Good morning.As prime minister, there is nothing more important than being able to show the nation, when a crisis hits, that you are responding pro-actively, that you have a plan to cope, and that you are not just passive and helpless.Today is unusual because Keir Starmer is responding to a crisis caused by someone who is purportedly an ally, but in other respects the crisis response is familiar; “government will protect you”, the PM will say.Starmer will be giving a speech early this afternoon and here is Pippa Crerar’s overnight preview story about what he is going to say.Starmer will focus in particular on the car industry, which has been hit by 25% tariffs on exports to the US.

He will say:Global trade is being transformed so we must go further and faster in reshaping our economy and our country through our Plan for Change …Now more than ever UK businesses and working people need a government that steps up, not stands aside.That means action, not words.So today I am announcing bold changes to the way we support our car industry.The announcement involves changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, the set of relatively complex rules setting targets for car manufacturers to ensure they transition to producing electric vehicles and stop selling new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.The 2030 target stays (more or less – the government is exempting micro-volume supercar brands, like McLaren and Aston Martin).

But manufacturers will be allowed to sell full hybrid cars until 2035, and fines for firms that don’t meet the ZEV (zero emission vehicle) targets will be reduced.Companies will also get more flexibility in how they meet these targets.The Department for Transport has the details in a news release here.The motor industry has welcomed these changes – as far as they go.But it has also described them as quite modest, and likely to have only a limited impact given the challenges it is facing.

According to the Financial Times, Lisa Brankin, managing director of Ford in the UK, said the announcement was “a small step in the right direction,” but added: “It is not the giant leap required to address the especially challenging electric vehicle market conditions”.The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said much more was needed.In a statement Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, said:We await full details of the regulatory amendments but, given the potentially severe headwinds facing manufacturers following the introduction of US tariffs, greater action will almost certainly be needed to safeguard our industry’s competitiveness.UK-US negotiations must continue at pace, while the long-awaited industrial and trade strategies should prioritise automotive and be delivered at speed.And in an interview on the Today programme this morning Robert Forrester, CEO of Vertu motors, one of the UK’s biggest car dealerships, said:There are lots and lots of words in the announcement, but it doesn’t really address the major issues.

The electric vehicle targets up to 2030 remain in place.The fines have been changed, but it’s still £12,000 pound fine for every petrol and diesel car up to 2030 that’s sold above the zero emission targets.That’s billions of pounds to manufacturers, and manufacturers face a choice with, adding the pressure on of tariffs, of either paying significant fines or rationing petrol and diesel cars.Nothing has really changed here.This is real tinkering.

For a sense of how serious the Trump tariff challenge actually is, do read Graeme Wearden’s business live blog.He says shares on the FTSE 100 have plunged 6% this morning.Here is the agenda for the day.10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK, holds a press conference in Doncaster with the party’s mayoral candidate in the city, Alexander Jones, and a “special guest”, the party says.11.

30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing,Early afternoon: Keir Starmer gives a speech in the West Midlands on “how this government is backing British business with support to carmakers”, No 10 says,2,30pm: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, takes questions in the Commons,After 3.

30pm: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, is due to make a statement to MPs about changes to the zero emissions vehicle mandate.I’m afraid that, for the next few weeks or months, on most days staff shortages mean that comments will only be open on the blog between 10am and 3pm.If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line, when comments are open, or message me on social media.I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media.

You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn,bsky,social,The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary,I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos.

No error is too small to correct.And I find your questions very interesting too.I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked if there was any discussion in those talks of accelerating closer economic links with the EU, or with Canada, the PM’s spokesperson replied:When it comes to EU, our position on the reset is that we do want to work more closely with the EU on trade.And, on Canada, the spokesperson said that Starmer and Mark Carney, the Canadian PM had discussed the importance of the CPTPP trade deal, to which both the UK and Canada are party.

But asked if the Trump tariffs had changed the government’s ambition in terms of what it would be seeking from the “reset” talks with the EU this year that are intended to deepen the post-Brext trading relationship, the spokesperson replied:I don’t think it’s fundamentally changed the calculation.The government was very clear on coming into office that we wanted to seek a closer trading relationship with the EU.We have restated our ambition to not only go further and faster domestically, and the importance of that when it comes to supporting UK businesses in light of what’s happened in [recent] days and weeks.But it also underlines the importance of trading relationships around the world, and we think we can get a much better trading relationship with the EU, which is obviously our largest trading partner.Asked if the Trump tariffs were making the government reconsider its opposition to rejoining the EU customs union, the spokesperson replied:No.

Our previously stated position on that [still applies]; we are not going backwards when it comes to Brexit, we’re looking forward.There’s no change to any of those red lines.But we do think we can have a better trading relationship with EU.Keir Starmer spoke to the leaders of Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and the European Commission at the end of last week and over the weekend.The UK has ruled out immediate retaliatory tariffs.

But, at the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning, the PM’s spokesperson would not say whether Starmer directly urged other leaders to hold off on retaliatory tariffs too.Asked Starmer had urged his counterparts not to retaliate, the spokesperson replied:It will always be up to every country to respond in the way that they see fit.We’ve been very clear that we will respond to this in a cool and pragmatic way that supports the national interest.And I think it is widely agreed, as you have seen from [the readouts of the weekend calls], that clearly a global trade war is not in anybody’s interest, certainly not in the UK’s economic interests.We are an open trading nation.

We want to see reduced barriers to trade with other economies around the world.The spokesperson confirmed that Starmer did not speak to President Trump over the weekend.In his Times article Keir Starmer describes the Trump tariffs as “the beginning of a new era”.He has been saying this at least since last Thursday, when he spoke about the tariffs at a Q&A with journalists at Labour’s local elections campaign launch.The speech this afternoon is being described as the PM’s most considered response so far to the global economic turmoil generated by the tariffs, but we have already heard quite a lot from Starmer on this topic already, in a Sunday Telegraph article yesterday and in No 10 briefings on the calls he had with world leaders about the situation over the weekend.

Is there a coherent strategy? On the basis of what he has said so far, there are at least five elements in the mix at the moment.1) Push for a trade deal with the US.Starmer has ruled out immediate retaliatory tariffs, and the government is still hoping to negotiate a trade deal with the US.Last week Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said he hoped this would lead to the US lifting the 10% tariffs on all UK imports, but yesterday, on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, refused to confirm that having a deal would led to the tariffs being removed.2) Push further and faster for growth.

Starmer was elected on a commitment to prioritise growth, and he has argued that the global economic situation makes this more important than ever.But, in terms of talking about the policies that might deliver this, mostly Starmer has been highlighting policies that were already in the pipeline.3) Help sectors most affected by tariffs.The automative industry is specifically at risk, because cars are subject to 25% tariffs, and today’s announcment is a sector-specific intervention.In his Times article Starmer says: “This is just the first of a series of pro-growth measures we’ll be delivering to provide certainty, stability, and support for industry.

”4) Make British industry more resilient.Even before she became chancellor, Rachel Reeves was arguing that globalisation in its old form was dead and that industrial policy had to make the UK less reliant on imports.She called this “securonomics”, and the Trump tariffs have arguably made the case for this even stronger.Starmer echoed this in his Sunday Telegraph article at the weekend, where he wrote: “We stand ready to use industrial policy to help shelter British business from the storm.”5) Strengthen trade links with other free trade countries.

Starmer is being urged by people like Jim O’Neill, the former Treasury minister, and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, to respond to the Trump tariffs by developing a free trade “coalition of the willing” with non-US economies,Arguably this approach would contradict 4),But there is some evidence Starmer is exploring this,In a read-out of Starmer’s call with the Canadian PM Mark Carney at the weekend, No 10 said both men agreed on “the importance of free and open trade between like-minded nations”,And, talking to the Australian PM Anthony Albanese and the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, Starmer said “it has been clear for a long time that like-minded countries must maintain strong relationships.

”In summary, the Trump tariffs crisis has not really prompted a change of course, more an intensification of policies that Starmer was pursuing anyway.But we are only five days into Trump’s economic “new era”.The Starmer response is likely to evolve.Reform UK promised that a “special guest” would appear at its press conference in Doncaster this morning, alongside the party leader Nigel Farage and its mayoral candidate for the city, Alexander Jones.The surprise speaker was John Ryan, the former chairman of Doncaster Rovers, who endorsed Jones, saying: “He’s a listener, and we need more of that in politics.

” Farage said:John Ryan is a local hero and we are truly humbled that he has publicly endorsed Reform UK ahead of May’s elections in Doncaster,Keir Starmer has written an article for today’s Times defending the changes announced today to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate,He says the announcement shows the government is willing to trust manufacturers,When the last government rowed back on its electric vehicle targets, that harmed investment,So we will keep our commitments in place.

The certainty that business needs in uncertain times.But we need to give British industry flexibility in how it gets to those targets.That’s why today we’re announcing changes to the EV mandate.The last government designed it with nowhere near enough regard for manufacturing.That era of policy making is over.

Instead of micromanaging businesses, we’re trusting them.We’re giving them the flexibility they need to hit the target in a way that works for them while keeping our manifesto commitment to end sales of petrol cars by 2030.That means no British-based manufacturers should have to pay a fine — or pay foreign firms for EV credits.But, as a backstop, we’re also going to cut the fines by 20 per cent.Any money we do raise will be invested straight back into supporting Britain’s automative industry.

That is our guarantee.In the article Starmer links the EV announcement to a wider argument about the world being in a new era, and about how, as he responds, his focus will be on what’s best for Britons, and what will make them better off.My priority — my only priority — is the people of Britain, and what makes them better off.Which is exactly why we will rise to this moment and make change work for hard-working people.And he explains why the EV policy will contribute to this aim.

We’re putting £2.3 billion towards tax breaks for people buying electric vehicles and improving charging infrastructure — one public charging point pops up every half an hour.And we’ll put rocket boosters behind British industry’s efforts to go faster for consumers at home.Buying a British electric car running on home-grown clean power could save you £1,100 a year on your fuel bill.More than 130 refugee and human rights organisations have called on Keir Starmer to stop using language that demonises migrants, after he made controversial remarks before an international people-smuggling summit, Diane Taylor reports