Tag: Downing Street

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 7 September 2024.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will travel to Dublin today [7 September 2024] to meet the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, in his first official visit to Ireland.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will travel to Dublin today to meet the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, in his first official visit to Ireland.

Continuing his drive to reset the UK’s relationships with its key international partners and deliver for hard-working British people, he will welcome a new era in the British-Irish relationship and highlight the opportunity it presents to drive forward economic growth.

Ireland is one of the UK’s top trading partners and the trading relationship is worth 100 billion euros a year – supporting thousands of jobs for British and Irish people.

Boosting growth is the Prime Minister’s key mission of government, and the visit is another example of his personal commitment to drive up the UK’s standing in the world in order to attract investment to the UK and create more jobs for British people.

The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach will also meet Irish business leaders from companies including Accenture, Keelings and Primark today, to encourage enhanced bilateral trade and investment in pursuit of growth.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

The UK and Ireland share the strongest of ties – through our close geography, shared culture and the friendships of our people.

Our relationship has never reached its full potential, but I want to change that. We have a clear opportunity to go further and faster to make sure our partnership is fully delivering on behalf of the British and Irish people – driving growth and prosperity in both our countries.

The Taoiseach and I are in lockstep about our future, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration further.

The Taoiseach was the first international leader hosted by the Prime Minister in the UK following the July election – demonstrating the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to a strong UK-Ireland relationship.

Today’s visit comes after the Prime Minister’s visit to Berlin and Paris last week to continue the UK’s reset with its key European partners.

The leaders will attend the Republic of Ireland vs England Nations’ League football match on Saturday evening.

Hilary O’Meara, Country Managing Director of Accenture in Ireland said:

Accenture is delighted to be invited, alongside other business leaders in Ireland, to join UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Taoiseach, Simon Harris to discuss mutual business opportunity across our two countries.

It is encouraging to see the Prime Minister travel to Ireland so early in his premiership to join us for what promises to a great sporting occasion.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 3 September 2024.

The Prime Minister spoke to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates yesterday afternoon.

The Prime Minister said he was pleased to have the opportunity to speak again so soon, following their first call shortly after the election in July.

The leaders agreed that our countries share a strong and important bond and reiterated their commitment to deepening the relationship going forwards.

They agreed to find a time to meet in person at the earliest opportunity.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 31 August 2024.

Here are some of the things we are doing to fix the foundations of this country.

We want to create wealth everywhere, but first we must fix the foundations of our country.

In the first few weeks of this Government, an audit found a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. It means we’ve had to take tough decisions, like means-testing the Winter Fuel Payment. Our Budget in October will be difficult.

But we have already taken action to improve the lives of working people in every corner of the country, from unlocking planning decisions to help build 1.5 million new homes to setting up Great British Energy, to create good jobs and provide clean energy to cut people’s bills in the long term.

Here are some of the things we are doing to fix the foundations of this country.

Setting up a new National Wealth Fund

Growth is the number one priority of this government. That’s why we set up the National Wealth Fund.

It is a publicly owned investment fund that will help attract investment into our country, stabilise our economy and create wealth for future generations.

It will help unlock private investment into the UK by directly investing in new and growing industries, and help create thousands of jobs in clean energy industries.

Accelerating housing planning

We’re overhauling our housing system to meet the needs of working people and put communities first.

Our plan will include introducing mandatory planning targets to aim to deliver on our ambition to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

The new targets will boost housebuilding in areas most in need, to help more people buy their own homes, and help drive growth – making everyone in the country better off.

Putting passengers first  We’ll put our rail system back on track with new laws to deliver for passengers.

They will improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership.

Protecting taxpayer money

We’ll introduce legislation that makes sure nobody can play fast and loose with public finances.

A new Bill will strengthen the role of the Office of Budget Responsibility, meaning significant fiscal announcements must be properly scrutinised and that taxpayers’ money is respected.

Protecting workers’ rights

We’ll improve workers’ rights with new legislation – a significant step towards delivering this Government’s plan to make work pay.

We will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end fire and rehire, and introduce basic employment rights from day one.

And we’re changing the way the Minimum Wage is set so it keeps in line with the cost of living, in a move to put more money in working people’s pockets.

Launching GB Energy

Producing clean energy and creating good jobs will be our focus for the rest of the year. Great British Energy, a publicly owned, clean-energy company, will own, manage and operate clean power projects, such as wind farms, across the country.

Great British Energy will be headquartered in Scotland and paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants. It will invest clean power projects across the United Kingdom, such as wind farms, which are the cheapest forms of electricity generation to build and operate.

