The UK government is to buy at least 12 new fighter jets that can carry nuclear bombs, the prime minister has announced. Sir Keir Starmer said at the Nato summit in The Hague that the new US-made F-35A jets would join Nato's airborne nuclear mission.

The decision means that Britain’s air force will have a nuclear role for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

Britain says it will buy the 12 Lockheed Martin-designed F-35As to shore up its defenses against Russia and hedge against a U.S. drawdown in Europe.