Starmer’s Trump meeting ‘spectacular success’, says Streeting
Good morning. Keir Starmer is back in the UK and, in the unlikely event that he goes into a newsagent’s this morning, he will find that his meeting with President Trump in the White House has secured him perhaps the most favourable press coverage he has had since the general election. Gloria De Piero, the broadcaster and former Labour MP, has the headlines laid out here.
Of course, the success of a government should never be judged by what the national newspapers are saying about it (few other performance indicators are less reliable), but after months of relentlessly critical press coverage, Starmer will be grateful for a spot of respite.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and he told BBC Breakfast that the Starmer/Trump meeting was a “spectacular success”. He explained:
I thought that the meeting yesterday was a spectacular success both on the defence and security issues that President Trump and our prime minister were discussing but also on the enthusiasm President Trump showed for a deeper trading relationship.
Starmer helped to ensure that the visit went well by offering Trump an unprecedented second state visit to the UK. Theresa May offered a state visit when she visited Trump in 2017 and on GB News this morning Streeting was reminded that, after the May invitation, he was one of many people who signed an online petition saying the state visit should be called off. He “definitely” won’t be doing that again, he assured the programme.
Even Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, has had something good to say about the visit, admitting it secured some “positive outcomes”. But a statement she released late last night indirectly confirmed the result has been disappointing for her party. “Trump snubs Badenoch” is not the headline anyone was writing last night, but for CCHQ it is probably the takeaway that matters. The Tories have recently starting using the attack line that “when [Stamer] negotiates Britain loses”. Last night that went up in smoke, as Starmer’s negotiating skills got extravagant praise from Mr Art of the Deal himself. And on Wednesday the Conservative party explicitly said it wanted Trump to block the government’s Chagos Islands deal. Yesterday Trump did the opposite, signalling that he is inclined to approve it.
In her tweet last night Badenoch said the Tories will continue to oppose it.
In my first PMQs, I called for:
– 2.5% of GDP on defence ✅
– A Trump visit ✅
– Restarting the UK-US FTA that President Biden paused ✅These are positive outcomes. BUT…
The President’s words on the Chagos deal aren’t a guarantee it serves *our* national interest—or UK…
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) February 27, 2025
The President’s words on the Chagos deal aren’t a guarantee it serves *our* national interest—or UK taxpayers.
We haven’t seen the final terms of a deal, but we mustn’t foot the bill for surrendering territory the UK already holds.
But with Trump apparently on side, Starmer will find it much easier to persuade parliament, and the public, that the deal is in the national interest. What until yesterday was a strong campaigning issue for the Tories has now lost quite a lot of its potency.
Here is Pippa Crerar’s story about the White House talks.
And you can read a comprehensive account on yesterday’s blog. There will be more reaction throughout the day.
Here is what is coming up.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.55am: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, speaks at the Convention of the North in Preston.
12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, and John Healey, the defence secretary, hold a roundtable meeting with the defence sector.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line 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. 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
Keir Starmer intends to follow his shock decision this week to slash aid spending to fund a higher defence budget with radical moves on welfare reform and immigration restrictions, Patrick Maguire reports in his Times column today. Here’s an extract.
What we do know, however, is that Starmer is seizing this moment of geopolitical crisis as permission to remake the Labour party. And by that, for once, I do mean Starmer himself: not the cabinet he is largely ignoring nor the aides who often do much of this thinking for him. Experience is pushing him towards solutions whose radicalism Labour governments tend only to countenance under extreme duress. This week it was higher defence spending and aid cuts; in the weeks to come, I am told, it will be welfare reform, an overhaul of the machinery of government, and new immigration restrictions. (No 10 has its sights trained on the care sector, which it believes is abusing visas to suppress wages.)
