2 hours ago
10
Emily Thornberry is the latest figure to call on the king’s visit to the US to be delayed, citing the ongoing war against Iran
LIVE Updated 1m ago
King Charles with Donald Trump at Windsor Castle in 2025 Photograph: Aaron Chown/Reuters
Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Labour's Emily Thornberry backs calls for king's state visit to US to be postponed given Iran war and US rift with its allies
Good morning. Keir Starmer is chairing cabinet this morning, and government business is still dominate by foreign policy. Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is in the Commons later where she will give an update on the UK’s response to the US-Israeli war against Iran, doubtless firming up the line set out by Starmer yesterday.
And Starmer himself is meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general.
European leaders are not enthusiastic about fighting Tehran, but they are very committed to supporting Ukraine, and alarmed that about the only country that has gained from the Iran war at no cost is Russia. This is bound to come up this afternoon.
Starmer has largely resisted the temptation to hit back at Trump’s endless provocations, which escalated yesterday when the president accused the PM of dithering and being over-reliant on his advisers. But this morning Starmer is being encouraged to engage in some soft power retaliation – by cancelling the king’s state visit to the US planned for next month.
Until now calling for the state visit to be postponed has primarily been an Ed Davey obsession – and once an idea becomes a Lib Dem policy, the chances of Starmer endorsing it tend to plummet. But this morning Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, also endorsed the idea, which means it has a toehold in Labour mainstream thinking, and makes it a bit more credible as a potential option.
In an interview on the Today programme, asked if she favoured postponing the visit, Thornberry said:
If it was to go ahead next month – the dates haven’t been confirmed, but everybody seems to think it’s going to be next month – it would go ahead against a backdrop of a war and that, I think, is quite difficult. The last thing that we want to do is to have Their Majesties embarrassed.
The visit is meant to be taking place at the end of April. It is possible, of course, that the war could be over by then, but there is no guarantee of that, given that Trump does not seem have have an exit strategy, and the Iranian regime is intact and committed to keeping the fight going.
In the inteview Thornberry went on:
I think it needs to be thought through very carefully as to whether or not it’s appropriate to go ahead now, or maybe have a limited program, or delay it. But we can’t just pretend that there isn’t a background of war.
When pressed as to what she thought should happen, Thornberry said:
I suspect it would be safer to delay it, but I don’t know the details.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs a meeting of the cabinet, including a political cabinet.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in east Surrey.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Robert Jenrick, his Treasury spokesperson, hold a press conference. As the BBC reports, they are going to proposing getting rid of VAT and green levies on energy bills – as well as announcing a lottery prize draw, open to anyone, with Reform UK paying energy bills for the winner, and their whole street, for a year.
11.30am: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the US-Israel war against Iran.
1.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, delivers the Mais lecture. As Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog, she will identify innovation and AI, closer ties with Europe, and regional growth as three big opportunities for economic growth in the UK.
Afternoon: Starmer meets Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, in Downing Street. Starmer is also meeting Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general.
Afternoon: MPs debate all stages of the ministerial salaries (amendment) bill, which will increase the number of government ministers who can be paid a salary from 109 (the limit set in an act passed in 1975) to 120.
3.40pm: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives a speech at the Society of Editors conference.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Government defeated in Lords on pensions bill as peers vote down plan to let ministers tell pension schemes where to invest
The House of Lords last night inflicted three defeats on the government over its plans to reform private pensions, the Press Association reports. PA says:
The pension schemes bill aims to increase benefits for members of defined contribution schemes by providing them with more information about their pensions and retirement options, consolidating savings pots and securing better returns.
Controversially, the bill includes a reserve power that would force pension schemes to invest in productive assets meant to benefit the UK economy.
This has raised concerns that this could interfere with the duty of trustees to act in the best interests of their members, known as fiduciary duty.
Conservative backbench peer Lady Noakes tabled an amendment that would ensure that this mandation could not apply to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
Noakes said: “I’ve tabled amendment four to ensure that the power cannot be used to tell local government schemes to invest in particular assets, asset classes or location of investment. I firmly believed that fiduciary duties are paramount and should never be interfered with by the government, whether in relation to public sector schemes like the LGPS or private sector ones.”
Responding, Labour frontbencher Lord Katz said the bill “allows the government to make regulations specifying matters that administering authorities must or may cover in their investment strategy”.
He said: “It is not designed to permit government to dictate what that strategy says.”
Lord Katz said the provision will be used to require LGPS investment strategies to include an approach and target range for local investment, high level funding objectives and an approach to responsible investment, and a strategic asset allocation.
However, it remains for LGPS administering authorities to determine what those objectives, approaches, asset allocations and target ranges will be.
Peers backed the amendment by 276 votes to 165, a majority of 111.
The government was also defeated on a Tory amendment to improve transparency around the assumptions and level of prudence applied in LGPS actuarial variations (by a majority of 24), and on a Tory amendment to make interim reviews of employer contribution rates more accessible and transparent (by a majority of 27).
Trump says he's expecting king's state visit to US to go ahead
Yesterday Donald Trump confirmed that he expects the king’s state visit to the US to go ahead at the end of April. As the Mail reports, speaking about his plan to build a new, mega ballroom on the east wing of the White House, Trump said he needed a facility like this because of the weather in Washington. He explained:
And you know the land in Washington was built on a swampy wetland.
And when it rains, and you have the King of Saudi Arabia ... the King of the UK, I would say King of England, a great guy, he’s coming in very soon. And when it rains, you know what happened? And the rain would go over their feet.
Labour's Emily Thornberry backs calls for king's state visit to US to be postponed given Iran war and US rift with its allies
Good morning. Keir Starmer is chairing cabinet this morning, and government business is still dominate by foreign policy. Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is in the Commons later where she will give an update on the UK’s response to the US-Israeli war against Iran, doubtless firming up the line set out by Starmer yesterday.
And Starmer himself is meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general.
European leaders are not enthusiastic about fighting Tehran, but they are very committed to supporting Ukraine, and alarmed that about the only country that has gained from the Iran war at no cost is Russia. This is bound to come up this afternoon.
Starmer has largely resisted the temptation to hit back at Trump’s endless provocations, which escalated yesterday when the president accused the PM of dithering and being over-reliant on his advisers. But this morning Starmer is being encouraged to engage in some soft power retaliation – by cancelling the king’s state visit to the US planned for next month.
Until now calling for the state visit to be postponed has primarily been an Ed Davey obsession – and once an idea becomes a Lib Dem policy, the chances of Starmer endorsing it tend to plummet. But this morning Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, also endorsed the idea, which means it has a toehold in Labour mainstream thinking, and makes it a bit more credible as a potential option.
In an interview on the Today programme, asked if she favoured postponing the visit, Thornberry said:
If it was to go ahead next month – the dates haven’t been confirmed, but everybody seems to think it’s going to be next month – it would go ahead against a backdrop of a war and that, I think, is quite difficult. The last thing that we want to do is to have Their Majesties embarrassed.
The visit is meant to be taking place at the end of April. It is possible, of course, that the war could be over by then, but there is no guarantee of that, given that Trump does not seem have have an exit strategy, and the Iranian regime is intact and committed to keeping the fight going.
In the inteview Thornberry went on:
I think it needs to be thought through very carefully as to whether or not it’s appropriate to go ahead now, or maybe have a limited program, or delay it. But we can’t just pretend that there isn’t a background of war.
When pressed as to what she thought should happen, Thornberry said:
I suspect it would be safer to delay it, but I don’t know the details.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs a meeting of the cabinet, including a political cabinet.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in east Surrey.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Robert Jenrick, his Treasury spokesperson, hold a press conference. As the BBC reports, they are going to proposing getting rid of VAT and green levies on energy bills – as well as announcing a lottery prize draw, open to anyone, with Reform UK paying energy bills for the winner, and their whole street, for a year.
11.30am: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the US-Israel war against Iran.
1.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, delivers the Mais lecture. As Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog, she will identify innovation and AI, closer ties with Europe, and regional growth as three big opportunities for economic growth in the UK.
Afternoon: Starmer meets Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, in Downing Street. Starmer is also meeting Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general.
Afternoon: MPs debate all stages of the ministerial salaries (amendment) bill, which will increase the number of government ministers who can be paid a salary from 109 (the limit set in an act passed in 1975) to 120.
3.40pm: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives a speech at the Society of Editors conference.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Explore more on these topics
