UK politics: Starmer sticks by manifesto pledge not to raise taxes amid tariff turmoil

Starmer says he remains committed to manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or employee NICs

Q: Will you stick to your pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT?

Starmer says that is a commitment he will keep.

He says the government cannot just reach for taxes when it needs money; it must promote growth.

Key events

17h ago

Early evening summary
17h ago

Badenoch should apologise for what she said about two Labour MPs denied entry to Israel, minister tells Commons
17h ago

Foreign Office minister says Israel’s decision to stop two British MPs entering country not just wrong, but counterproductive
17h ago

FTSE 100 down 4.38% at close of trading
18h ago

Closure of blast furnaces at British Steel plant at Scunthorpe ‘far from done deal’, MPs told
18h ago

What Starmer said in his speech about using industrial policy to help life sciences sector
18h ago

Starmer’s speech – snap analysis
19h ago

Starmer signals fiscal rules won’t be changed, saying ‘there’s enough uncertainty as it is’
19h ago

Starmer says UK will need more steel and ‘all options on the table’ to protect Scunthorpe steel plant
20h ago

Starmer says he remains committed to manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or employee NICs
20h ago

Starmer resists call to cancel Trump’s state visit invitation, saying it’s not in UK’s interest to ‘rip up’ relationship with US
20h ago

Starmer says further measures to help car sector and life sciences to come
20h ago

Starmer says he will cut time needed to get licences for clinical trials, to help life sciences sector
20h ago

Starmer says global consequences of Trump tariffs ‘could be profound’
20h ago

Starmer tells car sector ‘we are going to back you to the hilt’
20h ago

Starmer gives speech on Trump tariffs and car industry
20h ago

Inquiry into Southport murders has started, chaired by former appeal court judge Adrian Fulford, Yvette Cooper says
21h ago

Trump will use tariffs as ‘big negotiating tool’, Nigel Farage claims
21h ago

No 10 refuses to say whether or not government thinks Trump might reverse tariff policy
22h ago

No 10 confirms it’s still opposed to rejoining customs union, saying Trump tariffs have not led to rethink on EU policy
22h ago

No 10 won’t say if Starmer urged other countries to avoid retaliatory tariffs in talks over weekend
22h ago

Does Starmer have a strategy for dealing with Trump tariffs?
23h ago

Starmer says his ‘only priority’ is ‘people of Britain, and what makes them better off’
23h ago

Rights groups urge Starmer to dial down anti-migrant rhetoric
23h ago

Green party says Labour ‘wrong to apply brakes on sale of EV cars’
1d ago

Heidi Alexander says EV rule changes were planned anyway, but Trump tariffs brought ‘renewed urgency’ to announcement
1d ago

Decision to ease EV rules for car firms will have ‘negligible’ impact on carbon emissions, says transport secretary
1d ago

‘Tinkering’ and ‘not giant leap required’ – Starmer fails to impress car sector with plan to help it cope with tariffs

Early evening summary

Hamish Falconer, the Foreign Office minister, has told MPs that Kemi Badenoch should apologise for wrongly saying that two Labour MPs were denied entry from Israel because they were not going to comply with the country’s laws. (See 5.50pm.)

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves at the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Solihull. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA

Badenoch should apologise for what she said about two Labour MPs denied entry to Israel, minister tells Commons

Yesterday Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, defended Israel’s decision to refuse entry to the two Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed – even though Richard Fuller, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said they should have been let in.

In her response to the statement from Hamish Falconer, Wendy Morton, the shadow foreign office minister, essentially sided with her party leader. She declined to criticise Israel over the decision, and she said incident had to be seen “within the context of Britain’s relationship with Israel”. When the Conservatives were in office, they had candid conversations with the Israelis in private, she said. She also suggested the MPs should have been aware of the fact that the Foreign Office’s own guidance says it is up to the Israeli authorities to decide who is allowed to entre the country.

