![Six face courts on terror charges]()
Six men are due to appear in court accused of terror offences.
The men, all from Birmingham, were charged on Sunday night after being arrested in a major operation by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, West Midlands Police said.
Four were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two more with failing to disclose information. One of those two was also charged with terrorist fundraising.
Irfan Nasser, 30, Irfan Khalid, 26, Ashik Ali, 26, and Rahin Ahmed, 25, are all charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to the Terrorism Act 2006.
It is alleged that between Christmas Day 2010 and September 19 this year, they were preparing, or helping others prepare, to commit acts of terrorism.
For Nasser, from Sparkhill, Khalid, from Sparkbrook, and Ali, from Balsall Heath, this is alleged to have included planning a bombing campaign; stating an intention to be a suicide bomber; collecting money for terrorism; making or helping make a homemade bomb for terrorism; and recruiting people for terrorism.
Nasser and Khalid are also accused of travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism including bomb making, weapons and poison making, as well as making a 'martyrdom' film.
Ahmed, from Moseley, is accused of helping others travel to Pakistan for terrorism training, collecting money for terrorism and investing and managing money for terrorist acts.
Ashik Ali's brother Bahader Ali, 28, and Mohammed Rizwan, 32, both from Sparkbrook, are both charged with failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism.
It is alleged that between July 29 and September 19 this year, both had information which they knew may help prevent the commission of an act of terrorism but did not disclose the information. Bahader Ali is also charged with terrorist fundraising. All six men will appear at West London Magistrates' Court.
The mother of a young police officer killed by terrorists has spoken of her pride and sorrow as her son was remembered at a ceremony.
Constable Ronan Kerr, 25, died in April when an improvised explosive device detonated under his car outside his home in Omagh, Co Tyrone. He had started operational duty just four months earlier.
Speaking after a ceremony in Glasgow to mark the National Police Memorial Day, his mother Nuala Kerr said her son had died doing what he loved.
Fighting back tears, she said: "The fact that Ronan has been remembered means so much. He would have been proud - but he didn't want to be remembered in this way.
"His death has made a difference.
"We are so proud of him, but at the same time very sad as a family because of his death. We didn't expect to lose Ronan so soon. It has been very difficult for all of us. It is very sad that he was really good at his job and he didn't get to have the years doing what was his niche."
The lives of some 4,000 police officers who have given their lives in the line of duty since the birth of modern policing were remembered in the emotional service at the Royal Concert Hall.
Chief among those paying their respects was the Prince of Wales, who is the memorial day's patron.
In a foreword to the programme handed to the friends and families of the dead, Prince Charles wrote: "It is only right and proper that we honour the supreme valour and remarkable heroism that make the British police service respected and admired around the world.
"Day after day the brave men and women who police our nation place our safety above that of their own. All too often the extraordinary courage displayed by our police results in the ultimate sacrifice being paid. Those brave officers, who gave their all for us, deserve to be honoured and remembered."
Two injured soldiers have completed a 500-mile cycle which has seen them ride from Edinburgh to London to raise money for charity.
Riflemen Michael Swain and Paul Jacobs, who were both injured in Afghanistan, were part of a group of 30 cyclists riding to raise money for armed forces support charity SSAFA Forces Help's Ride of Britain.
They set off from Edinburgh Castle on September 21 and took five days to arrive at Horse Guards Parade in central London.
Rifleman Swain, 21, from 3 Rifles, completed the ride on a hand bike, having lost his legs in a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan in 2009.
He said: "I put in a lot of training beforehand, but the first two days were really tough because of the weather and hilly terrain. From then on it was fantastic and also brilliant to be cycling with two lads who I serve with in 3 Rifles."
Rifleman Jacobs, 22, from 2 Rifles, was blinded in 2009 by a blast as he tried to save a comrade.
He completed the Ride of Britain on a tandem bike with his brother.
He said: "Admittedly, the first day was a hard one. Our chain broke, the weather was dreadful and the hills were huge. Despite this I had a fantastic time.
