The PA news agency reports that Downing Street would not confirm whether Keir Starmer planned to attend Saturday’s meeting in Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said leaders of the ‘coalition of the willing’ would travel to the country for further talks (see 3.07pm BST).

You wait three years for a trade deal and then two come along at once.

As of Monday, the UK hadn’t announced a free trade agreement since 2022, when Boris Johnson’s government signed one with New Zealand, ranked number 52 among global economies.

By the end of a week foreshortened by the bank holiday and which began with Donald Trump dropping a tariff bombshell on the British film industry, the government had unveiled a deal with India, as well as a more nebulous framework deal with the US, the fourth-largest and largest economies, respectively.

Sandwiched in between the two announcements was an interest rate cut from the Bank of England, making it cheaper for UK businesses to borrow money to invest in the growth that the Labour government is so desperately chasing.

Looking forward, opponents of tariff barriers are now crossing their fingers for a thawing of relations between the US and China, which would avert broader ripple effects depressing UK growth.

The US deal also appears to have left the way clear for Starmer to seek stronger economic ties with the EU, another potential lever to boost economic output.

Leaders of the ‘coalition of the willing’ are to travel to Ukraine for further talks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

The Ukrainian president said in a video address to the Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Oslo on Friday that he would host leaders of the coalition the following day.

He said there was “serious work ahead”, adding: “We need this coalition and we need it to be strong enough to guarantee security the way we all agree on.”

Military officers from about 30 countries have been involved in drawing up plans for the coalition which would provide a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire being agreed between Russia and Ukraine.

Last month, defence secretary John Healey said the plans were “real and substantial” as he hosted a meeting of his counterparts in Brussels.

The UK should double its defence spending to respond to global threats, a former UK defence chief has suggested, reports the PA news agency.

Jock Stirrup, who served as head of the armed forces between 2006 and 2010, said the “umbrella of American might” is now looking “somewhat leaky” as he encouraged European members of Nato to “shoulder a much greater share of the burden” for their own security.

After he outlined the need for European countries to spend “much more” on defence, the independent crossbench peer explained this should be “something of the order of twice what we currently spend”.

The UK spent £53.9bn on defence in the 2023/24 and the government has committed to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence from April 2027, rising to 3% during the next parliament. Nato estimates the UK spent 2.3% of its GDP on defence in 2024.

Stirrup, speaking during a debate to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan, told the House of Lords:

Aggressive war is once more being waged in Europe. Meanwhile, the umbrella of American might under which we have sheltered for so long is looking, to say the least, somewhat leaky.

We in Europe have for years neglected our own military power relying on others to make up the deficit. Now we’re being measured by events and found wanting as we were in the 1930s.

Nato protected our societies through the long testing years of the Cold War and it remains the best, indeed the only credible instrument for ensuring our future security.

But it is a different Nato to the one we’ve been used to. It is a Nato that must recognise the substantial shift of American power from Europe to the Indo-Pacific, a shift that will continue whoever occupies the White House.

It is a Nato in which European members must shoulder a much greater share of the burden for their own security than they’ve done for many years.

There’s growing acceptance of this truth but we still fail to accept the consequences.

The first is the need for us in Europe, particularly those with the larger economies, to spend much more on defence and by much more I do not mean marginal increases, I mean something of the order of twice what we currently spend.

The second consequence is the need for a way of funding, developing, procuring and operating the strategic military capabilities which we have for too long been overreliant on the United States.

It cannot be Nato because not all members of the alliance are European, it cannot be the EU because not all members of the EU are in Nato and not all European members of Nato are in the EU.”

He went on to highlight a proposal from a thinktank for a “European defence mechanism”, which would be a procurement agency.

The “absolute focus” of leaders of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is supporting Ukraine and defending values that were hard won during the second world war, Keir Starmer said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended part of the JEF summit virtually on Friday morning, the prime minister confirmed.

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to HMS St Albans navy frigate in Oslo port, Norway, Starmer was asked what the message from leaders was to Russia and China as Chinese president Xi Jinping attended Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.

According to the PA news agency, Starmer said:

The message of leaders here is very, very clear, and that is that we’re focused on Ukraine. We’ve been with Nato allies here in Norway.

[President] Zelenskyy came in virtually to part of that meeting. So our focus is on Ukraine with our European allies. Of course, today we also announced our biggest ever sanctions package against the Russian shadow fleet.

