The UK and US have a “mutual interest” in negotiating an exemption for the UK from President Donald Trump’s planned export tariffs on steel, the business secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC the impact of the 25% tariffs which could come into force in March “would be negative for ourselves, it would be negative for the US as well”.

He said the UK was in a different trading position to other nations and could offer “very specialised” steel and aluminium exports the US needs, such as Navy submarine casings that are made in Sheffield while tariffs would push up costs for US taxpayers.

Reynolds’ comments on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme came after the government promised up to £2.5bn in support for the UK steel industry.

President Trump has said the tariffs would be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”.

However, Reynolds told the BBC he has had “some very constructive conversations with key people in the Trump administration recognising our relationship is different”, including the special envoy to the UK, Mark Burnett, and the director of the US National Economic Council, Kevin Hasssett.

He told the programme he thought there was a basis for “constructive engagement” between the UK and US but “I’m not saying it’s easy”.

He added: “I appreciate they have a mandate for changing how they approach the issues of trade, but we have got a different argument, a different story to tell, to the EU or to China in relation to our trading relationships,” he said.

Reynolds was also asked about 2,000 jobs under threat at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, where there is a plan to close blast furnaces.

While he said he would expect some guarantees on jobs if the government was investing in the industry, he accepted that there would be a “reduction in head count” with the introduction of new technologies.

As the government committed to provide up to £2.5bn support, it also launched a consultation on the Plan for Steel to look at long-term issues facing the industry.

The government’s Plan for Steel will include measures that seek to bring down the cost of production and encourage the use of domestic steel in infrastructure projects.

Trump’s plan to impose a 25% tariff on all steel imports from 12 March is something the UK sector fears would cost it millions in trade.

Both countries report trade surpluses with each other owing to measurement differences, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics. Trump had previously said tariffs would target countries that the US run a deficit with.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the “uncertainty” the steel industry faced due to US tariffs was something the government “has been entirely silent on when instead they should be talking to the US, our closest trading partner”.

The plan will address issues that have been “holding the industry back for too long”, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said.

These include:

• Identifying opportunities to expand steel production
• Encouraging the use of UK-made steel in public infrastructure projects
• Improving scrap processing facilities
• Investing in electric arc furnaces, which are less energy-intensive than blast furnaces and take out the need for high carbon-emitting coke

The consultation will also examine electricity costs for steel companies “to make the UK competitive globally”, and how to protect the sector from unfair trading practices abroad, such as cheap imports flooding the market, the DBT added.

However it did not make a firm commitment to reduce energy bills in launching its plan.

The government has already said it would not retaliate immediately to the tariffs announced by Trump.

UK Steel, which represents the industry, has said the tariffs would be a “devastating blow” that would damage the sector’s £400m-a-year contribution to UK-US trade.

The UK is not a big supplier of steel to the US, with the country accounting for about 10% of British steel exports.

But there are concerns within the industry the tariffs might not just hinder exports to the US, but also lead to excess steel being “dumped” in the UK.

This could occur if other countries no longer exporting to the US decide to offload steel at cheaper prices, which could potentially lead to UK steelmaking businesses being undercut.

Financial support could benefit Scotland and areas such as Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Redcar in North Yorkshire “which have a strong history of steel production”, the DBT said.

Help will be available through the National Wealth Fund, which partners the government with the private sector and local authorities to finance infrastructure and other projects.

The DBT said it was “wasting no time” supporting UK steel, pointing to the government’s backing of expanding Heathrow Airport, which it said would require 400,000 tonnes of steel.

The UK steel industry has faced heavy job losses in recent years.

Tata Steel said it was replacing traditional blast furnaces with an electric arc furnace at its largest UK site in Port Talbot, Wales. Traditional steelmaking at the site ceased in September, resulting in 2,800 job cuts.

British Steel announced in 2023 it would close blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, and unveiled plans to roll out an electric arc furnace, which requires fewer workers to keep it going, with 2,000 jobs under threat.

