Early evening summary
Keir Starmer has rejected the claim that there are “strong arguments” for suspending the government’s fiscal rules in the light of the economic situation created by the Trump tariffs, describing the rules as “ironclad” and “non-negotiable”. (See 3.11pm.)
Richest 20% get 35% of the benefit of spending on roads and trains, says thinktank, calling for fairer spending settlement
The Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on potholes today. (See 5.01pm.) Keir Starmer has also campaigned on potholes recently, and you might assume everyone is in favour of fixing the roads.
They are – but to some people it matters more. Today the Resolution Foundation thinktank has published an interesting piece of research looking at how government spending benefits different income groups.
These are known as “in-kind benefits” and they are progressive. The average household gets “in-kind benefits” (health, education etc) worth £13,000, but for the poorest 20% of households they are worth £15,900, the thinktank says, while for the richest 20% they are worth £10,400. (These figures exclude public spending on matters like defence, where the benefits are collective.)
According to the Resolution Foundation, road spending is an exception. These are “in-kind benefits” that help the wealthy the most, it says.
Overall, legal aid, childcare, school spending and adult social care stand out as highly progressive forms of public-service provision: in each case, more than a third of total use is by the poorest fifth.
The big exception is transport spending on roads and trains. The poorest fifth only account for 13 per cent of road use and train spending, on average, compared with the richest fifth of households who consume more than a third (35 per cent) of all expenditure on roads and trains, because they travel an average of 1,100 miles annually by rail, against 350 miles for the poorest.
The Resolution Foundation says ministers should take these factors into account at the spending review and produce a spending package slanted towards helping low to middle-income families. It says:
A settlement for poorer Britain might tackle obstacles in the way of securing education, health and care plans (EHCPs) for children with special educational needs in poorer areas, where fewer are issued, despite the link between individual deprivation and special needs. The Department for Education could directly lift 100,000 children out of poverty if it were to fund free school meals for all families on universal credit. Spending on apprenticeships, meanwhile, could pivot towards youngsters seeking a first step on the career ladder: as it is, under-19s starting as intermediate apprentices have recently fallen by 30,000 while higher-level apprenticeships for the over-25s have soared by 45,000. And even within health, day-today NHS spending could be usefully tilted towards GPs, where the relative experience of poorer Britons is worst.
The Unite general secretary Sharon Graham and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are not natural allies, but they are both calling for British Steel to be nationalised if nothing else will save the Scunthorpe steelworks. Graham issued this statement this afternoon.
While Unite is in continuing dialogue with British Steel and the UK government, we are very clear that if a deal cannot be struck to secure the long term future of the steelmaker under private ownership, that the government must bring it under public control in the national interest.
British Steel’s success is key to any future UK industrial strategy. It is a strategically important business which supplies other UK steelmakers with product and provides 95% of the UK’s rail tracks.
Sustaining over 4,000 jobs across the UK and a further 20,000 in the supply chain, it would be an economic catastrophe if the worst were to happen and government was to allow British Steel to collapse. It is a national asset supporting UK Plc that cannot simply be left to the market.
Starmer loses two key Downing Street policy advisers
Jessica Elgot is the Guardian’s deputy political editor.
Two of Keir Stamer’s key policy advisors have left Number 10 in the latest shake-up of the prime minister’s team following the departure of his communications chief Matthew Doyle.
Nick Williams, who was the prime minister’s main infrastructure advisor, and Tom Webb, a senior advisor on health and public services, have both left Downing Street, the Guardian understands.
The departure of Williams in particular has rattled some MPs who saw him as a key driver of the growth and housing agenda, as well as the approval of Heathrow’s third runway.
Williams was a former Treasury official who quit Whitehall to work for Labour in opposition as economics adviser, alongside Rav Athwal who eventually authored the party’s manifesto. Webb, who was also a former civil servant, was considered to be one of the major policy brains and was a leading figure on public service reform.
A Number 10 source said the departure was “all part of usual change and churn” of jobs in Number 10. “They both contributed massively, relationships are good,” the source said, adding there had been a recent shake-up of the policy team, adding education advisor and former CEO and headteacher Oli de Botton.
The departure of Williams and Webb is likely to add to growing calls within Westminster for Number 10 to hire a heavyweight economics advisor in a political role - which a number of party figures have said they believe is sorely needed in the operation.
