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UK might keep away from the US tariffs the ‘atrocity’ EU is dealing with as a result of Starmer has been ‘good’, Trump suggests
Good morning. Keir Starmer will tonight grow to be the primary British PM since Brexit to attend a European Council assembly (a dinner, as a part of a casual EU summit), and it couldn’t have come at a tougher time, as a result of it’s occurring simply as Donald Trump is unleashing tariff warfare.
Graeme Wearden is protecting the worldwide tariff story on his enterprise reside weblog.
For the UK, a world tariff battle presents a selected problem. Pre-Brexit, the UK would simply been a number one member of the EU camp. In 2016, Brexiters argued that Britain can be higher off not aligned to any main buying and selling bloc, and that it will acquire most by having the ability to nimbly duck and weave by way of the worldwide buying and selling networks. Some Brexiters needed an easy alignment with the US, which now appears to be the official Conservative celebration place, however most of them had been arguing for decide ‘n’ combine unilateralism.
Starmer is about to seek out out whether or not this Brexit state of affairs seems to be viable, whether or not, in a commerce battle between the US and the EU, Britain can keep away from the US tariffs that Trump plans to impose on the EU whereas similtaneously attaining Labour’s aim of bettering UK-EU commerce by easing among the commerce boundaries which have been in place since Brexit. Or whether or not the UK has to choose a facet. Or whether or not it finally ends up being crushed within the center, shedding out in each instructions.
In feedback yesterday, Trump mentioned that he was not ruling out tariffs on the UK, however he implied that he was attempting to peel Britain away from the EU, whom he described as “an atrocity”. He was talking to reporters at Andrews air pressure base close to Washington, as he arrived again from Florida, and he was particularly requested concerning the UK by Nomia Iqbal, BBC’s North America correspondent. Here’s a transcript of the important thing change.
Q: Mr President, which nation can be subsequent on tariffs? Would you contemplate taxing the UK?
DT: Properly, we’re going to see what occurs. It’ll occur
Q: With the UK?
DT: Would possibly. Let’s see how issues work out. It would occur with them.
It should undoubtedly occur with the European Union, I can inform you that, as a result of they’ve actually taken benefit of us. We now have over $300bn deficit. They don’t take our automobiles, they don’t take our farm merchandise, they take nearly nothing, and we take every little thing from them – tens of millions of automobiles, super quantities of meals and farm merchandise.
So the UK is means out of line. And we’ll see.
[At this point Trump appears to correct himself, having said UK when he appears to have meant the EU.]
However European Union is absolutely out of line. UK is out of line, however I’m certain that one, I believe that one, could be labored out.
However the European Union it’s an atrocity what they’ve carried out.
Q: Prime Minister Starmer needs a better relationship with the EU.
DT: Properly, Prime Minister Starmer has been very good. We’ve had a few conferences. We’ve had quite a few telephone calls. We’re getting alongside very effectively. We’ll see whether or not or not we will steadiness out our finances.
With the European Union, it’s $350bn deficit, so clearly one thing’s going to happen there
As is usually the case with Trump, he managed to mix the language of an adolescent (“very good”, “getting alongside very effectively”) with the menace of a gangster.
Sooner or later we are going to get some kind of response from Starmer, and from EU leaders, though – in public, a minimum of – it might be very constrained and restricted.
Jakub Krupa is protecting the Europe-wide features of the summit on our Europe reside weblog
Right here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Bridget Phillipson, the schooling secretary, provides a speech on faculty requirements.
11.30am: Downing Avenue holds a foyer briefing.
2.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensison secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
Afternoon: Keir Starmer holds a gathering with the Nato secretary common at Nato HQ in Brussels. They’re because of maintain press convention at 3.40pm UK time.
3.30pm: The Dwelling Builders Federation and the Nationwide Housing Federation give proof to the Commons public accounts committee concerning the cladding scandal.
Night: Starmer has dinner with EU leaders on the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels.
If you wish to contact me, please submit a message under the road or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however in the event you put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra prone 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 in the event you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if obligatory.
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 attention-grabbing 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 generally within the weblog.
Key occasions
Phillipson says it is ‘insulting’ to counsel new Ofsted report playing cards too difficult for folks
Q: Is it not possible to have a report card system for colleges with sufficient element to maintain the unions comfortable, however sufficient simplicity to make it clear to oldsters?
