White House issues trade warning over NI protocol White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said any efforts to undermine the Northern Ireland agreement would not create a conducive environment for trade talks between the United States and the UK. As an MP, the new British prime minister, Liz Truss, introduced legislation to undo the Northern Ireland protocol, which was part of Britain’s withdrawal agreement from the European Union. It prioritised protecting the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, or Belfast Agreement, for peace in the British-run region. The White House said on Tuesday that the US president, Joe Biden, and Truss “discussed their shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland protocol.” A summary of today"s developments Liz Truss is expected to announce her plan to guard households and businesses against soaring costs while ramping up domestic energy supply. The new premier is expected to tell MPs on Thursday that domestic bills will be frozen at about £2,500 as part of a package to ease the cost of living crisis. The suggestion is it will be funded through borrowing, with Truss rejecting the idea of applying a windfall tax on the bumper profits made by oil and gas companies to cover the cost – reported to be up to £150bn. Labour has accused the PM of writing a “blank cheque” to the energy giants by ruling out the levy, with the British people left to “foot the bill”. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said any efforts to undermine the Northern Ireland agreement would not create a conducive environment for trade talks between the United States and the UK.As an MP, the new British prime minister, Liz Truss, introduced legislation to undo the Northern Ireland protocol, which was part of Britain’s withdrawal agreement from the European Union. The Queen has postponed her privy council meeting and has been advised by doctors to rest, Buckingham Palace has announced. A palace spokesperson said: “After a full day yesterday, Her Majesty has this afternoon accepted doctors’ advice to rest. “This means that the privy council meeting that had been due to take place this evening will be rearranged.” During the proceedings, the new prime minister, Liz Truss, would have taken her oath as First Lord of the Treasury, and new cabinet ministers would have been sworn into their roles and also made privy counsellors, if not already appointed as one in the past. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has said the process used in the UK to select Liz Truss as prime minister was not democratic. He said: “In the UK, the procedure for electing the head of state is far from democratic. It takes place within the framework of the party that won the previous parliamentary election. The UK people do not participate in the change of government in this case.” Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister, is rejoining the government as a Northern Ireland minister. Will Quince becomes a health minister. James Duddridge becomes an international trade minister. Kelly Tolhurst becomes an education minister. Lady Williams of Trafford is the new Lords chief whip. Nusrat Ghani has been made a minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Downing Street said. Kevin Foster has been given a role in the Department for Transport. Alec Shelbrooke MP was announced as a minister of state in the Ministry of Defence. Robert Jenrick, housing secretary until he was sacked in 2021, becomes a health minister. Victoria Prentis becomes a welfare minister. Rachel Maclean becomes a justice minister. Julia Lopez becomes a culture minister again. And Michael Tomlinson becomes solicitor general. Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, was serving food to pupils today to publicise the Welsh government’s decision to start offering universal free school meals to the youngest primary school pupils this wee Sir Stephen Lovegrove has been dropped as national security adviser by Liz Truss, in one of her first civil service appointments since taking over at No 10 on Tuesday. The veteran official will be replaced by career diplomat Sir Tim Barrow, best known as the former ambassador to the European Union who handed over the UK’s article 50 notice that triggered Brexit. No 10 confirmed that Jacob Rees-Mogg will not be replaced as Brexit opportunities minister. Rees-Mogg will still address this agenda as business secretary, and ministers in other department will consider Brexit opportunities too, Downing Street said. Ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Liz Truss acknowledged families and businesses across the country are concerned about how they will “make ends meet” over the coming months. She blamed rising global prices on Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and “weaponisation” of gas supply in Europe. “This has only made clearer that we must boost our long-term energy security and supply,” she said. “We will take action immediately to help people and businesses with bills but also take decisive action to tackle the root cause of these problems, so that we are not in this position again. “We will set out our plans to deliver on that promise and build a prosperous Britain for everyone.” Downing Street said the new PM would set out a “bold plan of action to support people across the UK” while also “ramping up domestic energy supply”. Liz Truss is expected to announce her plan to guard households and businesses against soaring costs while ramping up domestic energy supply. The new premier is expected to tell MPs on Thursday that domestic bills will be frozen at about £2,500 as part of a package to ease the cost of living crisis. The suggestion is it will be funded through borrowing, with Truss rejecting the idea of applying a windfall tax on the bumper profits made by oil and gas companies to cover the cost – reported to be up to £150bn. Labour has accused the PM of writing a “blank cheque” to the energy giants by ruling out the levy, with the British people left to “foot the bill”. During a Tory leadership hustings, Liz Truss had said “the jury is still out” on whether or not the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is a “friend or foe”. It led Macron to respond that France and Britain would face “serious problems” if they could not say whether they were friends or