Keir Starmer UN speech - live: PM urges Middle East to ‘step back from the brink’ in address before Trump meet
Keir Starmer to meet Donald Trump after UN speech
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Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet Donald Trump in New York after he delivers a speech to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, the prime minister urged Israel and Hezbollah to agree a ceasefire and for the two sides to “step back from the brink”.
In a speech to world leaders in New York, Sir Keir said: “I call on Israel and Hezbollah: Stop the violence, step back from the brink.”
The 79th UN summit comes as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out conflict and the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on.
It follows an intervention at the UN Security Council where he tore into Russia over its actions in Ukraine, saying Vladimir Putin was treating his own citizens as “bits of meat to fling into the grinder” in the conflict.
Sir Keir has been embroiled in a donations row after borrowing an £18m penthouse flat from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli during the general election and to film a Covid video. But Downing Street claims he did not break the rules.
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Russia treating own citizens as ‘bits of meat to fling into grinder’, says Starmer in UN speech
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Pictured: UK, US and Australia defence chiefs attend AUKUS meeting
Elon Musk ‘not invited’ to International Investment Summit hosted by UK
Elon Musk has not been invited to the International Investment Summit the UK government is hosting in October because of his social media posts during last month’s riots.
After three children were killed in a stabbing attack in Southport and violence erupted across the UK, X owner Mr Musk posted on his platform promoting false claims, suggesting that a civil war in the UK was “inevitable” and attacking the Prime Minister.
Billionaire Mr Musk has not been invited to the October summit because of his social media posts during the disorder, the BBC has reported.
Sir Keir Starmer will host the International Investment Summit on October 14 – two weeks before the autumn Budget.
The government hopes the summit will attract hundreds of leading chief executives and financiers and is part of efforts to show that the UK is “open for business” after a period of political and economic turmoil.
BNY, Blackstone and CyrusOne have confirmed attendance, according to the Treasury but the official list of attendees has not been released.
Keir Starmer to meet Donald Trump today
Sir Keir Starmer plans to meet with Donald Trump as part of his New York trip to the UN General Assembly.
The prime minister previously said he wanted to meet both Kamala Harris and Mr Trump before November’s US presidential election.
During his trip, he said: “As far as the candidates are concerned, look, if possible, it would be very good to meet both of them at some stage before the election. We’ll just have to see what’s possible.
“But I’m going for the General Assembly. I don’t doubt that a lot of time is going to be spent on the Middle East and Ukraine.”
He added: “It will be really important for us to have the conversations with our allies about the situation in both of those areas”.
Tugendhat: Iraq invasion ‘naughtiest’ thing I ever done
Tom Tugendhat has come under fire after claiming that the naughtiest thing he had ever done was to invade Iraq in 2003.
When asked by the The Spectator, he said: “I invaded a country once, which was a few years ago, 2003. I was part of the invading army in Iraq.”
The Tory leadership contender served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a soldier and a civilian for the Foreign Office.
During the Tory leaddership race in 2022, he gave the same answer when asked by Sky News, adding: “I’m not terribly naughty actually. I haven’t done any cornfields or anything like that. I’m not a natural rebel.”
Reacting to the comments, director of British Foreign Policy Group has slammed the Tory MP for his “deeply uncomfortable” remarks.
Evie Aspinall posted: “Describing invading a country as ‘naughty’ is deeply distasteful and makes light of conflict at a time of major global instability.”
Cleverly: Covid lockdowns turned Boris Johnson into Oliver Cromwell
Tory leadership hopeful James Cleverly has described the pandemic restrictions implemented by Boris Johnson as the least conservative policy of the last 14 years.
During an interview with The Spectator he said the measures taken by the then prime minister were “far, far, far too much”.
The former home secretary, who was a backbencher at the time, said: “I suppose all of us have got to recognise that our response to Covid was inherently interventionist the social restrictions that we introduced, I think all of us now look back and say that was far, far, far too much. “It was the Conservative party and we cancelled Christmas. I mean Boris Johnson and Oliver Cromwell, the two national leaders who in our history cancelled Christmas and you wouldn’t have expected the Venn diagram of Oliver Cromwell and Boris Johnson to have had much of a crossover.”
Pictured: World leaders attend 79th UN General Assembly in New York
Starmer to hold post-Brexit ‘reset’ talks with EU chiefs
Sir Keir Starmer will visit Brussels in an effort to “reset” the UK’s relationship with the European Union.
The visit comes as the prime minister plans to repair post-Brexit ties to boost trade and security co-operation.
He will meet European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen next week after the pair held a bilateral in New York on Wednesday.
After the meeting, Sir Keir said: “I want to reset our relationship with the EU and make Brexit work for the British people.”
Pictured: Keir Starmer meets Volodymyr Zelenskiy during UN General Assembly
Labour chair defends Starmer for using flat of donor during pandemic
Labour’s Tan Dhesi has appeared on the morning media round to defend Sir Keir Starmer after claims emerged he took £20,000 in donations from Lord Alli.
Sir Keir reportedly used a flat from the donor during his son’s GCSE’s and to record a video urging people to work from home during Covid.
Asked whether this was acceptable, the defence select committee chair told Sky News Sir Keir was “fearing for the safety of his family” and worried about his son failing his exams.
But when put to him that the prime minister also stayed during the pandemic, he said: “For me the key thing around the accommodation it is a fact that outside the prime minister’s home there were people camped out.”
Mr Dhesi added: “We do need to bear in mind that the hoome of leader of the opposition at the time was constantly being deluged by protesters, journalists, investigators.
“As the prime minister said, nothing illegal happened and all the rules were followed. I will take him by his word. He is a man of integrity.”
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