The GMB union said the government’s plan to support the “beleaguered” steel industry provided “desperately needed” funding after “years of dithering”.

“As the world becomes more volatile, primary domestic steel making capacity is vital for both our economy and domestic security,” the union’s national secretary Andy Prendergast added.

Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, said the government’s commitment to the industry was “both vital and welcome”.

Information gathered in the consultation will be used to help form a “steel strategy”, to be launched in the spring.

Stace added a robust strategy “has the power to reverse the sector’s decline, particularly as we face increasing competition from imports benefiting from more favourable business conditions”.

Griffiths said he looked forward to seeing a detailed plan, but added “a clear part must be steps to reduce the cost of energy which is placing an intolerable strain on UK steel”.

The Liberal Democrats have said the government urgently needs to prepare for retaliatory tariff. The party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the UK steel industry was being left “dangerously exposed to Donald Trump and the devastating damage his tariffs could do”.

There can be “no durable peace” in Ukraine without European nations, particularly Ukrainians, taking part in talks to end the war with Russia, the business secretary has told the BBC.

Jonathan Reynolds downplayed divisions between the US and its allies over resolving the conflict, after concerns over the Trump administration moving ahead with peace talks that would lock out European countries, including Ukraine.

In response, European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, will meet in Paris on Monday, while US officials prepare to meet Russian negotiators.

Reynolds told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the UK could act as a “bridge” between the US and Europe to strengthen relations.

Reynolds also told the programme, hosted by Victoria Derbyshire, the UK and Europe had to respond to US demands for them to pay more towards their “collective defence” in the face of “greater threats”.

He said the UK government would set out a roadmap to increase defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of national output, but declined to offer a definitive timetable.

The Trump administration has called for its Nato allies to uplift to 5% and has said in the past week that it will no longer primarily be focused on European security.

Pressed on whether the 2.5% figure would be sufficient, Reynolds said any decision would take threats to national security into account.

Asked if the threat had “just got bigger without the US”, he said there was “no doubt” it had.

Reynolds said he thought the UK could “play a constructive role” as a bridge between the US and Europe “as we adjust to this new era, and it certainly is a new era”.

But he added there had not been a “fundamental breach” in relations and there was “still a great deal of common ground”.

The business secretary did concede it would not “be it easy, there’s a very assertive agenda from the US.”

Asked what he made of the UK and European nations not being invited to the US-Russian talks, Reynolds said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had made clear “everything is still on the table”.

“We shouldn’t rule out potential outcomes,” he added.

He argued Europe and Ukraine would have to be involved for any peace settlement to be lasting.

“Ultimately [President Trump] is somebody who likes to win, and winning would not be rewarding a war of aggression,” he said.

On Saturday, Sir Keir said that the emergency summit in Paris was a “once-in-a-generation moment for our national security” and it was clear Europe must take a greater role in Nato.

He added that the UK would work “to keep the US and Europe together” and could not allow divisions between the two to distract from “external enemies”.

Plans for the summit came after Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said European leaders would be consulted but not take part in any talks between US and Russia over ending the war.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the meeting should not be “over-dramatised”.

Senior White House figures are due to meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia in the coming days. US officials said that Ukraine was also invited – although President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country has received no such invitation.

Also talking to Victoria Derbyshire, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said it was “too premature to make assumptions” about the way Ukraine peace talks were heading.

“We all have to have very, very cold and calm heads right now, primarily because this conflict is still raging.”

She said Ukrainians should be the ones determining their future because the war was about their “independence and sovereignty”.

Asked if she supported President Trump’s proposal that Ukraine give up territory to end the conflict, she said: “We have to understand in more detail what they are saying, it’s too easy to generalise.

“It’s very early days in those talks, and I think right now, the United Kingdom, along with Nato allies, we must continue to be firm and solid and strong in that support we’re giving.”

