Minister claims trade deal will save 150,000 jobs
The UK-US trade deal was urgently needed to protect as many as 150,000 livelihoods, a senior government minister said, as he insisted the agreement would be “really good for Britain”.
According to the PA news agency, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, was resolute about the need to sign the deal, as he faced suggestions the UK still remained in a worse trading situation with the US than before Donald Trump introduced sweeping tariffs.
The deal removes tariffs on UK steel and aluminium imports to the US, and cuts the levy on cars from 27.5% to 10%, offering British luxury carmakers like Jaguar Land Rover a reprieve.
Business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, indicated on Thursday night that thousands people were perhaps “days” away from losing their jobs without the deal.
Asked by BBC Breakfast on Friday morning if agreeing the deal was urgent, Treasury minister Jones said: “Yes. Yes, it was.”
Pressed if this was because of the threat of job losses, Jones added: “Of course, which is why it was so important that we’ve got the deal over the line.”
The minister also brushed aside suggestions the UK was no better off than before Donald Trump’s tariffs were first introduced. He told the BBC:
If I could rather be in a world where there were no tariffs, of course I would. But that’s just not the world that exists. So it’s not really an option on the table. The option on the table is to have not signed a trade deal with the United States and had higher tariffs, or to have signed a trade deal with the United States and had lower tariffs.
We’ve signed that trade deal. We’ve got lower tariffs in critical manufacturing sectors in the UK. 150,000 people’s livelihoods that we’ve protected as a consequence of that trade deal.
That is, by definition, factually better off as a consequence of the action that this government is taking to stand up for working people across the UK.
Jones later elaborated on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, to signal the 150,000 figure included the families of those whose jobs may be affected in the car, steel and aluminium sectors.
Reynolds told Newsnight that “we were at risk of thousands of people losing their jobs” without an agreement, adding that this could have happened within “days”.
The deal was confirmed in a conversation between Keir Starmer and the US president that was broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic on Thursday afternoon, coinciding with VE Day.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are some other key developments in UK politics:
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Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”. In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.
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The UK and US have agreed a “breakthrough” trade deal slashing some of Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel and that the prime minister said would save thousands of British jobs. Keir Starmer said it was a “fantastic, historic day” as he announced the agreement, the first by the White House since Trump announced sweeping global tariffs last month.
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More than 40 Labour MPs have warned the prime minister that planned disability cuts are “impossible to support” and have called for a pause and change in direction. The letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, sets Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month.
Key events
Disability benefit cuts impossible to support, 42 Labour MPs tell Starmer
Jessica Elgot
More than 40 Labour MPs have warned the prime minister that planned disability cuts are “impossible to support” and have called for a pause and change in direction.
The letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, sets Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month.
There has already been widespread concern among Labour MPs about proposed changes including a significant tightening of eligibility for personal independent payments (Pips), saving about £5bn annually.
They would also involve cuts or freezes to incapacity benefits for people who apply for universal credit but are judged unfit to work.
According to internal Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) forecasts, the planned disability benefit cuts would affect 700,000 families who are already in poverty.
A vote on the proposals is expected in June, and a number of MPs are concerned they are being asked to approve the plans without proper knowledge of the consequences.
The letter has so far been signed by 42 Labour MPs, putting the government on course for its biggest rebellion yet.
Responding to the governor of the Bank of England’s comments that the UK now needs to “rebuild” its trade relationship with the EU (see 9.24am BST), Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:
Andrew Bailey has today added his voice to what Liberal Democrats have been saying for years: that we urgently need to rebuild our trading relationship with our closest and most significant economic partners in Europe.
This isn’t about revisiting the past, it’s about boosting our economy and deepening cooperation for the future. Despite the government’s US deal, Trump’s trade tariffs are still hitting key British industries and threatening the livelihoods of people across the UK.
The government must embrace a pragmatic and ambitious approach to our relationship with the EU – cutting red tape and providing a vital boost for our businesses.
Keir Starmer said Ukraine would be top of the agenda as he arrived for the Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Norway.
Speaking to media after being greeted by Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre at Oslo City Hall, Starmer said:
I think events of the last few months show that we’re living in an evermore unstable world and to have allies like this coming together, an agile group of colleagues, to discuss issues of defence cooperation, coordination at this vital time is hugely important.
Of course Ukraine will be on the agenda first thing this morning so I look forward to working with our colleagues here. It’s an excellent group.
