Early evening summary
Donald Trump has resumed his war of words with Keir Starmer over Iran, accused the PM of being over-reliant on his advisers and unwilling to take decisions on his own. He was speaking at a press conference in the US where he complained about Starmer not committing to sending ships to help the US reopen the strait of Hormuz. (See 5.43pm.) At his own press conference earlier in the day, Starmer insisted the UK would not be drawn into the wider war in the Middle East. But he did say he wanted to see the strait reopen, and he said that as many countries as possible should be involved in a mission to allow this to happen. (See 11.03am.)
Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has described the government’s grant to Northern Ireland to help families hit by rising heating oil bills as a “slap in the face” because it is only worth £17m. (See 12.27pm.) The government is spending £53m across the UK, but almost half the money is going to Northern Ireland because around 50% of homes there use heating oil. In the rest of the UK it is far less common. O’Neill told MLAs at Stormont:
I find the £17m that has been put on the table today to be a real slap in the face, a real slap in the face to families that are struggling, who are already struggling to pay their oil bills.
Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, has accused the government of failing to fully comply with the humble address obliging it to release documents relating to Peter Mandelson being appointed ambassador to the US. In a Commons urgent question, he said:
Since last Wednesday, it’s become increasingly clear that either the government did not follow due process in its appointment of Peter Mandelson or that it is not disclosed all of the relevant documents.
In different terms, either the prime minister’s assurances that full due process was followed were misleading, or the government has not complied with the humble address.
Either would be a contempt of parliament …
There are many, many documents missing. I have detailed 56 to him in a letter that I have sent [to Darren Jones, chief secretary to the PM] to give a few examples.
There is no prime ministerial readout on the advice he received. This is a breach of protocol. A prime ministerial decision, even if made oral orally, should be formally recorded. Where is that record? It starts to stink of the sofa government we had under Tony Blair.
There are no minutes of any meeting at which this appointment was discussed by anyone at any time.
Most suspiciously of all, we have no material from the prime minister, from the chiefs, from his chief of staff or from Peter Mandelson. No box returns, no emails, no forms, no WhatsApp, nothing. It is as though their fingerprints have been forensically removed.
In response, Jones said that some material was being held back because the police were worried it might prejudice a prosecution, and that further documents would be published later. He did not go into detail about why particular documents had been held back, and he would not say why the government had not, in some cases, acknowledged that particularly documents existed without publishing them in full. The Tories repeatedly asked if Mandelson had submitted a full declaration of interests, but Jones sidestepped questions about this.
Updated
'You don't need to meet your team, you're the PM' - Trump slams Starmer for being over-reliant on his advisers
At his press conference Donald Trump also accused Keir Starmer of being overly-dependent on his advisers.
Referring to a decision about Britain deploying a warship to the Gulf, Trump said:
The prime minister of UK, United Kingdom, yesterday told me, I’m meeting with my team to make a determination.
I said you don’t need to meet with your team, you’re the prime minister, you can make your own, why do you have to meet with your team to find out whether or not you’re going to send some minesweepers to help us or to send some boats.
I said you don’t have to meet with your team, it’s the same thing here.
This might be a rare example of Trump saying something that will meet with the approval of at least some Labour MPs. One of the big talking points at Westminster over the past 48 hours has been the publication in the Sunday Times of an extract from the the paperback version of Get In — The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund. Maguire and Pogrund are widely respected for their access and insight into people at the top of the Labour party. The hardback edition of the book depicted Starmer as an opposition leader over-reliant on Morgan McSweeney, but the update is arguably more damaging because it contains numerous quotes from unnamed Labour figures complaining about how passive Starmer has been as PM.
Here is an extract.
[Starmer] only discovered that Sue Gray, his chief of staff, and Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, had given striking train drivers a new pay deal after it had been agreed. The civil servants who had just begun to work with Starmer were baffled at first. Then, as the months ground on, the confounding realisation struck them. Why would Haigh have bothered to consult him? In the frantic meetings after the winter fuel allowance announcement he was a conspicuous, unfelt absence. “We were surrounded by people, who had worked for Blair and Brown,” one adviser said. ‘They would have known exactly what they would have said had they been in a room like that. None of us could say the same about Keir. It wasn’t just that we didn’t know what he would say. We didn’t know whether he would have said anything” …
Cabinet ministers and No 10 advisers strained for loyalty. But it proved too difficult for some. “He is,” said one influential aide upon their departure from Downing Street, “the least intellectually curious person I have ever met.” Said another politician upon whom Starmer relied heavily: “He can only prepare by reading briefing books for hours on end. He doesn’t brainstorm. He has no fixed views on anything. There’s no clarity because there’s no belief. There’s no belief because there’s no understanding. There’s no understanding because there’s no curiosity.”
Trump says UK should be more supportive over strait of Hormuz because US spends 'a lot of money' on Nato
This is what Donald Trump said at his press conference about being “very surprised” by the lack of support he was getting from the UK over the strait of Hormuz. He said:
I was very surprised with the United Kingdom, because United Kingdom two weeks ago, I said, why don’t you send some ships over? And he really didn’t want to do it.
I said, you don’t want to do it? We’ve been with you. You’re our oldest ally, and we spend a lot of money on, you know, Nato and all of these things to protect you.
