UK's careful diplomacy faces test ahead of G7 meeting
The telephone calls and WhatsApp messages continue apace this weekend between leaders, foreign ministers and diplomats, with the expectation that there are many more days to come in this conflict between Israel and Iran.There are currently two so-called "crisis centres" running in the Foreign Office, both stood up in the last 48 hours.One is handling the situation in the Middle East, the other the plane crash in Ahmedabad in India on Thursday.The British government's public response is very carefully calibrated.
In an interview the prime minister has done with Bloomberg and in the read outs of the conversations Sir Keir Starmer has had with fellow leaders, there is no explicit endorsement of Israel's actions.But there is a repeated acknowledgement of what are described as the UK's "long held grave concerns" about Iran's nuclear programme – the very thing Israel is attempting to destroy.Whitehall officials say they had anticipated the prospect of Israel striking Iran.We were told that UK preparations for potential Israeli strikes on Iran began in April last year.On Monday, there was what was described as a "table top exercise" chaired by the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, where the nature and steps of the UK's response was discussed."We were hugely conscious of the risk of this happening at some point," one source said."But we are not getting into an assessment of the rights and wrongs of it," said another source.The prime minister's conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu happened at Mr Netanyahu's request, we are told, and lasted around 15 minutes.There was a conversation of similar length between Sir Keir and President Trump where, beyond birthday greetings (Donald Trump is 79 on Saturday and it is the King's Official Birthday too), the only topic discussed was Israel and Iran.The foreign secretary is expected to have calls with further counterparts in the Middle East on Saturdy, after he held talks with representatives from Iran, Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Friday.Mr Lammy also had a joint meeting with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy, as well as the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas.No ministerial-level Cobra meeting is expected today, but officials from multiple government departments will be meeting to discuss the latest throughout the day.It's understood that French officials informed the UK government last night that the upcoming UN summit on a two-state solution had been postponed.The prime minister will fly to Ottawa in Canada later for talks with the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expected to focus on security and trade.Leaders of the G7 group of countries will gather in the Canadian province of Alberta on Sunday for their annual summit, with the situation in the Middle East at the top of their agenda.
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The Independent
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BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
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Times
32 minutes ago
- Times
Reeves plans billons in infrastructure spending but her luck needs to change
Darren Jones has spent the past few months in the eye of the storm, leading negotiations between the Treasury and cabinet ministers on the spending review. But even during the most tense of discussions, there were moments of levity: the soldiers taking part in rehearsals for Trooping the Colour would intermittently burst into music below his office window, leaving ministers in fits of laughter. Despite claims of blistering rows between him and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, insists they are all singing from the same hymn sheet. In an interview in his Treasury office overlooking St James's Park on Thursday, Jones, 38, looked more relaxed than he did only the day before, when Rachel Reeves delivered the results of her spending review, divvying up hundreds of billions of pounds between her ministerial colleagues. Reflecting on the process, he said: 'I'm friends with everybody. Look, the spending review is always a challenging process because the economy is not in a position where we've got surpluses. So, obviously, everybody always wants more than is available.' For most government departments, the spending review has been a game of two halves. On day-to-day spending there has been a big squeeze, the Foreign Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) among the biggest losers. However, there has also been a large boost in capital funding as the government seeks to tell a more positive economic story after rows over cuts to disability benefits and last month's U-turn over winter fuel payments for pensioners. This week Jones will start to unveil how the money will be spent, including an announcement tomorrow that the government will spend a minimum of £750 billion on infrastructure over the next ten years. 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This, along with the latest jobs data, released on Tuesday, which showed the number of workers on company payrolls had fallen by 109,000 in May, threatens to rob the government of any credit for its spending review investment. Like other ministers who have been asked, Jones did not rule out tax rises in the autumn. 'Well, no one is able to rule anything in or out because this is all about forecasts,' he said. 'What we don't do in government is have hypothetical forecasts because you'd just be completely crazy. You'd be changing your plans every five minutes with the latest data set. 'So, the next [Office for Budget Responsibility] forecast will be commissioned ten weeks in advance of the budget in the autumn. And then we'll need to see what they think and as a consequence, what Rachel and the prime minister decide.' HS2 is years behind schedule CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES Reeves has previously ruled out coming back for any more in the autumn after announcing £40 billion in tax hikes last year, including £25 billion from employer's national insurance contributions (NICs). But it is understood that inside the exchequer, a list of potential revenue raisers is already being compiled, although insiders insist officials always draw up such documents for ministers in preparation for fiscal events. According to one source, the list includes potentially raising the bank surcharge — an additional levy imposed on banks' profits, above the 25 per cent corporation tax rate — which was considered by Reeves before her first budget but ditched following a backlash from City executives. The surcharge was cut from 8 per cent to 3 per cent under the Tories in 2023 and a source suggested that Reeves could seek to partially reverse it by increasing the rate to 5 or 6 per cent. A second option said to be on the list is increasing the tax rate applied to dividends, which are paid to shareholders of companies and are sometimes taken by company directors as an alternative to a wage. Currently the top rate on dividends stands at 39 per cent, compared with 45 per cent charged on the top rate of income tax. Taxpayers are also entitled to a £500 dividend allowance on top of the £12,570 tax-free personal allowance which, if removed altogether, would save the Treasury approximately £325 million a year. According to a poll of almost 2,000 people by the think tank More in Common, the public overwhelmingly expects taxes will have to rise in response to last week's spending review (56 per cent to 20 per cent). Only 15 per cent think the chancellor is doing a good job and the public now say they would trust her predecessor, Sir Jeremy Hunt, to run the economy over Reeves by a margin of 62 per cent to 38 per cent. The public also do not believe the chancellor will meet her pledge to close the asylum hotels by the end of this parliament. Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, said: 'The public are going to need to see real results before their opinion of the government improves. What's more, the public are increasingly worried that the Treasury is going to have to come back and ask for extra tax rises to pay for last week's announcements — and most people are in no mood to pay more. In particular, the suggestion of further hikes in council tax looks set to land particularly badly with the public, who, more than any other area of taxation, want to see council tax go down. The chancellor's economic tightrope act looks set to continue.' The government will begin its next high-wire act this week when it introduces the controversial welfare reform bill, which proposes billions of pounds of benefit cuts. Ministers have in recent days floated tweaks to the package to soften the impact and win over Labour MPs threatening to rebel and No 10 is now increasingly confident it has the numbers to win the vote, expected at the end of the month. However, with the weather improving, a summer of small boat crossings, rising unemployment and the spectre of tax rises could yet again threaten the new-found political harmony in the Labour ranks.