Ukraine conflict described as a ‘distraction’ by new Reform UK Kent council leader
Ben Quinn
The conflict in Ukraine arising from Russia’s invasion has been described by the new Reform UK leader of Kent county council as a “foreign war” and a “distraction” as she said that a Ukrainian flag will be removed from the local authority’s chamber.
Linden Kemkaran was speaking after her selection as the new council leader from six potential candidates after the party took control of the council on 2 May. A total of 57 new Reform councillors were elected, with the conservatives being reduced from that number to just five.
Speaking to the BBC, Kemkaran was asked if the party would enact a new policy announced by Reform’s chair, Zia Yusuf, that would see only the St George’s and union flags being flown by English councils it controls.
A Ukrainian flag which has been inside the chamber in solidarity with Ukraine would be removed, she confirmed.
“This is Kent county council. We are here to represent the residents of Kent. A foreign war that is happening thousands of miles away is simply a distraction. We are here to serve the people of Kent. That’s what we were elected on. That is what we are going to do,” said Kemkaran.
Earlier, she had talked about how parts of Kent had been “neglected for years” and residents were in despair.
Reform’s policy on flags has been attacked by Labour and the Tories, while the party was forced at the weekend to add that English county flags would be flown.
However, Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover and Deal, said on Monday:
It tells you all you need to know about Nigel Farage’s Reform that their very first act after winning elections is to ban the Ukrainian flag from our town halls, in this of all weeks.
Farage and Reform councillors should stop sucking up to Moscow and drop their ban on flying the Ukrainian flag immediately.
Helena Horton
The poultry industry has breathed a sigh of relief that chlorinated chicken from the US will not be hitting British shelves as part of the US-UK trade deal.
The trade deal includes £5bn worth of agricultural exports from the US to the UK, significantly ethanol and beef- but hormone fed beef and chlorine washed chicken will not be included.
The British Poultry Council chief executive, Richard Griffiths, called the move “a clear signal that government backs our standards and the values that underpin them”.
In the US, farmers are allowed to use chlorine washes and other disinfectants to remove harmful bacteria that may have infected chickens during rearing and slaughter. The EU banned the practice in 1997, and the UK has retained it since Brexit. The US has said the EU and UK ban is unscientific and reiterated that point in its memo on the deal yesterday.
The EU and UK believe the chlorine may compensate or mask poorer hygiene and animal welfare standards earlier in the food chain.
The UK has some of the highest standards for chicken in the world, with farmers mandated to give them more space to move around, and enrichment, than those in other countries including the US.
Griffiths added:
We are proud of how we produce poultry in this country. This decision sends a message that what we produce and how we produce it matters.
However, the US appears determined to try to broaden the standards of meat imported into the UK during future talks.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters yesterday she hopes to expand today’s agreement to include “all meats” and that she will be visiting the UK next week to make this point, adding:
There is no industry that has been treated more unfairly than our agriculture industry.
Defra sources confirmed Rollins has a meeting with environment secretary Steve Reed on Monday.
Sadiq Khan to announce plans to build houses on London green belt
Aletha Adu
Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”.
In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.
It marks the first time city hall will support the strategic release of low-quality or inaccessible green belt land near transport links in order to provide hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes.
“The status quo is wrong, out-of date, and simply unsustainable”, Khan will say.
Development on carefully chosen parts of the green belt – done in the right way – would allow us to unlock hundreds of thousands of good-quality new homes for Londoners.
As mayor, I’m not willing to ignore such a prospect just because it might be politically difficult – not when the life chances of the next generation of Londoners are on the line.
London currently builds about 35,000 homes each year, less than half of the 88,000 homes Khan said the city needed to meet demand annually. The mayor reaffirmed his commitment to prioritising building homes on brownfield sites, but said “this alone will not be enough to meet our needs”.
On the news that the parent company of British Airways has struck a $13bn (£9.8bn) deal to buy 32 new planes from the US aircraft maker Boeing, a day after a trade agreement with the US cut tariffs on the industry, here is our report on it, by Mark Sweney:
UK must seek to ‘rebuild’ trade relationship with EU, says Bank of England governor
The governor of the Bank of England has said he hopes the UK can “rebuild” trade relationships with the EU after striking a trade deal with the US.
Andrew Bailey said it would be “beneficial” to reverse the post-Brexit reduction in UK-EU trade, reports the PA news agency.
In an interview with the BBC, Bailey suggested that the UK-US trade deal secured on Thursday could set an example to nations around the world. He said:
It is important we do everything we can to ensure that whatever decisions are taken on the Brexit front do not damage the long-term trade position. So I hope that we can use this to start to rebuild that relationship.