Last week Starmer’s long-serving director of communications Doyle unexpectedly quit, replaced by his deputy Steph Driver who will share the role with James Lyons, who had been heading media strategy. Another recent departure after a few months in government is Alex Zatman, who advised the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, replaced this week by the former senior Mirror journalist Jason Beattie.
Tories attack Ed Davey over his 'silly stunts', saying he's not serious politician
Earlier I posted a picture of Ed Davey’s latest election photocall involving sliding down a ski slope on a rubber tyre. (See 12.12pm.)
It was not clear from the picture what point he was trying to make, but the PA Media copy from his visit has now dropped and it turns that this was all about the Tory record on potholes. Davey said:
We’re having a bit of fun, we’re campaigning, but there is a serious message, always a serious message, and that is about having services that are smooth, that people can go over.
The parallel analogy is with our roads.
Around the county the roads are a real mess, a lot of potholes, and the Conservatives have been running Gloucestershire for a long time now, often, mostly with the Conservative government, have failed to fix the potholes.
That’s what people are asking us on the doorstep when we’re knocking on doors and chatting to people, they’re saying, ‘Please fix the potholes in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire’.
This has infuriated the Conservative party enough to persuade them to send out a rebuttal. In a statement Gareth Bacon, the shadow transport secretary, said:
Once again, instead of acting like a serious politician, Ed Davey is using silly stunts to skid past serious questions. The Liberal Democrats say they want smoother roads, but are jacking up council tax, slashing services, and wasting millions on gimmicks like four-day working weeks. It is no coincidence that local roads are deteriorating under Liberal Democrat councils.
Attacking Davey as not serious is becoming a standard Conservative theme.
Reeves agrees deals and investments worth £128m at meeting with her Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman
Rachel Reeves has agreed new export deals and investments with India worth £128m, PA Media reports.
Reeves and her Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman signed a joint statement for a package that includes the new deals, as well as recent ones worth £271m, after meeting in London, PA says. These include plans for Paytm, India’s largest digital payment app, to invest in the UK and for HSBC Bank to expand its presence to 34 cities in India from 14 currently.
Reeves said:
In a changing world, it is imperative we go further and faster to kickstart economic growth … Our relationship with India is longstanding and broad and I am delighted with the progress made throughout this dialogue to develop it further.
The Treasury has further details of the deals agreed in its news release.
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Reeves says tariff turmoil has created 'even greater imperative' for UK to improve trading relationship with EU
For the last week or so Keir Starmer has been saying that the trade war started by the Trump tariffs has boosted the case for countries that are committed to free trade to lower trade barriers even more.
The UK, of course, recently did exactly the opposite; Brexit increased trade barriers between Britain and its biggest market. Starmer came into office with a mandate to deepen trade relations with the EU – but only modestly, because anything more signifcant would be seen as reversing Brexit, which Starmer has ruled out.
Have the Trump tariffs changed Starmer’s thinking on this issue?
On Monday reporters asked this at the Downing Street lobby briefing and the PM’s spokesman said the answer was no. “I don’t think it’s fundamentally changed the calculation,” he said, implying the No 10 goals for the EU-UK reset were broadly the same as they were on election day.
But, in an interview with the Financial Times published today, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, gave a slightly different answer. She implied that there has been a bit of a rethink. She said:
I feel that in the current environment, there is a greater willingness from countries around the world to look at both tariff and non-tariff barriers that are holding back trade.
Many of the developments, whether it is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the challenges in global trade at the moment, mean that there’s an even greater imperative to improve our trading relationships with Europe.
Reeves did not elaborate on what this might mean. Maybe it’s significant, or maybe Reeves was just trying to make the general point about free trade being a good thing that all ministers have been making in recent days.
But she also said this about Brexit, which is stronger than you normally get still worried about telling 2016 Brexit voters that they were wrong.
Since Brexit, it has been harder for British firms to export around Europe, particularly smaller firms. Many feel shut out of European markets.
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Starmer claims talks on securing Universal theme park project for Bedford only started 'in earnest' after election
In their response to the news about Universal planning a theme park in Bedford, the Conservatives claimed that they deserved some of the credit – because planning for the development started when they were in office. (See 9.24am.)
