Minister rejects claims government refusing to call Maduro extradition illegal to avoid upsetting Trump
Good morning. Before Christmas, Keir Starmer was planning to use the first week back after the holiday recess to highlight what the government is doing to bring down the cost of living. He set out this case yesterday in an article in the Sunday Times, where he referenced measures including the budget plan to cut energy bills by £150 on average. Unfortunately, Starmer’s cost of living PR blitz has been blown out of the news agenda by Donald Trump, and his entirely different different approach to the problem of ensuring his voters get access to cheap energy.
No one in mainstream UK politics seems to be very keen on adopting the Trump approach – which is probably good news for Norway.
But there is an intense debate under way about what the UK government should be willing to say about Trump’s decision to abduct Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, and replace him with someone expected to be more compliant with US demands, particularly in relation to the country’s oil industry.
Keir Starmer has declined to criticise the American intervention, and the government has dodged questions about whether or not it viewed what happened as legal. Last night all EU states apart from Hungary issued a joint statement which, while not overtly critical, did stress the value of international law, and by implication accuse Trump of ignoring it. It said:
The European Union calls for calm and restraint by all actors, to avoid escalation and to ensure a peaceful solution to the crisis.
The EU recalls that, under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN charter must be upheld. Members of the United Nations security council have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles, as a pillar of the international security architecture.
Mike Tapp, the migration minister, was doing an interview round this morning and, on the Today programme, when asked if Starmer was refusing to say the Maduro extradition broke international law because he was afraid of upsetting Trump, Tapp replied:
Absolutely not. The British government is, and will, be in conversations with the Americans. And it’s for the Americans to lay out the legal basis for the action that they’ve taken. And we’re also talking with close allies looking at the legal aspect of this.
But last night, in an interviews on the BBC’s Westminster Hour, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee (and a former shadow attorney general), said she was very concerned about the way Trump seems to think, like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, that he could do what he wanted in his sphere of influence.
Asked about Starmer declining to say that Trump was in breach of international law, Thornberry said, because the PM was in government, he had to weigh up “a number of considerations”. But she was in a different position because she was not a minister, she said. She went on:
In the end there is no getting away from it. This is not a legal action.
[Starmer] may well want to hear what the justification is from the American government. I can get in front of that and say I literally cannot think of anything that could be a proper justification.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, gives a speech in Glasgow. The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, are also giving speeches, at 10.30am and 1pm respectively. All the leaders are looking ahead to the Holyrood elections in May.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in Berkshire where he is due to speak to the media.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to give a statement to MPs about Venezuela.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
Britain will be ‘turning corner’ in 2026 on cost of living, Starmer claims
Keir Starmer has delivered his ‘cost of living’ message (see 9.56am) at an event at a community centre in Berkshire. According to the PA Media report, he said that the UK would be “turning a corner” in 2026 on this issue.
He said:
It’s really good to be able to come here and speak to you. I’m acutely aware that there are a lot of things going on in the world at the moment, particularly you will see some things this weekend.
But I always remind myself that, for you and millions of people across this country, what matters more than anything is the cost of living, is actually being able to pay bills, making sure that ends meet at the end of the month, and that we’re driving down all those things that cause people a lot of anxiety when they feel they can’t pay the bills.
2026 is the year that we’re going to be turning a corner where – when we say we want national renewal of the country, and we do – it becomes a reality, and people begin to feel the difference in their pockets, in the ability to pay the bill.
That’s why we say we are turning a corner into 2026.
Kemi Badenoch was interviewed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning. On Saturday, like Keir Starmer, she said she wanted to wait before passing judgment on the US decision to seize the Venezuelan president. This morning she was still sitting on the fence, refusing to say whether she supported or opposed the US operation. But she did describe it as “unorthodox”.
When it was put to her that Margaret Thatcher criticised the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, Badenoch suggested that Thatcher was right to do so, but that this intervention was different.
How Starmer suggested criticising Trump over legality of Venezuala raid would not be in ‘national interest’
In his long interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday, Keir Starmer was asked repeatedly about why he was unwilling to condemn the extradition of Nicolás Maduro when it was evidently against international law.
Starmer described himself as “a lifelong advocate of international law and the importance of compliance with international law”, but said that he wanted to get “all the material facts” and establish “the full picture” before he passed comment on the legality of what happened.
But Kuenssberg continued to press him on this, pointing out that all the key facts were already available. At that point Starmer came close to admitting that he did not want to criticise Trump because he judged that was not in the national interest. He said:
The relationship between the US and the UK is one of the closest relationships in the world. It is vitally important for our defence, for our security, for our intelligence. It is my responsibility to make sure that relationship works, as the prime minister of this country, working with the president of the United States …
We do have differences of views on various things but, on the other hand, I constantly remind myself that, 24/7, our defence, our security, and our intelligence relationship with the US matters probably more than any other relationship we’ve got in the world, and it would not be in our national interest to weaken that in any way.
Venezuela attack could embolden China and Russia, says Emily Thornberry
The lack of western condemnation of the US military intervention in Venezuela could embolden China and Russia to take similar action against other countries, Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, said in her Westminster Hour interview last night. Peter Walker has the story.
Minister rejects claims government refusing to call Maduro extradition illegal to avoid upsetting Trump
Good morning. Before Christmas, Keir Starmer was planning to use the first week back after the holiday recess to highlight what the government is doing to bring down the cost of living. He set out this case yesterday in an article in the Sunday Times, where he referenced measures including the budget plan to cut energy bills by £150 on average. Unfortunately, Starmer’s cost of living PR blitz has been blown out of the news agenda by Donald Trump, and his entirely different different approach to the problem of ensuring his voters get access to cheap energy.
No one in mainstream UK politics seems to be very keen on adopting the Trump approach – which is probably good news for Norway.
But there is an intense debate under way about what the UK government should be willing to say about Trump’s decision to abduct Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, and replace him with someone expected to be more compliant with US demands, particularly in relation to the country’s oil industry.
Keir Starmer has declined to criticise the American intervention, and the government has dodged questions about whether or not it viewed what happened as legal. Last night all EU states apart from Hungary issued a joint statement which, while not overtly critical, did stress the value of international law, and by implication accuse Trump of ignoring it. It said:
The European Union calls for calm and restraint by all actors, to avoid escalation and to ensure a peaceful solution to the crisis.
The EU recalls that, under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN charter must be upheld. Members of the United Nations security council have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles, as a pillar of the international security architecture.
Mike Tapp, the migration minister, was doing an interview round this morning and, on the Today programme, when asked if Starmer was refusing to say the Maduro extradition broke international law because he was afraid of upsetting Trump, Tapp replied:
Absolutely not. The British government is, and will, be in conversations with the Americans. And it’s for the Americans to lay out the legal basis for the action that they’ve taken. And we’re also talking with close allies looking at the legal aspect of this.
But last night, in an interviews on the BBC’s Westminster Hour, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee (and a former shadow attorney general), said she was very concerned about the way Trump seems to think, like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, that he could do what he wanted in his sphere of influence.
Asked about Starmer declining to say that Trump was in breach of international law, Thornberry said, because the PM was in government, he had to weigh up “a number of considerations”. But she was in a different position because she was not a minister, she said. She went on:
In the end there is no getting away from it. This is not a legal action.
[Starmer] may well want to hear what the justification is from the American government. I can get in front of that and say I literally cannot think of anything that could be a proper justification.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, gives a speech in Glasgow. The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, are also giving speeches, at 10.30am and 1pm respectively. All the leaders are looking ahead to the Holyrood elections in May.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in Berkshire where he is due to speak to the media.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to give a statement to MPs about Venezuela.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
