Dan Bloom

2 weeks ago | politico.eu | Dan Bloom

DONCASTER, England — Reform UK topped opinion polls as a protest movement. Now it might actually get to run something. Nigel Farage’s right-wing party is set to grip its first (small) levers of power after this Thursday’s local elections in England.

2 weeks ago | politico.eu | Dan Bloom

LONDON — Britain’s two warring right-wing parties will need a “coming together” to fight the center-left if they continue to divide support, one of the Conservative Party’s most high-profile politicians has told POLITICO. Ben Houchen, the mayor of the Tees Valley, one of Labour’s old industrial heartlands, said a “very practical decision” will have to be made if the Tories fail to reverse Reform UK’s surge in the polls. He did not rule out the prospect of the two parties merging.

3 weeks ago | politico.eu | Sophie Inge |Dan Bloom |Graham Lanktree

LONDON — The British government on Wednesday refused to rule out lowering tariffs on U.S. automotive imports as part of a trade deal with Donald Trump's administration. The U.S. government is consulting on the terms of a potential trade deal with the U.K., including pushing for British tariffs on U.S. vehicles to be lowered from 10 percent to 2.5 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday night.

3 weeks ago | politico.eu | Dan Bloom |Esther Webber

LONDON — Some of Britain’s hereditary peers are already planning a comeback to the House of Lords despite the ruling Labour Party’s plans to boot them out. Peers from multiple parties have discussed the prospect of at least 10 of the 92 lawmakers — eligible to stand for the U.K. parliament’s second chamber due to their aristocratic birth — being nominated for life peerages after the government axes their existing rights to sit and vote later this year, four peers told POLITICO.

3 weeks ago | politico.eu | Dan Bloom

Presented by Rolls-Royce By DAN BLOOM with NOAH KEATE PRESENTED BY Good afternoon. This is Dan Bloom filling in for Emilio, who returns tomorrow. TUESDAY CHEAT SHEET— Keir Starmer gave his definition of a woman. — The PM will go to the pope’s funeral this weekend. — The IMF downgraded Britain’s growth.