We’re protecting them. We’re working with them on Ukraine. Ukraine’s thousands of miles away, separated by a vast ocean. We don’t have to do that, but we did it. Well, Biden did it. I mean, I have to be honest with you, Biden got taken to the cleaners, but we worked with them in Ukraine.
We don’t need to work with them in Ukraine, and then they tell us that we have a mine ship around and they don’t want to do it.
(In fact, France is normally considered the US’s oldest ally because it supported what were then the American colonies in their fight for independence.)
Trump says he is 'not happy' with UK and 'very surprised' by its response to Iran war
Donald Trump is holding a press conference now. Lucy Campbell is covering it on our US politics live blog.
The Press Association has just snapped this.
US president Donald Trump said he was “not happy” with the UK and “very surprised” over its response to the Iran war.
I will post the full quote shortly.
Updated
Labour accuses Tice of 'slinging mud' as Reform UK deputy leader hits back at attack on his tax affairs
After Richard Tice’s press conference this morning, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, issued a statement attacking his defence of his decision to take advantage of an unusual (but legal) tax avoidance strategy. (See 1.19pm). She said:
Richard Tice is taking the public for fools. He needs to come clean with the British people as to why he’s gone to such extreme lengths to avoid paying £600,000 in tax.
Tice claimed a particular status for his company for two years and 11 months so that he wouldn’t have to pay corporation tax. The idea that this is the same as having an ISA or making pension contributions is frankly absurd and Tice knows it.
Reform pretend to be on the side of working people, but Tice knows that the extremes he has gone to in order to pay less tax are anything but normal.
In response, Reform UK issued a press notice saying that Labour Party Properties Ltd has received more than £30m in rental income since 2000 but hasn’t paid any corporation tax, according to its accounts. In an open letter, Tice challenged Turley to explain this and whether it was in line with what Labour expects “from the wider business community”.
A Labour spokesperson hit back, saying:
Richard Tice is brazenly attempting to deflect from his own tax affairs by slinging mud and hoping something will stick. He needs to explain to the British people why he has gone to such extreme lengths to avoid paying almost three quarters of a million pounds in tax.
Dan Neidle, the campaigner and tax expert, says it is “not that surprising that a property holding company owned by a political party makes a teensy taxable profit”.
The accounts for Labour Party Properties Ltd are independently verified by auditors and the party is confident its tax liabilities have been accounted for in line with the rules.
Minister says PM was 'clear' about terms on which US could use RAF bases, as MP asks about guarantees civilians not being hit
Back in the Commons, Brendan O’Hara from the SNP asked a question posed by Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, earlier (see 1.44pm); O’Hara said that US B-52 bombers based at RAF Fairford can carry up to 24 cruise missiles at a time and he asked, given Donald Trump’s comment at the weekend about potentially launching another attack against Kharg Island “just for fun”, what guarantees the UK has had that B-52 missions launched from the UK would not target civilians.
Stephen Doughty, the Foreign Office minister, said he would not comment on “hypotheticals”. But he said that Keir Starmer was “very clear” on what basis he allowed the US to use RAF bases for attacks against Iran. (Starmer said the US could only use these assets for “defensive” missions targeting Iranian missile bases being used to launch attacks against the UK’s allies in the region.)
Updated
White House says Trump 'wished UK had stepped up sooner and quicker' to help open strait of Hormuz
Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary, has said that the president “wished the UK had stepped up sooner and quicker” to help reopen the strait of Hormuz.
In his US politics live blog, Shrai Popat says:
Speaking to reporters outside the White House today, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said allied countries “are benefiting greatly” from the US-Israel war on Iran. She added that the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile capability was a direct and imminent threat to our European allies.
“I think the president is absolutely right to call on these countries to do more to help the United States to reopen the strait of Hormuz,” she said.
The press secretary also said that Trump “wished the UK had stepped up sooner and quicker” to help unblock the crucial waterway, following the president’s demands for allies to send warships to the region.
There is more coverage here.
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson, told Doughty the government should be tabling a resolution at the UN security council requiring the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.
Doughty said the government was working with international partners to get the strait reopened. He did not address the point about taking this to the UN.
Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, who tabled the UQ, said that Keir Starmer spoke about a plan to reopen the strait at his press conference this morning. She asked Doughty to give details of what that plan was. She said that this was “a hugely consequential moment for the world” and that Britain “cannot stand by and sit on the fence”.
In response, Doughty said plans for the strait were “very complex”. Any mission would have to be multilateral, “with as many nations as possible taking part”. But he could not give details here, he said.
In the Commons Stephen Doughty, the Foreign Office minister, is responding to an urgent question from the Tories about the strait of Hormuz.
He starts by saying Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, will make a statement to MPs tomorrow, covering this and other matters relating to the Iran war, including her recent visit to the Gulf. He says she is currently speaking to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.
On the strait of Hormuz, Doughty says the Iranian attacks on tankers going through the strait of Hormuz have “put a fifth of the world’s oil supply effectively on hold”.
He says the UK government wants the strait to reopen as quickly as possible. But this is “not a simple task”, he says.
'Drop in the ocean' - SNP says heating oil grant for Scotland not enough
According to the figures in this House of Commons briefing, in 2021 49.5% of households in Northern Ireland used oil for central heating. The equivalent figure for England and Wales was 3.5%.