In response, Hamish Falconer said that Morton should have withdrawn the comments made by Badenoch yesterday. He said, if the Israelis had blocked any of the Conservative MPs who have led similar trips to the West Bank, then all MPs from the Commons would have condemned that.

He also said that Badenoch should apologise for what she said yesterday. He said she wrongly suggested the two MPs were blocked from entering the country because they were not going to comply with Israeli laws.

UPDATE: Falconer said:

The leader of the opposition said on Sunday, if you look at the reasons why the Israeli government has given for why they’re not letting them in, they don’t believe that they’re going to comply with their laws. The reasons for the denial given in writing by the Israeli government to the two MPs were for the prevention of illegal immigration considerations. The leader of the opposition should apologise.

Foreign Office minister says Israel’s decision to stop two British MPs entering country not just wrong, but counterproductive

In the Commons Hamish Falconer, a Foreign Office minister, is making a statement about the Israeli decision to refuse the entry of two Labour MPs, Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, to the country.

He says he thinks this is the first time any British MP has been barred from entering Israel.

The MPs were blocked because of things they had said in parliament, he says. Israel’s decision was unacceptable.

It is no way to treat democratically elected representatives of a close partner nation. We have made this clear at the highest levels in Israel, I pay tribute to the contributions that both members have made at this place since they were elected. I know they will both believe in a two state solution. They have our support and solidarity.

He says the two MPs were part of a delegatation visting humanitarian projects on the West Bank. More than 161 MPs have taken part in visits like this, he says.

The visit was organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map). Falconer says these groups have supported trips by MPs from all the main parties, including the Conservatives. The visits help MPs understand the situation in the country. He goes on:

So our message to the Israeli government is not just that this is wrong. It is that it is counterproductive. We have warned that the actions like this only damage the image of the Israeli government in the eyes of honourable members across the house.

FTSE 100 down 4.38% at close of trading

London’s FTSE 100 index fell sharply by 4.38%, or 352.9 points, to 7,702.08 at the close of trading on Monday, PA Media reports. PA says:

It meant the index of the UK’s largest publicly-listed firms slid to its lowest closing price since March last year as global markets continue to be shaken by US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.

In the US, the Dow Jones index was down 1.52%, while the S&P 500 was 0.96% lower.

In currency, sterling suffered a heavy fall, slipping by 1.28% to 1.272 against the dollar at London market close.

Only around a third of people (29%) think that Keir Starmer and the government had a significant impact on President Trump’s decision to keep tariffs imposed on the UK relatively low, according to polling by YouGov.

Polling on whether Starmer and government persuaded Trump to keep UK tariffs low Photograph: YouGov

Closure of blast furnaces at British Steel plant at Scunthorpe ‘far from done deal’, MPs told

A business minister told MPs that the closure of the blast furnces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe is “far from a done deal”.

Speaking in response to an urgent question the Commons, Sarah Jones said:

I can assure this house that early blast furnace closures at Scunthorpe are far from a done deal.

We have been clear that the best way forward is for British Steel to continue as a commercially run business with private investment and government acting in support, which is why we made the company a generous offer of public funding on March 24.

As members are aware, British Steel’s owner did not accept our offer or the necessary conditions attached to it, which were designed to protect workers, safeguard taxpayers’ money and deliver a sustainable company core to the future of British steelmaking. But that is not the end of the matter.

Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow housing secretary, said the government should intervene to protect the factory.

Steel is obviously a key strategic industry, even more so given our need to increase defence spending and infrastructure investment. And even mores so again given President Trump’s game changing imposition of tariffs.

The prime minister keeps saying the world has changed, and indeed we are witnessing the end of globalisation, which I can’t say I totally agree with.

But if that’s the government’s position then surely it has no choice but to intervene to support domestic production. The alternative could see us locked out of reliable, consistently-priced sources of steel.

Julian Lewis, another Tory, urged the government to nationalise the factory. He said the minister “shouldn’t waste the opportunity of a lifetime to have the parties of the right urging a party of the left to nationalise a British industry.” He added:

Seize the opportunity, keep the blast furnaces, and, if necessary nationalise them for good.

