Prime Minister to meet Donald Trump to discuss ceasefire in Gaza
On Monday, Sir Keir will travel to Scotland to meet the president on his golf course at Trump Turnberry, Girvan, Aryshire, where he has been playing golf since Saturday morning, and where he met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday afternoon.
After a meeting, the world leaders will travel on together for a further private engagement in Aberdeen.
Mr Trump will visit the UK again in September for his second state visit.
On Monday, the leaders are expected to discuss progress on implementing the UK-US trade deal, hopes for a ceasefire in the Middle East and applying pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
They are also expected to talk one-on-one about advancing implementation of the landmark Economic Prosperity Deal so that citizens of both countries can benefit from boosted trade links between their two countries.
The Prime Minister is also expected to welcome the president's administration working with Qatar and Egypt to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza.
A spokesperson for Number 10 said it was expected they will discuss 'what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long'.
The war in Ukraine will also be up for discussion with both politicians 'set to talk about their shared desire to bring an end to the barbaric war' according to Number 10, and expected to 'reflect on progress in their 50-day drive to arm Ukraine and force Putin to the negotiating table'.
A spokesperson for the UK Government said: 'The UK and the US have one of the closest, most productive alliances the world has ever seen, working together to cooperate on defence, intelligence, technology and trade.
'The UK was the first country to agree a deal with the US that lowered tariffs on key sectors and has received one of the lowest reciprocal tariff rates in the world.
'Businesses in aerospace and autos are already benefiting from the strong relationship the UK has with the US and the deal agreed on May 8.
'The Government is working at pace with the US to go further to deliver benefits to working people on both sides of the Atlantic and to give UK industry the security it needs, protect vital jobs, and put more money in people's pockets through the Plan for Change.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Trump, Carney to speak soon, Canadian official says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely talk "over the next number of days" after the U.S. imposed a 35% tariff on goods not covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a Canadian official said on Sunday. Dominic LeBlanc, the federal cabinet minister in charge of U.S.-Canada trade, told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that he believes there is an option of striking a deal that will bring down tariffs. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Manchester's housing crisis is not the council's fault
Andy Burnham frequently says Greater Manchester's teenagers 'can see the skyscrapers from their bedroom window' but can't see 'a path' there. It's a comment he uses to argue for improved education so teenagers can secure a well-paying job in the city centre. But it could just as easily be applied to house prices. Since Mr Burnham took the mayoralty in 2017, thousands of luxury apartments have been constructed in town. Despite traditional economic logic dictating extra supply will lower prices, a council report last year found new 'homes are increasingly priced towards the top of the market however… this can result in the perverse impact of new supply ostensibly adding to the inflationary pressures in parts of the city where new development has been most intense'. READ MORE: Murder arrest at Manchester Airport after death of teen stabbed in car park READ MORE: The 'forgotten' Greater Manchester estate where people are demanding change The average house price in Manchester city centre in April was £270,036. That's more than eight times the average Manchester salary, calculated at £32,704 last November. In the same month, the average rent in the borough of Manchester was listed at £1,310 per month. That's means someone earning the average Manchester salary would have to spend more than half of their take-home pay on rent if they lived alone. Never miss a story with the MEN's daily Catch Up newsletter - get it in your inbox by signing up here But it's not like the council hasn't tried to stop house prices climbing in town. Since 2012, it's had a policy that says a fifth of all units need to be affordable, if a developer is set to make 20 per cent profit. How much money a developer will make is scrutinised by an independent expert, and if they tell the council the 'viability assessment' shows returns under 20 per cent, the developer is exempt from affordable housing. Often, the town hall will still ask developers to make a smaller 'section 106 contribution' to community infrastructure, like schools or parks, or the council's 'housing affordability fund' in lieu of the affordable homes. It also includes 'clawback clauses' when giving out planning permission, so if a developer that initially is exempt from affordable housing then makes more than 20 per cent profit, the council can get more cash out of them. While they rarely produce big returns to the public purse, it was recently revealed one had to pay £700,000 for a city centre project. How much developers chip into public projects and affordable housing made headline news this summer, following a court case between Mr Burnham's office, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Aubrey Weis, a major city centre landowner. Mr Weis claimed the GMCA's decision to loan major developer Renaker £140m 'distorted' the property market. The Competition Appeals Tribunal dismissed the claim. Contributions were raised again by opposition Lib Dem councillor Chris Northwood earlier this month, who told the town hall: 'Many, many large-scale developments in the city centre are approved through planning with zero affordable housing. 'That means we are not building those mixed, integrated communities for the future we want. It seems to me the existing system of independent assessments does not produce meaningful figures… and there's a huge lack of transparency over these.' Her motion referenced a 2017 Shelter report which found developers 'inflate their bids for land', pushing up the total bill for a building. That means profit margins take a hit in viability assessments so they don't hit the 20 per cent threshold and don't build affordable units, the report said. 'Developers know that they can use the loophole, and so factor it into their bids for new sites,' author Rose Grayston concluded. 'In fact, they must: if one developer does not plan to use the loophole, they risk being outbid for land by another one who does. This pushes the price of land up, making development more expensive.' Coun Northwood's motion was amended by governing Labour councillors, who point out most affordable housing is actually funded by a completely different scheme. Last year, 3,864 new homes were built in Manchester, with around 3,300 available on the open market, and 511 affordable (13 per cent of the total). More is coming — contractors are currently building roughly 12,000 homes in the city, 1,470 of which are affordable (12 per cent), and about 18,500 units are in the planning system now, with around 2,250 affordable (12 per cent). In fact, section 106 money only builds about one in 10 affordable homes in Manchester. The other 90 per cent is funded by grants given to housing associations and public bodies, largely from Homes England and the GMCA. That's why town hall chiefs have been genuinely encouraged by Rachel Reeves' decision to 'double the grant pot' to £39b over the next decade, because it's a model they understand. And it's a game they've become good at playing. Recently, One Manchester finished 24 new apartments and houses on Brigham Street in Openshaw, made possible by Homes England grants which created Manchester council's £3m 'Project 500' initiative, that helps housing associations cover the cost of building on brownfield land. All 24 homes are affordable, as are all Project 500 homes — 90 per cent will also be available at social rent. Grants also help the authority's own development company, called This City, which recently finished No. 1 Ancoats Green, a 129-apartment and townhouse development where 30 per cent are available at 'Manchester Living Rent', set at the level of the local housing allowance. Another city centre project from housing association Great Places will create 89 affordable flats on Laystall Street in the Northern Quarter in spring 2026 — again made possible by grant funding. The council has other levers to help get affordable homes to Mancs. A fifth of the massive, 850-home development planned for Mayfield will be affordable, partly due to the fact the town hall is a member of the 'partnership' overseeing the redevelopment of the area into a new neighbourhood. It's also been able to lean on developer Salboy to make nearly 30 per cent of the homes in its Viadux 2 project affordable, because it owns the land where two towers will shoot up. A new council initiative has also brought 276 empty homes back to the market, although only three have gone towards social housing. But while efforts are being made to solve Manchester's housing crisis, the current rate of building is clearly not enough. A recent town hall report found the number of people on the top three bands of the council's housing register surged to 11,500, an increase of 15 per cent, last year. It's grown by 49 per cent since April 2022. In part, the reason why affordable housing demand is growing when affordable housing supply is increasing is because newbuild figures are tempered by right-to-buy sales. Council tenants can purchase their home after three years. Last year, 137 did so, so the 'net gain' of affordable housing to Manchester wasn't 511 — it was 374. Over the last decade, the city built 3,998 affordable homes. It lost 2,139 to right-to-buy, so a net rise of only 1,859. The government is planning on making it harder for council tenants to buy their homes, extending the minimum occupancy window to 10 years and exempting any new stock from right-to-buy for 35 years — so the problem will subside, but not disappear. It's not just smaller gains that's an issue. Roughly half of all newly-constructed city centre homes, which would be perfect for first-time-buyers, are bought by investors to rent out — something council officer Nick Cole called 'a concern', because it cuts the amount of homes available to buy and increases the number of renters, blocking up the market. Nationally, big changes are in store for renters, as section 21 'no fault evictions' are expected to be abolished in early 2026 by the government. Ahead of the move, the council is seeing a spike in section 21 notices, sometimes following persistent increases in rent to a point where tenants can make ends meet — so they enter the council housing system. The question of how many affordable homes and who should pay for them looms as Manchester council is preparing its first local plan for 13 years — effectively its blueprint for development. It will be formally adopted by the end of the year. Campaigners are calling for all new developments to include 30 per cent affordable housing, but the final details of the plan have yet to be released. Whatever the final document says in the autumn, Manchester as a city will need to keep building affordable homes — and that requires grants to fund it, the council to steer it, and developers to play their part.
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Protest held outside Canary Wharf hotel housing asylum seekers
A demonstration has been held outside a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers in a wealthy financial district of London. Protesters – a mixture of men wearing face masks and families with children – waved flags and listened to speeches outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf. Chants of 'send them home' broke out while one man rattled the metal fence outside the hotel in full view of police officers. Tourists, shoppers and guests at a nearby hotel stopped to take pictures of the spectacle. It is the latest in a series of demonstrations over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers. On Saturday, the Metropolitan Police made nine arrests after rival groups gathered outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, north London. A protest and counter-protest also took place in Newcastle outside the New Bridge Hotel and four people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Northumbria Police said. Scotland Yard said plans were in place to 'respond to any protest activity in the vicinity of other hotels in London being used to accommodate asylum seekers'.
