Latest news with #BrexitReset
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Britain's diplomats have a new challenge: hiding their globes from Trump
Cartography news. The Government has ruled on what to call the Gulf of Mexico. And Donald Trump – who has renamed it the Gulf of America – won't be happy. Foreign Office minister Martin Wrigley told MPs that the Government 'will continue to follow the guidance of the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names who advise His Majesty's Government on the policies and procedures for the representation of geographical names for places and features outside of the UK'. And the committee has ruled that 'this body of water is Gulf of Mexico'. Better hide the globes when the President comes over for his state visit. Life on The Archers can be cut-throat, says Charles Collingwood, who is marking 50 years playing the ageing lothario Brian Aldridge on the Radio 4 soap. He recalls getting into a BBC lift with Jack Holloway, who played Ralph Bellamy moments after Holloway was told that his character was being written out of the programme in 1980. 'When we got to the third floor where the bar was, he [Holloway] shot off to drown his sorrows,' Collingwood says. 'I went to join The Archers cast and said, 'I've just got in the lift with Jack Holloway – he says he's been written out of the programme?' They said, 'Yes, you've bought his farm!'' The pressures of financing an equestrian career has become unsustainable for Rory Bremner and his daughter Lila, 21, an accomplished showjumper. 'It's the sheer cost of it all,' the TV impressionist told me at the Chelsea Flower Show. 'There is sponsorship but it is a very competitive world. To sustain it, I compare it to highwayman Dick Turpin – he had a phrase: 'your money or your life?' The horses get more and more expensive. You need hundreds of thousands. So she's gone to London to do a personal assistant's course and have some fun London days, like I did as a young man.' And why not? Gordon Brown told how British prime ministers traditionally give presents to incoming US presidents at the John Smith Memorial Lecture this week. 'David Cameron gave Barack Obama a table tennis table. Rishi Sunak gave Joe Biden a Barbour jacket. Theresa May gave Donald Trump a hamper from Chequers. Boris Johnson gave some poetry,' Brown said. 'Keir Starmer has had to give gifts to the two presidents. He gave a gift to Joe Biden of an Arsenal jersey with 46 on it to denote the 46th president of the United States. I don't know if Joe Biden knew too much about Arsenal. And of course, he has already given a gift and sent it to Washington, to Donald Trump: It's Peter Mandelson.' Perhaps Gordon misses Peter? The European Commission helpfully distributed photos of Sir Keir Starmer unveiling the Brexit Reset deal on Monday alongside European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Council of Europe president Antonio Costa. The only problem was that while the other leaders were correctly captioned, the PM was described as 'Rodney Starmer'. Rodney is of course the PM's middle name. But could there be an Only Fools and Horses fan working for the Eurocrats? As Delboy said: 'This time next year, we'll be millionaires!' Jonathan Aitken, 82, ex-Conservative minister and now a prison chaplain, has started a new political supper club called the Beaverbrook Forum to re-create the parties thrown by his uncle, Lord Beaverbrook, who owned the Daily Express and served in Churchill's wartime government. Political veterans Lord Gummer and Diane Abbott, as well as Robert Jenrick's wife Michal, dined on champagne and shepherd's pie as Aitken recalled how 'Bollinger Bolsheviks' such as Nye Bevan used to love Beaverbrook's parties. The future Labour leader Michael Foot was apparently so spoiled by Beaverbrook that he was allowed to stay for free in a house in Beaverbrook's garden. Sir Keir's Starmer's freebies from Lord Alli look like small beer. RIP the much-missed Patrick O'Flynn, 59, the former Ukip MEP, as well as Daily Telegraph and GB News commentator, who died this week. One of his most memorable policies as Ukip's economic spokesman was for a tax on luxury goods like designer shoes, and handbags to win over former Labour voters. O'Flynn's so-called 'WAG tax' was unveiled at Ukip's conference in September 2014 and axed by leader Nigel Farage two days later, after an outcry. Farage declared: 'It was a discussion point yesterday, it isn't going to happen.' Perhaps with Farage's Reform leading the polls, the WAG tax's time will come again? Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope. You can reach him at peterborough@ Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Starmer's Brexit reset hailed for ‘turning page' on relations with EU
Sir Keir Starmer today 'turned a page' on Britain's relations with the EU as he ushered in a 'new era' of cooperation and friendship with his landmark Brexit reset deal. A clearly jubilant prime minister said the deal — his third major international agreement this month after securing trade deals with India and the US — would be a 'win-win' for both sides and showed Britain is 'back on the world stage'. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described it as an 'historic moment' as she appeared alongside the PM at a press conference in London, just hours after frantic negotiations concluded to get the deal over the line. 'We are turning a page,' she said. 