In his interview with ITV’s Robert Peston, Keir Starmer downplayed this. He said talks on the project only started “in earnest” after the election. He said:
What you’ll notice from the decision today is that Universal are saying it’s because we were able to act quickly. The negotiations for the announcement today in earnest only began in the autumn and here we are making the announcement. That’s the sort of change that we need to bring about knocking out the barriers, getting on with the decisions.
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Starmer rejects claim there are 'strong arguments' for suspending fiscal rules, saying they're 'non-negotiable'
Keir Starmer has doubled down on his insistence that the government won’t change its fiscal rules, describing them as “ironclad” and “non-negotiable”.
In a Q&A with journalists on Monday, Starmer momentarily gave the impression the fiscal rules might be revised, or temporarily discarded, when he answered a question about whether they were certain to stay without categorically saying yes. (This was almost probably unintentional – the rest of his answer implied very much they would stay, and No 10 swiftly confirmed this.)
Today Starmer was not leaving any room for ambiguity. In an inteview with ITV’s Robert Peston, in reply to the very first question (which was about something else), Starmer said:
The approach we’ve taken is to be calm, to be pragmatic … The fiscal rules were put in for a purpose, they’re ironclad, they’re non-negotiable.
Peston put it to Starmer that, with the economy slowing down, there were “strong arguments” for suspending the fiscal rules, and allowing government borrowing to rise, because the alternatives were higher taxes or lower spending, both of which would make the economic situation worse.
Starmer replied:
I reject that argument. Liz Truss tried the experiment of putting to one side rules and institutions, checks and balances, and it had a huge impact on working people across the country when she crashed the economy. We are not going to allow that to happen for working people. That’s why the fiscal rules were put in in the first place. It’s why they’re ironclad, why they’re non-negotiable, because that platform of stability is what gives us the chance for investment into this country, huge investment I’ve been able to announce today in relation to the Bedford theme park, billions of pounds that only comes because we created the conditions of stability and the fiscal rules are part of that.
Peston then asked Starmer if he could promise that taxes on ordinary working people would not go up in the budget in the autumn. Starmer would not give that assurance, saying it was wrong to write a budget six months in advance.
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Greens welcome news government considering nationalising British steel, saying it's 'long-held' party policy
Like Reform UK (see 12.23pm), the Green party is also calling for the nationalisation of British Steel. In a statement, Adrian Ramsay, the co-leader, says this has been party policy for some time. He says:
We cannot afford to let our steel industry in Scunthorpe go into smelt down. With Chinese owner Jingye prepared to walk away and the steel industry facing Trump’s outlandish 25% tariff, nationalisation looks like the only sure way to secure this strategically important sector so vital to national security and British jobs. The fact the government is considering this long-held policy of the Green party is welcome.
Nationalisation of the steel industry could also prove to be a key driver of a green industrial revolution. From wind turbines to trains, steel will be needed for the transition to a green economy. We must not leave the future of steel communities to the whims of multinational companies or unhinged American presidents.
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Badenoch says Tories need to show they are not just party for older people
The Conservatives need to show that they are not just a party for older people, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Tory leader was speaking during a visit to a high school in Evesham, Worcestershire, where she renewed her call for a ban on mobile phones in schools.
Asked what she was planning to do to “make sure the Conservative party doesn’t die out”, Badenoch replied:
We’ve got to make sure that we demonstrate that we are creating an inheritance for the next generation.
I think a lot of young people thought the Conservative party was a party for older people; no party can survive if it’s just tending to one demographic.
We need to show that we’re looking at people from all walks of life and from all ages. That means talking about the issues that matter to them.
Badenoch said that housing was a particular issue for people in their 20s and 30s. But she also said that, speaking to pupils at the school, social media was an issue that came up too.
They talked about bullying that happens online, how they were concerned about those things, and one of the policies that I’ve put forward is banning phones in schools, especially smartphones.
That restricts the access to social media. A lot of teachers have said that the phones are very disruptive, especially at the GCSE age when they most need to focus on their exams.
The government claims there is no need for a law banning mobile phones in schools because most schools keep them out of the classroom anyway. But the Department for Education recently launched a review looking at how effectively these bans are enforced, which the Tories viewed as evidence that their campaigning on this issue was having some impact.
Analysis of voting at the last general election shows that, if the young see the Tories as a party for older people, they are right. Amongst voters under the age of 30, the Conservatives were the fourth most popular party in Britain. Amongst under 40s, they were the third most popular party. Only amongst the over 60s were they more popular than Labour.
Rachel Reeves sought to reassure City executives at a breakfast meeting this morning as share prices in the UK and Europe continued to fall. In a statement after the meeting, which was described as part of “regular engagement”, the Treasury said:
This morning, the chancellor and economic secretary [Emma Reynolds] met with key players across the industry promoting the UK as a place to invest given our stable political climate, our ongoing reforms to our capital markets and our commitment to bolstering the UK’s retail investment culture and delivering growth under our Plan for Change.
Green party says it would be 'morally reprehensible' to cut digital services tax to help US tech billionaires
At the Commons liaison committee yesterday Keir Starmer admitted that the digital services tax and the Online Safety Act were being discussed with the US as part of the trade deal talks.
The Green party say the prospect of giving tech billionaires a tax cut by amending the digital services tax (the US is not asking for the tax to be increased) is appalling. In a statement today Adrian Ramsay, the Green party co-leader, said:
I’m calling on the prime minister to take this morally reprehensible suggestion off the negotiating table.
The very idea that he would cut tax obligations for some of the biggest companies in the world, controlled by some of the very richest people in the world, in an effort to appease President Trump is an insult to each and every person struggling to get by at the moment …The crisis in our public finances is partly caused by corporations free riding on public services but avoiding paying their taxes. This is how the US tech billionaires have accumulated such excessive fortunes.
The digital services tax is a first step towards fair taxation of digital companies that dominate the global economy.
Ed Davey criticises Farage for being 'strangely silent' on impact of Trump's policies on British steel industry
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has criticised Nigel Farage for advocating the nationalisation of British Steel (see 12.23pm) while refusing to criticise President Trump, who has imposed tariffs on British steel products sent to the US. On a campaign visit today Davey said:
It’s a bit rich for Nigel Farage to talk about British Steel given his best friend Donald Trump is causing these problems.
If Nigel Farage really cared about steel workers, he’d be criticising Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And he’s strangely silent.
Davey also said the Liberal Democrats were not opposed to nationalisation as a means of saving the plant. But he said there were other options.
Nationalisation should be on the table, but there are alternatives. For example, making sure that British companies that are building stuff, whether it’s in energy or defence or in construction, are buying British steel.
That’s why Liberal Democrats have a Buy British campaign.
I think that would really help, it would improve the commercial viability, but we should look at all options.
Nigel Farage says blast furnaces at Scunthorpe 'will go' if British Steel isn't nationalised in next three days
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, was on BBC Breakfast this morning, and he restated his call for the British Steel plant at Scunthorpe to be nationalised. (See 10.53am.) He said:
Five or six years ago, I was saying very loudly and very publicly that selling the Scunthorpe works to Jingye was a mistake.
The other bigger point that I’ve made for years is that we have the most expensive energy prices, industrially, of any country in the world, and literally, we’re witnessing deindustrialisation before our very eyes.
We saw the Port Talbot steel plant close just a few months ago. We’re losing refining. We’re losing cement making. Both of our aluminium smelters have closed. You’re watching Britain deindustrialise as this government follows the last government’s policies on net zero. It literally is insanity.
And I’ll tell you this. Unless within three days that Scunthorpe plant is nationalised, those blast furnaces will go. We will become the only country in the G20, the only major economy on the planet, that doesn’t produce primary steel.
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One person probably more enthusiastic than most about the prospect of Universal opening a theme park in the UK is the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey. He is a great fan of outdoor activity-related photocalls, and he’s been at it again today, and the Gloucester Ski and Snowboarding Centre in Matson, Gloucestershire.
Almost 40 MPs and peers back Jeremy Corbyn in calling for inquiry into UK's support for Israel's war in Gaza
Almost 40 MPs and peers have signed a letter organised by Jeremy Corbyn calling for an independent inquiry into the government’s role in the war in Gaza.
In the letter, they say the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 61,000 and that “Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations, including the sale of weapons, the supply of intelligence and the use of Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in Cyprus.”
