## UK politics: Starmer facing Reform UK byelection challenge as Mike Amesbury quits as MP – as it happened

**Mike Amesbury** is standing down as an MP following his conviction for assault, .

This means there will definitely be a election in his constituency, Runcorn and Helsby.

This will be a challenge for Labour, which won the seat at the least election with a majority of 14,696. Reform UK came second on 18% of the vote, compared to Labour’s 53%. Nigel Farage’s party is seen as having a good chance of winning but, given that he regularly claims he is going to win the next general election (despite only winning five seats in 2024), failing to win would be a huge setback.

But the contest will also be perilous for Kemi Badenoch. The Tories were third in the constituency at the general election, with 16% of the vote, and a bad result would revive speculation about Badenoch facing a leadership challenge.

**Mike Amesbury** said the move would be “what we have come to expect from President Putin and his regime” and “the allegations are no doubt baseless”. He said:

> What I do have experience of is pushing bureaucracies, and sometimes I can be unreasonable and rebarbative in tone, and I apologise for that.

**Sharma** also showed the inquiry an extract from the witness statement from **Sir John Manzoni**, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office at the time. Manzoni said he was concerned that “indirect pressure was being placed on the MHRA to approve the supplier’s design at the stage of selecting suppliers to progess to the ventilator challenge”. Manzoni had to intervene “to protect the integrity of the process”, he said.

**Sharma** also showed the inquiry an email from **Rhys Williams** describing Gove’s attitude in this matter as “unreasonable”.

**Gove** said the minute of the meeting where he said he wanted to see the Dyson product approved was not an exact record. He said:

> This is private office of shorthand for ‘we would hope that it had been tested, and if tested satisfactory, approved by the MHRA to that timescale’. I was anxious to ensure at all points that, if we could, that we had products that could save lives operating at the front line.

Asked about the claim from Tunbridge that Gove wanted to see the regulatory process circumvented, Gove said he just wanted to ensure the proper process was carried out rapidly.

Gove also said that he was particularly keen to see the Dyson product approved because, unlike other people offering to make ventilators for use by the NHS, Dyson had the ability to scale up manufacture very quickly.

**Heather Hallett**, the chair, asked Gove if it was fair to summarise this as Gove putting officials under “a great deal of pressure” because he thought the Dyson scheme was viable when it wasn’t. **Gove** accepted that summary. He said he was not qualified to say if the Dyson model was viable.

He said that Dyson, or his company, spent £20m on trying to develop a ventilator. He did it because he wanted to help the NHS, Gove said. And Gove claimed Dyson was attracting negative publicity “because of his support for Brexit”.

### David Willetts appointed chair of new Regulatory Innovation Office

**David Willetts**, the Tory former minister for universities and science, has been appointed as the first chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), . It says the RIO was set up “to cut red tape which unnecessarily impedes on new technologies coming to market and stunts growth, instead pivoting to a streamlined and pro-innovation environment which allows people across the UK to reap the real, positive impact of new tech safely and sooner”.

To mark his appointment, Willetts went to Guy’s hospital in London with Patrick Vallance, the science minister, to see how drones are transforming healthcare. The **Department for Science, Innovation and Technology** :

> Drones are already cutting blood delivery times from 30 minutes to just 2 minutes, speeding up testing turnaround times to improve NHS productivity. British start-up Apian, founded by NHS doctors, works with global drone company Wing to fly blood samples from Guy’s to Synnovis’ lab at St Thomas’ Hospital for urgent testing. This rapid turnaround service supports some of their most vulnerable patients, ensuring they have the best possible care.

### Starmer to host second, virtual 'coalition of willing' meeting for countries willing to protect Ukraine

Keir Starmer is to host another summit of countries willing to contribute to Ukraine’s defence in the event of a peace deal, No 10 has said.

The PM’s spokesperson said that the next “coalition of the willing” meeting would take place virtually, probably on Saturday. It will build on what was discussed at the in-person meeting Starmer chaired .

Around 20 countries are taking part, No 10 said, mostly from Europe and the Commonwealth.

And tomorrow Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, will also attend a meeting in Paris with fellow military leaders about the proposal.

Starmer and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, have been leading efforts to ensure that, in the event of Ukraine and Russia agreeing a ceasefire, a Europe-led force could be dispatched to Ukraine to help protect it from further Russian aggression. But Starmer says such a force would also need US backup support.

### Russia expels British diplomat, and spouse of another, over what No 10 says are 'baseless' spying claims

Vladimir Putin’s Russia has expelled one British diplomat and the spouse of another, accusing them of spying, PA Media reports. PA says:

> The pair were accused of engaging in intelligence activity under cover of the embassy in Moscow.
>
> They have been ordered to leave the country within two weeks, the Russian news agency Tass said, citing the country’s FSB security agency.
>
> “The Federal Security Service’s counter-intelligence operations exposed the unreported intelligence presence of the United Kingdom under the cover of the country’s embassy in Moscow,” an FSB statement cited by Tass reads.
>
> It is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions involving the UK’s embassy in Moscow and the Russian mission in London.

**Starmer** said the latest expulsions were “what we have come to expect from President Putin and his regime” and “the allegations are no doubt baseless”.
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