our weekly newsletter <\/a>for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. <\/p>\nIn further criticism aimed at the United States, Reeves said there was confusion over the aims of President Donald Trump\u2019s military campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the aim is now to get diplomatic negotiations, well, they were already happening before the conflict started,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never been clear about what the goal of this conflict is, which is why the impacts in our economy, but also here in the US economy and around the world, and particularly for our allies in the Gulf, like Saudi and Qatar and the UAE, are so immense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are willing to play our part, but the Strait of Hormuz was open, there was no tolling, a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we want to get back there, but I\u2019m not convinced that this conflict has made the world a safer place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reeves is in Washington to attend an International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting, after the group downgraded global growth on Tuesday, giving the UK the lowest downgrade of G7 countries.<\/p>\n
The chancellor was scheduled to meet the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an off-camera meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Bessent had earlier told the BBC, a “small bit of economic pain for weeks” was worth it in the long run, adding: “I wonder what the hit to global GDP would be if a nuclear weapon hit London\u2026I am saying that I am less concerned about short term forecasts, for long term security.”<\/p>\n
Reeves’ words came after the prime minister earlier told MPs he is “not going to yield” in response to criticisms from US President Donald Trump over his response to the conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n
Speaking during Wednesday’s PMQs, Starmer restated: “We’re not going to get dragged into this war. It is not our war.<\/p>\n
“A lot of pressure has been applied to me to take a different course – that pressure included what happened last night.<\/p>\n
“I’m not going to change my mind. I’m not going to yield.”<\/p>\n
Starmer was responding to a question from Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, who questioned the wisdom of sending the King on an official visit to the US to “meet a man who treats our country like a mafia boss running a protection racket.”<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer told MPs he “would not yield” to US pressure at PMQs on Wednesday. Credit: PA<\/p>\n
Davey was referencing a call between Sky News and the US president on Tuesday, in which he spoke about the King’s upcoming visit to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. <\/p>\n
In the call, Trump levelled heavy criticism on the UK-US special relationship, describing it as “the relationship where, when we asked them for help, they were not there. When we needed them, they were not there. When we didn’t need them, they were not there. And they still aren’t there.”<\/p>\n
The US president also appeared to threaten the UK trade deal, stating it “can always be changed.”<\/p>\n
At the time, the tariffs applied to UK goods by the US were seen as more favourable than those of international partners.<\/p>\n
“We gave them a good trade deal. Better than I had to. Which can always be changed,” said Trump.<\/p>\n
Overnight the US president criticised the special relationship and appeared to threaten the UK-US trade deal. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
In response to the King’s upcoming visit to the US, Starmer said: “The monarchy is an important reminder of the longstanding bonds and enduring relationship between our two countries, which are far greater than anyone who occupies a particular office at any given time.”<\/p>\n
King Charles and Queen Camilla are due to visit the US on an official state visit between April 27 and April 30.<\/p>\n
It will be the first time a British monarch has visited the US since Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.<\/p>\n
There will be a formal ceremonial military review the following day in the White House grounds, plus a bilateral meeting between King Charles and Trump.<\/p>\n
From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below…<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play Brightcove video Rachel Reeves said she was “not convinced [the war] had made the world a safer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-533555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Play Brightcove video<\/p>\n