Boris Johnson steps up pressure on Rishi Sunak to send Typhoon jets to Ukraine – UK politics live
Lee Anderson #LeeAnderson
Good morning. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, is visiting London today to meet Rishi Sunak and give a speech in parliament. In a significant announcement, No 10 has also said the UK will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the jets used by Britain and other western countries. My colleague Geneva Abdul has more details on our Ukraine live blog.
Related: Russia-Ukraine war live: Volodymyr Zelenskiy to visit UK on Wednesday
In other news, Greg Hands, the new Conservative party chair, has been doing a media round. There have been two lines of note.
Hands described Lee Anderson, the controversial new Tory deputy chair, as a “fantastic asset” – but declined to defend some of his past remarks. Asked if he agreed with Anderson that nurses were only having to use food banks because they could not budget, Hands said: “I’m not gonna give a running commentary on things that may have been said in the past.”
Rishi Sunak will probably use a similar line at PMQs if, as seems likely, he gets asked to defend some of the shockers from Anderson’s back catalogue.
The next 18 months will see us win or lose the next general election.
In an interview with LBC this morning, Hands said he could not see circumstances where the election would be held this year. And, although it could be delayed until January 2025, he said a January election would be “unlikely”. People would not welcome an election campaign over Christmas, he said. When it was put to him that that meant the election was likely in about 18 months, he said the “strong expectation” was that it would be in 2024.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: The supreme court issues its judgment on a legal challenge arguing that the Northern Ireland protocol is illegal.
Morning: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, meets Rishi Sunak in Downing Street.
12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
After 12.30pm: The government is publishing the Shawcross review into the Prevent programme.
Afternoon: President Zelenskiy addresses parliament.
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