enemies. Alicia Kearns, a Conservative MP who sits on the foreign affairs select committee, told Sky News that Truss’s comment was “not a very sensible move”. She said she could understand if Truss had given the same response on China but France is a “major ally”. The new levelling up secretary will also serve as minister for the north, the Tory party chairman has said. There was some doubt over whether Liz Truss would follow through on her reported pledge to create the position, with Labour and Cooperative MP Simon Lightwood calling for clarity. In a letter to Truss, he said he hoped she had not “reneged” on her promises. The Northern Research Group of Tory MPs previously said Truss, along with other leadership contenders, had signed up to its “northern agenda” pledges – which included creating the ministerial role. Jake Berry, the new party chairman, later said Simon Clarke has assumed the post. He told ITV’s Peston programme: “The prime minister’s been absolutely clear that she will have a fiscal event later this month, but, you know, we’ve got a levelling up secretary in Simon Clarke, who is also the minister for the north.” On the government’s economic plans, Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, has lamented it is “unfair” for households to bear much of the cost. Reynolds told Sky News programme The Take it was “untrue” that the government could cut taxes and increase spending and that it will “pay for itself”. He said the UK’s recent lack of growth has been due to a “lack of clear policy” and a “lack of consistency” from the government. Reynolds said the Tories have a “belief that there’s a magic wand of cutting corporation tax and you can pay for that by supply side reforms” – which he said is “Conservative code for cutting employment rights and environmental protections”. White House issues trade warning over NI protocol White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said any efforts to undermine the Northern Ireland agreement would not create a conducive environment for trade talks between the United States and the UK. As an MP, the new British prime minister, Liz Truss, introduced legislation to undo the Northern Ireland protocol, which was part of Britain’s withdrawal agreement from the European Union. It prioritised protecting the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, or Belfast Agreement, for peace in the British-run region. The White House said on Tuesday that the US president, Joe Biden, and Truss “discussed their shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland protocol.” Conservative MP Theresa Villiers has acknowledged to Sky News there are “risks” that the prime minister’s approach to helping people tackle energy bills will lead to an increase in borrowing, but added: “This is an emergency.” She said the UK had not seen an energy price shock like this since the 1970s. “In times of emergency, public finances are impacted, and there is simply no way to avoid that,” she said. Villiers said she was sure the new prime minister would do her best to “minimise damage” to public finances. Helena Horton Global heating could bring benefits, according to one of Liz Truss’s new advisers. As onlookers seek to read the environmental signals being sent by Truss’s new appointments, there has been particular interest in the ideas of Matthew Sinclair, who published Let Them Eat Carbon in 2011. With the subtitle “The price of failing climate policies and how governments and big business profit from them”, the book sets out to tackle what Sinclair calls “the burgeoning climate change industry”. In the book, he argues that climate change policies “push up electricity bills, make it more expensive to drive to work or fly away on holiday, put manufacturing workers out of a job – they sometimes even make your food more expensive”. He worries that the money directed towards climate change is going into the pockets of special interest groups around the world, into “dodgy projects” and “entire new organisations in the public sector”. Liz Truss discussed the energy crisis and Northern Ireland protocol in a call with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, No 10 has said. A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The leaders discussed the energy challenges faced by the UK and its European partners as a result of [Vladimir] Putin’s illegal war. Both agreed on the importance of energy resilience and independence. “The prime minister underlined the importance of ensuring democracy and freedom were upheld in Europe, and of protecting countries made vulnerable by Russia’s economic blackmail. “The UK and Germany were important economic partners and the prime minister said she was keen to expand defence cooperation between the two countries. “Discussing the Northern Ireland protocol, the prime minister was clear that her priority is protecting peace and stability in Northern Ireland and upholding the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. “She stressed the importance of finding a solution to the fundamental problems with the text of the protocol as it stands.” Mark Fullbrook, Liz Truss’s new chief of staff, has asserted his grip over Downing Street by bringing senior figures from his lobbying firm into No 10. The political consultant, a former longtime colleague of the election strategist Lynton Crosby, was appointed to the most senior role in Truss’s team this week, having previously worked on the failed leadership campaign of Nadhim Zahawi. Senior advisory roles in No 10 have now also gone to Mac Chapwell and Alice Robinson, both founding members of his lobbying firm, Fullbrook Strategies. Aubrey Allegretti Gordon Brown has called on Liz Truss to “show up” for the poorest workers who are facing unpayable energy bills, and warned that the UK was facing “a winter wave of unprecedented need”. As the new prime minister prepared to unveil her emergency support package for people who will struggle to afford spiralling heating costs, Brown said “doing the right thing is a matter of political will”. The former Labour premier wrote in an article for the Guardian that while charities and food banks had stepped in to help the most vulnerable, the “last lines of defence” had been breached. “Only the government has the resources to end the unspeakable suffering caused by unpayable bills and unmet needs,” he said.