British forces intercept Russian shadow fleet vessel in English Channel
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The British armed forces intercepted a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the English Channel in the early hours of Sunday morning, the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said.
Royal Marine commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency boarded a sanctioned oil tanker during a six-hour operation, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The vessel, Smyrtos, will be held and monitored for any environmental or safety concerns off the south coast of England as investigations continue, the MoD added.
In a statement, Starmer said: “This operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling (President Vladimir) Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide.”
Dan Jarvis will be expected to turn up at Nato meetings to defend the UK’s plans to be ready for war, even though many would agree they are underfunded. Photograph: Toby Shepheard/AFP/Getty Images
The new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, said:
double quotation markOperations like this require skill, professionalism and courage. I pay tribute to our armed forces personnel and all those involved.
Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin’s illegal war.
The incident comes days after the former armed forces minister, Al Carns, and defence secretary, John Healey, resigned their posts after a protracted row over the defence investment plan (Dip). They said the plan, which has faced repeated delays, is seriously underfunded and falls short of what the defence department needs to keep Britain safe at such a volatile time.
Healey said the government was only willing to give an extra £10bn in additional funding, a figure he said is well below what is needed amid the threat from Russia and other major security challenges.
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Updated at 03.43 EDT
Key events
Al Carns, who quit as armed forces minister earlier in the week and is now being tipped as a potential Labour leadership race contender, has been speaking on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday Politics programme.
“I’ve been told that the prime minister has got a bank account and also a company ready to fight a leadership contest, so he’s all set up and ready to go. Have you done that?” Kuenssberg put to the former minister.
Carns dodged answering the question directly and responded by saying: “What I would like to see, whatever happens in the future, is a really clear and concise policy debate about the big ideas and the courage to take those big ideas forward for the next three years.”
Al Carns said Labour needs an open debate about the country’s direction. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
An open leadership contest would favour contenders like former health secretary Wes Streeting, although many in the party would prefer to avoid a lengthy and bruising inward facing contest. Instead, they are hoping Andy Burnham replace Keir Starmer in an orderly way if he wins the upcoming Makerfield byelection, one of the most consequential in British political history.
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Updated at 05.45 EDT
The shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, suggested that he “accepts” the Conservative party didn’t do enough on defence when they were in power between 2010 and 2024.
Referring to former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace saying his party left the armed forces “hollowed out” and underfunded, he told Sky News:
double quotation markI accept we were part of that, but it was about successive governments since the end of the Cold War… since 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, defence spending has fallen year on year because we thought we had peace.
That is clearly not the case. We can all accept that. I am very proud of what we did in government to support Ukraine – we led the world on that.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the Tories are willing to work with Labour to push through welfare cuts to fund more defence spending. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
The current government has committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035. But the former defence secretary John Healey said the defence investment plan presented to him would prove too slow given growing and diversifying threats to UK security, with defence spending rising to just 2.68% in 2030 after hitting 2.6% next year.
It is understood the deal offered by the Treasury did not set a date for increasing spending to 3%, and had tried to force the MoD to plan to only reach that figure in 2034/35. Defence spending increased during the Cold War, peaking in the mid-1980s, but then successive governments oversaw a period of decline after the conflict ended, with the army, navy and air force contracting as strategic priorities shifted.
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Updated at 05.30 EDT
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has posted this on X:
double quotation markI pay tribute to the brave Royal Marine Commandos who boarded a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker overnight in the English Channel. Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine is funded by their oil exports in defiance of sanctions. As Leader of the Opposition, I support the government in standing with Ukraine.
Here are some pictures from the operation:
The suspected Russian shadow fleet oil tanker (Smyrtos) was boarded this morning by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency. Photograph: UK MOD © Crown copyright 2026The military operation was supported with aircraft from the Maritime Air Group, an RAF P-8 aircraft, as well as HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury. Photograph: RN/UK MOD Crown copyrightShare
Updated at 05.45 EDT
My colleagues Mark Brown and Jessica Elgot have filed a full report on the British armed forces intercepting and boarding a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel this morning. Here is an extract from their story:
double quotation markBritish authorities say the Smyrtos is one of 700 vessels in a shadow fleet responsible for carrying 75% of Russia’s sanctioned oil. The fleet provides Russia with what analysts say is a critical lifeline, allowing oil to be sold and funds generated to continue its war against Ukraine.
The Sunday morning operation is the first time the UK has led on such an endeavour, previously providing support to the French military when it carried out something similar in the Atlantic…
Calling it a “blow to Putin’s war chest”, the MoD said the operation had been “conducted in close cooperation with the French”. It said the UK was a leader in tackling the shadow fleet, having already placed sanctions on more than 500 vessels.
“These sanctions are working,” the ministry said, with Russia’s oil and gas revenues falling by 24% year-on-year in 2025.
Suspected Russian shadow fleet oil tanker (Smyrtos) was boarded by British forces in the English Channel. Photograph: Vessel FinderShare
Updated at 04.55 EDT
Nandy agrees with Burnham on cutting welfare in order to fund defence
Lisa Nandy said she agrees with Andy Burnham that cuts in welfare could be used to fund significant increases in defence spending. The culture secretary told Sky News: “We’re only spending £1 in every 25 through the welfare budget in helping young people to actually find work and that is a disgraceful situation that we inherited and we have got to change that.”
While a Labour leadership contest is yet to be officially launched, it is widely speculated that if he wins the Makerfield byelection on 18 June, which polls say is likely, Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, will seek to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister.
