LONDON: King Charles III will on Wednesday outline UK leader Keir Starmer&#39;s next legislative plans, during a pomp-filled ceremony that could have huge repercussions for the embattled prime minister&#39;s future. Starmer, fighting to face down a revolt within his ruling Labour party, has promised his government will be &quot;better&quot; and bolder to assuage disgruntled voters impatient for change. That pledge will be put to the test in Wednesday&#39;s short address in parliament, which Downing Street said will unveil an &quot;ambitious programme&quot; that will make Britain a &quot;stronger, fairer&quot; country. It is the latest crunch moment in Starmer&#39;s 22-month premiership, and comes after Labour descended into open warfare on Tuesday over the prime minister&#39;s future following the party&#39;s heavy defeats in local and regional elections. Four junior ministers resigned, and the number of MPs urging Starmer to quit passed 80, but more than 100 others signed a statement urging colleagues to back him. Several senior ministers also rallied around the Labour premier after Starmer vowed to fight on, telling them that no one had come forward to kick-start a leadership challenge. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy urged lawmakers to &quot;step back and take a breath&quot;, while a spokesman for Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood denied rumours that she was resigning. Pivotal moment&nbsp;&quot;Britain stands at a pivotal moment,&quot; Starmer, who in July 2024 became the UK&#39;s sixth prime minister in eight years, said in comments late Tuesday ahead of the King&#39;s Speech. &quot;To press ahead with a plan to build a stronger, fairer country or turn back to the chaos and instability of the past.&quot; Despite its name, the King&#39;s Speech is not written by the monarch but by the government, which uses it to detail the laws it proposes to make over the next 12 months. Downing Street said the address will include a package of more than 35 bills &quot;to bolster economic, energy, (and) national security. They will include proposals to fully nationalise British Steel and deepen Britain&#39;s relationship with the European Union. King Charles will deliver the proposals from a golden throne in the House of Lords upper chamber while wearing the diamond-studded Imperial State Crown and a long crimson robe. The day&#39;s proceedings start when royal bodyguards ritually search the basement of the Palace of Westminster for explosives -- a legacy of the failed attempt by Catholics to blow up parliament in the 1605 Gunpowder plot. Black RodThe sovereign will then travel to the Houses of Parliament by carriage from Buckingham Palace, escorted by mounted cavalry. Tradition dictates that an MP is ceremonially held &quot;hostage&quot; in the palace to ensure the king&#39;s safe return. A parliamentary official known as Black Rod will have the door of the lower chamber House of Commons slammed in their face, a tradition that symbolises parliament&#39;s independence from the monarchy. MPs will follow Black Rod to the upper chamber, where Charles, as head of state, will give the speech to assembled lords and ladies in red and ermine robes, plus invited members of the elected Commons at around 11:30 am (1030 GMT). Starmer is also due on Wednesday morning to meet Health Secretary Wes Streeting, purported to be one of his main rivals for the premiership. Streeting is popular on the right of Labour, while a would-be challenger on the left in any contest could be former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. Another much-touted contender, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester in northwest England, is unable to stand currently as he is not an MP, but supporters want Starmer to lay out a timetable for his departure that allows Burnham to return to parliament and stand. Under party rules, any challenger would need the support of 81 Labour MPs, 20% of the party in parliament, to trigger a leadership contest. Starmer has vowed to fight any challenge.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks during a visit to the Kenton district of London on April 23, 2026. (File photo: AFP)

Europe

Keir Starmer faces growing political pressure as King Charles III prepares to outline the UK government’s legislative agenda during the traditional King’s Speech in parliament.

King Charles to unveil UK government agenda amid pressure on PM Starmer

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to propose legislation within weeks to proscribe Iran&rsquo;s Revolutionary Guards, a report said Friday. Starmer made the comments while speaking to the Jewish Chronicle newspaper during a visit Thursday to a London synagogue targeted by arsonists nearly a week ago. The commitment comes after the European Union in January agreed to designate Tehran&#39;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a &quot;terrorist organisation&quot; over allaged crackdown on mass protests. &ldquo;In relation to malign state actors more generally, proscription, we do need legislation in order to take necessary measures, and that is legislation that we&rsquo;re bringing forward as soon as we can,&quot; Starmer said when asked about the prospect of proscribing the Guards. &ldquo;We go into a new session (of parliament) in a few week&#39;s time and we&rsquo;ll bring that legislation forward,&rdquo; he added. Jewish residents in northwest London remain on &quot;high alert&quot; after a spate of arson attacks on synagogues and community sites which began after the US-Israel strikes on Iran since February 28. Starmer has said he is &ldquo;increasingly concerned&rdquo; about countries using proxies for criminal activity in the UK. The IRGC is the ideological arm of Tehran&#39;s military and was created after the 1979 revolution to protect the clerical leadership.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (C) and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (2R) sit alongside Kenton Rabbi, Yehuda Black (4L) talks during a visit to Kenton United Synagogue, which was recently the target of an attempted arson, in the Kenton district of Lon

The commitment comes after the European Union in January agreed to designate Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a "terrorist organisation."