He added:
It demonstrates that trade deals are important. Trade deals can be done, and the trade is important … honestly, it seems an unpromising landscape at times.
I hope that we can use these deals to rebuild the world trading system.
The government is in talks with the EU regarding its trade and security relationship, before a summit later in May. It comes after the Bank of England warned earlier on Thursday that original US tariff plans on the UK would have knocked 0.3 percentage points off UK economic growth over the next three years.
The Bank also warned that the global economy was set to grow at a slower pace than previously expected due to heightened global trade tensions. Meanwhile, the central bank reduced interest rates to a two-year low of 4.25% in the UK after a recent slowdown in inflation.
Plane engines and other aeroplane parts are excluded from trade tariffs as part of the US-UK trade deal, and British Airways’s parent company has already bought 32 new Boeing planes from the US, after the agreement, reports the PA news agency.
New reciprocal trade arrangements for agriculture have also been agreed, which will allow new access for American beef into the UK market. Ministers have however insisted there will be no downgrade in British food standards as a result of importing US meat.
The general terms for the deal were published late on Thursday, and stated that the UK and the US are “beginning negotiations” to “develop and formalise the proposals” that have been made. It also suggested that that either country could “terminate” the “arrangement” in the future with written notice, and it could be further altered in the future at the request of either side.
The UK’s digital services tax, which mainly applies to US tech companies, was not revised as part of the deal as had been speculated. The deal also does not include any concessions on the Online Safety Act or the NHS, the business secretary said.
In future, the UK will have “preferential treatment” when it comes to pharmaceuticals, as Donald Trump considers import taxes on drugs and medicines.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the benefits the deal offered were “still very unclear” in many areas, after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed the UK had been “shafted” in the agreement.
Griffith told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
There’s some good elements to yesterday’s deal – I think the car industry and steel industry will welcome at least the reduction. But overall, it’s quite disappointing.
It’s still very unclear what happens to pharmaceuticals, a really big UK industry, there’s nothing on film and TV, and yet [at] the start of the week, the government was talking about 100% tariffs on that.
Minister claims trade deal will save 150,000 jobs
The UK-US trade deal was urgently needed to protect as many as 150,000 livelihoods, a senior government minister said, as he insisted the agreement would be “really good for Britain”.
According to the PA news agency, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, was resolute about the need to sign the deal, as he faced suggestions the UK still remained in a worse trading situation with the US than before Donald Trump introduced sweeping tariffs.
The deal removes tariffs on UK steel and aluminium imports to the US, and cuts the levy on cars from 27.5% to 10%, offering British luxury carmakers like Jaguar Land Rover a reprieve.
Business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, indicated on Thursday night that thousands people were perhaps “days” away from losing their jobs without the deal.
Asked by BBC Breakfast on Friday morning if agreeing the deal was urgent, Treasury minister Jones said: “Yes. Yes, it was.”
Pressed if this was because of the threat of job losses, Jones added: “Of course, which is why it was so important that we’ve got the deal over the line.”
The minister also brushed aside suggestions the UK was no better off than before Donald Trump’s tariffs were first introduced. He told the BBC:
If I could rather be in a world where there were no tariffs, of course I would. But that’s just not the world that exists. So it’s not really an option on the table. The option on the table is to have not signed a trade deal with the United States and had higher tariffs, or to have signed a trade deal with the United States and had lower tariffs.
We’ve signed that trade deal. We’ve got lower tariffs in critical manufacturing sectors in the UK. 150,000 people’s livelihoods that we’ve protected as a consequence of that trade deal.
That is, by definition, factually better off as a consequence of the action that this government is taking to stand up for working people across the UK.
Jones later elaborated on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, to signal the 150,000 figure included the families of those whose jobs may be affected in the car, steel and aluminium sectors.
Reynolds told Newsnight that “we were at risk of thousands of people losing their jobs” without an agreement, adding that this could have happened within “days”.
The deal was confirmed in a conversation between Keir Starmer and the US president that was broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic on Thursday afternoon, coinciding with VE Day.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are some other key developments in UK politics:
-
Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”. In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.
-
The UK and US have agreed a “breakthrough” trade deal slashing some of Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel and that the prime minister said would save thousands of British jobs. Keir Starmer said it was a “fantastic, historic day” as he announced the agreement, the first by the White House since Trump announced sweeping global tariffs last month.
-
More than 40 Labour MPs have warned the prime minister that planned disability cuts are “impossible to support” and have called for a pause and change in direction. The letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, sets Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month.
