Starmer says accepting gift of use of corporate box at Arsenal will save taxpayer money given security costs – as it happened

Keir Starmer watches Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal at Molineux in April. Photograph: Manjit Narotra/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock

6.10pm BST

Early evening summary

• Keir Starmer has strongly defended his decision to accept corporate hospitality at Arsenal – while ducking questions about why he allowed a donor to pay for his glasses. (See 5.24pm.) In separate interviews, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, suggested Starmer’s attendance at Arsenal matches and Taylor Swift concerts was “part of the job”.

• Starmer has insisted he is “completely in control” following a row within government over Sue Gray, his chief of staff, being paid more than him. In an interview with BBC South East, asked why Gray was getting more than he was, Starmer said he was “not going to get into discussions about individual salaries about any members of my staff”. Pressed on whether he had a grip on his team following hostile briefings against Gray, he replied:

I’m completely in control. I’m focused and every day the message from me to the team is exactly the same, which is we have to deliver.

We were elected on a big mandate to deliver change, I am determined that we are going to do that.

• Nigel Farage has said he received official parliamentary advice against holding in-person surgeries for his constituents – though his claim was immediately called into question by insiders.

• Farage has said he is going to give up running Reform UK as a private company, turning it instead into a more normal political party. (See 3.39pm.)

• The European court of human rights has dismissed an appeal by the former MP Owen Paterson against the parliamentary report that preceded his political downfall.

Updated at 6.13pm BST

5.56pm BST

Starmer says reform just as vital for NHS in Wales as in England

Keir Starmer has said that the need for NHS reform in Wales is just as important as it is in England.

In interviews with Welsh broadcasters, he was also reluctant to praise the way the NHS has been run in Wales over the last 25 years, when Labour-led governments have been in charge of the service from Cardiff.

The NHS in Wales performs worse than its English counterpart on many measures, but the Welsh Labour party has in the past been unenthusiastic about some of the approaches NHS modernisation favoured by Blairites like Wes Streeting, the health secretary for England.

Starmer and Streeting have repeatedly stressed the need for the service to reform. But Eluned Morgan, the new first minister of Wales has used slightly different language, saying this week that, although reform was necessary, “it’s difficult to do that when you’ve got long waiting lists that have to be our priority at the moment”.

In an interview with ITV Cymru Wales, asked if Wales needed similar reform to what is being proposed in England, Starmer replied:

That would be my strong view, because I think that that investment and reform need to go together.

When it was put to him that some English ideas, like more use of the private sector, have been rejected by Welsh Labour, Starmer replied:

Well, the principle that the NHS is a publicly funded service free at the point of use is absolutely key to me and we’re not going to alter that. On occasions using the private sector to get down waiting lists, Yes, that’s been going on a long time. We will do that to get waiting lists down.

But the most important thing is that I think reform is hugely important for the health service, whether it’s Wales or in England.

In an interview with BBC Wales, asked if he thought the Welsh government had done a good job with the NHS over the last 25 years, Starmer simply replied:

There are challenges that need to be met, there’s no doubt about that and I’m not going to pretend to you otherwise.

My job with the first minister is to work together to rise to whatever challenges there are and opportunities across Wales and I’m determined to do so.