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We are closing down a little earlier than usual this evening, and are directing you towards our live blog dedicated to the situation in the Middle East - where Iran has targeted US military bases.

You can follow updates on what's happening - including a statement from Britain's armed forces minister - below.

We'll be back in the morning, see you then.

As we're reporting across Sky News, Iran launched a missile attack on US military bases in Qatar and Iraq.

Sky News understands that while the UK has been reducing the number of British military personnel it has based in the region as part of steps to protect them in the wake of the escalating conflict between Iran, the US and Israel, some remain.

There are still thought to be a small number of personnel at different sites, including the US air base in Qatar.

Follow the latest on our dedicated live page here:

By Paul Kelso, business and economics correspondent

The government's industrial strategy announced today aims to harness the best of British business, from automotive to video gaming via the City and life sciences, to deliver economic growth on which all else depends.

A year in the planning with a 10-year horizon for delivery, in its final months it was hijacked by a very short-term issue: how to give industries battered by the highest electricity prices in the world a chance of competing now, never mind the 2030s.

So what's the plan?

The answer is a significant cut to bills not just for "energy intensive users" such as concrete and chemicals that already enjoy support, but 7,000 manufacturers for whom energy is a high proportion of costs.

They will receive around 15% off their bills from 2027, at an estimated cost of 拢500m a year.

Exactly who benefits will be decided after consultation, but the mechanism for delivering discounts, and how they will be paid for, is already decided, and the answer tells us an awkward truth about the UK's energy market.

To make industrial energy prices more competitive, qualifying businesses will be exempt from paying some of the taxes and levies added to bills to incentivise the building of renewable energy sources.

These so-called "policy-costs", which make up around 15% of energy bills, have been fundamental to the massive expansion of wind and solar power, supported by successive governments over the last two decades.

Is it so easy to be green?

This race for renewables is intended not just to lower emissions but to deliver more stable and, say Labour, cheaper bills by reducing our exposure to volatile gas prices.

The UK has been hugely successful in the first part, and green technologies are one of the eight high-growth sectors favoured in this industrial strategy.

Yet by choosing to discount "green levies", the government appears to be acknowledging that taxes intended to bring down bills tomorrow are driving prices up and making the UK uncompetitive today.

It also raises the prospect that the heaviest energy users will pay less for the expansion of renewables intended to reduce emissions.

Bills and taxes won't go up, insists minister

Ministers say that, unlike previous industrial discounts, the cost of this one will not be passed on to other business or domestic customers.

Instead, they say the funding will come from "headroom" created by extending price guarantees offered to renewable suppliers (known as Contracts for Difference) from 10 years to 15, and a "windfall" expected from linking UK carbon pricing to the EU system.

If that sounds like the work of Treasury officials desperate to keep an unfunded 拢2bn off the books it may well be, but Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News the scheme is compatible with the country's long-term energy goals.

"You can have ambition on climate and be competitive," he said, and nobody will pay higher bills or taxes as a result.

"If we get the increase in investment and business activity I believe this could bring about鈥� a stronger economy overall."

Keir Starmer has hosted Volodymyr ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y in Downing Street this afternoon, making clear Britain's continued support for Ukraine.

And there was an announcement to be made, too.

The prime minister said the two allies would embark on an "industrial military co-operation agreement", boosting both of their capabilities and allowing the UK to take a "massive step forward" in how it supports Kyiv's war effort against Russia.

Britain already helps train Ukrainian soldiers for frontline fighting.

Newly-elected Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin asks the foreign secretary "if the US felt unable to use the Diego Garcia base" because of the deal with Mauritius on the Chagos Islands.

She claimed that Mauritius would have to be told about the US military action, and that they would then tell China, who would tell Iran.

David Lammy replied: "The honourable lady has got to get off social media.

"She has got to get some help, has got to get some help because she is swallowing conspiracy theories that should not be repeated in this house."

Away from the Israel-Iran conflict for a moment and back to the situation in Gaza, where Israel's military campaign has continued to attract criticism here in the UK.

Palestine Action (PA) has today been told it faces being proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government, following its break-in at the RAF Brize Norton base last week - which saw several planes damaged.

The home secretary said the group's actions threatened national security, and proscribing it would make membership and support of it illegal.

As you'd expect, Yvette Cooper's decision has not gone down well with the group, which has said it's "pursuing all avenues for legal challenge".

PM accused of 'rank hypocrisy'

A statement said: "As leading legal and human rights organisations Amnesty UK and Liberty have stated, proscribing Palestine Action is a shocking and unacceptable escalation of the government's crackdown on the right to protest in our country."

The group, which accuses Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza, accused the prime minister of "rank hypocrisy" over the move. It pointed out that Keir Starmer "rightly defended" protesters who broke into an RAF base back in 2003 to stop US bombers heading to Iraq.

It said Starmer, then a human rights lawyer, argued that protest was lawful because it was designed to "prevent war crimes".

A number of Labour MPs have also criticised their party's government over the decision, which we'll hear more about from the armed forces minister shortly in the Commons.

Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden tells the House: "We talk weekly in this place about Russia's illegal bombing of Ukraine.

"Now, Russia may not be a close ally like the US, but presumably if international law applies to that, then the US bombing would likely be illegal under international law."

She asks if that's not the case, if the foreign secretary can explain why international law would apply differently to the US.

David Lammy replies: "I say gently to the honourable lady: one should always be wary of moral equivalence.

"Russia invaded a sovereign country. And for the last years, has been firing rockets into that country, aided by Iran.

"And we will continue to stand up to Putin's abysmal aggression, and of course he should be held to account."

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn rises in the Commons to say that the foreign secretary used the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty "as an argument for the bombardment of Iran".

He asks: "Has he said anything to Israel about its illegal holding of nuclear weapons, its possession of a delivery system, and obviously, the danger to anybody if there is a nuclear-armed neighbour who may well use them.

"What has he actually said to the government of Israel about their nuclear weapons?"

David Lammy acknowledges Corbyn's efforts over many years campaigning against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

But he adds: "Israel is not threatening its neighbours with nuclear weapons - it's Iran that we must stop at this time."

Qatar has said it is temporarily shutting its airspace for safety reasons.

A statement said the state was committed to "ensuring the safety of its citizens, residents, and visitors".

"This measure is part of a set of precautionary procedures taken in response to developments in the region."

It comes just moments after the Foreign Office updated its guidance for Qatar, warning Britons there to "shelter in place".

Foreign Secretary David Lammy was asked in the Commons for more detail, and said it was a "fast-moving situation" and done in response to advice from the US.

"Of course we keep our advice updated, and we are on high alert right across the region," he added.

It comes after the US advised its citizens in Qatar to shelter following a security alert, amid Iran's threats to respond to America's strikes on its nuclear sites over the weekend.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP's Westminster leader, says people watching the military action taken by the US over the weekend "will have seen many of the hallmarks of Iraq".

But he says the foreign secretary can't seem to say whether the government believes the strikes were legal or not, nor whether MPs would be given a vote about any UK military actions.

He asks David Lammy: "Is he purposely treating the public as fools?"

The foreign secretary quips: "He may just have got his soundbite."

He continues: "On the nuclear question, I'm not going to take lectures from [Flynn], I'm afraid. He's got a very sorry record in relation to that very serious matter."

Lammy adds that the government has been clear that "diplomacy is the way".