UK Politics

Sir Keir Starmer is facing a fight to salvage his much-vaunted deal with France to return illegal migrants and halt the increasing crossings of small boats across the English Channel.With Emmanuel Macron arriving on Tuesday for a three-day state visit, there are concerns the prime minister’s “one in, one out” agreement is close to collapse.It is understood that Sir Keir had hoped the agreement would be the centrepiece of the French president’s state visit, but it has stalled amid opposition from other EU countries. Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus wrote to the European Commission over the proposals, fearing it could see asylum seekers returned to their shores instead.It is understood that migration will be front and centre of talks between Sir Keir and President Macron in Downing Street on Wednesday, with discussions over “returns hubs” and new tactics by French border police expected to feature heavily on the agenda. Officers were seen last week slashing inflatable boats with knives to prevent them from leaving French shores.Downing Street insists the deal is not dead, but admitted the picture is “complex” as Britain is on course for a new record in illegal crossings.Keir Starmer with Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit in Canada last month More

Sir Keir Starmer is in a race against time to put the UK-US deal on tariffs on steel into practice, as Britain could be slapped with 50 per cent tariffs in less than 48 hours. The UK has already managed to negotiate a deal with the US that eliminates the threat of tariffs to British car and aeroplane manufacturers, but levies on steel have been left standing at 25 per cent rather than falling to zero as originally agreed.The failure to secure a reprieve for the industry leaves open the threat that the current 25 per cent tariff rate could rise to 50 per cent after the July 9 deadline.US president Donald Trump is reportedly stepping up pressure on countries who could soon be subject to the tariffs, urging them to negotiate trade deals (Kin Cheung/PA) More

David Lammy has launched an independent inquiry into the way the Foreign Office officials handled the death of Harry Dunn in an accident involving a member of the US intelligence community.The 19-year-old was killed when a car driven by Anne Sacoolas hit his motorcycle near the exit to RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in 2019.Ms Sacoolas, who was the wife of a CIA operative working near the airbase, was allowed to leave the country with claims that she was covered by diplomatic immunity. Requests for extradition were initially rejected by the first Donald Trump administration, although the president met Dunn’s parents.Harry Dunn was killed in a road crash in August 2019 (Family handout/PA) More

Sir Keir Starmer is yet to recover from the bruising U-turn on his botched benefit cuts, but he is already facing a fresh rebellion. A similar coalition of MPs and campaign groups, including many of the same charities that opposed reforms to welfare, are warning the prime minister not to cut education plans for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). The PM was badly weakened by the chaos around his planned welfare bill, and backbenchers now appear to know they can force their leader’s hand if they apply enough pressure. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson is responsible for any changes to education More

Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly facing another rebellion from his backbenchers over reforms to support for children with special needs in England, just days after he was forced into a humiliating climbdown on welfare cuts. On Sunday, education secretary Bridget Phillipson insisted that ministers are committed to reforming support for children with learning difficulties or disabilities, which currently costs £12bn a year.But she refused to rule out scrapping key documents that families rely on to guarantee specialist help. Education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are statutory documents which outline the support needed to help children with special needs and disabilities achieve key life outcomes. Many seeing them as the only way to get schools to provide the support children need. Asked whether she could rule out getting rid of EHCPs, Ms Phillipson described it as a “complex and sensitive area”.Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the Government’s new strategy would ‘help give our youngest children the very best start in life’ (Jeff Overs/BBC/PA) More

The European Union and the United States have just 48 hours to resolve a trade dispute or face Donald Trump unleashing billions of dollars worth of transatlantic tariffs. A 90-day pause on the imposition of the US president’s so-called “Liberation Day” import taxes expires on Wednesday, and leaders across Europe are bracing for the threat of 50 per cent tariffs on goods sold in the US. A split has emerged in the bloc, with some urging European trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic to pursue a UK-style deal to resolve the trade dispute, sparing the EU from the worst of Mr Trump’s wrath. The US and EU’s trade relationship is strained More

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana are working on the creation of a “Farage assistance party”, Neil Kinnock has said. The former Labour leader said left-wingers Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana would “only assist the enemies of Labour” by forming a breakaway challenger party. Lord Kinnock said that division on the left “can only assist the parties of the right”, including Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana More

Scrapping the two-child benefit cap has been made harder by Sir Keir Starmer’s climbdown over last week’s welfare cuts, Bridget Phillipson has said. The education secretary said future spending decisions had been squeezed by the £5bn U-turn over reforms to personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability benefit. It means a change in the controversial cap, introduced when George Osborne was chancellor, is now less likely. Ms Phillipson told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that ministers are “looking at every lever and we’ll continue to look at every lever to lift children out of poverty”.Pushed on whether the chances of the benefit cap going are now slimmer, Ms Phillipson said: “The decisions that have been taken in the last week do make decisions, future decisions harder.Keir Starmer will face pressure from MPs if Labour keeps the cap More