Dame Priti added that as a priority, the UK needed to step up its spending on defence.

Appearing on the same programme, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said it was “no surprise” Trump and his team were taking “a completely different” approach by putting “everything up for grabs” in terms of Ukraine.

He described it as a “massive wake-up call” for European leaders to take responsibility for their own defence.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said Ukraine had to be “at the front and centre” of any peace talks.

He warned that the US moves could leave Ukraine and the rest of Europe “at risk of future Russian aggression”.

Karin von Hippel, former director at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said she did not think Trump would “sell Ukraine down the river” and European nations should “stay calm”.

Meanwhile, Conservative former Prime Minister Sir John Major has warned democracy is under threat as the US steps back from its leading role in the world.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend Trump’s policy of “isolation” was creating a power vacuum which would embolden countries like Russia and China to fill it.

Sir John said: “Many of the gains we made over recent years, when the Soviet Union collapsed, are now being reversed and you see a very aggressive Russia again in Ukraine.

“And if they were to succeed with their venture in Ukraine, no doubt they’d be elsewhere before too long.”

Police are investigating whether a suspect wanted after the fatal shooting of a woman outside a pub on Valentine’s Day may have entered the River Thames.

The woman, who was in her 40s, died at the scene of the attack, which happened at the Three Horseshoes in Knockholt, Kent, just after 19:00 GMT on Friday.

Police later found a vehicle that contained a gun on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which crosses the River Thames, near Dartford.

The force said it was not ruling out the possibility the man may have entered the water after it received reports of a man “on the wrong side of the barrier”.

The woman has not been formally identified but police said her attacker was known to her.

It is thought both people were not from Kent but had connections to the local area.

A Kent Police spokesperson said: “Officers continue to work with the families of both parties involved to support them following this tragic incident.”

BBC reporter Ben Schofield, at the scene in Main Road, Knockholt, on Sunday, said more information was “gradually becoming available” on what happened.

Villagers recalled hearing gunshots “ringing out” at about 19:00 GMT on Friday.

Police said they were looking for one suspect and did not believe there was an ongoing risk to the public.

Flowers have been left outside the village pub, located about five miles (8km) north-west of Sevenoaks.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the Three Horseshoes pub expressed its “sincere condolences to the victim’s family and friends” and reopened on Sunday.

Meanwhile, local reverend Tim Edwards said prayers were being offered at St Katherine’s Church in Knockholt “for the family and all affected”.

He said the church would also be open for anyone who wanted “to pray or just sit quietly”.

A woman in her 40s has died in a Valentine’s Day shooting outside a village pub in Kent as a manhunt continues.

Kent Police said it was treating the shooting at the Three Horseshoes on Main Road, Knockholt, just after 19:00 GMT on Friday, as a murder inquiry.

The woman, who had gunshot wounds, died at the scene, officers said.

A vehicle recovered at the Dartford Crossing along with a firearm is being linked to the death, police have said.

The suspect, a man who is believed to be known to the victim, left the area and is currently outstanding.

Kent Police said it was working to identify and locate everyone potentially involved.

“It’s a really quiet area,” local resident Chris Warner told the BBC. “Everybody knows everyone.”

“It’s just so shocking that something like this could happen here.”

Steve Maines, a parish councillor in Knockholt, told the BBC he heard a “commotion” outside the venue and was told someone had been shot.

He said: “We were sitting having our Valentine’s Day meal when all of a sudden we heard this huge commotion outside in the car park.

“We were told someone had been shot so we had to leave.”

Villager Dorothy Wong said: “I heard around three to four bangs outside and loud shouting from a woman’s voice.”

Ray Picot has lived in the village for 30 years.

He said: “We looked out and saw the whole area cordoned off with ambulances, police and flashing lights.

“It’s hard to believe that something like this has happened in our village.”

A notice on the pub’s Facebook page said it would be closed on Saturday “following a tragic incident outside the pub last night”.

