David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is making a statement to MPs now about Syria.

He says that, when Labour took office, people asked if the government would start to re-engage with Syria. Other governments were starting to do this, he says.

But Lammy says the UK government refused – because Bashar al-Assad was a “monster”, a “dictator’ and a “butcher”.

Lammy says Assad is now filing for asylum in Russia. But he says Assad’s demise is “no guarantee of peace”. This is “a moment of danger” as well as a moment of opportunity, he says.

Lammy says Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that has taken over the country, will be judged “by their actions”, including how they deal with civilians.

He is implying that the government won’t rush into deciding that they should no longer be proscribed as a terrorist group.

He says the British government wants to focus on protecting civilians, and pushing for “an inclusive, negotiated political settlement”.

And he says illicit finance played a role in supporting Assad’s regime. He says the government has appointed an anti-corruption champion to help address the problem of illicit finance.

Here are the key points from Rachel Reeves’ speech to eurozone finance ministers. (I’ve left the punctation as it is in the official version.)

In the long-run, Brexit is expected to cause UK trade intensity to fall by 15%…

… and with goods exports between both the UK and EU continuing to remain below 2018 levels, this is impacting UK and EU economies alike.

I know from speaking to business that they want to see trade barriers reduced….

…And so, the reset in relations is about doing what is in the best interests of our shared economies.

Trade intensity is not the same as the volume of trade. It is a means of measuring trade as a share of GDP. The 15% figure is not a new one (the OBR has been quoting it for some time) but in the past Reeves has not always been keen to highlight the downsides of Brexit for fear of sounding too much like a remainer.

We intend to build on those agreements to reflect our mutual interests.

And we will be more ambitious in taking practical steps to strengthen our economic relationship, benefiting both the UK and the EU.

Closer cooperation too on financial services is a great example of strength through openness…

… with the EU-UK Financial Services Regulatory Forum due to meet for the third time early next year.

Across Europe, we need to unlock private capital to invest in future growth.

The UK has deep global capital markets that can fund the growth that economies across the continent need…

…vital to help all our industries and innovative entrepreneurs access finance, grow and stay in Europe.

And we must work together, because the reality is that our financial markets are highly interconnected….

…and collectively ensuring financial stability is a prerequisite for economic growth.

As well as a closer partnership on defence and security…

…I believe we must continue to make the case together for a crucial principle…

…the importance of free, open trade.

Of course, it would be naïve in today’s world to try to go back to the world of hyper-globalisation.

The shocks we have endured in recent years show that we have become too exposed to supply chain disruptions, disease and conflict.

But at the same time, it would be a profound mistake to abandon free trade.

Our citizens benefit significantly from all the investment, innovation, and lower prices that free trade brings.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is speaking to reporters following her meeting with eurozone finance ministers in Brussels. There is a live feed here.

Reeves said she wanted the meeting to be a “reset” moment for relations between the UK and the EU.

And she said there was an agreement that growth is not a zero-sum game.

[There was at the meeting] a really clear recognition from everybody in the room that growth is not a zero sum game, and that all countries, in the European Union and indeed, the UK too, need to do more to boost our growth, our productivity and our competitiveness in national trade and in on the international stage.

UPDATE: Reeves said:

Economic growth is not a zero-sum game. Countries right across Europe, inside and outside the European Union, including the UK, have struggled with low growth, poor productivity and stagnant living standards these last few years.

Competitiveness and trade, crucially, are really important for driving productivity and growth.

And so, as we reset our relations, it is with the purpose of growing our economy and improving living standards for ordinary working people.

Keir Starmer has agreed “a step change in defence partnership with Saudi Arabia today”, Downing Street has said.

In a news release, No 10 said this would “pave the way for greater defence industrial cooperation”. It said it would cover “all aspects of the UK-Saudi defence relationship, including on combat air, and provides a framework for closer collaboration for generations to come”.

As part of the package of measures, including £11m of humanitarian aid for Syria and assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces to help them support the ceasefire with Israe, No 10 also said that Sir Michael Barber, the government’s efficiency adviser, has been reappointed as the UK’s envoy for Palestinian Authority governance. In this role he will be “supporting the Palestinian Authority as it implements its vital reform agenda to strengthen its delivery capacity and improve service provision”.

Starmer said:

From cutting the cost of living for hardworking British people, to building resilient supply chains or supporting communities in Britain, what happens in the Middle East matters at home.

That is why we are strengthening our defence partnership with Saudi Arabia, protecting the most vulnerable in Syria, supporting our partners in Lebanon and working with the international community to push for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, secure the return of all hostages and accelerate aid into Gaza.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will make a statement in the Commons later about Syria. It will start around 4.15pm.

Before that, there will be an urgent question at 3.30pm about plans announced today changing the way councils in England deal with planning inquiries. David Simmonds, the shadow housing minister has been granted an urgent question because the government was not planning to have a statement.

This is how the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government describes the proposals in its news release.

As set out in the Plan for Change, the government is fully focused on unlocking economic growth across the country. To support this, the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has set out plans to speed up the planning process and support better decision making in the system.

Under new plans to modernise the planning approval process, applications that comply with local development plans could bypass planning committees entirely to tackle chronic uncertainty, unacceptable delays and unnecessary waste of time and resources.

