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Keir Starmer hailed his “good relationship” with Donald Trump just hours before the US President’s special envoy slammed the PM’s Ukraine peace plan as “a posture and a pose”. Steve Witkoff said the Labour leader’s idea of a peacekeeping force made up of the ‘coalition of the willing’ was based on a “simplistic” notion of thinking “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill”.In an interview with the pro-Trump personality Tucker Carlson, Mr Witkoff also praised Vladimir Putin, saying that he “liked” the Russian president. “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. He’s super smart,” he said. Mr Witkoff is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with Russia and Ukraine. Asked about the plans to create a “coalition of the willing” to provide military security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Mr Witkoff said: “I think it’s a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic. There is this sort of notion that we have all got to be like Winston Churchill. (And thinking that) Russians are going to march across Europe. That is preposterous by the way. We have something called Nato that we did not have in World War Two.” Sir Keir said: “On a person-to-person basis, I think we have a good relationship.” More

Rachel Reeves has said she has “confidence” the UK can escape Donald Trump’s trade tariffs – due to be imposed within days. The chancellor did not rule out changing or ditching a tax on tech companies in a bid to duck the extra charges on goods entering the US, which experts have warned could shrink the already faltering UK economy. Ms Reeves told Sky News she had “confidence in our negotiators” working to try to secure a carve out for the UK. She added: “When our prime minister, Keir Starmer met Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago the US president said that he wanted to work on a deal and that’s what we are doing now. I believe in free and open trade. I want to reduce taxes.” She later described the US President as “rightly” concerned about countries that had a large trade deficit with the US, but insisted the UK was not in that position. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (PA) More

Average living standards could fall for all UK families by 2030, with those on the lowest incomes hit twice as hard as middle and high-earners, a new forecast suggests.In analysis published days before chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to announce new spending cuts in her spring statement, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) issued a stark new warning to the Labour government.While much discussion has focused on whether Ms Reeves will meet her “iron-clad” fiscal rules after rising borrowing costs wiped out the £10bn of headroom in her October budget, the JRF warned a preoccupation with the public purse risks a deterioration in the finances of ordinary families going under the radar.As a result, the charity believes Sir Keir Starmer could be on course to miss his fundamental milestone – just four months after it was announced – of seeing living standards rise during this parliament, a target which the JRF said would have been met by every previous government since comparable records began in 1955.Instead, this past year may prove to be the high point for living standards this parliament, according to the charity – whose forecasts rest on the assumption that the Office for Budget Responsibility will upgrade its own forecasts on Wednesday in line with those of the Bank of England and other major forecasters.If so, the JRF estimates the average family will be £1,400 worse off by 2030 than they are today – marking a 3 per cent fall in their disposable income after housing costs.The lowest income families will be £900 a year worse off, according to the JRF’s forecasts – amounting to a 6 per cent fall in their disposable income.UK government borrowing has soared above forecasts last month More

Rachel Reeves hopes to kickstart the economy and save Labour’s plan to build 1.5m new homes by training up to 60,000 bricklayers, electricians, engineers and carpenters over the next four years. The £600m move is designed to help fill 35,000 job vacancies in construction after warnings revealed by The Independent that the government’s flagship scheme is unachievable due to a shortage of workers. It comes as the chancellor tries to head off criticism of her stewardship of the economy as she unveils what are expected to be the deepest cuts to government departments since austerity in her spring statement on Wednesday.Chancellor Rachel Reeves hopes to kickstart the economy and save Labour’s plan to build 1.5m new homes More

Rachel Reeves has been urged by one of her former advisers to abandon Labour’s commitment to the state pension triple lock, warning that the pledge is “bonkers” and risks hobbling the government’s ability to manage the economy.Jim O’Neill, a former Treasury minister who quit the Conservatives and later advised Ms Reeves, warned the chancellor had “hemmed herself in” with unsustainable manifesto commitments ahead of Wednesday’s spring statement.His comments come as senior economists and Labour figures warn that the government has “boxed itself in” with pledges not to raise major taxes or break the triple lock – which guarantees the state pension will rise by 2.5 per cent, average earnings, or inflation, whichever is highest.Rachel Reeves warned Labour could not “tax and spend our way to higher living standards and better public services” More

Failed asylum seekers could be sent to the Balkans under plans being considered by the Labour government to tackle the crisis of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. Migration Watch UK reports that up to and including yesterday, more than 5,200 migrants have entered Britain via small boat crossings in 2025.Under the government proposals, “return hubs” overseas would house those who have had their applications rejected. That would set it apart from the Conservatives’ failed Rwanda scheme – in which those who arrived on small boats were to be given a one-way ticket to the African nation, whether they were ultimately deemed eligible for asylum in the UK or not. The UK could approach Albania as well as Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia, according to The Times, which first reported the scheme was being considered by ministers. Last week, the European Union announced that it was proposing to allow member states to set up the so-called return hubs.A boat of around 40 people picked up more migrants on the coast of Gravelines More

Ministers have pledged to ‘tear down’ barriers to trade with the European Union after new figures showed Brexit has cost UK business £37bn a year. The price of the UK’s departure was laid bare as the government said the UK’s total trade with the EU was 5 per cent lower than before we left the bloc. Trade minister Douglas Alexander hit out at the Brexit deal agreed by the previous Conservative government, saying it was “clear .. (it) is not working well enough.” Labour is currently negotiating a “reset” of relations, in a deal Keir Starmer has said will repair the UK’s damaged relationship with the EU for the benefit of “generations to come”. Mr Alexander said ministers would work with other countries “to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU, tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade to help drive growth”. The Prime Minister faces a challenge in his own party as Britain and the European Union inch closer to an agreement (PA) More