"There were some incredible cyclists here - we all got along famously and had great banter."
He added: "SSAFA Forces Help has helped me and I wanted to give something back to them and tell people about the work they do." A spokeswoman for SSAFA Forces Help said that the charity hoped to have raised at least £40,000 through the Ride of Britain.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has admitted he has "a long way" to go to convince voters to back his party at the next general election.
On the opening day of the party's annual conference in Liverpool, he insisted Labour is "on the way back" - but said it would take time for people to "tune back in".
He and other senior Labour figures acknowledged the party's failings in government on the economy, immigration and welfare.
In an interview with BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Miliband said: "When you lose an election, and we had our second worst result since we were founded in 1910, it takes time for people to tune back in to you."
He went on: "We are a party on the way back. There's a long way to go and I, more than anyone, know the scale of the task. But, you know what's most important? I know who I am and I know where I want to take this country and that's what I'm going to be talking about this week."
He admitted the former Labour government - in which he and shadow chancellor Ed Balls were cabinet ministers - got "some things wrong" on immigration, had failed to shift the emphasis of Britain's "fast buck economy" and had not shown enough financial discipline.
His message was reinforced on the conference platform by shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne, who said he had heard from ordinary voters that Labour had grown "out of touch" and "got it wrong on issues close to their heart - on immigration, on welfare, on control of banks".
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett warned that Mr Miliband's political message is not being heard by voters and that Labour would not win if an election was held today.
And amid continued questions about Labour's economic credibility, former Labour Treasury minister Lord Myners accused the shadow cabinet of having no understanding of business.
Mr Miliband's leadership won lavish praise from Labour left-winger Michael Meacher, however, who said: "He is moving the Labour Party in the direction which it needs to go, away from privatised markets, away from deregulated finance, away from unfettered free markets, to a different kind of policy which deals with the banks, which deals with big corporations, which deals with the Murdoch press."
Six men have been charged with terror offences after they were arrested last week in a major operation.
The men, all from Birmingham, were arrested as part of a major operation carried out by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, West Midlands Police said.
The force said four men have been charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two more with failing to disclose information. One of those two was also charged with terrorist fundraising.
Labour's annual conference has got under way in Liverpool, with delegates voicing their anger at "vicious, venomous and vindictive" Government cuts.
Thousands of MPs, councillors and grassroots activists gathered for the five-day rally which party officials have themed "fulfilling the promise of Britain".
But there were tears as conference chairman Norma Stephenson announced her decision to step down, and controversy as constituency Labour Party members criticised the time allocated to debate plans for "refounding" the party.
Welcoming delegates to Liverpool, the Labour leader of the city council, Joe Anderson, urged activists to highlight to the public the differences between Labour and the Conservatives.
He said: "We need to tell them and we need to tell them loud and clear that there are ideological and principled differences that separate us.
"While the previous Labour Government, based on Labour values, targeted its resources towards the poor and those most in need, it's the Tories, based on their principles and values, that have targeted the most savage cuts in generations to the poor and those most in need."
Mr Anderson accused the coalition of "a venomous, vicious and vindictive onslaught, never seen before".
Clutching a cardboard sign bearing the slogan "Vote Ken for London" - in a reference to Ken Livingstone's bid to become the capital's mayor next year - Mr Anderson told the conference: "We need to keep reminding ourselves and the public that during 13 years of a Labour Government, we saw cities treated fairly and recognised and respected as part of UK plc.
"We saw Liverpool, along with other core cities, benefit from massive investment and support."
He claimed the "global economic crisis" was "not caused by Labour but by those institutions who abused the trust of the nation". He added: "We know that, they know that and the Tories know that. This message needs to be made loud and clear: there is a better way - the Labour Party way."
Workers at defence giant BAE Systems are braced for grim news of thousands of job losses which unions warn will deliver a "hammer blow" to manufacturing.
Leading unions called for urgent talks with the company over the impending jobs cull, which is expected to see 3,000 posts axed at the firm's military aircraft division.
Unite said it needs immediate clarification of which sites will be hit, and pledged to press for redundancies to be voluntary.
Sites expected to be worst affected are in Warton, Lancashire, and Brough, East Yorkshire, where workers will hear their fate in the coming days.
Unite national officer Ian Waddell said: "These job losses will be a hammer blow to the UK defence industry, which is already reeling with the consequences of the Government's 'buy off the shelf' policy."
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the news is "a devastating blow for Lancashire and Yorkshire and a real knock for UK manufacturing", adding: "We need a fast response from ministers with a clear plan of action. At a time when it is so hard to find a new job, this is a dreadful moment to lose the one you have.
"The defence industry is vital to the UK, supporting both our forces on the frontline and the wider UK economy. Labour's industrial strategy has been replaced with this Government's deficit reduction plan and as a result both our industrial base and our equipment programme are being hit."
GMB national officer Keith Hazlewood said: "There were indications that there might be more job losses at BAE on top of the redundancies that have already happened but I am shocked by the scale of these cuts. This is a devastating blow for these communities, for the aerospace sector and for UK manufacturing."
A BAE spokeswoman said: "BAE Systems has informed staff that we are reviewing our operations across various businesses to make sure the company is performing as effectively and efficiently as possible, both in delivering our commitments to existing customers and ensuring the company is best placed to secure future business
"As the outcome of this review becomes clear, we will, as always, communicate to our employees as a priority."
Thousands of Palestinians cheering and waving flags have given President Mahmoud Abbas a hero's welcome in the West Bank, and he triumphantly told them a "Palestinian Spring" had been born following his historic speech to the UN last week.
Mr Abbas's popularity has skyrocketed since he asked the UN on Friday to recognise Palestinian independence, defying appeals from Israel and the United States to return to peace talks. His request has pushed the region into uncharted waters, and left the international community scrambling over how to respond.
Thousands of people crowded his West Bank headquarters in the city of Ramallah to get a glimpse of the 76-year-old president upon his return from New York. Mr Abbas was uncharacteristically animated, shaking his hands and waving to the audience.
He compared his campaign to the Arab Spring, the mass demonstrations sweeping the Arab world in hopes of freedom, saying that an independent Palestinian state is inevitable.
"We have told the world that there is the Arab Spring, but the Palestinian Spring has been born," he said. "A popular spring, a populist spring, a spring of peaceful struggle that will reach its goal."
He warned that the Palestinians face a "long path" ahead. "There are those who would put out obstacles... but with your presence they will fall and we will reach our end," he said.
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israel says it is ready for peace talks, but has rejected Palestinian calls to freeze construction of Jewish settlements in lands claimed by the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also rejected Palestinian demands that the borders between Israel and a future Palestine be based on the 1967 pre-war lines.
Mr Abbas last week asked the UN Security Council to grant the Palestinians full UN membership. The Security Council is expected to study the request for several weeks before making a decision, though the US - Israel's closest ally - has promised to veto the request if it proceeds.
As an alternative, the Palestinians say they will seek lesser observer status in the General Assembly - short of full statehood but a position that would allow them to join international bodies where they could push their agenda against Israel.
Temperatures across large parts of Britain are increasing and could peak at 27C this week, forecasters have said.
High pressure currently over Europe is set to drift northwards bringing warm southerly winds and sunshine to as far north as Scotland.
Helen Rossington, senior meteorologist at MeteoGroup, said temperatures would climb from Tuesday with a high of up to 24C in parts of south east England and Lincolnshire.
"At the moment, it looks like Friday, and possibly Saturday are going to be the warmest days of the week with temperatures probably getting locally up to 27C in the south east corner of England, Lincolnshire and probably East Anglia.
"I think on Sunday, the high pressure will start to move away to the west which is not so good, because that means that the winds start to come round again from a northerly direction.
"If you are in western Scotland it is not going to be so great, but because high pressure is the dominant feature, it is going to be a very warm and pleasant end to September."
She said temperatures had reached a high of 22.9C in Mildenhall, Suffolk, on Sunday. Although the forecast is good for Monday, she said there could be some heavy showers in parts of south east England.
The mini heatwave compares to an average maximum temperature for September of 19.1C in south east England.
This week is the worst of the year for money worries as summer holiday bills arrive, children return to school, universities open and planning for Christmas spending begins, according to a new report.
Credit card firm Capital One said it had worked out a formula on when people felt the most pressure on their finances, which included higher heating bills as the weather turns cold, increased use of cars, children's child care and other costs associated with this time of year.
Brian Cole, managing director of Capital One, said: "We know that it can be a worrying and stressful time when you've got lots of bills coming in and imminent payments like winter fuel bills and Christmas."
Professor Geoff Beattie of Manchester University, who calculated the formula, said: "It was important to examine both retrospective financial pressures, such as summer bills hitting the doormat for child care and the family holiday as well as the cost of new uniforms and back to school equipment, alongside the prospective financial pressures, such as increased use of transport and rising fuel costs as winter approaches, to define when cash going out the door combined with psychological concerns about finance can create a money meltdown."
Up to £1 million a year will be taken from the wages of prisoners who work in communities and used to support victims of crime, ministers have said.
About 500 inmates who work outside prisons will see their take-home pay cut by up to 40% and used to help support victims as part of Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke's rehabilitation revolution, the Ministry of Justice said.
Ministers are also planning to bring in powers to target the wages of prisoners working inside jails, but the average prisoner working behind bars receives just £10 per week.
Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: "For too long the financial burden of repairing the damage done by crime has fallen to the taxpayer alone.
"Making offenders pay financial reparation to victims will require them to take personal responsibility for their crimes and go some way towards making redress to victims through the funding of crucial support services."
Under the Prisoners' Earnings Act which comes into force today, 40% of prisoners' wages over £20 per week - after tax, National Insurance and any court-ordered or child support payments - will be deducted and given to Victim Support.
Javed Khan, the charity's chief executive, said the money will be used "to deliver real, practical support for victims and communities".
"Getting prisoners working and developing workplace skills should help them on the path to reform," he said. "This will be very much welcomed by victims as they are united in wanting offenders to stop committing crimes."
Victims' Commissioner Louise Casey added: "Victims want criminals to be punished for their crimes and make amends for the harm they have caused.
"I believe the principle of criminals contributing to the costs of support for victims should be extended, and am hopeful that the Government will now extend the victims' surcharge that judges and magistrates impose such that it applies to all offenders."
A business leader has called on Britain's schools to do more to encourage enterprise among young people in a bid to drive economic growth.
Sir Brian Souter, chief executive of transport giant Stagecoach, said urgent action was needed to boost the employability of youngsters and improve their skills.
The firm, which operates bus and train services across the country, said creating private sector jobs was more important than ever at a time of shrinking public sector employment.
"Entrepreneurs are the engine room of the economy and crucial to a sustained recovery. Without question, we have people with potential in our own country, but I think more needs to be done at an earlier stage to nurture new business talent in the education system," said Sir Brian.
"Too much emphasis is placed on academic achievement and not enough on encouraging new ideas and enterprise. We need to change that.
"We need to help young people become more employable and develop the practical skills that can make a difference between a slide into benefit dependency and a ladder to economic opportunity."
Stagecoach announced a three-year partnership with the Enterprise Education Trust, which includes funding towards practical business awareness courses for hundreds of young people.
The two-day programmes give 16 to 19-year-old students an understanding of business and its role in the economy, offering a practical understanding of sales and marketing, human resources, management and design, information technology and finance.
David Millar, chief executive of the Enterprise Education Trust, said: "Our research has found that generally as few as 34% of students in our target age range of 14-19 have a positive impression of business," adding that this rises to 98% after people attend one of the trust's programmes.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is to seek to restore public confidence in Labour's economic competence by promising to submit to tough new rules requiring the party to tackle Britain's debts if it gets back into power.
