UK

The UK faces a race against time to prevent Donald Trump’s swingeing new 50 per cent tariffs on steel hitting an already beleaguered critical industry. The US president sent shockwaves through the global economy when he announced on Friday that he would raise the tariffs from 25 per cent to “further secure” the industry.“We’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody is going to get around that,” Trump told steel workers on a visit to a Pennsylvania plant.He later confirmed on his Truth Social platform that the change would be “effective Wednesday, June 4”.A UK-US trade deal unveiled with much fanfare earlier this month should have exempted Britain from steel tariffs – but it has yet to be implemented. Ministers now face a scramble to ensure the agreement with the US is in place before Wednesday. The government is urgently seeking clarification from the US on what the latest announcement means for the UK, the Independent understands. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump unveiled a new UK-US trade agreement this month (Carl Court/PA) More

Britain’s top union boss has issued a warning to Keir Starmer and the entire left of politics that they need to reclaim the narrative on the immigration debate in the face of the threat from Nigel Farage and Reform.Writing in the Independent, Paul Nowak, the secretary general of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), appears to both chide Sir Keir for his controversial speech on migration earlier this month, warning that the left “should not be echoing the right”.In a week where the gloves have come off in the fight between Reform and Labour, Mr Nowak has urged the prime minister to confront the “dangerous and false” claims of Farage.But, crucially, with chancellor Rachel Reeves trying to squeeze public finances in her spending review set to be published on 11 June, the union boss demanded that she finds the cash to properly fund the Fair Pay Agreement in social care and the Fair Work Agency which he believes are at the heart of part of the problems with immigration.Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC (Peter Byrne/PA) More

Georgian police on Friday detained a second opposition leader within days as protests continue in the South Caucasus country against the ruling Georgian Dream party.Lawyers for Nika Melia, one of the figureheads for Georgia’s pro-Western Coalition for Change, said his car was stopped by police on Thursday. Soon after, he was bundled away by a large group of people in civilian clothing. According to Georgia’s interior ministry, Melia has been detained on charges of verbally insulting a law enforcement officer.The arrest came a week after that of Zurab Japaridze, another leader of the pro-Western, liberal coalition of parties that support European Union integration and want a restoration of democratic standards. Japaridze, who heads the Girchi – More Freedom party, was detained on May 22 after refusing to appear before a parliamentary commission investigating alleged wrongdoings by the government of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.Opposition politicians have declined to attend the commission hearings, saying they are politically motivated by Georgian Dream to damage the opposition, particularly Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.Melia, of the Ahali party and former chairman of Saakashvili’s United National Movement party, was detained on the eve of a scheduled court hearing for failing to testify. Japaridze and seven other opposition politicians, not including Melia, who did not attend the commission are expected to appear before a court in coming days. If found guilty of failing to comply with a parliamentary investigative commission, they face up to a year in prison.Meanwhile, demonstrators have continued to gather in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, demanding new elections and the release of dissidents. Nightly protests there began on Nov. 28, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze halted the country’s EU integration process.Georgia has seen widespread political unrest since the country’s last parliamentary election on Oct. 26, which was won by Georgian Dream. Protestors and the country’s opposition declared the result as illegitimate amid allegations of vote-rigging helped by Russia, sparking weeks of protests across the country.At the time, opposition leaders vowed to boycott sessions of parliament until a new parliamentary election was held under international supervision and alleged ballot irregularities were investigated.Georgian Dream has seen widespread condemnation by European leaders and international rights groups over its rough handling of protestors and perceived democratic backsliding. More

The government has sold its remaining shares in NatWest, finalising the bank’s return to private ownership for the first time since it was bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis. The Treasury has been a stakeholder since NatWest, formerly known as RBS, received almost £46 billion of funding in 2008 and 2009.To date, £35 billion has been returned to the Exchequer through share sales, dividends and fees, meaning the sale has come at a £10.5 billion loss to taxpayers.The government and bosses at NatWest said it was a significant milestone since the bailout, which prevented the bank’s collapse.Chancellor Rachel Reeves said NatWest’s return to private ownership “turns the page on a significant chapter in this country’s history” More

Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of hypocrisy after claiming that the UK and Europe are “trampling democracy”. In a post on the Substack blogging platform, the US state department accused governments of “weaponising political institutions” to turn the continent into a “hotbed of digital censorship, mass migration, restrictions on religious freedom, and numerous other assaults on democratic self-governance”. The piece broadly criticises the so-called ‘global liberal project’ but highlights the UK and Germany in particular.The comments echo previous US claims that the greatest threat to European security was not Russia but the continent’s suppression of the right and anti-abortion activists. “Americans are familiar with these tactics,” the post says. “Indeed, a similar strategy of censorship, demonization, and bureaucratic weaponization was utilized against President Trump and his supporters. “What this reveals is that the global liberal project is not enabling the flourishing of democracy. Rather, it is trampling democracy, and Western heritage along with it, in the name of a decadent governing class afraid of its own people.”Calum Miller (L) said Donald Trump was the greatest threat to liberty in the US More

Nigel Farage could become the prime minister with an outright majority, the latest polling calculations show as Reform UK surges ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. After Sir Keir Starmer attacked the Reform UK leader directly in a bid to stem the party’s rise, parliament seat prediction site Electoral Calculus has calculated that Mr Farage would win 362 seats if a general election were held tomorrow. Labour would fall from winning 412 seats at the last general election to second place on 136, while the beleaguered Conservatives would be almost wiped out, winning just 22 seats. One pollster has suggested that the UK is on the verge of “a political earthquake”, but others have warned against reading too much into the current polls and questioned some of the assumptions behind the Electoral Calculus prediction.Nigel Farage is on course to become prime minister, according to the polls More

Nigel Farage’s claim that Reform UK is the “party of workers” has been called into question as figures show his plans to slash taxes would benefit the richest most. The Reform leader on Tuesday outlined up to £80bn of welfare and tax handouts – without saying how he would fund them – in a bid to entice Labour voters, declaring that “Reform really are now the party of working people”. But economists have warned that the billions of pounds’ worth of unfunded pledges would cause economic chaos, and say Mr Farage’s plans would benefit top earners far more than those on the lowest incomes. Nigel Farage has declared Reform the party of working people More

Reform UK has pledged to cut taxes on cryptocurrencies and set up a “Bitcoin reserve” if elected.Party chairman Zia Yusuf told reporters on Friday that a Reform government would reduce capital gains tax on assets such as Bitcoin to 10% as part of a raft of reforms to how cryptocurrencies are governed.Mr Yusuf, who does not own cryptocurrency, suggested the cut could generate up to £1 billion for the Treasury over a decade, saying it would encourage more use of such currency and encourage people to move their assets to the UK.Cryptocurrencies currently incur capital gains tax of either 18% or 24%, depending on the rate of income tax paid by the person selling the assets.Mr Yusuf also announced that Reform would allow people to pay tax in Bitcoin and establish a “Bitcoin reserve fund” to “diversify” the UK’s reserve holdings.He said the UK was “losing ground” to other countries, and added that Reform’s proposals would help the financial services sector “catapult itself back into being a leader”.The announcement came as party leader Nigel Farage said Reform would begin accepting donations in cryptocurrency.Speaking at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, Mr Farage said: “My message to the British public, my message particularly to young people, is help us to help you bring our country properly into the 21st century.“Let’s recognise that crypto, Bitcoin, digital assets, are here to stay.”Mr Farage pledged that his party would “launch in Britain a crypto revolution” and make London “one of the major trading centres of the world”.On Friday, Mr Yusuf told reporters Reform had already received its first cryptocurrency donations, adding they were all compliant with Electoral Commission rules.Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have increased in popularity in recent years, with research suggesting around 12% of adults in the UK own or have owned cryptoassets, up from 4% in 2021.Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans to regulate cryptoassets in a bid to make the UK a “world leader”.She told a conference that she would “back the builders” as she announced plans to make crypto firms subject to regulation in the same way as traditional finance companies. More