In Scotland the figure was closer to 5%. Heating oil is not as much as a priority issue there as it is in Northern Ireland (see 2.14pm), but proportionately there are more Scottish families affected by heating oil prices than English families, and opposition parties from Scotland have complained that the sum allocated for Scotland is not enough.
This is from Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary.
This support will be welcome for rural households who’ve been ripped off by rogue heating oil suppliers, particularly in Scotland where a higher proportion of homes rely on heating oil.
But in Scotland this money cannot simply disappear into the black hole of the SNP government’s budget. SNP Ministers must guarantee every penny reaches rural households, and the Conservatives will hold them to account to make sure it does.
And this is from the SNP MSP Karen Adam.
Of course support is welcome, but this is a drop in the ocean and after talking it up all weekend, the level of cash delivered here is far from enough from the Labour UK government.
There is a fundamental injustice that people in energy rich Scotland find themselves fuel poor - that a nation with our offshore industry can find its people struggling to afford to fill the oil tank.
(The SNP is an opposition party at Westminster, but not at Holyrood, of course, where it is in government.)
Paul Johnson, the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank who now heads Queen’s College, Oxford, has said that he is worried about the precedent being set by today’s support package for households using heating oil.
In an interview with Times Radio, Johnson said that the amount of money involved in today’s announcement (£53m) was “tiny” in government terms. But he said that it would make it harder for the government to refuse much more expensive bailouts in future. He explained:
The thing that worries me is not so much can [they] find a few tens of millions - as I say a very small amount for this group of people – but what expectations does this set if other forms of power become more expensive?
So if gas prices start to rise, if electricity becomes significantly more expensive, people will say, well you help the people with the oil, but what about the 99% of us, or whatever it is, who don’t use heating oil, who use other forms of energy? Are you going to bail us out?
Now that then becomes staggeringly expensive.
So what worries me is not, is this very expensive? It’s the precedent it might be setting for the future.
The latest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. It features Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey talking about how the government is responding to the Iran war, and its impact on the cost of living, and about the reset in UK-EU relations.
UK has been complicit in 'one of greatest crimes of our time', report from Corbyn's Gaza Tribunal says
Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is now the parliamentary leader for Your Party, has now published the full report from the tribunal he set up to investigate whether British support for Israel’s actions in Gaza was compatible with international law. As Patrick Wintour reports in his preview story, it says Britain failed in its duty to prevent genocide.
Here is an extract from the 112-page report.
At the time of writing, the official death toll in Gaza has exceeded 73,000, of whom at least 20,000 are children. These conservative figures do not include an untold number of people lost under the rubble. According to a study published in February 2026 by the Lancet Global Health medical journal, the death toll exceeded 75,000 more than a year ago – and the real figure could be closer to 186,000. At least 170,000 more have been injured; Gaza is now the home of the largest cohort of child amputees in the world. More than 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed, including more than 90 percent of housing, 97 percent of schools, thirty-three of thirty-six hospitals, and all the universities. More than 95 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land has been rendered unusable. At least 1.9 million people across the Gaza Strip have been displaced. Right now, over a million Palestinians are living in squalid tents without electricity, running water or a sewage system.
The Gaza Tribunal provided a platform for survivors, witnesses and experts to uncover the devastating scope of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the true scale of British involvement. The Tribunal serves as a historical repository of evidence of British complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time, with the aim of mobilising global support in the pursuit of justice, liberation, freedom and peace for the people of Palestine.
Cumulatively, the testimony of survivors, lawyers, healthcare workers, journalists, international legal experts and academics established beyond doubt the following: the British government (both Conservative and Labour) has systematically failed to meet a range of legal obligations, most notably the obligation to prevent genocide. The evidence presented before the Tribunal reveals that the British government has been complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Israel. Evidence further suggests that in some instances the British government has even been an active participant in these crimes. The violation of international law could implicate individual ministers and officials, including those who have authorised the continuation of economic ties with Israel, as well as the commission of arms trades, arm transfers and intelligence exchange.
There will be three urgent questions in the Commons today after 3.30pm, all tabled by the Conservatives: on reopening the strait of Hormuz, on the publication of the Peter Mandelson documents required by the humble address, and on changes to the GP contract for 2026/27.
After those, at some point after 5pm, Martin McCluskey, the energy minister, will make a statement about the measures announced today to help people with rising heating oil bills.
Stormont's finance minister says size of £17m heating oil grant for Northern Ireland 'extremely disappointing'
John O’Dowd, the finance minister in the Northern Ireland executive, has described the £17m allocated by Westminster to help people with rising heating oil bills in Northern Ireland as “extremely disappointing”, the BBC reports. O’Dowd, a Sinn Féin minister in the cross-party executive, said that because almost two thirds of homes in Northern Ireland have oil-fired central heating (the highest proportion by far in the UK), this amounted to just £35 per household. He said the executive would use the money to help the poorest families.
Lib Dems call for 3-month VAT holiday on heating oil and 'proper price cap'
The Liberal Democrats have said the government plans announced today to help low-income families with rising heating oil bills (see 12.27pm) do not go far enough. In a statement, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said:
The prime minister’s offer on heating oil today will see too many households falling through the cracks and missing out on support.
