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Starmer insists UK won’t get ‘dragged into’ Iran war, highlighting his willingness to resist Trump’s calls for more help

Keir Starmer is speaking now.

He thanks Sarah, and say he has the cabinet with him in the room. There is a lot of energy there, he claims.

Moving into the substance of his speech, he starts by referring to the Ukraine war, praising the courage of the Ukrainians, before move on to the Iran war.

He goes on:

double quotation markPeople look at their screens and they’re worried when they see explosions, infrastructure blown up, the rhetoric that goes with it, worried about whether this is going to escalate even further.

And therefore it’s really important that I reiterate where I stand and where this government stands, because this is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it.

He says this applies “whatever the pressure [to join in] and whoever it’s coming from”.

(Starmer is referring to Donald Trump at this point, highlighting is refusal to comply with Trump’s requests for more military support.)

Starmer says Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch both “wanted to go straight in, with both feet, into the war without thinking through the consequences”.

And he criticises Zack Polanski for wanting to leave Nato.

Keir Starmer speaking at Labours local elections launch Photograph: PA

Key events

Foreign Office dismisses allegations of spying against British diplomat as ‘baseless’

The UK has accused Russia of an “aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment” after a British diplomat was expelled from Moscow over spying allegations, the Press Association reports. PA says:

double quotation markClaims made against the unnamed diplomat are “malicious” and “baseless”, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.

Espionage was uncovered by Moscow’s security and counterintelligence agency, according to Russian media, with the diplomat ordered to leave within two weeks.

This is the second British diplomat this year to be removed from Russia over allegations of spying.

Starmer says no need for drivers to stock up on petrol, as government plays down prospect of fuel rationing

Keir Starmer has said that he will chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee tomorrow to discuss the economic impact of the Iran war.

Speaking to broadcasters this morning, he said that at today’s roundtable meeting he would be “bringing together the shipping sector, insurance and energy” to discuss the Iran war. He went on:

double quotation markA lot of discussion about the strait of Hormuz and what we can do to get the straits open, which is the single most effective way to bring energy prices down.

I will have a Cobra tomorrow, another Cobra, to look at the economic impacts of the war and making sure that everything that we need to have in place, everything is monitored and audited properly.

Asked about whether petrol rationing was being considered, as it has in other European nations, Starmer insisted the advice to motorists is that there was “no need to do anything other than what is normal”.

Later, at the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked about possible petrol rationing, the PM’s spokesperson said:

double quotation markTo be very clear, as the PM has said and as the government have said, and indeed industry have said, fuel production and imports are continuing.

The UK benefits from diverse and resilient supply.

Petrol stations in the UK are well-stocked nationally and any suggestion otherwise is incorrect.

Other countries are starting to introduce measures to curb fuel use in the light of the global shortage created by the Iran war.

This is what the Senedd would look like after the elections in May if the YouGov MRP poll released last week (see 12.38pm) turns out to be an accurate guide to the results.

YouGov’s MRP poll for Senedd elections Photograph: YouGov

And this chart from YouGov explains how a result like this would give Plaid Cymru two options for forming a majority government in coalition with a smaller party.

Coalition options in Senedd under YouGov MRP poll projections Photograph: YouGov

Plaid Cymru urges voters to choose ‘hope over division’ at campaign launch for ‘most important election’ since devolution

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has urged voters to “choose hope over division” as he launched his party’s bid to end three decades of Labour rule in Wales, the Press Association reports. PA says:

double quotation markPlaid is hoping to form the first non-Labour led government in Cardiff Bay since devolution in 1999.

An MRP poll published last week, conducted by YouGov for ITV Cymru Wales, suggested Plaid Cymru remains on course to be the biggest party in May, with Reform the second largest and Labour third.

Ap Iorwerth, a former BBC journalist, also launched Plaid’s key election pledges, which include cutting NHS waiting lists and speeding up treatment times, helping families with £30,000 worth of free childcare, improving educational standards and tackling child poverty.

“We will stand up for Wales to get a fair deal from Westminster,” he told supporters at the campaign launch at Bedwas Workmen’s Hall and Institute in Caerphilly.

“May 7 is a historic opportunity to change Wales for the better.

“Labour’s time is up – they are now out of the picture.

“This campaign is a straight choice between Plaid Cymru and Reform, between hope and division, between credibility and chaos.

“Plaid Cymru is the only party with an ambitious and deliverable plan to bring down those waiting times, to raise education standards, to support families with that universal childcare offer, to support businesses and the Welsh high streets, giving them the backing that they deserve.

“Reform are making it up as they go along. They will never make it their priority to do the right thing for Wales and for its communities.”

