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Politics latest: Angela Rayner labels Rishi Sunak a 'pint-sized loser'; PM insists defence spending pledge 'fully-funded'

While Rishi Sunak spent the day heralding his defence spending commitment on a trip to Germany, Oliver Dowden and Angela Rayner stood in the prime minister and the Labour leader at PMQs.

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Good night

 That's it for today.

We're wrapping up the Politics Hub, but make sure to join us again tomorrow.

And remember, at 7pm tomorrow there's a special episode of the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge.

It will come live from one of our Target Towns, Grimsby, and will feature brand new polling and a live audience.

Before you go, here are some of today's main stories.

Grant Shapps calls for NATO defence spending target to rise

By Alexandra Rogers, political reporter 

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said he wants the new NATO target for defence spending to increase from the current 2% of gross domestic product to 2.5%.

Mr Shapps said it would make a "real difference" if the countries signed up to the military alliance met his proposed target.

He told Kay Burley on Sky News: "We're now saying we think that should be 2.5%. We think in a more dangerous world that would make sense.

"I will be arguing that, and I know that the prime minister feels strongly about it, when we go to the NATO 75th anniversary summit which is in Washington DC."

The defence secretary's intervention comes after Rishi Sunak pledged to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 to tackle the "growing threats" posed by hostile states including Russia, Iran and China.

Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference in Warsaw yesterday, the prime minister said he planned to steadily increase defence spending by the end of the decade, rising to 2.4% a year until 2027-28 - then hitting 2.5% by 2030-31.

Funding will rise from £64.6bn in 2024 to £78.2bn in 2028, and then jump to £87bn in 2030-31.

Read more here:

'There isn't a single safe prosecution brought by the Post Office in the last couple of decades'

"There isn't a single safe prosecution brought by the Post Office in the last couple of decades," Conservative MP and former minister David Davis has told Sky News.

He was responding to comments made by a lawyer representing former sub-postmasters, who told Sky News the Post Office scandal extends "greatly beyond" faulty Horizon software (see previous post).

Paul Marshall said problems with other systems which have been "overlooked" mean there are "no convictions" secured by the Post Office against any sub-postmaster "that could or should properly be treated as safe".

Sir Davis says although the government has done a "great deal already" to exonerate Horizon victims, "we probably have to do more".

He cites a report which he says found there are other cases that "at least deserved a very close look and probable exoneration, and that didn't happen".

He estimates the courts could go through "nearly all the cases in three or six months if we set ourselves the task of doing it".

He describes the Post Office as "a public body which wasn't serving the public".

Post Office scandal extends 'greatly beyond Horizon' - victims' lawyer

By Adele Robinson, business correspondent

The Post Office scandal extends "greatly beyond" faulty Horizon software, according to a lawyer for victims.

Paul Marshall, representing former sub-postmasters, says problems with third party systems in branches, such as ATMs, have been "overlooked".

A 2013 report commissioned by the Post Office, and not made public at the time, states: "Removing the ATM reduces the risk of (the sub-postmaster) being suspended... as does the presence of lottery tickets, (banking) services, and DVLA processing."

It indicates there were issues known to the Post Office with third party systems within branches - separate to Horizon software.

Barrister Paul Marshall believes, as a result, there are "no convictions" secured by the Post Office against any sub-postmaster "that could or should properly be treated as safe".

He says evidence of third party errors, such as ATMs, shows "the scandal extends considerably beyond, greatly beyond, it might be said, the limited focus of bugs in Horizon".

Blanket exoneration legislation being introduced this summer will only quash convictions brought about "by erroneous Horizon evidence".

Mr Marshall asserts that postmasters who have had appeals against convictions rejected by the Court of Appeal may have lost because their offences didn't fall within the "narrow scope" of Horizon issues.

Read more here:

What elections are taking place on 2 May and who can I vote for?

By Daniel Dunford, senior data journalist

There might not be a general election just yet, but there are important votes that will define how the areas around us are run for the next four years. 

See what's happening where you are here:

What are Sunak and Starmer hoping for at the locals, and what might it mean for a general election?

With a general election looming, what counts as gains and losses for the main parties in next week's locals? 

Sky's election analyst Michael Thrasher tells us what to look out for:

Will Labour or the Conservatives win the next election? Latest polling from the Sky News live tracker

The Sky News live poll tracker - collated and updated by our Data and Forensics team - aggregates various surveys to indicate how voters feel about the different political parties.

With the local election campaign well under way, Labour is still sitting comfortably on a roughly 21-point lead, averaging at 43.5% in the polls, with the Tories on 23.5%.

In third is Reform UK on 12.2%, followed by the Lib Dems on 9.3%.

The Green Party stands at 6.3%, and the SNP on 3.0%.

See the latest update below - and you can read more about the methodology behind the tracker here.

Sunak will take the defence wins in Europe - but tricky local elections lurk at home

By Beth Rigby, political editor

This was a trip with two aims: to refocus the world's attention on Ukraine and announce a big boost in defence spending - with an eye, of course, on national security, but also on the general election.

When it comes to Ukraine, this was a co-ordinated effort across the Atlantic.

As Rishi Sunak arrived in Berlin, overnight in Washington the US was finally approving a $600m military aid package for Kyiv.

This was all designed to send a message to Russia - allies are in lockstep and will stand behind Ukraine for as long as it takes.

The prime minister used the Poland leg of the trip to commit the UK to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030, while in Berlin, Mr Sunak announced a formal bilateral security partnership with Germany to deepen co-operation on defence and military manufacturing.

It was all part of his agenda to position himself as a wartime leader, speaking of the UK's defence industry going onto a war footing as Europe stood at a turning point.

"The world we are living in is increasingly dangerous and the axis of authoritarian states are working together to undermine our security," he told his audience in Berlin.

"We need to do more. Germany has done more and we have met the NATO standard [on spending], and you see global defence spending is rising."

Mr Sunak added: "I do believe we will look back at this moment in time and recognise this inflection point, where the old paradigm is no longer the case and we need to adjust for a new paradigm."

Read Beth's full analysis here:

That's it for the Politics Hub

That's all for tonight. 

But make sure to join us again tomorrow - Sophy is heading to Grimsby to discuss why so many people have turned off politics.

There'll be a live audience and new polling laying out the situation in one of our Target Towns, so make sure to tune in at 7pm on Thursday.

Rayner criticises Tories for 'obsessing' over her living arrangements

By Jennifer Scott, political reporter 

Labour's Angela Rayner has attacked the Conservatives for "obsessing" over her living arrangements while renters continue to face uncertainty over the government's promise to end no-fault evictions.

The party's deputy leader has come under scrutiny over the sale of her former Stockport home before she was an MP, with claims she did not pay the right amount of capital gains tax and may have registered to vote at the wrong address - allegations she denies.

Greater Manchester Police are now looking into the latter issue, which could be a breach of electoral rules, following a complaint from Tory MP James Daly.

But standing in at Prime Minister's Questions on the day the much-delayed Renters' Reform Bill returned to the Commons, Ms Rayner said: "I know this party opposite is desperate to talk about my living arrangements, but the public want to know what this government is going to do about theirs."

Ministers first promised to scrap no-fault evictions - or Section 21s - in April 2019, but agreed to an indefinite delay to outlawing the mechanism after a group of Conservative backbenchers, including some landlords, raised concerns that the courts were not prepared for the legal cases that could replace them.

A new clause being added to the bill by the government today would, if approved, order an assessment of the courts before any ban could be enacted. But it offers no timetable for when the probe would have to take place.

Read more below: