Keir Starmer said the UK-Cyprus relationship could be taken to “an even stronger level” as he met the country’s president in Nicosia for talks on the Middle East amid fresh upheaval in Syria, PA Media reports. PA says:

Starmer’s meeting with Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides was the first of its kind in 53 years.

The two men described the meeting as “historic”, with the prime minister saying it had been “far too long” since a British premier had made a bilateral visit to Cyprus.

“Please take it as a statement of my intent that our already strong relationship, the partnership between our countries – strong historically, strong because of the ties that we’ve had people-to-people for many, many years and common interests – can be taken to an even stronger level between us,” he said.

Christodoulides said the meeting was “testament to our strong political will to work together to enhance our bilateral relationship” on matters including defence, security and trade.

Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit Cyprus since Edward Heath in 1971.

Rachel Reeves has rejected Lib Dem criticism (see 10.33am) that she is neglecting social care. She told broadcasters:

For our NHS to work effectively we need a social care system that works.

That’s why, at the budget, I put £600m into investment in social care.

That’s why we are introducing a fair pay agreement to improve recruitment and retention in our social care system to help carers looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society.

So we committed to a national care service, and we know that having a care system that works properly is crucial for our National Health Service, too.

Bridget Phillipson announces £2bn increase to investment in early years education

Sally Weale

The government has announced a £2bn boost to investment in early years education compared to last year, including a 45% uplift to early years pupil premium (EYPP) for the most disadvantaged children.

It is part of the prime minister’s plan for change, outlined last week, which included his ambition to increase the proportion of children who are “school-ready”, achieving a good level of development, to 75% by 2028.

The additional money increases early years investment by more than 30% on last year, bringing total spend to £8bn, and is intended to support the next stage of the roll-out of 30 hours of funded childcare for eligible parents from next September.

Hourly funding rates for providers will rise, on average, to £11.54 for children under two, £8.53 for two-year-olds and £6.12 for three and four-year-olds, while the EYPP rise to up to £570 per child.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said:

High quality early education is the cornerstone of our promise to ensure tens of thousands of children are school ready every year, as part of the government’s plan for change.

The early years has been my priority from day one, because by giving more children the chance to start school ready to go, we transform their life chances, and the life chances of every child in their classroom.

But Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said the new hourly funding rates would not even cover the statutory wage increases. She said:

Since 2019 minimum wages have shot up by 66–70% but average funding rates have only risen by 32%. On top of this the national insurance contributions increase is going to cripple providers and the only way they can cover these costs is by increasing parental fees.

We do welcome the increase in early years pupil premium to £570 which is something we have been campaigning for. It is good to see this uplift, but it is still not at the level of primary school pupil premium which is currently £1,455. The government’s rhetoric about early years must match their investment which saves millions in a child’s later years.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said she has “no doubt” government deparments can find efficiency savings worth 5%. On a hospital visit today she told broadcasters:

I have no doubt that we can find efficiency savings within government spending of 5% and I’m determined to do so. Because it’s through finding those efficiency savings that we will have the money to spend on the priorities of the British people.

So part of this spending review will be cracking down on waste, cracking down on non-priority spending, so that we can focus on the issues – whether that is improving living standards, ensuring our streets are safe, or indeed reducing waiting times in the NHS.

Those are the people’s priorities, and that is what we will be focusing on in the spending review.

The wealthy property developer and former Conservative party donor Nick Candy has announced that he has joined Reform UK. He has also become the party’s treasurer.

In a statement issued by Reform UK, Candy said:

I have today resigned my membership of the Conservative party after many years of active support and substantial donations to the party. I am sorry to say there have been too many broken promises and a complete breach of trust with the wealth creators in our country.

Nigel Farage is a close personal friend of mine, and Reform UK represents the future of British politics. I am pleased to announce that I will now become the treasurer for Reform UK and intend to raise enough funds for them to win the next general election. I will take up the role in the new year.

Candy joined the Conservative party in 2009 and has donated at least £290,000 to it. But he was giving up on it well before the election. In February he gave an interview saying it was “probably time for a change” and that Keir Starmer was “a decent man with good values and good morals”.

Candy is married to the former pop star Holly Valance, who has become an increasingly prominent Farage ally and radical right campaigner.

Commenting on Candy’s move, Farage said:

I warmly welcome this decision. We are the fastest-growing movement in British politics today, and Nick’s efforts will help Reform UK transform our country.

Germany has pledged to tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute people-smugglers enabling small-boat crossings to Britain, as the two countries signed a new deal aimed at tackling immigration crime, PA Media reports. PA says:

Berlin confirmed plans to reform its legal framework make it a clear criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling of migrants to the UK” as part of the agreement, the Home Office said.

