Trump praises Starmer as a ‘special man’ as they meet at the White House – follow live

Donald Trump has indicated he could back Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal, PA reports.

Asked about the topic, Trump said:

We’re going to have some discussions about that very soon, and I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well.

I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country.

This might come as a shock to Trump’s friend Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, who for weeks has been saying that figures in the Trump administration are strongly oppposed to the deal.

Keir Starmer handed Donald Trump a letter from the king, the BBC is reporting. It’s an invitation for a state visit.

Trump has already had one state visit to the UK and there is no precedent for a head of state making a second one. But his first took place when the late queen was on the throne.

When Theresa May visited Trump in the White House after his first inauguration, beating all other leaders through the door, she also came armed with a state visit invitation. That was seen as a bit premature, given that Trump had only just taken office But Downing Street judged that this was a necessary lubricant to relations. Trump is a great fan of royalty, and particularly admired the queen.

This is what Trump said in the Oval Office.

It’s a great honor to have Prime Minister Starmer in the Oval Office. It’s a very special place, and he’s a special man.

And the United Kingdom is a wonderful country that I know very well. I’m there a lot, and I’ll be going and we expect to see each other in the near future. We’ll be announcing it.

We’re going to be discussing many things today. We’ll be discussing Russia, Ukraine, we’ll be discussing trade and lots of other items, and I think we can say that we’re going to be getting along on every one of them.

We’ve had a tremendous relationship, and frankly, the prime minister and I have met twice before. We get along very famously, as you would say.

I look forward to it very much. We look forward to the day and the meeting. We’ll be having a luncheon after this, and then another work session, and I believe we’re going to have a press conference at the end.

President Trump and Keir Starmer are in the Oval Office now.

Trump says it is a “great honour” to have Starmer in the oval office.

It’s a special place, and he’s a special man.

He says they will announce a visit by Trump to the UK.

They will be discussing trade, Russia and other issues – and will get on on all of those topics, he says.

They will have lunch, a work session, and then a press conference, he says.

Andrew Roth is the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent, based in Washington.

Donald Trump greeted Keir Starmer amicably as the UK prime minister arrived at the White House in a Black Escalade shortly after midday.

The two smiled, exchanged handshakes and clapped each other on the back before turning to reporters.

“President Trump, can you get a peace deal done in Ukraine?” one reporter yelled.

“Yes, we can, we will,” Trump responded, flashing a thumbs up as Starmer stood at his side.

Starmer did not respond to a question as to whether he would get a “backstop”, meaning security guarantees from the US for European peacekeepers in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

A reporter asks the president if he can get a peace deal done for Ukraine.

Donald Trump replies: “Yes.”

A reporter asks Keir Starmer if he will get a “backstop” – the term being used for a security guarantee from America, so that it will provide backup support (including airpower and logistics) to a European force on the ground providing ‘tripwire” security for Ukraine.

Starmer chooses not to answer that one.

On Monday president Macron corrected president Trump at one point when Trump wrongly said that the Europeans were going to be repaid the money they have donated to Ukraine.

At a press gallery lunch today, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said he did not think Keir Starmer should adopt this approach during his meeting with the president. Asked if Starmer should correct Trump in real time, Reed replied:

The question on Donald Trump, I don’t think it is for the prime minister on any visit to be factchecking, as you put it, his host … It’s for the British prime minister to advocate for the interest of the United Kingdom in a way that is most likely to secure the outcomes that we want.

So that is the approach the prime minister will be taking.

It’s not performative. It’s extremely serious about getting the outcomes that we need, whether that would be on trade, on security, or any other issue I’m sure that might come up during those kinds of meetings.

Lib Dems urge Starmer to tell Trump Andrew Tate and his brother should not be allowed to evade justice

Andrew Sparrow

I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up the blog from Jane Clinton.

Keir Starmer is not the only prominent Briton in the US who might be meeting President Trump. According to Sky News, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, who have just arrived in Florida despite facing charges in Romania for rape, people trafficking and money laundering (which they deny), hope that at some point they might get a meeting with the president. Andrew Tate, a “misogynist influencer” with a huge online following, has been a vocal Trump supporter.

The Liberal Democrats are urging Starmer to raise this case with Trump and urge him to ensure the brothers do not evade justice. Lisa Smart, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, said:

Andrew Tate is accused of rape and trafficking children in the UK. Allowing the Tate brothers to hide from justice in Florida would be ignoring the rule of law and our extradition treaties.

An attempt by Trump to stand in the way of Britain’s justice system would be deeply wrong. The prime minister should raise this as a priority, and make clear that any interference in this way would be unacceptable.

Here is our story about the Tates being allowed to leave Romania.

Nearly 935,000 visas were issued in 2024 to people coming to the UK for work, study or family reasons, or through one of the government’s settlement schemes, according to new Home Office data.

The figure, which covers main applicants and dependants, is down by a third (33%) from just under 1.4 million in 2023.

The fall has been driven by a steep drop in the number of people issued with work-related visas, which was down 40% from 613,627 in 2023 to 369,419 last year.

The number of study visas fell year-on-year by 31% from 604,253 to 419,312. By contrast, there was a small rise in family visas, up 7% from 80,083 to 86,049.

Among the resettlement categories, 19,346 visas were issued under the Ukraine schemes (down 52% year-on-year), 19,273 were granted to British National Overseas status holders from Hong Kong (down 32%), and 13,869 were under the EU Settlement Scheme (down 20%), PA Medis reports.

In addition, 3,864 were for dependants joining or accompanying others and 3,426 were under other settlement schemes.

The total number of visas issued across all these categories last year, 934,558, is down sharply from 1,393,079 in 2023.

It is also the lowest total for any 12-month period since the year to December 2021, when the figure stood at 858,766.

The drop is likely to reflect changes in legal migration rules introduced since January 2024 by the previous Conservative government, including a ban on overseas care workers and students bringing family dependants, and a steep rise in the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700.