David Lammy says he regrets Trump has embraced protectionism, something not seen in US ‘for nearly a century’ – UK politics live

Downing Street has refused to confirm President Trump’s claim that Keir Starmer was “very happy” about the treatment the UK is getting under the new US global tariff regime. (See 9.32am.) Asked about the president’s words at the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said that the government had already set out its position yesterday and that it was “disappointed” by the US tariff policy.

Livia Tossici-Bolt has been sentenced at Poole magistrates’ court to a conditional discharge for two years for two charges of breaching a “buffer zone” outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, PA Media reports. See 11.22am.

Labour’s refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap has pulled 30,000 more children into poverty since the general election, the Child Poverty Action Group has said.

The charity published the calculation as Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, said that she would regard it as a personal failure if child poverty is not falling by the time of the next general election.

Last week the Department for Work and Pensions published figures showing that 250,000 more people, including 50,000 more children, will be pushed into poverty by the sickness and disability benefit cuts announced in the spring statement.

Introduced by the Tories, the two-child cap means that parents do not get universal credit child allowance, or tax credits, for a third child born after April 2017.

The policy is seen by expert as a a major contributor to child poverty. Polling suggests voters favour the cap, but most Labour MPs want to see it scrapped, and many are disappointed that has not happened already.

In a news release, CPAG said that other interventions to reduce child povert would fail without the cap also being removed. It explained:

This is because as the two-child limit applies to third or subsequent children born after April 2017, it is effectively still being rolled out, with more and more children affected every day. This means the policy acts as a brake on any alternative steps government may take. The number of children affected by the policy will continue to increase until 2035 when the first children born under the two-child limit turn 18.

Every day 109 more children are pulled into poverty by the policy.

CPAG’s analysis finds that on the eighth anniversary of the two-child limit (Sunday 6 April), an estimated 30,000 more children will have been pulled into poverty by the policy since the government took office.

CPAG has published details of its analysis here.

In its manifesto Labour said it would “develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty”. A child poverty taskforce has been set up by the government, and it is due to publish its strategy this spring.

In an interview with the i published today, Kendall refused to commit to lifting the two-child benefit cap. But she said:

We’ve got a clear manifesto commitment to tackle poverty and drive child poverty down and that is what we will deliver. Child poverty will be going down.

Asked if she would regard it as a personal failure if child poverty rates are rising at the time of the next election, she replied: “Yes.”

London councils that block pubs and clubs from opening later could see their decisions overturned by the capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, under new powers from the government, PA Media reports. PA says:

Ministers are attempting to boost the hospitality industry by allowing the London mayor to “call in” licensing decisions for key nightlife areas in the capital.

The move could see bars open later and more al fresco dining in London and, if successful, could be extended to other parts of the country such as Greater Manchester or the West Midlands.

A source close to the mayor said: “Over recent years, London’s pubs, restaurants, clubs and music venues have been seen as a problem to be managed, rather than as a vital part of London’s economic and social scene. From al fresco dining, to late opening hours, to the impact of burdensome licensing conditions, we need to look at how we can support our venues, not work against them.”

There were three council byelections yesterday. Andrew Teale wrote a preview on his Substack blog. And here are the results, from Britain Elects. The Liberal Democrats won two seats from Labour, and Reform UK won one seat from the Lib Dems.

An anti-abortion campaigner at the centre of a free speech controversy involving the US government has been found guilty of breaching a “buffer zone” outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic, PA Media reports. PA says:

Livia Tossici-Bolt was convicted at Poole magistrates’ court of two charges of breaching the Public Spaces Protection Order on two days in March 2023.

The case involved the 64-year-old from Bournemouth holding a sign saying “Here to talk, if you want”.

Her case was highlighted by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labour (DRL), a bureau within the US Department of State, which posted a statement on X saying: “We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.”

District Judge Orla Austin told the court of the defendant: “She lacks insight that her presence could have a detrimental effect on the women attending the clinic, their associates, staff and members of the public.”

She added: “I accept her beliefs were truly held beliefs. Although it’s accepted this defendant held pro-life views, it’s important to note this case is not about the rights and wrongs about abortion but about whether the defendant was in breach of the PSPO (Public Spaces Protection Order).”

Earlier this week the Telegraph reported a claim that US objections to this prosecution were holding up the proposed UK/US trade deal. But Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said this case was not part of the trade talks he was involved in.

Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist and former Treasury minister, has said Britain and other non-US G7 nations should respond to the Trump tariffs by deepening their own free trade links.

In an interview on the Today progamme, he said that it was perfectly feasible for leading nations still committed to free trade to in effect sideline the US, and trade more with each other.

O’Neill, who served as a Treasury minister in David Cameron’s government for a year and who is now a crossbench peer, said that G7 countries could take the lead in this, but that India and China should be included too.

He said the government was right to carry on talks with the US about a possible trade deal. But he went on:

But I think our approach should be to slightly stand back and think, what does Britain want, and can it get from the rest of the world, and what can we contribute?

And in that regard, it’s important to realise that the rest of the G7, except the US, collectively are the same size as the United States. And I would have thought a very sensible thing to be doing is having a serious conversation with the other members about actually lowering trade barriers between ourselves, especially for cross-border services, which is what the UK has a marginal advantage in, which would be very healthy for all of those countries because it’s the one area of global trade where most countries haven’t done enough in.

O’Neill said that the US was on a “kamikaze path” and that its tariffs were “rather insane”. But other countries had the clout to resist, he suggested.

Asked if it was possible to just ignore the US, he replied:

The US is the biggest economy in the world still, but it’s not anything like as important for global trade as it is in global finance and global security.

So if the US wants to do this [impose global tariffs], then it’s perfectly within the bounds of feasibility for other large economies to structure themselves, stop this addiction to the US consumer, and start to consume more themselves, as well as between each other.

O’Neill said, by turning his back on free trade, Trump was turning his back on “the major thing which has made the United States so prosperous over the last 40 to 50 or more years”. Other countries “shouldn’t get sucked into the same game”, he said, because overall, “whether it’s life expectancy or wealth”, the whole world has benefited from this model.

The Liberal Democrats and the Greens have both said Keir Starmer should respond to the Trump tariffs by strengthening economic links with countries like Canada and the EU. But Starmer has rejected this idea, saying it would be wrong to choose between being close to the US and being close to Europe.

The official plan to increase access to NHS dental services in England has been a “complete failure”, and some of the government’s initiatives have worsened the crisis, a damning report warns, Andrew Gregory reports.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is at the Nato HQ in Brussels this morning, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting. Speaking to the media, he said President Trump was taking US economic policy back almost a century by embracing protectionism. He said:

The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation.

We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century.

As you know, we are consulting with business and industry. At this time, we are engaged in discussions with the United States to strike an economic agreement and an economic deal.

And of course, we have been absolutely clear that all options are on the table as we ensure the national interests of the British people, who will be very concerned at this time about how this affects the bottom line for them and their economic welfare.

We will put their national interest first, and it’s in their national interests to be negotiating with the United States an economic agreement at this time, but keeping all options on the table.

Good morning. The British government, like the rest of the world, is still preoccupied with trying to absorb the consequences of Donald Trump’s decision to obliterate global free trade with a blizzard of tariffs. In London, the stock market has opened, and shares are still heading down. Graeme Wearden has the latest on that on his business live blog.

James Murray, a Treasury minister, has been giving interviews this morning. In terms of explaining the government’s policy, he did not say anything that went beyond what Keir Starmer and Jonathan Reynolds were saying yesterday. While not ruling out retaliatory tariffs, the government views them as a last resort and hopes that the trade deal it is negotiating with Washington will lead to the UK tariffs being reduced, or removed completely.

But Murray did have to answer a question about whether Donald Trump was right when he told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that Starmer was “very happy about how we treated them with tariffs”. It is rare to hear anyone from the UK government say anything negative about Trump in public, but even the ultra-loyalist, fourth-most-senior Treasury minister drew the line at pretending Trump was right about this. In response to the question, Murray told Times Radio:

We’re disappointed at tariffs being imposed globally. We are in a better position than many other economies moving forward because we’re on the lowest band of tariffs. But our focus is to get that economic deal.

There is not much formally in the diary today (parliament is not sitting), but politics never stops, and there is bound to be news, on the Trump tariffs and other matters. There will be a lobby briefing at 11.30am.

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