1 hour ago
Good morning. Keir Starmer is holding a press conference in Downing Street this morning. As Kiran Stacey reports, the PM’s main intention will be to announce support for people most hit by rising energy prices, particularly householders reliant on heating oil. The measures are expected to be worth tens of millions of pounds.
But, inevitably, most of the focus likely to be on how Starmer responds to the latest provocations from Donald Trump.
To recap; last weekend Trump was dismissing the UK’s stance saying that the US did not need Britain’s support in the Gulf anyway because “we don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won”. This weekend he was asking the UK, and other countries, to send warships to help keep the strait of Hormuz open. The government has indicated that it won’t deploy warships, but it may sent minesweeping drones. Here are some of today’s headlines.
The full Guardian story is here.
After briefly sounding solicitous, Trump is now back in threat mode. In a brief interview with the Financial Times he implied that, if countries like the UK did not deploy warships to protect oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz, he might pull the plug on Nato. He said:
double quotation markIt’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there …
If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato.
We will hear what Starmer has to say about this later, but we have already had a response from Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, who has been on the morning interview round. Speaking on Sky News, McFadden downplayed the threat, arguing that the US-UK alliance was strong enough to “outlast” any problems caused by Trump’s rhetoric. Asked to comment on the quote, he said:
double quotation markThat’s the president right there. The quote that you’ve just given has summed him up.
It’s a very transactional presidency and our job is to navigate this, to always remember that the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom runs very deep.
It’s a good relationship. It’s enduring and I think it will outlast all the personalities involved.
We will cover the press conference in detail, but we won’t just be focusing on Iran today; there is other politics around too. Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer meets Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, in Downing Street.
10.30am: Starmer holds his press conference.
11am: Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, holds a press conference where he will give what the party says will be “a significant update on Doge and Reform in local government”.
11.30am: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, gives a speech where he will announce plans for a youth jobs grant and an apprenticeships incentive.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in London.
12.30pm: Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s leader in Scotland, takes part in a Q&A at the Institute for Government.
1.30pm: Jeremy Corby, Your Party’s parliamentary leader, presents the findings of his Gaza Tribunal report. As Patrick Wintour reports, it will say the government has been complicit in crimes committed by Israel.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
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