Zelensky makes first cabinet address since Clinton as Starmer vows to step up support for Ukraine - live

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is set to make a historic address to Sir Keir Starmer ’s cabinet today .

The Ukrainian president is the first official visitor to Downing Street under Sir Keir’s premiership, and the first foreign leader to address the Cabinet in person since US president Bill Clinton in 1997.

Mr Zelensky will brief ministers about the situation in Ukraine and the need to expand Europe’s defence industrial base, as well as agreeing a £3.5bn defence export finance deal with Sir Keir.

Ahead of the major meeting, defence secretary John Healey has confirmed the UK will provide Ukraine with military aid funding “for every year for the rest of the decade”.

It comes after Sir Keir hosted a 47-member summit of the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace , where he insisted there was a “real appetite” for a Britain “which is back on the international scene , playing a leading part with maturity”.