Starmer announces support for car and pharma industries in ‘age of insecurity’

Keir Starmer has announced sweeping measures to support the car and pharmaceutical industries, as he said Britain faced a “changing and completely new world” after Donald Trump’s tariffs.The prime minister warned of an “age of insecurity” as stock markets tumbled for a third day after the US president announced blanket import taxes on countries across the world.Speaking at the Jaguar Land Rover factory near Birmingham, Starmer said US tariffs – set at 10% for UK exports and 25% on cars – were a “huge challenge for our future and the global economic consequences could be profound”.He defended the fiscal rules set by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her October budget and said now was “the time to build on them” to ensure stability, but declined to commit to keeping them until the next election.Starmer recommitted, however, to Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise VAT, income tax or national insurance for employees until the end of this parliament

UK Home Office loses attempt to keep legal battle with Apple secret

The UK has lost an attempt to keep details of a legal battle with Apple away from the public.The investigatory powers tribunal, which investigates whether the domestic intelligence services have acted unlawfully, on Monday rejected a bid by the Home Office to withhold from the public the “bare details” of the case.A judgment from Lord Justice Singh, president of the investigatory powers tribunal, and Mr Justice Johnson, on Monday confirmed some details of the case for the first time.They confirmed that the case relates to a legal challenge brought against the Home Office by Apple over the power to make technical capability notices under the Investigatory Powers Act.According to the judgment, the Home Office argued that revealing the existence of the claim, as well as the names of the parties involved, would be damaging to national security

Rights groups urge Starmer to dial down anti-migrant rhetoric

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.The criticisms are contained in a letter to the UK prime minister, coordinated by Together With Refugees, a campaign coalition of more than 600 organisations. It has been sent to the prime minister in response to comments he made before the Organised Immigration Crime Summit on 31 March, where more than 40 countries came together in London to focus on tackling organised immigration crime including people-smuggling gangs.Starmer said: “But we all pay the price for insecure borders – from the cost of accommodating migrants to the strain on our public services. It is a basic question of fairness

Areas receiving levelling-up funds show smaller Reform UK vote share, study finds

Areas that received money from the last government’s much-criticised levelling up fund tended to have lower votes for Reform UK in the general election, a study has found, indicating that projects delivering quick results may hold back support for populism.The study by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) thinktank, billed as the first to examine a mass of data factors linked to support for Reform at the level of individual seats, identified a series of factors likely to make voters more likely to back Nigel Farage’s party.Some were common to studies about populism in other countries, for example a correlation between a lower number of local voters having degrees and above-average support for Reform.The party also tended to do well in places with a large white population, along with areas where this was becoming proportionally lower due to newer arrivals. Higher levels of crime were also closely associated with Farage’s party doing well

Shabana Mahmood: lord chancellor with political nous unafraid to shake up system

Shabana Mahmood’s potential as a future cabinet minister was first noticed by the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson in the 90s over tea and samosas at her family’s end-of-terrace Birmingham home.Watson, a seasoned fixer, had become a close friend of her father, Mahmood Ahmed, the chair of Birmingham Labour party. When political problems arose, Watson and fellow Labour party organisers would be guided through to comfy sofas in the family sitting room.He said the group, nearly all middle-aged men, would “start babbling” about the latest ructions and discuss how to negotiate multilayered West Midlands politics involving factions and complex community alliances.Inevitably, Ahmed would turn towards his daughter, who had appeared with a fresh pot of tea

What a leftwing leader needs to do to earn credibility | Letters

Owen Jones makes the case that a credible leftwing leader needs to win over alienated voters and dodge culture wars (The left needs to halt the UK’s slide into Farageism. This is the kind of leader who could do it, 3 April). That starts by rejecting the terms left and right – where people sat in revolutionary France’s national assembly does not accurately define today’s politics.The leadership team of any new political movement must convince voters of two things. One: “I trust these people to run the country