Jones replied:

I have not failed to notice the slightly odd position that we find ourselves in today and I would just repeat that we are looking at all options.

British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/Reuters

What Starmer said in his speech about using industrial policy to help life sciences sector

Here is the passage from Keir Starmer’s speech where he talked about measures to support the life sciences sector. (See 2.54pm.) He cited this as an example of how the government will be using industrial policy to protect business (one of his strategies for dealing with the Trump tariffs – see 12.30pm.)

In the coming days and weeks, we are going to use industrial policy to shelter British business from the storm.

Take our life sciences sector, another shining example of British brilliance. An absolutely pivotal part of our export economy. We’re going to back them, as well.

We’re going to rip up the red tape. Cut the stifling bureaucracy that slows down clinical trials. Now Britain used to be better at this but we’ve taken our foot off the pedal.

The latest data says it takes over 250 days to set up a clinical trial. I’m going to slash that to 150.

And on top of that, I can also announce – a new investment up to £600m in a new Health Data Research Service. A welcome partnership with the Wellcome Trust strengthening the genome cluster in Cambridge.

Making sure that patient data in our NHS is unlocked for the public good. An opportunity for growth – but more importantly to save lives with cutting edge medicine and Britain is so good at this.

We saw that in the pandemic. And we now need to pick up the pace again. This country has never waited around for history to shape us. We have shaped history – and we will do so again now.

The full text of the speech is now on the No 10 website (although they call it “remarks”, not a speech, which is an admission that it wasn’t one of his finest).

Keir Starmer speaking to workers at the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

Starmer’s speech – snap analysis

With the global stock market’s response to the Trump tariffs changing minute by minute, it would have been unreasonable to expect Keir Starmer to give a considered, and fixed, response to the crisis in that speech. Which is just as well, because he didn’t.

In many respects, the speech this afternoon was surprisingly shallow. Other than the electric cars policy announcement briefed overnight, the only news it contained was what sounded like a back-of-the-envelope life sciences pledge (see 2.54pm). Almost everything he said about the economy he had already set out over the past few days. The most striking feature, perhaps, was the extent of his praise for the “brilliance” of the car workers he was addressing. Some viewers may think he overdid it, but he was probably thinking about his dad, and it sounded fairly genuine.

As explained earlier, there are at least five strands to the government’s response to the tariffs crisis. (See 12.30pm.) The only one that did not get much of a mention was the anticipated trade deal with the US. As Kate McCann from Times Radio points out, this may indicate a change of thinking over the past week.

Interesting but subtle shift of emphasis by Starmer in answering @ChrisMasonBBC. Asked if Gov can shield people from Trump PM says UK will continue to work on a potential UK/US trade agreement BUT this is the time to step up on our side. Last week the trade deal was the answer…

All four other measures are still very much in the mix. But Starmer did not say a lot about reducing trade barriers and, especially given what No 10 was saying earlier (see 1.01pm), anyone hoping for Britain to take the lead in some global, anti-Trump free trade alliance will be disappointed. Mostly Starmer was focusing on making British industry more resilient, and helping sectors particularly affected by tariffs. But there was not much detail on this, and these policies may end up looking a lot like the pro-growth agenda that Starmer was committed to anyway.

If it is hard to categorise Starmer’s stance, that may be because he is averse to being too ideological. In an astute New Statesman article, George Eaton argues that Starmer is adopting his own version of the third way on globalisation.

New Labour was sceptical of or even hostile to public ownership – Starmer is renationalising the railways and has launched the first new publicly owned company since the 1970s: GB Energy (the fate of the Chinese-owned British Steel, threatening 2,700 jobs, will be a test of the government’s interventionism). Blair cherished the UK’s “flexible” labour market, Starmer’s Employment Rights Bill heralds a more regulated model. Tax and spending are on a similarly European trajectory.