They say an inquiry should establish what decisions were taken and what the consequences were, and that ministers from the last Conservative government and the current Labour one should cooperate fully. They add:
Many people believe the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law.
These charges will not go away until there is a comprehensive, public, independent inquiry with the legal power to establish the truth.
The letter has been signed by 37 MPs and peers, from the Labour party, Sinn Féin, the Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, as well as independents.
In a message on Bluesky where he has posted the letter, Corbyn says:
Last month, I wrote to the Prime Minister calling for an independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Today, more than 30 MPs have supported that call.
This is not going away. We will campaign for as long as it takes to establish the truth.
Here is the text of the letter.
All seven Sinn Féin MP have signed the letter. In a statement explaining why, the Sinn Féin Chris Hazzard said:
For 18 months now, the Israeli army has continually attacked the defenceless population of Gaza, while world leaders turn a blind eye to these barbaric and inhumane actions.
Some members of the international community are complicit in the ongoing genocide, displacement and apartheid targeting the Palestine people.
This letter calls for a public inquiry into the British government’s role in the war on Gaza, and how it has assisted Netanyahu’s reckless and out-of-control regime.
While Israel must be held fully accountable for its flagrant breaches of international law, we also must establish what role successive British governments have played in this war.
Updated
Keir Starmer also said the Universal theme park announcement would “put Bedford on the map for millions of people”.
At the event to mark the announcement, at a college in Bedfordshire, he said:
What a momentous day, what an important day. It’s not just the first one in the United Kingdom, that would be pretty good, it’s the first one across Europe, and that is really incredible.
It’s going to put Bedford on the map for millions of people, film lovers, people coming here for fun, people building their careers here. It will create thousands of jobs for the local community.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was also speaking at the event and she said the government was already backing infrastructure projects to support the theme park. She said:
We’ve already made a decision about expansion at Luton airport and alongside the announcement today we are going to be making upgrades at Bedford station, a new station at Wixams and improvements for the A421.
Starmer says 80% of jobs created by Universal theme park in Bedford will go to local workers
Keir Starmer is speaking in Bedfordshire at an event to mark the Universal studios announcement.
He says, when he became PM, he was warned that he would face a lot of tough days. But announcing a new theme park is a much nicer thing to be doing, he says.
He says the project will put Bedford on the map, and create thousands of jobs. And 80% of those jobs will go to local workers, he says.
It will create skills for students. Local colleges are already considering what courses they will need, he says.
It wil be good for the creative sector, he says. And it will lead to transport links being improved.
And the theme park will bring joy to people too, he says. He says his teenage children aren’t interested in most announcements he makes, but they are interested in this one, he says.
This is what Downing Street is saying about the project in its news release.
The theme park, which is set to be one of the largest and most advanced in Europe, will bring nearly 20,000 jobs during the construction period, with a further 8,000 new jobs across the hospitality and creative industries when it opens in 2031.
Supporting the government’s Plan for Change to create economic growth and opportunities by getting people into well-paid, decent jobs across the creative, technology, tourism and hospitality sectors, Universal has committed to working with local colleges and universities to train the next generation of its hospitality workforce, including through a range of apprenticeships and internships.
As well as generating significant opportunities, the new theme park and resort will bring significant local benefits – with approximately 80% of employees at the theme park expected to come from local areas – and support a stream of ongoing work to unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor through growth, infrastructure revitalisation and further job opportunities.
Universal expects the site to generate nearly £50bn for the economy by 2055, with 8.5 million visitors expected in its first year – becoming the largest visitor attraction in the UK.
Government still hoping for 'commercial solution' to safeguarding British Steel, says Nandy
As Rowena Mason reports, the government is actively considering nationalising British Steel to safe the steelworks in Scunthorpe.
In interviews this morning, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, confirmed that all options were on the table for British steel, but said the government were still hoping for a commercial solution. She told Times Radio:
We still think that a commercial solution is possible and it’s the right solution but we’re really 100% committed to working with industry to safeguard those jobs and safeguard an industry that’s been so important to the UK.
The reason we haven’t ruled out other options is because we know how important the steel industry is and we’re working on contingency plans to make sure that we’ve got all the options available to us but the commercial option is very much our preferred option and we’ll continue to work with industry to achieve it.