Really important work, again, discussed with our allies this afternoon.

And so that’s where our absolute focus is – with Ukraine, defending the values that yesterday at VE Day, we were remembering and commemorating, that were hard-won in the second world war.

The prime minister has declined to rule out changes to the digital services tax as part of a future trade deal with the US.

Speaking to broadcasters on board HMS St Albans during a visit to Norway, Keir Starmer said:

The deal that we signed off yesterday doesn’t cover that.

That’s predominantly focused on steel and aluminium and reducing those tariffs on car manufacturing and reducing the tariffs there, and then future proofing for pharmaceuticals, three really important sectors, and that, as I say, will be measured in thousands and thousands of jobs that will be protected, saved, and will thrive as a result of this.

On digital services, there are ongoing discussions, obviously, on other aspects of the deal, but the important thing to focus on yesterday is the sectors that are now protected that the day before yesterday were very exposed.

Plaid Cymru would focus on “deep problems within the NHS in Wales”, as well as education, economic stagnation and poverty, should it be the party that leads the next Welsh government, Rhun ap Iorwerth said.

The next Senedd election will see Welsh voters use a new proportional system to choose their representatives. Fourty nine seats will be required for an outright majority, with the Senedd being expanded to 96 members.

The previous system had an “in-built bias towards Labour”, the Plaid Cymru leader said.

Ap Iorwerth added:

That changes with the new electoral system that we have in Wales, and it’s a genuine case that wherever people are in Wales, the votes that they cast will contribute towards who can be leading that government next year, Plaid Cymru is putting itself forward as the party to lead that government.

And if people want that, they can have it with me as first minister, the first non-Labour first minister, setting a different direction for governments in Wales.

Parties in Wales are likely to have to cooperate after the YouGov poll published on Tuesday (see 2.08pm BST), the Plaid Cymru leader said, but he continued to rule out a “formal relationship” with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Ap Iorwerth added:

We have two conservative parties in Wales now: the Conservative party, and the Tories on steroids that Reform are: the pro-Thatcher, the pro-Liz Truss, the pro-Trump political party that works against the interests of workers, that works against the interests of businesses in Wales.

I just don’t think that’s the politics that is in the interests of Wales.

The thinktank Reform Scotland is holding a fascinating event this lunchtime on the rise of Reform UK north of the border.

Pollster Mark Diffley pointed out that Reform UK continues to poll around half of what it does in the rest of the UK, but this won’t necessarily undermine the impact they could have at next May’s Holyrood elections.

He estimates Reform UK could win about 10% of MSPs next year and emphasises “complete change in culture and context” this would bring to the Scottish parliament.

Ailsa Henderson, the Edinburgh Uni professor who runs the Scottish Election study, underlines how deeply unpopular Nigel Farage himself is in Scotland – only Trump is less popular with Scots – but also that there is space for a rightwing party among an electorate that is both small ‘c’ conservative but hate the Conservative party.

She adds that the SNP have done a lot of Reform UK’s groundwork for them, with their constant messaging about the failure of the Westminster status quo.

There was some question of whether lack of Scottish figurehead mattered, given how successful the party has been in tapping into anger and disillusion.

The panel also discussed the likelihood of Reform UK’s success in English local elections bringing the party more into the mainstream in time for Holyrood and Senedd elections next year.

Britain’s most senior statistician has stepped down citing “ongoing health issues”, amid criticism over flaws in recent economic data.

Sir Ian Diamond confirmed he has resigned as head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with immediate effect.

He said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to lead the ONS over the past five-and-a-half years and I have been immensely proud of the prominent role that independent statistics and data have played in informing the critical decisions of the day.

“Unfortunately I have made the decision that, due to ongoing health issues, I am unable to give the commitment to the role of national statistician that I would like to and feel that it is the right time for somebody else to pick up the baton.”

It comes amid criticism from politicians and Bank of England officials over potential inaccuracies in some of the ONS’s economic data, particularly its labour market survey data.

Downing Street has declined to rule out changes to the digital services tax as part of a future agreement with the US, reports the PA news agency.

Asked whether changes to the tax would be on the table in future negotiations, a Number 10 spokesperson said:

The position on the digital services tax remains unchanged.

Obviously, there are continuing discussions and, as I say, this is the beginning of the process.

This deal marks only the beginning. We are continuing talks on that wider economic deal which will look at increasing digital trade, which is a tremendous opportunity.