UK PM vows legislation to ban Iran Guards: Report

LONDON: As Israelis and Palestinians wait anxiously to see what comes after a ceasefire in the two-year war in Gaza, the experience of the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s may offer lessons in the thorny process of moving from seemingly intractable conflict to enduring peace. Two key figures who helped steer the Northern Ireland peace process &mdash; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell &mdash; have returned to the international spotlight due to their involvement in talks with the US and other countries about the future of Gaza.&nbsp;&lsquo;We stand ready&rsquo;: Starmer &nbsp;Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that &ldquo;drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a key role in the decommissioning of Hamas&rsquo; weapons and capability.&rdquo; Around 3,600 people were killed and 50,000 wounded during &ldquo;the Troubles,&rdquo; three decades of violence involving Irish republican militants determined to wrest Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. After years of false starts and setbacks, a peace accord was struck in 1998 that largely ended the conflict and led to the disarming of the Irish Republican Army and other militant groups. Trump-backed plan&nbsp;The Trump-backed plan for Gaza is far narrower and does not address the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began decades before the latest war. It also provides no clear path to Palestinian statehood, something Israel rejects but that is seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict. The plan calls for Hamas to disarm, something the group insists it will not do &mdash; although it has expressed a willingness to hand over some weapons to a Palestinian or Arab body. In Northern Ireland, the IRA&rsquo;s reluctance to give up its weapons was a main sticking point that threatened to derail the peace process. Major differences&nbsp;Experts say there are parallels &mdash; but also major differences &mdash; between the Northern Ireland conflict and the devastating war in Gaza. Israel&#39;s war has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, led to famine in some areas and killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry, that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. &ldquo;The level of challenge in the Middle East now is monumental,&rdquo; said Kristian Brown, a politics lecturer at Ulster University in Belfast. &ldquo;The level of bitterness, the sense of immediate threat and the levels of destruction (in Northern Ireland) were not as cataclysmic as Gaza.&rdquo; &#39;Counsel patience and pragmatism&#39;The Irish Republican Army eventually agreed to put its arsenal &ldquo;beyond use&rdquo; by way of a secret process supervised by an international commission. Disarmament ran in parallel to efforts to resolve political disputes at the heart of the conflict, something that more than three decades of US-led peace efforts in the Middle East have failed to accomplish. It was slow going: The first batch of IRA weapons was decommissioned in 2001 and the last in 2005, seven years after the Good Friday Agreement.&nbsp; Several other British loyalist and Irish republican militant groups also disarmed as part of the process. &ldquo;The British might be able to counsel patience and pragmatism,&rdquo; said Niall &Oacute; Dochartaigh, a professor of political science at the University of Galway. &ldquo;The IRA leadership had to be helped in various ways to make that argument (for disarmament) within the organization. &ldquo;Ultimately, decommissioning only happened in the Irish case once the IRA was satisfied that there was a political settlement bedded down,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp; And while &ldquo;the contours of a compromise settlement emerged quite early in Northern Ireland,&rdquo; a similar consensus in the Middle East appears far off. Big gaps&nbsp;The 20-point plan for Gaza sets out a sweeping vision, from ceasefire to peacemaking &ndash; but leaves big gaps about how it will all be achieved.&nbsp; And it says nothing about the thorniest issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians, including the status of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, security arrangements, future borders and the scores of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Good Friday Agreement was more detailed about the structures that would be established in Northern Ireland to underpin peace, including a legislature and government.&nbsp; It was the product of two years of US-backed negotiations that helped build trust between sworn enemies. But peacemaking was still slow and fragile. Shaky power-sharing political systemFour months after the Good Friday agreement, IRA dissidents set off a car bomb in the town of Omagh, killing 29 people in the deadliest single attack of the conflict. Today, dissidents still attempt occasional small-scale attacks. The power-sharing political system set up under the peace agreement has collapsed several times. Amnesties mean killers have gone free and some victims have not received justice. Yet peace has largely held. Political parties once linked to violent groups, including the IRA-allied Sinn Fein, play a major role, with former gunmen and bombers among those who now sit as lawmakers. &quot;Engaging those involved with violence and bringing them down democratic paths&rdquo; was key to the success of Northern Ireland&#39;s peace process, according to Peter McLoughlin, a senior lecturer in politics and history at Queen&rsquo;s University Belfast. &lsquo;Inclusive process worked&rsquo;He said excluding Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, in the future of the strip, could be a problem. &ldquo;If there was a broad lesson from the success of Northern Ireland, it&rsquo;s that an inclusive process worked &ndash; and I mean inclusive in the full sense, all different parties, even including militants,&quot; McLoughlin said. &ldquo;Hamas is being excluded from the political process and is expected to give up its weapons,&quot; he added. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how feasible that is.&rdquo; Key players returnStarmer&#39;s reference to the UK&#39;s experience in monitoring ceasefires no doubt refers to the achievements of Blair and Powell. President Donald Trump has said Blair, who was UK prime minister between 1997 and 2007, is a potential member of a &ldquo;Board of Peace&rdquo; to oversee administration and reconstruction in Gaza. Blair has long experience in the Middle East, having served as an envoy to Israel and the Palestinians for the &quot;Quartet&quot; &mdash; the US, European Union, Russia and the United Nations &mdash; for eight years until 2015. He also played a pivotal role &mdash; along with then US President Bill Clinton &mdash; in putting together an international coalition that conducted airstrikes in 1999 to end Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic&rsquo;s crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. But Blair is also a highly controversial figure because of his decision to take Britain into the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.&nbsp; Trump has acknowledged that Blair might not be &ldquo;an acceptable choice to everybody&rdquo; in the region. &lsquo;Small diplomatic part&rsquo;Powell, meanwhile, is now Starmer&rsquo;s national security adviser and attended Trump&rsquo;s summit in Egypt.&nbsp; US Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff praised Powell&rsquo;s &ldquo;incredible input and tireless efforts&rdquo; in reaching the agreement. Bronwen Maddox, the director of Chatham House, the UK-based international affairs institute, was skeptical about drawing parallels between the two processes. She said Britain &ldquo;can play a small diplomatic part&rdquo; in Gaza, but probably not a decisive one. The Northern Ireland peace deal &ldquo;was a successful and really important peace negotiation,&quot; she said. &quot;But it was very much of itself, I think.&rdquo;