Lisa Nandy says she has changed her mind about wanting to abolish monarchy
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, says she has changed her mind about abolishing the royal family.
During the 2020 Labour leadership contest Nandy said she would vote to replace the monarchy if there were a referendum – while also saying it was not a priority for her.
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain today, asked if she had changed her mind since then, she replied: “I have, actually.”
She explained:
I think, in principle I believe that people should have the power to decide who rules them.
But I think the monarchy under the Queen and under this current King command strong public support.
I think right now, if you look at the turmoil going on in the world, then we do need a royal family who are able to help us to deliver the benefits to Britain.
So I’m not afraid to say when I change my mind and I have changed my mind about that.
Lisa Nandy rejects Tory claim government has abandoned plans for local inquiries into grooming gangs
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has rejected claims that the government has abandoned plans to have five local inquiries into grooming or rape gangs.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced the local inquiries in January, at a time when the government was under pressure to announce a national, statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.
In the Commons yesterday Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, failed to say what progress was being made in setting up these inquiries. In the chamber her Tory shadow, Katie Lam, criticised the lack of progress, and the Conservative party later put out a press release accusing Labour of “cancelling their rape gang local inquiries”.
In an interview on Times Radio, Nandy said the policy was not being watered down. She said:
The truth is that we are listening to victims and authorities around the country about the need to give them the right tools to tackle it, this very pernicious problem, in their own areas.
We believe that decisions are best made by those with skin in the game in their own communities, people who live in those communities, who understand what is happening there.
In her statement to MPs yesterday Phillips said the government was “developing a new best practice framework to support local authorities that want to undertake victim-centred local inquiries or related work”.
She also said that, following consultation with local authorities, the Home Office would let councils use money from the £5m national fund set aside for these local inquiries not just for full, independent local inquiries, but also for “more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally led audits of the handling of historical cases”.
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Planning bill ‘throws environmental protection to the wind’, say UK nature chiefs
The heads of 32 UK nature organisations have written to the government warning that the planning bill “throws environmental protection to the wind”, Helena Horton reports.
Starmer claims Universal theme park investment ‘major vote of confidence in UK’ - as Tories say project started under them
Good morning. Parliament is in recess, but government never stops, and today ministers are promoting two initiatives which they are citing as evidence that their Plan for Change is working.
As Jasper Jolly demonstrates with the latest updates on our business live blog, if you want to experience a scary rollercoaster ride, you can just put some money in the stock market, or check the value of your pension fund. The Trump tariffs to continue to send shock waves through the world economy, and UK politics is dominated by the debate about how to respond.
Keir Starmer is responding in part by escalating his Plan for Change and today the government is announcing an actual rollercoaster ride – rather, plans for Universal to put its first theme park in Europe in Bedford. Downing Street is describing this as a “major vote of confidence in the UK economy” and Starmer says:
Today we closed the deal on a multi-billion-pound investment that will see Bedford home to one of the biggest entertainment parks in Europe, firmly putting the county on the global stage.
This is our Plan for Change in action, combining local and national growth with creating around 28,000 new jobs across sectors such as construction, AI, and tourism.
Esther Addley has the full story here.
Even the Conservative party says this is “great news for Britain”. But, in his response, Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, says his party deserves some of the credit because “the Conservative government worked closely with Universal Studios to secure the land and help bring forward plans for the new park”.
And there is more Plan for Change talk coming from the Treasury, where Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is talking up the significance of her meeting later with the Indian finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. Reeves says:
In a changing world, this government is accelerating trade deals with the rest of the world to back British business and provide the security working people deserve ..
That’s why the business secretary and I are today meeting with India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, as part of our two nations’ economic and financial dialogue as we seek to secure a new trade deal.
We will be covering the topics of growth and global issues, as well as how we can unleash potential across various sectors and defence to create jobs, investment and trade opportunities, as part of the government’s Plan for Change.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has a breakfast meeting with business executives to discuss the Trump tariffs.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Reeves are on a visit, where they are expected to give interviews.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a local elections campaign visit in Worcestershire where she is giving interviews.
Afternoon: Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, are meeting India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. There is expected to be a briefing afterwards.
3.30pm: Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson from Reform UK are campaigning in Nottinghamshire, starting in Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
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