Plaid launched its campaign in Caerphilly – the scene of its Senedd byelection victory against Labour last year and ap Iorwerth said that Lindsay Whittle’s win in the contest could be a “blueprint for success in all parts of Wales”.

He said: “I have no doubt that our nation has so much untapped potential, and if we have the honour of leading Welsh government for the next four years, we are determined in Plaid Cymru to unleash it.

“We in no doubt, this is the most important election in the history of devolution.”

Rhun ap Iorwerth speaking at Bedwas Workmen’s Hall and Institute this morning. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Welsh Labour promises to freeze income tax rates if re-elected in Senedd election

Bethan McKernan

Bethan McKernan is the Guardian’s Wales correspondent.

Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan has launched her party’s manifesto for May’s Senedd elections, pledging to freeze income tax rates if re-elected.

Speaking at a rally-like launch in Swansea on Monday, Morgan said she was focused on the cost of living crisis because “times have been tough enough already” for Welsh voters.

The NHS also featured heavily in Morgan’s speech, in which she guaranteed that people seeking primary care would be seen by a member of a primary care team within 48 hours, vowed to cut Wales’ long waiting lists, and promised £4bn for new hospitals over the next decade. Other Welsh Labour manifesto pledges included 20,000 new childcare places and capping bus fares.

The Welsh government has been able to raise or lower income tax since 2019, but has not done so to date. Westminster’s decision to extend a freeze in income tax thresholds until 2031 will push taxpayers into higher brackets or pull more people into paying tax, and is predicted to have a disproportionate effect in Wales, where average salaries tend to be lower than the rest of the UK.

Voters in Wales go to the polls on 7 May to elect 96 members to the new Senedd, up from 60 members, under a new more proportional voting system.

After 27 years in government, Welsh Labour are struggling in the polls; several surveys suggest the vote is a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, with Labour in a distant third.

Eluned Morgan launching Welsh Labour’s election campaign at Merthyr College this morning. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

How Starmer’s trying to capitalise on Trump’s Iran war taunts – snap verdict on PM’s local elections launch speech

The English local elections are all but certain to be a nightmare for Labour (see 9.20am), and it is understandable why the party wanted to make today’s campaign launch low key. The government is focusing on living standards, and Keir Starmer was keen to stress various measures coming into force tomorrow or next week which will help people. (See 9.42am.) All of this was quite routine. While Nigel Farage can get hundreds of supporters to turn out for a huge rally, this was a relatively small event, involving party activists and cabinet ministers (who, judging by the pictures – see below – did not seem overjoyed about being there).

What was most striking about Starmer speech, though, was what he said about the Iran war (explicitly), and Donald Trump (implicitly).

For most of the time Trump has been president, Starmer has chosen to handle him by sucking up to him shamlesslessly. There have been some public disagreements (on Greenland, and the record of Nato troops in Afghanistan), but generally Starmer has sought to avoid antagonising the president, and has sought to play down, or ignore, their differences in public.

With the Iran war, and Trump now ridiculing the UK and Starmer on an almost daily basis, that is becoming harder.

A week ago Starmer told MPs that was responding to the Trump insults by, essentially, ignoring them, and focusing on his job and the national interest.

But today he was more creative, implicitly trying to capitalise on Trump’s bullying to his own advantage. He was at his most passionate talking about the war, and this is what he said:

double quotation markPeople look at their screens and they’re worried when they see explosions, infrastructure blown up, the rhetoric that goes with it, worried about whether this is going to escalate even further.

And therefore it’s really important that I reiterate where I stand and where this government stands, because this is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it.

This generated loud applause.

Starmer went on

double quotation markYes, of course we will defend British lives and British interests in the region. We’ll stand by our allies in the Gulf region, but we’re not going to get dragged in. That’s my values, that’s my principles, and that’s what we’ve applied to our decisions, whatever the pressure and whoever it’s coming from.

The anti-Trump jibe came in the final clause. It was not very direct, and it is a long way from what Ed Davey or Zack Polanski would say about the president, but it still quite a shift from what used to be Starmer’s default, deferential stance towards the White House.

The Tories, and the rightwing papers, have been gleefully relishing Trump’s anti-Starmer diatribes. Now the PM has found a way of boasting about them on his CV.

Keir Starmer speaking at Labour’s local elections launch, with cabinet ministers sitting in the front row. Left to right, they are: Bridget Phillipson, education secretary; Anna Turley, Labour chair; Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary; Steve Reed, housing secretary; David Lammy, deputy PM and justice secretary; and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Starmer ended his speech talking about the NHS, where he named Wes Streeting, the health secretary, as the person leading efforts to improve it.

