Labour and Starmer suffer sharp fall in popularity since election, poll suggests – as it happened

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves earlier this summer. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

2.36pm BST

Early afternoon summary

• The Foreign Office has described Russian claims that six British diplomats it has expelled from Moscow were engaged in spying as “completely baseless”.

• Keir Starmer is preparing to meet President Biden in the White House for talks on Ukraine. There will be further coverage on our Ukraine live blog.

• The number of people in prison in England and Wales dropped by a record amount this week after the government started its early release scheme, figures show.

• The UK’s first new deep coalmine in 30 years will not be allowed to go ahead after a ruling in the high court.

• The UK government has agreed to take control of the National Grid unit tasked with keeping the lights on in a £630m deal that takes effect from next month.

• The Labour party and Keir Starmer have seen their popularity fall sharply since the general election, polling suggests. (See 10.21am.)

2.27pm BST

Alex Salmond says he would not have quit as first minister if he had known Scotland wouldn't be independent 10 years later

Alex Salmond has said in retrospect he thinks it was “daft” for him to resign as Scotland’s first minister, and SNP leader, after losing the independence referendum

In an interview for a documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of the poll, which took place on 18 September 2014, Salmond said that when he stood down he thought independence would be achieved “in a reasonable timescale”.

He told the programme:

I thought to make a point of departure for the referendum in the future was a right thing for the national movement. Looking back, that was a mistake.

Now, in retrospect, that was a daft thing to do. But then … I thought we were set for independence in a reasonable timescale.

If you’d told me then that 10 years later, we’d still be waiting despite the manifest opportunities there have been, then I would have said, ‘well, I’ll just hang about then and see the matter through’.

Scots voted to remain part of the UK by 55% to 45%. Salmond’s successor, Nicola Sturgeon, argued that Brexit meant a second referendum was justified, but the UK government has repeatedly refused to allow one, and polling suggests Scotland remains fairly evenly divided between supporters and opponents of independence.

In her own interview with the programme, Sturgeon questioned Salmond’s suggestion that he would have been better placed to deliver independence. She said:

Clearly he’s going to think that he could have done things so much better. I say that in as gentle a way as possible, to coin one of his favourite phrases.

Salmond and Sturgeon used to be close allies, but they fell out bitterly over after Salmond faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. He was prosecuted but acquitted on all charges.

The documentary will be broadcast on ITV Border Scotland at 8.30pm on Thursday.