Tory leader Kemi Badenoch took to X after it emerged that UK fighter jets intercepted a Russian maritime patrol aircraft after it “repeatedly approached” the carrier strike group in the Norwegian Sea.

Reform UK has a slim lead over Labour in the latest polling by Ipsos.

Nigel Farage‘s party is on 26%, while Labour is up four points to 24% and the Tories are third with 18%.

Labour’s boost comes as Andy Burnham is set to enter Downing Street within weeks following Sir Keir Starmer‘s resignation.

The poll of 1,045 people was carried out from 25-30 June.

The Prime Minister watched England play Mexico in the World Cup round of 16 match on Monday morning. Sir Keir Starmer stayed up to do so. He watched it upstairs in the Downing Street flat with his son. He is a touch sleep deprived on Monday morning but incredibly proud of the team and incredibly proud to be English after that performance.

He’s seen England play over many years, but this morning was victory in the heat of the Azteca Stadium, and at altitude, and against the host nation is up there for him, one of England’s best ever performances. He’s very much looking forward to the quarterfinal on Saturday.

In the coming days, the St George’s Cross will hang high and proudly over number 10 and down the street.

Angela Rayner addressed the row over new claims about Nigel Farage’s finances as she hosted a show on LBC.

The Labour politician said: “It’s pretty clear that Nigel Farage and Reform are engulfed in a growing scandal.

“This is a lot of money… The obvious question to that is, what is his donors getting in return? And why has he tried to cover them up and tried to avoid legitimate questions?

“I don’t think Nigel can shrug this scandal off and hope this goes away, I think this one’s got lots of legs and it’s going to carry on running. He seems to have a flexible relationship with transparency, putting it mildly…. It’s eye-watering amounts of money for most of us, you can see why people are concerned about this story.”

UK fighter jets intercepted a Russian maritime patrol aircraft after it “repeatedly approached” the carrier strike group in the Norwegian Sea, the Ministry of Defence said.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “While operating in the Norwegian Sea on Operation Firecrest, the UK’s Carrier Strike Group was repeatedly approached by a Russian ‘Bear-F’ maritime patrol aircraft.

“The Bear-F passed at low altitude and unnecessarily close to HMS Prince of Wales and dropped a large number of sonobuoys in close proximity to the carrier.

“This activity was unsafe and unprofessional. The Russian aircraft was intercepted and escorted by two UK F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales until it left the area.”

Nigel Farage has “serious questions to answer”, a minister has said as the Reform UK leader faces calls for an investigation into financial support given to him by a convicted criminal.

Early education minister Olivia Bailey told LBC: “I think he’s got really, really serious questions to answer, and to be honest, I’m really shocked to see the reaction from him, from Robert Jenrick on the on the telly yesterday, trying to obfuscate, trying to say there’s nothing to see here, trying to accuse the Times of being a Labour-supporting newspaper.”

Nigel Farage made a jibe at Kemi Badenoch, who had said she would not watch England’s World Cup match against Mexico which kicked off at 2am.

Sir Keir Starmer took to X after England’s 3-2 win over Mexico in their World Cup last-16 clash.

Andy Burnham’s plans to overhaul business rates to support small high street firms could cost around £880 million a year, according to new analysis.

The frontrunner to become prime minister this summer has indicated that he plans to cover the cost through higher property taxes for large warehouses, particularly targeting online giants such as Amazon.

Mr Burnham said on LBC earlier this week that there is “room for movement on tax” within Labour’s manifesto whilst maintaining his commitment to the party’s fiscal rules, stressing his ambition to support the high street.

He has repeated proposals, first outlined during the Makerfield by-election campaign, for a 50% increase in the threshold for 100% small business rates relief in England.

Forecasts by global tax firm Ryan suggest the policy could lift more than 140,000 additional small premises out of paying business rates altogether.

As a result, this is likely to reduce business rates liabilities by around £880 million, based on government tax data.

Nigel Farage said he was the victim of a “hit job” amid a new funding row.

The Reform UK leader denied wrongdoing following reports that he received financial benefits from a convicted criminal.

He insisted he had “followed the rules” as a newspaper reported his long-time aide George Cottrell had paid for staffing, security and housing for Mr Farage in the year before he was an MP, which he did not declare.

The Clacton MP told the Express the claims in The Sunday Times were an “establishment hit job”.

He added: “I have done no wrongdoing, followed the rules and I am now considering legal action against The Sunday Times. It’s now clear the establishment will stop at nothing to hurt Reform – we want to smash their cosy consensus.”