Heating oil customers have been defenceless against skyrocketing global prices, caught in the crossfire of Russia’s war in Ukraine and now the volatility in the Middle East. Instead of temporary sticking plasters, we need an immediate three-month VAT holiday on heating oil and the introduction of a proper price cap. They deserve the same kinds of protections as those on the grid.
Zack Polanski challenges government to confirm US B-52 bombers taking off from UK not inflicting civilian casualties
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has urged the government to clarify what role is being played by US B-52 bombers operating from RAF Fairfield in Gloucestershire. In a statement today, he said:
B-52 bombers are taking off from RAF Fairfield, we are told, for defensive US action. The prime minister needs to explain clearly how planes loaded up with missiles, taking off from a UK base, are being used for defensive rather than offensive raids.
The fact is these planes are part of “Operation Epic Fury”, a dangerous war of choice by the US.
The British public do not support this war. So Keir Starmer must answer this: are B-52 bomb carriers taking off from UK soil being used to inflict civilian casualities or damage civilian infrastructure in Iran?
Reform UK would make coastline one of 'most surveilled borders in world' using AI and satellite tech, Zia Yusuf says
Robert Booth is the Guardian’s UK technology editor.
Reform UK will turn Britain’s coastline into one of the most surveilled in the world using AI and satellite technology in a bid to halt illegal migration, the party’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, has said.
Nigel Farage’s party has been briefed on a range of technologies to surveil maritime borders and has been examining the examples of Kuwait and Australia, Yusuf told the Guardian at a tech policy event in London.
Kuwait this year began using driverless boats called the Needlefish which reach speeds of 40mph and can stream surveillance information from cameras and radar back to shore. Australia is also using unmanned vessels for coastal surveillance. The Home Office previously contracted with the US AI weapons company Anduril to provide a handful of several AI-enabled maritime sentry towers in the south-east of England that algorithmically identify and track individuals or vessels of interest. Anduril supplies similar towers to the US border with Mexico.
Yusuf said it was it was “beyond insane” that small boat crossings were not all detected. He said:
If Reform wins the next general election and Nigel Farage is prime minister, Britain’s maritime borders will be among the most surveilled borders in the world …
It will be a focus for us to ensure that you should not be able to land on our shores on a boat and ... evade any form of detection.
He said a Reform government could bolt AI tools onto radar systems to help coastguards and immigration officials detect suspicious activity.
There’s some novel technologies around using satellites that are very useful.
If you are using things like radar, [the AI is] trying to work out what is a dinghy with 90 people on it. That technology does exist. It’s not being deployed in any meaningful way at the moment.
Yusuf said Reform would make a more detailed announcement in the coming weeks. The surveillance plans come amid the rising use of AI powered facial recognition technology by police forces and private retailers to prevent shoplifting.
Tice says everyone should pay as little tax as policy, dismissing report exposing his 'aggressive tax avoidance' as 'smear'
Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent.
All Britons should do their best to pay the minimum tax they possibly can, Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader has argued, as he dismissed a newspaper investigation over his own tax affairs as a “smear”.
Tice, who was presenting a press conference todaytabout Reform’s claims to have saved large amounts of money in the English councils it runs, faced questions about a Sunday Times story which detailed of a tax scheme the paper said had helped him avoid nearly £600,000 in corporation tax.
According to the paper, Tice’s property company used a rare legal status known as a real estate investment trust, or Reit, to mean it paid no corporation tax between 2018 and 2021. Labour has urged HMRC to investigate the arrangements.
Asked whether he was right to minimise his tax payments in such a way, Tice told reporters that he rejected the idea people should “pay the absolute maximum tax possible”.
Asked if he would thus encourage everyone in the UK to pay as little tax as possible, if it was within legal limits, Tice replied: “Yes, of course, that’s what you should do.”
Tice also used a tweet by the Sunday Times journalist, Gabriel Pogrund, about the story, which confirmed that Tice had paid the necessary tax under the terms of the scheme, to claim the story about him had been misleading.
“Given that was his conclusion by the end of the afternoon, maybe he was just trying to smear me,” Tice said.
In fact, Pogrund’s tweet had re-stated what the story set out: that while Tice did not appear to have broken any laws or criminally underpaid tax, his use of a Reit scheme for his property company was a complex and unusual way to minimise tax.
Tice sought to characterise the story as an attempt by the media to argue that everyone had to pay the maximum tax possible. He said:
We have entered a new a new world where there is a moral imperative now in the United Kingdom that you shouldn’t just pay tax as required …
You must pay the maximum personal income tax rate on everything – that is a mad situation to be in. We have to call it out.
How many friends and family do you have who voluntarily choose to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to do, or who voluntarily decide, actually I’m going to pay the absolute maximum I can?
Tice argued that this “new moral code” would lead to people leaving the UK in large numbers.
Torsten Bell, a Treasury minister, has criticised Tice for “aggressive tax avoidance”. In posts on social media yesterday, prompted by the Tory peer Daniel Hannan claiming that what Tice did was equivalent to putting money in an ISA, Bell said:
Idea that what Tice was doing was remotely like opening an ISA is mad. His was VERY unusual behaviour associated with aggressive tax planning :
- UK resident using an offshore trust
- he claimed REIT status for a firm that never met the tests (because he owned it personally)
The contrast is clear:
- Parliament legislated specifically FOR people to be able to open ISAs.
- Parliament has legislated specifically AGAINST people engaging in aggressive tax avoidance like this (ie the General Anti-Abuse Rule)
It’s for Richard Tice & HMRC to conclude on the specific legal position here. But it’s already clear this was someone doing absolutely everything to avoid paying the tax that ordinary people contribute week in week out. Oh, and he was meant to be a public servant at the time.
Updated
Kemi Badenoch has accused Keir Starmer of not being fully involved in the US plan to reopen the strait of Hormuz. She told the Press Association this morning:
We have believed in freedom of navigation as a country for centuries, even this government has had targeted strikes at the Houthis in the Strait of Hormuz.
But what is the plan? We need to see the plan.
It is not clear the prime minister has been involved in the planning process. All of our allies seem to be worried about how slow he is.
I’m worried that he’s not deep enough in conversations with the US. But before we start sending ships out, we need to know what the plan is.
This comment implies that the US actually has a plan that Starmer should be more fully engaged with to get oil flowing past the strait of Hormuz. In fact, the evidence implies no such plan exists. In the US it has been reported that Trump and his team did not fully appreciate the risk of the strait being closed.
Updated
Treasury announces plan to help consumers with tighter regulation in heating oil market
As well as the money (see 12.27pm), the government is also announcing plans to toughen regulation in the heating oil market to help consumers. This is how the Treasury explains it in its news release.
Heating oil is different from other sectors in the energy market as it does not have the same consumer protections and is not regulated by Ofgem. The government intends to introduce new consumer protections for heating oil customers and is rapidly exploring new ways to step in and ensure households are better protected.
This includes:
-An agreement secured with industry on a strengthened code of practice to rapidly provide enhanced protections to customers, including greater flexibility on delivery volumes and improving price transparency and formalising a priority customers register – meaning all customers who are vulnerable are eligible for prioritised support in times of disruption.
-Introducing stronger consumer protections in the heating oil market, which could cover dispute resolution, a greater variety of repayment options for those facing hardship, greater price transparency and enhanced protections for vulnerable groups such as the elderly.
-Supporting the Competition and Markets Authority’s plans to carry out a more comprehensive examination of the UK’s heating oil industry.
-Exploring the creation of a new ombudsman or appointment of a regulator, such as Ofgem, to champion consumers, and taking powers to do so through the energy independence bill.
-Working with the Northern Ireland executive to ensure that protections are fit for purpose for Northern Irish households, who are particularly reliant on heating oil.
In addition, the chancellor earlier this week wrote to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to ask that it remains vigilant across heating oil prices and supports CMA action to tackle unjustified price increases.
This fleshes out what Keir Starmer was saying at his press conference. See 10.49am.
How £53m will be spent helping low-income families with heating oil bills
Here is the Treasury news release with details of the £53m heating oil support package (see 10.49am) announced by Keir Starmer this morning.
This is what it says about how the £53m will be distributed.
The chancellor is announcing over £50m of targeted financial support, helping low-income households in rural communities who have no choice but to top up their tanks at a time when prices have risen so significantly.
In England, funding will be distributed by local authorities via the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), which comes into effect from 1 April, targeted areas with higher rates of oil heating.
This is a particular issue in Northern Ireland, where a greater proportion of homes rely on heating oil, and we have allocated £17m to support them. England will receive £27m, Scotland £4.6m and Wales £3.8m.
This funding has been allocated based on census data, reflecting where the greatest need is, and it will be allocated directly to the devolved governments, with the expectation that it will be used to support vulnerable households.
Q: [From George Parker from the FT] When you spoke about not allowing firms to profit from high oil prices, were you implying that you might consider another, or a higher, windfall tax?
Starmer said there was already a windfall tax in place on energy companies. He did not comment on what might happen in the future.
Starmer chooses not to respond to Trump implicitly threatening Nato if allies don't help reopen strait of Hormuz
Q: [From Millie Cook from the Independent] How concerned are you about Donald Trump’s comments about Nato. Do you agree with Pat McFadden that this was just rhetoric? [See 8.57am.]
Starmer said the proposal being discussed to reopen the strait of Hormuz would not be a Nato mission. It would be “an alliance of partner”, he said.
He repeated the point about how this would be “not straightforward”.
He did not comment explicitly on Trump threatening Nato. But he did repeat his claim that he and Trump had a good conversation yesterday.
Q: [From Jason Groves from the Daily Mail] The Treasury gets a VAT windfall when petrol prices go up. For every 5p it goes up, they get another 1p. Shouldn’t they give that back? And are you planning for petrol rationing?
Starmer ignored the point about VAT on fuel, but said that fuel duty was frozen until September.
And he did not address the point about rationing either, beyond saying the government wanted to increase the UK’s energy independence.
Q: [From Mat Gay, who runs thequidsquid account on TikTok] What are you doing to help people with the cost of living?
Starmer repeated many of the points he made in his opening comment. But he also claimed that wages are going up more than they were in the first 10 years of the last government.
Starmer claims he still has 'good relationship' with Trump, despite US president's criticism of UK and threat to Nato
Q: [From Christopher Hope from GB News] On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you rank your relationship with Donald Trump?
