UK politics live: Ed Miliband refuses to rule out regional energy pricing

Times

24-04-2025

Britain is prepared to slash tariffs on US cars and agricultural products such as beef and chicken to secure a trade deal.
Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday that she wanted to see trade barriers between the UK and the US reduced as part of negotiations with the Trump ­administration. Ministers are understood to be willing to reduce long-standing UK import tariffs of 10 per cent on cars and 12 per cent on agricultural products.
'I want to see tariff and non-tariff barriers reduced between the UK and the US,' Reeves told the BBC before a meeting on Thursday with Scott Bessent, President Trump's most senior economic official.
• Read in full: Chancellor considers reducing import tariffs
The former defence minister Grant Shapps has said that he has 'some theories' as to why President Trump 'seems to support the tyrant' President Putin, but he is barred by the Official Secrets Act from sharing why.
He told Times Radio: 'I don't think it's too much of a stretch, and many of your listeners will already know because it's publicly reported that he's had previous run-ins with Kyiv, unrelated to the war, and people may come to their own theories as to why he seemed to be in cahoots with Putin, who after all is a dictator who wants a completely different type of world to the one which has been constructed after the Second World War.'
Shapps added that he found it 'really disgusting' that the leader of the free world is 'coming out as nothing more than a swaggering bully and choosing tyranny over democracy'.
Nigel Farage has said he is 'eating the Tories for breakfast' before the local elections on May 1.
In a post on X, the Reform UK leader shared a photo of himself eating a bowl of 'Special Kemi', a take on the popular breakfast cereal Special K.
Farage tagged Sir Keir Starmer in the post.
Ed Miliband has refused to rule out zonal pricing for parts of the country based on local energy supply and demand.
The energy secretary told Sky News that he would make a 'calm and considered decision' on zonal pricing, which reportedly could lead to higher bills in places such as the southeast of England compared with Scotland.
Miliband insisted his aim was to cut energy bills in a 'way that's fair'. Speaking to LBC, he added: 'I'm not going to take a decision that is going to raise prices in some parts of the country. That is not what I'm going to do.'