The Three Horseshoes is located about five miles (8km) north-west of Sevenoaks.

BBC reporter Daniel MacLaren said on Saturday morning the area immediately around the pub was cordoned off with police tape.

Police officers were standing by at the scene to prevent access.

The woman at the centre of a case in which MI5 has admitted giving false evidence to three courts says she wants the service to give her a public apology.

Beth was attacked with a machete by her former partner, a neo-Nazi misogynist who used his MI5 role to coercively control her.

We revealed on Wednesday that MI5 gave false evidence to three courts over its handling of the man – a paid informant known only as agent X.

MI5 has now issued an “unreserved apology” describing what happened as a “serious error” – adding it took full responsibility.

But speaking for the first time since then, Beth – not her real name – says: “Where’s my apology?”

She believes she only matters to MI5 because she is “kicking up a fuss” by taking a legal case against the service and “throwing a spotlight on the way that they behave”.

“But otherwise, if I were to just go quietly away, they’d never think about me again,” she told the BBC.

Beth’s legal case claims MI5 breached her human rights by failing to protect her from agent X.

She is pursuing a formal complaint at an independent court, called the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). Judges ruled much of the case should be held in secret after MI5 said it does not confirm agent identities – under a principle known as neither confirm nor deny (NCND) – and had not done so with X.

Secret IPT sessions would be closed to Beth and her lawyers, and therefore prevent her from knowing what MI5 says in response to her claim.

“It felt completely offensive to be told that my case would have to be held in private and that I wouldn’t be privy to any of the information because that’s how they operated, as if they’re allowed some special licence to completely breach my human rights.”

However, I revealed on Wednesday that I had been told by a senior MI5 officer that X was an agent. The disclosure happened when MI5 contacted me to try to stop a BBC story about his extremism.

The IPT was one of the three courts to which MI5 gave false evidence, including by stating it had never confirmed X’s agent status to me.

MI5 first lied in 2022, when the government took me and the BBC to court in an attempt to block us reporting on agent X’s wrongdoing – and succeeded in banning us from identifying him.

Beth says the false evidence “proves what MI5 are capable of”.

“[It] feels like all my worst suspicions have been confirmed,” she adds.

“Everything that I was told by X about them, at the time we were together, has actually been proven to be the case – that they are unscrupulous people who will stop at nothing to achieve what they want.”

Beth met agent X – a foreign national – on a dating site. But, over time, he became physically, mentally and sexually abusive.

After attacking Beth with a machete, in a case that was dropped by prosecutors after police failed to obtain the video of the attack, X left the UK while under police investigation and began work for a foreign intelligence agency.

“What concerns me so much is that, as far as we know, he is a free man,” says Beth. “I don’t want other women to have to put up with things like this. It’s disgusting.”

She believes MI5 has a particular type of power that enables it to avoid transparency like other organisations.

MI5 says it is conducting an internal investigation into the false evidence, which may result in disciplinary action. The senior MI5 corporate witness who gave false evidence says he thought he was telling the truth.

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has also announced an independent external review of how MI5 gave false evidence. It is being conducted by Sir Jonathan Jones KC, former head of the government’s legal service.

Beth’s case will now head back to the specialist IPT court, which will reconsider the decision to rule that MI5 can refuse to confirm that X was an agent and therefore keep evidence secret from her.

Until this is decided, the full case will not be heard.

When I was first in contact with Beth, she had recently suffered a breakdown because of X’s behaviour towards her. She has come a long way in the years since.

The legal process is re-traumatising but necessary, Beth says.

“I’ve already lost years of my life to X and his abuse – there seems to be no end to it.

“But it seems like it’s the only way that I might, potentially, get some sort of reasonable justice.”

When asked about the wider implication of her case, Beth says it is “really important”.

She says there is “so much violence carried out on women by men,” adding, “whatever we can do as a society against it needs to be done”.

