UK politics live: Reeves to unveil plan to cut costs as chancellor accuses Tories of £20 billion ‘cover up’

The government’s growth mission can only be built on stable economic foundations, Pat McFadden has said.

It was put to the cabinet office minister on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that stalling or cancelling infrastructure projects would not aid economic growth.

He replied: “Growth is the challenge for the country. Growth is the mission for the country.

“We will have more to say about that later this week – for example, when we talk about how we are going to get housebuilding moving again with all the positive repercussions that has for the economy.

“In everything that we do and everything that the chancellor sets out later this afternoon, the priority of growth is there.

“But let me say something else about growth. We also always said that the foundation for growth was fiscal responsibility and stable public finances. That is why we talk about fixing the foundations, that is why we have to be candid with the public about the situation that we have inherited after the general election.”

Nominations in the Tory leadership race will close this afternoon with six names expected to make it onto the ballot paper.

Under rules drawn up by the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs and the party board, nominations close at 2.30pm today.

Kemi Badenoch was the lates to throw her hat in the ring and Suella Braverman has withdrawn her bid.

The shadow business secretary joins Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick to compete for the top job.

The High Court is set to rule on whether an emergency ban on puberty blockers made by the Tory government was lawful.

Campaign group TransActual, and a young person who cannot be named, made a bid to challenge the decision of now-shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins to impose a so-called “banning order” on puberty blockers, which suppress the natural production of sex hormones to delay puberty.

At a hearing on July 12, the High Court in London heard the secondary legislation prevents the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricts NHS provision to within clinical trials.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland are defending the claim and have said the case should be dismissed.

Mrs Justice Lang is due to give her decision on the claim in writing today.

Although the emergency ban was implemented by the previous Conservative government, the court heard that it might be made permanent by new Labour ministers.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting later said he was “treading cautiously” in his decision amid “lots of fear and anxiety”.

The left-leaning Resolution Foundation think tank says the chancellor could find the cash to fund Labour’s plans for power, including inflation-busting pay hikes for public sector workers, by levying taxes on unearned wealth.

It comes ahead of a major speech by the chancellor in which she will blame Rishi Sunak’s government for Labour’s dire economic inheritance. She is expected to point to a series of unfunded spending commitments and identify a £20bn gap in current plans.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:

The Conservatives have kicked off a leadership contest after Rishi Sunak led the party to its worst election defeat in history.

A string of senior figures have thrown their hats in the ring to succeed the former PM and lead the party through the next five years in opposition.

With the shortlist to be whittled down gradually until a final four are paraded in front of the party faithful at October’s Tory conference, The Independent looks at the runners and riders to take the reins from Mr Sunak.

An escalation in fighting between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah could be “much more serious” than the war in Gaza, Pat McFadden has said.

Asked about the possibility for escalation in the conflict, the Cabinet Office minister told Sky News: “I think this is very serious. Since October 7 last year, we have all been focused on the situation in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

“We have known that there is this other situation in northern Israel between Hezbollah and Israel, and that has the potential to be a much more serious situation than even the one that we have been watching unfold in Gaza over the last 10 months.”

Asked if the Government would support an Israeli ground invasion against Hezbollah, Mr McFadden said: “We will always argue for Israel’s right to defend itself, but we hope in this situation that cooler and calmer heads will prevail and we do not see a full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.”

A Scottish Labour MP has denied the Chancellor’s expected speech on a £20 billion black hole in the public purse will lead to austerity.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to set out the state of the spending shortfall in a speech to the UK Parliament on Monday, with reports suggesting key hospital and road building schemes could be cut.

But newly elected East Renfrewshire MP Blair McDougall denied there would be severe public spending cutbacks.

He was asked on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show programme whether there would be a return to austerity following the Chancellor’s speech.

He said: “No, I don’t think we are (returning to austerity). I think we’ve said in the election, and you’ll see from Rachel being clear about where it is we’re going to raise more money.”

He added: “I think Rachel deserves a lot of credit for trying to be honest with the public and saying exactly what the extent of the mess we’ve inherited is.

“People don’t think that things are going to be easy, they accept that change is going to take time but what they want to know is what is the direction of travel and how are we going to get there and the first step of that is about being honest.”

Kemi Badenoch has become the latest Conservative Party MP to enter the leadership race to replace Rishi Sunak.

The shadow housing secretary pledged to tell voters the truth as she launched her bid to become leader.

It comes as former home secretary Suella Braverman announced she had pulled out of the race because the “traumatised” party was refusing to acknowledge the truth about why they lost the general election.

Ms Braverman said she had secured the backing of the 10 MPs required to get her over the threshold to enter the race.

But she added she had opted not to try for the leadership of the party after being “vilified” for her views on why they suffered such a drastic loss in the 4 July general election.