Donald Trump LIVE: Huge blow for Keir Starmer hours before talks even start
The US and EU announced a trade deal agreement yesterday.
The bloc is set to face 15% tariffs on most of its goods including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals entering America instead of a 30% levy previously threatened by Donald Trump.
The President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the agreement would provide “certainty in uncertain times” for citizens and businesses, while the US President hailed what he described as the “biggest deal ever made”.
The agreement will include “zero for zero” tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals, as well as EU purchases of US energy worth $750billion (£558billion) over three years.
The King will visit Caithness, in the far north of Scotland, to unveil a plaque and attend a reception at a nuclear site to commemorate engineers who experimented with plutonium and uranium to generate electricity in the 1950s.
This will take place around 300-miles from where Donald Trump is, at his Turnberry golf course.
But the US President will meet the King at Windsor Castle during his state visit next month.
Scotland’s First Minister has said he will press President Donald Trump to exempt Scotch whisky from US trade tariffs during their meeting today.
John Swinney said the “uniqueness” of whisky made in Scotland justified the exemption from the 10% tariff applied on UK exports into the US.
The First Minister, who is due to hold talks with Mr Trump during his ongoing visit to Scotland, said the tariffs were currently costing the local whisky industry £4million a week.
Mr Trump may raise immigration with the Prime Minister during talks today.
Last week, the President said it was "killing" Europe.
He also told reporters: “On immigration, you better get your act together.
“You’re not going to have Europe anymore, you’ve got to get your act together.
“As you know, last month we had nobody entering our country – nobody, [we] shut it down.”
He added: “You’ve got to stop this horrible invasion that’s happening to Europe.”
The Guardian is reporting that Keir Starmer is to recall his Cabinet from its summer brecess for an "emergency" meeting on the Gaza crisis this week.
This is amid growing international concern over situation.
Today, the Prime Minister will raise the crisis with Donald Trump, urging him to take a tougher stance towards Israel on aid and push for ceasefire talks to continue.
Speaking to journalists on Sunday about his meeting with Sir Keir scheduled for this afternoon, Mr Trump said:
We’re meeting about a lot of things. We have our trade deal and it’s been a great deal.
It’s good for us. It’s good for them and good for us. I think the UK is very happy, they’ve been trying for 12 years to get it and they got it, and it’s a great trade deal for both, works out very well.
We’ll be discussing that. I think we’re going to be discussing a lot about Israel.
They’re very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen.
He’s doing a very good job, by the way.
The Stop Trump protest group has announced that a demonstration will take place this afternoon.
It posted on X: "Scotland has made its voice heard against Trump today - but the protests don't end there.
"Join us in Balmedie on Monday, 3pm, The White Horse Inn."
It comes after anti-Trump activists gathered in Edinburgh and Aberdeen at the weekend.
The clamour over Trump's alleged connections with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has followed the President to the UK.
The controversy has been fuelled by media reports regarding the nature of Trump's relationship with Epstein, and justice department meetings with the latter's partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
The White House has claimed that the President "kicked him [Epstein] out of his club for being a creep".
Scottish anti-Trump protesters have referenced Epstein in phrases on their placards, including one featuring photos of the two men framed in love hearts.
A sign was also placed outside one of his International Golf Links resort that read: "TWINNED WITH EPSTEIN ISLAND"
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are to talk “one-on-one about advancing implementation of the landmark Economic Prosperity Deal so that Britons and Americans can benefit from boosted trade links between their two countries".
An agreement signed at the G7 summit last month slashed trade barriers on goods from both countries.
But tariffs for the steel industry were left to stand at 25% rather than falling to zero as originally agreed.
Concerns had previously been raised that the sector could face a levy of up to 50% – the US’s global rate – unless a further agreement was made by July 9, when Mr Trump said he would start implementing import taxes on America’s trading partners.
But that deadline has been and gone.
Downing Street said that both sides are working “at pace” to “go further to deliver benefits to working people on both sides of the Atlantic” and to give UK industry “the security it needs”.
A video has emerged online that critics suggest appears to show him "cheating" during his golf round at the weekend.
The clip seems to show a man in a red vest drop a ball for the US President next to a bunker.
Sports writer Rick Reilly wrote a book, published in 2019, called "Commander in Cheat", claiming that Mr Trump bends the rules.
Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, who will also meet President Trump today.
He said he would urge Mr Trump to apply pressure on Israel to agree to a lasting ceasefire and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Mr Swinney told BBC Breakfast:
“I think what’s important is that we focus on the solutions that are required now, and the absolutely immediate situation is a necessity for a ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to need to flow into Gaza so that the people of Gaza can be saved from the starvation that they face.
“And that is the blunt human reality of the situation that we face, and there must be an intensification of pressure on Israel.
“And I think President Trump is ideally positioned. In fact, he’s perhaps uniquely positioned to apply that pressure to Israel to ensure that there is safe passage for humanitarian aid to support the people of Gaza, who face an absolutely unbearable set of circumstances as a consequence of the conflict.
“And a key part of that must be the application of a durable ceasefire, the flow of humanitarian aid and the progress towards a two state solution in the Middle East.”
Keir Starmer is expected to raise the prospect of reviving ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and the future of tariffs on British steel as he meets Donald Trump in Scotland.
In his talks with Mr Trump, Sir Keir will “welcome the President’s administration working with partners in Qatar and Egypt to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza”, Number 10 said.
“He will discuss further with him what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long.”
Keir Starmer is due to arrive at Turnberry and be greeted by Trump around noon, before a bilateral meeting early afternoon.
Both leaders will then travel mid-afternoon to visit Trump’s golf resort in Aberdeenshire.
At 3pm, a demonstration is set to be held outside the Trump International golf resort.
Welcome to our live blog as Donald Trump is set to meet Keir Starmer and John Swinney.
The US President is set for a "greeting" with the Prime Minister at 12pm, followed by a bilateral meeting at 12.30pm.
Sir Keir is making the journey up to Scotland for the talks.
express.co.uk