He said:

double quotation markThis is the thing, I think, that broke all of our hearts is that confidence in the NHS was a record high in 2010 and then it plummeted under the last government because of what they did to the NHS.

Gradually, through the hard work that we’ve put in, the investment we’ve put in, Wes’s leadership, that confidence is going back up because people can see that it matters to us.

We don’t see public services just as a chart of how much money you can save here or there. We see it as something you invest in because they’re vital for people.

This did not sound like the sort of thing that Starmer would say if, as some reports have claimed, he were thinking of sacking Streeting.

If this had been a major launch, with a lot of national media journalists present and Starmer taking questions, someone might have asked about today’s Guardian report saying the NHS is set to miss key targets to shorten waiting times for help at A&E, cancer care and planned hospital treatment.

But it was not that sort of event, and after Starmer’s speech the formal part of the event wrapped up.

Keir Starmer launching Labour’s local elections campaing at West Midlands at City College in Wolverhamption today. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Starmer complained about other parties whipping up division, and he specifically criticised Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, for “complaining about Muslims praying in public”.

Labour, by contrast, values bringing people together, he said.

And he highlighted Labour’s Pride in Place programme as an example of that.

He claimed this was an example of Labour trusting people, because under the scheme “you decide what the money is spent on, because you’re going to have a better idea than someone in Westminster or Whitehall, and that’s why it’s Pride in Wolverhampton. Let Wolverhampton decide.”

Starmer refers to Labour’s cost of living measures (see 9.42am), saying that energy bills will start going down this month because of a decision by the government.

Starmer insists UK won’t get ‘dragged into’ Iran war, highlighting his willingness to resist Trump’s calls for more help

Keir Starmer is speaking now.

He thanks Sarah, and say he has the cabinet with him in the room. There is a lot of energy there, he claims.

Moving into the substance of his speech, he starts by referring to the Ukraine war, praising the courage of the Ukrainians, before move on to the Iran war.

He goes on:

double quotation markPeople look at their screens and they’re worried when they see explosions, infrastructure blown up, the rhetoric that goes with it, worried about whether this is going to escalate even further.

And therefore it’s really important that I reiterate where I stand and where this government stands, because this is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it.

He says this applies “whatever the pressure [to join in] and whoever it’s coming from”.

(Starmer is referring to Donald Trump at this point, highlighting is refusal to comply with Trump’s requests for more military support.)

Starmer says Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch both “wanted to go straight in, with both feet, into the war without thinking through the consequences”.

And he criticises Zack Polanski for wanting to leave Nato.

Keir Starmer speaking at Labours local elections launch Photograph: PA

Powell introduces “Sarah from Dudley”, who is talking about having two “amazing” adopted twins.

Sarah is talking about the impact of the 30-hour free childcare allowance introduced by Labour. It has saved the family £400 a week, she says. It meant she could return to work full-time, she says.

Sarah, a data analyst talking about the impact of Labour’s extension of free childcare, at the Labour local elections launch Photograph: PA

Powell goes on to make jokes (not particularly good ones) about Nigel Farage and Zack Polanki.

Farage has got a new job as Donald Trump’s intern, she says.

And she says Polanski is making “hypnotic promises” that are “just an illusion”.

Labour launches its English local elections campaign

The Labour local elections launch is starting.

Lucy Powell, the deputy leader, is opening the proceedings.

She starts by saying the party is “immensely proud” of the way Keir Starmer has dealt with the Iran war, and his decision “in the face of a lot of pressure and criticism not to follow blindly into an offensive war”.

Lucy Powell at Labour’s local elections campaign launch Photograph: PA

In Australia the Labor government has announced that it is halving excise duty on fuel for three months. Only last week Reform UK called for VAT on road fuel to halved for three months. Explaining the policy, Reform UK said:

double quotation markThe tax cut would reduce pump prices by around 12p per litre for petrol and 14p per litre for diesel at current prices, at a static exchequer cost of about £1.5bn. The measure could be funded within current spending envelopes using the estimated £2.7bn windfall from higher oil prices that the chancellor has received.

Tories call for VAT on household energy bills to be removed for three years

At the Conservative party conference last year, the Tories announced plans to cut £165 a year from the average household energy bill by getting rid of the renewables obligation subsidy and the carbon tax.

Today Kemi Badenoch is visiting an oil rig in the North Sea to publicise what the Conservatives are calling their cheap energy plan. In addition to the measures announced last year, they are now proposing removing VAT from household energy bills for three years. They say this would save the average household £94 per year, at a cost of £2.2bn. They say they would fund this by cutting subsisides for renewables.

In a statement issued overnight, Badenoch said:

double quotation markLabour promised to cut energy bills by £300 but they are still higher than when they took office. Instead, Ed Miliband is blocking drilling in the North Sea during an energy crisis and Rachel Reeves is hiking taxes on working families to pay the energy bills of those on benefits.

