Starmer dismisses claims he’s been ‘played’ by Trump, and says future commerce deal might reduce affect of tariffs – UK politics stay | Politics

Helena Horton is a Guardian setting reporter.

Keir Starmer has been requested to retract false claims he made about spiders by a bunch of main conservation charities.

The prime minister claimed in a current article that plans to construct over 15,000 properties close to the Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent have been blocked because of the presence of the distinguished leaping spider.

However, the character charities have stated that is “fake news” in a scandal they’re branding “spidergate”.

Starmer has been requested to go to the peninsula to see the character for himself, within the letter signed by the Wildlife Trusts, Campaign for Protecting Rural England, Buglife and Wildlife and Countryside Link.

The letter reads:

The overwhelming majority of the 15,000 properties are nonetheless progressing, with hundreds already constructed. The solely space affected by wildlife issues is a part of the Swanscombe Peninsula, a chosen Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the place 1,300 properties have been proposed.

Contrary to your declare, the distinguished leaping spider was not discovered within the space earmarked for these properties however in different elements of the SSSI. The Swanscombe Peninsula helps a rare vary of uncommon and endangered species, together with over 1,700 species of invertebrates, nationally scarce botanical species similar to the person orchid, and UK Red List hen species just like the nightingale, grasshopper warbler, cuckoo, and breeding marsh harrier. It was designated an SSSI for its nationwide significance when it comes to crops, geology, birds, and invertebrates – a wealth of biodiversity that deserves safety.

The suggestion that conservation protections are blocking vital housing improvement is deceptive and unhelpful. We should cease framing nature and development as opposing forces. Sustainable improvement can and will combine environmental concerns, making certain that new communities are habitable and ecologically sustainable.

The asylum system dangers “damaging social cohesion” with homeless refugees placing “unprecedented pressure” on Glasgow companies, the town council has warned. Libby Brooks has the story.

There are two pressing questions within the Commons after 12.30pm, on NHS pensions and on the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

Then, after about 1.30pm, Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, will make a press release on the Sentencing Council.

That can be adopted, about an hour later, by a press release from Dan Jarvis, the safety minister, in regards to the implementation of the overseas affect registration scheme. Potentially this might be essentially the most controversial of all 4 bulletins, as a result of any announcement that doesn’t contain China being positioned in the enhanced tier will outrage the China hawks on the Tory benches.

Vine says the UK shouldn’t be exempt from the US tariffs.

Q: All that appeal offensive hasn’t labored. We haven’t received leverage. We must change our strategy?

Rayner says the federal government has put “foundations” in place that may assist relations sooner or later.

Q: Why don’t we cancel the state go to?

Rayner says this isn’t about being good to President Trump. It is about recognising that the UK and the US have a good and balanced buying and selling relationship.

Q: Should we cancel the state go to?

Rayner replies:

I believe that’s ridiculous. I don’t assume that’s the place we’re at in any respect.

It’s not about who visits the king or not. It’s about placing the British curiosity first, and that’s what our authorities is doing.

Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, is being interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2.

She is there to speak about the price of residing, and the affect of the nationwide residing wage rise.

Vine reads out figures for a way utility invoice will increase, and says these rises are “unsustainable”.

Mabel Banfield-Nwachi has an equal Guardian listing right here.

Rayner lists numerous meausures being taken by Labour to assist, together with: the pension triple lock, the winter gasoline funds staying for the poorest pensioners, the rise within the nationwide residing wage, measures to present staff extra job safety, breakfast golf equipment, and extra assist for council budgets.

But Labour is coping with the “14 years of the mess that the Conservatives left behind”, she says.

Q: Do you assume placing up employer NICs was a mistake?

Rayner ignores the query, and returns to the purpose in regards to the nationwide residing wage going up. That will imply staff have extra money to spend on the excessive avenue, which is able to assist companies.

Q: Would you wish to see the UK legal guidelines round abortion buffer zones reviewed to assist get a commerce deal?

Badenoch says she helps free speech. But she says she doesn’t need to see legal guidelines over-interpreted.

She says she doesn’t need to see US abortion wars coming to the UK.

She says she doesn’t know the total particulars of the case cited by the US state division. She says she voted in opposition to the buffer zone regulation, as a result of she thought it was too strict. But she says parliament handed the regulation, and it must be revered.

Here is Jamie Grierson’s story in regards to the declare that the UK’s abortion buffer zone legal guidelines is perhaps an impediment to a commerce cope with the US.

Q: Have you inspired JD Vance or any senior Republicans to spare the UK from tariffs?

No, says Badenoch. She says it isn’t proper for her to chop throughout what the federal government is doing.

Q: Would you assist a commerce deal permitting US chlorinated hen to be imported into the UK?

Badenoch says she doesn’t consider the obstacles to a US commerce deal are requirements. They are quotas, she says. She goes on:

Nobody goes to be pressured to eat chlorinated hen. I don’t even assume most hen within the US is definitely washed with chlorine, as a result of it’s a fable that has expanded rather a lot through the years. Things have modified. We must deal with what’s truly in a commerce deal.

Q: You say Labour’s selections have damaged voters’ belief. But do you settle for that the price of residing disaster began underneath the Tories, and that the Liz Truss mini-budget destroyed your occasion’s credibility.

Badenoch says the Tory repute was constructed over many years and centuries, not simply over the previous few years.

She says Tory politicians have labored in enterprise. They perceive it. Labour ministers don’t, she claims.

She says the Covid disaster needed to be paid for.

Labour has now accomplished one thing damaging, she says.

Q: What you say on tariffs sounds similar to what Keir Starmer is saying. Is thta proper?

Badenoch says it will likely be “excellent” if Starmer avoids retaliatory tariffs.

Q: How would you be responding to the Trump tariffs?

Badenoch says at her first PMQs as Tory chief she known as for a commerce cope with the US.

Q: Why have you ever reportedly told your MPs not to criticise President Trump?

I haven’t, says Badenoch.