“I am one of the lucky ones because I’ve been able to speak about it and I’ve been listened to and so many don’t get listened to.”

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A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a crowd in the German city of Munich on Thursday, injuring at least 30 people, police have said.

Officers said they were treating the incident as a suspected attack.

Here’s what we know about the attack so far.

Munich police said the car, a Mini Cooper, accelerated and ploughed into the back of a rally by the Verdi trade union during a strike by public sector workers. It happened in Munich’s city centre at the junction of Karlstrasse and Seidlstrasse at about 10:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

Employees of day-care centres, hospitals, sanitation facilities and public swimming pools had joined the strike, calling for higher pay and longer holidays.

At the time of the collision around 1,500 people were on their way to the rally’s final location a short distance away.

One shot was fired at the vehicle by police before the driver was detained at the scene.

Emergency services had been in the area because of the rally allowing the suspect to be quickly arrested and for the injured to be treated, police said.

It is unclear whether the suspect was injured.

A police spokesman told local public broadcaster BR that police were checking whether there was a link between the demonstration and the incident.

The crash happened hours before the US vice president and Ukrainian president were due to arrive in the city for the Munich Security Conference – but police say they don’t believe it’s related.

At least 30 people were injured, including two seriously, German police said on Thursday.

The local fire service said some of those hurt were in a “life-threatening condition”.

Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter said children were among those injured.

According to Bavarian media, injured people were being treated at multiple hospitals around Munich, including a children’s hospital and the Munich Red Cross Clinic.

Some of the injured included employees of the Munich city administration, Munich’s deputy mayor Dominik Krause said.

Several participants at the trade union rally had brought their children with them, “which makes the act even more heinous”, Krause said.

The suspect, Farhad N, who we are not fully naming due to German privacy rules, is a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan.

He resides in Munich, German police said, adding that his motive was unclear.

“It was probably an attack,” Bavaria state premier Markus Söder told reporters.

Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect had his asylum application rejected, but he had not been forced to leave due to security concerns in Afghanistan.

He later clarified that the suspect had a valid residence and work permit and that everything about him was legitimate.

According to the the German Press Agency, the suspect came to Germany in 2016 as a minor.

Herrmann said initially that the suspect had been known to police but later explained that he had previously worked as a store detective and had been a witness in several cases of shoplifting.

Bavarian state premier Markus Söder told German TV that counter-terrorism officials had taken over the inquiry but “previous extremist backgrounds are not so easily recognisable at first glance”.

The suspect was due to appear in court on Friday.

The BBC’s Daniel Wittenberg, reporting from Munich, said there was a pram strewn across the floor at the scene, as well as half a dozen umbrellas and high-vis jackets.

A severely damaged white Mini Cooper could be seen at a pedestrian crossing in the middle of three lanes of traffic which had been cordoned off by police.

A woman working at an orthopaedic shop on the road where the incident took place told the BBC that half a dozen people came running into the shop.

“They looked panicked, and some people were crying,” she said.

Pedestrians reportedly sprinted for cover in shops and residential buildings that line either side of the thoroughfare.

One student, who didn’t wanted to give her name, said the driver of the Mini Cooper accelerated before hitting the crowd.

“It was fast enough to pull 10 to 15 people to the ground,” another witness said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the suspect “must be punished” and “must leave the country”.

“This perpetrator cannot hope for any leniency,” he told reporters, in a translation from Reuters news agency.

“If it was an attack, we must take consistent action against possible perpetrators with all means of justice.”

Markus Söder said authorities were working to “clarify all the details”.

“This is not the first case and who knows what else will happen,” he added.

“It is now even more important that, in addition to the processing of individual cases, in addition to the concern that we all feel, in addition to the sympathy and in addition to the great hope that many will recover, we also show the determination that something must change in Germany.”

Homeowners who say their houses are being destroyed by unsuitable insulation are missing out on measures to fix it as the work was carried out too long ago.