The rules - which would bar a future Labour chancellor from allowing the national deficit to swell as it did under Gordon Brown - will be included in Labour's manifesto for the next general election and will be subject to monitoring by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, Mr Balls will say.
The shadow chancellor will also promise to use any profits from the sale of the state share in RBS and Lloyds to pay down Britain's debts, rather than to fund a pre-election give-away to voters, as he says Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would do.
The move would echo Mr Brown's decision in 2000 to use £22.5 billion from the sale of third-generation mobile phone licenses to pay off debt.
In his keynote speech to Labour's annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Balls will paint a gloomy picture of Britain's prospects, warning of a "lost decade of economic stagnation" unless growth is revived.
He will accuse Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne of "getting the economy badly wrong" and choking off a fragile recovery by cutting too hard and too fast since the coalition Government came to power last year.
And he will repeat calls for "a global plan for growth" to restore momentum to the stalled world economy.
Speaking to conference for the first time as shadow chancellor, Mr Balls will acknowledge that Labour faces a fight to regain its "credibility" on the economy following the crisis that engulfed Britain during Mr Brown's time in power.
Despite consistently leading the Conservatives by as much as 11 points in the polls this year, Labour regularly trails Tories badly when voters are asked which party they trust to run the economy.
With the economy certain to dominate voters' concerns over the run-up to the election scheduled for 2015, party strategists know they must reassure the electorate that Labour can be trusted not to ramp up debt by opening the tap on spending.
Supporters of residents from the UK's largest illegal travellers' site have called for the council pressing for their eviction to "return to the negotiating table".
On Friday residents at Dale Farm in Essex were given another stay of execution when a judge continued an existing injunction until 4pm tomorrow to prevent Basildon Council from clearing the site.
But groups supporting the travellers have urged Basildon Council to return to the negotiating table, saying to continue the action will only see costs spiral even further out of control.
Council officials said the site - thought to be home to around 400 travellers - contains about 50 illegal pitches. They say the clearance operation will already cost the taxpayers around £18 million.
Campaign group Dale Farm Solidarity called for a "common-sense approach", saying pursuing an eviction would be a win for no-one, and a partial eviction would be a devastating outcome for families and cash-strapped local services.
It said several high-profile figures had offered to mediate, including Bishops Thomas McMahon and Stephen Cottrell, UN representations, and local MEP Richard Howitt.
Kate O'Shea, from Dale Farm Solidarity, said: "We call on Tony Ball (council leader) to return to the negotiation table.
"The situation at Dale Farm needs a sensible and common-sense approach, and we urge all parties to use this pause to find an amicable solution.
"The UN and two local bishops have offered to mediate any talks should this be required, and we urge Tony Ball to accept their offer."
The Gypsy Council echoed the calls, saying it had become clear during Friday's hearing that the site would not necessarily be returned to open countryside, even if the eviction went ahead.
Travellers fighting to stay on the UK's biggest illegal site are due to discover whether they have won the latest round of a legal battle.
A High Court judge is due to rule on a bid to block evictions at the Dale Farm site near Basildon, Essex, after hearing legal argument on Friday in London.
Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart granted a temporary injunction preventing Basildon Council from clearing the site - thought to house around 400 travellers - pending a decision.
Travellers say they fear that evictions will not be carried out lawfully and that council officials will "over-enforce". They want the judge to rule that the case raises issues which should be fully aired later at a trial.
Lawyers for the travellers and the council - which says the eviction operation will cost the taxpayer around £18 million - analysed details of eviction plans for specific plots on Friday.
The judge described the debate as a "difficult area".
Travellers have more litigation in the pipeline - which could further delay evictions. They want a judge to review the validity of council eviction decisions. Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart is expected to hear arguments on that challenge in the near future.
The travellers' supporters have called on Basildon Council representatives to "return to the negotiating table", saying that continuing the action will only see costs spiral even further out of control.