Starmer said it was “a good relationship”. He had a “good discussion” with Trump yesterday, he claimed. (See 9.56am.) He went on:
We’re strong allies, have been for decades, but it is for me to act in what I consider to be the best interests of Britain. And I have to keep that uppermost in my mind
And it is interesting, for want of a better word, that those that two weeks ago were urging us to go headlong into the full-blown war are beginning to have second thoughts about that, and there’s a reason for that.
Starmer said it was also important for GB News viewers to realise that, in the short term, their energy bills will go down, not up, because of the energy price cap.
Updated
Starmer plays down talk of rift with Trump
Q: [From Andy Bell from 5 News] Are you worried that your relationship with President Trump is getting frayed, given you keep turning down his requests for help?
Starmer repeated his point about how he wanted “as many partners as possible” involved in a plan to keep the strait of Hormuz open. He said:
I discussed it with President Trump yesterday, in the way that you would expect between two allies.
But no decisions have been taken yet, he said.
Starmer denied misleading MPs in relation to Mandelson appointment
Q: [Rigby’s second question] Last week we learned that Jonathan Powell, your national security adviser, thought the Mandelson appointment was rushed. But you told MPs due process was followed. Did you mislead parliament?
Starmer replied: “No.” He said Sir Laurie Magnus, his ethics adviser, looked at this question last week (in response to a complaint from the Tories) and concluded that the proper process was followed.
Starmer repeated his earlier point about the process being flawed. (See 11.08am.)
Starmer says it is 'not sensible' to rule in or out energy support measures for later this year given so much uncertainty
Q: [From Sky’s Beth Rigby] In 2022, after the Ukraine war started, the Tory government announced an energy bills bailout that cost about £40bn. Can you confirm that you won’t do anything on that scale? And can you confirm that means “wealthier households are going to have to suck some of this up”?
Starmer says that it is “simply not sensible” to start ruling measures for later this year when there is so much uncertainty about what will happen. It is similar to the answer he gave to Chris Mason. (See 10.57am.)
But he said he was determined to clamp down on firms supplying heating oil that are ripping off customers. He said:
I’m absolutely determined to clamp down on anybody who may think of ripping others off in a situation like this.
I’ve heard too many stories of [heating oil] deliveries being cancelled in order for the price to go up.
We have to clamp down on that sort of ripping off.
Starmer claims process failure was to blame for Peter Mandelson being appointed ambassador to US
Q: [Peston’s second question] Why did you appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US when we now learn that President Trump told you to keep Karen Pierce in place?
Starmer said the Mandelson appointments was a process failure.
Look, the process wasn’t strong enough. And that’s why, last year I moved to strengthen the process and we’ll strengthen it again.
My reflection is the process wasn’t strong enough. The process was followed. But was the process strong enough? No it wasn’t.
Now I recognised that back in September, when the Bloomberg emails came to light [about the full extent of Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Eptstein], and it was then that I started the process of strengthening it, and we’ll continue to do so.
Starmer was referring to the vetting process for jobs like this, which has been strengthened.
But he ignored the substance of the question, which is why he ignored the concerns about Mandelson that were raised during the vetting process, and why he did not just keep Pierce in post.
Starmer says he wants as many countries as possibly involved in plan to reopen strait of Hormuz, but it will be 'difficult'
Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] Are you saying no to deploying the Royal Navy to reopen the strait of Hormuz?
Starmer said he discussed this with President Trump yesterday.
There have been discussions going on in relation to a viable plan. We want to make sure that that involves as many partners as possible. That’s been our stated objective here, particularly talking to European partners, inevitably talking to Gulf Partners and to the US, because we need a credible, viable plan if we can.
But he said this was “not easy”.
It is difficult. Of course it’s difficult. There’s no hiding that. But that’s what we’re working on in terms of a viable plan.
Starmer says UK looking at 'options' for how it could help reopen strait of Hormuz
Starmer is now taking question.
Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] Is there a limit to what you can do to help people with bills? And what will you do to help reopen the strait of Hormuz?
Starmer said the two points were related.
On financial help, he said:
I’m not going to stand here and pretend to you that we all know what the situation will be in the three or six months’ time. We don’t.
The best way through this is to de-escalate, and reduce the conflict, because that is the simple, most effective way to deal with the cost of living. And that’s where we’re putting our all of our focus.
But look, you heard what I said about my instinct. And obviously, we’ll always do whatever we can in relation to cost of living for working people.
And, on action in the Gulf, he said:
We’ve already got autonomous mine hunting systems in the region. We’re looking at options and expertise, but working with allies.
Starmer said his fourth measure was the ongoing drive to make the UK energy indepenent by developing more renewable energy.
And his fifth measure was working diplomatically for an end to the conflict.
He ended his opening statement with the pre-briefed remarks criticising other parties for their response to the war. (See 10.19am.)
Starmer says government to spend £53m helping rural communities with rising cost of heating oil
Starmer is on to his third point, and he confirms the government will support people in rural areas affected by the steep rise in the cost of heating oil.
The CMA [Competition and Markets Authority] reported last week what every heating oil customer already knows. There are accounts of suppliers cancelling orders and jacking up prices. Now that kind of conduct is completely unacceptable. So if the companies have broken the law there will be legal action.
Because it’s clear this market is under regulated, we’re going to put that right to ensure customers get a better deal.
But we won’t just wait for that. I’m announcing immediate support for vulnerable heating oil customers today, providing £53m for those households that are most exposed.
