UK ‘ready to work’ with Trump on steel tariffs as EU president says plans won’t go unanswered: UK politics live

A minister has declined to say whether or not the Authorities might swerve US tariffs on British metal by throwing the Chagos deal “within the dustbin”.

Douglas Alexander described the suggestion as a “hypothetical negotiating technique”, which Conservative MP Sir Julian Lewis had “ventriloquised” within the Home of Commons.

Taking questions on Donald Trump’s plan for 25% tariffs on British metal exports to the US, Mr Alexander advised MPs the US president had a “speciality in producing uncertainty”.

Right here’s why Trump needs to implement the brand new tariffs — and what occurred beneath the identical coverage throughout his final time period:

Greater than a dozen MPs have referred to as for a four-day working week to be thought-about by ministers as a part of a brand new set of staff rights guidelines.

The MPs, 12 of whom are Labour and considered one of whom is from the Inexperienced Celebration, need the Authorities to arrange a physique to look into bringing in a four-day week throughout the economic system.

A four-day working week with no lack of pay is gaining popularity within the UK.

Greater than 200 corporations in January confirmed that they had made the swap to the shortened work sample completely.

Nearly all of the businesses stated their workers work 32 hours every week or much less over the course of every week.

Proponents of the brand new working sample say individuals are happier and fewer more likely to undergo from burnout after they work fewer days.

Peter Dowd, the Labour MP who put ahead the modification, stated that with issues like synthetic intelligence enabling individuals to work extra effectively, the advantages “have to be handed again to staff”.

“A four-day, 32-hour working week is the way forward for work and I urge my get together to again this modification so we will start a a lot wider transition.”

Downing Road stated the difficulty of adjustments to the Terminally Ailing Adults (Finish of Life) Invoice have been a matter for Parliament.

Requested if the Authorities had any enter into the proposed adjustments, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman stated: “We’ve stated because the Invoice progresses via Parliament, the Authorities has a duty to ensure any laws that passes via Parliament is efficient and enforceable.

“So the Authorities has offered authorized coverage and drafting help within the preparation of amendments.

“The amendments search to present authorized and sensible impact to the sponsors and Parliament’s makes an attempt, however in the end it stays a Personal Member’s Invoice and amendments from the sponsor are a matter for MPs and it is going to be as much as the committee to determine whether or not to simply accept every modification.”

The UK has introduced sanctions towards a Russian organisation facilitating cyber assaults, as David Lammy pledged to crack down on “Russia’s lawless cyber underworld”.

Ministers have introduced measures towards six people in addition to the companies ZSERVERS and XHOST Web Options LP. Sanctions have additionally been introduced by the US.

The Overseas Commonwealth and Growth Workplace (FCDO) described ZSERVERS as offering infrastructure for cyber criminals finishing up ransomware assaults towards the UK.

A ransomware assault is when dangerous actors breach a system and entry recordsdata, often both stealing them or locking them on that system. Fee will then be demanded – usually in cryptocurrency – beneath the guise of the recordsdata being launched, though this isn’t all the time assured.

Safety minister Dan Jarvis has described ransomware “by Russian affiliated cyber crime gangs” as “a few of the most dangerous cyber threats we face at present”.

Overseas secretary Mr Lammy stated that ministers will work with others to “constrain the Kremlin”.

The HIV prevention programme can be prolonged to March 2026, as a part of plans to finish transmissions in England by 2030, a well being minister has stated.

The enlargement is being backed by an additional £1.5 million in funding, newly-appointed minister Ashley Dalton advised the Commons.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer grew to become the primary Western prime minister to take a public HIV check, in an effort to destigmatise testing for the virus.

Forward of HIV Testing Week, which began on Monday, the Prime Minister took an at-home check at 10 Downing Road alongside soul singer Beverley Knight.

He stated: “It’s actually essential to do it and I’m actually happy to have the ability to do it. It’s very straightforward, very fast.”

In a bid to spice up HIV testing, greater than 20,000 self-testing and self-sampling kits can even be made obtainable, the Division of Well being and Social Care stated.

Throughout well being questions on Tuesday, Labour MP Matthew Patrick (Wirral West) requested: “Might (the Well being Secretary) please set out his plans to make sure we’ve got extra HIV testing going past this essential week?”

Ms Dalton replied: “Rising HIV testing is an important step in direction of assembly our purpose, and can be a core ingredient of our new HIV motion plan, which can be revealed later this 12 months.

“It’s why we’re investing over £4.5 million to ship a nationwide prevention programme, and it’s why, at present, I can announce that we are going to lengthen the programme to an additional 12 months, to March 2026, backed by an additional £1.5 million.”

Wind farms are topic to the “highest ranges of nationwide safety”, Downing Road has pressured, amid stories ministers might log off on Chinese language involvement in a significant North Sea undertaking.

Treasury ministers are stated to have overruled objections from the Ministry of Defence and others in regards to the involvement of a Chinese language agency within the Inexperienced Volt North Sea wind farm, in accordance with the Solar newspaper.

The undertaking, on account of be Europe’s largest floating offshore wind farm, is three way partnership between a Japanese and an Italian-Norwegian firm.

The UK seems to not have signed a leaders’ declaration on the climax of the AI Motion Summit in Paris.

There had been stories that the UK wouldn’t signal the declaration after the US reportedly raised issues in regards to the wording, which is claimed to incorporate references to “sustainable and inclusive AI”.

Downing Road wouldn’t touch upon “reside” discussions in Paris as stories from the summit indicated the UK and US refused to again the assertion.

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MPs who beforehand supported the assisted dying invoice have introduced that they may change their vote after a significant safeguard was ditched within the proposed laws.

Political editor David Maddox stories: