Exclusive: PM says he has ambitious plans for partnership and argues Britons have moved on from Brexit

The UK has “ambitious” plans to secure a closer trading partnership with the EU, Keir Starmer has said, as he argued the British public had moved on from Brexit.

Before a UK-EU summit, the prime minister urged people to “look forward, not back” as the country embarked on a new era of its relationship with the bloc.

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Trump administration understood to have pushed for requirements to be attached to deal in effort to freeze out Chinese steel

The US deal on steel tariffs imposes conditions on the “nature of ownership” of British plants as part of its efforts to freeze out Chinese steel, it has emerged.

It is understood Donald Trump’s administration pushed for requirements to be attached to the steel deal to ensure that the Chinese-owned British Steel plant in Scunthorpe was not used by Beijing as a backdoor to circumvent US tariffs.

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Simon Clarke says ‘pipeline of future voters is dead’ as party figures warn Kemi Badenoch her job as leader is in danger

The Conservative party is fighting to justify its existence amid concerns that its pipeline of future voters is “completely dead”, a former cabinet minister and leading thinktank director has said.

Simon Clarke, an ally of Boris Johnson who backed Kemi Badenoch for the leadership last year, was among a string of former Tory ministers and serving MPs to tell the Guardian she faced removal by her party if she did not turn its fortunes around by next year’s local elections.

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Move to speed up appeals of people in government-funded hotels could be challenged on discrimination grounds, officials warn

A plan to fast-track the appeals of asylum seekers living in government-funded hotels could face multiple legal challenges on the grounds of discrimination, the government has said.

A 24-week legal deadline on appeal decisions for those staying in hotel rooms is being introduced in an attempt to fulfil a Labour manifesto promise to end a practice that costs the taxpayer billions of pounds a year.

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This week’s trade deal is a boost for Keir Starmer. But a lasting win will only come by joining forces with other nations to resist the US president’s entire destructive agenda

Donald Trump wanted Thursday, like every day, to be all about him. He thought the news cycle would be dominated by his sealing of the first US trade deal since he blew a hole in the world economy with the dynamite of tariffs. He gathered his vice-president and several cabinet members in the Oval Office to announce the new agreement – with the UK, as it happens – only for the gaze of the world to be diverted. All eyes were on Rome, where Trump was upstaged by one of the few global players who can outdo him when it comes to putting on a show.

Don’t think Trump is not simultaneously wondering how he can use that whole white-smoke thing – perhaps to signal his winning of a constitutionally prohibited third term in 2028 – and worrying that Leo XIV is a serious rival for the commodity he craves more than any other: attention. There now lives an American with more global followers than he has, and it happened in an instant.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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Jim Mackey says state of public finances means country can no longer afford big spending rises

Ministers have “maxed out” the amount of money they can give the NHS and it must learn to live with smaller annual budget rises, the health service’s new boss in England has said.

The parlous state of the country’s finances means the government can no longer afford to hand the service big uplifts every year, despite the huge pressures it is under, Jim Mackey added.

Promised to tackle “completely unacceptable” variation in the quality of care patients receive, depending on which part of the NHS treats them.

Voiced alarm that situations that previously would not have been tolerated, such as “old ladies being on corridors next to an emergency department for hours on end”, have become “normalised”.

Said ministers had come to see the existence and independence of NHS England as “a complication”, because of “tension” and “frustration” over not being able to order it to do what they wanted, before they decided to abolish it.

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The Labour veteran looked an awkward choice for the court of Trump, but now the president is holding his hand and complimenting his beautiful accent

Peter Mandelson, with his elegant suits, smooth patter and high-end lifestyle, has always had a dark secret: an interest in the minutiae of trade deals, left over from his period as EU trade commissioner, a period when he could bore for Europe on the virtues of the Mercosur trade deal. Alongside his networking skills, and political antennae, it was his knowledge of trade that possibly persuaded Keir Starmer to take the political risk of appointing him ambassador to Washington.

A pro-European social democrat with a full record of insulting remarks about Donald Trump’s racism, Lord Mandelson might not have been the obvious man to open previously closed doors in the US administration.

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Dylan Tippetts of Plymouth resigns from party ‘that does not support my fundamental rights’

One of Labour’s only transgender councillors has resigned from the party, accusing it of “throwing trans people under the bus”.

