Labour: changes to EV rules will have ‘negligible’ impact on UK emissions
Labour’s changes to electric vehicle (EV) rules in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a negligible impact on emissions, the transport secretary has said.Keir Starmer has confirmed plans to boost manufacturers, including reinstating the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.But regulations around manufacturing targets on electric cars and vans will also be altered, to help companies in the transition, and new hybrids will be on the market for a further five years.Heidi Alexander said the taxes on imports announced by the US president last week, which spurred reciprocal action by some affected countries, “are bad news for the global economy, because it’s bad for global demand, it’s bad for prices and it’s bad for consumers”.Speaking on BBC Breakfast about the impact on carbon emissions of the government’s changes to electric vehicle rules, she said: “The changes we are making have been very carefully calibrated so as not to have a big impact upon the carbon emissions savings that are baked into this policy.
In fact, the impact on carbon emissions as a result of these changes is negligible.”Under the measures, luxury supercar companies such as Aston Martin and McLaren will be allowed to keep producing petrol cars beyond 2030 because they manufacture only a small number of vehicles a year.New hybrids and plug-in hybrid cars will be allowed to be sold until 2035.Petrol and diesel vans will be able to be sold until 2035, as well as all hybrid models.Alexander said the government had “struck the right balance” between protecting British businesses and cutting carbon emissions.
Asked whether the retention of a 2030 target for the phasing out of all pure petrol and diesel cars would restrict free markets at a time when the car industry was on its knees, she said: “It is an opportunity for the car industry to remain at the cutting edge of the transition to EVs, but it’s right that we’re pragmatic.“It’s right that we are looking at how we can be flexible in the way in which car manufacturers make this transition, because we want cheaper EVs to be available for consumers.We want people to be able to benefit from those lower running costs as well.“And so it’s important that, as a government, we do everything that we can – not only to support British businesses and manufacturing to grow the economy, but also to cut those carbon emissions, and I think we’ve struck the right balance in the package that we’re announcing today.”Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if Starmer was prepared to use the relationship he has built with Trump to ask him to change course, she said: “Obviously when the prime minister has discussions internationally with allies he will be honest about what is in the best interests of the British people.
”Challenged that the EV measures were planned before the announcement of the tariffs and were a tweak to policy rather than dramatic change, she told Today: “These are significant changes to the car industry,You are right to say we started the consultation on Christmas Eve and that we closed the consultation in the middle of February,”Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionShe said Trump’s imposition of tariffs meant the UK government had to look at its EV plans with “renewed urgency”,The Green party MP Siân Berry said: “The government is wrong to apply the brakes on the sale of EV cars,This is just the latest in a series of boosts the Labour government has given fossil fuel industries.
We’ve also seen the green light being given to airport expansion and a new road tunnel under the Thames.This suggests Labour is weakening its climate commitments, and its health-related policy goals because all these moves will have a detrimental impact on air quality.“Slowing down the move away from fossil-fuelled transport makes no economic sense either, since green sectors of the economy are growing three times faster than the overall UK economy.”Colin Walker, the head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “In weakening the mandate elsewhere by extending flexibilities and allowing the sale of standard hybrids between 2030 and 2035, the government risks reducing the competition it has stimulated between manufacturers, meaning prices for families seeking an EV might not fall as fast, and sales could slow.“The growth of the secondhand EV market, where most of us buy our cars, would in turn be stunted, leaving millions of families stuck in petrol and hybrid cars paying a petrol premium of hundreds, and even thousands, of pounds a year.
