Starmer tells Zelenskyy that Iran war won’t distract him from Ukraine – UK politics live | Politics
Starmer tells Zelenskyy that he won’t let Iran war distract attention from need to keep backing Ukraine
In opening remarks on camera, before their talks started in private, Keir Starmer told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he would not let the war in Iran distract attention from Ukraine.
And Russia should not be allowed to gain from the Iranian war (which has pushed up oil prices and let to the US partially lifting sanctions on Russia), Starmer said:
Starmer told Zelenskyy:
Our resolve is unbreakable.
I think it’s really important that we are clear that the focus must remain on Ukraine.
There’s obviously a conflict in Iran going on, in the Middle East, but we can’t lose focus on what’s going on in Ukraine and the need for our support.
Putin can’t be the one who benefits from a conflict in Iran, whether that’s oil prices or the dropping of sanctions.
Key events
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More than 100,000 UK nationals have returned from Middle East since Iran war started, Cooper tells MPs
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Badenoch calls Trump’s recent criticism of Starmer ‘very childish’
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Being in Sinn Féin not the same as being in the IRA, Gerry Adams tells high court
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Zelenskyy thanks UK for standing by Ukraine through ‘difficult winter’
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Starmer tells Zelenskyy that he won’t let Iran war distract attention from need to keep backing Ukraine
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at No 10 for talks with Starmer
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Cooper tells MPs that Lebanon conflict on brink of widening with ‘disastrous humanitarian consequences’
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Reeves asks officials to draw up plans for fiscal devolution
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Labour’s Emily Thornberry backs calls for king’s state visit to US to be postponed given Iran war and US rift with its allies
More than 100,000 UK nationals have returned from Middle East since Iran war started, Cooper tells MPs
Ben Quinn
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
The number of UK nationals flown back from the Middle East since the start of the conflict with Iran reached 100,000 on Tuesday, Britain’s foreign secretary has said.
This is a third of the 300,000 who were in the region at the outset of hostilities, Yvette Cooper told parliament. Many were stuck when airspace was closed while the figure included tourists and Gulf residents who have temporary left.
However, she was urged by fellow MPs to help many British citizens who were still stuck in the region and those who were said to be struggling to get extensions for visas in the countries where they had gone on holiday before the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Cooper also provided an update on Britain’s part in discussions which could see an international coalition involved in opening the strait of Hormuz, adding that this was “separate from the conflict”.
She said:
The focus at the moment is what the practical measure might be to ensure shipping can be restored as the conflict subsides and so Iran cannot continue with the long term ability to hold hostage the global economy ….
Because it is an international shipping lane, multiple nations need to be involved in planning the way forward. And our discussions will continue to reflect serious, expert military and commercial assessments about what is credible and feasible so that commercial shipping can return as soon as possible as the conflict subsides.
Cooper said Britain was in talks about this with European allies including Germany, Italy and France, as well as with the US and Gulf states.
The Conservative shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, pressed Cooper on what specific commitments Britain had made to Gulf states about helping them protect British bases and allies in the region. She said:
The way in which our friends and close security partners who host British armed forces have been subject to outrageous, unprovoked aggression has been painful to watch. Britain cannot stand by while our allies do the heavy lifting to protect us all.
Cooper replied the UK was providing Gulf countries “with direct military defensive support”, with F35 and Typhoons in the region.
The behaviour and comments of Donald Trump was cited by the Conservative MP and committee chair, Simon Hoare, who asked Cooper if she agreed with him that the US president was becoming “an increasingly unreliable and erratic partner”. He asked her if it was right for the UK to be strategically skeptical and questioning of his motives and pronouncement.
Cooper replied: “Our focus needs to be on the substance of that relationship and the real issues, not on rhetoric or statements.”
Badenoch calls Trump’s recent criticism of Starmer ‘very childish’
Kemi Badenoch has described Donald Trump’s recent criticism of Keir Starmer as “very childish”.
Speaking to journalists today, she said:
I’m Keir Starmer’s biggest critic. He’s done a lot of things wrong, but I think the words that were coming out of the White House were wrong.
It’s very childish, this war of words and these spats. They might think that they’re entertaining, but I think the western alliance being involved in a public spat at a time when there’s war in Ukraine, [Volodymyr] Zelensky in the country, there’s a war in Iran.
It’s just unseemly. I think people need to grow up.
There is another version of the soundbite in this clip.
Given that Badenoch herself is not a politician noted for always being measured, civil and reasonable in what she has to say, it is rather surprising to find her giving lectures to Trump on decorum. It is also unusual because, under her leadership, the Conservative party has become more ‘Maga-adjacent’ than it was in the past, and until now Badenoch has mostly avoided saying anything critical of Trump.
But she may have noticed that Trump’s war in Iran is very unpopular in the UK – and that Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have risen noticeably over the past two months (when he has been in disputes with Trump over Greenland, Nato, the Chagos Islands and Iran), albeit from a very low base. This is from Ipsos polling out two days ago.
Badenoch also said that, unlike Emily Thornberry (see 9.26am), she did want the state visit to the US to go ahead. She said:
The relationship is between the US and the UK, not between Donald Trump and Keir Starmer.
The king is our head of state and actually, he’s going for a very significant anniversary, the 250th anniversary of American independence.
So I do think that makes sense and it also reminds people that there are some people who are above this diplomatic row.
I think the King is a huge asset to our country. He is very much loved. He represents so much about our country – history, tradition – and I think the standards which both Keir Starmer and Donald Trump could actually learn from.
Being in Sinn Féin not the same as being in the IRA, Gerry Adams tells high court
Gerry Adams has told the high court that opponents of Sinn Féin have repeatedly sought to conflate the political party he led with the IRA, as he denied ever being a member of the Irish Republican Army, Haroon Siddique reports.
Zelenskyy thanks UK for standing by Ukraine through ‘difficult winter’
In his public remarks at the start of his talks with Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, thanked the UK for its ongoing support.
He said:
Thanks to the UK. You have stood with us all through this difficult winter … God bless, it’s in the past.
Zelenskyy said he would update Starmer on battlefield developments and energy security, saying: “Of course, we can’t sleep, we must move quickly.”
He added: “Also not to forget about our diplomatic efforts and negotiations and where we are with the Americans and with the Russians.”
And he said they would discuss the war in Iran, which he said was having a “big influence” on Ukraine and Europe.
Starmer tells Zelenskyy that he won’t let Iran war distract attention from need to keep backing Ukraine
In opening remarks on camera, before their talks started in private, Keir Starmer told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he would not let the war in Iran distract attention from Ukraine.
And Russia should not be allowed to gain from the Iranian war (which has pushed up oil prices and let to the US partially lifting sanctions on Russia), Starmer said:
Starmer told Zelenskyy:
Our resolve is unbreakable.
I think it’s really important that we are clear that the focus must remain on Ukraine.
There’s obviously a conflict in Iran going on, in the Middle East, but we can’t lose focus on what’s going on in Ukraine and the need for our support.
Putin can’t be the one who benefits from a conflict in Iran, whether that’s oil prices or the dropping of sanctions.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at No 10 for talks with Starmer
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has arrived in Downing Street for talks with Keir Starmer.
Cooper tells MPs that Lebanon conflict on brink of widening with ‘disastrous humanitarian consequences’
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has told MPs that Lebanon is on the brink of a conflict with “disastrous humanitarian consequences” after Israel’s bombing campaign against Hezbollah.
In a statement to MPs, she said:
I am extremely concerned the country is on the precipice of a widening conflict that risks disastrous humanitarian consequences.
Cooper called for “urgent” diplomatic talks to prevent more escalation. She condemned attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah who have fired rockets into northern Israel, said she supported the sovereignty of Lebanon and and raised concerns about the impact of Israeli Defence Force attacks on Lebanon on civilians.
She said an estimated 1,000 people have been killed and one in seven Lebanese civilians have now been displaced from their homes.
This scale of humanitarian displacement is unacceptable and risk devastating consequences. So this weekend I announced the UK would provide an additional £5 million of essential humanitarian aid.
Today I can announce a further £10m of humanitarian support to provide emergency medical care, shelter and other life saving assistance in Lebanon and the region to prevent further displacement and instability that would risk escalating the regional problems with wider impact on other countries beyond the region too.
Cooper also said that by the end of today the number of British nationals who will have “flown back” from the Middle East since the start of the war against Iran will have reached 100,000.
Reeves asks officials to draw up plans for fiscal devolution
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has been delivering her Mais lecture. On his business live blog, Graeme Wearden says she announced she has asked officials to draw up plans for fiscal devolution.
Graeme says:
This plan will be published at this year’s budget.
It will set out plans to give regional leaders control of a share of some national taxes – which Reeves points out have long been allocated by central governments. It will include income tax, she suggests.
The chancellor says these reforms will begin with places which have the greatest capacity to deliver them and the greatest potential to benefit.
She insists that it is “not about new taxes, and it’s not about higher tax”, promising “I will not ask taxpayers to pay more”.
These reforms will be fiscally neutral, focused on sharing and retaining a portion of existing revenues with the places that generated them, she says.
Reeves promises: “These reforms will represent a permanent transfer of power and resources, not another exercise in local ambition.”
Taxpayers will be able to see what is being delivered with their money and hold local leaders to account for the results, she insists.
She calls it “a genuine break with the past”.
Graeme has more here.
Newly unearthed Nigel Farage videos reveal support for rioter, neo-Nazi event and far-right slogans
Nigel Farage has sold videos in which he endorsed a neo-Nazi event, repeated extremist slogans and supported a man convicted over his involvement in a far-right riot, Henry Dyer and Michael Goodier report. The videos are among several highly questionable clips identified by the Guardian in an investigation into the Reform UK leader’s use of the personalised video platform Cameo.
Helen Whately, the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent (and shadow work and pensions secretary), said Juliette was a year 13 pupil at Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school in her constituency. She died from meningitis this weekend. Whately went on:
Her head teacher said of her she was incredibly kind, thoughtful and intelligent and treasured.
I am also a parent of a year 13 student, and my heart goes out to Juliette’s family and the family of the university student who has died.
She asked why schools where pupils may have been affected were not contacted until Monday.
Streeting said he agreed that the government had to look “really hard” at whether more could have been done to notify schools more quickly.
Streeting says he’s ‘particularly concerned’ about childhood vaccination rates, saying NHS not doing well enough
Layla Moran, the Lib Dem chair of the Commons health committee, said her committee has urged the Department of Health to do more to promote vaccine update generally. She said the letter it sent the department about this at the start of March was one of the strongest interventions it has made.
She was referring to this letter, which said:
Vaccinations are one of the most effective public health interventions for protecting the population from serious illness and death. Yet over the last decade, we heard from witnesses that routine vaccination uptake in England has been stagnant or declining. This winter flu vaccination rates for frontline healthcare workers remains low. We were struck by the complacent responses from those witnesses leading the public vaccination system to the ongoing failure to deliver comprehensive, accessible, timely and equitable vaccination services to boost vaccination uptake and protect the public from serious harm.
The failure to ensure 95% coverage for routine childhood immunisations has seen the return of infectious diseases like measles and whooping cough. In January 2026 the WHO announced the UK had lost its measles elimination status due to low vaccination rates and outbreaks of the disease, while a current measles outbreak in Enfield has seen children hospitalised and rapid transmission through communities with low vaccination rates.
In response, Streeting said Moran was right to press the government on this issue. He said this winter’s vaccination campaign was better than the one the year before. But, he went on:
I still don’t think we are doing well enough as a country when it comes to vaccination rates. I’m particularly concerned about childhood vaccine.
He also said he would take the committee’s recommendations on this very seriously.
