Burnham says budget will be ‘challenging’ and denies he is just ‘tax and spend socialist’ – UK politics live

PM responds to criticism from former Bank of England chief economistWes Streeting, the defence secretary, has posted this on social media ahead of Andy Burnham’s meeting with the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte later.Today I am reminded of the words of my Labour predecessor Denis Healey:“Once we cut defence expenditure to the extent where our security is imperilled, we have no houses, we have no hospitals, we have no schools. We have a heap of cinders.”[Britain] is leading, along with Nato allies, the push back against Russia’s dangerous and reckless campaign against us.Collectively we will continue to strengthen our ability