UK’s influence contributed to Trump’s Greenland U-turn, Cooper suggests – UK politics live | Politics

The UK government borrowed less than expected in December, official figures show, after stronger receipts than a year earlier, Tom Knowles reports.

Good morning. In his Guardian article published on Tuesday, Gordon Brown, the former PM, said:

Years from now the history books will tell us that [Donald] Trump could have declared a quick victory in negotiations over Greenland – accepting the Danish offer of virtually unlimited military bases and access to Greenland’s 25 critical minerals.

Trump probably isn’t a regular Guardian reader, and so it unlikely that he has been taking Brown’s advice, but we don’t need to wait for the history books; last night, in line with the strategy proposed by Brown, Trump backed down from talk of invading or buying Greenland, and instead heralded a more limited “deal” as a negotiating victory.

Here is our story, by Lauren Aratani and Andrew Roth.

This ends a four-day crisis that has preoccupied Westminster. It also wiped out the No 10 news grid, which was supposed to be focused on cost of living announcements this week. On a visit this morning Keir Starmer will try to revive interest in one of those initiatives, the warm homes plan announced yesterday.

But he won’t be able to avoid questions about Trump, because the events of the last few days have made it harder than ever for the UK to go on treating the US as a reliable ally.

This morning Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has been giving interviews. Asked about another tricky dividing line with Trump, she said that the UK would not be one of the initial countries signing up to his “board of peace” – a new body supposed to be taking charge of Gaza reconstruction, but one that Trump seems to view as a potential alternative to the UN.

Asked whether the UK would be joining, Cooper said:

There’s a huge amount of work to do. We won’t be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues, and we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine.

And to be honest, that is also what we should be talking about.

Trump says Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has joined the board, although Putin himself has not confirmed that.

Aamna Mohdin has more about the board of peace plan in her First Edition briefing.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: John Healey, the defence secretary, is visiting an aerospace site in Edinburgh for an announcement about the Typhoon upgrade.

Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in Hertfordshire to promote the government’s warm homes plan announced yesterday.

11am: Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, takes part in a Q&A at the Institute for Government.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.

Lunchtime: Starmer hosts Mette Frederiksen, the Danish PM, at Chequers.

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