AG百家乐在线官网

Breaking

Politics latest: US-UK trade deal signed and 'done', Trump says - as he meets Starmer at G7

Donald Trump says it's a "a fair deal for both" that will "produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income". It comes as the US leader and his British counterpart have been holding talks at the G7 summit in Canada.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Watch Sky News live
Why you can trust Sky News
US slashes tariffs on cars and aerospace - but still work to do on steel

We've just had details on exactly what the UK-US deal being "done" means in practice.

The government says the US "has committed" to removing tariffs (taxes on imported goods) on UK aerospace goods, such as engines and aircraft parts, which currently stands at 10%.

That is "expected to come into force by the end of the month".

Tariffs on car imports will drop from 27.5% to 10%, the government says, which "saves car manufacturers hundreds of millions a year, and protects tens of thousands of jobs".

But on steel, the story is a little more complicated.

The UK is the only country exempted from the global 50% tariff rate on steel - which means the UK rate remains at the original level of 25%.

That tariff was expected to be lifted entirely, but the government now says they will "continue to go further and make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed".

Other key parts of the deal include import and export quotas for beef - and the government is keen to emphasise that "any US imports will need to meet UK food safety standards".

There is no change to tariffs on pharmaceuticals for the moment, and the government says "work will continue to protect industry from any further tariffs imposed".

'A deal will be signed' with Iran, Trump tells Sky News

Sky's political editor Beth Rigby was there when Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer announced that the trade deal agreed last month has now been implemented (see previous post).

She also managed to get a question to the US president on the Middle East, asking if he has spoken to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump replied: "I have spoken to everybody. Israel is doing very well, as you probably noticed.

"I gave Iran 60 days, and they said 'no', and on the 61st, you saw what happened."

He added that he is "in constant touch" with Netanyahu, and that "a deal will be signed".

"I think Iran is foolish not to sign one."

Trump: UK-US trade deal signed and 'done'

Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are meeting now at the G7 summit in Canada.

The pair are standing for photos in front of the UK and US media.

The US president praises the "great" prime minister, and says that he and Starmer have signed a document implementing the US-UK trade deal agreed last month.

"We signed it, and it's done," Trump said, adding that it's "a fair deal for both that will "produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income".

Starmer said this implements the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a "really important agreement".

"So this is a very good day for both of our countries - a real sign of strength."

Asked whether he could guarantee the country would be protected from any further levies, the US president told reporters in Canada: "The UK is very well protected, you know why? Because I like them."

Trump added: "The prime minister's done a great job. I just want to tell that to the people of the United Kingdom. He's done a very, very good job.

"He's done what other people... we've been talking about this deal for six years, and he's done what they haven't been able to do."

Grooming gangs scandal timeline: What happened, what inquiries there were and how Starmer was involved

By Alix Culbertson, political reporter

Sir Keir Starmer has announced he is U-turning and will order a full public inquiry into grooming gangs.

The scandal hit the headlines again in January after Elon Musk attacked Sir Keir Starmer and minister Jess Phillips for failing children.

The tech billionaire accused Starmer of being "complicit" in the failure of authorities to protect victims and prosecute abusers while the prime minister was director of public prosecutions from 2008-2013.

Starmer hit back at Musk, saying his record shows how he tackled the issue head-on.

The row started after it was revealed that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips had rejected calls from Oldham Council for a government inquiry into historical grooming gangs in the town, with Phillips saying the council should lead an inquiry instead.

She also hit back after Musk's subsequent attacks on her.

Sky News looks at a timeline of the grooming gangs scandal, inquiries and Starmer's role.

Sky News Daily: Was there a Whitehall cover-up of the grooming gangs scandal?

Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011.

That's according to Dominic Cummings, who was working for Gove at the time.

In an interview with Sky's political correspondent Liz Bates, Cummings has revealed how officials in the Department for Education wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.

On the Sky News Daily, Mark Austin speaks to Liz Bates about the scandal and what Cummings told her.

Watch in full: Baroness Casey speaks to Sky News about grooming gangs review

At the start of the year, Sir Keir Starmer commissioned an audit into the scale of grooming gangs across the country.

It was conducted by Baroness Louise Casey, and her report - completed 10 days ago - was published by the government today.

She spoke to Sky's Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge about her report, its findings, and what needs to change.

Watch the full interview below...

Phillips: If we ignore the facts, how can we come up with solutions?

In her report, Baroness Louise Casey talks specifically about ethnicity, and Sophy Ridge asks safeguarding minister Jess Phillips if she thinks there might be a particular problem with British-Asian men and group sexual exploitation.

She replies: "Some British Pakistani men, yes. I mean, it doesn't matter what I think, the evidence is there.

"How people think about this should never have been the thing that anybody paid any attention to, because some people think that all people of Pakistani origin are abusers and some people think that none of them are.

"Thinking has got us nowhere."

