Rishi Sunak unveils £5bn extra defence spending ahead of Aukus summit in US – UK politics live | Politics

At the No 10 lobby briefing the spokesperson said the government was glad that the BBC’s dispute with Gary Lineker had been resolved. He said:

We’re pleased that this situation has been resolved and that fans will be able to watch Match of the Day as normal this weekend.

The spokesperson repeated the line used previously about Rishi Sunak being “disappointed” by the language used by Lineker in relation to the government’s small boats policy, and the rhetoric used by ministers, but the spokesperson declined to say Lineker should apologise.

The spokesperson also declined to offer full backing to Richard Sharp, the BBC chair (and Sunak’s former boss at Goldman Sachs). No 10 is still waiting for the outcome of the review into the appointment process being carried out by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the spokesperson said.

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, told Sky News this morning that the extra £5bn for defence announced by Rishi Sunak was not enough. Pointing out that Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, was lobbying for twice that sum, Ellwood said that extra £5bn, although welcome, would not reverse the cuts to defence spending in the last defence review.

He also claimed that countries like Russia and China would be “breathing a sigh of relief”. He said:

The next couple of years are going to get very, very dangerous indeed. This year particularly, 2023, will be critical for Ukraine.

Britain has done brilliantly in stepping forward, pushing the envelope, because we have become rather risk averse, too timid, in dealing with aggressive nations such as Russia and China.

But we can only do that with the hard power. And I think Russia and China will be breathing a sigh of relief that we have not invested further in our armed forces at this time.

We are at the foothills of another cold war. Globalisation in its current form is actually dying. And it’s countries like Britain that usually step forward and other nations follow. We can only do that if we invest further in our defence.

The Foreign Office has confirmed that, as part of the integrated defence and security review update being published today, BBC World Service will get an extra £20m. It says this will protected its 42 language services for the next two years.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said:

As the world’s most trusted international broadcaster, the BBC World Service is a vital tool in providing accurate and impartial news, analysis and discussion in 42 languages to 365 million people around the world each week.

This one-off funding will allow the BBC World Service to maintain its unrivalled status as the world’s largest international broadcaster, and to continue playing its crucial role in tackling harmful disinformation through providing trusted, impartial news and analysis globally.

Last year the Foreign Office said it was spending £94m a year on the World Service.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has rejected a claim by Labour that taxes are higher in Scotland for higher earners because the SNP has mismanaged the economy.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, made that claim on a visit to Scotland. As the Times reports, Reeves said:

The way I see it is the last Labour government was able to keep taxes low and invest in public services and we were able to do it because we grew the economy.

When Labour was last in power — and we were in for 13 years —the average growth rate per year was 2.1%. The average growth rate the last 13 years under the Tories has been 1.4%. And taxes are at the highest level of being in the UK for 70 years.

The Conservatives have become a high-tax party and the SNP too because they become low-growth parties … We’ve got to grow the economy.

In response, Sturgeon said taxes were higher for higher earners in Scotland because the Scottish government was more committed to redistribution than the UK government. She said the fact that Labour did not support the SNP on this showed it was “Tory-lite”.

Increasingly the Scottish government has been using its powers under devolution to set income tax rates that are different from those applying in the rest of the UK. In a recent report, the Institute for Fiscal Studies explained the difference. It said:

The Scottish income tax system has more bands and different rates compared with the rest of the UK. The effect is that income tax liabilities are a very small amount lower in Scotland for those on less than £28,000 per year, but greater for those on higher incomes – sometimes by quite large margins. For example, someone on £50,000 will pay £1,550 more tax in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, and someone on £150,000 will pay £3,900 more, in the coming tax year.

The IFS report also backed up Sturgeon’s analysis. It said the Scottish government had used its powers “to make the system more progressive, as well as to raise more revenue to fund public services”.

Keir Starmer has said Richard Sharp should resign as chair of the BBC. As ITV reports, this morning Starmer said:

I think Richard Sharp’s position is increasingly untenable.

I think most people watching the complete mess of the last few days would say how on earth is he still in position and Gary Lineker has been taken off air?

This is a mess of the BBC’s own making, they need to sort it out and sort it out fast.

As Jessica Elgot reports, Starmer is echoing what Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, said yesterday. Powell also described Sharp’s position at “increasingly untenable”.

Even before the Gary Lineker row erupted, Sharp was already facing calls for his resignation because, when applying for the job of BBC chair, he did not disclose his role in helping Boris Johnson get access to a loan facility, reportedly worth around £800,000.