But there is one Blairite concept – “the third way” – that might help illuminate Starmer’s outlook. Blair was seeking to chart a course between Thatcherism and traditional social democracy. Today, as his speech in the West Midlands will make clear, Starmer is rejecting both protectionism and free-market liberalism.

“There are two wrong paths to go down in this era,” a No 10 strategist told me. “One is defending the status quo, defending institutions as they are, saying there’s a few things that we can do differently but the grown-ups are in charge. The other path you can go down is destroying those institutions, that’s the way of the populist right. We don’t think that stopping global trade is the answer.”

There may be a logic to this. But that does not make Starmer’s strategy compelling. Here are two very different commentators on the speech – making broadly the same point.

From Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast

Starmer’s speech is strong on diagnosis. Weak on prescription. Because Britain just isn’t economically powerful enough on its own to offer one

In terms of Britain’s response we’re not going to retaliate with tariffs. We don’t have the heft of the EU’s trade bloc so our leverage is limited, even as a threat. We don’t have the export flows China has. So if Starmer is serious about protecting British industry then you’re going to need money. Therefore the only real question is whether the fiscal rules are relaxed. Starmer didn’t give an unequivocal no on that today.

From John Crace, the Guardian’s sketchwriter

Keir Starmer has just said ‘Our future is in our hands’.

Not sure he has grasped the situation

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves speaking to a car workers at the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Birmingham. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA

Starmer signals fiscal rules won’t be changed, saying ‘there’s enough uncertainty as it is’

During the Q&A Sam Coates from Sky News asked Keir Starmer if he could pledge to keep Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules “exactly as they are” for the whole of this parliament.

Starmer replied:

The fiscal rules were put in for a purpose, and that is because Liz Truss tried an experiment with this country of putting to one side fiscal rules and checks and balances. And that caused a massive impact on the lives of working people as inflation and interest rates went through the roof.

We are not prepared to inflict that kind of damage on working people. That’s why we put the fiscal rules in the first place, to create that kind of stability.

It’s why we were able to invest at the budget and set out, as we did, the steps for the future in the spring statement. Now is the time to build on that …

So the reaction to the challenges of the last few days is not for us to say, ‘Well, the first thing we’ll now do is put to one side our fiscal rules.’ It is to remind people why we put them in place in the first place, which is to create the certainty that we need.

There is enough uncertainty and insecurity as it is. Our job is to calmly and pragmatically take forward these really important steps today for our country.

That was a strong argument for not changing the fiscal rules. But, because Starmer did not explicitly rule out changing the fiscal rules, lobby correspondents at first thought there might be some significance in the omission.

Alex Wickham from Bloomberg said:

Keir Starmer does not commit to fiscal rules remaining completely unchanged for the full Parliament, asked by @SamCoatesSky

And Harry Cole from the Sun said:

PM commits to the tax lock…. some debate over whether the fiscal rules survive too

PM commits to the tax lock…. some debate over whether the fiscal rules survive too

— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) April 7, 2025

Someone seems to have had a word to clear this up, because Wickham subsequented posted this.

No10 stresses fiscal rules are iron clad and non negotiable

And Cole posted this.

No10 insist there is no debate about the Fiscal Rules…

Keir Starmer giving his speech at a Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) car factory in Birmingham. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AFP/Getty Images

Starmer says UK will need more steel and ‘all options on the table’ to protect Scunthorpe steel plant

Q: What measures will the government take to protect the Scunthorpe steelworks? Will you consider nationalisation?

Starmer says he will not discuss particular measures for steel.

But he says the car announcements today are “not the extent of my ambition when it comes to car manufacturing or any other business or sector”. He goes on:

I think we can go further and faster, and we will do so.

I’m not indicating there a particular measure. But I am indicating an openness of mind to go further.

On steel in particular, he said it was “part of our heritage”. He went on:

Our plans for growth are going to require more steel, and therefore the demand for steel is going to go up, not down, and that’s why it’s important that we support our steel industry.

