Starmer to host Merz in chancellor's first official visit to UK
Mr Merz is expected to commit to adopting the law change by the end of the year.
'Chancellor Merz's commitment to make necessary changes to German law to disrupt the supply lines of the dangerous vessels which carry illegal migrants across the Channel is hugely welcome,' Sir Keir said.
'As the closest of allies, we will continue to work closely together to deliver on the priorities that Brits and Germans share.'
The Prime Minister has been seeking to strengthen ties with EU countries, including to bring down small boat crossings, and last week secured a migrant return agreement with France.
The UK and Germany, two of the biggest providers of support to Ukraine, signed a defence pact last year with the aim of closer co-operation in the face of a growing threat from Russia.
During Mr Merz's visit, the leaders are expected to unveil an agreement to jointly produce defence exports such as Boxer armoured vehicles and Typhoon jets and commit to developing their deep precision strike missile in the next decade, with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres.
The chancellor and Sir Keir will also sign a bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty that includes plans to set up a new UK-Germany Business Forum.
Sir Keir said: 'The Treaty we will sign today, the first of its kind, will bring the UK and Germany closer than ever. It not only marks the progress we have already made and the history we share.
'It is the foundation on which we go further to tackle shared problems and invest in shared strengths.'
A series of commercial investments are being announced to coincide with the visit, worth more than £200 million and will create more than 600 new jobs.
These include defence tech company Stark setting up a production facility in Swindon, its first outside Germany, and conversational AI firm Cognigy investing £50 million and expanding its UK team from 13 to 150.
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Telegraph
12 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Places and people
Britons not Britishers or Brits except in quotations, Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales. Normally write about Britain or, when there is an Irish angle to the story, 'mainland Britain'. The United Kingdom, or the abbreviation UK, ought to be avoided whether as a noun or an adjective unless the story has a specific relevance to Northern Ireland that would make the use of 'Britain' or 'British' wrong. Local and regional government in Britain is complicated. For a full explanation of local government in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, read the guide. In many parts of England there are two tiers of local government, with different responsibilities. These are county councils, and district, borough or city councils. However in some areas, there is just one (unitary) tier of local government providing all the services. The three main types are unitary authorities, London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs. Below this structure are parish and town councils. Our style is only to cap up the proper names of councils: Leeds City Council, Suffolk County Council. Otherwise, say Suffolk council, Kent council, Tameside council. Parish and town councils are always lower case. Counties County names should be written in full unless we are placing a town such as Evesham, Worcs. Abbreviate counties in lists. In this instance we should refer to the ceremonial county, not the administrative area. Many traditional counties no longer exist as administrative entities and are split into separate local authorities: Berkshire comprises six unitary authorities but we should still refer to Newbury, Berks rather than Newbury, West Berkshire. We should not refer to counties that no longer exist (it is Enfield, north London, not Enfield, Middlesex), or give geographical distinctions for major places (Sheffield, South Yorks). A good rule of thumb is that if a town or city has a football league team, you do not need to say which county it is in. Addresses should help readers locate a place: small towns with counties; villages in relation to nearby towns; districts (not boroughs or postal codes) for cities. Avoid house numbers unless widely known or relevant. Use 'Street', 'Road', etc., in full and with capital letters. Counties in England: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Bristol (a city and county), Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon (not Devonshire), Dorset, Co Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne & Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Sussex, West Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire. Abbreviations: Beds, Berks, Bucks, Cambs, Derbys, Co Dur, E Yorks, E Susx, Gloucs, Hants, Heref, Herts, Lancs, Leics, Lincs, Northants, Northumb, N Yorks, Notts, Oxon, Shrops (not Salop), Somerset, S Yorks, Staffs, Surrey, Warks, W Mids, W Susx, W Yorks, Wilts, Worcs Former counties: Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Westmorland, and the North, West and East Ridings of Yorkshire were abolished in 1974 (although Cumberland was recreated as a unitary authority within Cumbria in 2023, Huntingdonshire exists as a local government district within Cambridgeshire, and Westmorland is now part of Westmorland and Furness council in Cumbria. Middlesex remains only as a cricket team and a postal address). The counties of Avon, Cleveland and Humberside existed from 1974-1996. Rutland was abolished in 1974 and resurrected in 1997. Scottish local government authorities: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Dundee City, Edinburgh (City of), Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow (City of), Highland, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, East Lothian, West Lothian, Midlothian, Moray, Orkney (not Orkneys), Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Shetland (not Shetlands), Stirling, Western Isles (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) Welsh administrative areas: Isle of Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, Torfaen, Vale of Glamorgan, Wrexham Ireland is the country and the island - the style guide used to rule that Ireland should describe the island only. Use the Irish Republic or the Republic if required to differentiate from Northern Ireland, but not Eire. Ulster is acceptable for Northern Ireland. Never the Six Counties. Co Down, Co Cork etc, not County Down, County Cork. Capital letters for regions: the North, the North East (no hyphen in any region), West Country, East Anglia, Home Counties, but eastern England. East Midlands, West Midlands, but south Devon, north Lancashire except in titles. Although North, South, East and West take caps for regions of the world or countries which are regarded as political, economic, cultural or historical entities, they remain lower case for sections of continents and countries, unless the name of the country is left understood. Thus: Far East, but south-east Asia (apart from in Travel articles such as 'Explore South-East Asia'). The East-West political divide, the Deep South, the southern United States, South Africa but southern, north, west or east Africa. Central America. Foreign words in place names Names of geographical features often include words which should not be repeated in translation (Rio Grande, not Rio Grande river or the river Rio Grande; Sierra Nevada, not Sierra Nevada mountains) A-Z of place names Alpine to describe the geographical region, alpine to describe a generic sport Altrincham (no G) American refers to the United States of America unless the context dictates otherwise. North America can be used to refer to the United States, Canada and Mexico Andalusia Arctic: the Arctic, Arctic Circle, Arctic Ocean, but Arctic current Argentina: never The Argentine. The people are Argentines, not Argentinians. The adjective is Argentine, not Argentinian Asian or Asians, not Asiatic or Asiatics Atlanta, Georgia; Atalanta, Italian football team Baghdad Bahamians (people of the Bahamas) Bahrain Banjul, capital of Gambia Barbadians (or Bajan) Basel, Switzerland (not Basle) Basutho (the people of Lesotho, sing and pl). Adjective is Basotho Batswana (the people of Botswana, sing, pl and adj) Bayreuth (Germany); Beirut (Lebanon) Beijing not Peking Belize (formerly British Honduras). Capital is Belmopan Bermudians Bern Berwick-upon-Tweed Bhutan Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosphorus, not Bosporus Botswana Brasilia (capital of Brazil) Buenos Aires Cairngorms Cambodia, Cambodians. Khmers are the ethnic group Cameroon, not Cameroons, nor Cameroun Cape Town Caribbean Chinese cities: Beijing (not Peking), Chengdu, Nanjing (not Nanking), Chongqing (not Chungking), Guangzhou (not Canton), Hangzhou (not Hangchow), Tianjin (not Tientsin), Hong Kong (not Xianggang), Tibet (not Xinzhang), Lhasa (not Lasa), Taiwan, Taipei (not Taibei), Kaohsiung (not Gaoxiong); but Macau (not Macao) Christchurch (Hampshire and New Zealand); Christ Church (Oxford - never Christ Church college) City: cap only when part of the official title or in references to the City (financial centre). New York City only when readers may think there is a reference to New York state Colombia (South American country); British Columbia (Canadian province); District of Columbia (Washington) Comoros – not Comoro Islands Congo: the Republic of Congo, capital Brazzaville, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, capital Kinshasa. Our style is to use the full titles at first reference, then to call the Republic Congo-Brazzaville (as is widely done in Africa) and to call the Democratic Republic 'Congo' at subsequent uses Continent and Continental take caps only to distinguish 'mainland' Europe. We should remember that Britain is geographically in Europe Czech Republic preferred to Czechia Dakar (Senegal), Dhaka (Bangladesh) Darfur is a region of Sudan, not a province. It is divided into three provinces: Northern Darfur (local capital El Fasher), Southern Darfur (local capital Nyala) and Western Darfur (local capital El Geneina) Dhahran (Saudi Arabia) Djibouti Dnipro - city and river. Dominica and the Dominican Republic are separate countries in the Caribbean. Always clarify Dutch (preferred) or Netherlanders but never Hollanders East Asia (Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, North and South Korea. Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam). Avoid being specific about boundaries of the region Ecuador not Equador. Ecuadorean Eswatini, no longer Swaziland (it may be necessary to explain the name change in copy) French Canadians (no hyphen), Latin Americans/Latinos, but Irish-Americans, German-Americans The Gambia Guinea, formerly French Guinea; Guinea-Bissau, formerly Portuguese Guinea. Equatorial Guinea, another altogether Gulf: not Iranian, nor Persian, nor even Arabian: just the Gulf Guyana, formerly British Guiana. Guyanese for the people Hague: The Hague takes a cap T Hispaniola, the island comprising the Dominican Republic and Haiti Hong Kong but Hongkongers Indian place names: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru instead of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore. The Telegraph style guide retained the cities' old names until the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, at which point referring to the 'Bombay terror attacks' in a digital world seemed out of place. However, use the traditional names when writing about British India. Indo-China/Indo-Chinese: (NOT Indochina) Inuit, not eskimos (taken by Canadian eskimos as an insult) Iran, Iranians Iraq, Iraqis Isles of Scilly, not the Scillies Istanbul: Constantinople only in historical references Izmir: Smyrna only in historical references Jakarta Kathmandu Khan Younis, Gaza Khartoum Kilimanjaro, not Mount Kilimanjaro Kolkata, not Calcutta (but the Black Hole of Calcutta) Kosovo Kyiv, not Kiev Lesotho. The people and the adjective are Basotho Liege (but Liegeois) Livorno, not Leghorn Llanelli Lod (Israel), formerly Lydda Londonderry Luhansk, Ukraine (not Lugansk) Luxembourg Lviv, no longer Lvov Lyon, no longer Lyons Macedonia Madagascar. The people (sing and pl) and the adjective are Malagasy Mallorca, no longer Majorca (Menorca not Minorca, but Ibiza not Eivissa) Malaysia is the nation of which Malaya is a part. The people are Malaysian unless there is a specific reference to the Malays, or preferably, Malayans, as an ethnic group Marseille, no longer Marseilles Middle East. Mid-East only in heads. Do not use Near East Middlesbrough (not Middlesborough) Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin Mogadishu (Somalia) Monaco: the people are Monegasque(s) Mount Fuji, not Fujiyama Mumbai, not Bombay Myanmar, no longer Burma Native Americans, not American Indians N'Djamena (capital of Chad) Neuchatel is in Switzerland, Neufchatel in France Netherlands has supplanted Holland, even when referring to the national football team Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle upon Tyne (no hyphens) Nigerians come from Nigeria Nigeriens come from Niger North Macedonia, formerly the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Nuremberg Papua New Guinea (no hyphens) Pathan is preferable to Pashtu or Pushtu Philippines: adjective is Philippine; but adjective for the people, Filipino; Filipina for women Phnom Penh Port-au-Prince (Haiti) Port of Spain (Trinidad) Qom. Iranian Holy Place Quebecois (people and adjective) only in references to the French Canadian people and culture: though a reference to a female would be Quebecoise Richmond, N Yorks; Richmond, south-west London Riyadh Romania Rwanda Sahara. Sahara Desert is tautological Saint John, New Brunswick; St Johns, Quebec; St John's, Newfoundland Salzburg Sana'a is the capital of Yemen. The Bab al-Mandab strait separates Yemen from Africa. Saudi Arabia: never just Saudi, which is the adjective Schiphol: airport outside Amsterdam Scotland: the people are Scots, the adjective Scottish, although Scotch can refer to eggs, pies, whisky, tape and wool shops South Sudan, capital Juba Soviet Union (former): the former states (preferable to the term 'republics', although can be used synonymously) are: Armenia; Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani); Belarus – not double s – (Belarussian); Georgia; Kazakhstan (Kazakh, not Kazakhi or Turkmeni etc); Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz); Moldova (Moldovan); Russia or the Russian Federation (synonymous), but not the Russian republic; Tajikistan (Tajik); Turkmenistan (Turkmen); Ukraine (not the Ukraine, nor the Crimea); Uzbekistan (Uzbek); also, the Baltic states (not republics), Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all now in Nato and the EU; autonomous republic: Tatarstan (not Tataria); Yakutia; Bashkiria; Chechnya; Ingushetia; Nagorno Karabakh (no hyphen); but Alma-Ata. Chisinau, capital of Moldova, not Kishinev; Lvov, not Lviv. Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk) must have 'y' at start Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon): the people are Sri Lankans, but differentiate when necessary between Sinhalese and Tamils Strait of Hormuz St, Ste: normally abbreviated in place names, but there are exceptions St Andrews (no possessive) St Helens, Merseyside; St Helen's, Isle of Wight Stoke-on-Trent Stratford-on-Avon district council, but Stratford-upon-Avon (town) Sudan (no 'the') Sutton, a town and borough in south London. Note there are various Suttons across England, we should always refer to their county for clarity. Taiwanese place names continue to take the system used by the Nationalist government Tbilisi (Georgia), formerly Tiflis Tehran Temple Mount: needs occasional Muslim translation, 'Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary (Al Haram al Sharif)' Turkey not Turkiye Valletta Ukrainian place names: before the 2022 invasion we adopted the Russian form to Anglicise place names - Kiev, Dnieper etc. Now we use the Ukrainian form, so Kyiv, Dnipro. United Arab Emirates: abbreviate to UAE only when the full title has been used repeatedly; the Emirates. They are: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah United Kingdom. Remember that it includes Northern Ireland. Do not use the phrase interchangeably with Great Britain United States: US (no full points) acceptable after first mention. Use American as the adjective unless there is danger of confusion with another country in North or South America Vienna Washington. Write in full as Washington, DC (for District of Columbia) only when necessary to distinguish from the state of Washington on the Pacific Coast West Bank: West Bank of the Jordan, the Jordan West Bank or, when the context is clear, the West Bank Windermere, not Lake Windermere (mere means lake) Yemen: the united former North Yemen and South Yemen. Capital is Sana'a Yerevan (capital of Armenia), formerly Erivan
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
UK population to grow faster than any major EU country
Immigration will spur the UK's population to rise faster than any major EU country, figures reveal. Britain's population is predicted to increase by 6.8 per cent from 69.6 million to 74.3 million by 2100, according to the United Nations' latest predictions. Only Luxembourg, with a population of 672,000, is expected to rise more, at 10 per cent. The UN estimates that cumulative net migration to the UK will total 14.3 million by the end of the century, fuelling a population rise. This is almost double the 7.8 million for France and just under a quarter more than Germany. Just three of the 27 current EU member states will see their populations increase between now and 2100, the UN's World Population Prospects 2024 has revealed. Alongside the 10 per cent projected for Luxembourg, only Sweden (6.7 per cent) and France (2.8 per cent) will see increases. Immigration is seen as essential by policymakers as it staves off the negative economic consequences of an otherwise dwindling workforce. Without positive net migration, the UK population would fall by over a quarter to below 50 million by 2100 – roughly what the population was in 1950. This is because the average number of children per woman is set to plateau well below the 2.1 replacement rate. The total fertility rate in England and Wales slumped to 1.44 children per woman between 2022 and 2023. Last year, the UK median age hit 40, which is projected to rise to 47.9 by 2100. Without migration, where the majority of arrivals tend to be younger, it would reach 50 as early as 2067. However, immigration places additional strain on an already beleaguered benefits system and public services such as the NHS. The number of foreign nationals on Universal Credit has surged over the past three years, from 906,018 in June 2022 to 1.26 million last month, according to figures published on Tuesday. Refugees made up 118,749 of that total, with 54,156 on humanitarian visas. Some 59.1 per cent were found to be unemployed in May. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'These are staggering figures and are clear proof that the Labour Government has lost control of our welfare system. 'We've set out a clear, common-sense position. Universal Credit should be reserved for UK citizens only. This is about fairness, responsibility and protecting support for those who've contributed to this country.' The combined population of Western Europe is expected to peak this year at just under 200 million. By the end of the century, the region's population is predicted to decline to 185 million. In a hypothetical scenario without net migration, this total would plummet to 133 million. The UN data does not explicitly map where immigrants to a country have come from, but the broad pattern is clear. The intensifying effects of a warming climate and increasingly erratic weather are harder felt in less developed, agriculturally dependent countries. Every year from 2041 onwards, net migration out of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to exceed half a million. Cumulatively by 2100, that's almost 50 million leavers. That number can be doubled from Central and Southern Asia, from where more than 100 million are set to emigrate over the next three-quarters of a century. The United States is expected to receive around 97 million of these migrants. Behind Russia and Canada, the UK is the fourth-largest recipient.