Much of this is born of Starmer’s deep frustrations — with traditional allies in his party, within the civil service and on the world stage. Becoming prime minister has given him less power than he would like. As one senior adviser explains: “If the PM asks officials for a glass of water, they’ll give him a glass of water. But they’ll also say: ‘We’re really good at making tea, actually, so we’ll just keep doing that.’” This restlessness and resentment is all over the 1,500-word letter he sent to cabinet ministers earlier this month, again, mostly his own words, honed over several long conversations with trusted aides rather than scripted for him. “The split between our own preconceived ideas and, frankly, reality has created a schism,” he wrote. “We must mend it — and we must do so through actions not words.”
There were five local election byelections yesterday. Three of them counted overnight, and Britain Elects has posted the results on Bluesky.
Breckland council in Norfolk
❗ Reform GAIN from Conservative
Bedingfeld (Breckland) council by-election result:
REF: 54.3% (+54.3)
CON: 27.4% (-25.2)
LAB: 13.0% (-14.1)
GRN: 5.4% (+5.4)
No Ind (-20.4) as prev.
+/- 2023
Estimated turnout: ~31% (+2)
Westminster council in London
❗ Conservative GAIN from Labour
* Vincent Square (Westminster) council by-election result:
CON: 45.4% (+0.5)
LAB: 32.5% (-10.6)
REF: 9.6% (+9.6)
LDEM: 7.2% (-4.8)
GRN: 4.7% (+4.7)
*Lab defending second seat of multi-member ward
+/- 2022
Estimated turnout: ~29% (-12)
Westmorland and Furness council in Cumbria
✅ Liberal Democrat HOLD
Eamont and Shap (Westmorland and Furness) council by-election result:
LDEM: 67.2% (+1.5)
CON: 20.5% (-13.8)
PCF: 6.5% (+6.5)
GRN: 5.8% (+5.8)
PCF: Putting Cumbria First
+/- 2022
Two more seats, in East Suffolk, are counting today.
Andrew Teale has previews of all these contests in a post on his Substack account.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, told the Today programme this morning that the NHS would not be “on the table” in trade talks with the US. But he said the NHS had a lo of offer as a research partner. He explained:
We’re not in the business of selling off people’s data, but in terms of data access, absolutely the thing that the NHS can offer and the thing that the NHS can get in return is being a really strong partner for clinical trials.
Providing access to a diverse patient cohort – so in terms of clinical trials – that means we can push the boundaries of our understanding of medical science and research absolutely critical for the development of new treatments and technologies.
And in return for being in the driving seat for that groundbreaking research we should expect in return that British patients are at the front of the queue for those new treatments and technologies that we get a good deal on price.
Streeting claims new contract for GPs in England should end ‘8am scramble’ for appointments
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was doing an interview round this morning to promote an announcement about a new contract for GPs in England. He claims it will end the “8am scramble” for GP appointments.
Explaining how this would work, the Department of Health and Social Care says in its news release:
The new deal agreed yesterday (February 27) between the government and British Medical Association (BMA) will free up doctors from red tape and box-ticking targets to concentrate on what they do best – treating patients.
The new agreed contract will modernise general practice by requiring GP surgeries to allow patients to request appointments online throughout working hours from October, freeing up the phones for those who need them most, and making it easier for practices to triage patients based on medical need. The reforms are part of the government’s Plan for Change to make general practice fit for the future and will support GPs in taking the first steps to end the 8am scramble for appointments, which so many patients currently endure every day – in turn improving access to GPs for everyone.
Commenting on the plan, Streeting said
Today, we have taken the first step to fixing the front door to the NHS, bringing back the family doctor, and ending the 8am scramble.
Over the past decade, funding for GPs has been cut relative to the rest of the NHS, while the number of targets for GPs has soared. That’s why patients are struggling to get an appointment.
This government is cutting the red tape that ties up GPs time and backing them with an extra £889 million next year. In return, more patients will be able to request appointments online and see their regular doctor for each appointment.
Prisoners in England and Wales could earn early release under Texas-style shakeup
Prisoners may have to earn their freedom through “good behaviour credits” rather than be automatically released after a set period as part of an overhaul being considered by the government, Aletha Adu reports.
