UK Politics

Donald Trump is poised to unveil a “major trade deal” with the UK on Thursday, the culmination of Sir Keir Starmer’s months-long charm offensive towards the US president. A month after his so-called Liberation Day tariffs began to bite, Britain is desperate for a carve out from the 25 per cent levies on its steel and car industries. The deal will be a major boost for the prime minister, coming hot on the heels of a trade agreement between the UK and India this week. Sir Keir Starmer has taken a deferential approach Donald Trump More

Top technology firms are set to meet with the Justice Secretary for the first time to look at how artificial intelligence and technology could be used to tackle violence in prisons and cut re-offending.Shabana Mahmood is urging companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Google to work with ministers as part of Government plans to use technology to overhaul the justice system.Using data to help probation officers improve risk assessments and tracking offenders in the community are among some of the aspects to be considered.How digital platforms could help rehabilitate offenders and help them integrate back into society is also on the agenda for ministers and around 30 companies meeting on Thursday.The move follows a pledge from the Lord Chancellor to introduce technology to stop probation staff “drowning” in paperwork when more time could be spent supervising offenders.Meanwhile, the backlog of crown court cases also stands at a record high.Ms Mahmood said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis, with prisons close to collapse and staff overburdened and under pressure.“We need bold ideas to address the challenges that we face – supporting our staff, delivering swifter justice for victims, and cutting crime.“Today, we have an analogue justice system in a digital age.“The UK has a world-leading and growing tech sector, and I know our tech firms have a huge role to play in delivering our Plan for Change to make streets safer.”Julian David, chief executive of trade association TechUK – which co-organised the event, said the roundtable presents an “excellent opportunity” for the tech sector to showcase the “transformative role” technology can play in modernising the criminal justice system.After the meeting, a follow-up event for the whole industry to apply to present their ideas is expected in the coming months.Microsoft’s UK public sector general manager Amanda Sleight said: “Microsoft is committed to advancing the ethical use of AI technology to reduce the administrative burden on prison and probation staff, allowing them more time to focus on delivering high-quality frontline services, reducing recidivism and helping integrate offenders back into society.”The Conservatives suggested the Government’s plans were “not even close to being enough” to reform the justice system.Shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan said: “After 14 years in opposition, Labour still have no answers beyond putting criminals back out on to the streets and soon will be scrapping short sentences for offenders – this announcement is not even close to being enough.“Labour are clearly out of their depth.” More

The Government has announced plans to replace passwords as the way to access Gov.UK, its digital services platform for the public.In contrast to using a password and then an additional text message or code sent to a user’s trusted device – known as two-factor authentication – passkeys are unique digital keys tied to a specific device that proves the user’s identity when they log in without requiring them to input any further codes.The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said this approach is more secure because the digital key remains stored on the user’s device and cannot be easily intercepted or stolen, making them resistant to being compromised through phishing and scam emails or texts, unlike passwords, which can be more easily shared.The NCSC said it considers the adoption of passkeys as a vital step in improving cyber resilience on a national scale, in particular in the wake of high-profile cyber attacks against major retailers, including Marks and Spencer and Co-op.The NCSC’s chief technical officer, Ollie Whitehouse, said: “The NCSC has a stated objective for the UK to move beyond passwords in favour of passkeys, as they are secure against common cyber threats such as phishing and credential stuffing.“By adopting passkey technology, Government is not only leading by example by strengthening the security of its services but also making it easier and faster for citizens to access them.“We strongly advise all organisations to implement passkeys wherever possible to enhance security, provide users with faster, frictionless logins and to save significant costs on SMS authentication.”AI and Digital minister Feryal Clark said: “The rollout of passkeys across GOV.UK services marks another major step forward in strengthening the UK’s digital defences while improving the user experience for millions.“Replacing older methods like SMS verification with modern, secure passkeys will make it quicker and easier for people to access essential services — without needing to remember complex passwords or wait for text messages.“This shift will not only save users valuable time when interacting with government online, but it will reduce fraud and phishing risks that damage our economic growth.”The announcement came on the first day of the CyberUK conference in Manchester, where NCSC chief executive Richard Horne warned that the number of “nationally significant” cyber attacks in the last eight months has doubled on the same period a year ago.Mr Horne said the agency had dealt with 200 incidents since September 2024, including twice as many causing widespread disruption as the same period last year.Also at the conference, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said the cyber attacks in recent weeks should be a “wake-up call” for British businesses as he announced a £16 million package to boost defence at home and abroad. More

The UK looks set to agree a post-Brexit youth mobility scheme with the European Union in a major step towards resetting Boris Johnson’s damaging Brexit deal.The move, which was being demanded by European countries and commissioners in Brussels, should help usher in much closer ties with the EU and begin to repair the shattered relationship left by the previous Tory government.It comes as Sir Keir Starmer hopes to put in place three trade agreements in two months to secure growth for the British economy. With a deal with India announced this week he will host a summit on 19 May to unveil the Brexit reset agreement. Following this he hopes to have a US deal with Donald Trump by the end of June.If Sir Keir pulls it off it could make the UK one of the world’s preeminent trading hubs.Sir Keir Starmer met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Downing Street on Thursday (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

The government is facing a backlash after the business secretary suggested the UK should not be “squeamish” about selling arms to India amid escalating tensions with Pakistan. India has launched missile strikes in what it says is a response to a terror attack in Kashmir that claimed 26 lives last month. But Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif called the pre-dawn airstrikes an “act of war” and responded with shelling. Just hours after the strikes, UK business secretary Johnathan Reynolds did not rule out supplying India with weapons.A man looks at a damaged car after Indian strikes More

Sir Keir Starmer has hailed as a ‘landmark’ an agreement to strike Britain’s biggest post-Brexit trade deal with India. Ministers say the move which will see tariffs reduced on UK whisky, gin, cars and cosmetics, will boost trade by £25.5bn and add £4.8bn a year to the UK economy, as well as boosting wages by £2.2bn annually. It comes as the prime minister hopes to secure a trade deal with the US, in a bid to offset some of Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have triggered global economic chaos. What will it mean for the whisky industry? India is the biggest consumer of whisky worldwide by volume and UK sales to the country were worth more than £200 million a year in 2022. Under the new deal, tariffs on whiskies will initially be cut from 150 per cent to 75 per cent. But after ten years they are due to fall again to 40 per cent. India is already among the largest export markets for Chivas Brothers’, which includes brands such as Chivas Regal and Glenlivet, while Diageo, whose brands include Johnnie Walker, already has 50 manufacturing facilities across India. The UK has struck a trade deal with India (Alamy/PA)How has the whisky industry responded? Very well. Jean-Etienne Gourgues, the chairman and CEO of Chivas Brothers has called the agreement a “welcome boost” for his company “during an uncertain global economic environment”. He also said that greater access to the Indian market would be a “game changer for the export of our Scotch whisky brands, such as Chivas Regal and Ballantine’s”. The deal will support investment and jobs in our distilleries and bottling plants in Scotland, he added. Diageo chief executive Debra Crew described the deal as a “huge achievement” and said it would be “transformational for Scotch and Scotland, while powering jobs and investment in both India and the UK”. What does it mean for the car industry? British high-end cars will see their tariffs fall by a whopping 90 per cent under the plans. The added tax placed on them as they enter the country will plummet from more than 100 per cent to just 10 per cent under a quota.Under the plans, the reform will start with cars with internal combustion engines but then move to electric and hybrid vehicles, “to reflect how manufacturing in the UK is evolving”. Will the deal undercut British workers? Ministers have denied the agreement undercuts British workers, after opposition politicians criticised part of the deal that exempts some temporary Indian workers from national insurance payments for three years.On Wednesday, Jonathan Reynolds described the claim as “completely false”, telling the BBC: “There is no situation where I would ever tolerate British workers being undercut through any trade agreement we would sign. That is not part of the deal.”The move is under what is known as the “double contribution convention”, which is designed to stop workers and employers paying twice, once in each country. It is also reciprocal, meaning any UK workers who work temporarily in India would pay no further taxes there and there are similiar agreements in place with other countries. Will it offset the impact of Trump’s tariffs? In a word – no. The US remains the largest key market for whisky by value, at an estimated £971 milliona year. Sir Keir Starmer hopes to secure a trade deal with the US soon – with officials suggesting it could happen this week – which would lessen the impact of Trump’s tariffs, following weeks of talks.This deal could include quotas that would exempt a certain number of UK exports from the full impact of 25 per cent tariffs on the British car and steel industry.But no matter the carve out for individual UK sectors or Britain in general, the UK will still be forced to weather the havoc the US tariffs wreak on the global economy. More

Starmer Calls UK-India Trade Deal Attacks ‘Incoherent Nonsense’ After Clash With BadenochFormer Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt has admitted that the Conservatives “can’t rule out” the prospect of extinction.Mr Hunt’s admission to Times Radio comes after the Tories suffered heavy losses in the local elections last week, with senior backbenchers confirming to The Indepedent that MPs are set to hold meetings this week to discuss how to remove their leader, Kemi Badenoch.Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has branded attacks on his government’s newly-struck UK-India trade deal “incoherent nonsense” as he and Ms Badenoch clashed at PMQs earlier today.Hailed as a “landmark” agreement by the prime minister, the government announced on Tuesday that it had reached a deal to boost bilateral trade with India by £25bn – in what marks Britain’s biggest post-Brexit trade agreement.The new deal – similar to those already in place with more than a dozen other countries – will immediately cut tariffs on whisky, gin, cars and cosmetics, while reducing barriers to imports of Indian textiles, food and jewellery. But opposition politicians criticised a provision in the agreement exempting some temporary Indian workers from national insurance payments, claiming this would undercut British staff.The Labour and Tory leaders also clashed over Labour’s winter fuel payment cuts, which Ms Badenoch called a “disaster”, while Sir Keir repeated his accusation that the Conservatives had left a “£22bn black hole” in the country’s finances that his party is attempting to solve.Downing St admits ‘final details’ of social security deal yet to be agreed between UK and IndiaDowning Street said the UK and India have not agreed the “final details” of their social security deal following opposition criticism of a temporary national insurance exemption for some Indian workers transferred to Britain.Asked about the arrangement, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s a separate agreement as part of a trade deal. It’s called a social security agreement, so what the UK and India have agreed to is negotiate a deal.“We have not agreed the final details with this.”He added that there were similar reciprocal agreements with more than 50 other countries.Sir Keir Starmer’s press secretary said opposition parties criticising the arrangement “have made their true colours known,” suggesting they would have “torn up” the agreements with 50 countries.Tara Cobham7 May 2025 15:40Badenoch warns of ‘big questions’ raised for British companies over UK-India trade dealKemi Badenoch’s spokesman has said that the trade deal with India leaves “big questions to answer about how this impacts British companies”.He called on the Government to do modelling on how much the social security exemption would cost and how many people it would impact.Addressing the fact that the programme would be intra-company, the spokesman said: “You can still bring unlimited workers on lower national insurance. And this comes just after one of their first acts was to up national insurance for British workers.”On similar deals in place with other countries, he said: The comparative examples of where we have this (…) are with countries with relatively similar economic status. So, you know, there is clear discrepancy here.”Tara Cobham7 May 2025 15:20Hunt admits Tories ‘can’t rule out’ party extinction after disastrous local electionsFormer Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt has admitted that the Conservatives “can’t rule out” the prospect of extinction.Mr Hunt’s admission comes after the Tories were hit by heavy losses in the local elections last week, while Labour also suffered defeats.Asked by Times Radio’s Andrew Neil if extinction is a possibility, he said: “We can’t rule it out. Look at the massive earthquake in Western democratic politics in other countries and we are seeing wild swings.“I don’t think the Conservative Party will ever be extinct, but what may be extinct is the old two-party system that’s seen parties swing between one party and the other. Certainly at the moment, voters seem to be split between five parties and that’s a very, very big change.”However, he insisted that he believes there is a way back for the Tories.He added: “It’s also important not to exaggerate the woes of the Conservative Party. We’re less than a year after the heaviest defeat in our history. It’s very unlikely having kicked us out, voters are going to come running back to the Conservatives within just a matter of months and we do need to have a period of reflection and it is going to take a few years before people will give us another look.“But I think over time they will because no one speaks to the conservative values that I think most people recognise are very important for the country, a party that’s pro-business, understands wealth creation, understands aspiration and will run the economy well and I think by the time it comes to the next general election people are really going to want a party that stands for that.”Former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt has admitted that the Conservatives ‘can’t rule out’ the prospect of extinction More