The measures would see a national scheme of delegation introduced, the creation of streamlined committees for strategic development and mandatory training for planning committee members.

Under the new plans, local planning officers will also have an enhanced decision-making role to implement agreed planning policy.

The changes will mean greater certainty to housebuilders that good-quality schemes aligned with already-agreed local development plans will be approved in a timely manner to get spades in the ground. With it, kickstarting economic growth and raising living standards in every part of the country, putting money back in the pockets of working people.

Amnesty International UK has said Keir Starmer should make it clear that respect of human rights is “part and parcel of the UK doing business abroad” when he meets Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman today.

In a statement, the charity’s foreign policy adviser, Polly Truscott, said:

The PM needs to making it completely clear to his counterparts in Saudi Arabia that respect for human rights and the rule of law is part and parcel of the UK doing business abroad.

Mr Starmer needs to challenge the authorities’ draconian repression of human rights defenders, rampant use of the death penalty and institutionalised discrimination against women.

This year alone, the Saudi authorities have executed more than 280 people, the highest figure in decades, many after grossly unfair trials.

The plight of women who dare to speak out about the need for their rights to be respected in Saudi Arabia is especially grave.

Earlier this year, the 30-year-old fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced to 11 years for tweeting in support of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and posting photos of herself without an abaya.

For too long these business trips have treated human rights as an optional extra, usually meriting only a terse comment to the media that ‘human rights were raised’.

We need to see UK business visits completely overhauled, with human rights experts made part of trade delegations and proper impact assessments conducted into prospective agreements to ensure they don’t further undermine human rights.

Reeves says post-Brexit barriers to trade with Europe will get worse unless UK-EU relationship improves

Jennifer Rankin

Rachel Reeves has said the UK will face greater barriers to future trade with the European Union unless there is an improvement in the trading relationship.

Since Brexit the EU has developed new regulations that will impose more costs and red tape on companies outside the bloc, such as carbon tariffs on imports known as a carbon-border adjustment mechanism, to new rules on recycling plastic packaging.

Speaking to journalists ahead of a meeting with eurozone finance ministers this afternoon, the first of its kind since Brexit, the chancellor said:

I am not denying that there are barriers [to trade with the EU], and there will be greater barriers in the future, unless we improve our trading relationship with the European Union, which is exactly why I’m here.

She said reopening the debate about joining the EU’s single market and customs union would not be good for the country or the economy.

Reeves said the deal secured by Boris Johnson was not the best and that she wanted to do “practical things” to improve the trading relationship.

But do we want to reopen a national conversation about our membership of the EU, single market and customs union? Do I think that would be good for us as a country, or indeed good for the economy? I don’t think so. I think those years of uncertainty [during the Brexit negotiations] were bad for the UK, both politically and indeed economically.

At the meeting with the 20 finance ministers of the eurozone, she was expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, global trade and competitiveness. She rejected suggestions that greater closeness to the EU would risk the UK’s relationship with the US under incoming President Donald Trump.

To try and pick a side I think would be very damaging to the UK economy, and we’re not going to do that.

Margaret Hodge, a former Labour minister and former chair of the Commons public accounts committee, has been appointed as the government’s anti-corruption champion, the Foreign Office has announced. Patrick Wintour has the story here.

Severin Carrell

The Scottish Labour party appears to be in the doldrums after a spate of dire polling results and a fresh crisis over a police investigation into Labour’s leader in Edinburgh.

The party has been rattled by a surge in support for the Scottish National party in a spate of recent opinion polls, mirroring Labour’s steep decline at UK level. The latest for the Sunday Times Scotland by Norstat puts Scottish Labour on 21% – its lowest figure for three years – and the SNP on 37%.

Those numbers appear to vindicate John Swinney’s decision in last week’s Scottish budget to reintroduce a universal winter fuel payment for pensioners, and to promise scrapping the two child cap next year – policies Keir Starmer has refused to endorse.

Sunday’s papers also included the revelation that Cammy Day, the leader of Edinburgh city council, was under police investigation for allegedly sexting Ukrainian women refugees. Day denies any wrongdoing.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, suspended Day on Saturday night but the controversy threatens the party’s control over Edinburgh.

Despite leading the city’s third largest party, Day had run a minority administration with support from the Liberal Democrats in a unionist alliance to lock out the SNP, which has the most councillors overall.

Cllr Simita Kumar, the SNP group leader, has urged Day to resign as leader. That raises the prospect that the SNP could resume control of Scotland’s capital.

Pressed about the polling figures and the SNP’s welfare proposals on BBC Scotland on Sunday, Sarwar said recent council byelections suggested the opinion polls were wrong: the SNP had only won one out of 20 contests.

He insisted Labour had been forced to make unpopular spending decisions, but confirmed he disagreed with Starmer’s stance on the winter fuel payment and the two child cap. Even so, he defended the prime minister’s stewardship.

I do actually think Keir Starmer is doing a good job. [He] has come into a situation where the Tories wrecked our public finances, wrecked the public services, and had a flat lining economy. And sometimes governments come in and they’ve got to confront one of those issues. This Labour government has come in and had to confront all three.