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Putin's escalating use of chemical weapons should terrify us all
As president Trump gives Putin 50 days to stop the fighting and come to the peace negotiation table, the Ukrainian frontlines are experiencing an uptick in the use of chemical weapons, according to the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas. She was speaking in Brussels, and cited German and Dutch intelligence reports showing that Moscow has used chemical weapons at least 9,000 times since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and was now ramping up their use. 'As the intelligence services are saying this is intensifying, I think it's [Russia's use of chemical weapons] of great, great concern,' Kallas said. 'It shows that Russia wants to cause as much pain and suffering so that Ukraine would surrender. And, you know, it's really … unbearable.' The intelligence services report and my own investigations have confirmed the use of chloropicrin, one of the first chemical weapons developed in WWI. This is a choking agent and designed as an incapacitant, but it has proved morbidly effective at killing the Ukraine defenders by flushing them out of trenches and foxholes to be killed in the open by artillery and direct fire. This is the only way Russian invaders have managed to make any progress in the last few months. My concern is that with only 50 days for the Russians to make significant progress in this war, before the date Trump says he will impose devastating tariffs on Putin, they will escalate to far more deadly chemical weapons which could kill thousands. There is credible, if unverified, evidence that Lewisite and possibly nerve agents have also been used by Russian forces. We know the Russians have a chemical weapons programme to develop Novichok nerve agents, the most deadly chemicals ever made on the planet, and used by the Russian secret service to try and assassinate double agent Sergei Skripal in my home city of Salisbury in 2018 – a year after the Russians declared to the UN they had destroyed all their chemical weapons. If the Russians used Novichok, and why would they not, with the apparent indifference from the West and the UN to their use of other chemical weapons, they could kill thousands and possibly take huge tracts of Ukraine in the next 50 days. This would likely be far more effective than a tactical nuclear strike, and without the massive and prolonged contamination issues associated with nuclear fallout which would make the land uninhabitable for years – even to Russians. We urgently need an 'Obama' red line, or rather a solid 'Trump' red line, to ensure that Putin does not use his most deadly chemical weapons to try and take Ukraine this summer. The 'coalition of the willing' in Europe must also do the same to show a unified front to convince the Kremlin that a ceasefire and peace are their only viable options. By ignoring the Obama red line in Syria in 2013, when Assad murdered over 1400 of his own people with the nerve agent Sarin, we enabled proliferation of these abhorrent weapons. Putin saw the West's indifference in 2013 and is presumably the reason he is using them now. They are morbidly brilliant, abhorrent and completely indiscriminate. But if you have no morals or scruples – and Putin has neither – you would use them all the time. Trump can stop their use with a solid red line, and then we all must review the Chemical Weapons Convention and ensure that it is rigorously policed to remove all chemical weapons from the planet. This was what the convention was supposed to do in 1997 when most nations in the world, including the Russians, signed it.
