By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR and MARK NICOL, DEFENCE EDITOR

Published: 22:00 BST, 6 July 2026 | Updated: 02:09 BST, 7 July 2026

Labour’s defence plans were branded a ‘pantomime’ – as new figures revealed Russian jets are testing Nato‘s defences an average once a day.

Keir Starmer will head for what looks set to be a bruising Nato summit in Turkey on Tuesday morning amid warnings that he has failed to protect Britain.

Downing Street is braced for a final blast from Donald Trump after US officials accused countries like the UK of ‘lagging behind’ Nato spending targets.

And, in an ominous development, it emerged that a Russian aircraft buzzed the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales last week.

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The warship scrambled two F-35 fighter jets to shadow the Russian maritime patrol aircraft, which also dropped a number of sonic buoys near the British carrier in an apparent provocation.

Downing Street branded the manoeuvre, which took place in the Norwegian Sea, ‘unsafe and unprofessional’.

Government sources revealed it was one of 700 incursions that Nato jets have had to deal with in the last two years – an average of almost one a day.

Kemi Badenoch said the action by Vladimir Putin was a ‘test’ that the government is failing.

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Humiliation: Officials fear Donald Trump could try to embarrass the PM over defence at this week’s Nato summit (pictured together in August last year) 

Confrontation: An F-35 jet launched from HMS Prince of Wales shadows a Russian military aircraft as it drops a sonic device, inset

Targeted: The HMS Prince of Wales was in the Norwegian Sea

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Reckless: Vladimir Putin

In a speech on Tuesday, the Conservative leader will warn that Britain’s defence policy is becoming a ‘pantomime’ at the moment that the threat has grown to the most serious since the end of the Cold War.

Mrs Badenoch will urge Andy Burnham to take up her offer to help push through welfare cuts to help fund defence investment. But she will warn that the would-be prime minister has ‘said nothing’ about the growing threats facing the UK.

‘We are sending an outgoing Prime Minister who is now completely powerless to that Nato summit,’ she will say.

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‘And he is taking with him a Defence Investment Plan which he knows is not fit for purpose. With barely half of the additional funding that our armed forces need.

‘So little that the former Defence Secretary quit the government because he thought the plans would put British troops in danger.’

Sir Keir will tell Nato allies this week that his controversial Defence Investment Plan (DIP) represents a major step on the way to hitting Nato’s target of spending 3.5 per cent on defence by 2035. But it only commits the UK to reaching 2.7 per cent by the end of the decade.

New Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said Labour would ‘commit the resources to evidence the trajectory to 3.5 per cent’ at a spending review next year. But neither No 10 nor Mr Burnham have so far agreed to the timetable.

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Nato chief Mark Rutte said he expected member states to produce ‘clear, concrete and credible’ plans to hit the 3.5 per cent target.

No 10 fears that Mr Trump may use this week’s summit to humiliate Sir Keir over defence spending.

Speaking at the weekend, he said ‘weak’ British leaders had allowed the country to become a ‘deindustrialised welfare zone unable to stop Third World men arriving on boats’.

The two leaders are not expected to hold a formal meeting this week, despite it being Sir Keir’s final appearance on the world stage before leaving office. But Downing Street said they would be seated next to each other at a summit meeting tomorrow and insisted that their relationship remains ‘constructive’.

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Ahead of the summit, Putin sent a clear message to defence chiefs over Russia’s willingness to threaten its member states, including Britain.

It emerged how a Russian aircraft conducted a ‘danger close’ low pass of the HMS Prince of Wales while the £3.5billion carrier was operating in the Norwegian Sea.

After ignoring requests from the carrier’s control room, the Bear-F maritime patrol aircraft then dropped tens of sonobuoy projectiles in close proximity to HMS Prince of Wales which could have injured sailors or damaged the carrier.

British commanders scrambled two F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales to shadow the Russian aircraft in the carrier’s first ‘real-time’ engagement with enemy forces.

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The Royal Navy has released information about the July 2nd incident for the first time.

At the time HMS Prince of Wales was sailing as part of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group which also consisted of the Type-45 destroyer HMS Duncan, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Tidespring which were conducting freedom of navigation patrols in the High North.

