Burnham accepts Brexit result ‘legitimate’ despite Russian interference, says No 10 – UK politics live

Here is some reaction to the Reform UK asylum plans (see 9.53am, 11.35am and 1.41pm).

The Greens said Nigel Farage was wrong about what counts as a “normal country”. (See 11.17am.) The Green MP Siân Berry said:

Reform is dangerously pitting funding for the NHS against upholding basic human rights for asylum seekers, all while supporting US-style private healthcare for the UK for the enrichment of its billionaire backers.

The Green party’s idea of a ‘normal country’ is one which stands by international treaties, and where those fleeing war and persecution are treated with human decency. It is also a country where the richest pay their fair share and our public services are properly funded.

Bridget Phillipson, the Labour chair, accused Farage of copying Restore Britain, the small, far-right party led by Rupert Lowe.

This is a clear sign of desperation and weakness. Nigel Farage is casting around for more and more extreme policies as he tries to deal with scandals, police investigations and a growing challenge from Restore — this is a carbon copy of their policy.

Running away from basic decency by entirely abandoning those escaping war and persecution might look to Reform like a way of winning a bidding war with other parties on the right, but the vast majority of British people will reject it as an assault on our common values.

But Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said Farage was actually copying his party. He said:

These proposals largely copy Conservative policy from a year ago. Banning asylum claims by illegal immigrants, abolishing the immigration tribunal and ending Labour’s resettlement routes are all existing Conservative policy.

Keir Starmer’s successor as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras has taken her seat in the House of Commons, the Press Association reports. Sagal Abdi-Wali joined the Labour benches on Monday, having won a byelection last week with a majority of 3,364. As she arrived in the Commons chamber to take the oath of allegiance, she was accompanied to the despatch box by Labour MPs Natasha Irons (Croydon East) and Liam Conlon (Beckenham and Penge).

Andy Burnham will be giving his Commons statement at 3.30pm. It is being billed as an “international update”.

After he finishes, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, will give a statement on the security of MPs, and then Chris Bryant, the Northern Ireland secretary, will give one on Drumcree.

A breach of the UK’s cyber defences is “likely, if not inevitable,” Britain’s AI minister has warned, as he unveiled new work under way aimed at preparing the country for serious incidents involving autonomous agents, the Press Association reports. PA says:

Kanishka Narayan said developers must “build machines that leave us human beings in charge” as the world crosses the threshold into “the age of superintelligence”.

In his first speech since his role was elevated to cabinet level, he confirmed that scientists at Britain’s AI Security Institute were running tests on the latest models, including Google’s Gemini, to ensure “robust safeguards”.

It marks a reversal of the White House ban on UK access to the latest models from major American tech firms including Anthropic and OpenAI following lobbying from the minister.

Google previously said it would restrict access to Gemini to only a vetted group of cyber security experts to avoid misuse by hackers, but Narayan said it would be among systems “rigorously” examined by UK scientists.

The British government will also explore strengthening parts of the cyber security and resilience bill and its wider regime to ensure key services such as hospitals and utilities are better protected from emerging risks, he said.

At a press conference in west London, Narayan pointed to an incident in Australia earlier this year, in which a rogue OpenAI agent hacked a government website and accessed private data.

“The Australian government has said that no personal medical records are known to have been accessed, and there is no evidence of wider compromise, but the incident should concern us,” he said.

The minister added: “It concerns me. It seems likely, if not inevitable, that our own cyber defences will be breached.”

Steven Morris is a Guardian reporter covering the west of England.

Dick Cole, the leader of the Cornish political party Mebyon Kernow – which campaigns for greater self-government in the far south west of Britain– is standing down after 29 years in charge.

MK, which believes that Cole is the longest-serving leader of a political party in the UK, said he will stand down at the party’s national conference in Truro later this month.

He was elected MK Leader in 1997 and before this served as MK’s press and campaigns officer for five years. This means he has been an office-holder within MK for nearly 80% of his adult life.

Cole said:

I am extremely proud to have been able to play my part in making the case for greater self-government for Cornwall and a much better deal for communities to the west of the Tamar.

He said he would continue to campaign for Cornwall and serve as the group leader of the MK group on Cornwall council.