'We are opening a new chapter in our unique relationship.' The agreement, which officials claim will boost the UK economy by £9 billion by 2040, appears to be a major coup for the Labour leader with 'the pragmatic and positive' elements of removing red tape and border checks lauded by some. It represents the first serious attempt to fix the harms caused by Brexit from Boris Johnson's flawed deal in late 2019 which Rishi Sunak tinkered with last year in the Windsor Framework. The PM faced accusations of 'surrender' on fishing, as well as his failure to get agreements on defence and youth mobility. The key elements of the deal — which still has significant areas to be finalised — include: British tourists being allowed to go through fast track e-gates at European airports, meaning they will no longer be required to join lengthy queues at borders A 12-year extension of an agreement for EU trawlers to access UK waters until 2038 The scrapping of some routine checks on plant and animal products, meaning British burgers and sausages will once more be allowed into the EU A new defence agreement, although UK defence firms will still have to wait for access to the 150 billion euro EU defence procurement scheme An open-ended agreement to slash red tape on food and drink exports and imports between the UK and EU Dog and cat owners being able rejoin the EU pets passport scheme But there is still no confirmed youth mobility scheme in what will be a disappointment for 18 to 35-year-olds in the UK and EU. The two sides have agreed to co-operate on a 'youth experience scheme' but the details have not yet been confirmed. Heralding his latest deal after six months of intense discussions, the prime minister insisted that it is 'time to put the stale old arguments behind us' and called on the EU and critics in the UK 'to look forward not back'. While the government had acknowledged privately that the agreement would anger both Rejoiners and Brexiteers, it appears to be another triumph for Sir Keir's diplomacy in his first 10 months of government. The deal helps Sir Keir put the UK as a trade hub at the heart of a tumultuous international scene which allows the country to have strong trading relations with it all its main allies in what one senior minister described as 'a complex jigsaw where all the pieces hate one another.' He said: 'It's time to look forward. To move on from the stale old debates and political fights to find common sense, practical solutions which get the best for the British people. 'We're ready to work with partners if it means we can improve people's lives here at home. 'So that's what this deal is all about – facing out into the world once again, in the great tradition of this nation. Building the relationships we choose, with the partners we choose, and closing deals in the national interest. Because that is what independent, sovereign nations do.' Referring throughout the press conference to the prime minister as 'Dear Keir', Ms von der Leyen was keen to praise him for his 'leadership' and paint it as a personal victory for Starmer. It was a story of "natural partners standing side-by-side on the global stage", she said. According to the government, the package helps make food cheaper, slash red tape, open up access to the EU market and add nearly £9 billion to the UK economy by 2040. Sir Keir insisted that the agreement is 'good for jobs, good for bills, and good for our borders.' Like the deal with Donald Trump, the door is now open to agree further deals with the EU with a capped youth mobility scheme at the top of the list, similar to the ones with Australia and New Zealand. Added to that the UK still has to negotiate its way into the EU 150 billion defence procurement scheme although a 'pathway' to this has been agreed. The UK will also enter talks about access to EU facial images data for the first time, on top of the existing arrangements for DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data. This will enhance our ability to catch dangerous criminals and ensure they face justice more quickly. As part of the deal, a new border checks agreement will make it easier for food and drink to be imported and exported by reducing the red tape that placed burdens on businesses and led to lengthy lorry queues at the border. But the cost is a 12-year deal on giving EU countries access to British fishing waters, which will anger Brexiteers and the fishing industry. To offset this a £360 million scheme has been unveiled to help UK fishing communities to take advantage of regaining market access to the EU which they lost in 2020. Nevertheless, the Scottish Fisherman Association described the deal as 'a horror show'. However, the UK's leading trade expert Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute for Exports and International trade said it was 'positive and pragmatic.' Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, which represents pubs, clubs and hotels, said: 'The new agreement with the EU to remove trade barriers is positive news for hospitality businesses and will help to further increase access to high-quality, affordable food and drink for business and consumers alike.' Some routine checks on animal and plant products will be removed completely, allowing goods to flow freely again. The EU is the UK's largest trading partner. After the 21 per cent drop in exports and 7 per cent drop in imports seen since Brexit, the UK will also be able to sell various products, such as burgers and sausages, back into the EU again, supporting these vital British industries. But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also made it clear that they will scrap the deal if they win power at the next election. Ms Badenoch warned that the agreement makes the UK 'a rule taker'. Closer co-operation on emissions through linking our respective Emissions Trading Systems will improve the UK's energy security and avoid businesses being hit by the EU's carbon tax due to come in next year – which would have sent £800 million directly to the EU's budget. Combined, the new border checks deal and emissions trading systems linking measures alone are set to add nearly £9 billion to the UK economy by 2040, in a huge boost for growth. British steel exports are protected from new EU rules and restrictive tariffs, through a bespoke arrangement for the UK that will save UK steel £25m per year.