This will help make our country energy independent, tackle climate change and save families money. And investing in clean domestic power will create jobs and build supply chains in every corner of the UK.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 29 August 2024.

The Prime Minister met President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace this morning.

The Prime Minister congratulated President Macron on hosting such a successful Olympic Games and said he was looking forward to watching the Paralympics in the coming weeks.

The leaders reflected on the success of the European Political Community meeting, held at Blenheim Palace last month, and agreed on the importance of further strengthening and broadening the close relationship between the UK and France in the coming months.

Turning to the fragile situation in the Middle East, the Prime Minister said he was very concerned about the escalation in the West Bank in recent days.

The leaders agreed on the urgency of concluding the ceasefire negotiations, and the importance of pursing a political solution that creates an irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, which can provide lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Moving to the shared challenge of small boat crossings, the Prime Minister welcomed the joint action between the UK and France and the leaders agreed to do more together to dismantle smuggling routes further upstream and increase intelligence sharing.

The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 29 August 2024.

The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of Catherine Smith KC as Advocate General for Scotland.

His Majesty has also been pleased to signify His intention of conferring a peerage of the United Kingdom for Life on Catherine Smith KC.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 28 August 2024.

The King has been pleased to appoint Ms Catherine Maxwell Stuart DL as His Lord-Lieutenant for Tweeddale, to succeed Professor Sir Hew Strachan CVO FBA FRSE following his retirement on 1st September 2024.

Background

Catherine Maxwell Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair, was born in Edinburgh and educated at the London School of Economics and Edinburgh University. In 1999 she took over management of the Traquair Estate and has made a great success of running the House not just as a public attraction but as a venue for international cultural exchange and conflict resolution in partnership with her husband, Mark Muller Stuart KC, the Founder of Beyond Borders Scotland. She is highly regarded within the area and involved in a number of business and charitable organisations ranging from tourism to furniture re-use and youth work. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Borders College in 2014.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 28 August 2024.

The King has approved the following new appointments to His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council:

• Baroness Eluned Morgan MS – First Minister of Wales
• Dame Janice Pereira DBE – Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
• John Swinney MSP – First Minister of Scotland

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 28 August 2024.

Joint declaration between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Scholz on deepening and enhancing UK-Germany relations.

Germany and the United Kingdom share a strong friendship, common values and mutual interests. We are close partners in Europe and internationally as well as long-standing Allies in NATO. Today, given the common challenges our two countries face, we are convinced that the time has come to take our bilateral relations to the next level.

To this end, we are launching work on a bilateral cooperation treaty and will hold government-to-government consultations to sign it by early next year. This treaty will reflect our status as the closest of partners in Europe, with the strongest possible bilateral cooperation on the issues that matter most to our populations. It shall reflect the rich ties between our two countries, peoples and governments across the breadth of our bilateral relationship, in full accordance with Germany’s membership of the EU, and the UK’s relationship with the EU.

Our joint priorities include foreign policy cooperation in peace and security, growing our economies, industrial transformation, law enforcement cooperation and action to tackle irregular migration, increased people-to-people contacts, youth and education, energy security, climate and nature policy, development policy, transport and infrastructure as well as technology, research and innovation.

Germany and the UK are determined to defend and promote peace and security in Europe. As leading European Allies in NATO, we will work together with our Allies and partners to ensure that our ability to deter and defend in the Euro-Atlantic area remains credible at all times and against any possible threats or adversaries. We are committed to deterring a more aggressive Russia, sustaining our support to Ukraine and boosting European defence.

Our Foreign Ministries will coordinate work to negotiate the bilateral treaty, in close consultation with the German Federal Chancellery and the Prime Minister’s Office/Cabinet Office and the respective ministries.

In this context we welcome the work that is already being conducted at pace between by our Defence Ministers on a new agreement on defence to strengthen the links between our defence communities, industries and armed forces, and which act as a key pillar of the forthcoming bilateral cooperation treaty.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 27 August 2024.

The Prime Minister will drive forward UK economic growth in Berlin and Paris this week, as he puts delivering for the British people at the top of his international agenda.

Keir Starmer will meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to launch negotiations on a new bilateral treaty, which is expected to boost business and trade, deepen defence and security cooperation, and increase joint action on illegal migration.

The Prime Minister is expected to tell Chancellor Scholz that he is focused on ensuring the UK moves beyond Brexit to rebuild relationships with key partners and improve the lives of hardworking people in both countries. He is also expected to meet German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He will say that driving growth will be key to doing that. Germany is Europe’s largest economy and the UK’s second largest trading partner, accounting for 8.5% of all UK trade.