The Arctic Sentry patrols are intended to reinforce security. The engagement came just weeks after the UK seized a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the English Channel for the first time and after a Russian fighter jet flew within feet of a Royal Air Force intelligence gathering aircraft conducting a patrol over the Black Sea.

Twenty five years after Goran Ivanisevic became the first wildcard to win Wimbledon, Britain’s Arthur Fery is three wins away from becoming the second.

Born in Paris, raised in Wimbledon, this cross-Channel Fery is chugging further and faster than anyone could have anticipated. 

On his Centre Court debut, on the biggest day of his life he produced the best match of his life – and all with Roger Federer looking on from the Royal Box.

The 23-year-old beat Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 and, for the second match in a row, the 5ft 9in pocket rocket proved he could squeeze through the narrowest gap; wriggle out of the stickiest situation.

Having come from 4-1 down in both the fourth and fifth sets of his second-round win over Zizou Bergs, Fery, trailing Dimitrov two sets to one, twice recovered from a break in the fourth set. 

The man who began the grass court season with two Tour-level wins in his life has forgotten how to lose. 

Fery takes the acclaim of Centre Court after dispatching of Grigor Dimitrov

He has played four tiebreaks this fortnight and won the lot, and here is one illustration of his priceless ability to bring his best in the most pregnant moments: across three hours and 55 minutes Fery struck seven aces – and two of those came within five minutes of each other in the deciding tiebreak.

‘It’s incredibly hard to describe what I have just felt on that tennis court,’ he told the crowd afterwards, and as he continued his ability to form full sentences deserted him: ‘First time on this court, against an absolute legend of the game…I grew up five minutes from here…we’ve got the greatest of all time watching…’

On another comeback: ‘It’s been the story of the tournament, I’m playing really well with my back against the wall.’

He will face Italian No 9 seed Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Even to parochial eyes, there were compelling narratives on both sides of the court: the Ferytale and the fairytale, if you will.

This was the first time in Grand Slam history two wildcards had faced off in the fourth round or later. Fery’s reason for being handed that golden ticket was obvious; in Dimitrov’s case the story is a little darker.

Britain’s Fery is three wins away from becoming the second wildcard winner at Wimbledon

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The 23-year-old beat the wily Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6

It was on this very same second Monday of Wimbledon last year, on this very same court, when Dimitrov tore a pectoral muscle when leading eventual champion Jannik Sinner by two sets to love. 

Eleven months and two weeks of the subsequent time has been hellish for the Bulgarian as first the physical and then the mental pain threatened to end the 35-year-old’s career. 

Suffering from flashbacks and crippling uncertainty, he came into the grass season with a seasonal record of one win and 11 defeats – including seven in a row.

But a couple of wins apiece in Dublin and Mallorca sparked a flame and that has grown into an inferno at Wimbledon as his talent has blazed into light.

Dimitrov was known in his early career as Baby Fed, his flowing single-handed backhand and all-round style reminiscent of the great Swiss. 

The man himself, Roger Federer, was there the night of the Sinner match, looking on in horror from the Royal Box as his friend limped from the court; and here both men had played five-set matches coming into this fourth round, Fery that act of escapology against Bergs, Dimitrov an absorbing tussle with Matteo Berrettini.

In theory, this was a match between the 114th (Fery) and the 146th best tennis players in the world – the quality of the spectacle told otherwise.

As the surfaces have homogenized over the past 20 years, men’s tennis has largely become a baseline battle of power and endurance.

This was a throwback to old school grass-court tennis. These two can give the ball a wallop – Fery had a forehand clocked at over 100mph this fortnight – but they can wield the surgeon’s knife as well as the butcher’s cleaver.

Roger Federer was looking on from the Royal Box as Fery made his Centre Court debut

After a couple of shanks in the first couple of games Fery settled well. There has been a serenity about his play here that suggested he would not be discombobulated by the occasion.

At 5-5, having thus far won only two points on the Dimitrov serve, Fery broke to love, cracking a couple of backhands and then hammering a forehand return.

For all the aesthetic beauty of the Dimitrov backhand – whether sliced or driven – it is his weaker side and Fery directed the majority of his fire in that direction.

Off his own backhand wing, Fery was simply not missing. Incredibly, he got through a set and seven games with one single unforced error on that side – and then it all fell apart, as he made three unforced errors in a row to concede the break at 3-4 in the second set.