The Conservatives would use extra tax revenue from our plan to Get Britain Drilling in the North Sea to cut taxes and ease the cost of living. Our Cheap Power Plan would scrap VAT on energy bills and cut bills by £200 for every family.

Badenoch also says the Tories would “back the North Sea” by allowing new oil and gas drilling licences to be issued, and repealing the windfall tax on energy firms. They claim this would boost tax revenues, which could be used to cut costs for households.

Kemi Badenoch, shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie and Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay vistinng Well-Safe Protector Oil Rig in Aberdeen today. Photograph: Michał Wachucik/PA

Labour highlights 13 ‘key cost of living measures’ coming into force within next week as it launches local elections campaign

As Jessica Elgot reports in her overnight story on the Labour local elections launch this morning, Keir Starmer will also highlight what Labour is doing to help people with the cost of living.

In his news release issued ahead of the launch, Labour has highlighted more than a dozen measures coming into force within the next week that it says will help people with the cost of living. Here is the list.

double quotation markKey cost of living measures coming into force on 1 April:

-Prescription charge freeze, keeping prescriptions under £10

-National Living Wage (age 21+) rises to £12.71 an hour – 4.1% increase

-National Minimum Wage (age 18-20) rises to £10.85, under 18 £8, apprentice £8

-Energy bill support – average £117 reduction on household energy bills, applied to all households on top of £150 Warm Homes Discount for millions of low income households.

-Benefits uprating – most inflation-linked benefits to rise by 3.8% (CPI Sept 2025)

-Child benefit increases

-Crisis & Resilience Fund launches (replacing Household Support Fund). New £1 billion per year fund begins April 2026.Offers: Cash‑first crisis payments; Housing payments (replacing Discretionary Housing Payments)

-Healthy Start vouchers increase by 50p a week

Key cost of living measures coming into force on 6 April:

-State pension uplift – increasing by 4.8% rising to £241.30 per week

-Two child limit removed – expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty

-Statutory Sick Pay rights from day 1

-Day one entitlement to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave

-Universal credit standard allowances receive an additional 2.3% uplift

Starmer to say Iran war means Labour’s values needed more than ever at local elections campaign launch

Good morning. Keir Starmer will today chair a meeting in Downing Street on how the government responds to the economic consequences of the Iran war, which has the potential to upend much of what the government is trying to do to improve living standards. And so he is probably not too happy about the fact that this morning he has to attend an event in the West Midlands launching Labour’s English local elections campaign.

It is a relatively low-key launch. “The Westminster press pack wasn’t invited for a full Q&A,” Politico reports. Starmer will be back in London later for his Iran war meeting.

No one expects Labour to do well in the local elections and last week Stephen Fisher, an Oxford politics professor and an elections expert who works with John Curtice on the widely admired general election exit polls, published his projections for how many seats he expects parties to win and lose in the English local elections, based on current polling and other factors. It is terrible reading for Labour.

Projections for gains/losses at local elections Photograph: Stephen Fisher

As Fisher points out in his blog on this, his equivalent forecast for Labour losses in 2025 turned out to be reasonably accurate.

According to the extracts from his speech briefed in advance, Starmer will not be forecasting success for Labour at the local elections, but he will argue that the war in Iran means that Labour is needed more than ever. He will say:

double quotation markWe’re going to fight to earn every vote. Fight for our values. And fight for the country we are building together, a Britain built for all.

Because, in the context of everything that is happening in the world. Those values – that fairness we stand for – it’s never been more important.

That is the thing about the volatile world we live in now. It tests, not just our security, our strength on the world stage. It is also tests our fairness at home. Our unity.

He will also attack Reform UK and the Conservatives in particular for their initial unqualified support for President Trump’s decision to go to war.

double quotation markWe will protect our forces, our people, our allies in the region. But I made the decision that it is not in our national interest to commit British forces to a war, without a clear legal basis and a clear plan – and I stand by that.

It’s a question of judgement. Do not forget that the Tories and Reform would have rushed us into this. With no thought of the consequences, including for the cost of living. Utterly reckless.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, launches Labour’s campaign for the Senedd elections.

Morning: Keir Starmer launches Labour’s campaign for the English local elections in the West Midlands.

10.30am: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, launches Plaid’s campaign for the Senedd elections.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Afternoon: Starmer hosts a roundtable with business leaders to discuss the impact of the Iran war.

2.40pm: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, addresses the National Education Union’s conference.

Afternoon: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, take part in a virtual meeting with G7 counterparts to discuss the economic impact of the Iran war.

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