And that kind of work on a digital trade deal will strip back paperwork for British firms trying to export to the US, opening up the UK to a huge market that will measurably boost the UK economy.

That deal also opens the way to a future UK-US technology partnership through which our science-rich nations will collaborate in key areas of advanced technology, for example biotech, life sciences, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, aerospace and space.

On unacceptable care, Jim Mackey said the service must “try to get beyond things that have become a bit normalised over recent years that we would never have accepted”.

He added:

Ten years ago, we would have never accepted old ladies being on corridors next to an [emergency] department for hours on end and they have become normal in the NHS.

We’ve got to get ourselves out of that, and everybody wants to get out of it.

He said that even in places “delivering excellence” there are “still things going on there that are completely unacceptable” as he said that driving down variation would help to improve care.

Mackey continued:

There’s lots of examples like that where I think we just sort of gradually moved to a point where we’ve accepted things that we should not really have accepted, and we need to stop accepting.

The hard bit is what we do about it, most people know that, the worry is when they’re desensitised to it … it’s actually not their problem, they have found a way of walking around it. Colleagues used to describe it as ‘learning walk with a limp’.

Asked about independence from politicians, chief executive of NHS England said:

I’ll have no problem telling anybody what I think – if I have a view, I’m going to express it, and if I think something’s wrong, I’m going to say it.

But I’m very confident in the way that I’ve seen Wes work his political team and the prime minister, that they actually don’t want somebody to just sit, just go along with everything, and just roll over and not say if they have a they have a view, and I’ll take that seriously.

Speaking about the demise of NHS England, Mackey also said that it was “naive” to believe an organisation which “is the biggest consumer of public resource in the country” could be politically independent.

“I understood the logic at the time, I think it was probably, in hindsight, a bit naive to think that we could make something politically independent and less directly controlled by the political system for something that is the biggest consumer of public resource in the country,” he said.

The NHS has “maxed out on what is affordable”, Jim Mackey has said as he called on the service to “accelerate” improvements and stamp out unacceptable care which has become “normalised”.

The new chief executive of NHS England described the “shock and worry” of discovering that “undeveloped” plans for the NHS in England projected a multi-billion deficit for this year, reports the PA news agency.

While expecting “some growth” from the Treasury in the upcoming spending review, he said the service faces “big choices” to “tackle variation” and “improve service standards”. Meanwhile, Mackey said he will have “no problem” expressing his views to prime minister Keir Starmer and health secretary Wes Streeting.

Speaking at an event for the Medical Journalists Association in London, Mackey criticised “unacceptable” care – particularly for elderly people, which has become “normalised”. He also expressed concerns over staff being “desensitised” to poor care – such as elderly people facing long waits on trolleys in A&E departments, according to the PA news agency.

On spending he said:

The NHS is such a big part of public spending now we are pretty much maxed out on what’s affordable.

It is really now about delivering better value for money, getting more change, getting back to reasonable productivity levels, but in a way that’s human and is about standards and about quality.

He went on:

In the planning round, it was starting to look like, on a nearly £200bn pound budget, we were going to go into this year with undeveloped plans – but they were plans at the time – with a £6.6bn deficit, £2.2bn that could come off that for deficit support. But that’s still a huge deficit.

And the shock that that was creating, the worry that was creating, the anxiety about what that meant for the economy, and the international instability that we’ve got, what it meant for growing a society in this country, and with that the real expectation and need for us to improve much more quickly.

I think we could argue we’ve been improving gradually over recent years, but this is a time for a really big wake up moment about we need to really accelerate improvement.

In the end, it will be about how we get better value for the money that we’ve got, and we’ll get some growth in the spending review, but it’s never enough.

So we’ll have choices to make and the biggest choices we have to make about how we tackle variation and improve service standards and productivity in this next period.

The first opening road bridge across the River Clyde could create about 1,400 jobs, according to officials, reports the PA news agency.

The Renfrew Bridge opens to traffic at 12pm on Friday, marking the completion of the Clyde waterfront and Renfrew riverside project. The bridge, which connects the town of Renfrew with Yoker in Glasgow, is a £117m project by Renfrewshire council, supported with £39m from the Scottish and UK governments, and a further £1.17m from Transport Scotland.

It is expected the bridge will open up work, health, education and leisure opportunities on both sides of the river, with the potential for 1,400 additional jobs, investment and developments to be brought to the riverside, reports the PA news agency.