Fery headed off-court for an eight-minute loo break – sadly standard practice these days. Of course, if you gotta go you gotta go but if it was more of an attempt to recentre himself, there is always the possibility you go further off-kilter.

And, upon his return to Centre Court, Fery played a second ragged service game in a row. The quality of the Brit backhand in the first period of the match meant Dimitrov was largely forced to employ his delightful but less offensive slice. 

As Fery’s level dipped Dimitrov began unfurling his majestic single-hander. One he unleashed down the line at the start of the third set would have made Federer himself purr – sadly the great man was off court at the time, no doubt tucking into afternoon tea.

The man who began the grass court season with two Tour-level wins in his life has forgotten how to lose

As Fery went an early break down in the fourth set the scoreboard looked imposing. But having come back from 4-1 down in both the fourth and fifth sets of his third-round win over Zizou Bergs, Fery was not about to panic.

He broke back; Dimitrov broke again; Fery broke back again. At 4-5, 0-40 on the Dimitrov serve Fery had three points to take it into a fifth set. On the third he hammered a backhand past Dimitrov at the net and launched into a wild, fist-pumping jig of delight.

The fifth set was fearfully tight – even Federer was leaning forward in his chair, in tune with the tension of the match. At 4-4 and again at 5-5, Fery extracted himself from sticky situations.

And so to a match tiebreak – first to 10 points – Fery’s second in a row here. He opened it with only his fifth ace of the match and went 4-2 up with a punched backhand return and a rush to the net – the modern equivalent of the Henman chip and charge. Dimitrov won three points in a row, then double faulted.

Another wonderful volley combination from Fery made it 6-6. Then another ace. Dimitrov went wide and Fery led 8-7 – win two points on his serve and he was home. He dug a backhand deep into the corner and Dimitrov sliced into the net – how often had we seen that play pattern? 

A Dimitrov return into the net and Centre Court erupted in noise. It may not be the Azteca but when Fery needed it most, this grand old arena roared him home.

One person was taken to hospital while others were treated on the scene.

The incident took place on the M62 Eastbound at around 6:10pm, according to National Highways North West, between Junctions 18 and 19.

All those involved in the collision were transferred into the care of North West Ambulance Service, and one was taken to hospital for treatment.

(Image: Traffic Cameras UK)

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) said: “Shortly after 6:15 this afternoon (Monday 6th July), two fire engines from Heywood and Whitefield fire stations were called to attend a road traffic collision involving four vehicles between Junction 18 and 19 on the M62.”

“Crews arrived quickly and worked alongside Greater Manchester Police to make the area safe. All casualties were transferred into the care of North West Ambulance Service and one casualty has been conveyed to hospital.”

“Firefighters were in attendance for around 45 minutes”

The incident led to delays on the M62 for around three hours, though the road was never fully closed – one lane remaining open.

Two lanes remained closed well into the evening, allowing workers to undertake repairs to the road.

(Image: Traffic Cameras UK)

A National Highways spokesperson said: “Throughout the incident, traffic has been able to keep moving by using the services.

“Two of the lanes are open and two are still closed.

“The closed lanes are closed due to necessary ongoing recovery work, including repairs to damaged street furniture and electrical work.”

As Xbox prepares to lose five development studios and over 3,000 staff what is it that they’re planning, that makes Microsoft so confident for the future?

Even if Monday’s mass layoffs at Xbox hadn’t already been rumoured, they were easy enough to predict. After all, laying off thousands of developers is exactly what Microsoft did this time last year and the year before that. Over 9,000 people have been laid off from the Xbox division in just the last three years and there’s little reason to think that number won’t rise again next year. There’s even less reason to think any of this is helping Xbox as a business, if that’s even the goal anymore.

There are already conspiracies, propagated by one of the original founders of Xbox, that new boss Asha Sharma has been brought in to wind down the business. That does seem like it could be true, not necessarily based on what she’s doing but because Xbox as a brand feels like it has nowhere to go and, if it wasn’t owned by the richest company in the world, would long ago have been sold off or mothballed.

But Microsoft is still refusing to admit defeat and for a company that has over 225,000 people worldwide 9,000 is just a drop in the ocean. But that’s part of the problem, because if they were a normal company, where that volume of layoffs would be keenly felt, they’d be forced to take a more objective view of the situation.

