Farage admits he was ‘very surprised’ to hear Trump back Labour’s Chagos Islands plan, contrary to what he predicted Trump would do
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has been taking questions in an LBC phone-in.
The first question was about the Chagos Islands.
Q: Why were you so wrong on the Chagos Islands? You said President Trump would not back it, but he said last week he would.
Nigel Farage said Trump only said he was “inclined” to back the plan.
And he said he was “very surprised” by what Trump said.
He went on to say that he he had spoken to some administration insiders about this. He said the US won’t pay a penny towards the deal.
Q: But you got this wrong?
Farage said he thought that Trump might change his mind.
Peter Mandelson criticised after saying Ukraine should give ‘unequivocal backing’ to Trump’s plan
Good morning. Domestic politics has not gone away, but it is all being eclipsed at the moment by the Ukraine crisis, and the efforts Keir Starmer is leading to develop a Europe-led peace plan and – crucially – to keep the US and Europe at least broadly aligned. The stakes are enormous. Labour is very proud of the role the Attlee government played in creating Nato, but now its future as a funtioning alliance is in doubt. In his press conference yesterday Starmer said he did not accept the US is now an “unreliable ally”. But many Europeans who watched President Trump and JD Vance bully and belittle President Zelenskyy on camera in the Oval Office on Friday will have come to a different conclusion.
Starmer is expected to make a statement to MPs about his visit to the White House, and yesterday’s summit in London, and that should start after 3.30pm.
Here is our overnight story about yesterday’s summit.
Luke Pollard, the defence minister, has been giving interviews this morning, and one issue he has had to address is a comment from Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister and new UK ambassador to Washington, which implied that London is siding more with Trump than Zelenskyy. In an interview with ABC yesterday, Mandelson said:
We need a very radical reset. The reset has to consist of the US and Ukraine getting back on the same page. And President Zelenskyy giving his unequivocal backing to the initiative that President Trump is taking to end the war and to bring a just and lasting peace to Ukraine.
And the Europeans too need to back the calls for a ceasefire. And by the way, I think that Ukraine should be the first to commit to a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow.
This provoked an angry backlash in the UK. James Cleverly, the Conservative former foreign secretary, posted this response on social media.
The UK ambassador to Washington isn’t meant to communicate his own opinion, he is meant to communicate the UK government opinion.
Lammy and Starmer need to grip this.
And Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, posted this.
What is Mandelson up to? You cannot square what the Prime Minister said this morning with this. What is the Government’s actual position?
Our man in DC should be securing US protection for our brave Ukrainian allies, not telling President Zelensky what to do.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, asked if Mandelson’s comments reflected government policy, Pollard replied:
No. It’s certainly right that Ukrainians want peace. I think of all the people on our continent that want peace, the Ukrainians want it the most.
But we’re still in discussions, diplomatic engagement with our European, US and Ukrainian friends as to the shape of that deal.
But it’s certainly right that the war could stop tomorrow if President Putin stopped his illegal and unprovoked aggression. He could stop this war.
Asked if Mandelson misspoke, Pollard replied:
That’s not government policy and you wouldn’t expect me to commentate on every ups and downs in negotiations.
According to Politico’s London Playbook, Mandelson believes his comments have been wrongly interpreted. The ambassador “was reflecting government policies to an American audience, and any suggestion otherwise is hair-splitting nonsense”, a Washington embassy insider told Playbook.
I will be covering UK aspects of this story, but its ramifications go well beyond this country. Martin Belam is covering events from an international perspective on our Europe live blog.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a phone-in on LBC.
10.30am: The Covid inquiry’s module dealing with PPE procurement opens with statements from counsel.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Keir Starmer and John Healey attend a lunchtime event to promote a government initiative to help small businesses bid for defence contracts.
2.30pm: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Keir Starmer is expected to make a Commons statement about Ukraine, and his attempts to develop a Europe-led peace plan.
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