Trump’s global tariffs called ‘sledgehammer to free trade’ by UK steel boss as EU eyes closer ties to Gulf: Live

Reform UK is leading the polls suggesting that Nigel Farage’s party would win if a general election was held tomorrow, according to YouGov’s latest survey of voters.

The pollsters’ most recent voting intention poll, taken on Sunday and Monday, has Reform UK on their highest figure to date.

The party is leading the survey at 26 per cent, up one percentage point on the previous week.

Meanwhile, Labour follows closely behind at 25 per cent of voters, also up one percentage point on last week.

The poll reveals the Conservatives are in next at 21 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats at 14 per cent, Greens at nine per cent, and the SNP and at three per cent – all of which are the same as the previous week.

The EU is looking into the possibility of stronger trade ties with Gulf countries, the trade commissioner of the bloc has said.

Maroš Šefčovič’s disclosure comes after Donald Trump announced global tariffs in an escalating trade war.

The assisted dying bill will be strengthened by plans to introduce an expert panel into the process, the MP sponsoring the law change has said.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater is expected to bring forward amendments for a so-called “judge plus” system which will see a panel including psychiatrists and social workers involved in approving assisted dying applications, after hearing concerns during expert evidence sessions last month.

Ms Leadbeater told BBC Breakfast she had received emails from people suggesting the addition was making the process more difficult, but added: “I would push back on that and say this has to be robust. This is a huge change, if it goes through and there is a change in the law.

“So I think by adding these extra safeguards, adding the extra multidisciplinary expertise, all headed by a High Court judge, that is a real improvement to the Bill.”

She added the experts would examine “the two key issues that keep coming up in this debate, the issue of assessing capacity and the issue of checking for coercion.”

Ms Leadbeater told the BBC: “By adding that extra expertise, I can only see that this is a strengthening of the Bill.”

Ashley Dalton has been appointed in the health brief, while Douglas Alexander will now serve jointly in the Cabinet Office as well as the Department for Business and Trade, Downing Street confirmed on Monday.

Mr Gwynne reportedly said he hoped a 72-year-old woman would soon die after she asked a councillor about bin collections, and joked about a constituent being “mown down” by a truck.

Here, The Independent takes a look at the new parliamentary under-secretary of state for public health and prevention:

Trade body UK Steel director general Gareth Stace said Donald Trump “has taken a sledgehammer to free trade” with his 25 per cent tariff on imports to the US.

He said the move will have “huge ramifications for the steel sector in the UK and across the world”.

“This will not only hinder UK exports to the US, but it will also have hugely distortive effects on international trade flows, adding further import pressure to our own market.

“UK steel poses no threat to US national security. Our high-quality products serve key US industries, many of which cannot source these domestically. This is a moment where our countries should work together to tackle global steel overproduction, not to be at loggerheads.

“The UK stands with the US on tackling global excess steel capacity and unfair trade, and our industry urges the UK Government to take stronger action on these issues. This is clearly a new era for global trade. We are confident the UK Government recognises the impact on our industry and will explore all available options.

“Both immediate responses, such as negotiating a solution and long-term measures to prevent harmful trade diversion into the UK market, are options.”

The European Union will not let the decision by the US to impose import tariffs on European steel go unanswered, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

“I deeply regret the US decision to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports,” she said in a post on X. “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered.”

Kim Leadbeater has insisted that replacing a High Court judge’s oversight of assisted dying applications with a panel of experts would not move the process behind closed doors.

Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the proposed new process for approving assisted dying could lead to it being done in private, the Labour MP, who is sponsoring the law change, replied: “It wouldn’t be done in private, it would be taking into account patient confidentiality but there would be public proceedings.

“And actually, I think it’s really difficult to suggest that by having three experts involved in this extra layer of scrutiny that is somehow a change for the worse.”

Experts who sit on the panel would not be selected based on whether they support assisted dying, she signalled, adding: “There would be a very strict recruitment procedure for people to sit on these panels, and they would not be there in a personal capacity. They would be there in a professional capacity to do their job.”

Asked if the amendment was a sign she was watering down the Bill, Ms Leadbeater replied: “I would say this is exactly what the process is designed to do, and the purpose of having such a comprehensive Bill committee procedure hearing from over 50 witnesses.

“What’s the point of having witnesses if we don’t listen to them, and we don’t listen to the expertise that they provide?”

It is up to voters whether the two MPs who belonged to a WhatsApp group which contained offensive messages should remain in Parliament, a minister has said.

Asked whether Andrew Gwynne and Oliver Ryan should remain as MPs after having the Labour whip suspended, education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith of Malvern told Times Radio: “In the end, obviously it’s up to their constituents as to whether or not they remain as MPs.

“But the important point here is the things that the Prime Minister could control, he took action on.”

Lady Smith, a former MP who served as home secretary, described the WhatsApp remarks as “terrible things to say for anybody, and they’re terrible things for an MP or a minister to say”.

Asked whether the views of Mr Gwynne’s replacement as health minister, Ashley Dalton, on gender self-identification reflected Government policy, Lady Smith replied: “I don’t agree with them, but what’s important about Ashley Dalton is, we can go back over everybody’s statements over the last few years, but Ashley Dalton is recovering from her second bout of breast cancer.

“She will be, I think, a brilliant advocate for people with cancer and for public health campaigns, and that’s what she’s bringing to this Government.”