Xbox will be 25 years old this autumn, but it was only really a power player for the first five years of the Xbox 360’s lifetime, after which it gave up its comfortable lead over the PlayStation 3 to chase the success of the Wii. This demonstrated one of Xbox’s longstanding faults: a complete lack of patience. The original Xbox was abandoned early in favour of the Xbox 360, then the Xbox 360 was abandoned in favour of Kinect, and then there was a bizarre obsession with TV for the launch of the Xbox One and, well… you know the rest.

We covered all this when Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass back in October, a decision that, true to form, they didn’t stick with. Xbox’s problems are manifold but their obsession with always looking for a short cut and never nurturing and growing the successes they do have are a recurring theme. One it seems Sharma may have identified.

It’s hard to tell exactly what Sharma thinks, given the indecipherable corporate speak she indulges in (which already sounds disarmingly like one of Phil Spencer’s scripts, right down to the bizarre goal of having 1 billion daily players) but this time she emphasised having ‘greater focus’. She didn’t say on what but based on her previous comments the obvious guess is those franchises most closely associated with Xbox (Halo, Gears Of War, Forza, and perhaps Fable) and Bethesda’s big hitters of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls.

Microsoft is legally obligated to keep Call Of Duty multiformat for several more years, so that franchise doesn’t factor into anything but their bottom line – especially after they stopped releasing it day one on Game Pass.

Sharma’s already expressed frustration at how long it’s taking to make a new Elder Scrolls and Fallout and she’s every right to do so, as Bethesda has been underperforming, in the quality and quantity of their releases, since at least Fallout 4 in 2015. A bold decision would’ve been to replace Todd Howard with new management but of, course, it’s the ordinary wage slaves that are made to suffer for a publisher’s failures, not the executives.

What will be done about Bethesda’s franchises is unclear but the obvious thing is to farm new entries out to other studios. The fact that Microsoft has owned Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian for eight years and hasn’t got so much as a remaster out of them is just one more example of bad management decisions and an inability to prioritise and schedule new releases sensibly.

People do at least want new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games though, as well as more Forza Horizon, but it’s unclear whether they feel the same about Halo and Gears Of War. Both are outdated in terms of gameplay and the latter in almost every respect, with its roided-out machomen seeming so 2006. Neither franchise prospered outside of the Xbox 360 era and while you could say that’s also due to mismanagement sometimes games are just of a certain time and place and don’t travel as far as their publishers would like them to.

Nevertheless, it seems likely Microsoft is planning to focus squarely on these franchises and to give up on the more avant-garde titles that the likes of Double Fine and Ninja Theory trade in. The latter is perfectly reasonable – a company like Microsoft should never have bought them in the first place, as Sharma seems to recognise. But focusing Xbox on Halo, Gears Of War, Forza, and Bethesda? They’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.

Having lost so many staff, and so many studios, the options for Xbox are now limited. They will need to rely more on third party developers (not that there are many big ones left, after they inspired a buying spree across the whole industry) and they will have to make a proper decision about going multiformat, rather than the nonsensical excuses they made for Gears Of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution.

The sensible decision would be to drop plans for Project Helix (even if there is anyone out there still willing to buy Xbox hardware the price alone will make it an irrelevance) and become a full-bloodied third party publisher, something like EA were back in their heyday, when they released more games than just sports titles and Battlefield. But everything Sharma has said, especially this week, seems to imply they’re not doing that.

Instead, Xbox continues to live in denial, of the fact that nobody was buying their hardware even before the memory crisis raised prices, and that except for Forza Horizon nobody is very interested in their first party games either. If Sharma is secretly winding down Xbox, or planning to sell it off, she’s really committing to the deception, but the far more likely truth is that she’s doing exactly what it looks like: trying to turn the clock back to the pre-Xbox Series X days, if not pre-Xbox One.

No doubt that sounds like a good idea in the boardroom but it makes no practical sense. You can’t make games that cost hundreds of millions of dollars exclusive on a console that too few people own, because it’s impossible to make your money back. And nobody’s going to buy new hardware in order to play new entries in franchises that reached their natural end 15 years ago. Not to mention the folly of even thinking about making The Elder Scrolls 6 an exclusive.