Middle East

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that “drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a key role in the decommissioning of Hamas’ weapons and capability.”

UK ready to decommission Hamas: Starmer  

Reuters

MUMBAI: Britain will not pursue a visa deal with India, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, as he aims to deepen economic ties with the country following this year&#39;s trade agreement.&nbsp;Starmer said that the visa issue had previously blocked efforts to seal a trade deal, and that, having reached an agreement with no visa implications, he didn&#39;t wish to revisit the issue when he meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks on Thursday.&nbsp;&quot;That isn&#39;t part of the plans,&quot; he told reporters en route to India when asked about visas, adding the visit was &quot;to take advantage of the free trade agreement that we&#39;ve already struck.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;Businesses are taking advantage of that. But the issue is not about visas.&quot;&nbsp;Starmer is trying to adopt a more restrictive stance on immigration amid high public concern about the issue, as his Labour Party trails the populist Reform UK party in the polls.&nbsp;He said visas would not be on the table to attract tech sector professionals from India, after US President Donald Trump hiked fees on H-1B visas. However, he said that he wanted to have &quot;top talent&quot; in Britain.&nbsp;Asked if he would stop issuing visas to arrivals from countries that refuse to take back foreign criminals or people wanted for deportation, Starmer said it was a &quot;non-issue&quot; with India, as there is a returns agreement, but it was something he would look at more broadly.&nbsp;&quot;We are looking at whether there should be a link between visas and returns agreements,&quot; he said.&nbsp;British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is accompanied by over 100 leaders from the business, cultural, and academic sectors.&nbsp;The deal between the world&#39;s fifth- and sixth-largest economies aims to increase bilateral trade by a further 25.5 billion pounds ($34 billion) by 2040.

India

Starmer begins a two-day trip to India on Wednesday, bringing a trade mission of businesses to promote the trade deal, which was agreed in May, signed in July and due to come into effect next year.

No more visas for Indian workers, says UK PM

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Britain on Tuesday for an unprecedented second state visit, White House announced in a statement on Tuesday.&quot;A lot of things here warm my heart,&quot; the 79-year-old Republican told reporters after he arrived with First Lady Melania Trump. &quot;It&#39;s a very special place.&quot;<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1968052852708016509&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=985cdc273bab42a0e2e6d62bc4e8095c5a4116fd&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 755px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div>King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle for a lavish banquet and carriage ride on Wednesday, before Trump meets Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his country residence on Thursday, AFP reported.In a sign of the pomp and pageantry to come, a guard of honor greeted the Trumps as they stepped off Air Force One at Stansted Airport near London.Trump then expressed his admiration for the British monarch.&lsquo;A very big day&rsquo;&quot;He&#39;s been a friend of mine for a long time, and everyone respects him, and they love him,&quot; Trump said as he arrived by helicopter at Winfield House, the U.S. ambassador&#39;s residence in London, where he will spend the night.&quot;Tomorrow&#39;s going to be a very big day.&quot;Trump is the first U.S. president to be invited for two state visits, after previously being hosted by Queen Elizabeth II during his last term in office in 2019 -- as Britain tries to keep the so-called special relationship alive.The British government has been unapologetic about its efforts to get on the right side of Trump, whose mother was Scottish and who owns a number of golf courses in the UK.But the British public will be kept far away from Trump, with the visit taking place entirely behind closed doors and heavy security.Shadow of Epstein scandalA large anti-Trump demonstration has been called in London on Wednesday, while protesters projected images of Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein onto the towers of Windsor Castle late Tuesday.The shadow of the Epstein scandal has hung over Trump for weeks after his administration declined to release files on the issue.It has also embroiled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who sacked his ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson on the eve of the visit over the envoy&#39;s emails to Epstein.Starmer&#39;s government is however counting on the sheer scale of the state visit to keep Trump onside.Largest military showIn Windsor on Wednesday, Trump will get a ceremonial carriage ride and a flypast by both UK and U.S. jets in what officials call the largest military show for a state visit in living memory, AFP reported.In the evening King Charles will host Trump for a lavish state dinner where both men will give speeches.Trump may also relish the royal part of the visit as a chance to escape a turbulent period at home, where the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has caused turmoil.$30B over four yearsPolitics will take over again on Thursday when Starmer hosts Trump at his country residence Chequers for talks focusing on trade and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.The visit has been timed to line up with announcements of several investments in Britain -- the latest being a pledge by Microsoft to spend $30 billion over four years.Starmer needs the visit to go well after a miserable few days in which some in his Labour party have openly questioned whether he can remain as leader over the Mandelson resignation.Downing Street has said Trump&#39;s visit would see the &quot;unbreakable friendship&quot; between the countries &quot;reach new heights&quot;, AFP reported.Trade tops agendaStarmer will host Trump at Chequers, his country residence, on Thursday to discuss various matters, including security in Ukraine. Starmer&rsquo;s ultimate aim, however, is to ensure that Trump makes good on his promise to lower tariffs on steel and aluminum, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday.The UK was the first country to sign a bilateral trade agreement with the Trump administration in May. Under that deal, the U.S. planned to reduce tariffs on aluminum and steel from 25% to zero, but that has not happened yet.The two countries are also expected to sign a multibillion-dollar deal to develop small nuclear projects, which could, in some cases, help to power new artificial intelligence data centres. On Monday, Starmer announced a joint U.S.-UK project to build a fleet of small modular reactors.Potential technology partnership&nbsp;A major talking point will be a new potential technology partnership, involving enhanced U.S. investment in the UK and greater British cooperation with Silicon Valley on artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, Al Jazeera reported.Nvidia, OpenAI and Google are expected to announce investment deals as part of the partnership, according to the Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, the British government recently secured 1.25 billion pounds ($1.7bn) in private investment pledges from PayPal and Bank of America.Elsewhere, private equity firm Blackstone plans to invest 100 billion pounds ($136bn) into British assets over the next decade, with a focus on physical infrastructure. The investment will be part of a previously announced $500bn package of investment into Europe.

Americas

United Kingdom

U.S. President Donald Trump has arrived in the UK for an unprecedented second state visit, marked by royal pageantry and talks on trade and Ukraine and Gaza wars.

Articles tagged with "Keir Starmer"

King Charles to unveil UK government agenda amid pressure on PM Starmer

UK PM vows legislation to ban Iran Guards: Report

UK ready to decommission Hamas: Starmer

No more visas for Indian workers, says UK PM

U.S. President Trump arrives in UK for historic second state visit