Tory former energy secretary facing conflict of interest claim over JCB owner links

A Conservative former cabinet ­minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty – including a £7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter – oversaw decisions to award his family’s business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.Claire Coutinho also posed for ­pictures promoting Lord Bamford’s personal £100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a £7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.The revelations raise questions about possible conflicts of interest for the East Surrey MP – who is now serving as shadow secretary for energy security and net zero – and shed light on a wider pattern of donations from the JCB empire, which has given £300,000 to the Conservatives in 2024 alone.While the Tories were in office, Coutinho’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was responsible for allocating funding from the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and other funding pots intended to boost green energy initiatives.The family of Lord Bamford, a longtime leading donor to the Conservatives and a friend of former prime minister Boris Johnson, has invested heavily in hydrogen and lobbied for government spending on infrastructure projects

We will fight Trump’s plans to slap tariffs on the UK – Rachel Reeves

The chancellor Rachel Reeves will use a keynote speech this week to promote free and open trade between nations as a cornerstone of UK economic policy, putting the Labour government on direct collision course with president-elect Donald Trump.Reeves will use her first speech at the Mansion House – an annual showpiece for the chancellor – to outline a post-budget plan to “go for growth”. But as the UK government scrambles to respond to Trump’s emphatic victory, and the challenges it poses for Britain on vital issues of economic and foreign policy, the chancellor is expected to be clear that she will take the fight to Washington in defence of free trade.The issue is fast emerging as a major test for relations between the incoming Trump presidency and London, along with their widely differing approaches over continuing support for Ukraine’s war with Russia. On Friday Trump – who has promised to slap high tariffs on all imports into the US – wasted no time in asking the arch-protectionist Robert Lighthizer to return as US trade representative when he takes over at the White House again in January

Don’t fall into ‘populist trap’ of backing Trump, Badenoch warned

Kemi Badenoch is being urged not to “fall into a populist trap” by pulling the Conservative party too close to Donald Trump amid a mounting debate among senior Tories about how the party can learn from the president-elect’s decisive victory.Badenoch used her first outing at prime minister’s questions as Tory leader to highlight the disparaging remarks made about Trump by foreign secretary David Lammy before suggesting Trump would be thanking the Labour activists who travelled to the US to campaign for Kamala Harris.However, the intervention has caused some concerns among liberal Tories, who are warning Badenoch against aligning herself too closely with Trump’s success. “I thought she fell into a populist trap,” said one former cabinet minister. “We need to think carefully about the fact that we lost the election to the left

In an increasingly uncertain world, we Europeans must be bold and build hope | Stella Creasey and Sandro Gozi

In the 1930s Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist philosopher, warned that as the old order was dying, the new world was struggling to be born. In 2024, politics again strains, opening the doors to the chaos he feared. For too long, many have hoped that the rise of extremes could be ignored and the public would not be swayed. Following the US election, and as parties of the far-right gain support in Europe, all who cherish freedom must commit to fighting for a politics that unlocks talent not hatred. For us, that means the priority is the future relationship between the EU and the UK

Boost UK defence spending to win Trump’s support, former navy chief urges Starmer

Keir Starmer is being urged to consider an emergency cash injection into defence and to accelerate Britain’s planned review of its military capabilities before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.Senior defence figures are now assessing how Trump’s victory will shape a strategic defence review (SDR) that was already under way in Whitehall, whose findings are due to be reported in the spring. The SDR comes alongside a crucial review of public spending.However, Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves are already facing calls to think again about the immediate funding allocated to defence, amid concerns that a clear plan for the military’s future may not be in place until next summer.Starmer’s commitment to spend 2

Ed Davey urges Starmer to ‘Trump-proof’ UK with closer European ties

Ed Davey has urged Keir Starmer to “Trump-proof” the UK by urgently seeking closer European cooperation over military aid for Ukraine and economic ties, after the US president-elect’s threats about security and trade wars.The Liberal Democrat leader, whose party is the third biggest in the House of Commons, argued that while the UK government should seek to work with a Donald Trump administration, it should also be as prepared as possible if he were to abandon Ukraine or impose sweeping tariffs.“Yes, we can work with him,” Davey said. “Of course we should, and it may well be that we can, but it would be irresponsible not to take the measures in a diplomatic way, defensive way, that would make our national security and our economy Trump-proof.“I think millions of people in the UK and elsewhere are just really worried and quite scared