If that’s not Sharma’s plan then good, because maybe it’ll have a chance of succeeding but it’s the only obvious option for her, based on her recent statements and her current resources. If she has an ace up her sleeve, that no one is yet aware of, then that would be the best news possible for the whole games industry, as we’ve already see how Sony is carrying on when they have no serious competition. But it’s very hard to believe there’s any magic wand about to be waved and, in all probability, Xbox really is as doomed and desperate as it seems.

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​An election for Whitby Town Council’s West Cliff Ward will be held this week on Thursday, July 9.

​The election will see two candidates compete to take up a seat on the parish council, which consists of 19 councillors who generally serve for a four-year term.

​The candidates are Bev Breese and Amanda Louise Everson.

​All councillors’ roles are voluntary, and members do not receive remuneration for the work.

​Residents of the West Cliff ward will be able to vote at Whitby Leisure Centre’s Community Room on Thursday.

​The polls will open at 7am and members of the public will be able to cast their ballots until 10pm on July 9.

​The by-election arose following Sarah Blackwell’s resignation earlier this year.

​The next full meeting of Whitby Town Council is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, July 28.

​

(Image: Newsquest)

Director and actor Jayden Robinson, 22, a recent journalism graduate from York St John University is the man behind Triesverse: Cataclysm, which premieres at the Savoy Cinema in Doncaster on Saturday, August 2.

The film was shot across York, Doncaster, and Nottingham and is the latest instalment in the Triesverse action-comedy series which Jayden said features a small appearance from Paul McGann, who also recorded an exclusive message for the audience attending the premiere.

The TV, film and theatre actor from Liverpool is best known for roles as “I” in the 1987 independent British film Withnail & I.

He also potrayed the eighth Doctor in a 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, and the BBC drama serial The Monocled Mutineer.

Well-known British actor Paul McGann has a very brief cameo in the film and recorded a message for audiences attending the premiere (Image: Jayden Robinson)

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Jayden Robinson said: “I’m over the moon to see the series I started working on as an 11-year-old has reached heights such as this.

“I can confidently say that I have never worked as hard on anything in my life so far, and I am ecstatic to show everyone how we bring this wacky world to a close.”

Jayden said the new film is part of the Triesverse franchise (Image: Jayden Robinson)

Beginning with Jayden Tries: The First Movie in 2016, Jayden said the low-budget series has developed a following for its self-aware humour, eccentric characters, and expanding mythology.

Triesverse: Cataclysm forms part of a two-part finale and is described as the franchise’s most ambitious entry yet.

Izzy Jeeves, who plays Izz Fury, said: “As someone who joined the Triesverse more recently than other performers, I feel very honoured to be a part of such an incredible project.

“Cataclysm has been so much fun and a very fulfilling experience, introducing me to so many great people.”

Jatden said ‘Cataclysm’ promises the franchise’s biggest adventure yet (Image: Jayden Robinson)

Daniel Chapman, who portrays the lead villain, said: “Triesverse: Cataclysm has been an absolutely incredible experience, filled with action-packed drama and a highly emotional core which is rarely seen in films of its genre.”

Ethan Stringer, who appears as himself, said: “Working on this film has been a truly wholesome experience, making films and memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

“I can’t wait for people to see our latest addition to the narrative.”

Following its theatrical premiere, the film is expected to be released on the Jayden Robinson Media website shortly afterwards, making it accessible to fans worldwide.

Triesverse: Cataclysm will receive a special limited-edition theatrical premiere at The Savoy Cinema, Sir Nigel Gresley Square, Waterdale, Doncaster on August 2.

The once extremely-rare weather event is becoming increasingly common

Tropical nights are set to hit the UK later this week as a third heatwave of the year was officially declared. Temperatures expected to climb as high as 35C in some areas later this week, the Met Office has said.

South east England has now officially met the heatwave criteria, after three days of temperatures above 28C, according to the forecaster.

And temperatures are set to continue to rise across the UK throughout the week, and more regions are likely to reach their local heatwave thresholds it is predicted with the mercury peaking into the 30s in multiple areas.

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Parts of southern England could see temperature highs of about 32C on Tuesday, rising to 33C on Wednesday and 34C on Thursday, with the highest readings of 35C forecast for isolated areas on Friday and Saturday.