The Home Office said the move would give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous small boats.

Both countries will also commit to exchange information that may help to remove migrant-smuggling content from social media platforms and tackle end-to-end routes of criminal smuggling networks as part of the deal.

The announcement came ahead of the UK and Germany hosting the so-called Calais Group in London today. This involves ministers and police from the two countries, alongside France, Belgium and the Netherlands, gathering to discuss migration in Europe. Delegates are expected to agree a detailed plan to tackle people-smuggling gangs in 2025.

The Home Office would like to facilitate the return of refugees to Syria, a minister has said, saying about 6,500 asylum claims had been suspended as the government waited to assess the fallout from the end of the Assad regime. As Jessica Elgot reports, the immigration minister Angela Eagle said many refugees had been fleeing from the persecution and torture inflicted by Bashar al-Assad’s regime and said that if people wished to return to Syria from the UK “we’d certainly like to facilitate that”. Jess’s full story is here.

Keir Starmer is address British troops at the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus.

He starts by saying is there to say thank you. And he says there are many people in the UK who would also like to be saying thank you to them. They can’t be here, he says. But he says he is conveying that message on their behalf.

He says members of the armed forces serve year in, year out. But this year it has been particularly intense, he says. He refers to work related to Gaza, and to the evacuation plan getting Britons out of Lebanon.

He says the plans changed, but he was confirmed that he could rely on the military in any circumstances. He had “complete faith” in them, he says. And that meant he could go into meetings with other leaders with complete confidence that the UK could deliver.

Good morning. Today is the launch of the spending review. And the prime minister has been writing about the process.

Every secretary of state inherits dozens of projects and priorities from his or her predecessor, and a huge quantity of government activity is therefore being carried out even if it is no longer necessary or relevant. In one of my very first cabinets, I told them all to go through their budget lines and cut at least 5%. ‘It’s time to slaughter the sacred cows,’ I said.

But that was not the current prime minister. That was Boris Johnson, in his memoirs.

As Heather Stewart, Kalyeena Makortoff and Richard Partington in their overnight story, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is also asking cabinet ministers to find efficiency savings equivalent to 5% of spending. That does not mean that her policy on public spending is exactly the same as Johnson’s. But this does illustrate how this is a process that most governments end up going through.

Efficiency savings of 5% does not have to mean spending cuts worth 5%. Reeves has already announced that overall day-to-day government spending is due to rise by 1.5% a year in real terms. Efficiency savings (which often feel like cuts) in one area of departmental spending can free up money that can be spent in other areas.

But that does not mean the process will be painless. In its news release, the Treasury says ministers are being told the spending not contributing to a government priority should be stopped.

Secretaries of state across government will need to allocate their budgets to ensure that government spending is focused on the prime minister’s Plan for Change, and that every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent well. The chancellor will work with departments to prioritise spending that supports the milestones to deliver the plan …

In letters sent by the chief secretary to the Treasury, departments will be advised that where spending is not contributing to a priority, it should be stopped. Although some of these decisions will be difficult, the chancellor is clear that the public must have trust in the government that it is rooting out waste and that their taxes are being spent on their priorities.

The Treasury also gives an example of what this might mean.

Work has already begun on evaluating poor value for money spend, with an evaluation into the £6.5m spent on Social Workers in Schools programme, which placed social workers in schools, finding no evidence of positive impact on social care outcomes, meaning the intervention was not considered cost-effective. The government has made clear it will not shy away from taking the difficult decisions needed to fix the foundations, as shown by the chancellor’s decisions at the budget to balance the books.

The Social Workers in Schools progamme was an initiative started under a previous PM – one Boris Johnson. As he would put it, it’s now being slaughtered as a sacred cow.

Reeves is speaking at an event at a hospital this morning, so we will hear more from her soon. And we will hear more about the Plan for Change, because Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister who oversees the plan, is giving evidence to committee later. It is one of several interesting hearings on the committee corridor.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Keir Starmer is in Cyprus, where he has a meeting with Nikos Christodoulides, the president, and addressing British troops at RAF Akrotiri.

Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, are visiting a hospital in Kent.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12.30pm: MLAs (member of the legislative assembly in Northern Ireland) start a debate on whether or not to continue with the Windsor Framework post-Brexit trading rules.

1pm: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee about the work of her department.

2.30pm: Douglas Alexander, a trade minister, Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, and Lord Coaker, a defence minister, give evidence to the business committee about arms sales to Israel.

2.30pm: Chief constables from South Yorkshire police, Cleveland police, Staffordshire police and Humberside police give evidence to the home affairs committee about the summer riots.

3pm: Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, gives evidence to the public administration and constitutional affairs committee about the work of the Cabinet Office.

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