Starmer says the second measure is the extension of the cut in fuel duty until September.
And he says he has been clear to energy companies that they should not profit from price rises caused by the war.
Starmer says energy companies will be given 'legal direction' saying budget savings must be passed on to customers
Starmer says he wants to set out five steps the government is taking to help people with the cost of living, in response to the war.
First, we have capped energy bills until the end of June, saving the average household £117. And that’s in addition to the warm homes discount of £150 for the most vulnerable in society.
No matter what happens now in energy markets, in three weeks time your energy bills will be cut and then capped for the next three months.
And he says the government is “giving a legal direction to the energy companies to ensure that every penny of the savings that we delivered through last year’s budget is passed directly onto customers to keep bills as low as possible”.
Starmer says Iran war must not be allowed 'to turn into windfall for Putin'
Starmer says 92,000 Britons in the region have returned to the UK on commercial and government chartered flights.
And he says the armed forces are working “24/7 to protect British lives and British interests and support our Gulf partners”.
He says he is working on a diplomatic response. He met Mark Carney this morning and he will meet President Zelenskyy soon, he says, because there is an impact on Ukraine.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
I met Prime Minister Carney earlier this morning and I’ll be meeting President Zelenskyy soon, because it’s vital that we continue to focus on supporting Ukraine.
We cannot allow the war in the Gulf to turn into a windfall for Putin.
Updated
Starmer says he wants war to end 'as quickly as possibly' because of its impact on cost of living
Starmer says he wants the war to end “as quickly as possible because the longer it goes on, the more dangerous the situation becomes and the worse it is for the cost of living back here at home”.
He says the impact on the cost of living has been a priority for him.
Now, in recent days, I’ve visited community centres in England and Northern Ireland, and I know people are really worried about what this means for them.
And look, I grew up working class in the 1970s. I remember how it feels when you’re struggling to make ends meet. It’s a knot in your stomach. Every time the bills come through the door, and that’s at the forefront of my mind in meeting this crisis.
Starmer says UK 'will not be drawn into wider war' as he opens No 10 press conference
Keir Starmer is speaking at his press conference.
The war is entering its third week, he says.
He says he has been clear in his objectives.
First, we will protect our people in the region.
Second, while taking the necessary action to defend ourselves and our allies, we will not be drawn into the wider war.
And third, we will keep working towards a swift resolution that brings security and stability back to the region and stops the Iranian threat to its neighbours.
Starmer accuses Badenoch and Farage of 'following', not 'leading', with their initial support for Trump's war
According to extracts from his statement released in advance, Keir Starmer will use his press conference this morning to repeat his claim that Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage were wrong to suggest they would unconditionally back Donald Trump when the US-Israeli war against Iran started more than two weeks ago.
Starmer will say:
Moments like this also tell you about leadership … Now, there are others who would have made a different decision two weeks ago.
They would have rushed the UK headlong into this war without the full picture of what they were sending our forces into and without a plan to get us out.
That’s not leading, it’s following.
My leadership is about standing firm for the British interest. No matter the pressure.
And I believe time will show that we have the right approach. Right on the economy and the cost of living. Right on defence and energy.
And right on this war, in the best interests of the British people.
The Conservative party and Reform UK have revised their stance on the war over the past fortnight. Farage now says he would not support the US militarily, and Badenoch claims her party never fully supported the war in the first place.
On the Monday after the war started, in response to reports that Donald Trump was disappointed not to have support from Britain, Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, issued a statement saying:
It is no surprise that our closest and most important ally is so disappointed. The Labour government’s response to the crisis in Iran has been shameful.
We should have been supporting our allies, not making it harder for them. Even now Starmer is still trying to sit on the fence, which is a complete failure of leadership.
Updated
These are from Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, on Keir Starmer’s options as he decides how to respond to Donald Trump. (See 8.57am.)
Trump the coalition builder.
Saturday March 7
Trump to Starmer The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, adding: “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
Saturday March 14
Trump “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint will send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a nation that has been totally decapitated.”
Sunday March 15 Trump
It will be very bad for the future of NATO if the seven countries say no and the US will remember them.
Monday March 16
Starmer to Trump.
Option 1 This is an illegal war that you started in the middle of talks from which you excluded Europe. You launched the war without consulting your allies or Congress and without considering the military consequences. So the answer is no. Sort out the mess of your own making.
Option 2 Vital UK interests are at play and freedom of navigation requires the Strait is reopened. “Help is on its way, Mr President”.
Option 3 I am consulting allies and lawyers.
Worth recalling UK has recently taken military action to defend freedom of navigation, but in the Red Sea by attacking Houthi drone manufacturing sites in Yemen. It followed a UN SC resolution in Jan 2024 condemning Houthi attacks, but not authorising use of force.
As members of Operation Prosperity Guardian, the UK took part in at least six bombing raids in 2024 and 2025 jointly with US.
PM Sunak in January 2024 told MPs “this action was taken in self-defence. It was limited, not escalatory. It was a necessary and proportionate response to a direct threat to UK vessels, and therefore to the UK itself.”
He added: “We should also recognise the risks of inaction. It would weaken international security and the rule of law, further damage freedom of navigation and the global economy, and send a dangerous message that British vessels and British interests are fair game”.
