Starmer says he is ‘fed up’ with Trump and Putin’s impact on UK energy costs
Keir Starmer has said he is “fed up” with the effect that Donald Trump’s actions in the Middle East are having on the British public, while appearing to draw a comparison between the US president and Vladimir Putin.Speaking to ITV’s Robert Peston on Thursday, the prime minister said: “I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”Starmer, who has been heavily criticised, and at times mocked, by Trump for not committing British forces to the war on Iran, also appeared to condemn Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon, despite Iran calling for Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire that was agreed on 7 April.“That should stop – that’s my strong view – and therefore, the question isn’t a technical one of whether it’s a breach of the agreement or not,” Starmer said.Starmer and Trump spoke on Thursday about the need for a “practical plan” to get shipping going through the strait of Hormuz after the Middle East ceasefire.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister spoke to President Trump from Qatar this evening.The prime minister set out his discussions with Gulf leaders and military planners in the region on the need to restore freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz, as well as the UK’s efforts to convene partners to agree a viable plan.“They agreed that now there is a ceasefire in place and agreement to open the strait, we are at the next stage of finding a resolution.The leaders discussed the need for a practical plan to get shipping moving again as quickly as possible.”Starmer also said on ITV that although Britain did not have “access to all the details of the ceasefire”, he disagreed with the attacks on Lebanon: “Let me be really clear about it: they’re wrong.
”Writing in the Guardian on Thursday, Starmer said he wanted Britain to be “a country where people are not at the mercy of events abroad”,He added that while the responses of previous governments to world events were to simply “manage the crisis, find a sticking plaster and then desperately try to reassert the status quo”, he promised his government would do better,“This time, it will be different,The war in Iran must now become a line in the sand, because how we emerge from this crisis will define all of us for a generation,”The prime minister’s relationship with Britain’s allies has been noticeably strained since the US and Israel’s war with Iran began in late February.
Starmer and other European leaders have been repeatedly chastised and belittled by Trump and other prominent members of his administration,These have included Trump sharing a video from the sketch show SNL UK in which Starmer is portrayed as being scared of the US president and trying to avoid his call, and stating that he is “no Winston Churchill”,Others on the receiving end of Trump’s ire include the French president, Emmanual Macron,Trump claimed Macron’s “wife treats him extremely badly” and even suggested that she hits him, claiming that Macron was “still recovering from the right to the jaw” when he spoke to him earlier in the month,The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has been outspoken in his disapproval of the wars in Iran and Gaza, has been one of Trump’s most vocal detractors.
In response, the president has threatened to cut off all trade and suggested that if the US wanted to use Spain’s bases in the region, they would take them by force, stating: “If we want, we can just fly in and use it.Nobody is going to tell us not to use it.”
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon should not be happening, says Keir Starmer
Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening”, Keir Starmer has said on his visit to the Middle East, as he called for the Iran conflict to become a watershed moment for the future security of the UK.In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister said the UK’s response to the crisis must involve a fundamental reset in terms of making the country more resilient, including by boosting defence and having closer links to Europe.His comments on Israel echoed criticisms by Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary; and John Healey, the defence secretary, emphasising a potentially widening gap between the UK and Donald Trump’s US over the Iran conflict and its aftermath.As well as the condemnation over Lebanon, Starmer and his ministers have been adamant that the strait of Hormuz must be free of any sort of tolls or levies, after Trump mooted the idea of a “joint venture” between the US and Iran to do this.Speaking in Bahrain on a trip in which he has also held talks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on shoring up the tentative ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel, and fully reopening the strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, Starmer criticised Israel’s intensified bombing in Lebanon, which has killed more than 250 people
Starmer says talks with Gulf leaders have reinforced sense Iran war ceasefire is ‘fragile’ – as it happened
Keir Starmer has said he discussed the “fragile” nature of the US-Iran ceasefire with Gulf allies and that “it takes more than just words” to make it permanent, the Press Association reports.After talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Starmer told broadcasters:double quotation markI think the mood is very much one of the shock that they were attacked in the first place, because of course they weren’t attacking Iran, and the intensity of some of the attacks.Relief that there’s now a ceasefire. I think a general sense that it’s fragile, that there’s work to do in relation to it.And then a lot of reflection and discussion, me with them, about the work we did over the last six to seven weeks together, the collective self-defence, the capabilities
‘No more bending to Westminster’s will’ if Plaid Cymru wins power, leader vows
Plaid Cymru’s leader has promised “no more bending to Westminster’s will” as the nationalist party stands on the brink of taking office for the first time in next month’s Senedd elections.Speaking at Plaid Cymru’s manifesto launch in Wrexham on Thursday – chosen because of its football team, which has showcased Wales’s potential to the world – Rhun ap Iorwerth told a packed room of supporters there would be “no more toeing the London party line, no more defending the status quo and no more saying no to Wales”.He said: “Together, and for the first time, we can give our nation the leadership it deserves, leadership that takes its cue from the people of Wales and nobody else.”Labour has led Wales since devolution in 1999 but it appears destined for opposition. Polls consistently suggest the May contest is a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, with Labour a distant third or even fourth after the Green party
Why colluding with King Donald’s insanity is the only game in town | John Crace
The Madness of King Donald. Unless you’ve spent most of the last few years on a silent retreat – and who could blame you? – it can’t have escaped you that the American president is both not that bright and borderline sociopathic. A lethal combination. Posting “Open the Fuckin’ Strait you crazy bastards or you’ll be living in Hell” on his social media account is not the action of a well man. Certainly not when the Middle East is on a knife-edge
UK spending on foreign aid hits lowest level since 2008
The UK government’s spending on foreign aid has hit its lowest level in nearly two decades, figures show, as humanitarian experts say the cuts are costing lives.Provisional data shows the government allocated 0.43% of national income to official development assistance (ODA) in 2025, down from 0.5% in 2024 and matching the level in 2008.The total ODA spend in 2025 was just over £13bn, an annual decrease of £1bn, or 7
Zack Polanski calls for UK to withdraw trade agreement with Israel after strikes on Lebanon
Zack Polanski has called on the government to tear up the UK-Israel trade agreement after the Israeli strikes on Lebanon.Polanski also called for Keir Starmer to ban the US using UK airspace and said sanctions should be imposed on Israel, which he accused of “behaving in a completely uncontrolled way”.“What is it going to take for this government to actually put robust sanctions on Israel?” he said at the launch of the Green party local election campaign in London.“It is outrageous that Israel is still enjoying diplomatic and trade privileges from the international community. As a Green party, we are calling on this government to make much more robust sanctions, to withdraw the UK-Israel trade agreement and to end the genocide
The Guide #237: Fab 5 Freddy, the street artist at the heart of New York’s creative zenith
From The Drama to Malcolm in the Middle: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Post your questions for DJ Shadow
Colbert on Trump’s shifting tone on Iran: ‘It’s a military strategy known as starting a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle’
Chatting dating, jazz and the Harlem Renaissance: the exclusive supper clubs where Black women nourish community
‘After one gig, someone stole my car with my dole money in it’: Morcheeba on how they made The Sea