I’m really pleased that in Port Talbot, we were able to ensure there was a better deal.

I’m really pleased that we’ve set aside £2.5bn pounds for the future of steel. I’m very pleased that we’re working with and discussing the situation in Scunthorpe, which is extremely worrying … and all options are on the table.

Mark Brown has filed a good article today on what the closure of the steelworks would mean for Scunthorpe.

Q: [From the Sun] Can you rule out the Red Arrows planes being replaced by Russian jets?

That is a reference to this Sun story.

Starmer says that will be uppermost in his mind. He says he will not allow Russian influence in this.

Starmer says he remains committed to manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or employee NICs

Q: Will you stick to your pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT?

Starmer says that is a commitment he will keep.

He says the government cannot just reach for taxes when it needs money; it must promote growth.

Starmer resists call to cancel Trump’s state visit invitation, saying it’s not in UK’s interest to ‘rip up’ relationship with US

Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] The US stock market has now crashed. Have you told Trump his tariffs are making the world poorer? And isn’t it time to rescind the state visit invitation?

Starmer says nobody welcomes tariffs. That has been his position, he says.

He says it is “not in our interest to simply rip up that relationship”.

That implies the state visit is still on.

Starmer says further measures to help car sector and life sciences to come

Starmer is now taking question.

Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] Isn’t the truth that you cannot protect people from global factors like the Trump tariffs?

Starmer says at a moment like this you have to shape your future.

We can’t cowed and simply say, there are things happening in a changing world which make it more difficult, and therefore we retreat. This is the moment to seize that opportunity, and that’s why I’m absolutely clear in my mind.

He says the government will respond in two ways.

First, it will turbocharge measures to help domestic industries. He says he has mentioned two today, covering the car industry, and life sciences. He goes on:

By the way they’re a statement of intent. That is not the extent of the turbocharging – it is simply early examples in the areas most impacted.

And, second, the government will talk to other countries about lowering barriers to trade, he says.

Starmer says he will cut time needed to get licences for clinical trials, to help life sciences sector

Starmer is now talking about the life sciences.

This sector is another example of British brilliance, he says.

But it is held back by bureaucracy.

He says he going to change that. Currently it takes 250 days to get a licence for a clinical trial. That will come down to 150 days, he says.

And the government will invest up to £600m in new health data research service, in partnership with Wellcome Trust.

UPDATE: See 4.40pm for the full quote.

Starmer is now summarising the EV announcement today.

And he makes the cost of living argument that was in his Times article. (See 11.38am.)

Starmer says anyone who talks down British industry should come to this JLR plant.

There are people in this country who love to talk down our manufacturing. They say we don’t make anything important anymore.

But that’s not Britain … Anyone who’s talking down manufacturing, I’d say, come here to JLR and see what you’re doing. And they wouldn’t say it again,

Because just as I’ve said when we were going around earlier, what I saw made me proud, and I hope, if you feel proud of what you’re doing. You are entitled to feel proud of what you are doing. This is British brilliance in the flesh.

Starmer says his father was an engineer.

He taught me, as I was growing up, that you should value the things that we make, and that is what’s brilliant about manufacturing. And manufacturing shapes the identity of a place, this place, and of a community and of a country, and that’s how it gets in your blood, which is why electric vehicles are so important.

Starmer says we live in a new era, where the old assumpions don’t apply any more. He says he has called this the age of insecurity.

Insecurity may sweep away things we cherish. He goes on:

Trust me, I know people will be feeling like that right now.

But to those people I say, we have your back.

This government will not just sit back and hope. That is how politics has failed you in recent years.

He says the government is rewiring the way the state operates to make it better serve the interests of working people.

Starmer says global consequences of Trump tariffs ‘could be profound’

Starmer says:

Nobody is pretending that tariffs are good news. You know that better than anyone – 25% tariffs on automotive exports and 10% on other goods, that is a huge challenge for our future, and the global economic consequences could be profound.

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