Campaign group Dale Farm Solidarity said several high-profile figures had offered to mediate, including Bishops Thomas McMahon and Stephen Cottrell, UN representatives and local MEP Richard Howitt.
Kate O'Shea, from Dale Farm Solidarity, said: "We call on Tony Ball (council leader) to return to the negotiation table. The situation at Dale Farm needs a sensible and common-sense approach, and we urge all parties to use this pause to find an amicable solution."
The proportion of young people admitting to having had unprotected sex with a new partner has risen over the past two years, according to a study.
A study of British 16 to 19-year-olds has shown 61% have had sex, with 43% of those who were sexually active admitting to having had sex with a new partner without using contraception compared to 36% in 2009.
Of those who admitted having had unprotected sex with a new partner, 23% said they had done so because their partner did not like using contraception, with 15% saying they had been drunk and forgot.
The proportion of girls who said they had a close friend or family member who had an unplanned pregnancy rose from 36 this year.
Only 55% of girls said they considered themselves to be very well-informed about all the contraceptive options available compared to 62% of boys, according to the study.
A total of 16% of boys and girls said they believed the "withdrawal method" was an effective form of contraception.
Nearly one in five girls, 19%, and 16% of boys said they did not receive any kind of sex education at school, with 16% of boys and girls saying they did not trust their teachers to provide accurate and unbiased information about contraceptive choices.
Researchers surveyed 200 British young people as part of a study of 6,026 15 to 24-year-olds in 29 countries conducted in April and May. The findings have been released to coincide with World Contraception Day, a campaign to improve awareness of contraception.
Jennifer Woodside, of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said: "What the results show is that too many young people either lack good knowledge about sexual health, do not feel empowered enough to ask for contraception or have not learned the skills to negotiate contraceptive use with their partners to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies or sexual transmitted infections.
"What young people are telling us is that they are not receiving enough sex education or the wrong type of information about sex and sexuality. It should not come as a surprise then that the result is many young people having unprotected sex and that harmful myths continue to flourish in place of accurate information."
Doctors are failing cancer patients "far too often" by not spotting other medical problems caused by their treatment, according to a leading expert on the disease.
Professor Jane Maher, the medical director of Macmillan Cancer Support, said she feared 500,000 people's symptoms for conditions including osteoporosis and heart disease are being missed by GPs.
She told The Guardian that their lack of knowledge about the long-term side-effects of cancer drugs and a lack of communication with hospitals were to blame.
"GPs and oncologists are failing cancer patients far too often," said Prof Maher.
"By not sharing vital information and recording clearly on the patients' medical records they are putting a significant number of cancer patients at risk of having their work, health, relationships and home lives unnecessarily spoiled by long-term side-effects of their treatment."
The National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI) estimates that 20%-25% of those diagnosed with cancer go on experience a consequence of their treatment which affects their health or quality of life.
Prof Maher added: "Based on the NCSI work looking into consequences of cancer treatment, I fear that up to 500,000 people's symptoms are being missed by GPs.
"GPs need to recognise that people who have had cancer may have health problems related to their treatment, and GPs are the best people to pick these up. But that doesn't happen nearly enough at the moment."
"At the moment GPs aren't recording whether someone has had chemotherapy or radiotherapy," she said. "That's partly because they don't get enough information from hospitals, but also because they don't realise why it's important for them to do that."
Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners said doctors needed help with the issue. She said: "If Prof Maher and the NHS tell us exactly what cancer someone has had, and what treatment, and what the possible risks are of that, and in a way that's easy to understand, we will do things better."
Stock exchanges are braced for the start of another potentially turbulent week as they react to reports of a three trillion euro bailout package.
Share prices tumbled around the world last week amid mounting frustration at the failure of eurozone countries to act to resolve the Greek debt crisis which is threatening global turmoil.
Finance ministers gathered in Washington for crisis talks were reported to have accepted that Athens would be allowed to default on some of its debts.
Chancellor George Osborne warned that decisive action was required within six weeks, saying the world had reached a "dangerous phase" amid fears of a renewed recession.
He said he was "optimistic" however that the gathering of colleagues from the G20 nations and a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had made progress.
A plan to rescue the European single currency, costing two-three trillion euros (£2.6 trillion), could be revealed within days, according to several reports.
It is believed to involve beefing up the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and an injection of funds into a number of continental banks.
The plans would lead to an orderly default by Greece but allow the country to remain within the eurozone in a bid to relieve some of the economic pressure on Spain and Italy.
After Saturday's meeting, the IMF sought to reassure markets, managing director Christine Lagarde saying there had been a "common diagnosis and a shared sense of common purpose".
The situation remained "precarious" however, the IMF noted, and suggested that it may not have the funds to bail out larger eurozone economies if the crisis is allowed to spread. That raised fears among eurosceptics about a potential new call on UK funds.
Unions are urging defence giant BAE Systems to redeploy staff set to be hit by a huge jobs cull, warning that valuable skills could be lost forever.
Workers at the firm are braced for grim news of up to 3,000 job cuts, with thousands more threatened in the supply chain.
Sites expected to be worst affected are in Warton, Lancashire, and Brough, East Yorkshire, in BAE's military aircraft division.
Union officials said the Government's defence cuts were to blame for the job losses, which they described as a "hammer blow" to manufacturing, as orders for the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet slow down.
BAE has a 33% stake in the Eurofighter joint venture company alongside EADS and Finmeccanica and has received orders for some 550 planes from the four partner nations involved - the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Unite said it needed immediate clarification of which sites will be hit, and pledged to press for redundancies to be voluntary.
National officer Ian Waddell said: "These job losses will be a hammer blow to the UK defence industry, which is already reeling with the consequences of the Government's 'buy off the shelf' policy."
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the news was "a devastating blow for Lancashire and Yorkshire and a real knock for UK manufacturing", adding: "We need a fast response from ministers with a clear plan of action. At a time when it is so hard to find a new job this is a dreadful moment to lose the one you have."
"Labour's industrial strategy has been replaced with this Government's deficit reduction plan and as a result both our industrial base and our equipment programme are being hit."
GMB national officer Keith Hazlewood said: "There were indications that there might be more job losses at BAE on top of the redundancies that have already happened but I am shocked by the scale of these cuts. This is a devastating blow for these communities, for the aerospace sector and for UK manufacturing.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is to seek to restore public confidence in Labour's economic competence by telling the party's conference that he can make no promises to reverse coalition cuts or tax rises.
In a move that may anger rank-and-file members and unions campaigning against cuts in public services, Mr Balls will say that, almost four years ahead of the expected date of the general election, Labour cannot make pledges to restore spending slashed by the Government.
And he will seek to allay voters' fears that a future Labour Government might drive the deficit back up, by promising to submit the party to tough new rules requiring it to keep debt down.
The rules - which would bar a future Labour chancellor from allowing the national deficit to swell as it did under Gordon Brown - will be included in Labour's manifesto for the next general election and will be subject to monitoring by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, Mr Balls will say.
The shadow chancellor will also promise to use any profits from the sale of the state share in RBS and Lloyds to pay down Britain's debts, rather than to fund a pre-election give-away to voters, as he says Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would do.
The move would echo Mr Brown's decision in 2000 to use £22.5 billion from the sale of third-generation mobile phone licenses to pay off debt.
Speaking ahead of his keynote speech to Labour's annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Balls made clear he will resist activists' demands to reverse public sector spending cuts.
He told The Independent: "No matter how much we dislike particular Tory spending cuts or tax rises, we can't make promises now to reverse them. I'm clear that I won't do that and neither will any of my shadow cabinet colleagues."
Despite consistently leading the Conservatives by as much as 11 points in the polls this year, Labour regularly trails Tories badly when voters are asked which party they trust to run the economy.
Mr Balls will accuse Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne of "getting the economy badly wrong" and choking off a fragile recovery by cutting too hard and too fast since the coalition Government came to power last year.
