Sir Keir Starmer has announced that he plans to reopen Brexit trade talks and secure a “closer trading relationship” with the EU.
The Labour leader said that if elected prime minister he would seek to “improve” the deal negotiated by Boris Johnson in 2019.
Tory MPs said the remarks showed that he “cannot be trusted on Brexit” and planned to take the UK back into the bloc by stealth.
Sir Keir made the remarks after Stellantis, the parent company of the car manufacturer Vauxhall, warned that the future of its UK plants was at risk.
The firm is concerned about new rules coming into force in 2024 which make it harder to export vehicles to the continent.
‘We need a better deal’
Asked about the warning, the Labour leader said that “we need a better deal” and his party would “make Brexit work” in government.
“We do need to improve that deal. Of course we want a closer trading relationship, we absolutely do,” he told the BBC.
“That doesn’t mean reversing the decision and going back into the EU but the deal we’ve got, it was said to be oven-ready, it wasn’t even half-baked.
“I don’t think we should rejoin either the EU generally or the single market, but I do think that we should break down barriers.”
Senior Tories seized on the remarks and said they showed Sir Keir would look to reverse Brexit and drag Britain closer to the EU.
‘Lover of U-turns’
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, said: “Starmer of the second referendum and lover of U-turns proves once again that he cannot be trusted on Brexit.”
Mark Francois, the chairman of the ERG, said the Labour leader had tried to “frustrate us ever leaving the EU in the first place”.
He added: “I have always maintained that he ‘Remains a Remainer’ at heart – and now the truth is finally seeping out.
“That man would try and take us back into the EU, even without a referendum, if he ever got the chance.”
David Jones, a former Brexit minister, said the remarks indicated that Sir Keir wanted to move Britain “even closer into the orbit of Brussels”.
“This should come as no surprise. He spent a large part of the last Parliament pushing for a second referendum, contrary to the clear wishes of the British people,” he said.
“Rather than seeking to expand the UK’s global trading relationships, his ideal is of a UK still clinging to the EU’s apron strings, too nervous and lacking in confidence to make its own way in the world.”
New banking deal
In a sign that relations with the EU have improved since Mr Sunak struck his Brexit deal, Brussels agreed on Wednesday to sign a banking deal between Britain and the EU.
The European Commission said that it had adopted a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) designed to encourage cooperation between the EU and UK on voluntary financial services regulation.
It will establish a joint forum where senior figures from both sides will meet regularly to discuss upcoming regulation and challenges in the sector.
It comes over two years after the agreement was thrashed out between both sides in March 2021, but was abandoned after relations between London and Brussels worsened.
Although the MOU must still receive the approval of EU member states, the move signals the first step towards a wider deal with the EU for the City.
Mairead McGuinness, the European commissioner for financial services, said: “The Windsor Framework allowed the EU and the UK to open a new chapter in our partnership based on a spirit of mutual trust and cooperation.”
You can read all the developments from the day below.
04:00 PM
That is all for today…
Thank you for joining me for today’s politics live blog.
I will be back tomorrow morning.
03:46 PM
Starmer says Brexit deal must be ‘fixed’
Sir Keir Starmer said the Brexit deal with the EU must be “fixed”.
The Labour leader told business leaders at a conference in London this afternoon: “Our economy must become more resilient to global shocks.
“And we must be more open to global trade. This cannot be a choice. That might work in the seminar room, or in the political arena, but it doesn’t work for businesses trying to export.
“So we’ve got to use the levers like procurement creatively, nurture more resilient supply chains, and fix the Brexit deal. We’ve got to project a more open stance to the world.”
03:36 PM
Labour government would reinstate local housing targets
A Labour government would reinstate local housebuilding targets which have been ditched by the Tories, Sir Keir Starmer confirmed this afternoon.
He told the British Chambers of Commerce conference: “We’ll bring back local housing targets. We’ll streamline the process for national infrastructure projects and commercial development and we’ll remove the veto used by big landowners to stop shovels hitting the ground.
“Tough choices, but the right choices. Choices we make with our eyes wide open.”
03:35 PM
Starmer claims Sunak has ‘head in the sand’ on planning reform
Sir Keir Starmer claimed Rishi Sunak had his “head in the sand” on the issue of planning reform as the Labour leader addressed a business conference in London this afternoon.
He said: “I listened to the Prime Minister over the despatch box recently burying his head in the sand on this issue, playing to the Tory gallery. That’s just not serious.
“You can’t be serious about raising productivity, about improving the supply-side capacity of our economy, about arresting our economic decline, without a plan for the windfarms, the laboratories, the warehouses and the homes this country so desperately needs.
“It doesn’t work for Britain, it doesn’t work for business, it doesn’t work for growth – and I won’t accept it. Because there’s nothing that reeks more of decline than the idea that this country no longer knows how to build things. So mark my words: we will take on planning reform.”
03:34 PM
Starmer: UK stuck in ‘doom-loop of low growth’
The nation’s planning system means the UK economy is “stuck in second gear”, according to Sir Keir Starmer.
The Labour leader told a British Chambers of Commerce conference in London this afternoon that the country is in a “doom-loop of low growth, low productivity and high taxes”.
Sir Keir said that of the 38 countries which are part of the OECD, the UK is the “second worst when it comes to the effectiveness of our planning system”.
He said: “And just think – some people call our problems the ‘productivity puzzle’. We know the problems – we’ve just got to show a bit more bottle to fix them.”
03:29 PM
Lack of economic growth the ‘root cause’ of many UK problems, says Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer said the UK economy has “enormous problems” and a lack of economic growth is the “root cause” of many problems facing the nation.
Addressing a British Chambers of Commerce conference in London this afternoon, the Labour leader said: “In this job you get to see a lot of the country. You’re on the road every week so I know we have enormous problems, in our economy and our communities.
“But honestly, it is obvious to me that the root cause of so many of our challenges is a lack of economic growth.”
03:14 PM
Labour pledges to loosen green belt rules where it does not ‘affect beauty of countryside’
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour would protect the “beauty of the countryside” despite pledging to loosen rules to allow housebuilding on green belt land.
The Opposition leader has said his party would give local authorities and residents more power to build homes on the protected sites to meet local housing needs if he wins the keys to No 10.
But he has since sought to reassure voters that the developments would only be permitted where there is no threat to natural beauty.
You can read the full story here.
02:41 PM
Watch: Just Stop Oil stage protest at MPs’ hearing on protests
02:28 PM
Tories accused of betraying buy-to-let Britain to win the ‘avocado vote’
Landlords say they are being made scapegoats for years of failed housing policy as new legislation is tipped to drive thousands more to sell up.
Conservatives will hope that the Renters’ Reform Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament today, will be a Generation Rent vote-winner.
But it is the latest blow for landlords who have seen returns whittled away in recent years, as tax breaks were taken away from them and interest rates have soared.
You can read the full story here.
02:05 PM
No10 says Sunak committed to housebuilding after Starmer criticism
Downing Street insisted Rishi Sunak was committed to housebuilding in response to Sir Keir Starmer accusing the Tories of “killing the dream” of homeowning for a whole generation.
A No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is committed to building new homes.
“But he also wants to ensure that we protect the greenbelt and we encourage people to use brownfield sites where possible.”
01:23 PM
Tories won’t win election as party of ‘self-satisfied and entitled’, says Lord Frost
The Conservatives will not win the next election as the party of “the self-satisfied and entitled”, a former Cabinet minister has said.
Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, told the National Conservatism conference in Westminster that there was “real suppressed anger and frustration” among people that the party would ignore “at our peril”.
He said: “The Conservative Party won’t win elections as the party of the self-satisfied and the entitled. We must be the party of opportunity and the party of the future.”
01:02 PM
Senior Tory Brexiteer claims Starmer wants to ‘take us back into the EU’
Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteer MPs, claimed Sir Keir Starmer would try to take the UK back into the EU “if he ever got the chance”.
Mr Francois made the comment as he responded to Sir Keir saying he wanted to improve the existing Brexit deal in order to deliver a “closer trading relationship” between Britain and Brussels.
The Tory MP said: “Having watched Keir Starmer, night after night in Parliament, try to frustrate us ever leaving the EU in the first place; I have always maintained that he ‘Remains a Remainer’ at heart – and now the truth is finally seeping out.
“That man would try and take us back into the EU, even without a referendum, if he ever got the chance.”
12:54 PM
Pictured: Rishi Sunak talks to journalists as he flies to the G7 summit in Japan
12:34 PM
Oliver Dowden and Mhairi Black clash over Brexit
Mhairi Black, the SNP’s deputy leader in Westminster, told Oliver Dowden during PMQs: “Today Brexit Britain faces higher food prices, a lack of workers, a shrinking economy and a decline in living standards. Why is he happy to ignore those facts?”
The Deputy Prime Minister replied: “We have one of the fastest growth rates in the whole of the G7 since Brexit. We all know, and in fairness, we all know the policy of the SNP and they said it this weekend and I quote, we need to undo Brexit.
“But let me tell you if I were them I would start by undoing the mess they have left Scotland in and start working with the United Kingdom Government and focus on the priorities of the Scottish people, not the priorities of their party.”
12:24 PM
Dowden claims voters will ‘never trust the Labour Party’
Angela Rayner said that after 13 years in power the Tories are “stuck in a conveyor belt of crisis”.
The deputy Labour leader claimed that while the Tories are “preparing for opposition with their Trump tribute act conference over the road, Labour are focused on fixing the real problems facing British people”.
She asked Oliver Dowden: “I want to know, when will his party stop blaming everybody else and realise that the problem is them?”
The Deputy Prime Minister said: “I will proudly defend our record in office. Crime down 50 per cent. Near record levels of employment. A record minimum wage. And what is their record? Four general election defeats.”
Mr Dowden said voters will “never trust the Labour Party”.
12:18 PM
‘This comprehensive school boy is not going to take any lectures from the party opposite about the lives of working people’
Moving onto child poverty, Angela Rayner claimed the Tories had taken a “wrecking ball” to measures put in place by the last Labour government.
She asked Oliver Dowden “what level of poverty he considers to be a success”.
The Deputy Prime Minister hit back and said: “This comprehensive school boy is not going to take any lectures from the party opposite about the lives of working people.
“What I would say is we have introduced record increases in the national living wage, something that this party introduced, the party opposite failed to do so.”
12:15 PM
Deputy Labour leader asks Dowden when NHS waiting lists will fall
Angela Rayner said that NHS “waiting lists are longer than when the Prime Minister made his pledge five months ago” for those waiting lists to fall.
The deputy Labour leader asked: “If not now, when will waiting lists fall?”
Oliver Dowden replied: “I would gently say to you that if you care that much about access to our healthcare, why is she opposing our minimum service levels?”
12:13 PM
Rayner and Dowden clash over NHS waiting lists
Angela Rayner claimed that the Tories are still “lurching from crisis to crisis and wallowing in their own mess”.
She said that Rishi Sunak pledged that by March this year NHS waiting lists would be falling. She asked Oliver Dowden if those waiting lists were now higher or lower.
Mr Dowden said the Government is “making good progress for example with two year waiting lists” as he said Ms Rayner appeared to have forgotten that the UK had just gone through an “unprecedented pandemic”.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the Tories have a plan to fix the NHS while Labour continues to focus on “petty politics”.
12:08 PM
Oliver Dowden mocks Labour over potential Lib Dem coalition deal
Angela Rayner said it was a “pleasure to welcome yet another deputy prime minister” to the despatch box as she said Oliver Dowden was the third one she had faced in just three years.
Referring to Mr Dowden’s past resignation as Tory chairman after by-election losses, Ms Rayner asked who the Deputy PM believed should take responsibility for the Conservatives’ recent local election losses.
Mr Dowden hit back with a joke about Labour potentially eyeing a post-general election with the Liberal Democrats.
He said: “I was, though, expecting to face the Labour leader’s choice for the next deputy prime minister if they win the election, so I am surprised that the Lib Dem leader isn’t taking questions today.”
12:03 PM
Deputy Prime Minister praises Liverpool’s hosting of Eurovision
Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister, is now on his feet in the House of Commons as he stands in for Rishi Sunak at PMQs.
Mr Dowden started by praising Liverpool for its “wonderful staging of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine” last weekend.
11:48 AM
Oliver Dowden to face Angela Rayner at PMQs
Rishi Sunak’s trip to Japan to attend a G7 summit means today’s Prime Minister’s Questions will see Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister, clash with Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader.
It will be Mr Dowden’s first time standing in for Mr Sunak in the Commons since his promotion to the deputy role last month.
11:37 AM
Lord Frost criticises Michael Gove’s housing reforms
Lord Frost has attacked the Government’s new Renters’ (Reform) Bill during a speech at the National Conservatism conference in London this morning, suggesting it is a “dangerous and counterproductive intrusion into private property”.
The former Brexit minister said: “I think the right thing to do is to reverse the powers of government in our everyday lives. The politicisation of every activity and every choice.
“Let’s not forget what that means. The endless hectoring. The constant suggestion that the government has the right to dictate how you behave when it has socialised the costs.
“The dangerous and counter-productive intrusion into private property – as Michael Gove’s Renters’ Bill will do this morning.”
11:32 AM
Reaction to National Conservatism conference shows left is ‘out of touch’, says Lord Frost
The reaction to the National Conservatism conference in Westminster this week shows the left is “completely out of touch”, Lord Frost has said.
The former Brexit minister said the conference had sent “our opponents” into “paroxysms of rage to a quite ludicrous extent”.
He said: “You won’t find a more humourless bunch of people in this country.”
Lord Frost added: “What these comments show is that our opponents are completely out of touch. They are completely deranged by perfectly normal and widely supported ideas.”
11:16 AM
Andy Burnham accuses Starmer allies of briefing against him
Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, has accused allies of Sir Keir Starmer of briefing against him as he told them: “Leave me alone.”
Mr Burnham said that whenever he made major announcements it seemed like a “negative Westminster briefing machine somehow flicks into gear” to work against him.
Blaming young Labour advisers, he said: “All I would say to them is leave me alone. You know, I’ve been out there being supportive of the party and working for a majority Labour government as everyone is, but I’m doing my thing.
“I’m building a really powerful positive agenda for Greater Manchester and to have the kind of old ways of Westminster trying to cut across that with their negative briefing and, you know, their insecurity, I honestly don’t know what purpose they think it serves. But anyway, it is what it is.”
He added: “It’s not Keir or the shadow cabinet or the party, but it’s those people, I know who they are and you know who they are, the kind of people who, you know, the unelected people in their 20s or 30s who think they know it all and they’re the kind of bee’s knees etc and they go around sort of briefing against elected politicians.”
10:25 AM
Starmer rules out UK return to EU single market
Sir Keir Starmer has repeated his position that Labour would not seek to take the UK back into the EU’s single market.
Asked if he was open to the UK rejoining the single market, Sir Keir told Sky News: “No, I don’t think we should rejoin either the EU generally or the single market. But I do think that we should break down barriers.”
09:57 AM
Jeremy Hunt tells business leaders: ‘We have to get our taxes down’
Jeremy Hunt said “we have to get our taxes down” but he does not know if he will have the financial headroom to announce cuts towards the end of this year or next spring.
Speaking at a British Chambers of Commerce event this morning, the Chancellor said: “If markets judge that we are not getting our borrowing under control they will punish us with higher interest rates and so I have a very important role, the Government has a very important role.
“And what I would say to people who are worried about levels of taxation is I agree with that. We have to get our taxes down, particularly our business taxes down.
“But the worst tax of all is inflation because inflation is a tax which you get nothing back for in return but it eats away at consumers’ confidence, it means they spend less… and it deters businesses from investing and so that has to be the overwhelming priority for this year.”
Asked about the possibility of tax cuts towards the end of this year or in the spring, Mr Hunt said that “we aren’t in a position to know whether we are going to have any headroom at all”.
09:46 AM
Starmer says Brexit deal must be improved after Vauxhall warning
Sir Keir Starmer said the existing Brexit deal needed to be improved after the owner of Vauxhall said it will be unable to keep its commitment to make electric vehicles in the UK without changes to the trade agreement with the European Union (see the post below at 09.38).
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the Labour leader said: “Look, we’re not going to re-enter the EU. We do need to improve that deal. Of course we want a closer trading relationship, we absolutely do. We want to ensure that Vauxhall and many others not just survive in this country but thrive.”
Sir Keir said there was “too much by way of barriers” between the UK and EU, saying they needed to be torn down in any update to the Brexit deal.
09:38 AM
Vauxhall owner threatens to close factory unless UK renegotiates Brexit deal
One of the world’s largest car manufacturers has urged the Government to renegotiate its Brexit deal with the EU or said it may have to close factories in Britain.
Stellantis – which makes Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat – said present arrangements with the EU pose a “threat to our export business and the sustainability of our UK manufacturing operations”.
