Relationship with Trump may be beyond repair, Keir Starmer told

Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Donald Trump may be beyond repair after the US president derided the prime minister for consulting his team about military decisions, in a mocking impersonation.In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to imitate Starmer in a weak voice during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, and said the UK was “not our best” ally.The episode is Trump’s latest broadside at Starmer and the UK’s “old” aircraft carriers after the prime minister declined to let the US use British military bases for its initial strikes on Iran.Following the latest attack on Starmer, diplomatic and political figures said he was right to brush off the criticism but added that the relationship was very damaged and he would need to redouble efforts to built international relations elsewhere.The US president said the UK “should be our best” ally but had not been during the Iran war, accusing Starmer of prevaricating over sending aircraft carriers

Starmer’s cost of living adviser urges him to extend fuel duty cut in light of Iran war

A cut to fuel duty should be extended to reflect the rise in petrol prices, the government’s cost of living champion has said.Richard Walker, the executive chair of the supermarket chain Iceland, urged Keir Starmer not to raise the levy in September, in light of the conflict in the Middle East.The strait of Hormuz, a crucial trading artery between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, has been blockaded since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran at the end of February.A fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait, and its closure has sent global prices soaring, putting pressure on the world economy.Fuel duty is frozen until September, when the government will review any rise

Labour challenges Farage over cost of private jet trip to Maldives

Labour has queried Nigel Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to a billionaire donor cost as little as £25,000 as the Reform leader attempted to reach the Chagos Islands.Farage initially recorded his two-day trip to the Maldives as costing £12,500 funded by Thailand-based Reform megadonor Christopher Harborne, before upgrading this to £25,000 in the latest register of interests.The Guardian reported that ownership of the private jet was linked to Harborne, who has given the party more than £12m.However, Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, wrote to Farage on Thursday arguing that chartering a private jet of a similar size would cost many times more than the sum declared.“According to publicly available flight logs, this was an 11,000-mile round trip, lasting just over 23 hours, using a model of plane that is currently advertised on multiple private jet websites as costing at least $11,500 (£8,500) per hour to charter,” she said

Starmer must call energy summit akin to 2008 crisis response, Labour MP says

Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran.The MP for East Thanet said the impending energy crisis caused by the war was “as big as the financial crash” and required “a response of equal magnitude”. She said the increase in prices would not be temporary or regional, and that “economic pain, falling living standards and social anger create fertile ground for extremist politics”.While she said the government’s convening of 35 countries to discuss the reopening of the strait of Hormuz was a good step, a bigger global response was needed on energy

Drip-feed of Reform UK controversies puts party’s policy drive in shade

It was a week that started with a candid admission from Nigel Farage. When asked if Reform UK’s vetting process was finally up to scratch, the party leader said: “I accept that at the last general election basically there was no vetting really.” He was speaking after the latest of what a senior colleague had described as a “series of abhorrent incidents”.That latest incident had involved a Welsh Senedd candidate, Corey Edwards, who was forced to step down last Friday after a picture of him appearing to do a Nazi salute surfaced online.Yet while Farage went on to tell reporters at a Heathrow press conference on Tuesday that they would find Reform was “doing pretty well now”, just two days later another frontline party member was in hot water

UK politics Q&A, as it happened: Andrew Sparrow answers your questions on Starmer, Reform and more

Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.The NHS is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Nick Candy, the honorary treasurer of Reform UK and a major donor, has sold his mansion in the Chelsea district of London for a reported £275m.Thank you for the questions everone. Happy Easter