Tuesday briefing: How the UK will tackle Trump’s tariffs – but is it enough to limit the pain?
In today’s newsletter: As Keir Starmer weighs up his response to Washington, the prime minister holds an unfavourable hand
Good morning. Everyone was very impressed when David nobbled Goliath with a rock to the forehead, but Keir Starmer might be forgiven for scoffing at how easy he had it. At least David got to choose his slingshot. In the global trade war, it is the large philistine in the White House who has chosen the weapons – and in the hands of a relative minnow like the UK, the truth is that tariffs will barely make a dent.
With that unpromising alternative on the horizon, Starmer spent yesterday talking about what he can do to help business at home, instead. But the changes he announced to support the car and pharmaceutical industries – even if they are backed up with more action later this week – also look trivial against the size of the task. And as the US president’s latest threat to impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports makes abundantly clear, there is no guarantee that it won’t get bigger still.
NHS | Hospitals in England could axe more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and brutal cost-cutting ordered by Wes Streeting and the NHS’s new boss. The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, estimates that an order to cut corporate functions by 50% could mean shedding between 3% and 11% of the workforce.
Gaza | Autopsies conducted on 15 Palestinian paramedics and civil emergency responders who were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza show they were shot in the upper body with “intent to kill”, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which is demanding an international investigation into the attack.
Conservatives | One of the Conservatives’ biggest donors has stopped funding the party in a move insiders believe will result in the closure of its northern HQ, the Guardian can reveal. Richard Harpin, the founder of home repairs business HomeServe, has donated £3.8m to the party since 2008 and loaned Rishi Sunak a helicopter during the last election campaign.
Asylum seekers | At least 250 people who were detained at Manston asylum centre when it was dangerously overcrowded are suing the government for unlawful detention and other breaches of their rights. They include a woman who had a miscarriage and a teenager who was a victim of torture and trafficking.
Fertility | Surgeons are hailing an “astonishing” medical breakthrough as a woman became the first in the UK to give birth after a womb transplant. Grace and Angus Davidson named their daughter Amy Isabel after Grace’s sister Amy, who donated her own womb, and Isabel Quiroga, a surgeon who helped perfect the technique.