The 184-metre bridge uses a cable stay system, similar to the Queensferry Crossing, and provides two lanes for vehicles, pedestrians and active travel. It runs from Meadowside Street in Renfrew to Dock Street in Yoker, and can open for ships to pass through as and when required.

Renfrewshire council leader Iain Nicolson said:

I’m delighted to see the opening of the new Renfrew Bridge as we successfully complete this transformational project which will enhance the local economy, attract new investment and developments to the riverside, and create thousands of new job opportunities for local people.

It is another example of the council’s ability to deliver nationally significant infrastructure projects and the benefits will be felt immediately by road users, local residents and businesses, as well as the long-term economic boost to Renfrewshire and the Glasgow city region.

Minister for employment and investment Tom Arthur said:

Renfrew Bridge’s opening is a historic moment, and it will be a welcome addition to the Clyde, creating opportunities for communities and businesses on both sides of the river and supporting 1,400 new jobs.

This delivers our programme for government commitment to invest £1.9bn in growth deals, benefiting people across Scotland. Other measures include delivering 100,000 additional GP appointments by March 2026 and a ‘best in the UK’ cost-of-living guarantee, including the permanent abolition of peak rail fares.

Civil engineers Graham completed the project construction, which has supported more than 950 jobs and generated hundreds of subcontract and supplier opportunities, many of which were completed by local businesses.

The UK’s trade deal with the US is unlikely to boost the economy much, experts have said, but some praised the lack of concessions on the UK side as a success, reports the PA news agency.

The agreement, which removes tariffs on UK metals exports to the US and reduces a levy on cars, was confirmed in a call between Keir Starmer and US president Donald Trump on Thursday. Starmer said it was a “historic” deal, while business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said thousands of people were perhaps “days” away from losing their jobs without it.

But, accoding to the PA news agency, economists were sparing in their praise for the deal, with the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Neisr) saying the boost for UK gross domestic product (GDP) will be minimal. That is partly because a blanket 10% tariff imposed on imports of most goods by Trump as part of his sweeping “liberation day” announcement remains in place, though talks are ongoing in a UK effort to ease it.

Ben Caswell, Neisr’s senior economist, said:

While the new trade deal with the US constitutes a political win for the government, the direct impacts on UK GDP are likely to be very small, given we export just £9bn worth of cars to the US each year and the vast majority of goods won’t benefit from this tariff relief announcement.

But he added that it would “deliver a welcome boost to business confidence amid the UK’s fragile economic outlook this year”.

Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at finance company Ebury, added that while it “unlikely to have any real implications for the UK economy”, and added that the terms of the deal are “not overly favourable” for the UK. He said:

Let’s not forget that this is also far from a full-blown trade agreement, which will likely take months, if not years, to be finalised, and it will still be some time before the finer details are ironed out.

Nonetheless, others said the lack of significant concessions demanded of the UK by Washington was a plus, reports the PA news agency.

While tariffs on American beef will be dropped, ministers have said there will be no downgrade in British food standards, which is a more significant barrier to entry for US-reared meat.

“Crucially, that means the US deal won’t jeopardise British attempts to build closer trade ties with the European Union,” wrote economists at the banking company ING in a note on Thursday evening.

And the UK’s digital services tax, which mainly applies to US tech companies, was not revised as part of the deal, as had been speculated. Nor does the deal include any concessions on the Online Safety Act or the NHS, the business secretary has said.

“As far as we can see, the concessions offered by the UK aren’t considerable,” the ING economists wrote. “At face value, the UK seems to have done quite well,” they added.

Foreign secretary David Lammy joined talks in Ukraine on Friday alongside other leaders, who expressed their support for a “special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine”.

According to the PA news agency, Lammy told reporters:

It is hugely important that we stand with the special tribunal.

What we have seen is a crime of aggression, and just as the international community has in the past brought war criminals to account for their acts, it is absolutely clear that when this war is over, those who have perpetrated it in Russia must account for their crimes of aggression and their crimes against humanity.

Keir Starmer said that he will be announcing the “largest package of sanctions yet” on Russia.

Posting on X this morning, the prime minister wrote:

The threat Russia poses to our national security cannot be underestimated.

To ramp up the pressure on Putin, I’m announcing the largest package of sanctions yet.

I will always do what it takes to safeguard working people.

Security at home. Strength abroad.

The UK-US trade agreement will provide greater market access for the beef industry, a leading food industry executive said.

Neil Shand, chief executive of the National Beef Association, said 13,000 tonnes of US and British beef would be eligible to export to either country as part of the agreement but added the industry “remains very nervous” about the current government’s policies.

Asked what the UK would gain from the deal, he told Times Radio:

We have access to the US market. We had limited access – there’s a carryover of a WTO (World Trade Organization) deal that the US had, that existed from pre-Brexit times, and we were allowed to send small amounts of beef to the US, but this will allow our market to grow as well.

In volume terms, there is an argument that they have a bigger access or a larger quantity into our market. But in the overall scheme of things, 13,000 tonnes is not a huge amount of beef, if you consider last year we imported 241,000 tonnes.

We’re not self-sufficient, and it is important that we are able to provide beef eating consumers with a product.

Shand said it was likely the US-imported beef would be used in the services industry instead of being sold on supermarket shelves, as leading retailers “are not going to break rank” on British beef agreements.

At the mass picket and rally in Birmingham (see 10.57am BST), train drivers’ union Aslef’s general secretary, Mick Whelan, thanked trade unionists in the crowd for their support during previous rail disputes and said he was proud to be with them.

Accoding to the PA news agency, Whelan said:

It’s to our shame that we have to stand here today in a Labour-controlled authority talking about people’s wages being changed without agreement.

Turning the effects of 14 years of austerity back on workers could not be right, Whelan said, adding:

I can’t articulate this dispute as well as the people involved in it – because it’s their futures, it’s their livings, it’s their families. But we do know from what we have seen in the past, if we don’t stand together, they will defeat us. If we don’t behave as a collective, they will hurt us.

If we don’t send the messages we need to see, they believe they can turn us over.

We will be with you today, we will come back tomorrow, we will come back another day until you win.

Kate Taylor, of the Birmingham branch of the National Education Union (NEU) and also a national executive member of the union, told the crowd:

This bin strike is for all of us – it’s for all trade unionists. That is why so may of us are here today showing solidarity and fighting with you.

Representatives of the Fire Brigades Union and other groups also addressed the crowd, including Artin Giles of the Jeremy Corbyn-founded Peace and Justice Project.

Offering both Corbyn’s and the project’s full solidarity, Giles said:

I think we really are at a moment where people are realising that no matter if it’s a red rosette or a blue rosette, the rich get richer while the working class gets cuts to services that we all rely on. And that’s the case whether we talk about schools, health clinics or refuse collection.

Unite organiser Pete Randall told the picket that he believed “victory” in the dispute was not too far away. He said:

It’s been an absolute honour to stand here with our members.

I remember the very first day rocking up at the top of Lifford Lane/Ebury Road.

I have got to know the members. I can see it in their eyes. I can see how it feels for them. And that’s what it’s all about – understanding from a striker’s perspective.

I praise every single worker that is out on the picket lines. This is what a union looks like.

Birmingham’s striking bin workers have received backing from the leaders of Aslef and the National Education Union (NEU) at a collective action “megapicket” outside a depot and recycling centre, reports the PA news agency.

About 200 people gathered in Ebury Road, in the Kings Norton area of the city, to hear NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede describe the all-out strike by members of Unite, which began almost two months ago, as a fight against “a race to the bottom” on working people’s wages.

Birmingham city council declared a major incident relating to the strike by Unite members on 31 March after estimating that about 17,000 tonnes of waste was uncollected.

Kebede, who represents around half a million teachers and support staff, told the picket line:

We bring our solidarity to this picket because the Birmingham bin strike is a strike of national importance.

If a Labour council – a Labour council – can get away with cutting the wages of these workers, then a Labour government can get away with attacks on the rest of us.

Claiming that the Labour government was “lining up attacks” on education and would be the first Labour government since the 1970s to do so, Kebede said:

We are standing here with the bin men and bin workers today because it could be us tomorrow. This solidarity … is showing what we can do when we unite across our sectors and across our industries.

Without the people here, not a single cog would turn. It wasn’t the councillors who were sat in city hall who were making the difference during the pandemic.

To loud applause from protesters, Kebede went on:

It was the refuse workers keeping the streets clean. It was the teachers who kept education going, it was the doctors and the nurses. So let’s stand together as working people and say that we absolutely refuse to endure a race to the bottom.

Let’s push back against this austerity government and ensure that our society can flourish.

The UK and US have announced a new trade deal, or at least some elements of it, after a slightly chaotic transatlantic speaker phone call between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump, writes Peter Walker.

Here is what we know and don’t know, via Walker’s handy explainer:

Responding to the governor of the Bank of England’s comments that the UK now needs to “rebuild” its trade relationship with the EU (see 9.24am BST), Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:

Andrew Bailey has today added his voice to what Liberal Democrats have been saying for years: that we urgently need to rebuild our trading relationship with our closest and most significant economic partners in Europe.

This isn’t about revisiting the past, it’s about boosting our economy and deepening cooperation for the future. Despite the government’s US deal, Trump’s trade tariffs are still hitting key British industries and threatening the livelihoods of people across the UK.

The government must embrace a pragmatic and ambitious approach to our relationship with the EU – cutting red tape and providing a vital boost for our businesses.

Keir Starmer said Ukraine would be top of the agenda as he arrived for the Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Norway.

Speaking to media after being greeted by Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre at Oslo City Hall, Starmer said:

I think events of the last few months show that we’re living in an evermore unstable world and to have allies like this coming together, an agile group of colleagues, to discuss issues of defence cooperation, coordination at this vital time is hugely important.

Of course Ukraine will be on the agenda first thing this morning so I look forward to working with our colleagues here. It’s an excellent group.

The poultry industry has breathed a sigh of relief that chlorinated chicken from the US will not be hitting British shelves as part of the US-UK trade deal.

The trade deal includes £5bn worth of agricultural exports from the US to the UK, significantly ethanol and beef- but hormone fed beef and chlorine washed chicken will not be included.

The British Poultry Council chief executive, Richard Griffiths, called the move “a clear signal that government backs our standards and the values that underpin them”.

In the US, farmers are allowed to use chlorine washes and other disinfectants to remove harmful bacteria that may have infected chickens during rearing and slaughter. The EU banned the practice in 1997, and the UK has retained it since Brexit. The US has said the EU and UK ban is unscientific and reiterated that point in its memo on the deal yesterday.

The EU and UK believe the chlorine may compensate or mask poorer hygiene and animal welfare standards earlier in the food chain.

The UK has some of the highest standards for chicken in the world, with farmers mandated to give them more space to move around, and enrichment, than those in other countries including the US.

Griffiths added:

We are proud of how we produce poultry in this country. This decision sends a message that what we produce and how we produce it matters.

However, the US appears determined to try to broaden the standards of meat imported into the UK during future talks.

US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters yesterday she hopes to expand today’s agreement to include “all meats” and that she will be visiting the UK next week to make this point, adding:

There is no industry that has been treated more unfairly than our agriculture industry.

Defra sources confirmed Rollins has a meeting with environment secretary Steve Reed on Monday.

On the news that the parent company of British Airways has struck a $13bn (£9.8bn) deal to buy 32 new planes from the US aircraft maker Boeing, a day after a trade agreement with the US cut tariffs on the industry, here is our report on it, by Mark Sweney:

Plane engines and other aeroplane parts are excluded from trade tariffs as part of the US-UK trade deal, and British Airways’s parent company has already bought 32 new Boeing planes from the US, after the agreement, reports the PA news agency.

New reciprocal trade arrangements for agriculture have also been agreed, which will allow new access for American beef into the UK market. Ministers have however insisted there will be no downgrade in British food standards as a result of importing US meat.

The general terms for the deal were published late on Thursday, and stated that the UK and the US are “beginning negotiations” to “develop and formalise the proposals” that have been made. It also suggested that that either country could “terminate” the “arrangement” in the future with written notice, and it could be further altered in the future at the request of either side.

The UK’s digital services tax, which mainly applies to US tech companies, was not revised as part of the deal as had been speculated. The deal also does not include any concessions on the Online Safety Act or the NHS, the business secretary said.

In future, the UK will have “preferential treatment” when it comes to pharmaceuticals, as Donald Trump considers import taxes on drugs and medicines.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the benefits the deal offered were “still very unclear” in many areas, after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed the UK had been “shafted” in the agreement.

Griffith told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

There’s some good elements to yesterday’s deal – I think the car industry and steel industry will welcome at least the reduction. But overall, it’s quite disappointing.

It’s still very unclear what happens to pharmaceuticals, a really big UK industry, there’s nothing on film and TV, and yet [at] the start of the week, the government was talking about 100% tariffs on that.