Starmer urged to affix EU and Canada in preventing Trump with retaliatory tariffs
Good morning. Keir Starmer is taking his final PMQs earlier than the Easter recess at midday, however the massive occasion as we speak will come at 9pm tonight (UK time) when President Trump pronounces sweeping world tariffs, upending the free commerce consensus seen as the premise for a century or extra of western prosperity. Right here is our newest global story on this, and right here is our in a single day UK story, by Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Richard Partington.
Bridget Phillipson was doing interview obligation on behalf of the federal government this morning. As training secretary, she shouldn’t be concerned in commerce coverage and her message was a lot the identical as Jonathan Reynolds’ when he was in the identical broadcast studios yesterday. She mentioned that the UK was “well-placed as a nation” to achieve an financial take care of the US (which could result in tariffs on the UK being decreased) and that talks have been nonetheless underway.
Keir Starmer’s stragegy – which might be crudely however precisely described as sucking as much as President Trump within the hope getting the absolute best end result for Britain – is supported by Labour MPs, and likewise by the Conservative get together. At a press convention yesterday Kemi Badenoch mentioned that the UK ought to positively rule out retaliatory tariffs, as an alternative of holding the choice open, however otherwise she is backing Starmer on this issue. And the distinction is slight as a result of Starmer doesn’t sound at all likely to deploy retaliatory tariffs anyway.
However others are urging Starmer to take a unique method. The Liberal Democrats have been urging the federal government to be far more strong with the US president, and as we speak they’re escalating that, saying Starmer needs to be forming a united entrance with the EU and Canada to battle Trump with retaliatory tariffs and different measures. In an in a single day assertion Calum Miller, Lib Dem international affairs spokesperson, mentioned:
Regardless of weeks of refusing to criticise Donald Trump’s damaging behaviour, it’s now more and more obvious that the federal government is not going to safe a carve out for the UK forward of Trump’s world tariff battle.
Trump has proven himself to be an unreliable accomplice on the financial system. Nobody, not even the US’s oldest allies, are protected from the financial hurt reaped by this White Home.
We have to finish this commerce battle as rapidly as doable. Which means working with our Canadian and European allies in a united entrance in opposition to Trump, together with retaliatory tariffs the place needed – in addition to negotiating a bespoke new customs union settlement with the EU to raised shield British companies.
Intriguingly, Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, and a journalist with in depth establisment contacts, says there are lots of people in enterprise and politics who agree with the Liberal Democrats on this. He defined why in an extended publish on social media final evening. Right here’s an extract.
Starmer has organised his navy coalition of “keen” nations to defend Ukraine in opposition to Putin within the occasion of a peace deal. My conversations with senior authorities officers, enterprise leaders and economists reveal a starvation for Starmer – or Canada’s Carney, or any elected chief of a sizeable democratic nation – to organise an “financial coalition of the keen”, to champion free commerce in opposition to Trump and his tariffs.
The idea, half of which I’ve defined earlier than, is to counter Trump’s bullying commerce ways – tomorrow’s announcement by him of tariffs on all imports to America – by threatening collectively to impose tariffs on America’s exports double or treble no matter his tariff charges turn into.
This in itself would terrify American producers and farmers, if it was a collective risk by the UK, Canada, the EU, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Australia, inter alia.
Will this concept get any traction? Possibly not as we speak, however sooner or later sooner or later it may take off. There may be some proof that No 10 is nervous about being seen as too accommodating to Trump. Yesterday, in a briefing so implausible nobody took it severely, Downing Avenue in impact sought to blame the king for Trump getting a state go to!
Right here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Kim Leadbeater holds a press convention about her assisted dying invoice, which has completed its committee stage and is again within the Commons chamber later this month.
9.15am: Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye offers proof to the Commons transport committee in regards to the electrical energy substation fireplace that closed the airport for a day.
Midday: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
2.15pm; Lord Hermer, the lawyer basic, offers proof to the joint committee on human rights.
2.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, offers proof to the Commons Treasury committee.
If you wish to contact me, please publish a message under the road or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however when you put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra more likely to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You may attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and when you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if needed.
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is just too small to appropriate. And I discover your questions very fascinating too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.