He is positioning himself as the only Labour party politician who has a chance at beating Reform UK – and said in a recent interview with The Times that he wants to reduce the welfare bill and make sure there is adequate funding for the military.
“I am not squeamish about saying that the plan would be to reduce the welfare bill,” he said. “Not at all.” “It is not the traditional Westminster way of just crude cuts, short-term cuts that then create a backlash and create more political turbulence. It is actually going to do things that will reduce the benefits bill, moving towards a more preventative state that makes the right investments to support people into work.”
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Updated at 04.57 EDT
As my colleagues report in this story, teenagers under the age of 16 are expected to be banned from accessing “high-risk” social media apps while safer platforms will be subjected to restrictions, under a sweeping government crackdown.
Under-18s will also be banned from using romantic or sexual AI chatbots after a consultation on keeping children safe online.
When asked on Sky News this morning about the plans, the culture secretary said banning social media for under-16s is on its own not “the silver bullet solution,” but has a “role to play” in protecting children online.
Nandy told Sky News:
double quotation markI don’t want to get ahead of the prime minister’s announcement (expected on Monday). But when we launched the consultation, it was a question of how we better protect young people online, not if we do so.
And one of the things that a social media ban does and has been shown to do in Australia is that although it doesn’t stop all young people going online and onto social media apps, it does mean that you change the presumption at a very early age to stop the situation where kids as young as eight, nine, 10, 11 are going on to social media sites because all of their friends are on them at an age when, frankly, they’re not really emotionally equipped to be able to cope with it.
So the question of more regulation is – it’s a definite yes from the government, more enforcement action. I don’t think banning social media on its own is the silver bullet solution, but I do think Australia has shown very clearly that it has a significant role to play.
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Culture secretary says she agrees with some of what former defence minister said in resignation letter
The UK’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said Keir Starmer’s top priority remains keeping the public safe, pointing to the government slashing the aid budget as a “tough decision” that apparently proved their commitment to properly funding defence.
She said government departments are looking at further cutting their budgets to help fund defence.
When pressed by Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost on whether Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, will be given more money for defence than what was offered last week, Nandy said: “I don’t know. I don’t know what stage the negotiations had reached when John Healey decided to resign.” She said that she likes and respects Healey and confirmed that the government will publish the defence investment plan ahead of the Nato summit scheduled for early July.
Lisa Nandy sidestepped questions on whether more money would be offered to new defence secretary Dan Jarvis than to his predecessor John Healey. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
In what sounded like her urging the Treasury to give up more money for defence, Nandy said “we have to rise to meet this moment” as the “threat level” has risen and “we have got to be prepared to invest to the levels that are needed in order to do it”.
Despite being bound by collective cabinet responsibility, Nandy interestingly said she agreed with some of what the former defence minister, Al Carns, said in his resignation letter last week (as a reminder he quit because the defence plan had not been well enough funded and the government was planning to spend its money on outdated systems). Nandy told Sky News:
double quotation markI think Al Carns though, who resigned as defence minister this week, put it very well in his resignation letter.
Because the challenge is both to transform the way that we do defence, it is to increase the levels of spending even further than this government has already done in order to meet this moment.
But it is also to invest more broadly in the national resilience of the country and that includes economic insecurity, as he pointed out in the letter, strong public services, strong communities – and we as a government have to do all three things at once.
So, I won’t pretend that this is easy and I won’t pretend that these negotiations sometimes aren’t quite tense and quite difficult.
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Updated at 04.20 EDT
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Dan Jarvis said he had a “big responsibility” towards soldiers who risk their lives for the country.
Jarvis, himself a former soldier, said he was still working through the detail of the defence investment plan, which will lay out how much military equipment and infrastructure will be paid for over the next decade. The new defence secretary told the Sunday Telegraph:
double quotation markThe defence of our nation is a shared endeavour… I have a big responsibility in that regard now, but so do all of those people who expose themselves to risk tonight, tomorrow, next week, and we owe them a debt of gratitude.
I have a responsibility now to them to make sure that they get what they need, and people should be very clear about my determination to fulfil those duties, to make sure that they do (get) precisely what they need.
His comments come weeks before a crunch Nato summit in Ankara that will be attended by Donald Trump.
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British forces intercept Russian shadow fleet vessel in English Channel
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The British armed forces intercepted a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the English Channel in the early hours of Sunday morning, the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said.
Royal Marine commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency boarded a sanctioned oil tanker during a six-hour operation, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The vessel, Smyrtos, will be held and monitored for any environmental or safety concerns off the south coast of England as investigations continue, the MoD added.
In a statement, Starmer said: “This operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling (President Vladimir) Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide.”
Dan Jarvis will be expected to turn up at Nato meetings to defend the UK’s plans to be ready for war, even though many would agree they are underfunded. Photograph: Toby Shepheard/AFP/Getty Images
The new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, said:
double quotation markOperations like this require skill, professionalism and courage. I pay tribute to our armed forces personnel and all those involved.
Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin’s illegal war.
The incident comes days after the former armed forces minister, Al Carns, and defence secretary, John Healey, resigned their posts after a protracted row over the defence investment plan (Dip). They said the plan, which has faced repeated delays, is seriously underfunded and falls short of what the defence department needs to keep Britain safe at such a volatile time.
Healey said the government was only willing to give an extra £10bn in additional funding, a figure he said is well below what is needed amid the threat from Russia and other major security challenges.
Share
Updated at 03.43 EDT
