Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to start the year by focusing on the NHS and other domestic priorities are at risk of being derailed by attacks from Donald Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk.
The president-elect said the British government had made a “very big mistake” by increasing the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas, after an American company announced that it would end all production in its British operations by December 2029.
Musk, who is expected to make a big donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, intensified his criticism on Friday after Labour rejected calls for a public inquiry into grooming gangs. He said Starmer was “complicit in the rape of Britain”.
Labour has pledged massive increases in wind generation, onshore and off, to hit its clean power targets by 2030
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA
Starmer is due to give a speech on Monday in