Reeves condemns Trump’s decision to launch war against Iran as ‘folly’– as it happened

Rachel Reeves will be heading for IMF meetings to discuss the global impact of the war with her counterparts Photograph: Leon Neal/PA

5.32pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Rachel Reeves has hit out at the “folly” of Donald Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran without a clear exit plan.

• Fiona Hill, a co-author of Britain’s strategic defence review, has joined criticism of Keir Starmer’s leadership on military policy, warning of a “bizarre” lack of urgency in defence planning.

• Compensation payments will rise for people affected by the infected blood scandal, including an extra £35,000 each for former pupils who were experimented on at school without their knowledge, the Cabinet Office minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has announced.

• A group of Labour MPs is to propose a series of new policies to defeat rightwing populism, including a Swiss-style deal with the EU, lower electricity prices, a robust defence of climate policies and a reduced dependence on Washington.

• The Scottish Greens have called for free bus travel, thousands of extra teachers and doctors and a universal basic income among hundreds of uncosted manifesto pledges.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

5.28pm BST

Richard Norton-Taylor on why MoD is itself to blame for its funding problems

Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian’s former security editor, says the Ministry of Defence is itself to blame for its funding problems. Here is his article.

And this is how it starts.

George Robertson, Tony Blair’s first defence secretary, a former Nato secretary general and an author last year of the latest in a series of evasive strategic defence reviews, accused Keir Starmer on Tuesday of a “corrosive complacency towards defence”. He said the prime minister was not willing to make the “necessary investment”.

Lord Robertson could have directed his fire elsewhere. He must know that no government department has been so complacent in the face of years of devastating evidence of waste, profligate contracts, and policy decisions that have avoided confronting new but increasingly clear security threats to Britain and other western countries.

Mandarins in the Ministry of Defence and successive defence secretaries have failed to confront the armed forces’ top brass – senior military figures who have a vested interested in preserving the status quo and continuing to fighting the last battles, reluctant to accept new geopolitical realities and new technologies.