, of 5% in 2035.
"That is both core defence spending and the spending that we all need to do on wider national security. That's energy security, cyber security, border security.
"The question now is what we're doing, and we're increasing defence spending by 拢5bn in this year will increase over the next two years, the biggest increase since the end of the Cold War.
"And in this parliament, we're showing exactly how are we going to pay for it."
Wilfred Frost points out that details of how the UK will reach 3.5% on defence spending specifically are still unclear.
Healey says that "not a single one of the 32 governments will come to this NATO summit with a fully worked out ten year budget plan."
Defence Secretary John Healey is now joining Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast, discussing news the UK is planning to buy F-35 stealth jets that can carry US nuclear weapons.
The minister says this is a "recognition" of the Strategic Defence Review, which warned that the UK is "facing increasing threats" and "rising nuclear risks".
He says this review "recommended that we looked at buying this new type of jet".
"It recommended also that the UK considered playing a part in the established NATO nuclear mission. So that's what three weeks on, we're announcing that we will do.
"We'll buy these jets, they'll allow us to train two regular fast jet training; they'll do all this sort of combat missions, for regular, conventional fifth generation fast jets, but they'll also be capable in extreme circumstances of being able to participate in the nuclear mission for NATO.
"And by doing that, we're reinforcing the deterrence that NATO can provide to help protect all 35 nations."
NHS funding will be diverted to working-class communities, the health secretary is set to announce.
Wes Streeting is expected to announce the measure as part of the upcoming NHS 10-year plan, set to be focused on closing health inequalities, during a speech in Blackpool today.
About 拢2.2bn will be spent on staff, medicines, new technology and equipment in rural communities, coastal towns and working-class regions, according to the Department of Health.
The money, which was previously set aside to plug financial holes in the health service, can now be reinvested where it is "most needed", the department said.
It added that NHS leaders have spent months cutting "wasteful" spending, such as on "back office" functions and agency staff, while reducing forecast deficits by health trusts.
By Will Charley, political reporter
Foreign criminals in prisons across England and Wales will be deported at an earlier point in their sentence under new government plans.
The proposed legislation, to be presented in parliament today, comes as part of efforts to tackle prison overcrowding.
Currently, foreign inmates with no right to stay in the UK are sent back to their home country after serving half of their sentence.
But under the plans, they will instead be removed after just 30% of their term.
The measure would apply to those given determinate sentences - fixed maximum terms in prison that offenders do not necessarily serve all of behind bars. It would not apply to those convicted of terrorism or terror-related offences.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) estimates that, combined with other upcoming reforms, some foreign prisoners would end up serving only 10% of their sentence in England and Wales, down from about 20 to 25% currently.
At least 127 Labour MPs have signalled they are willing to rebel over the government's welfare cuts after Sir Keir Starmer declared he would "press on" with next week's vote.
Overall, around 134 MPs are now backing an amendment that would effectively threaten the government's proposed changes, an Order Paper published by parliament late on Wednesday indicated.
Among the new signatories on Tuesday night from Starmer's party were Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel, as well as Danny Beales who represents Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Hertford and Stortford MP Josh Dean and Bradford West MP Naz Shah are also among the new Labour signatories, taking the total rebels from Sir Keir's party to at least 127.
A number of MPs from Northern Irish parties have also backed the amendment, as well as former Labour MPs who currently sit as independents in the Commons, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, and Rosie Duffield who resigned the Labour whip last year.
Further MPs are thought to be supportive of the motion, but have not signed.
The government is faced with the prospect of a major revolt when the welfare bill comes before the Commons in a vote set for 1 July.
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
The UK will buy at least 12 F-35 stealth jets that can carry nuclear warheads in the most significant strengthening of its nuclear capability in a generation, the government has said.
Today, Sir Keir Starmer will tell a summit of NATO allies in The Hague that the new squadron will join an alliance mission that can be armed with US nuclear weapons.
The dramatic move will doubtless draw condemnation and concern from Russia and China.
But it comes at a time of growing global insecurity - and as the prime minister and his European and Canadian counterparts scramble to convince Donald Trump they are serious about bolstering their ability to defend Europe, instead of overly relying on the United States.
The US president, a long-standing NATO sceptic, raised questions about whether he would uphold the alliance's founding Article 5 principle - that an attack on one is an attack on all - before he even arrived in the Dutch city last night.
Tensions between Israel and Iran could dominate discussions among world leaders at the NATO summit amid an insecure ceasefire.
Sir Keir Starmer is among those in The Hague for a gathering of the alliance, having called on the Middle Eastern nations to maintain the pause in hostilities.
In a conversation with the French and German leaders at the summit on Tuesday, Sir Keir "reflected on the volatile situation in the Middle East", according to a Downing Street spokeswoman.
The leaders agreed that "now was the time for diplomacy and for Iran to come to the negotiating table", the spokeswoman added.
It comes as intelligence reports in the US suggested the American attack on Iran's nuclear programme over the weekend has only set it back by a few months, rather than destroyed it as Donald Trump previously suggested.
The White House pushed back on the reports on Tuesday evening, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying it was "flat out wrong".
"The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear programme," she said in a statement.
Trump also condemned the leak in a post on Truth Social, calling the US raid "one of the most successful military strikes in history".