As part of the trip to Berlin, the Prime Minister is also expected to meet Dr. Christian Bruch, chief executive of Siemens Energy. Through its technology, Siemens supports one-sixth of global energy generation.

The company also employs nearly 100,000 people, including more than 6,000 in the UK. The stop is part of a string of visits planned by the Prime Minister to drive up investment in the UK and create more highly skilled jobs in every corner of the country.

German companies already support more than 330, 000 jobs in the UK, in places such as Derby, Manchester, Goole and Oxford while UK exports to Germany supported a further 500,000 jobs.

He will also meet Armin Theodor Papperger, the chief executive of Germany’s largest defence and security company, Rheinmetall. Rheinmetall is also vital to the modernisation of the British Army, supporting thousands of jobs at sites in the south west and Shropshire, and has recently made significant investments in its Telford Hub to deliver Boxer armoured fighting vehicles.

The two-day European visit comes after the Prime Minister hosted Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain, at Downing Street on Tuesday, to progress inward investment from the Gulf.

The Prime Minister is expected to travel on to Paris for the Paralympics Opening Ceremony on Wednesday night, before meeting French business leaders, including major investors into the UK economy, for breakfast on Thursday morning including from Thales, Eutelsat, Mistral AI and Sanofi.

France is the UK’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for 6% of all UK trade. The Prime Minister will then go on to meet Paralympians as they prepare for competition, before meeting President Macron at the Elysée Palace.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will say:

“We have a once in a generation opportunity to reset our relationship with Europe and strive for genuine, ambitious partnerships that deliver for the British people.

“We must turn a corner on Brexit and fix the broken relationships left behind by the previous government. That work started at the European Political Community meeting last month, and I am determined to continue it, which is why I am visiting Germany and France this week.

“Strengthening our relationship with these countries is crucial, not only in tackling the global problem of illegal migration, but also in boosting economic growth across the continent and crucially in the UK – one of the key missions of my government.”

The new UK-Germany treaty will be a key pillar of the UK’s wider reset with Europe and build on the defence agreement, which is currently being negotiated between the two countries, and expected to be finalised in the autumn.

The Prime Minister’s negotiating team will spend the next six months agreeing the new treaty, with both sides wanting to agree the new partnership in early 2025.  The ambitious agreement is expected to cover vital areas for increased collaboration, such as market access, critical science, innovation and tech, clean energy, trade across the North Sea, supply chain resilience, energy security and green transition education, biodiversity, and the environment.

A treaty of such magnitude has never been agreed between the UK and Germany. Alongside the longstanding Lancaster House Treaties that underpin the UK’s relationship with France, this new agreement will bring all E3 members in line as our governments work in lockstep on key geo-political issues, such as the conflict in the Middle East and war in Ukraine.

Germany is a central part of the Government’s push to recalibrate relations with Europe, given the close cultural ties and defence collaboration.

The leaders are also expected to discuss joint action to tackle illegal migration, including further intelligence sharing to intercept and shut down organised immigration crime rings.

The Prime Minister will also reiterate his personal condolences to the German people following the attack in Solingen on Friday, where three people died.

The European visit is the fifth time the Prime Minister has met Chancellor Scholz and the fourth time meeting President Macron, following the NATO Summit in Washington, the European Political Community hosted at Blenheim Palace, the UEFA Euro 2024 final, and the Olympic opening ceremony hosted last month.

The European business drive comes ahead of the Prime Minister hosting a major International Investment Summit in October to advance opportunities for investment and growth across the country and deliver for the British people.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 27 August 2024.

The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Timothy Wambunya, Vicar of St Paul’s, Slough, in the Diocese of Oxford, to the Suffragan See of Wolverhampton in the Diocese of Lichfield, in succession to Bishop Clive Gregory, following his retirement.

Background

Tim’s initial career was in Marine Engineering. He trained for ministry at Oakhill Theological College, London, serving his title at St John, Southhall Green, in the Diocese of London, and was ordained Priest in 1998. Tim was appointed Vicar at Emmanuel Holloway Church, Stepney, in 2000 and, in 2007, was appointed Principal at Carlile College (The Church Army Africa College) in Nairobi, Kenya. During these two roles, he studied for a PhD in Paremiology at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (University of Wales). In 2013, he was consecrated and became Bishop of the Diocese of Butere, Anglican Church of Kenya, before taking up his current role in 2020 as Vicar at St Pauls, Slough, in the Diocese of Oxford. He has additionally served as an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford.