Keir Starmer did not discuss threat of US tariffs on UK imports in first call with Donald Trump, No 10 says – UK politics live

Starmer did not discuss threat of US imposing tariffs on UK imports in first call with Trump
Keir Starmer did not discuss the prospect of the US imposing tariffs on UK imports when he spoke to President Trump yesterday, Pippa Crerar reports.
NEW: These topics did *NOT* come up in Donald Trump’s weekend call with Keir Starmer:
Peter Mandelson
Defence spending hitting 2.5%
Trump’s plans for Greenland
Chagos Islands
US imposing tariffs on UK
Ukraine (which they’ve discussed in depth previously)
But they had a “long and detailed” discussion on range of areas including trade, investment, deregulation.
The call lasted 45 minutes. But Trump is famous for rambling, and getting easily distract, in talks with other leaders, and so it is hard to know whether some topics were left out of the discussion by accident or design.
Commenting on the call at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said it was “very warm”. He told reporters:
It was a very warm call, and it was very constructive.
The spokesperson was unable to say when Starmer might visit Washingon, or when Trump might visit the UK. But he said UK engagement with the new administration had been very good.
There’s a wide range of areas that we look forward to working with President Trump and his an entire team to build on our already very strong and deep relationship.
Whether it’s on trade, investment, whether it’s on security and defence, and the Prime Minister looks forward to meeting him soon.
Key events
Downing Street has defended the Royal Navy’s decision not to use HMS Agincourt as the name for a new submarine after the decision was described as “woke nonsense”.
According to a report in the Sun, the hunter-killer submarine, which is still under construction, was due to be named after Henry V’s victory, following predecessor boats that have also used the name. But the Sun claims the name has been changed to HMS Achilles to avoid reminding the French of one of their great defeats.
Asked about the report at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said that HMS Achilles was more appropriate name given that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. The spokesperson said:
We’re proud of our nation’s rich military history and the many famous battles fought, and it’s why the seventh boat in the astute class will be called HMS Achilles.
As I’m sure you’ll be aware, HMS Achilles received battle honours during the second world war. So this name is particularly appropriate this year as we mark the VE and VJ Day 80th anniversaries.
Downing Street was not involved in the decision over the name, which was made by the names and badges committee.
Commenting on the Sun’s story, Grant Shapps, a former Tory defence secretary, said:
Renaming the HMS Agincourt is nothing short of sacrilege. This submarine carries a name that honours a defining moment in British history.
Under Labour, woke nonsense is being put ahead of tradition and our Armed Forces’ proud heritage.
No 10 refuses to deny report raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP may be delayed until after next election
This morning the Times splashed on a story saying Keir Starmer is likely to delay raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP until after the next election. In their report, Steven Swinford and George Grylls say:
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to resist pressure from President Trump and the British military to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030 because of concerns about the state of public finances, The Times has been told …
Starmer has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent and has commissioned a strategic defence review that is due to conclude in spring. After that, the government will set a deadline for the 2.5 per cent target.
A senior government source said: “If we try to hit the target by 2030 it will mean deeper cuts to public services in the run-up to the election. It feels like a non-starter.” The next general election would be due by mid-2029.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson did not deny the story, but would not confirm it either. He just said the government was “working at pace” on its strategic defence review, and that the pathway to reaching 2.5% would be set out when the SDR reports in the spring.
At 3.30pm a defence minister will respond to an urgent question tabled by James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, on this story.
Green party accuses government of abandoning climate commitments in pursuit of growth
With Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, expected to confirm government support for a third runway at Heathrow on Wednesday, the Green party has attacked the Labour ministers who have changed their minds on this. Keir Starmer is one of eight ministers now attending cabinet who voted against Heathrow expansion in 2018.
Keir Starmer’s Cabinet members seem quite happy to sacrifice their previous (logical) objections to airport expansion at the altar of ‘economic growth’.
Has anyone asked who this economic growth is going to benefit while our climate commitments are trashed? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/pBV1rlkbUq
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) January 27, 2025
Keir Starmer’s Cabinet members seem quite happy to sacrifice their previous (logical) objections to airport expansion at the altar of ‘economic growth’.
Has anyone asked who this economic growth is going to benefit while our climate commitments are trashed?
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson insisted that the growth agenda and the net zero agenda went “hand in hand”. He said:
The energy security agenda, the growth agenda go hand in hand. We’ve talked previously about the jobs that green industries of the future will bring, the fact that by backing GB energy and the National Wealth Fund we’ll be crowding in billions of pounds of private sector investment. These agendas absolutely go hand in hand.
Starmer did not discuss threat of US imposing tariffs on UK imports in first call with Trump
Keir Starmer did not discuss the prospect of the US imposing tariffs on UK imports when he spoke to President Trump yesterday, Pippa Crerar reports.
NEW: These topics did *NOT* come up in Donald Trump’s weekend call with Keir Starmer:
Peter Mandelson
Defence spending hitting 2.5%
Trump’s plans for Greenland
Chagos Islands
US imposing tariffs on UK
Ukraine (which they’ve discussed in depth previously)
But they had a “long and detailed” discussion on range of areas including trade, investment, deregulation.
The call lasted 45 minutes. But Trump is famous for rambling, and getting easily distract, in talks with other leaders, and so it is hard to know whether some topics were left out of the discussion by accident or design.
Commenting on the call at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said it was “very warm”. He told reporters:
It was a very warm call, and it was very constructive.
The spokesperson was unable to say when Starmer might visit Washingon, or when Trump might visit the UK. But he said UK engagement with the new administration had been very good.
There’s a wide range of areas that we look forward to working with President Trump and his an entire team to build on our already very strong and deep relationship.
Whether it’s on trade, investment, whether it’s on security and defence, and the Prime Minister looks forward to meeting him soon.
Distrust of authority higher in ethnic minority communities, Badenoch tells Covid inquiry
Before he finished questioning Kemi Badenoch, Hugh Keith KC, counsel for the inquiry, asked her if she thought that ethnic minority people were less inclined to trust the vaccines because they thought ethnic minority people had not been proportionately represesented in vaccine trials.
In response, Badenoch said it was more complex than that.
Within ethnic minority communities, irrespective of what’s happening here, there is distrust of public authority. Most ethnic minorities have come from authoritarian regimes or places where the government may actually be trying to get you, and that’s why they’ve they’ve come here. So there is a baseline level of suspicion that is just higher than we in the UK have generally, and it builds from that.
She says that is one reason why ethnic minority people were less likely to take part in vaccine trials.
Badenoch is now being asked about the Traveller community
When it is put to her that the health authorities did not have enough data about GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) people, Badenoch says she thinks that local councils had good information about where Travellers were living in their area.
And that is the end of Badenoch’s evidence.
Badenoch is now being questioned by Leslie Thomas KC representing the Federation of Ethnic Minority Healthcare Organisations (FEMHO).
He asks if her concerns about the disproportionate impact of Covid on ethnic minorities were taken sufficiently she seriously when policy was being developed.
Badenoch says she thinks they were taken into account.
Thomas says that in her witness statement Badenoch says she expressed concern about hte proposal to make vaccines compulsory for care workers. He asks about those reservations being ignored.
Badenoch says government has to take a collective view. Just because an opinion has been accepted, that does not mean it was ignored, she says.
Badenoch suggests private WhatsApp groups can be more dangerous source of misinformation than public sites like X
Keith asks about misinformation and disinformation. He says the fourth report from the Race Disparity Unit that Kemi Badenoch oversaw spoke about the importance of this being tackled.
Q: Is there a limit to what government can do?
Badenoch says there is always a limit to what central government can do.
She goes on:
I think it’s probably worth explaining what it is that I mean by misinformation and disinformation. People often assume that it’s stuff on Twitter or X. I’m actually less worried about that sort of misinformation because it’s very public, and people who know can challenge it easily. So that’s an open sphere.
Badenoch says she is more worried about things like WhatsApp groups, “things that government has no insight into”.
Even the tech companies don’t really know what’s being shared. It’s all encrypted, and a lot of false information travels very quickly through those channels.
Badenoch says in some cases “reputable sources” were even spreading misinformation/ She claims there were people in the BMA who thought the government was trying to suppress information about what was happening to ethnic minorities.
She says government can respond by putting information into the public domain. She says she took part in vaccine trials to show the vaccines were safe.
At the Covid inquiry the hearing has resumed. Hugo Keith, counsel for the inquiry, asks about a meeting Kemi Badenoch held with high commissioners from some countries linked to the minority communities were vaccine take-up was low. He says the meeting did not achieve much, because the high commissioners did not have much influence over these people.
Badenoch says high commission are not set up to run these sorts of publicity campaigns.
Q: Did you liaise with the National Pharmacy Association about what pharmacists could play?
Badenoch says she recalls one meeting with pharmacists – she cannot recall which group organised it. She says the government did use pharmacists effectively.
Keith shows minutes from the meeting. He says pharmacists operate particularly in deprived areas.
Q: It does not appear pharmacists were used as much as they might have been. They were not always open 12 hours a day.
Badenoch says she thinks pharmacists were used successfully for the rollout of the vacccine. She says Keith is showing her the agenda for a meeting, not minutes of the meeting.
Q: Do you think councils were used enough?
Badenoch says she was not working at the local government department at the height of the pandemic. By the time she started there as a minister, she says she thought a lot of work was being done with them.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP in charge of the private member’s bill on assisted dying, has written to MPs saying she has extended the time the bill committee will get to consider all the written submissions it has received, because there have been so many, Jessica Elgot says.
NEW – Kim Leadbeater writes to all MPs today, ahead of the assisted dying committee beginning public hearings tomorrow.
She says she has extended the time MPs can consider written submissions because of the volume that has been received. pic.twitter.com/Za2nUlwB7h
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) January 27, 2025
This is what Kemi Badenoch told the inquiry earlier when asked if there should have been a single secretary of state for equalities to ensure all departments could deal with ethnic disparities which emerged during the pandemic. (See 11.25am.)
I’m not sure that that would have worked.
We did have someone in cabinet with that responsibility. I was a junior minister at the time, but Liz Truss was in cabinet, so that would have been her job.
If what you’re saying is, ‘should we have had someone who is exclusively focused on that and nothing else?’ I think that the disadvantage would be they would have no levers, they would purely be in an advisory role.