Cole has been at the forefront of the battle to win more devolution for Cornwall. Progress has been made – Andy Burnham has said he is open to giving Cornwall more powers.

Reform UK has published a policy document this morning about its plans to not allow any new asylum claims for five years. (See 9.53am.) Peter Walker says what it is proposing is “a hostile environment on steroids”, adding:

There would be migration checks everywhere. This would, inevitably, be vast numbers of other people caught up in it.

Here is an extract from the document.

A Reform UK government will direct every organ of the British state, both local and national, to make it impossible to live in Britain illegally. This will involve several large policy shifts, and many smaller changes. Overall, we expect it to produce a major increase in voluntary departures.

Currently, immigration enforcement capacity is extremely weak. Just 12,791 illegal-working visits were conducted in 2025. By contrast, there were 350,000 food hygiene visits, 51,020 non-domestic fire safety audits, and 13,200 HSE workplace inspections. There were tens of thousands more across trading standards, environmental health, housing and licensing inspections.

Currently, these visits do not include an immigration check. But this could be easily incorporated. Immigration checks do not require highly technical qualifications, and the officials that conduct these visits should be trained to also conduct a basic migration check. This would increase immigration enforcement capacity by a factor of at least 10, and up to 40.

These checks would feed data back to Deportation Command and the Migrant Identification Centre, increasing their ability to identify illegal migrants, leading to a large increase in voluntary and enforced departures. Revenue shared with local governments generated via fines on those employing illegal workers will encourage local cooperation, which in turn will generate more data for Deportation Command.

Downing Street has said that Andy Burnham does not think Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit campaign affected the result.

Asked if that was the implication of the PM’s comments to the Rest is Politics podcast (see 10.33am), the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the lobby briefing this morning:

Given everything we know about Russia, it is inconceivable they did not seek to use the referendum to their benefit. But as the minister [Stephen Doughty] said this morning, we do not believe they have succeeded.

The spokesperson said the PM “absolutely accepts the referendum result”.

After repeated questioning the spokesperson added: “Yes, we do believe the referendum result to be legitimate.”

Q: Do you accept that under your plans to deport asylum seekers, some of them could be sent back to countries where they might be tortured or killed?

Zia Yusuf said that would not happen.

We’re not going to be sending people back to be tortured or killed.

There would be third-country options where it was not safe to send an asylum seeker back to their home country, he said. He added:

We’re going to need to [have those options]. We are not idiots.

Q: Do you think there might be a point where Britain should stop supporting Ukraine?

Farage said that no one’s support for Ukraine was limitless. Even Andy Burnham would not suggest that his support for the country was limitless, he said.

Farage suggested he was backing Ukraine now.

But he went on:

This is one of the most corrupt countries on earth, all right? We know that.

I’ve been very, very worried about where some of our money has gone.

And, goodness me, Zelenskyy’s administration has been rocked by corruption claims, which perhaps makes at some point a general election there an important thing to do.

But I am in no doubt at all that [Russian president Vladimir] Putin now poses a greater threat than he’s posed at any point …

I’ve never said we shouldn’t support Ukraine, ever. But I have said I would have a keen look to make sure British taxpayers’ money is not being swallowed up in corruption.

(Farage is exaggerating. While Ukraine does have a corruption problem, in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, it ranks 104 out of 181 countries, implying it is a long way off being among the worst performers.)

Q: Do you back Donald Trump saying it is time for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be replaced as president of Ukraine?

Farage replied:

Trump and Zelenskyy have a somewhat tempestuous relationship, so [Trump saying Zelenskyy should go] was not any particular surprise.

At some point Ukraine needs an election. Of course that’s true if it’s to be a country that aspires to have Western style values.

As to when that election comes, we’ll have to see.

I mean, we did have an election during world war two, a point that seems to be completely forgotten. But then people’s knowledge of history now appears to be pretty pathetic.

Zelenskyy says Ukraine should not hold a presidential election while the war continues, and that it would not be legal anyway because martial law is in force.

Farage is right to say that Britain held a general election in 1945 while the war was still going on. But it did take place in July 1945, two months after the war in Europe had finished. The war against Japan did not end until August.