Key occasions
Keir Starmer shouldn’t be planning to talk to President Trump as we speak forward of the tariffs announcement, Steven Swinford from the Occasions reports.
Sounds like every hopes of a last-ditch concession from Donald Trump forward of his tariffs announcement are fading
Keir Starmer shouldn’t be planning to talk to him as we speak, however there are hopes that the financial deal giving Britain a carve-out might be signed as quickly as subsequent week. Sources speaking about ‘days or perhaps weeks’
However in reality No 10 doesn’t know what Trump is planning or when concessions might be made. All deeply unsure this morning
David Lammy, the international secretary, is as we speak on account of signal an intelligence-sharing settlement with Serbia supposed to disrupt individuals smuggling gangs, the Overseas Workplace says. It says nearly 22,000 individuals have been recorded utilizing the Western Balkans to transit into Europe final yr. Lammy says:
With the world changing into extra harmful and unpredictable, the Western Balkans is of essential significance to the UK and Europe’s collective safety, and the UK stays dedicated to constructing resilience and stability within the area.
Heathrow warned about energy provide days earlier than outage induced closure, MPs informed
Heathrow Airport was warned about its energy provide within the days earlier than it closed due to an outage, PA Media says. In its story from the opening of this morning’s transport committee listening to within the Commons PA stories:
Nigel Wicking, chief govt of Heathrow Airline Operators Committee, which represents airways that use the west London airport, mentioned there have been a “couple of incidents” which made him involved.
The airport was closed to all flights on till about 6pm on Friday 21 March, after an influence outage attributable to a hearth at a close-by electrical energy substation which began late the earlier evening.
This disrupted greater than 270,000 air passenger journeys.
Wicking informed the transport choose committee he spoke to the Group Heathrow director on 15 March about his issues, and the chief working officer and chief buyer officer on 19 March.
He mentioned: “It was following a few incidents of, sadly, theft of wire and cable round among the energy provide that, on a kind of events, took out the lights on the runway for a time frame.
“That clearly made me involved and, as such, I raised the purpose I needed to grasp higher the general resilience of the airport.”
Wicking mentioned he believed Heathrow’s Terminal 5 may have been able to obtain repatriation flights by “late morning” on the day of the closure, and that “there was alternative additionally to get flights out”.
Heathrow chief govt Thomas Woldbye mentioned protecting the airport open through the outage would have been “disastrous”.
He informed the committee: “It grew to become fairly clear we couldn’t function the airport safely fairly early on this course of, and that’s the reason we closed the airport.
“If we had not finished that, we might have had 1000’s of passengers stranded on the airport at excessive danger to private harm, gridlocked roads across the airport, as a result of don’t neglect 65,000 homes and different establishments have been powered down.
“Site visitors lights didn’t work, simply to present you an instance, many issues didn’t work. Components of the civil infrastructure didn’t work.
“So the chance of getting actually tens of 1000’s of individuals stranded on the airport, the place we now have would have nowhere to place them, we couldn’t course of them, would have been a disastrous state of affairs.”
71% of Britons would help retaliatory tariffs in opposition to US, ballot suggests
The standard knowledge in Westminster political circles is that, whereas choosing a battle with the US would possibly make an inspiring scene in a Richard Curtis drama, in observe it’s by no means a good suggestion.
However yesterday YouGov printed polling displaying that in Britain, and in different main European nations, there may be sturdy public help for the kind of retaliatory tariffs being proposed by the Liberal Democrats. (See 9.26am.) YouGov says 71% of Britons would help retaliatory tariffs, and solely 11% could be opposed.
UK received’t interact in ‘kneejerk’ response to Trump tariffs, says minister
Alexandra Topping has a narrative with extra on what Bridget Phillipson mentioned in her morning interview spherical. Phillipson mentioned the UK wouldn’t interact in a “kneejerk” response to any tariffs imposed by President Trump – which can also be what Keir Starmer was saying yesterday.
Affected person satisfaction with NHS has hit file low of 21%, survey finds
Public satisfaction with the NHS is at a file low and dissatisfaction is at its highest, with the deepest discontent about A&E, GP and dental care, Denis Campbell and Tobi Thomas report.
Feedback on the weblog will open at 10am.
