Ex-Tory minister defends Labour in Trump row and says he has also campaigned for Democrats – as it happened

Robert Buckland said Trump’s record was ‘an affront to those who believe in traditional Republicanism’ Photograph: Vianney Le Caer/REX/Shutterstock

6.01pm BST

Early evening summary

• Keir Starmer has insisted he wants to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past” in his first comments on the issue before the Commonwealth summit.

• Keir Starmer has insisted he can maintain a “good relationship” with Donald Trump after the Republican candidate’s campaign accused Labour of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election. A member of the shadow cabinet, John Lamont, accused Labour of a “diplomatic car crash”. (See 2.42pm.) But Robert Buckland, a former Tory justice secretary, defended Labour and said that he had been campaigning for the Democrats himself because he thought Trump was “not fit for office”. (See 5.32pm.) Alastair Campbell, the former Labour communications chief, said the whole row was just an attempt by the Trump campaign to distract attention from the fact Trump’s former chief of staff has described him as a fascist who in private has praised Hitler. (See 1.51pm.) There is more on this story in our US election extra podcast.

• The identities of armed police officers charged after opening fire at suspects are likely to stay secret in future unless they are convicted, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has announced.

• Labour is considering making solar panels optional on new homes in England, after pressure from housebuilders, in a move that would weaken low-carbon regulations, the Guardian has learned.

• Kemi Badenoch, favourite in the Tory leadership contest, has said that she is a “net zero sceptic” and suggested that an adaption strategy might be a better solution to the climate crisis than just focusing on cutting carbon emissions. (See 3.58pm.)

Updated at 6.16pm BST

5.50pm BST

Ben Wallace, the Conservative former defence secretary, has criticised the Trinity House Agreement, the defence pact agreed with Germany. (See 5.06pm.) He posted these on social media.

If the new UK/ German “Trinity House” agreement is to mean anything then Germany would have agreed with UK requests to send Taurus to Ukraine AND they would lift any export veto on potential Typhoon sales to Turkey - a Nato member. Otherwise it is pretty hollow 1/2

and made up of stuff we are already doing or had started. This has more to do with “SPD is our sister party” than real military mutual benefit. It does however confirm that Kier Starmer is the UK’s own Olaf Scholz ! -2/2