By the weekend, the warm air is forecast to reach northern parts of the UK, and conditions are set to become increasingly humid, with a growing risk of showers or isolated thunderstorms. Amber heat health alerts have also been issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) for the Midlands and southern England, from 9am on Wednesday until 9pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile, yellow heat health alerts have been issued by the agency for Yorkshire and northern England, also between 9am on Wednesday to 9pm on Sunday.

The Met Office said UV levels are expected to be high or very high across many parts of the UK throughout the week, and advised people to ensure they use sun protection.

The UK is also expected to experience tropical nights by the end of the week. These are a weather event which are becoming more increasingly common as temperatures continue to rise.

What are tropical nights?

As the UK experiences increasingly warmer summers, the phenomenon of tropical nights is becoming more relevant to both weather forecasting and public health, the Met Office website states. They are identified by consistently warmer nights but also pose health risks.

Tropical nights are defined by a night when the temperature does not fall below 20C. Recent studies show that these are not just confined to warmer climates, and that the UK is now seeing more frequent occurrences of these events and particularly during heatwaves.

The likelihood of experiencing three consecutive tropical nights during July has increased significantly due to climate change. In a pre-industrial climate the probability was less than one per cent per year. However, in today’s climate, that probability has risen to approximately 20 per cent per year.

“In July 2022, the UK experienced three consecutive tropical nights, marking a significant milestone in the country’s climate history,” The Met Office website reads. “This event was characterised by minimum temperatures remaining above 20C for three successive 24-hour periods. Such conditions pose serious health risks, especially for vulnerable populations.”

Tropical nights can also affect human health, the Met Office explained. This is because the body relies on cooler night time temperatures to regulate core temperature and recover from daytime heat.

When overnight temperatures remain high, the recovery process can not be carried out and can lead to increased cardiovascular stress and sleep disturbances. High night time temperatures are also linked to increased mortality, particularly among older adults and those with pre-existing health conditions.

Most of the 23million savers who own Premium Bonds bought them to be in with a chance of winning the £1million jackpot – but also with the reassuring prospect that they’ll profit from the bountiful smaller prizes handed out each month.

But shockingly, almost two in three savers who have put money into the savings product run by Treasury-backed National Savings and Investments will never win a prize.

Some 14.3million – or 62 per cent – of Premium Bond holders have never won a prize, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by investment platform AJ Bell has found.

It found that the average saver who has never won a prize has £128.91 stashed away in Premium Bonds and they have held this for just over eight years.

It may sound like a small amount, but these unlucky savings will be stung by a nasty cocktail of lost spending power and missed opportunities to grow. And many savers will have a far greater amount stashed in these accounts. So how much are Premium Bonds really costing you?

Lost spending power

If your bonds are disappointing you month after month, your savings are wasting away.

This is because of the way Premium Bonds work. Savers can invest between £25 and £50,000 and, unlike regular savings accounts, do not get a regular interest payment.

Instead, each £1 bond is entered in a prize draw every month, where tax-free prizes of £25 to £1million are on offer. Savers can cash in their original stake whenever they want.

While bond holders are never guaranteed a win, an average saver could expect a return of 3.8 per cent from this month’s draw.

This means for every £100 held in Premium Bonds, around £3.80 is currently paid out in prizes.

Two lucky holders every month win £1million each and there are smaller prizes from £100,000 down to £25.

Each bond has odds of 22,000- to-one of winning any prize – and if you don’t win, you don’t get a return on your cash.

Charlene Young, of AJ Bell, explains: ‘This means that over time, you’re losing spending power after inflation and the impact can be shocking.’

If you don’t win any prizes, your money can’t stretch as far today as it would have done eight years ago because prices have soared with inflation.

So the average non-winner who saved £128.91 in Premium Bonds eight years ago has lost £64.84 in real terms over that time, says Young.

That’s because prices climbed by 50.3 per cent in the 8.1 years (the average length of time savers kept money in Premium Bonds) to this February, when the FoI details were obtained.

For this £128.91 holding to have the same purchasing power now as it did in 2018, it would need to be worth £193.75.

What could you buy?

This lost spending power may seem arbitrary but it will restrict how far your money will stretch when you spend it.

