Starmer dismisses claims he’s been ‘played’ by Trump, and says future trade deal could lessen impact of tariffs – UK politics live

April 1, 2025

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Starmer dismisses claims he’s been ‘played’ by Trump, and says future trade deal could lessen impact of tariffs

Keir Starmer has dismissed claims that he has been “played” by President Trump over tariffs.

In an interview with Sky News this morning, echoing what Jonathan Reynolds said in his morning interview round (see 8.58am), Starmer said that a future trade deal with the US might lead to the UK getting some exemptions from the tariffs coming tomorrow. He said:

We are of course negotiating an economic deal which will, I hope … mitigate the tariffs.

Asked if he had been “played” by US President Donald Trump, Starmer replied:

The US is our closest ally. Our defence, our security, our intelligence are bound up in a way that no two other countries are.

So it’s obviously in our national interest to have a close working relationship with the US, which we’ve had for decades, and I want to ensure we have for decades to come.

He said talks on an economic deal would normally take “months or years” but “in a matter of weeks we have got well advanced in those discussions”.

Starmer also confirmed that it was likely the UK would be affected by the tariffs being announced tomorrow.

We are obviously working with the sectors most impacted at pace on that.

Nobody wants to see a trade war but I have to act in the national interests.

That means that “all options remain on the table” in response, he added.

Keir Starme on a visit to Nationwide Building Society in the City of London this morning. Photograph: Ian Vogler/PA

Key events

Shabana Mahmood makes statement to MPs about Sentencing Council

In the Commons Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is making a statement to MPs about the Sentencing Council.

She says the recent guidelines proposed by the council raise the issue of whether everyone is equal before the law.

Following constructive talks with the council, the guidelines have been put on hold, she says.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing, like Angela Rayner (see 12.23pm), the PM’s spokesperson ruled out cancelling President Trump’s state visit to the UK as retaliation for his tariffs. The spokesperson claimed the two issues were not linked. He said:

I wouldn’t draw any any link between the two. Obviously, the state visit is a matter for the Palace, as you know.

You’ll have seen that the prime minister was delighted to extend His Majesty the king’s invitation for a historic state visit during his visit to to the White House.

But when it comes to these talks, we’ll obviously continue to have these conversations. We’ll obviously continue them in the national interest, and we’ll obviously provide an update as and when we have one.

In the past Keir Starmer has also claimed that the state visit is a matter for the king, not the government. While technically true in a very narrow sense (the king issues the actual invitation), this argument is thoroughly bogus, because the king only issue a state visit invitation on the advice of Downing Street. It was Starmer’s decision, not King Charles’s.

In an interview with Times Radio, Lord Darroch, a former UK ambassador to Washington, said he was sceptical about claims that the government is close to signing a trade deal with the US.

In an interview recorded before the Downing Street lobby briefing where No 10 said Keir Starmer told cabinet that talks were at an “advanced stage”, Darroch was asked how he responded to claims that an agreement was close. He replied:

The honest answer is quite cynical, because at various points when I was in government, we were negotiating, trying to negotiate a free trade deal. The EU also tried to do a US-EU free trade deal when we were in the EU. So I’ve seen this picture play several times.

And the truth of it is that the Americans, whoever is in government, always, they try and strike a very tough deal on trade.

Darroch also said that the government should be wary of giving President Trump concessions to get exemptions from his tariffs. He explained:

I just think you need to be careful about, as it were, giving the Trump administration, giving the president a win on all of this, because he already thinks tariffs are a great idea. And if he starts getting concessions offered by the rest of the world, to keep them away, he’ll keep using them.

And every time there is some grievance or some dispute in relations, he’ll come back and threaten tariffs or impose them and then say, do what I want you to do to get them lifted.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, told MPs that the government would “prepare for the worst” over US tariffs. Speaking during Foreign Office questions, he said:

We are an open-trading nation. We have been that under successive governments. It’s hugely important at this time that we continue the intense conversations we’re having with the US administration on getting an economic agreement but of course we prepare for the worst – all options remain on the table, as the prime minister indicated again just yesterday.

Starmer tells cabinet talks with US on economic deal are at ‘advanced stage’

For the record, here is the extract from the Downing Street readout from cabinet this morning, saying what Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds told colleagues about the impending US tariffs. Starmer said talks with the US on an economic deal were at an “advanced stage”.

A No 10 spokesperson said:

The prime minister then turned to US tariffs and trade. He set out the latest position to cabinet on the announced US plans on steel, aluminium, and automotive tariffs, with further details of ‘reciprocal’ global tariffs expected this week. He said the UK’s approach is to progress ongoing talks with the US on an economic deal, which are at an advanced stage, while keeping all options on the table.

He said a calm and pragmatic approach best served UK national interests, not a knee-jerk reaction. The UK has a balanced trading relationship with the US, supporting millions of jobs both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a deeply important security and defence relationship.

He said nobody wants to see global tariffs, but the UK would continue negotiations, continue engaging with British industries, prepare for all scenarios, and double down on delivering a modern industrial strategy that supports jobs and grows the economy.

The chancellor said that global tariffs will have an impact on the UK as an open trading economy, that securing a deal could mitigate some of those effects, and updated on discussions she had with the US Treasury yesterday.

The business secretary updated on the progress of his discussions in recent days and weeks, and said that the UK was well placed to agree an economic deal with the US and that those talks would continue beyond tomorrow’s announcement. He underlined that the business community wants to see the government take a calm, cool-headed, and pragmatic approach to discussions with the US, and that would guide our approach.

Conservation groups criticise Starmer over ‘spiders blocking housing’ claims

Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.

Keir Starmer has been asked to retract false claims he made about spiders by a group of leading conservation charities.

The prime minister claimed in a recent article that plans to build over 15,000 homes near the Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent were blocked due to the presence of the distinguished jumping spider.

However, the nature charities have said this is “fake news” in a scandal they are branding “spidergate”.

Starmer has been asked to visit the peninsula to see the nature for himself, in the letter signed by the Wildlife Trusts, Campaign for Protecting Rural England, Buglife and Wildlife and Countryside Link.

The letter reads:

The vast majority of the 15,000 homes are still progressing, with thousands already built. The only area affected by wildlife concerns is part of the Swanscombe Peninsula, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), where 1,300 homes were proposed.

Contrary to your claim, the distinguished jumping spider was not found in the area earmarked for these homes but in other parts of the SSSI. The Swanscombe Peninsula supports an extraordinary range of rare and endangered species, including over 1,700 species of invertebrates, nationally scarce botanical species such as the man orchid, and UK Red List bird species like the nightingale, grasshopper warbler, cuckoo, and breeding marsh harrier. It was designated an SSSI for its national importance in terms of plants, geology, birds, and invertebrates – a wealth of biodiversity that deserves protection.

The suggestion that conservation protections are blocking necessary housing development is misleading and unhelpful. We must stop framing nature and growth as opposing forces. Sustainable development can and should integrate environmental considerations, ensuring that new communities are liveable and ecologically sustainable.

Asylum system risks ‘damaging social cohesion’, Glasgow city council warns

The asylum system risks “damaging social cohesion” with homeless refugees putting “unprecedented pressure” on Glasgow services, the city council has warned. Libby Brooks has the story.

There are two urgent questions in the Commons after 12.30pm, on NHS pensions and on the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

Then, after about 1.30pm, Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, will make a statement on the Sentencing Council.

That will be followed, about an hour later, by a statement from Dan Jarvis, the security minister, about the implementation of the foreign influence registration scheme. Potentially this could be the most controversial of all four announcements, because any announcement that does not involve China being placed in the enhanced tier will outrage the China hawks on the Tory benches.

Rayner says it would be ‘ridiculous’ to cancel Trump’s state visit in retaliation for tariffs

Vine says the UK is not exempt from the US tariffs.

Q: All that charm offensive hasn’t worked. We have not got leverage. We will have to change our approach?

Rayner says the government has put “foundations” in place that will help relations in the future.

Q: Why don’t we cancel the state visit?

Rayner says this is not about being nice to President Trump. It is about recognising that the UK and the US have a fair and balanced trading relationship.

Q: Should we cancel the state visit?

Rayner replies:

I think that’s ridiculous. I don’t think that’s where we’re at at all.

It’s not about who visits the king or not. It’s about putting the British interest first, and that’s what our government is doing.

Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, is being interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2.

She is there to talk about the cost of living, and the impact of the national living wage rise.

Vine reads out figures for how utility bill increases, and says these rises are “unsustainable”.

Mabel Banfield-Nwachi has an equivalent Guardian list here.

Rayner lists various meausures being taken by Labour to help, including: the pension triple lock, the winter fuel payments staying for the poorest pensioners, the rise in the national living wage, measures to give workers more job security, breakfast clubs, and more support for council budgets.

But Labour is dealing with the “14 years of the mess that the Conservatives left behind”, she says.

Q: Do you think putting up employer NICs was a mistake?

Rayner ignores the question, and returns to the point about the national living wage going up. That will mean workers have more money to spend on the high street, which will help firms.

Q: Would you like to see the UK laws around abortion buffer zones reviewed to help get a trade deal?

Badenoch says she supports free speech. But she says she does not want to see laws over-interpreted.

She says she does not want to see US abortion wars coming to the UK.

She says she does not know the full details of the case cited by the US state department. She says she voted against the buffer zone law, because she thought it was too strict. But she says parliament passed the law, and it should be respected.

Here is Jamie Grierson’s story about the claim that the UK’s abortion buffer zone laws might be an obstacle to a trade deal with the US.

Badenoch rejects claims differing food standards might be obstacle to US trade deals, saying quotas more important

Q: Have you encouraged JD Vance or any senior Republicans to spare the UK from tariffs?

No, says Badenoch. She says it is not right for her to cut across what the government is doing.

Q: Would you support a trade deal allowing US chlorinated chicken to be imported into the UK?

Badenoch says she does not believe the obstacles to a US trade deal are standards. They are quotas, she says. She goes on:

Nobody is going to be forced to eat chlorinated chicken. I don’t even think most chicken in the US is actually washed with chlorine, because it’s a myth that has expanded quite a lot over the years. Things have changed. We need to focus on what’s actually in a trade deal.

Q: You say Labour’s decisions have broken voters’ trust. But do you accept that the cost of living crisis started under the Tories, and that the Liz Truss mini-budget destroyed your party’s credibility.

Badenoch says the Tory reputation was built over decades and centuries, not just over the past few years.

She says Tory politicians have worked in business. They understand it. Labour ministers don’t, she claims.

She says the Covid crisis had to be paid for.

Labour has now done something destructive, she says.

Q: What you say on tariffs sounds very similar to what Keir Starmer is saying. Is thta right?

Badenoch says it will be “excellent” if Starmer avoids retaliatory tariffs.

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Starmer dismisses claims he’s been ‘played’ by Trump, and says future trade deal could lessen impact of tariffs – UK politics live

Starmer dismisses claims he’s been ‘played’ by Trump, and says future trade deal could lessen impact of tariffs

Shabana Mahmood makes statement to MPs about Sentencing Council

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