Starmer as opposition leader said “The Houthi attacks are unacceptable and illegal and, if left unaddressed, could lead to a devastating rise in the cost of essential food in some of the poorest countries....The UK strikes were limited and targeted, and did everything possible to protect civilian lives. That is a proportionate response”.
Parallel far from exact eg Iran not yet conducting full scale attacks on shipping, Biden built a coalition and Houthis not a recognised state.
What No 10 said about Starmer's call with Trump yesterday
Keir Starmer and Mark Carney presumably spoke about their dealings with Donald Trump at their meeting this morning. Both of them seem to have had quite difficult conversations with the US president recently. Here is the terse Canadian readout from Carney’s call with Trump last weekend. And here is the statement from a No 10 spokesperson last night after Starmer spoke to the president.
The prime minister spoke to the president of the United States Donald Trump this evening.
The leaders discussed the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the importance of reopening the strait of Hormuz to end the disruption to global shipping, which is driving up costs worldwide.
The prime minister also expressed his condolences for the American service personnel who have lost their lives during the conflict.
They agreed to keep in touch.
This implies that, although there was agreement on reopening the strait of Hormuz, there was no agreement on how that should be achieved.
This is from the FT’s Edward Luce on Bluesky on his Trump scoop. (See 9.22am.)
I called Trump and he picked up..
Has Nato and the UK in his sights again
Updated
Keir Starmer has been meeting Mark Carney, his Canadian counterpart, in Downing Street this morning.
UK not obliged to support every demand of ‘transactional’ US president, McFadden says
Here is Peter Walker’s story on what Pat McFadden has been saying this morning in response to Donald Trump’s implict threat to withdraw support for Nato if countries like the UK don’t help the US in the Gulf.
Updated
Trump argues Nato countries should help US in Gulf in return for Washington backing Ukraine
Here are some more quotes from Donald Trump’s interview with Edward Luce from the Financial Times. Trump implicitly threatened to withdraw support for Nato if countries like the UK did not supply warships to protect oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz from attacks by the Iranians. (See 8.57am.) But he made other points too.
Trump argued that European Nato countries should help the US in the Gulf in return for the help the US has offered Ukraine. He said:
We have a thing called Nato. We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us . . . But we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us.
He also argued that he could not be confident that other Nato members would support the US in an emergency.
Because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them but they won’t be there for us. And I’m not sure that they’d be there.
Trump has often made this argument before, including when he was at Davos in January. In response to what he said then, Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, pointed out that Nato’s mutual defence clause, article 5, has only been triggered once, after 9/11, and that led to other Nato countries helping the US in Afghansitan.
He said that Nato counties should send minesweepers to the strait of Hormuz. (Europe has “many more” of them than the US, the FT says.)
He also implied he would like Nato countries to send military units who could “knock out some bad actors that are along the [Iranian] shore”.
He accepted that, with limited resources, Iran could have a disproportionate impact.
We’re hitting them very hard. They’ve got nothing left but to make a little trouble in the strait but these people are beneficiaries and they ought to help us police it. We’ll help them. But they should also be there. You sort of need a lot of people to watch over a few.
Pat McFadden plays down Trump’s threat to Nato, arguing US alliance strong enough to ‘outlast’ current issues
Good morning. Keir Starmer is holding a press conference in Downing Street this morning. As Kiran Stacey reports, the PM’s main intention will be to announce support for people most hit by rising energy prices, particularly householders reliant on heating oil. The measures are expected to be worth tens of millions of pounds.
But, inevitably, most of the focus likely to be on how Starmer responds to the latest provocations from Donald Trump.
To recap: last weekend Trump was dismissing the UK’s stance saying that the US did not need Britain’s support in the Gulf anyway because “we don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won”. This weekend he was asking the UK, and other countries, to send warships to help keep the strait of Hormuz open. The government has indicated that it won’t deploy warships, but it may send minesweeping drones. Here are some of today’s headlines.
The full Guardian story is here.
After briefly sounding solicitous, Trump is now back in threat mode. In a brief interview with the Financial Times he implied that, if countries like the UK did not deploy warships to protect oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz, he might pull the plug on Nato. He said:
It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there …
If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato.
We will hear what Starmer has to say about this later, but we have already had a response from Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, who has been on the morning interview round. Speaking on Sky News, McFadden downplayed the threat, arguing that the US-UK alliance was strong enough to “outlast” any problems caused by Trump’s rhetoric. Asked to comment on the quote, he said:
That’s the president right there. The quote that you’ve just given has summed him up.
It’s a very transactional presidency and our job is to navigate this, to always remember that the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom runs very deep.
It’s a good relationship. It’s enduring and I think it will outlast all the personalities involved.
We will cover the press conference in detail, but we won’t just be focusing on Iran today; there is other politics around too. Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer meets Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, in Downing Street.
10.30am: Starmer holds his press conference.
11am: Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, holds a press conference where he will give what the party says will be “a significant update on Doge and Reform in local government”.
11.30am: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, gives a speech where he will announce plans for a youth jobs grant and an apprenticeships incentive.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in London.
12.30pm: Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s leader in Scotland, takes part in a Q&A at the Institute for Government.
1.30pm: Jeremy Corbyn, Your Party’s parliamentary leader, presents the findings of his Gaza Tribunal report. As Patrick Wintour reports, it will say the government has been complicit in crimes committed by Israel.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
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