Russia says it could hit UK military targets over supply of missile technology to Ukraine – UK politics live

That is all from us on the UK politics blog, thanks for following along. Here are today's main developments:

• Russia has threatened to target British military sites in Ukraine and elsewhere over the UK's support of Kyiv. It came after prime minister Andy Burnham announced earlier this week that the UK would allow Ukraine access to classified technology that would allow the country to produce its own Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles.

• Maria â Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson, said the UK and France were “playing â with ​fireâ€. She said Russia would respond to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons by hitting any British military facilities in Ukraine and beyond, according to Russian media.

• Otherwise, it was a good day for the Labour government with the release of statistics showing a drop in young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) as well as a decrease in the number of asylum seekers being temporarily housed in UK hotels.

• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of young people aged 16 to 24 who were Neet had fallen to 981,000 in April to June 2026, down from 1,012,000 in January to March. You can read the full report here.

• The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels has decreased by 50% in the year to June 2026, according to Home Office figures. It stood at 16,021, down 70% on the peak of 56,018 in September 2023.

• Home Office spending on asylum in the UK has also decreased, and the number of people who applied for asylum went down by 21%.

• Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the figures show the government “is restoring control at our borderâ€. She added: “Small boats numbers are also now falling, but we are not complacent and there is more we must do.â€

• Meanwhile, Burnham visited Wales, his first trip there since becoming prime minister. He said he was “sending a big sign of support†for the reindustrialisation of Wales, saying it will “build the world's biggest green steel production†which he described as a “huge prize†for the devolved nation.

• The prime minister later visited Northern Ireland, where he is expected to hold talks with first minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

Andy Burnham is now in Northern Ireland, his first trip there since becoming prime minister, to meet Stormont political leaders.

PA reports he is in Belfast speaking to young people at the Oh Yeah Music Centre in the Cathedral Quarter area of the city, and is later holding talks with first minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

It follows his earlier visit to Wales as part of his cost-of-living tour of the UK (which didn't include Scotland, although he has promised to meet all of the leaders of the devolved nations in October).

Burnham said: “People in Northern Ireland want more breathing space from the cost of living, good, well-paid jobs and opportunities for their children.

“Political point-scoring in the past has made this harder, not easier.

“We need to be better, so I want to work with the Northern Ireland Executive and the main political parties to try and make a real difference to communities here, and that's the message I'll be taking into my meetings later.â€

Russia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week.

Andy Burnham, Britain's prime minister, said on Monday the UK would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start â its own production of Storm Shadow ​long-range ​cruise missiles. Maria â Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday Britain and France were “playing â with ​fireâ€.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a visit by John Ratcliffe, the CIA chief, to Moscow on Tuesday had followed a US intelligence assessment that Russia could be planning to test Nato with a limited assault on an allied country. This could range from a cyber-attack to a small-scale incursion, probably in a Baltic nation.

Read more:

We have some reaction to the data released by the Home Office from Reform UK, which has made immigration its entire personality.

Zia Yusuf, the party's home affairs spokesperson, said the figures “show the invasion of Britain continues under Labourâ€.

As a reminder, the statistics show:

• The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels dropped by 50% in the year to June 2026.

• The number of people who applied for asylum in the UK is down by 21%.

• The number of small boat arrivals was 23% lower than the previous year.

• Home Office spending on asylum decreased, to £4.36bn in 2025-26 from £4.76bn in 2024-25.

Yusuf said: “More than 205,000 people have crossed the Channel in boats since 2018, yet just 5% have been deported.â€

He added: “Britain is at breaking point. Under Reform, illegal boats in the Channel will be stopped by our navy, and all those here illegally will be detained and deported.â€

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has commented about recent events in Middlesbrough, telling PA:

There's clearly organised criminals there who need to be cracked down on, and the tragic death of those young policemen I think has really touched the country, obviously the community up in Middlesbrough. We need to really crack down on these criminals and harm.

Davey has been in London today attending a parent's strike outside parliament. Parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities are holding a protest in Westminster over proposed government reforms to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

The campaign says that the UK has the worst paternity leave in Europe amounting to two weeks, paid at less than half the minimum wage. They are demanding flexible working by default, and at least six weeks' paternity leave at 90% pay, including for the self-employed, arguing that most parents are now “worse off on two incomes than our grandparents were on one.â€

Three UK airports have been hit by a “cybersecurity incident†in which the data of about 8.7 million customers was accessed, Manchester Airport Group (Mag) has said.

PA Media reports the company, which operates Manchester Airport, London Stansted and East Midlands airport, said that “at no point has passenger safety or aviation security been compromised†during the incident and that neither Mag nor the system hacked held customers' bank or payment details.

PA has a little more data on migration figures that have been released separately by the Home Office. It shows there were 1,099 enforced and voluntary returns in April to June of people who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats.

This is up from 695 in the previous three months and is the highest quarterly figure on record. 3,310 people who arrived in small boats were returned during the year to June, up from 2,445 in the previous 12 months. Of the 3,310 returns in the year to June, 40% were Albanian nationals.

As mentioned earlier, all these figures cover when Keir Starmer was in office.

Forty children who went missing from hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK have still not been found, according to a parliamentary report.

Ministers are facing calls from MPs and peers to explain what they are doing to locate the group, two of whom are believed to still be under 18. The figure emerged in a report on Thursday by the joint committee on human rights on how the social care system is failing young adults.

In 2023, it emerged that more than 440 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had gone missing from Home Office hotels, some of whom were reported to be as young as 12. The cross-party committee has been told by a witness that 40 of the cohort of missing children have still not been found.

Read more:

We have a comment from the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, on the release of Home Office statistics earlier today.

He accused the government of “moving illegal immigrants out of hotels and into flats in your building, and now they are telling them to go and disappear without a traceâ€.

Just to be clear, the government is not telling asylum seekers to disappear, but Philp could be referring to those whose applications are refused or withdrawn and who are not recorded as having left the UK.

“The next Conservative government would deport every illegal immigrant, leaving the ECHR and any other obligation that stands in the way in order to get it done, because the surest way to empty the accommodation is to make plain that nobody who crosses the Channel gets to stay,†Philp said.

In its analysis of the Home Office's latest figures on asylum (see post at 11:03), the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory said the government has largely been able to close hotels because asylum decisions were being made more quickly.

Researcher Nuni Jorgensen said:

In its first two years in office, the government has made some progress on its pledge to close asylum hotels. It has done so by primarily making asylum decisions faster.

That reduced the size of the initial decision backlog but shifted the problem to a new appeals backlog in the courts.

The initial backlog is now actually relatively low, and most decisions take a few months. The biggest remaining challenge for the government is now the backlog in the courts.â€

Thirteen such hotels closed earlier this month as the Labour government continues to move people into alternative accommodation. The total number is now below 160, having peaked at about 400 under the Conservatives.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released figures earlier today on young people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK who are not in education, employment or training (Neet).

The ONS said the number fell to 981,000 in April to June 2026, down from 1,012,000 in January to March.

Explaining the figures, the ONS said: “The percentage of all young people in the UK who were Neet in April to June 2026 was 13.0%, this proportion was up 0.2 percentage points from April to June 2025, but down 0.5 percentage points from January to March 2026.â€

My colleague Phillip Inman has more in this report: