Trump says it is a “great honour” to have Starmer in the oval office.
It’s a special place, and he’s a special man.
He says they will announce a visit by Trump to the UK.
They will be discussing trade, Russia and other issues – and will get on on all of those topics, he says.
They will have lunch, a work session, and then a press conference, he says.
Keir Starmer are in the Oval Office now.
Trump says it is a “great honour” to have Starmer in the oval office.
It’s a special place, and he’s a special man.
He says they will announce a visit by Trump to the UK.
They will be discussing trade, Russia and other issues – and will get on on all of those topics, he says.
They will have lunch, a work session, and then a press conference, he says.
Ukraine?” one reporter yelled.
“Yes, we can, we will,” Trump responded, flashing a thumbs up as Starmer stood at his side.
Starmer did not respond to a question as to whether he would get a “backstop”, meaning security guarantees from the US for European peacekeepers in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Ukraine.
Donald Trump replies: “Yes.”
A reporter asks Keir Starmer if he will get a “backstop” – the term being used for a security guarantee from America, so that it will provide backup support (including airpower and logistics) to a European force on the ground providing ‘tripwire” security for Ukraine.
Starmer chooses not to answer that one.
President Trump is at the door of the White House to meet Keir Starmer, who is arriving now.
When President Macron arrived on Monday, he was met at the door by a protocol officer.
Donald Trump a present with a Scottish/Tartan element, according to Sky News.
Not sure that will do the trick. Shinzo Abe, the late former Japanese PM who was seen as the world leader who established the best relationship with Trump duing his first term, brought the president a gold golf club.
on Bluesky.
Today’s Starmer/Trump meeting will set the tone for UK-US relations for years to come & is a vital opportunity for our PM to set clear red lines.
Crucially – Starmer must make clear to Trump that the UK will stand firmly against his appalling plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
one post, about the child rape scandal, Musk accused Starmer of “complicty in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain”.
Within the last half an hour or so, Rick Scott, a Florida senator, posted a message on X saying he was going to the White House for a meeting with Trump and Musk.
On my way to the White House for a Senate @DOGE Caucus meeting with President @realDonaldTrump and @ElonMusk.
Together, we will rein in the reckless spending and end the waste, fraud and abuse!
2.04pm), but a Trump administration official has told the Telegraph that they still want the UK to get defence spending up to 5% of GDP. This is the target that President Trump set for Nato countries in a speech to Davos in January.
But Trump needs to have a word with his own government; the US is well short of the 5% target too.
Here is a Guardian graphic with defence spending figures for some Nato countries as a proportion of GDP.
Ukraine.
At a press gallery lunch today, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said he did not think Keir Starmer should adopt this approach during his meeting with the president. Asked if Starmer should correct Trump in real time, Reed replied:
The question on Donald Trump, I don’t think it is for the prime minister on any visit to be factchecking, as you put it, his host … It’s for the British prime minister to advocate for the interest of the United Kingdom in a way that is most likely to secure the outcomes that we want.
So that is the approach the prime minister will be taking.
It’s not performative. It’s extremely serious about getting the outcomes that we need, whether that would be on trade, on security, or any other issue I’m sure that might come up during those kinds of meetings.
just arrived in Florida despite facing charges in Romania for rape, people trafficking and money laundering (which they deny), hope that at some point they might get a meeting with the president. Andrew Tate, a “misogynist influencer” with a huge online following, has been a vocal Trump supporter.
The Liberal Democrats are urging Starmer to raise this case with Trump and urge him to ensure the brothers do not evade justice. Lisa Smart, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, said:
Andrew Tate is accused of rape and trafficking children in the UK. Allowing the Tate brothers to hide from justice in Florida would be ignoring the rule of law and our extradition treaties.
An attempt by Trump to stand in the way of Britain’s justice system would be deeply wrong. The prime minister should raise this as a priority, and make clear that any interference in this way would be unacceptable.
Here is our story about the Tates being allowed to leave Romania.
according to new Home Office data.
The figure, which covers main applicants and dependants, is down by a third (33%) from just under 1.4 million in 2023.
The fall has been driven by a steep drop in the number of people issued with work-related visas, which was down 40% from 613,627 in 2023 to 369,419 last year.
The number of study visas fell year-on-year by 31% from 604,253 to 419,312. By contrast, there was a small rise in family visas, up 7% from 80,083 to 86,049.
Among the resettlement categories, 19,346 visas were issued under the Ukraine schemes (down 52% year-on-year), 19,273 were granted to British National Overseas status holders from Hong Kong (down 32%), and 13,869 were under the EU Settlement Scheme (down 20%), PA Medis reports.
In addition, 3,864 were for dependants joining or accompanying others and 3,426 were under other settlement schemes.
The total number of visas issued across all these categories last year, 934,558, is down sharply from 1,393,079 in 2023.
It is also the lowest total for any 12-month period since the year to December 2021, when the figure stood at 858,766.
The drop is likely to reflect changes in legal migration rules introduced since January 2024 by the previous Conservative government, including a ban on overseas care workers and students bringing family dependants, and a steep rise in the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700.
The number of people offered safe and legal routes to the UK dropped by more than a fifth in a year, figures show.
The government said this was mainly down to a fall in the number of visa and extensions granted on the schemes set up in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A migrant help charity said changes to the schemes had made it “much harder” for Ukrainians to apply and called for more to be done “so that Ukrainians can bring all their loved ones to safety”.
The Ukraine Family Scheme, under which people were able to apply to live, work and study in the UK and access public funds for up to three years, closed under the Conservative government in February last year, PA Media reports.
The Ukraine Extension Scheme (UES), which had allowed people already in the UK to remain, closed to most people last May and fully earlier this month.
It was replaced by the Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) scheme, allowing Ukrainians to extend their stay for a further 18 months.
There were 22,873 people offered visas or extensions under the Ukraine schemes last year, down 53% on 2023 (49,027 people).
Last year’s figure was less than a tenth of the 232,135 people offered visas or extensions on the Ukraine schemes in their first year of existence in 2022.
A total of 79,312 people were offered safe and legal routes to come to or stay in the UK in 2024.
This was down 21% on 100,124 in 2023.
Source: theguardian.com
