Keir Starmer joins Macron for Armistice Day as leaders discuss Trump and Nato – UK politics latest

Experts have warned of a looming trade war after Mr Trump himself said: “Tariff is my favourite word”.

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Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of the Conservatives and the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, have both arrived to give evidence to the Post Office inquiry.

She will answer questions later this afternnon having held the business portfolio in the last government.

Donald Trump has insisted he would find a solution to end the war in Ukraine “within a day” without explaining how he would do so, which some have interpreted to mean a peace on terms favourable to Moscow.

Facing broadcasters on Monday morning, defence secretary John Healey said he expected the new administration to continue backing Ukraine until it secures a victory over Russia.

“As far as President Trump goes, he recognises that countries get security through strength, just as alliances like Nato do, and I expect the US to remain alongside allies like the UK, standing with Ukraine for as long as it takes to prevail over Putin’s invasion,” he told Sky News.

He dismissed suggestions that a withdrawal of US commitments to Nato, which Mr Trump has previously alluded to, would leave the UK weakened.

“I don’t expect the US to turn away from Nato. They recognise the importance of the alliance. They recognise the importance of avoiding further conflict in Europe,” Mr Healey said.

As part of the commemorations of Armistice Day in Paris, Sir Keir Starmer and the French President Emmanuel Macron have laid a wreath at the Winston Churchill statue in Paris.

The two also travelled in an open roof car to review troops around the Arc de Triomphe.

The morning after Donald Trump’s election, Britain’s top diplomat to the United States posted a photograph of herself wearing a wide-brimmed hat and orange dress, standing next to Trump in the Oval Office — presumably taken during his first administration. “We look forward to deepening our already profound and successful partnership as we deal with the challenges of the 21st century,” she wrote.

Dame Karen Pierce knows diplomacy. So well, in fact, that if the rumours turn out to be true, despite her four-year term ending, Sir Keir Starmer will reappoint her as the UK’s ambassador to the US – a move that will acknowledge just how adept the 65-year-old has proven in the delicate task of handling Trump.

It’s a role that it’s fair to say she’s probably more than happy remaining in, too. In April, she told a party in the gardens of the British embassy at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue that she would have “to be dragged out of here by my fingernails” – despite the fact that David Miliband, Baroness Amos and Lord Mandelson were all tipped for her job. But Pierce has something they don’t: Trump experience.

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This week Rachel Reeves will use her Mansion House speech in the City of London to “promote free and open trade between nations”. The word is that the chancellor is “expected to be clear that she will take the fight to Washington in defence of free trade”.

With Donald Trump having just seen one female progressive politician off so recently, Reeves is displaying considerable pluck in squaring up to the nascent Maga administration.

Perhaps, some such as Kemi Badenoch argue, Reeves should instead take the opportunity to seize the most valuable of Brexit opportunities, and press president-elect Trump for the free trade deal with the United States we’ve been yearning for ever since that fateful referendum eight and a half years ago.

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Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have greeted members of the defence community and military officials in Paris, as they observed a minute’s silence.

The event marks the 106th anniversary of Armistice Day, which brought the First World War to an end.

A possible trade war with the US will not be as bad as feared, a former political appointee in the last Trump administration has said – claiming the president-elect will target the European Union more significantly than Britain as he wants to see a “successful Brexit”.

Peggy Grande, who was a political appointee for Donald Trump, told The Independent he is likely to give a “preferential trade deal to the UK” and she thinks tariffs will “more greatly affect the EU than the UK”.

It comes amid fears of a global trade war, after the Republican politician pledged to impose levies of 10 per cent on all goods imports from US trading partners, and up to 60 per cent and 100 per cent for China and Mexico.

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Defence secretary John Healey has rejected reported comments by Ukrainian officials suggesting Kyiv is unhappy with the Labour Government’s level of support.

He said it is “simply not correct” to say the situation is not the same as it was under Rishi Sunak and has worsened under the new administration.

It comes after the Guardian reported officials in Kyiv as having said relations have deteriorated since Labour took office and voiced frustration over Britain’s failure to provide additional long-range weapons.

Asked about the reported remarks, Mr Healey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That is simply not correct.

“We’ve stepped up with more military support. We’ve speeded up deliveries. We’re now spending more on military aid for Ukraine than ever before as a UK Government, and I spoke at length to the defence minister in Ukraine yesterday.

“He certainly doesn’t see the UK support weakening, and he said the Ukrainians are confident in Britain’s continuing and steadfast support for their country.”