FTSE tumbles over fears Trump will impose crippling tariffs on Britain this week: UK politics lates – UK Times

The Kremlin, asked about Donald Trump’s sanctions threat, has said that Russia is working with the US on Ukraine settlement ideas.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia and the US were working on unspecified ideas on a possible peace settlement in Ukraine after US President Donald Trump said he was “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump told NBC News he was very angry after Putin last week criticised the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership, the television network reported, citing a telephone interview early on Sunday.

Trump said he would impose secondary tariffs of 25 per cent to 50 per cent on buyers of Russian oil if he felt Moscow was blocking his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin remained open to contacts with Trump and that a call between them could be set up at short notice if necessary though no call was scheduled for this week.

Peskov said Moscow and Washington were continuing to work on building up bilateral ties.

The Independent’s political editor David Maddox writes:

One of Britain’s leading trade experts believes that if Donald Trump goes ahead with his round of tariffs on Wednesday 2 April it will result in a major geo-political shift.

Marco Forgione, director general at the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade, has suggested that it will result in major western democracies turning their backs on the US and working more closely together.

He told The Independent: “There is going to be a geo-political shift with Canada, EU, UK and Australia forming a closer trading partnership.

“That means the development of either a formal or informal collaboration. It won’t replace the US market but certainly regarding commodities could establish a new collaborative trading community.”

The shift fits into the UK’s current membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which Canada and Australia are already members of as well as Japan.

But it would also potentially help Sir Keir Starmer with his Brexit reset talks with the EU.

Asian shares tumbled today with benchmarks in Tokyo and Taiwan falling more than 4 per cent, while the price of gold hit a record high at nearly 3,150 dollars an ounce.

Many of the countries that run trade surpluses with the US and depend heavily on export manufacturing are in Asia, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“Asia is ground zero. Of the 21 countries under USTR (US Trade Representative) scrutiny, nine are in Asia,” he noted.

Thailand’s SET lost 1.5 per cent after a powerful earthquake centred in Myanmar rattled the region.

Tokyo’s benchmark fell 4.1 per cent to 35,617.56, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 1.2 per cent to 23,135.01. The Shanghai Composite index declined 0.5 per cent to 3,335.67.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 3 per cent to 2,481.12, while Taiwan’s Taiex lost 4.2 per cent.

The FTSE 100 has continued to plunge after Donald Trump announced global tariffs.

The FTSE 100 plummeted by as much as 1.2 per cent in London this morning, as stocks dropped worldwide.

In London, stocks are struggling to recover.

Europe should “take the reins now” as Donald Trump’s tariffs loom, the head of the European Central Bank has said, warning the continent is at an “existential moment”.

Christine Lagarde insisted the US president’s 25 per cent tariff on the motoring sector offers an opportunity.

She told France Inter Radio: “I consider it a moment when we can decide together to take our destiny into our own hands, and I think it is a march to independence.

“We are at an existential moment for Europe in which if we are able to take this step to independence, in terms of defence – which is not my topic so I won’t speak of that – energy and finance, which is much more my subject. We must absolutely take the reins now.”

Five nationalities together accounted for more than half the total number of migrants who were detected entering the UK illegally in 2024.

Afghan nationals were the most common group, making up 15 per cent (6,339) of the 43,630 migrants who arrived in the country through illegal routes last year, Home Office figures show.

The next most common nationalities were Iranian (5,370 or 12 per cent), Syrian (4,945 or 11 per cent), Eritrean (3,920 or 9 per cent) and Vietnamese (3,798 or 9 per cent).

Some 1,457 of arrivals last year (3 per cent) had no nationality recorded.

The top two nationalities in 2024, Afghan and Iranian, were also the most common in 2023, accounting for 17 per cent and 14 per cent of total arrivals in that year respectively.

The proportion of arrivals who were Vietnamese rose from 4 per cent in 2023 to 9 per cent in 2024, while the proportion from Syria increased from 7 per cent to 11 per cent.

Separately, it’s worth noting that as well as tariffs weighing on share prices, the owner of Primark is the biggest faller in morning trading on the FTSE 100 – Associated British Foods (ABF) is down 4.6 per cent already.

That’s following the departure of Primark CEO Paul Marchant, who resigned after an allegation over his behaviour towards a woman at a social event.

ABF stated that Mr Marchant stood down with immediate effect and finance director Eoin Tonge will take over on an interim basis.

Mr Marchant had led Primark since 2009. While ABF have a wide-ranging empire including agriculture, ingredient production and food brands including Twinnings and Kingsmill, clothing retailer Primark is a key component of the business and contributed nearly half of the total £20bn group revenue last year. Parent company ABF’s CEO George Weston said he was “immensely disappointed” with the situation.

It has certainly been a morning of negative sentiment as far as the markets go in the UK and around Europe, following more weekend tariff concern and a steep overnight drop in Asia.

By 9am after an hour of trading, only 10 per cent of the FTSE 100 companies were in positive territory and only three were up by more than 0.4 per cent.

On a wider lens, while the FTSE 100 is down 0.85 per cent as a whole, smaller companies have it worse so far – the FTSE 250 is down 1.34 per cent, while in Europe each of the CAC 40 in France, the DAX in Germany and the Euronext 100 are down by between 0.7 and 0.8 per cent each.

Uncertainty is weighing heavily on the minds of investors ahead of further announcements by the Trump administration – and with his 2 April deadline to impose further duties on the US’s biggest importers.