{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreifukqix3ziiafkzag4t3a7glv4hljxgrwar7bpeaiiymooh2xqfkm",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:oznbnvgr7dmvddiyvr7dih52/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh5zewuofqm2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreievcupxawylh23rpqdqg4dtcgbsa3ao6lzblql3ivkazxdmtaucoa"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 57700
  },
  "path": "/politics/politics-news-latest-keir-starmer-address-iran-oil-prices-energy-support-donald-trump-ed-miliband",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-16T06:00:28.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "the PM's failure to send ships to the Middle East",
    "would lose their seats",
    "READ THE FULL STORY HERE",
    "READ THE FULL STORY ON DONALD TRUMP'S FURY HERE",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nSir Keir Starmer will deliver a speech to the nation today to address the Iran crisis - just hours after Donald Trump confirmed the special relationship was on the brink.\n\nLast night, Mr Trump said the UK may no longer be America's \"number one ally\" over the PM's failure to send ships to the Middle East.\n\nThe President has called on his Nato allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with the waterway's closure forcing - and keeping - oil prices above $100 per barrel across the weekend.\n\nWith skyrocketing energy costs looming, the PM will seek to cool Britons' nerves from Downing Street today.\n\n\"It's moments like this that tell you what a Government is about,\" he will say. \"My answer is clear. Whatever challenges lie ahead, this Government will always support working people.\n\n\"That is my first instinct - my first priority - to help you with the cost of living through this crisis.\"\n\nThe Government says it will provide \"targeted\" support for 1.5 million households who rely on heating oil, the cost of which has risen by 80 per cent in a week.\n\nAnd over the weekend, the Chancellor confirmed Treasury officials had \"found the money\" to subsidise the oil.\n\n**_FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY..._**\n\n### Keir Starmer under pressure to grant lower tution fees to European students as Brussels ‘reset’ stalls\n\n\n\n\nKeir Starmer is under pressure from the EU to grant European students lower tuition fees, as his hopes of a “reset” with Brussels have stalled.\n\nThe bloc has made the demand as part of any agreement that would allow young people to live and work across borders.\n\n“It is true that talks have stalled and that this is now the main issue on which both sides cannot agree,” one insider said.\n\nBritish officials say the demand came as a surprise and insist it was not included in last year’s framework agreement between Sir Keir and Ursula von der Leyen.\n\nA Government spokesman said any scheme must be “time-limited” and “capped” and would not include access to home tuition fee status, while one British source described the idea as a “non-starter”.\n\nAnalysts estimate that granting EU students domestic fee levels would cost universities around £140m in the first year, rising to £400m over a typical three-year degree. Since Brexit, the share of EU students at UK universities has fallen sharply, from about 27 per cent to just 5 per cent.\n\nEU negotiators want students from the bloc to pay the same rate as their British counterparts when they study in the UK, as part of a Youth Experience Scheme deal.\n\nBritish students usually pay around £9,500 a year, while international fees can total tens of thousands of pounds.\n\n### Met Police chief heads to Washington in bid to release new Mandelson files\n\n\n\n\nThe head of the Metropolitan Police is set to visit Washington this week to urge the US to release unredacted exchanges between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nSir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, has already met with US ambassador Warren Stephens - with whom he is understood to have raised the issue.\n\nUK authorities fear that a formal request for the emails may be required to access the unredacted US Department of Justice (DoJ) documents.\n\nThe police force has already made contact with the DoJ to gain access to files related to Lord Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.\n\nUS lawmakers and victims of the convicted paedophile have said the publicly released Epstein files were redacted to hide victims.\n\nLast month, it was revealed some men’s names had been redacted, while some victims' information had been publicly revealed.\n\nCongressmen Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie alleged that six men's names were improperly redacted, but it later turned out four of the men had no connection to Epstein.\n\nLord Mandelson was arrested on February 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office, having been accused of passing sensitive information to Epstein during his time as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s Government.\n\nHe was subsequently bailed, but later released from his bail conditions, although he remains under investigation.\n\n### Greens plan to break with Church of England in assault on centuries of British heritage\n\n\n\n\nThe Green Party has announced plans to separate the Church of England from the state should it win the next General Election.\n\nUnder proposals outlined in party policy documents, Zack Polanski's party would end the Prime Minister's involvement in appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury.\n\nThe Church would also become a self-governing institution, while bishops currently sitting in the House of Lords would lose their seats.\n\nElsewhere, the role of the Church's representative in the House of Commons, held by Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, would also be scrapped...\n\n**READ THE FULL STORY HERE**\n\n### Iran dishes out WAR THREAT to Britain if Keir Starmer sends warships to guard Strait of Hormuz\n\n\n\n\nIran has directly threatened Britain with military action if it sends the Royal Navy to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.\n\nWith Donald Trump repeatedly calling for an alliance to guard the waterway - and bring oil prices down - Iram's Foreign Ministry dished out a chilling threat to the UK.\n\nA spokesman for the ministry said any help given to the US would be seen as \"complicity in the crime of aggression\".\n\n\"We are not at war with the UK... but any participation in this war would be regarded as participating in the US-Israel war of aggression against Iran,\" Esmail Baghaei raged to Times Radio.\n\nAbbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister has claimed Tehran is \"open to countries who want to talk\" about securing safe passage of their vessels.\n\nHis country is repeatedly attacking tankers in the Arabian Gulf.\n\n### Breaking through the night: Donald Trump launches vicious new attack on Keir Starmer's Britain - and warns Nato faces 'very bad future'\n\n\n\n\nDonald Trump launched a vicious new attack on Sir Keir Starmer's Britain overnight in the latest blow to the \"special relationship\".\n\nThe President said Britain may no longer be America's \"number one ally\" - just days after his Middle East envoy suggested his and Sir Keir's relationship was broken.\n\nThe President said that Nato allies should pitch in and help reopen the Strait of Hormuz - and argued that China and Europe are more reliant on oil from the Gulf than the US.\n\nHe told the FT: \"If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato.\"\n\nWhile the UK's response to the Iran war was lacking, Mr Trump said, despite being America's \"longest-serving\" ally.\n\nHe added that when he \"asked for them to come, they didn't want to come\"...\n\n**READ THE FULL STORY ON DONALD TRUMP'S FURY HERE**\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards:The GB News Editorial Charter **",
  "title": "Keir Starmer to address the nation after Donald Trump confirms special relationship on the brink"
}