Phillipson replies:
I believe the system ought to and may do each. I believe mother and father are greater than in a position to course of extra data than is the case at present supplied.
I believe it’s, frankly, deeply insulting to counsel that someway mother and father both don’t need or can’t perceive a wider vary of areas that want additional enchancment, or the place there’s actual energy throughout the faculty system.
What this may even permit us to do is to not simply concentrate on areas the place colleges want to enhance, and the place we are going to put additional help behind that, however alongside that, recognising the place there’s incredible work throughout the system.
Bridget Phillipson has completed her speech. She is now taking questions.
Q: [From the BBC] How will mother and father maintain colleges to account? Will you eliminate failing colleges?
Phillipson says she needs mother and father to see “a brand new and relentless concentrate on the easiest high quality schooling in all of our colleges”.
What mother and father will see from the brand new set of preparations, from the report playing cards, and from what I’m setting out at present is far more details about what’s working effectively inside their little one’s faculty and the place there’s additional to go in driving enchancment.
Catherine McKinnell, the faculties minister, was doing the interview spherical this morning on behalf of No 10. She was put as much as discuss primarily concerning the proposed Ofsted report playing cards, however inevitably she ended up being requested about tariffs and President Trump. That is what she mentioned on LBC when requested if the UK was going to decide on the EU over the US as a most popular buying and selling companion.
We now have extremely robust buying and selling relationships with the European Union, but in addition with america. The European Union is clearly our largest buying and selling companion. America, we’ve got £300bn of commerce with america. They’re our largest investor. We’re the biggest investor in america – £1.2tn a yr invested in each other’s economies. I don’t suppose we should always have to decide on.
I believe Keir Starmer has taken the correct strategy in constructing actually robust relationships with our European neighbours and with america.
New Ofsted report card system will present ‘wealthy, granular perception’, Bridget Phillipson says
Bridget Phillipson, the schooling secretary, is giving her speech on faculty requirements now on the Centre for Social Justice.
There’s a reside feed right here.
In accordance with extracts launched upfront, she is going to defend the proposals for a brand new Ofsted system for assessing colleges. She is going to say:
Our proposals will swap single headline grades for the wealthy, granular perception of faculty report playing cards.
Elevating the bar on what we anticipate from colleges, shining a lightweight on all of the areas that matter, every given their very own grade.
Figuring out excellence and rooting out efficiency that falls wanting expectations, so that oldsters have clearer, higher details about their native colleges.
Keir Starmer needs his assembly with EU leaders to concentrate on safety. In accordance with Downing Avenue, when he meets EU leaders tonight, he’ll “set out his pitch for an formidable UK-EU defence and safety partnership with numerous steps to extend co-operation on shared threats, and go additional on cross-border crime and unlawful migration, whereas delivering progress and safety at dwelling”. Rowena Mason has extra element right here.
In a press release issued in a single day, Starmer mentioned:
We have to see all allies stepping up – notably in Europe.
President Trump has threatened extra sanctions on Russia and it’s clear that’s bought Putin rattled. We all know that he’s apprehensive concerning the state of the Russian economic system.
I’m right here to work with our European companions on maintaining the strain, focusing on the power revenues and the businesses supplying his missile factories to crush Putin’s battle machine.
As a result of in the end, alongside our navy help, that’s what will carry peace nearer.
On condition that Putin isn’t the one European chief “rattled” by what Trump is as much as, this agenda could also be overshadowed by the commerce/tariffs story.
Ofsted’s new faculty report card worse than outdated system, say headteachers
Strikes to overtake the best way colleges are inspected in England have been criticised by headteachers and educating unions as “demoralising” and worse than the system they’re aiming to exchange, Richard Adams and Peter Walker report.
The Occasions this morning has splashed on a narrative claiming that, on the EU dinner this night, President Macron will inform Keir Starmer that he look on the summit means Brexit has failed.
The story is predicated on a quote from a “senior diplomat” arguing that Macron thinks Brexit was all the time doomed to fail anyway, however that the election of Donald Trump has made it much more unviable.
Of their story, Bruno Waterfield and Matt Dathan report:
Senior diplomats have mentioned France views Starmer because the “demandeur,” a supplicant who’s being pushed again into the EU fold as a result of Britain has been weakened by Brexit at a time of rising worldwide instability and the return of Trump to the White Home.
A senior diplomat mentioned: “The Brexit mission, breaking away from the EU to create a world Britain, didn’t work. We thought it wouldn’t work as a result of the UK is European, geographically and economically. Brexit was a mission for a secure and affluent world, however in a sophisticated world, clearly the UK can be nearer to Europe.”
UK might keep away from the US tariffs the ‘atrocity’ EU is dealing with as a result of Starmer has been ‘good’, Trump suggests
Good morning. Keir Starmer will tonight grow to be the primary British PM since Brexit to attend a European Council assembly (a dinner, as a part of a casual EU summit), and it couldn’t have come at a tougher time, as a result of it’s occurring simply as Donald Trump is unleashing tariff warfare.
Graeme Wearden is protecting the worldwide tariff story on his enterprise reside weblog.
For the UK, a world tariff battle presents a selected problem. Pre-Brexit, the UK would simply been a number one member of the EU camp. In 2016, Brexiters argued that Britain can be higher off not aligned to any main buying and selling bloc, and that it will acquire most by having the ability to nimbly duck and weave by way of the worldwide buying and selling networks. Some Brexiters needed an easy alignment with the US, which now appears to be the official Conservative celebration place, however most of them had been arguing for decide ‘n’ combine unilateralism.
Starmer is about to seek out out whether or not this Brexit state of affairs seems to be viable, whether or not, in a commerce battle between the US and the EU, Britain can keep away from the US tariffs that Trump plans to impose on the EU whereas similtaneously attaining Labour’s aim of bettering UK-EU commerce by easing among the commerce boundaries which have been in place since Brexit. Or whether or not the UK has to choose a facet. Or whether or not it finally ends up being crushed within the center, shedding out in each instructions.
In feedback yesterday, Trump mentioned that he was not ruling out tariffs on the UK, however he implied that he was attempting to peel Britain away from the EU, whom he described as “an atrocity”. He was talking to reporters at Andrews air pressure base close to Washington, as he arrived again from Florida, and he was particularly requested concerning the UK by Nomia Iqbal, BBC’s North America correspondent. Here’s a transcript of the important thing change.
Q: Mr President, which nation can be subsequent on tariffs? Would you contemplate taxing the UK?
DT: Properly, we’re going to see what occurs. It’ll occur
Q: With the UK?
DT: Would possibly. Let’s see how issues work out. It would occur with them.
It should undoubtedly occur with the European Union, I can inform you that, as a result of they’ve actually taken benefit of us. We now have over $300bn deficit. They don’t take our automobiles, they don’t take our farm merchandise, they take nearly nothing, and we take every little thing from them – tens of millions of automobiles, super quantities of meals and farm merchandise.
So the UK is means out of line. And we’ll see.
[At this point Trump appears to correct himself, having said UK when he appears to have meant the EU.]
However European Union is absolutely out of line. UK is out of line, however I’m certain that one, I believe that one, could be labored out.
However the European Union it’s an atrocity what they’ve carried out.
Q: Prime Minister Starmer needs a better relationship with the EU.
DT: Properly, Prime Minister Starmer has been very good. We’ve had a few conferences. We’ve had quite a few telephone calls. We’re getting alongside very effectively. We’ll see whether or not or not we will steadiness out our finances.
With the European Union, it’s $350bn deficit, so clearly one thing’s going to happen there
As is usually the case with Trump, he managed to mix the language of an adolescent (“very good”, “getting alongside very effectively”) with the menace of a gangster.
Sooner or later we are going to get some kind of response from Starmer, and from EU leaders, though – in public, a minimum of – it might be very constrained and restricted.
Jakub Krupa is protecting the Europe-wide features of the summit on our Europe reside weblog
Right here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Bridget Phillipson, the schooling secretary, provides a speech on faculty requirements.
11.30am: Downing Avenue holds a foyer briefing.
2.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensison secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
Afternoon: Keir Starmer holds a gathering with the Nato secretary common at Nato HQ in Brussels. They’re because of maintain press convention at 3.40pm UK time.
3.30pm: The Dwelling Builders Federation and the Nationwide Housing Federation give proof to the Commons public accounts committee concerning the cladding scandal.
Night: Starmer has dinner with EU leaders on the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels.
If you wish to contact me, please submit a message under the road or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however in the event you put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra prone 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 in the event you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if obligatory.
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 attention-grabbing 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 generally within the weblog.