In a post on X on Friday morning, Dylan Tippetts, who has represented Compton ward on Plymouth city council since 2022, wrote: “I cannot continue to represent a party that does not support my fundamental rights. I cannot as a trans person continue to support the Labour party.”

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Chancellor responds to growing rebellion from more than 40 MPs who have written to the prime minister

More than 40 Labour MPs have warned the prime minister that planned disability cuts are “impossible to support” and have called for a pause and change in direction.

The letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, sets Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month.

Andrew Bailey has today added his voice to what Liberal Democrats have been saying for years: that we urgently need to rebuild our trading relationship with our closest and most significant economic partners in Europe.

This isn’t about revisiting the past, it’s about boosting our economy and deepening cooperation for the future. Despite the government’s US deal, Trump’s trade tariffs are still hitting key British industries and threatening the livelihoods of people across the UK.

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Analysts say the news boosts business confidence, helps an EU trade reset and shows the UK is a good place to invest – but it’s unlikely to turbo-charge GDP

You wait three years for a trade deal and then two come along at once.

As of Monday, the UK had not announced a free trade agreement since 2022, when Boris Johnson’s government signed one with New Zealand, ranked 52nd among global economies.

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Finally, a British prime minister has landed a trade agreement with the US. It’s just a shame it’s not a very good one

A huge day in import-export yesterday, as even Rome’s billion-per-cent tariff on American popes was lifted. The much bigger news, though, concerned the partial easing of recently imposed import taxes on British goods in the form of a starter UK-US trade deal, leaving the biggest little country in the world basking in the glow of an achievement our own prime minister seemed to hint had something of VE Day to it. In Britain, we have an old saying about dejection – “you look like you’ve lost a pound and found a sixpence” – but this was an entirely new spin on that scenario, given we were mostly celebrating being back to paying 10% more tariffs than we were subject to a few weeks ago. Yessss! A sixpence! Good times.

Before we get to the specifics of the deal, the theatre. I do find myself increasingly mesmerised by Trump’s Oval Office tableaux, which typically feature him surrounded by a cluster of sniggering mooks (eg the vice-president). Trump is like the boss in a cartoon about a crew of gangster dogs. Like Fat Sam from Bugsy Malone – but a bloodhound-chinese crested cross. Call him The Dogfather. So yes: the big dog was seated at his desk, while the henchdogs stood awkwardly round ready to laugh obsequiously on cue. And, bless them, they hit every single one. On this occasion, the boss dog was basking in their oleaginously indulgent chuckles, but you get the feeling that on a bad day it could go quite the opposite way. “Shaddup, Vance, you idiot. Did I say you could snigger?” “No, boss. Sorry, boss.”

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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Government sources say some of company’s 30,000 UK staff were at risk before agreement to cut car tariffs

The UK’s limited trade deal with the US has immediately prevented job losses at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in the West Midlands, Britain’s ambassador to the US has said.

“This deal has saved those jobs,” Peter Mandelson said in an interview on CNN. “That’s a pretty big achievement, in my view, and I’m very pleased that the president has signed it.”

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Kneejerk policy changes won’t win over Reform voters, or stop boats crossing the Channel. Here’s what the government should do instead

Deep disillusionment is now driving the public mood in Britain. People are desperate for competent government to handle issues like the cost of living, welfare and immigration. And they want people to be treated fairly and with dignity, whether they are asylum seekers, disabled people or pensioners. Yet on immigration, it is clear that No 10 has missed the memo.

It remains convinced that the only way to get a hearing with Reform voters on asylum is to sound as tough as possible. Indeed, Labour has recently resorted to sharing footage of people being deported in handcuffs, and headline grabbing initiatives to ship asylum seekers whose claims fail to so-called return hubs in countries such as Albania.

Enver Solomon is chief executive of the Refugee Council

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History proves byelections to be futile polls on leaders. If I were Farage, I would apply for the Tory whip and capture the party from within

The Runcorn and Helsby byelection belongs in the rubbish bin of politics. British byelections are charades, mock polls, playtime for pundits. They reduce normally sensible analysts to hysterics. That most pragmatic of prime ministers, Harold Wilson, refused point blank to comment on them.

Yes, Reform’s Nigel Farage had a field day. He is the latest jester to be cast as “Britain’s next prime minister”. For the past week, his party has celebrated winning Runcorn by six votes, with 39% of roughly half of the eligible electors who bothered to vote. He also won two of the six new regional mayoralties, and may control some 10 local councils. The media went berserk. The BBC gave Reform a total of 31% vote share in the local elections, making it the largest party. Tories were at “a new low” and Labour a mere ghost of a party.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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After US talks, Andrew Bailey says Britain must do everything it can to improve trading relations with bloc

• Business live – latest updates

The governor of the Bank of England has said that the UK now needs to do everything it can to rebuild its long-term trade relationship with the EU, after a breakthrough agreement with the US to reduce some of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Andrew Bailey said that, while he would not pass judgment on the UK’s exit from the EU in early 2020, reversing the trade impact of Brexit would be “beneficial”.

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As Kemi Badenoch makes a bad situation worse, and an alliance with Reform looms, I’ve been speaking to centrists desperate to stop the rot

The thanksgiving service for the Tory grandee Michael Ancram last week resembled the funeral of his party. Amid an array of traditional Conservatives such as John Major and a multitude of that old ilk, one observer tells me there was no sign of the current shadow cabinet: they belong to a different party altogether. After their lowest vote ever last week, is it all over?

A sign of life stirs among the embers. All is not quite lost, if the silenced cohort of moderates listen to the likes of a new party member. David Gauke has rejoined the Conservative party, where he was justice secretary before being ejected for rebelling against Boris Johnson’s threatened “no deal” Brexit. He wasn’t sure the party would take him back, he was ready to write about his second rejection, but the computer said yes. He’s back to fight and fight again to save his party from its rightward march into Faragism.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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Britain has ‘reset’ relations with the EU, but with Farage ascendant again, our politics must be cured of the Brexit virus

Not much about Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union is settled, but Keir Starmer can justifiably claim it has been “reset”. That word was artfully chosen before last year’s election to dress low aspiration as high diplomacy. There are 10 days of negotiation before the summit in London, where a new UK-EU partnership is due to be unveiled. It will be more outline than substance. But there is progress in the very fact that Britain’s ruling party sees Brussels as a partner, not a parasite.

Old-guard Eurosceptics will, of course, denounce any deal as a betrayal of Brexit. If there are plans for a time-limited, youth exchange visa, it will be decried as a return to free movement by the back door. If there is agreement to align regulations so that goods can more efficiently cross borders and the European court of justice is involved in adjudicating compliance, the high priests of sovereignty will anathematise it for heresy. Any commonality on carbon levies or renewed permission for the French to fish in British waters will be painted in shades of surrender.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

One year of Labour, with Pippa Crerar, Rafael Behr and more. On 9 July, join Pippa Crerar, Rafael Behr, Frances O’Grady and Salma Shah as they look back at one year of the Labour government and plans for the next three years.

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Mayor to make major policy shift and say scale of housing crisis requires breaking taboo

Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”.

In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.

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The winners and losers of Trump’s first tariff war strongly suggest that bankruptcies and farm consolidation could surge during his second term, with major corporations best placed to benefit from his polices at the expense of independent farmers.

New analysis by the non-profit research advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), shared exclusively with the Guardian, shows that Trump’s first-term tariffs were particularly devastating for farmers in the Maga rural heartlands.

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Sycophancy stops Trump from dozing off as PM and co hail victory – or at least getting what they could get

Three days ago, Donald Trump promised an announcement that would be very possibly the greatest announcement in the whole history of announcements. Come Thursday morning, he said the US and the UK had reached a full and comprehensive trade deal.

I guess a lot depends on what you mean by the words “greatest announcement” and “full and comprehensive”. As details of the deal began to emerge, it rather looked as if the UK had managed to negotiate a worse deal with the US than we had even two months ago. One that was hardly transformative. Just reversing some of the damage that had been done to the UK by the US starting a global trade war. Tariffs as a protection racket.

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President’s announcement receives favorable political reaction but experts warn much remains unresolved

There was plenty of congratulatory backslapping in the Oval Office as Donald Trump unveiled his “major” trade deal with the United Kingdom on Thursday, but many of the details of that agreement have been left to later discussions.

Trump’s rush to claim a win for his controversial tariffs policy left many grasping just what to call this: a deal, an agreement, a framework? Observers predict that the coming negotiations could take months.

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There will be relief for carmakers but not much else to celebrate: Trump’s whims still hang over the UK – and the world – economy

Hang out the bunting and let the church bells ring. A VE Day trade deal with Donald Trump is done, and in the car plants of the West Midlands as much as in the backrooms of No 10, there will be understandable relief that, for now at least, America’s phoney war on them is over.

It’s true that the easing of arbitrary tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium that didn’t even exist until eight weeks ago falls far short of being an actual trade deal, not least because the president could rip it up again tomorrow if he felt like it. But the terms agreed between London and Washington could save thousands of jobs, which isn’t to be sniffed at, even if they’re jobs that need never have been at risk in the first place had Trump not suddenly chosen to threaten them. More surprisingly, Rachel Reeves seems to have managed to hang on to her digital services tax on (mostly US) tech companies, while for all the president’s bluster about “dramatic” new access for cattle ranchers to British markets it could have been infinitely worse for British farming: no chlorine-washed chicken, hormone-injected beef or flooding of the market with heavily subsidised US meat at prices British farmers just couldn’t afford to match.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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The deal definitely puts the UK in a better position, but its impact on the wider economy might be limited

• Trump and Starmer confirm ‘breakthrough’ US-UK trade deal
• Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce share prices soar as manufacturers welcome US tariff cuts

Thursday’s trade agreement between the US and the UK fell far short of the superlatives heaped on it in Donald Trump’s excruciating televised phone call with Keir Starmer. But it is worth having, nevertheless.

As Starmer made clear by appearing in front of an audience of Jaguar Land Rover workers in Solihull, reducing the 27.5% tariff on 100,000 car exports will come as a mighty relief for that industry.

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The way to win an argument with Reform is to bring economic reality and positive stories of migrant contribution back into the picture

British political debate around immigration has long been framed around three axiomatic beliefs: too many foreigners are coming, the explanation for that is incompetence by previous governments and the numbers can be brought down without economic cost.

Those assumptions are sure to be expressed in a government white paper due to be published later this month. The document has been in preparation since well before the local elections last week, but the way it is presented by ministers and received by media will be shaped by the strong performance of Reform UK in that ballot. Anti-immigration sentiment is not the only driver of support for Nigel Farage’s party, but it is his totemic theme.

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The court of appeal said even those found guilty should be treated with compassion, not punished. Her ordeal proves no one was listening

• Jonathan Lord is co-chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists abortion taskforce

As Nicola Packer lay down in shock having just delivered a foetus at home, she had no idea that her life was about to be torn apart. She had suffered a rare complication in her abortion treatment, but what followed would be far more traumatic and unexpected. Every agency she needed turned against her, treating her not as a victim but as a criminal. Compassion was replaced by cruelty.

NHS staff come to work because they want to care, and Packer did find most staff at Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London “amazing”. What she didn’t know is that after the matter was passed up the chain of seniority, the police were alerted.

Jonathan Lord is an NHS consultant gynaecologist and co-chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists abortion taskforce

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Disgruntled and politically footloose voters are impatient for action. Labour has to offer them a lot more than warm words

I get it. That was Sir Keir Starmer’s reaction as the inquest began into last week’s election victories for Reform UK, and for sure there are many lessons to be learned. Voters are unhappy with the government’s record. The Conservative brand is still toxic. Nigel Farage is a force to be reckoned with. But perhaps the biggest lesson is that class still matters in politics.

Labour’s response to losing the Runcorn and Helsby byelection and almost 200 local council seats was to announce extra funding to spruce up GP surgeries and to hint at a crackdown on student visa applications. There has also been talk, albeit denied, of a rethink on the decision to means test the winter fuel payment for pensioners. The issues that exercise working-class Britain – immigration, the NHS and the cost of living – are central to politics. For now at least, the politics of class trump the politics of identity.

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Starmer instead talked about his India deal, while Badenoch insisted on catching up with last week’s news

You’d have thought it might have been a moment for contrition. Or failing that, a veneer of humility. At the very least a nano-second’s pause for self-reflection. An admission from Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch that voters had turned their backs on both of them at last week’s local elections. A potential kiss of death for England’s traditional two-party system.

Not a bit of it. Come prime minister’s questions and neither Keir nor Kemi was in the mood to give an inch. Everything was exactly as it should be. The locals – what locals? – had never happened. No one does amnesia better than politicians with their backs to the wall. It was almost as though they had signed a non-aggression pact. Just don’t mention the war. Snafu. Situation Normal All Fucked Up.

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