Braverman heckled by XR protesters angry about small boats plan – live

Suella Braverman’s speech at the National Conservatism conference was interrupted by two protesters.

The Home secretary had barely begun speaking when a man in the middle row stood up and identified himself as a member of Extinction Rebellion.

He was quickly bundled out of the hall by security as he called out questions at Ms Braverman.

Moments later, a woman stood up and started asking the Home Secretary questions before she too was hauled out.

“Anyone else?” Ms Braverman said to applause.

She added: “It’s audition day for the shadow cabinet.”

The UK has no plans to supply jets to Ukraine but a new flying school will help train Kyiv’s pilots and the government pledged to work with allies on securing the planes Volodymyr Zelensky needs.

In an announcement made as Mr Zelensky met Rishi Sunak for talks at Chequers, the government said an “elementary flying phase” for groups of Ukrainian pilots would begin this summer.

The move will adapt the programme used by UK pilots to provide Ukrainian counterparts with skills they can apply to different kinds of aircraft.

“It is not a straightforward thing – as Volodymyr and I have been discussing – to build up that fighter combat aircraft capability,” Mr Sunak said.

“It’s not just the provision of planes, it’s also the training of pilots and all the logistics that go alongside that and the UK can play a big part in that.

“One thing we will be doing, starting actually relatively soon, is training of Ukrainian pilots and that’s something we’ve discussed today and we’re ready to implement those plans in relatively short order.”

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Rishi Sunak will use the upcoming Council of Europe and G7 summits to stress the importance of continued support for Ukraine, Downing Street has said.

The remarks came after the prime minister met with Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The two leaders “discussed the new package of support the UK has announced today, including further air defence missiles and drones,” Downing Street said in a statement.

“This builds on the confirmation last week that the UK has become the first country to provide long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine.”

Suella Braverman’s comments on cutting net migration were in line with the Government’s approach, Downing Street has said.

In a speech due to take place later on Monday Ms Braverman will argue that there is “no good reason” the UK cannot train its own workforce of lorry drivers and fruit pickers and stress the need for overall immigration to the UK to come down.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “She continues to represent the UK Government views on all issues relating to the Home Office, as you would expect.”

The spokesman added: “We want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on overseas labour as part of building a high-wage and high-skilled economy and we are supporting those industries in doing that.”

The 2019 Tory manifesto promised control over immigration and that “overall numbers will come down”.

But asked about what level the numbers would come down from, the spokesman said: “I don’t think we’ve set out a baseline.”

The Conservative government’s introduction of voter ID was an attempt at “gerrymandering” that backfired against the party, senior Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.

The former cabinet minister said the policy – which saw voters required to have photo ID when voting at England’s local elections – had made it harder for elderly Tories to vote and “upset a system that worked perfectly well”.

Speaking at the National Conservatism conference on Monday, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them – as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.”

The mayor of London has announced that a “record number” of affordable homes are being built in the capital.

In a speech at Royal Eden Docks, east London, on Monday, Sadiq Khan said he would continue tackling the “grave social injustice” of unaffordable housing.

He said that a “record number” of 25,000 affordable homes had been started last year and that he had surpassed his 2015 promise to begin building 116,000 by 2023.

The mayor said the figures were “concrete proof that London is building again”, describing the programme as a “big bang in an affordable housing revolution”.

He said that affordable housing was the key to “safeguard the soul of our city” and reiterated calls for the Government to introduce a freeze on rental costs.

The latest figures from HM Land Registry showed that the average cost of properties in London was £532,212, the highest in the country, compared with a national average of £288,000.

In his speech, Mr Khan added that the housing crisis in London was “turbo-charging inequalities in wealth, health and happiness”.

He said: “As mayor, I don’t want to see London become a playground for the rich – I’m determined to build a London for everyone.

“We’ve completed more homes of all types than at any time since the 1930s.

“While the Government has shamefully scrapped its own home-building targets, we’re busy meeting ours.

“In London, not only have we hit our target of starting 116,000 new genuinely affordable homes, we’ve exceeded it, with an incredible record-breaking 25,000 affordable homes in the last year alone – more genuinely affordable homes than in any year since records began.”

The mayor also hit out at his predecessor, former prime minister Boris Johnson, who he said had “left a pipeline of three social rented homes”.

Conservative MP Miriam Cates has claimed “cultural Marxism” is “destroying our children’s souls”.

The right-winger told National Conservatism conference: “We must end the indoctrination of our children with destructive and narcissistic ideologies.”

Cates said: “When culture, schools and universities openly teach that our country is racist, our heroes are villains, humanity is killing the Earth, you are what you desire, diversity is theology, boundaries are tyranny and self-restraint is oppression, is it any wonder that mental health conditions, self-harm and suicide, and epidemic levels of anxiety and confusion characterise the emerging generation?”

She began the conference with a call for families to be encouraged to have more children.

Cates said falling birth rates were “the one overarching threat to British conservatism and indeed the whole of Western society”.

Boris Johnson scrapped a planned knighthood for Michael Gove after blaming him for blocking his return as prime minister last autumn, it has been reported.

Mr Johnson had planned to knight Mr Gove in recognition of his years of service in government since the Tories came to power in 2010.

The honour would have been considered a way of burying the hatchet after Mr Gove stood against his then-ally Mr Johnson in the 2016 Tory leadership contest.

Archie Mitchell and Jon Stone report: