Transport minister Mike Kane said the Government wants to ‘maximise the benefits of future flight technologies including flying taxis’.

The US president had pressed for the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet in the Turkish capital on Thursday.

The announcement comes in the same week that the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats passed 12,000 for the year.

The banking giant is now set to become fully private almost 17 years after receiving a state bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.