Starmer highlights UK’s war record in implicit rebuke to Vance as Lib Dems mock Badenoch for defending him – as it happened

5.52pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has delivered an implicit rebuke to JD Vance at PMQs, by highlighting the sacrifice made by the 642 Britons who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – a day after the US vice president appeared to disparage the value of the British military. (See 12.04pm.)

• A full-blown trade war would pose a “substantial” threat to the British economy, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned.

• Around a dozen Labour MPs have expressed concerns about the cuts to the aid budget in a Commons debate on the Foreign Office estimates. They included Sarah Champion, chair of the Commons international development committee (see 4.27pm), and Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee. Thornberry said:

I am concerned these ODA [official development assistance] cuts won’t be the last of these challenges, there are also rumours that the Foreign Office will, on top of that, be expecting cuts of between 2 and 11%. In that scenario, it would be selling its businesses, its buildings, will the embassies shrink?

I’m concerned that we’ll lose the British Council which only receives 20% of it’s funding from the FCDO and generates the rest of its income itself.

I trust that there will be enormous amount of work being done into the details of these cuts, but we haven’t heard anything more that aspiration at the moment as to where the other funding is going to come from.

Because I fear we may be looking back at this time and we may say to ourselves, this is when Britain left the world and yet it really should be the time when we’re able to say Britain is back, and we’re back as a force for good.

• Something seismic has changed in the US-British relationship that will require the UK to look elsewhere for allies and accept that deals such as cooperation over the British nuclear deterrent are now in question, a former British ambassador to Washington has warned.

• The UK government has pledged to “unleash the North Sea’s clean energy future”, as it confirmed plans to ban new drilling licences but also unveiled proposals that could ease the tax burden on the oil and gas sector.

• Pregnant women should not be sent to jail unless it is “unavoidable”, according to new sentencing guidelines.

• The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign is holding a protest outside the US embassy in London. This is from the campaigner and journalist Paul Mason.

Happening now! Protest outside US Embassy in London ... placards tell the story of UK solidarity with Ukriane🇬🇧🇺🇦🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/lIwidWSpQc

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) March 5, 2025

Updated at 5.55pm GMT

5.37pm GMT

Trump's favourability rating with Reform UK voters plummets by 46 points over past fortnight, poll suggests

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has become notably less enthusiastic about defending Donald Trump and his administration over the past week or so. He used to be the Trump team’s biggest cheerleader in UK politics. But when JD Vance, the vice president, appeared to belittle the value of British troops yesterday, while Kemi Badenoch defended him, Farage said Vance was “wrong, wrong, wrong”.

Some new polling helps to explain this. Just over two weeks ago Trump had a net favourability rating of +38 with Reform UK supporters in the UK, according to YouGov. Now it is down to -8. To achieve a popularity collapse that rapid requires a Liz Truss level of awfulness.

Trump’s favourability ratings have also fallen over the same period with the supporters of other political parties, and with voters as a whole, but nothing like to the same extent. Mostly that is because he was hugely unpopular all those groups in the first place.

The polling also shows that Keir Starmer’s ratings have risen over the past fortnight – although he is still considerably more unpopular than he was at the time of the general election.

Attitudes towards Keir Starmer have improved following his successful US visit and handling of the Ukraine conflict

Favourable: 31% (+5 from 16-17 Feb)
Unfavourable: 59% (-7)https://t.co/mOqR6BWP89 pic.twitter.com/ImAEJKK96G

— YouGov (@YouGov) March 5, 2025

And Farage’s ratings have got worse during the same period.

Nigel Farage's favourability ratings have taken a small knock in recent weeks, following criticism of his stance on Trump, Russia and Ukraine

Favourable: 26% (-4 from 16-17 Feb)
Unfavourable: 65% (+5)https://t.co/mOqR6BWP89 pic.twitter.com/pTRyW5LSUk

— YouGov (@YouGov) March 5, 2025