The Independent
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
This historic US trade deal is a personal victory for Keir Starmer
By any standard, going from 'Two-Tier Keir' to 'Two-Deal Keir' in the space of two days counts as a considerable achievement. Britain's new multibillion-dollar trade deal with the United States, coming as it does so soon after the equally consequential, far-reaching partnership agreement with India, has bestowed a much-needed sense of momentum and purpose on Sir Keir Starmer's beleaguered administration. So also, presumably, will the 'Brexit reset' that may well be revealed at the EU-UK summit later this month. Britain has thus concluded – or shortly will – closer economic partnerships with the largest population on earth (India), the largest and still the most dynamic economy (America), and the UK's most crucial single market (Europe). Last week may have been a miserable one for the prime minister, but he has every reason to feel confident now. Sir Keir should feel vindicated, too. Even as equable a man as the prime minister will have felt sorely tried since President Donald Trump launched his tariff schedules, not to mention the doubts some of his most prominent colleagues, notably the vice-president, JD Vance, have cast on support for Ukraine, Nato and the transatlantic alliance. It would have been easy (and understandable) if Sir Keir had played to the home audience and condemned the president. Yet he did not give way to that temptation, though so often urged to do so. It would have been, at best, futile – and, at worst, counterproductive. Instead, the prime minister, as he puts it, didn't storm off but 'stayed in the room' and pressed on with the dialogue: 'Courteous, respectful, businesslike.' The reward is that, to upend President Obama's famous phrase, Britain ended up at the front of the queue for a trade deal. Sir Keir, the soi-disant 'serious pragmatist', has had one of his finest hours so far, the symbolism of the deal signing on VE Day having been proudly played up. Thousands of British jobs have indeed been saved by it – and, with such an emphasis on cooperation in the most technologically advanced sectors, where the UK and US are closely aligned in attitude, there must be much to look forward to. As the details emerge, there may be aspects of the deal that disappoint – but thus far, it seems, on balance, highly positive. In such circumstances, the irony of Sir Keir – the great Remainer and passionate European – succeeding where Brexiteers failed won't overly trouble him. Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak all tried, with varying degrees of expectation, to prise some sort of post-Brexit free trade deal with America. Nigel Farage, with his own supposed special relationship with the president, often gave the impression he could make the deal during one of his meetings with Mr Trump. Instead, it fell to a man ideologically and temperamentally the diametric opposite of Mr Trump. Their televised phone calls, like their recent meetings, suggest a degree of warmth and trust between the human rights lawyer and the tough real-estate guy that could not have been predicted. Still, they say opposites attract. None of these post-Brexit trade deals will, of themselves, transform the British economy. Indeed, there will be aspects of this US trade deal, as with the others, that will cause concern and disruption to parts of the economy – especially hard-pressed farmers challenged by the impact of lower-cost US produce. The British film production sector will also remain deeply worried about the president's proposed 100 per cent tariff – something left unresolved in the announcements. Yet that is the nature of free trade: compromises are inevitable. It's also important to note that the post-Brexit deals cannot compensate for the harms caused by Brexit itself. Even so, the treaties reached with the trans-Pacific partnership (encompassing Japan and South Korea), Australia, New Zealand and now India, the US and the Brexit 'reset', when combined, will boost UK growth rate by something like 1 per cent a year. That is an extremely precious achievement, given the otherwise indefinite anaemic growth the country seemed doomed to endure. Sir Keir said growth was his priority – and now he has some evidence to suggest that he is indeed delivering a welcome 'change' in the nation's fortunes – and its morale. Sir Keir is to be warmly congratulated.
