Tuesday briefing: Why Labour is following the Conservatives’ lead, from Thatcher to Hunt

In today's newsletter: Keir Starmer has praised the former prime minister, while Rachel Reeves promises to follow the chancellor's public spending plans. What does that tell us about what the next government will look like?

Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition

Good morning. Is Keir Starmer a Thatcherite? That's the question Labour would like you to be asking yourself this week. Or maybe not you, precisely. By inserting a line of praise for the former prime minister in a Sunday Telegraph column - she sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism", he said - Starmer is once again declaring where he intends to focus his party's energies ahead of the next election. A set of voters who supported the Conservatives in 2019 are still, it seems, making their minds up about Labour. If Starmer can convince that fabled demographic of his rectitude, the argument goes, he'll enter Downing Street with a majority.

Quite how many undecided punters view the Thatcher years as a halcyon age is another matter. In any case, Starmer doubled down on that approach yesterday, in a speech at an event run by economics thinktank the Resolution Foundation. Anyone who expects an incoming Labour government to quickly turn on the spending taps is going to be disappointed," he said. And he warned that relying on spending to create growth is a habit the Labour party has had for a long time".

Cybersecurity | The UK's most hazardous nuclear site, Sellafield, has been hacked into by cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China, the Guardian can reveal. The astonishing disclosure and its potential effects have been consistently covered up by senior staff at the vast nuclear waste and decommissioning site, the investigation has found.

Immigration | James Cleverly has announced a package of measures designed to cut the number of migrant workers and their dependants entering the UK, making it far harder for employers to bring in overseas staff, including in the NHS and social care sector. The home secretary presented a five-point plan which he says will help reduce net migration by 300,000 a year.

Cop28 | The president of Cop28 has been forced into a fierce defence of his views on climate science, after the Guardian revealed his comment that there was no science out there ... that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what's going to achieve 1.5C". Sultan Al Jaber said: I respect the science in everything I do."

Contaminated blood scandal | Rishi Sunak suffered his first parliamentary defeat as MPs voted to establish a compensatory body for victims of the infected blood scandal. MPs voted 246 to 242 in favour of an amendment to the victims and prisoners bill that will require the government to set up a body to administer compensation within three months of the bill becoming law.

Coronavirus | Boris Johnson asked spies to plan a raid" on a Dutch vaccine plant to obtain impounded" doses of AstraZenica's vaccine during the pandemic, it has been claimed. Ahead of the former prime minister's appearance at the Covid-19 inquiry, the Daily Mail reported that Johnson asked for military options" because he was enraged" at possible export restrictions within the EU.