In a submission to a Commons inquiry into electric car production, seen by the BBC, the carmaker said its UK investments were under threat as a result of the strict terms of the post-Brexit free trade deal.
You can follow the latest updates on The Telegraph’s business live blog here.
09:26 AM
Labour ready to back Gove’s renting reforms
Labour appears ready to back Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s renting reforms after Sir Keir Starmer said they were “broadly right”.
The Labour leader told BBC Breakfast: “I actually think what he is saying is broadly right and we would support it. Actually, this is a step in the right direction.
“I do think that having promised it in 2019, they could have done it a bit more quickly but, look, it is right to give renters more security.”
You can read the full story on Mr Gove’s proposals here.
08:47 AM
Labour would only allow greenbelt housebuilding where it does not ‘affect beauty of countryside’
Sir Keir Starmer has said a Labour government would give local authorities and residents more power to build houses on greenbelt land to meet local housing needs (you can read that story here).
The Labour leader has now suggested that building on the greenbelt would only be allowed in instances where development “doesn’t affect the beauty of our countryside”.
He told Times Radio: “We all want to protect the greenbelt. We have got fantastic countryside… I know how important that is. But we have to face up to the fact that we do already build on bits of the greenbelt, it is where we build.
“I want to give you one example just to try to explain what I mean. In Maidstone houses were built on a playing field rather than a car park because the car park was technically in the greenbelt and the playing field wasn’t.
“I don’t think anybody who cares about our countryside would think that is a good idea so what I am saying is if we give local areas the power to direct where housing is, even when it is on the greenbelt, if it is a car park rather than a playing field, then I think that protecting the car park and building on the playing field was the wrong choice.
“We would make those tough choices and say to local areas, notwithstanding that it is the greenbelt, if it is a car park or similar land which doesn’t affect the beauty of our countryside which we all want to preserve then we will change the planning rules, we will give you the powers to do that.”
08:40 AM
Boris Johnson visits South Korea and Liz Truss visits Taiwan as Rishi Sunak heads to Japan
Rishi Sunak is currently on his way to Japan to attend a G7 summit – but his predecessors in No10 are already in the region.
Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, is in South Korea and last night attended a banquet dinner with President Yoon.
Mr Johnson said on Twitter that “relations between South Korea and the UK have never been stronger”.
Meanwhile, Ms Truss, the former premier, is in Taiwan where she delivered an address in which she warned the West is already in a Cold War with China.
Downing Street usually does not comment much on the movement of former premiers or on whether interventions are helpful or not.
But there will likely be people in No10 who privately view the timing of the visits by Mr Johnson and Ms Truss as unhelpful and as having the potential to undermine Mr Sunak’s authority as he steps onto the world stage.
08:25 AM
Sir Jake Berry urges PM and Chancellor to rediscover ‘Tory mojo’ and cut taxes
Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt must rediscover their “Tory mojo” and cut taxes, a former chairman of the Conservative Party has said.
Sir Jake Berry told Times Radio: “The truth is, look at the local election results, taxes are just too high and you can’t be the party of low tax or claim to be the party of low tax if in reality, you’re the government of high taxes.
“People who voted Conservative in 2019 wanted a Conservative government to pursue Conservative policies and that includes keeping more of their own money in the first place.
“And I hope and believe that as we go through this very difficult period, Jeremy Hunt, and the Prime Minister will find their Tory mojo again and start cutting taxes for ordinary working people as I just think where we are at the moment is unsustainable.”
08:23 AM
Ex-Tory chairman: ‘Completely wrong’ for ordinary workers to be dragged into higher rate of income tax
Sir Jake Berry, the former chairman of the Conservative Party, said it was “completely wrong” that millions of ordinary working people are being dragged into paying the higher rate of income tax as said the Government is “going to have to” change its approach on taxation.
A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that one in five taxpayers will be paying the 40 per cent rate by 2027 because of a stealth tax raid in the form of frozen income tax thresholds.
Responding to the report, Sir Jake told Times Radio: “By 2027, one in four of our teachers, teaching our kids, educating the next generation, are going to be paying this 40 per cent tax, which was introduced for the wealthiest in society.
“One in eight of our nurses will be a higher rate taxpayer. To me, this seems like a policy that can’t survive till 2027.
“It’s completely wrong for ordinary working people to be pulled into the 40 per cent tax bracket and it’s a sign that, you know, the government’s going to have to change this.”
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