UK Hostile-State Proxy Law Arrives; Robertson Warns of Cuts

At 08:30 BST on June 9, a 14-year-old girl was arrested at Co-op Academy on Plant Hill Road in Blackley, Manchester, after stabbing a 27-year-old male teacher in the neck and injuring two fellow 14-year-old pupils. All three were taken to hospital in a stable condition; school staff detained the suspect before police arrived. Chief Inspector Jon Shilvock of Greater Manchester Police confirmed there was 'no wider threat to the public.' The school closed for the day and was scheduled to reopen Wednesday. The attack followed a crossbow assault on a University of Surrey safety officer four days earlier.

The same day, Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed that a law targeting hostile-state proxies -- including those hired by Iran to threaten lives or conduct criminal operations on UK soil -- is expected to come into force next month. The government separately introduced the National Security (State Threats) Bill, which would empower the Home Secretary to formally designate state-linked organisations such as the IRGC as national security threats. Starmer said the government 'will not tolerate hostile actors paying criminals to threaten lives or undermine democratic institutions.' The announcements came days after a hidden camera was discovered behind a ceiling panel in a communal area of the Marsham Street government building housing the Home Office.

Former NATO Secretary General George Robertson -- a Labour peer who co-wrote the government's Strategic Defence Review -- warned in London that the UK will need an additional £36 billion per year to reach NATO's new 2035 target of 3.5 percent of GDP on defence, up from 2.4 percent last year. Robertson said there is 'no surplus money at all' and that defence must be funded from domestic budgets, predicting 'pain and great difficulty' for Labour. His remarks set out the political cost explicitly: public services, not new borrowing, would absorb the burden of rearmament.

Britain, France, and Germany formally revived the E3 format to coordinate a joint negotiation strategy with Kyiv, transmitting a joint position to Moscow aimed at ensuring that when ceasefire diplomacy resumes, Putin must engage with Europe rather than treating it as a bystander to US-Russia talks. Zelensky separately urged UK Reform-led councils to restore Ukrainian flags to civic buildings. The UK, France, and their allies also imposed coordinated sanctions on six entities linked to settler violence in the West Bank, additionally banning Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich from the UK.