Keir Starmer defends trip to South Africa for G20 summit as budget looms
Keir Starmer has defended his decision to travel to South Africa for the G20 summit days before the budget and despite the planned absence of Donald Trump.The prime minister will arrive in South Africa on Friday morning for two days of summit discussions and bilateral talks on topics including sustainability and economic growth.But with his chancellor putting the final touches on a potentially controversial budget and Trump having said he has decided to stay away, No 10 insisted on Thursday that the prime minister’s latest foreign trip would be good value for British taxpayers.On the way to Johannesburg, Starmer said: “If you want to deal with the cost of living and make people better off with good, secure jobs, investment from G20 partners and allies is really important.“Those discussions from those relations … are measured in real jobs back in the UK that are really important when the economy and the cost of living is the most important thing.
”The prime minister will attend a business event on Friday before going to the main summit on Saturday.But while he will host bilateral meetings with world leaders, he will not be able to meet Trump, who has said he is not attending after accusing South Africa of racially discriminating against the minority white Afrikaner community.South Africa has responded by accusing the US of “coercion by absentia”.Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, told the B20 business summit on Thursday: “We are sovereign countries.And we need to be treated as equals.
“Our sovereignty needs to be respected.We need to sit around the table as equals and having the same share of knowledge, the same share of capability, without any bullying the other.”Asked about Trump, Starmer said: “Obviously President Trump set out his position.I think it’s really important to be there and talk to other partners and allies so we can get on with the discussions around global issues that have to be addressed.”Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping will also be absent from the summit.
While South Africa and Russia maintain close ties, Putin is wanted by the international criminal court, to which South Africa is a signatory.Xi has skipped many international gatherings this year, delegating attendance at the Brics and Asean summits to China’s premier, Li Qiang.Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionBritish officials say Starmer will also spend part of the trip trying to shore up support for Ukraine, as Trump draws up a peace plan that would force it to give up weapons and territory.The prime minister was briefed on the outline of the plan when he met the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for dinner in Berlin this week.They will have a chance to exchange further notes when they meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the sidelines of this weekend’s summit.
While Starmer works the international diplomatic circuit, his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is finalising a budget likely to include billions of pounds in tax rises, including a freeze on income tax thresholds.The prime minister and the chancellor decided last week to abandon a plan to raise income tax rates, leaving Reeves looking at other ways to raise about £20bn extra in tax revenue.Starmer said: “Obviously the details of the budget will come on Wednesday.It’ll be a Labour budget with Labour values.It’ll be based on fairness.
“We have to see this in the context of 16, 17 years now where we’ve had the crash in 2008, followed by austerity, followed by a not very good Brexit deal, followed by Covid, followed by Ukraine, and that’s why we have to take the decision to get this back on track.“I’m optimistic about the future.I do think if we get this right our country has a great future.”
Serious Fraud Office arrests two men over suspected £20m crypto fraud
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has arrested two men as it launched an investigation into a suspected £20m cryptocurrency fraud.The law enforcement agency raided two sites in West Yorkshire and London as it appealed for information about $28m (£21.4m) invested into a cryptocurrency scheme called Basis Markets.Two men, one in his 30s and another in his 40s, were arrested on suspicion of multiple fraud and money-laundering offences, the agency said.Basis Markets, which the SFO described as a “suspected fraudulent scheme” and is not a company, is said to have raised millions of pounds via two public fundraisers in November and December 2021, stating it would use the cash to create a “crypto hedge fund”
Industry can’t wait any longer for a fix to its energy crisis. Ministers should get a move on | Nils Pratley
In the long list of budget submissions from the business world, here’s one the chancellor is probably disinclined to smile upon.Make UK, the body representing manufacturers, would like the government to expand its energy support scheme – the one unveiled in June as part of the shiny new industrial strategy – from 7,000 firms to 115,000 businesses. And it would like the promised savings in electricity bills to be backdated to April this year; as scheduled, the so-called British industrial competitiveness scheme, or BICS, is due to arrive only in April 2027.One doubts Rachel Reeves will go there for three reasons. First, these things never get backdated
‘No contract, no coffee’: what to know about the Starbucks workers’ strike in 65 US cities
Unionized Starbucks workers are threatening to expand a US strike against the world’s biggest coffee chain into “the largest and longest” in the company’s history – and urging customers to steer clear.Starbucks has said the vast majority of its cafes remain open, and expressed disappointment that Starbucks Workers United launched the strike.Negotiations over the first ever union contract for Starbucks workers in the US broke down in recent months. Both sides have blamed the other.Prominent politicians including Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, have backed the striking workers
UK is worst-performing market for JD Sports as youth unemployment hits sales
Unemployment among young people in the UK is hitting sales growth and profits at JD Sports, the owner of the trainer and sportwear chain has said, amid warnings about the high number of under-25s not in work, education or training.The UK was the worst-performing market for JD Group, which also owns Blacks, Go Outdoors and a number of US and European sports chains.Régis Schultz, the chief executive, said JD was experiencing “pressures on our core customer demographic, including rising unemployment levels, as well as near-term volatility around consumer sentiment”.His comments came as official figures on Thursday showed the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) remains stubbornly close to the highest level in a decade.Despite a modest decline in the three months to September to 946,000, down from 948,000 in the previous quarter, campaigners said the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Britain was at risk of failing a whole generation of young people
US economy added more jobs than forecast in September, after shock losses in August – as it happened
Newsflash: The US economy added more jobs than forecast in September, as America’s jobs market picked up after a summer lull.September’s official employment report, delayed since the start of October by the US government shutdown, shows that nonfarm payroll employment rose by 119,000 in September.That’s more than twice as many jobs as expected, thanks to gains in health care, food services and drinking places, and social assistance. Job losses occurred in transportation and warehousing and in federal government, though.But there’s bad news too
Asda to raise £568m in store sell-off as sales continue to fall
Asda is selling off 24 stores and a distribution centre – and leasing them back – to raise £568m in what has been called a “sign of weakness” as sales at the heavily indebted retailer continue to fall.The Leeds-based supermarket group, which is expected to release its quarterly results next week, has continued to lose market share to rivals as sales have gone backwards, despite an effort to win over shoppers with price cuts and improved stores.Sales fell 3.9% in the three months to 2 November, according to data from Worldpanel by Numerator (formerly Kantar), which indicated a one percentage point drop in market share from a year before.Asda’s parent group slumped to a near-£600m loss last year as sales fell and the cost of servicing its debt pile increased
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