Starmer urged to affix EU and Canada in preventing Trump with retaliatory tariffs
Good morning. Keir Starmer is taking his final PMQs earlier than the Easter recess at midday, however the massive occasion as we speak will come at 9pm tonight (UK time) when President Trump pronounces sweeping world tariffs, upending the free commerce consensus seen as the premise for a century or extra of western prosperity. Right here is our newest global story on this, and right here is our in a single day UK story, by Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Richard Partington.
Bridget Phillipson was doing interview obligation on behalf of the federal government this morning. As training secretary, she shouldn’t be concerned in commerce coverage and her message was a lot the identical as Jonathan Reynolds’ when he was in the identical broadcast studios yesterday. She mentioned that the UK was “well-placed as a nation” to achieve an financial take care of the US (which could result in tariffs on the UK being decreased) and that talks have been nonetheless underway.
Keir Starmer’s stragegy – which might be crudely however precisely described as sucking as much as President Trump within the hope getting the absolute best end result for Britain – is supported by Labour MPs, and likewise by the Conservative get together. At a press convention yesterday Kemi Badenoch mentioned that the UK ought to positively rule out retaliatory tariffs, as an alternative of holding the choice open, however otherwise she is backing Starmer on this issue. And the distinction is slight as a result of Starmer doesn’t sound at all likely to deploy retaliatory tariffs anyway.
However others are urging Starmer to take a unique method. The Liberal Democrats have been urging the federal government to be far more strong with the US president, and as we speak they’re escalating that, saying Starmer needs to be forming a united entrance with the EU and Canada to battle Trump with retaliatory tariffs and different measures. In an in a single day assertion Calum Miller, Lib Dem international affairs spokesperson, mentioned:
Regardless of weeks of refusing to criticise Donald Trump’s damaging behaviour, it’s now more and more obvious that the federal government is not going to safe a carve out for the UK forward of Trump’s world tariff battle.
Trump has proven himself to be an unreliable accomplice on the financial system. Nobody, not even the US’s oldest allies, are protected from the financial hurt reaped by this White Home.
We have to finish this commerce battle as rapidly as doable. Which means working with our Canadian and European allies in a united entrance in opposition to Trump, together with retaliatory tariffs the place needed – in addition to negotiating a bespoke new customs union settlement with the EU to raised shield British companies.
Intriguingly, Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, and a journalist with in depth establisment contacts, says there are lots of people in enterprise and politics who agree with the Liberal Democrats on this. He defined why in an extended publish on social media final evening. Right here’s an extract.
Starmer has organised his navy coalition of “keen” nations to defend Ukraine in opposition to Putin within the occasion of a peace deal. My conversations with senior authorities officers, enterprise leaders and economists reveal a starvation for Starmer – or Canada’s Carney, or any elected chief of a sizeable democratic nation – to organise an “financial coalition of the keen”, to champion free commerce in opposition to Trump and his tariffs.
The idea, half of which I’ve defined earlier than, is to counter Trump’s bullying commerce ways – tomorrow’s announcement by him of tariffs on all imports to America – by threatening collectively to impose tariffs on America’s exports double or treble no matter his tariff charges turn into.
This in itself would terrify American producers and farmers, if it was a collective risk by the UK, Canada, the EU, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Australia, inter alia.
Will this concept get any traction? Possibly not as we speak, however sooner or later sooner or later it may take off. There may be some proof that No 10 is nervous about being seen as too accommodating to Trump. Yesterday, in a briefing so implausible nobody took it severely, Downing Avenue in impact sought to blame the king for Trump getting a state go to!
Right here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Kim Leadbeater holds a press convention about her assisted dying invoice, which has completed its committee stage and is again within the Commons chamber later this month.
9.15am: Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye offers proof to the Commons transport committee in regards to the electrical energy substation fireplace that closed the airport for a day.
Midday: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
2.15pm; Lord Hermer, the lawyer basic, offers proof to the joint committee on human rights.
2.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, offers proof to the Commons Treasury committee.
If you wish to contact me, please publish a message under the road or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however when you put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra more likely to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You may attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and when you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if needed.
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is just too small to appropriate. And I discover your questions very fascinating too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.
