No 10 confirms it will not seek to rejoin EU customs union, saying Trump tariffs have not ‘changed the calculation’ – UK politics live
No 10 confirms it’s still opposed to rejoining customs union, saying Trump tariffs have not led to rethink on EU policy
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked if there was any discussion in those talks of accelerating closer economic links with the EU, or with Canada, the PM’s spokesperson replied:
When it comes to EU, our position on the reset is that we do want to work more closely with the EU on trade.
And, on Canada, the spokesperson said that Starmer and Mark Carney, the Canadian PM had discussed the importance of the CPTPP trade deal, to which both the UK and Canada are party.
But asked if the Trump tariffs had changed the government’s ambition in terms of what it would be seeking from the “reset” talks with the EU this year that are intended to deepen the post-Brext trading relationship, the spokesperson replied:
I don’t think it’s fundamentally changed the calculation. The government was very clear on coming into office that we wanted to seek a closer trading relationship with the EU.
We have restated our ambition to not only go further and faster domestically, and the importance of that when it comes to supporting UK businesses in light of what’s happened in [recent] days and weeks.
But it also underlines the importance of trading relationships around the world, and we think we can get a much better trading relationship with the EU, which is obviously our largest trading partner.
Asked if the Trump tariffs were making the government reconsider its opposition to rejoining the EU customs union, the spokesperson replied:
No. Our previously stated position on that [still applies]; we are not going backwards when it comes to Brexit, we’re looking forward. There’s no change to any of those red lines.
But we do think we can have a better trading relationship with EU.
Key events
Trump will use tariffs as ‘big negotiating tool’, Nigel Farage claims
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and vocal Donald Trump supporter, has said that he thinks the Trump tariffs are just “a big negotiating tool”.
Speaking at his press conference this morning, he said:
I still think that this big tariff threat globally … It’ll look different in three months time. He’ll use it as a big negotiating tool. I think we’re better positioned to come out of this with a deal than almost any other country.
So, short term it’s painful, but what it does do, it expose the fact that not being in the European Union does have advantages and ones that we ought to use.
Farage also dismissed the measures being announced by Keir Starmer today to help the car industry (see 9.37am), saying it was “fiddling around the edges”. He explained:
[Starmer] is that he’s making a big speech today about the state of the car industry. It is nothing to do with the tariffs that last year was our lowest level of car production since 1954.
The EV [electric vehicle] mandates that were put on by the last Conservative government have been destroying the car industry and all the prime minister is doing this afternoon, frankly, is fiddling around the edges. Even without America and tariffs our car industry is in crisis.
There will be an urgent question in the Commons at 3.30pm on “government action to prevent the closure of Scunthorpe Steelworks”, followed by two government statements: from Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, on the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, and from Hamish Falconer, the Foreign Office minister, on Israel refusing to admit two MPs into the country.
No 10 refuses to say whether or not government thinks Trump might reverse tariff policy
One reason why it has been hard for world leaders to respond to the US tariffs is because no one really knows whether Donald Trump is determined to stick with them at all costs, or whether he might be willing to reduce them (because they were all just a negotiating ploy all along? Or because he will eventually cave in the face of market pressure?)
As Ed Pilkington reports, even members of Trump’s cabinet don’t seem able to agree on this.
Asked if the UK government thinks Trump is or isn’t open to changing his mind, the PM’s spokesperson refused to answer, saying he would not give “a running commentary”.
Asked if Keir Starmer was currently seeking a call with Trump, the spokesperson declined to say, but confirmed that the media would be told when a call does take place.
No 10 confirms it’s still opposed to rejoining customs union, saying Trump tariffs have not led to rethink on EU policy
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked if there was any discussion in those talks of accelerating closer economic links with the EU, or with Canada, the PM’s spokesperson replied:
When it comes to EU, our position on the reset is that we do want to work more closely with the EU on trade.
And, on Canada, the spokesperson said that Starmer and Mark Carney, the Canadian PM had discussed the importance of the CPTPP trade deal, to which both the UK and Canada are party.
But asked if the Trump tariffs had changed the government’s ambition in terms of what it would be seeking from the “reset” talks with the EU this year that are intended to deepen the post-Brext trading relationship, the spokesperson replied:
I don’t think it’s fundamentally changed the calculation. The government was very clear on coming into office that we wanted to seek a closer trading relationship with the EU.
We have restated our ambition to not only go further and faster domestically, and the importance of that when it comes to supporting UK businesses in light of what’s happened in [recent] days and weeks.
But it also underlines the importance of trading relationships around the world, and we think we can get a much better trading relationship with the EU, which is obviously our largest trading partner.
Asked if the Trump tariffs were making the government reconsider its opposition to rejoining the EU customs union, the spokesperson replied:
No. Our previously stated position on that [still applies]; we are not going backwards when it comes to Brexit, we’re looking forward. There’s no change to any of those red lines.
But we do think we can have a better trading relationship with EU.
No 10 won’t say if Starmer urged other countries to avoid retaliatory tariffs in talks over weekend
Keir Starmer spoke to the leaders of Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and the European Commission at the end of last week and over the weekend. The UK has ruled out immediate retaliatory tariffs. But, at the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning, the PM’s spokesperson would not say whether Starmer directly urged other leaders to hold off on retaliatory tariffs too.
Asked Starmer had urged his counterparts not to retaliate, the spokesperson replied:
It will always be up to every country to respond in the way that they see fit.
We’ve been very clear that we will respond to this in a cool and pragmatic way that supports the national interest.
And I think it is widely agreed, as you have seen from [the readouts of the weekend calls], that clearly a global trade war is not in anybody’s interest, certainly not in the UK’s economic interests. We are an open trading nation. We want to see reduced barriers to trade with other economies around the world.
The spokesperson confirmed that Starmer did not speak to President Trump over the weekend.
Does Starmer have a strategy for dealing with Trump tariffs?
In his Times article Keir Starmer describes the Trump tariffs as “the beginning of a new era”. He has been saying this at least since last Thursday, when he spoke about the tariffs at a Q&A with journalists at Labour’s local elections campaign launch. The speech this afternoon is being described as the PM’s most considered response so far to the global economic turmoil generated by the tariffs, but we have already heard quite a lot from Starmer on this topic already, in a Sunday Telegraph article yesterday and in No 10 briefings on the calls he had with world leaders about the situation over the weekend.
Is there a coherent strategy? On the basis of what he has said so far, there are at least five elements in the mix at the moment.
1) Push for a trade deal with the US. Starmer has ruled out immediate retaliatory tariffs, and the government is still hoping to negotiate a trade deal with the US. Last week Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said he hoped this would lead to the US lifting the 10% tariffs on all UK imports, but yesterday, on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, refused to confirm that having a deal would led to the tariffs being removed.
2) Push further and faster for growth. Starmer was elected on a commitment to prioritise growth, and he has argued that the global economic situation makes this more important than ever. But, in terms of talking about the policies that might deliver this, mostly Starmer has been highlighting policies that were already in the pipeline.
3) Help sectors most affected by tariffs. The automative industry is specifically at risk, because cars are subject to 25% tariffs, and today’s announcment is a sector-specific intervention. In his Times article Starmer says: “This is just the first of a series of pro-growth measures we’ll be delivering to provide certainty, stability, and support for industry.”
4) Make British industry more resilient. Even before she became chancellor, Rachel Reeves was arguing that globalisation in its old form was dead and that industrial policy had to make the UK less reliant on imports. She called this “securonomics”, and the Trump tariffs have arguably made the case for this even stronger. Starmer echoed this in his Sunday Telegraph article at the weekend, where he wrote: “We stand ready to use industrial policy to help shelter British business from the storm.”
5) Strengthen trade links with other free trade countries. Starmer is being urged by people like Jim O’Neill, the former Treasury minister, and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, to respond to the Trump tariffs by developing a free trade “coalition of the willing” with non-US economies. Arguably this approach would contradict 4). But there is some evidence Starmer is exploring this. In a read-out of Starmer’s call with the Canadian PM Mark Carney at the weekend, No 10 said both men agreed on “the importance of free and open trade between like-minded nations”. And, talking to the Australian PM Anthony Albanese and the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, Starmer said “it has been clear for a long time that like-minded countries must maintain strong relationships.”
In summary, the Trump tariffs crisis has not really prompted a change of course, more an intensification of policies that Starmer was pursuing anyway. But we are only five days into Trump’s economic “new era”. The Starmer response is likely to evolve.
Reform UK promised that a “special guest” would appear at its press conference in Doncaster this morning, alongside the party leader Nigel Farage and its mayoral candidate for the city, Alexander Jones. The surprise speaker was John Ryan, the former chairman of Doncaster Rovers, who endorsed Jones, saying: “He’s a listener, and we need more of that in politics.” Farage said:
John Ryan is a local hero and we are truly humbled that he has publicly endorsed Reform UK ahead of May’s elections in Doncaster.
Starmer says his ‘only priority’ is ‘people of Britain, and what makes them better off’
Keir Starmer has written an article for today’s Times defending the changes announced today to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate. He says the announcement shows the government is willing to trust manufacturers.
When the last government rowed back on its electric vehicle targets, that harmed investment. So we will keep our commitments in place. The certainty that business needs in uncertain times.
But we need to give British industry flexibility in how it gets to those targets. That’s why today we’re announcing changes to the EV mandate. The last government designed it with nowhere near enough regard for manufacturing. That era of policy making is over.
Instead of micromanaging businesses, we’re trusting them. We’re giving them the flexibility they need to hit the target in a way that works for them while keeping our manifesto commitment to end sales of petrol cars by 2030.
That means no British-based manufacturers should have to pay a fine — or pay foreign firms for EV credits. But, as a backstop, we’re also going to cut the fines by 20 per cent. Any money we do raise will be invested straight back into supporting Britain’s automative industry. That is our guarantee.
In the article Starmer links the EV announcement to a wider argument about the world being in a new era, and about how, as he responds, his focus will be on what’s best for Britons, and what will make them better off.
My priority — my only priority — is the people of Britain, and what makes them better off. Which is exactly why we will rise to this moment and make change work for hard-working people.
And he explains why the EV policy will contribute to this aim.
We’re putting £2.3 billion towards tax breaks for people buying electric vehicles and improving charging infrastructure — one public charging point pops up every half an hour. And we’ll put rocket boosters behind British industry’s efforts to go faster for consumers at home.
Buying a British electric car running on home-grown clean power could save you £1,100 a year on your fuel bill.
Rights groups urge Starmer to dial down anti-migrant rhetoric
More than 130 refugee and human rights organisations have called on Keir Starmer to stop using language that demonises migrants, after he made controversial remarks before an international people-smuggling summit, Diane Taylor reports.
Green party says Labour ‘wrong to apply brakes on sale of EV cars’
The Green party claims the government’s decision to change its Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate means the government is weakening its commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
In a statement, the Green MP Siân Berry said:
We do need to protect our manufacturers against the US’s aggressive and chaotic trade policy, but we must not allow the Trump administration to derail our transition towards a green economy. We should work to build cooperative trade alliances with countries that maintain their commitment to climate action under the UN COP process.
The government is wrong to apply the brakes on the sale of EV cars. This is just the latest in a series of boosts the Labour government has given fossil fuel industries. We’ve also seen the green light being given to airport expansion and a new road tunnel under the Thames. This suggests Labour is weakening its climate commitments, and its health-related policy goals because all these moves will have a detrimental impact on air quality.
Heidi Alexander says EV rule changes were planned anyway, but Trump tariffs brought ‘renewed urgency’ to announcement
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, has confirmed that the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate changes announced today are the result of a consultation that started at the end of last year, before the US tariffs were announced and before Donald Trump even took office as president.
But she said the tariffs meant the announcement came with “renewed urgency”. She told LBC:
So, the consultation on the zero-emission vehicles mandate started on Christmas eve, and it closed in the middle of February, and so we were always planning to bring forward our response in April as a government.
Obviously what happened last week with the imposition of global tariffs by the US administration has meant that we have looked at this with renewed urgency in the last week, because, if you think about businesses like Jaguar Land Rover, their business planning has really been thrown up into the air given the amount of cars they export to the US.
Because the car manufacturers have been saying to us ‘We need certainty on this’, it’s really important that we come forward with a sensible package urgently, which is what we are doing today, so that we can take that part of uncertainty away from their planning because we recognise it is a challenging time for a lot of businesses at the moment.
The Green Alliance thinktank welcomed the fact that the government has not not changed the headline goal of 2030 for the year when the sale of petrol and diesel cars must end (apart from micro-volume supercar brands, like McLaren and Aston Martin – which are now exempt). But it has expressed concern that the changes announced today will slow progress towards making the car industry fully electric.
Shaun Spiers, its executive director, said:
We welcome the prime minister’s clear support for the 2030 phase-out of highly polluting cars and vans: the future of the UK car industry must be electric — or it won’t have one.
The government is right to act swiftly to protect the UK car industry in the face of US tariffs, but it’s important to recognise that China and other countries are racing ahead in EV production.
In the long run, these amendments to pro-growth regulations risk hampering competition, pushing up prices for working families by locking them into dependence on expensive petrol vehicles.
The only lasting solution is for the government to set out a clear industrial strategy — one firmly rooted in a commitment to climate action — to protect UK jobs, and our energy and economic security.
Decision to ease EV rules for car firms will have ‘negligible’ impact on carbon emissions, says transport secretary
Last night the Conservative party claimed that the changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate announced by the government amounted to a U-turn.
But this morning Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said the changes – which don’t involve 2030 being changed as the phase out date for the sale of most new petrol and diesel cars – would only have a “negligible” on the UK’s carbon emissions.
She told told BBC Breakfast:
The changes we are making have been very carefully calibrated so as not to have a big impact upon the carbon emissions savings that are baked into this policy.
In fact, the impact upon carbon emissions as a result of these changes is negligible.
Eurig Druce, UK group managing director for Stellantis UK, the company that owns the carmaker Vauxhall, has welcomed the government’s decision to make the implemention of the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate more flexible. But he said more needed to be done to encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles. He said:
With the challenging geopolitical operating environment and increased intense pressure on the automotive industry, extending the current flexibilities and the introduction of new ones helps Stellantis in continuing to be compliant …
We welcome the flexibilities to allow our customers more freedom of choice. However, there is still a need to address market demand and introduce measures to stimulate it. We will continue to work closely with government on this.
‘Tinkering’ and ‘not giant leap required’ – Starmer fails to impress car sector with plan to help it cope with tariffs
Good morning. As prime minister, there is nothing more important than being able to show the nation, when a crisis hits, that you are responding pro-actively, that you have a plan to cope, and that you are not just passive and helpless. Today is unusual because Keir Starmer is responding to a crisis caused by someone who is purportedly an ally, but in other respects the crisis response is familiar; “government will protect you”, the PM will say.
Starmer will be giving a speech early this afternoon and here is Pippa Crerar’s overnight preview story about what he is going to say.
Starmer will focus in particular on the car industry, which has been hit by 25% tariffs on exports to the US. He will say:
Global trade is being transformed so we must go further and faster in reshaping our economy and our country through our Plan for Change …
Now more than ever UK businesses and working people need a government that steps up, not stands aside. That means action, not words. So today I am announcing bold changes to the way we support our car industry.
The announcement involves changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, the set of relatively complex rules setting targets for car manufacturers to ensure they transition to producing electric vehicles and stop selling new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. The 2030 target stays (more or less – the government is exempting micro-volume supercar brands, like McLaren and Aston Martin). But manufacturers will be allowed to sell full hybrid cars until 2035, and fines for firms that don’t meet the ZEV (zero emission vehicle) targets will be reduced. Companies will also get more flexibility in how they meet these targets. The Department for Transport has the details in a news release here.
The motor industry has welcomed these changes – as far as they go. But it has also described them as quite modest, and likely to have only a limited impact given the challenges it is facing.
According to the Financial Times, Lisa Brankin, managing director of Ford in the UK, said the announcement was “a small step in the right direction,” but added: “It is not the giant leap required to address the especially challenging electric vehicle market conditions”.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said much more was needed. In a statement Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, said:
We await full details of the regulatory amendments but, given the potentially severe headwinds facing manufacturers following the introduction of US tariffs, greater action will almost certainly be needed to safeguard our industry’s competitiveness. UK-US negotiations must continue at pace, while the long-awaited industrial and trade strategies should prioritise automotive and be delivered at speed.
And in an interview on the Today programme this morning Robert Forrester, CEO of Vertu motors, one of the UK’s biggest car dealerships, said:
There are lots and lots of words in the announcement, but it doesn’t really address the major issues. The electric vehicle targets up to 2030 remain in place. The fines have been changed, but it’s still £12,000 pound fine for every petrol and diesel car up to 2030 that’s sold above the zero emission targets. That’s billions of pounds to manufacturers, and manufacturers face a choice with, adding the pressure on of tariffs, of either paying significant fines or rationing petrol and diesel cars. Nothing has really changed here. This is real tinkering.
For a sense of how serious the Trump tariff challenge actually is, do read Graeme Wearden’s business live blog. He says shares on the FTSE 100 have plunged 6% this morning.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK, holds a press conference in Doncaster with the party’s mayoral candidate in the city, Alexander Jones, and a “special guest”, the party says.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Early afternoon: Keir Starmer gives a speech in the West Midlands on “how this government is backing British business with support to carmakers”, No 10 says.
2.30pm: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, is due to make a statement to MPs about changes to the zero emissions vehicle mandate.
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