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UK ministers consider abolishing hundreds of quangos, sources say
Ministers could introduce legislation to abolish a swathe of quangos in one go as part of the UK government’s plans to restructure the state and cut thousands more civil service job cuts, the Guardian understands.Government sources said they were considering a bill that would speed up the reorganisation of more than 300 arm’s-length organisations that between them spend about £353bn of public money.Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has written to every Whitehall department asking them to justify each quango or risk being closed, merged, or having powers brought back into the department.Ministers will have to demonstrate the necessity of each one, operating under the presumption that these bodies will be affected unless there is compelling justification for their separate existence, sources said.Keir Starmer told his cabinet last month that they should stop “outsourcing” decisions to regulators and quangos and take more responsibility for their own departments
Badenoch draws cross-party criticism for backing Israel’s expulsion of Labour MPs
Labour and the Tories have become embroiled in a war of words after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, defended Israel’s decision to deny two MPs entry into the country and deport them.The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, criticised the decision to expel the Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, and said he had taken the matter up with the Israeli government.He was subsequently angered by Badenoch’s comment that “every country should be able to control its borders”, which was also contradicted by one of her shadow ministers.Speaking about the deportation of Mohamed and Yang, who were part of an MPs’ delegation coming to visiting humanitarian aid projects and communities in the West Bank with UK charity partners, the Conservative leader said: “I think that every country should be able to control its borders, and that’s what Israel is doing, as far as I understand.”Badenoch told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme she understood they “were coming in to do something that they were not allowed to do, and so I respect that decision”
‘It could’ve been much worse’: how UK avoided a bigger blow from Trump tariffs
When Jonathan Reynolds gathered with officials around the large television screen in his office to watch Donald Trump unleash his global trade war, he knew little more than anyone else about what was to come.It was Wednesday night and the US president was about to upend a century of global trade with the imposition of sweeping taxes on US imports from around the world.Moments before Trump sauntered on stage, Reynolds had been told to expect a universal baseline tariff of 10% – but he did not know whether anything else would be imposed on top. The expectation in government was that the UK would be hit with a 20% rate, which the Treasury watchdog had warned could wipe 1% off UK GDP.As Trump brought out his sandwich board of global tariffs, Reynolds and his team shared the frustration of many viewers across the world – the board kept slipping behind the White House lectern and obscuring the all-important figures next to countries’ names
UK politics: Unite hits back at Starmer over Birmingham bin strike, questioning Labour’s backing for ‘working people’– as it happened
The war of words between Keir Starmer and the Unite union is escalating. After No 10 issued a strong statement criticising its conduct in the Birmingham bin strike (see 1.32pm), Unite has hit back, questioning Labour’s commitment to “working people” and saying the government should intervene directly in the dispute and force the council to settle.In a statement issued in response to what Downing Street said earlier, Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said:It is not surprising that many workers in Britian question the Labour government’s commitment to working people when it issues a statement clearly blaming bin workers in a dispute not of their making.The bottom line about this dispute is that these workers woke up one morning to be told they would be taking up to an £8,000 pay cut
Downing Street says Trump’s tariffs signal ‘new era’ in global economics
Donald Trump’s tariffs signal a new global economic era, Downing Street has said, as economists warned that the British government would probably have to raise taxes in response.No 10 said on Friday the prime minister believed that this week’s trade announcement by the US president, which has started a global trade war and sent stock markets tumbling, marked a turning point in history.Keir Starmer is due to speak to European and Commonwealth leaders in a series of calls over the next few days before setting out on Monday how he intends to respond more fully.Senior MPs have called on him not to give too much ground to Washington in trade talks, cautioning against trying to become “the 51st US state”.The prime minister is expected to say next week that he wants to cut red tape and remove more planning restrictions in order to boost growth, but experts say this is unlikely to fill a new black hole in the autumn budget
Emails reveal extent of peer’s role in asking minister to commercial event in parliament
New documents reveal the extent of a Labour peer’s involvement in organising the attendance of a minister at a commercial event in parliament.Emails show how David Evans contacted officials working closely with Sharon Taylor, a housing minister in the House of Lords, who was to be the keynote speaker at an event on housing that Lord Evans of Watford was hosting in parliament.Evans is under formal investigation by the House of Lords watchdog after a series of Guardian stories revealed his involvement in an apparent cash-for-access venture. He hosted commercial events in parliament, similar to the one to which he invited Taylor, on behalf of his son Richard’s company, which was charging up to £25,000 for sponsorship of the events. Evans owns a one-third shareholding in the business
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