Politics latest: UK government drops objection to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s ICC arrest warrant

The Independent understands that the former home secretary is struggling to get the 10 MPs needed to put her on the ballot paper to become the next Conservative leader as rightwing Brexiteers look at Robert Jenrick as an alternative candidate.

Our political editor David Maddox has the full story:

Mel Stride has become the fourth Conservative MP to announce they are joining the race for the party’s leadership.

The former work and pensions secretary told BBC Breakfast on Friday he has been “fully nominated” as a candidate, joining Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.

Mr Stride, the MP for Central Devon, said he believed he was the right person to “unite the party”.

He said: “What we know from the general election is that we’re in a very, very difficult place as a party, and I worry about that because I care about my party and I care about my country.

“We’ve substantially lost the trust of the British people and we’ve lost our reputation for competence, and I believe that I’m in a very good position to address those issues going forward.

“In terms of trust, I think (the party) needs somebody who is going to be able to unite the party. People are not going to vote for a party that’s at each other’s throats all the time.

“I am respected, I think, right across the parliamentary party. I was chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the leader of the House of Commons, all of those things are roles about bringing people together.”

Mr Stride said he was “politically well placed” to unite the Tory parliamentary party.

“My background is growing companies from scratch,” he told LBC.

“I believe I have the right skills and approach to bring us to a point where we can get back into political contention.”

Mr Stride retained his seat by just 61 votes at the general election.

Anas Sarwar has been warned his election pledge of “no austerity under Labour” has come back to bite him amid reports the UK Chancellor will announce a £20 billion black hole.

On Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil a public finances shortfall which the SNP has warned could lead to cuts or tax increases.

The Scottish Labour leader is now facing criticism after he used a General Election leaders’ debate to state: “Read my lips – no austerity under Labour”.

The comment came after SNP leader John Swinney said during the same debate Labour’s plans would lead to £18 billion of cuts.

Ahead of the Chancellor’s speech on Monday, SNP MP Dave Doogan said cuts and tax rises were “repeatedly dismissed” by the Scottish Labour leader.

In a letter to Mr Sarwar, he said: “That comment has rapidly come back to bite you. The new Labour Chancellor has blown your election promises apart – so what are your lips saying now?”

He added: “People will rightly be concerned that Labour lips were prepared to promise the public one thing to win votes during the General Election but are now saying the exact opposite within weeks of taking power. Alarm bells are now ringing that the Labour Government plan to continue Tory cuts and public services will be starved of the cash they need – just as we have seen with the failure to scrap the two-child benefit cap this week.

“I hope we can agree that Scotland’s public services cannot afford another five years of Westminster cuts.”

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for climate change Wera Hobhouse said the race to net zero is the “major economic opportunity of the century”.

She said: “The green economy must sit at the heart of economic growth, and the Government has work to do to reverse the damaging narrative of the previous government, that this is about green versus growth.

“And also to reverse the unforgivable failures of the last Conservative government, which delayed, blocked or even reversed urgent action on climate change. Now is the time to move forward.”

Winding up, Tory shadow energy minister Joy Morrissey pointed to plans for a Government-backed company called GB Energy to “accelerate Britain’s pathway to energy independence”.

Ms Morrissey said the plan “is simply the Government subsidising high-risk projects for the private sector on the one hand, whilst decimating our oil and gas industry on the other”.

Ms Hobhouse intervened and said: “Is the shadow minister not aware that exactly this negative narrative from her party has held us back in the way to net zero?”

In his winding up speech, Mr Shanks said: “The rhetoric that we’re now hearing from this Conservative Party is a million miles from that David Cameron conservatism that said we should take the environment seriously.”

He added: “The reason that we’re on this journey is not because of some sort of ideological commitment to net zero, but because we know it is the only way to deliver the energy security that we need to reduce our dependence on volatile gas prices and to deliver the cheaper energy that we know will bring down bills.”

Former Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden also criticised the Government over its claim that clean energy plans would knock £300 off bills.

During a debate in the Commons, he said: “It’s been causing quite a lot of confusion in the national media over the last couple of days when Downing Street have been saying one thing, (Mr Shanks’) department have been saying another.”

Mr Shanks replied: “I think it does take a bit of a brass neck to come here and talk about bringing down bills when the government that he supported for a long time saw those skyrocket.

“We’ve been very clear, bills will come down, we said that throughout the campaign, we said that yesterday and we stand by that because bills must come down, but this isn’t going to happen overnight.”

Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has sold his MPs down the river and that energy bills will not reduce under Labour.

Ms Coutinho said: “The people now sitting on the benches behind the minister will have been telling their new constituents that their plans would save them £300 on their energy bills – they said it in hustings, they said it on local media, they said it on their leaflets. But they will have noticed by now that their ministers are no longer saying that at all.

“And this is the problem, when you get into government, and you speak in the House, you cannot use numbers for which you have no basis.”

This was met with laughter from the Labour benches.

Ms Coutinho continued: “They will learn this, they laugh, but their voters won’t forget that they made them that promise.”

She added: “They all know that their leadership has sold them down the river on this one, because the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State know those savings cannot be delivered. In fact, their approach to energy will add huge costs to people’s bills.

“That’s not us being evil Tories on this side of the House, that’s also the view of the European lead for Mitsubishi Power who said that Labour Party plans would require a huge sacrifice from Brits.”

The Government will not be “passing the buck” on building renewable energy infrastructure to future generations, a minister has said.

Energy minister Michael Shanks also told MPs that some areas will have to host “nationally significant” power infrastructure such as solar farms in response to concerns expressed about the “detrimental impacts” on communities.

MPs had a general debate on Friday on making Britain a “clean energy superpower”, with the Great British Energy Bill due to receive its second reading after the summer recess.

Conservative MP for Huntingdon Ben Obese-Jecty raised the East Park Energy solar farm, a proposed project in his constituency, which he said would be “larger than Gatwick Airport”.

He said local residents have “grave concerns” over the scale of the development and asked the minister if he would commit to rural communities having a say on the Government allowing large solar farms to be built in their local areas “given the detrimental impacts”.

Mr Shanks replied: “We’re not in any way going to remove the ability of communities to be part of, of course, a consultation process in the planning system.”

He added: “But at some point, we have to have this national recognition that there is infrastructure that we need that is nationally significant.

“Some communities will have to host that infrastructure and there should be benefits for those communities in doing it.

“But that doesn’t mean that we should stop doing it and I’m afraid the days of Government passing the buck to a future generation to fix these issues are gone.

“We need to tackle this crisis and that means we will be building and there will be projects in communities, with consultation of course, but nationally significant projects will have to go ahead if we want to reach the targets by 2030.”

Sir Keir Starmer has warned it will “take time” to reap the benefits of clean power initiatives but stood by a claim that Labour’s plans will eventually drive down household bills by £300 a year amid confusion over the commitment.

The Prime Minister said the Government is “moving at pace” with the development of the publicly-owned GB Energy company but said “problems that have been left to fester for years” cannot be fixed “overnight”.

Hitting out at the Conservative record, he said chances to boost energy security had been missed by the previous government, leaving a “rot of short-sightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up.

In a speech in Runcorn, Cheshire, Sir Keir said “every day” his administration is finding “more mess” that the Tories left behind.

“The hard graft of rebuilding this country has well and truly started, and it is vital that we begin immediately because the last government dropped the ball,” he said.

“They left us the worst inheritance since the Second World War, and every day – every day – we’re finding more mess that they’ve left for us to clear up, the rot of short-sightedness and self-service that has weakened the foundations of our country.”

Sir Keir’s speech was aimed at setting out new plans to team up with the Crown Estate, which owns the vast majority of Britain’s seabed, to boost the building of offshore wind farms.

It comes after the Tories cast doubt on a previous Labour pledge to help cut household bills by £300 a year, in part through GB Energy, its flagship green initiative.

The new government’s plans for a state energy company and renationalised rail operators are an adjustment, not a revolution, writes John Rentoul:

A North Korea-backed cyber group has been accused by the UK, US and South Korea of carrying out an online espionage campaign to steal military and nuclear secrets.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the Andariel group has been compromising organisations around the world to steal sensitive and classified technical information and intellectual property data.

NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said: “The global cyber espionage operation that we have exposed today shows the lengths that DPRK (DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea) state-sponsored actors are willing to go to pursue their military and nuclear programmes.”