Phillips goes on to say that ethnicity recording will become mandatory, as recommended, and notes that the Casey review found "an over-representation of Asian or British-Pakistani origin males".

"It doesn't matter how I feel about that. Those are the facts. And if we ignore that, how can we ever come up with solutions?"

Phillips also says that the lack of data around ethnicity is not news to anyone, and vows to make change.

But she goes on: "What often gets lost for me is actually the way we dismiss women's, and especially young girls' voices, treat them as if they're criminals, treat them as if they're, you know, sluts and hussies, and they were asking for it."

So one of the things Labour will do is "get rid of the convictions" of anyone under the age of 18 who was accused of being a prostitute, because "these are children".

Phillips also said she has "not yet found a certain community that doesn't have a problem with misogyny".

Jess Phillips explains Labour's U-turn on a national grooming inquiry

Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, is next on Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, and she says Baroness Louise Casey's report on grooming gangs was not "a huge surprise" given her experience helping victims.

"But it makes me feel incredibly angry and incredibly tired that it tracks a period from 2009 to 2025 of this review, that review - and very little change.

"And that makes me feel cross, angry, upset, but I'm eternally grateful to her for the audit that she has undertaken, and I think her recommendations are good and strong."

Sophy Ridge asks why she and Labour have changed their minds on a national public inquiry, and Phillips says she "never didn't want any inquiries", and it was not the point.

"What I have seen from my experience is national inquiries leading to no change, which is exactly what Louise Casey has found," she explains, which is why she worried about "spending millions" on another one that doesn't lead to change.

Phillips goes on to say that there is a difference of opinion among victims about whether a national inquiry is needed, or local inquiries do a better job of triggering change - and so Baroness Casey has suggested local investigations with the powers of a national inquiry.

"I come to this view having spoken to Louise Casey, looked at her evidence and also looked at what the victims have been telling me," she says.

Baroness Casey hits out at 'do-gooders' for 'giving racists more ammunition'

Sophy Ridge turns next to the ethnicity of perpetrators, and the section of Baroness Louise Casey's report that talks about the "palpable discomfort in any discussion of ethnicity".

Casey wrote: "The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with white perpetrators when that can't be proved."

Asked what she meant by that, Casey explains that ethnicity data is not being properly collected by police, the local authorities, nor the Home Office.

"I looked at the latest data - to be fair to the last government, they had a slightly better go at it," she says.

"It's a third. So you only collect ethnicity in a third of the cases, and of that third, 80% are white. That doesn't tell me the perpetrators of child sexual exploitation are white - it tells me you don't know.

"And I really object to that because I think it isn't fair on the victims. And it also isn't fair on Asian and Pakistani communities who are almost tarnished by that, when actually the national data doesn't take you there. "

Casey criticises 'do-gooders'

Asked directly if there is an issue with some British Asian men, Casey replies: "Well, yes, because it's abundantly clear from the West Yorkshire Police data from the Greater Manchester Police data and South Yorkshire Police data.

"You do have in child sexual exploitation a disproportionality."

Establishing the facts can "take the pain out of this".

She adds: "I think you've got sort of do-gooders that don't really want this to be found because, you know, 'Oh, God, then all the racists are going to be more racist'.

"Well, actually, people that are racist are going to use this anyway. All you're doing with the hate mongers and the racists is giving them more and more ammunition."

She adds: "Follow the facts and if anything is ever difficult, have a really good look at it."

'We have to grasp this as a society'

Asked if there has a tendency to label people raising concerns about this as racist, Casey replies: "Yes. I mean, I found it in Rotherham."

She says she saw in Rotherham the word "Pakistani" tippexed out of documents, which "inadvertently was giving ammunition to the English Defence League".

"I think the problem is that people are worried about being called racist, in a way, they just give more ammunition.

"If good people don't grasp difficult things, bad people will, and that's why we have to do it as a society."

'Sod this': Casey explains why she changed her mind on a public inquiry

Next, Sophy Ridge asks Baroness Louise Casey why she has decided to recommend a statutory public inquiry into grooming gangs, having previously said it wasn't needed.

Casey makes clear that she did not state a firm position either way before putting together her rapid review, saying: "I thought it was right that somebody said, 'we just need to get a grip of this'.

"And at the time [in January], I thought to myself, the last thing we need is another big national inquiry. If there are people out there committing these crimes, let's spend the money that we've got on going after them.

"If there's a safety net that needs improving for kids in care, let's spend the money."

She says it "wasn't a political thing", but didn't "see the necessity" after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that explored "institutional failings".

But she says that when the government announced its plan for five local inquiries, and only Oldham took it up, and when she saw that serious case reviews did not look at the perpetrators and their ethnicity, she "felt more and more frustrated".

"Sod this. Sorry. These are victims, and we need to do right by them. And if that takes a statutory inquiry, I'm going to go and get one for these girls," she said.