Transport secretary says overhaul in response to Trump tariffs supports car firms and climate goals
Labour’s changes to electric vehicle (EV) rules in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a negligible impact on emissions, the transport secretary has said.
Keir Starmer has confirmed plans to boost manufacturers, including reinstating the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.
Continue reading...Relatives of Agnes Wanjiru say 13-year fight for justice has taken ‘heavy toll’ after meeting with John Healey
The family of a Kenyan woman who was allegedly killed by British soldiers have said their 13-year fight for justice has taken a “heavy toll”, and that they have been offered “too many empty promises” after a meeting with the defence secretary.
Agnes Wanjiru was 21 when she disappeared in March 2012. She was last seen in the company of British soldiers in a bar in a hotel in Nanyuki, a town in eastern Kenya where the British army has a military base, BATUK.
Continue reading...Carmakers will be given more flexibility over targets on transitioning to electric vehicles
Keir Starmer has said the government will step in to support key British industries, as business grapples with the economic turmoil unleashed by Donald Trump’s global tariffs.
As the government attempts to counter the impact of the White House hitting the UK with a 10% base levy on exports to the US, the prime minister will promise to help shelter vulnerable sectors and will implement key parts of the industrial strategy months early.
Continue reading...Her introduction to politics began as the child of the chair of Birmingham Labour party and as justice secretary she’s made tough decisions from day one
Shabana Mahmood’s potential as a future cabinet minister was first noticed by the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson in the 90s over tea and samosas at her family’s end-of-terrace Birmingham home.
Watson, a seasoned fixer, had become a close friend of her father, Mahmood Ahmed, the chair of Birmingham Labour party. When political problems arose, Watson and fellow Labour party organisers would be guided through to comfy sofas in the family sitting room.
Continue reading...Her introduction to politics began as the child of the chair of Birmingham Labour party and as justice secretary she’s made tough decisions from day one
Shabana Mahmood’s potential as a future cabinet minister was first noticed by the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson in the 90s over tea and samosas at her family’s end-of-terrace Birmingham home.
Watson, a seasoned fixer, had become a close friend of her father, Mahmood Ahmed, the chair of Birmingham Labour party. When political problems arose, Watson and fellow Labour party organisers would be guided through to comfy sofas in the family sitting room.
Continue reading...PM says he will use policy to shelter British businesses following the stock market turmoil prompted by Trump’s announcement
Starmer orders economic reset amid Trump’s tariff mayhem
Welcome back to our live coverage of the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs last week.
Almost $5tn (£4tn) was wiped off the value of global stock markets after the US president made his shock announcement last Wednesday, which included a 10% base tariff on imports into the US from the UK.
Continue reading...Survey says queues outside emergency departments are leading to ‘car park care’ and fatalities
Paramedics across England are watching patients die in the back of ambulances because of delays outside emergency departments, according to a survey by Unison.
The gridlock of patients in some of the country’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments in certain areas. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients.
Continue reading...David Lammy says it is ‘unacceptable’ that the parliamentary delegation had been detained and deported
The UK’s foreign secretary has criticised Israeli authorities for denying two Labour MPs entry into the country and deporting them.
Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were rejected because they were suspected of plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred”, according to a statement from the Israeli immigration ministry cited by Sky News and Politics UK.
Yang, who represents Earley and Woodley in Berkshire, and Mohamed, the MP for Sheffield Central, both flew into Ben Gurion airport from Luton with their aides, according to reports.
The foreign secretary, David Lammy, said in a statement on Saturday: “It is unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning that two British MPs on a parliamentary delegation to Israel have been detained and refused entry by the Israeli authorities.
“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support.
“The UK government’s focus remains securing a return to the ceasefire and negotiations to stop the bloodshed, free the hostages and end the conflict in Gaza.”
Since renewed military operations last month ended a short-lived truce in its war with Hamas, Israel has pushed to seize territory in the Gaza Strip in what it said was a strategy to force militants to free hostages still in captivity.
Continue reading...Party suspends North East Somerset MP after he is taken into custody following police raid on his constituency home
Labour have suspended Dan Norris, the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham, after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and child sex offences.
Norris, a former Labour minister who defeated Jacob Rees-Mogg as MP at last year’s general election, was taken into custody after police raided his constituency home on Friday.
Continue reading...Constitutional expert says Tory leader’s break from political consensus over target for greenhouse gasses will require monarch to choose his words carefully
King Charles will have to temper his public support for net zero after Kemi Badenoch broke the political consensus over the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Senior royal sources have conceded that the 76-year-old monarch, who has spent more than half a century highlighting environmental challenges, will have to choose his words more carefully now that the Conservatives under Badenoch have said it will be impossible for the UK to hit net zero by 2050.
Continue reading...Labour accuses Nigel Farage’s party of ‘mass rebrand’ after research into nominations of former Conservatives
More than 60 of Reform UK’s council candidates standing in this year’s elections are defectors from the Conservative party, according to research from the Labour party.
Reform has also selected an ex-Conservative for its candidate in the upcoming Runcorn and Helsby byelection, while the party’s mayoral candidate for Greater Lincolnshire is the former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, who lost her parliamentary seat in West Yorkshire last July.
Continue reading...UK prime minister to speak to international leaders this weekend to ‘maintain stability and strengthen our partnerships abroad’
Trump claims Starmer ‘very happy’ about tariffs
Downing Street has refused to confirm President Trump’s claim that Keir Starmer was “very happy” about the treatment the UK is getting under the new US global tariff regime. (See 9.32am.) Asked about the president’s words at the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said that the government had already set out its position yesterday and that it was “disappointed” by the US tariff policy.
Livia Tossici-Bolt has been sentenced at Poole magistrates’ court to a conditional discharge for two years for two charges of breaching a “buffer zone” outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, PA Media reports. See 11.22am.
Continue reading...Closure of Nippon Electric Glass plant would put further pressure on Rachel Reeves’s industrial strategy
A glass factory in Wigan that produces fibreglass for electric cars and wind turbines faces closure and the loss of 250 jobs unless its Japanese owner can find a new partner or a buyer.
In the latest blow to Britain’s industrial base, Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) announced a “strategic review” of its composites business Electric Glass Fiber UK (EGF), which it expects to last approximately two months, putting about 250 jobs at risk.
Continue reading...Dr Amy Orben says there are no ‘one-size-fits-all answers’ given importance of access to online information
A leading academic tasked by the UK government with reviewing the effects of smartphones on teenagers has suggested blanket bans are “unrealistic and potentially detrimental”.
Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, will lead the work on children and smartphone use that has been commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) along with a team of other academics from a number of UK universities.
Continue reading...Prime minister says tariffs will be ‘a challenge’ but UK is better placed with 10% rate than EU at 20%
Keir Starmer has told heads of business in Downing Street that “clearly there will be an economic impact” from US tariffs but that ministers would respond with “cool and calm heads”.
The prime minister gathered senior business figures in No 10 after Donald Trump announced he would introduce 10% blanket tariffs on imports from the UK, and 25% on car imports.
Continue reading...Britain gets off comparatively lightly but US president’s action could still cost billions in lost growth
Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war that could wipe billions off economic growth.
The US president accused other nations, including allies, of “looting, pillaging, raping and plundering” the US, as he announced tariffs on economic rivals including 20% on the EU and 34% on China as part of what he dubbed “liberation day”.
Continue reading...Economic impact assessment is one concession aiming to head off opposition from MPs, peers and creatives such as Paul McCartney and Tom Stoppard
The UK government is trying to placate peer and Labour backbencher concerns about copyright proposals by pledging to assess the economic impact of its plans.
Creative professionals including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tom Stoppard and Kate Bush have strongly criticised ministers’ proposals to let artificial intelligence companies train their models on copyright-protected work without permission, unless the rights holder opts out.
Continue reading...It’s almost as if KemiKaze herself believes Labour’s mantra that the Tories are the source of all hopelessness
There will come a moment when the Labour claim that the Tories are to blame for everything will no longer stick. People will start shaking their heads and reckon that Labour have something to answer for. But we’re not quite there yet. At least not at prime minister’s questions. For half an hour in the Commons every Wednesday the Conservatives remain the villains of the piece.
Partly it’s the size of the Labour majority. The sheer volume of half-witted Labour MPs who are happy to bounce up and down to ask Keir Starmer whether he agrees with them that the Tories left the country in a shocking mess and only the prime minister can save their constituents. The Lib Dems and the SNP are only slightly fiercer critics of the present government. They too hate the Tories more than anyone else.
Continue reading...Richard Hermer has responded to Robert Jenrick’s calls for a senior judge to be sacked over sentencing guidelines row
Political attacks on judges are “dangerous” and “a huge threat to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary”, the attorney general has said in a direct rebuke to the shadow justice secretary.
Richard Hermer said politics was entering a “dangerous moment” where politicians were “attacking judges on a personal basis” on the floor of the House of Commons.
Continue reading...Chancellor says autumn budget enabled £25bn of extra investment into NHS and shorter waiting lists
Rachel Reeves has defended the £40bn in tax increases in autumn’s budget as businesses brace for their impact, saying NHS waiting lists would now be higher if she had not taken action.
Employers are set for a £25bn increase in national insurance contributions (NICs), which comes into force on 6 April, at the same time as consumers are being hit by a slew of increases in bills for everything from utilities to car tax.
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