Trump ‘wrong’ about Chagos Islands deal, says Reform UK MP
Reform UK also received a credibility blow from what President Trump said last night. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader who boasts about his close friendship with Trump, has for weeks now been repeatedly saying that members of the Trump administration are deeply concerned about the Chagos Islands deal. “I have been contacted by very senior officials and advisers from the incoming Republican administration, and every single one of them is appalled at this deal,” he told MPs in December. But now it is looking as if his inside knowledge of what the Trump team really think is not as reliable as he implied.
Farage has not been tweeting about the Trump/Starmer talks. But his fellow Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has said that Trump is “wrong” on this issue. In a post on social media last night Lowe said:
The Chagos Islands deal is disgustingly rotten to the core. It does NOT serve the British taxpayer. It’s about human rights lawyers abusing their power to indulge their fantasies.
It’s a betrayal.
I hope that Donald Trump reconsiders his support for it.
On this, he is wrong.
On most issues Reform UK strongly supports Trump and his administration.
Starmer’s Trump meeting ‘spectacular success’, says Streeting
Good morning. Keir Starmer is back in the UK and, in the unlikely event that he goes into a newsagent’s this morning, he will find that his meeting with President Trump in the White House has secured him perhaps the most favourable press coverage he has had since the general election. Gloria De Piero, the broadcaster and former Labour MP, has the headlines laid out here.
Of course, the success of a government should never be judged by what the national newspapers are saying about it (few other performance indicators are less reliable), but after months of relentlessly critical press coverage, Starmer will be grateful for a spot of respite.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and he told BBC Breakfast that the Starmer/Trump meeting was a “spectacular success”. He explained:
I thought that the meeting yesterday was a spectacular success both on the defence and security issues that President Trump and our prime minister were discussing but also on the enthusiasm President Trump showed for a deeper trading relationship.
Starmer helped to ensure that the visit went well by offering Trump an unprecedented second state visit to the UK. Theresa May offered a state visit when she visited Trump in 2017 and on GB News this morning Streeting was reminded that, after the May invitation, he was one of many people who signed an online petition saying the state visit should be called off. He “definitely” won’t be doing that again, he assured the programme.
Even Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, has had something good to say about the visit, admitting it secured some “positive outcomes”. But a statement she released late last night indirectly confirmed the result has been disappointing for her party. “Trump snubs Badenoch” is not the headline anyone was writing last night, but for CCHQ it is probably the takeaway that matters. The Tories have recently starting using the attack line that “when [Stamer] negotiates Britain loses”. Last night that went up in smoke, as Starmer’s negotiating skills got extravagant praise from Mr Art of the Deal himself. And on Wednesday the Conservative party explicitly said it wanted Trump to block the government’s Chagos Islands deal. Yesterday Trump did the opposite, signalling that he is inclined to approve it.
In her tweet last night Badenoch said the Tories will continue to oppose it.
In my first PMQs, I called for:
– 2.5% of GDP on defence ✅
– A Trump visit ✅
– Restarting the UK-US FTA that President Biden paused ✅These are positive outcomes. BUT…
The President’s words on the Chagos deal aren’t a guarantee it serves *our* national interest—or UK…
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) February 27, 2025
The President’s words on the Chagos deal aren’t a guarantee it serves *our* national interest—or UK taxpayers.
We haven’t seen the final terms of a deal, but we mustn’t foot the bill for surrendering territory the UK already holds.
But with Trump apparently on side, Starmer will find it much easier to persuade parliament, and the public, that the deal is in the national interest. What until yesterday was a strong campaigning issue for the Tories has now lost quite a lot of its potency.
Here is Pippa Crerar’s story about the White House talks.
And you can read a comprehensive account on yesterday’s blog. There will be more reaction throughout the day.
Here is what is coming up.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.55am: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, speaks at the Convention of the North in Preston.
12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, and John Healey, the defence secretary, hold a roundtable meeting with the defence sector.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line 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. 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.
