Starmer dismisses welfare cuts revolt as ‘noises off’ and defends his leadership – as it happened

A protest in Westminster against welfare cuts earlier this year. Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

5.15pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has shrugged off mounting Labour unrest over his flagship welfare cuts, dismissing the backlash as “noises off” and insisting his party remains “pretty united” behind the need for change.

• Donald Trump will make a second state visit to the UK this year but the diary complexities of King Charles and the US president mean the two are unable to meet informally over the summer, it is understood.

• The biggest expansion of the UK’s nuclear deterrent in a generation will put the nation on the “nuclear frontline” and mobilise a new generation of anti-nuclear weapons protesters, campaign groups have warned.

• England’s poorest areas will get billions in extra health funding under new government plans to tackle stark inequalities in access to care and health outcomes.

Keir Starmer has also been attending the Nato summit in The Hague, which Jakub Krupa is covering on his Europe live blog (still going strong).

5.02pm BST

People who voted Labour in 2024 but who now say they would not support the party are disproportionately working class, or leave-supporting, or female, according to researach published by YouGov. In his YouGov write-up, Dylan Difford says:

Compared to those 2024 Labour voters who’ve stuck with the party over the last year, Labour defectors are less likely to have been educated to degree level (41% vs 51%), more likely to be classed as living in working class households (41% vs 28%) and are more likely to have voted to leave the EU (24% vs 13%).

While just 41% of those who are still supporting Labour are women, 57% of those who’ve abandoned the party are.

But there are key differences between the different groups of Labour defectors. Those who’ve switched to the Greens are the youngest, with 70% being under the age of 50, while losses to Reform UK are noticeably older than average, with less than half (46%) having reached their half-century milestone.