For example, take the average £128.91 unlucky holding.

Eight years ago, this would have paid for around 104 litres of petrol, whereas now it will buy only 81 litres.

In 2018, £128.91 may have managed to buy six to seven meals at a half-decent restaurant. Now it will only buy around four to five.

Or take a food shop in 2018. This amount of money would have easily covered a weekly food shop for a family of four. But now, that same family may need to find an extra £30 to cover the same shop.

Missed opportunity

Not only have the funds in these bonds lost spending power, they have missed the opportunity to grow in the way they would have elsewhere.

If one of these savers had instead placed their money in cash, their pot would have grown to £153.35 – a rise of around 19 per cent, according to calculations by AJ Bell.

This tepid growth pales in comparison to the 50.3 per cent rise in Retail Prices Index inflation over the same time.

However, had they invested the money in the stock market, it would now be worth £312.12. This assumes the sum is held in a global tracker fund that climbed by 142 per cent in value over the last 8.1 years.

Young says: ‘Over this kind of period, it makes sense to consider investing because five to ten years is usually long enough to ride out the short-term ups and downs, and take advantage of long-term growth potential.’

This climb more than doubles the original sum.

Yet with the money in Premium Bonds, it would not have grown at all.

Plus £128.91 is only the average non-winning holding. It means many savers will have more than this in their account.

Take someone with £1,000 in non-winning Premium Bonds. Had they invested that in a global tracker fund that follows the stock market instead, they’d now have £2,420.

Hold out for the win

Despite these damning figures, there’s one dream that keeps savers holding on to their Premium Bonds – that they could, one day, win the £1million jackpot.

It’s extremely unlikely, even for those with the full £50,000 saved, let alone just £128.91.

The chance of winning the jackpot with a £1 holding in last month’s draw was one in 68.4 billion.

But it is possible. Take the £1million prize from March last year. The winner, from Cleveland, snatched it with just £100 saved in Premium Bonds.

That’s the smallest amount to win big over the past ten years. And they had held the bonds for fewer than two years.

The smallest holding ever to hit the jackpot was £17 in July 2004. That winner was in Newham, east London.

Young says: ‘If you’ve left money in bonds for years it is worth considering how much you’ve won and asking whether you have kept pace with inflation or whether your money could work harder for you.’

This weekend, I was at a BBQ when the subject of Taylor Swift’s wedding extravaganza and her choice of song to walk down the aisle to came up.

It was an instrumental version of Love Story, one of the first songs she wrote. As all Swifties will know, she has described it as the most romantic song she’s ever written – her version of Romeo and Juliet with an epic proposal and a happy ending.

‘It’s like Taylor manifested her own proposal and wedding,’ observed one of the guests. That made me smile.

These days, I hear someone mention manifesting at least once a week – even the male contestants on Love Island are at it.

I’ve come to realise I’ve been manifesting my entire life with huge success.

I didn’t understand that’s what I’d been doing until the day my first novel, The Four Streets, became a bestseller in 2014.

I remember the moment clearly. I was in a Cotswolds coffee shop with a friend when Piers, my agent, called and told me to check how my newly released book was doing on Amazon.

I opened the page on my phone and watched as the number of five-star ratings clicked up and up. As I refreshed, the orange No1 bestseller tab appeared.

This may sound arrogant but, in all honesty, I wasn’t in the least bit surprised, which possibly tempered some of the joy I should have felt in that moment.

That’s not because I thought I was super talented but because I’d not expected anything less.

Every word had been written against a backdrop of me imagining that call from Piers and visualising that orange banner next to the title of my book. In the coffee shop, I was simply reliving a moment that had played on a loop in my mind for over a year.

However, it was the words of the (now former) friend opposite me which made me think more deeply about it all.

‘It’s amazing,’ he said. ‘Because really, you had no right for that to happen, did you? I mean so many people write a book but only a handful of many thousands published every year become bestsellers. How did that happen? Why yours and not any of the others?’

He was right – but how to explain to him that I knew exactly why. It happened because at no point had any other scenario been an option.

Call it manifesting or setting goals, or a surfeit of self-belief and grit, but it had happened to me before.

When I started my business – a childcare consultancy for working parents and firms – from my bedroom in 1988, I set the mental goal that I would sell it in ten years. I spoke about that ambition every day to my husband – not as a possibility, but as the reality.

When I decided I wanted to become an MP, I spoke and behaved as if it was happening. I wrote ‘My Place of Work’ on a photo of the House of Commons and stuck it on the fridge door. I read it out loud to myself every time I opened the fridge door. And I visualised myself standing between the green benches, making a speech.

I know now that it isn’t just me doing this. Many people visualise the future they want and make it happen. The key is to eradicate every shred of self-doubt and to believe – deep down in your very soul – it has already happened.

Take actor Nick Frost, who has been cast as Hagrid in the upcoming HBO TV adaptation of Harry Potter. ‘Before I was cast as Hagrid my partner suggested trying to manifest it,’ he said. ‘So, I watched every Harry Potter movie back-to-back and wrote out by hand the word Hagrid, 7,000 times.’

Actor Nick Frost, who has been cast as Hagrid in the upcoming HBO TV adaptation of Harry Potter, says he used manifesting to help secure the role

Manifestation coaches would say Frost was telling the Universe he is Hagrid. That he was manifesting the version of himself which existed in another space/time dimension and the Universe was making the rest happen.

Others would argue Frost is an accomplished actor who knew he could deliver the role, who’d done his research and nailed the audition. Well, I don’t disagree with that interpretation either.

Many would put my achievements down to being an ambitious working-class girl with a vision who’s worked with steely grit towards her life goals.

It doesn’t always go according to plan, however. Last week, after paying for an expensive holiday, I told my family: ‘It’s ok, I’m going to win a nice prize on the Premium Bonds this week.’

The next day, I saw I’d won £425. My mistake. I should have said: ‘I’m going to win the million!’

But I remain a believer. I feel I’m at a crossroads in my life now, so last night I identified five ‘goals’ for my future. I wrote out each one. I thought hard about them. Then I said each one out loud and I imagined how I would feel in the moment they came to be.

Now my job is to feel and think and behave as if all five have already arrived, to never let any doubt creep in.

To sceptics, I say: This is what I want from life because if you don’t truly know what it is you want – or even who you want to be – how are you ever going to achieve it?

Find a man who hugs like this

Kate, Princess of Wales, gets a hug from Prince William after finishing the Three Peaks Challenge in aid of The Royal Marsden cancer charity

The bear hug Prince William bestowed on Kate after she completed the Three Peaks Challenge tells you all you need to know about the road this couple has travelled.

It was the hug of a man who is in awe of his wife – who knows and values who, and what, he has by his side. It was the wholehearted hug of a man who has confronted the possibility of loss and never wants to let go. And it’s a lesson to single women everywhere.

Find a man who hugs you like William hugs Kate and settle for nothing less.

It’s winning that counts 

Last week, my granddaughter told me sports day was imminent. Don’t forget, I told her, it’s not the taking part that counts, it’s the winning.

The lecture that followed from my daughter was off the scale. You’d have thought I’d told the child to chop off her pigtails. But my granddaughter knew what I meant, looked me straight in the eye and smiled.

It is a gran’s job to cut through this woke ‘taking part’ nonsense! Sports day was yesterday and, dear reader, she won! Granny always knows best.

Cheer up, Adele, F1 is thrilling

Adele walks in the paddock during the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit

Adele was at Silverstone at the weekend – and looking pretty fed up about it, too. Perhaps the cameras caught her ‘resting b**ch face’. I jest.

But how can anyone attending the British Grand Prix not enjoy it? One of the best days of my life was spent there as Culture Secretary, when I presented the Spanish driver Carlos Sainz with his F1 trophy and got sprayed with Champagne by Lewis Hamilton.

I spent the day on the grid, in the trophy room and milling around with the drivers before watching the race. It was utterly thrilling, and an amazing day I will always remember. If you think F1 isn’t your thing, watch the Netflix TV series, Drive To Survive – but be warned, you will end up hooked.

I have been reliably informed about the potential of a local hosepipe ban, should this gorgeous weather continue. Well, I can tell you this, no hosepipe ban is going to be responsible for the withering of my glorious agapanthus. I shall rebel!

If you didn’t get an invite to Taylor Swift’s wedding, then check your spam folder, because it feels as if everyone (except her former BFF Blake Lively) got one!