The government has found a “serious systemic” issue in homes fitted with insulation under two of its own schemes since 2022 – and ordered installers to put it right.

But that won’t include 93-year-old Margaret Chappell whose work was done in 2021 and now her house is consumed by damp, black mould and crumbling plaster.

The government said it would keep other schemes under review but Mrs Chappell said she and other residents were being ”ignored”.

“It’s as if we don’t exist. It’s appalling,” added Mrs Chappell, who has lived in her home in County Durham for 60 years.

She and 153 of her neighbours in the town of Chilton had solid wall insulation fitted after Durham County Council advised them to take advantage of a free government scheme.

They were told the work would help make their homes warmer and lower their energy bills. But Mrs Chappell, who suffers from chronic asthma, said that since then, damp has consumed her living room.

Her wallpaper has peeled off and the plaster behind it is saturated and crumbling.

“I don’t want to be sitting here, breathing in this dust,” she said.

More than three million homes in the UK have had insulation fitted under government schemes including 260,000 properties which have had solid wall insulation.

In October, the BBC told the story of 84-year-old Tormuja Khatun from Luton whose house with unsuitable solid wall insulation had mushrooms growing on the walls and dry rot feeding off the floor joists.

Since then the house became so dangerous to live in she had to move out. Her family has been warned it will cost more than £100,000 to fix.

Ms Khatun’s insulation was fitted in 2022 so in theory should be covered by the government’s promise of help – but they still don’t know when the work will start and who will pick up the bill.

Not long after this BBC report, the government ordered an audit by the independent organisation Trustmark of more than 1,000 properties that have had solid wall insulation. It found that in half of the homes audited the work had not been done to the required standard.

The Minister for Energy Consumers, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, told Parliament last month that the audit had found ”serious systemic” problems. She said installers would be required to fix and pay for any problems.

The energy regulator Ofgem is now trying to establish how widespread the problems are and has written to 65,000 households that have had solid wall insulation since 2022 under the government’s ECO4 and GBIS schemes.

But because the homes in Chilton were done under a different government programme, called the Local Authority Delivery Scheme, there is currently no plan to contact residents.

The government said it was ”currently confident the quality of works under the Local Authority Delivery scheme was high” but it would keep the situation under review.

Building surveyor, David Walter, has been inspecting insulated properties for 25 years. He assessed the damage at several of the homes in Chilton and said ”poor design and poor workmanship” had led to rain penetration which was causing the damp and mould.

In Mr Walter’s view the properties were unsuitable for solid wall insulation and said it would have to be removed from all of the properties. He warned this could cost tens of thousands of pounds per home to fix.

He said the cost “could actually exceed the market value” of each house and added ”it just demonstrates what a catastrophic scheme it’s been.”

Susan Haslam said she has been fighting to get the damage repaired to her late parents’, Bob and Maureen’s Chilton home ever since they died three years ago.

She said her father worried about the damp as he cared for her mother, who had dementia.

She said the stress had prevented her family from being able to grieve properly for their parents, who saw the house “as part of their legacy,” after working for decades.

“We don’t want to let them down, we want it to be sorted for them and for us,” she said. “Somebody is responsible and they need to act.”

The company hired by Durham County Council to do the work on Mrs Chappell’s house, Tolent, went bust before the installations were completed.

Tolent sub-contracted the work to another firm, Westdale North Ltd, which says it is “still on site, and working on issues that have arisen.”

It added that it was doing the work “as a goodwill gesture although it may not legally be required to do so” adding “the care and consideration we have for residents is a core part of our service.”

The company said the work had been signed off by the Council and Tolent before it went bust, adding: “Some issues that were raised with Tolent were not communicated to us, due to them no longer being in business.”

Durham County Council’s head of planning and housing, Michael Kelleher said it had been “a complex situation, with the collapse of Tolent causing delays outside of our control and we understand residents’ frustrations.”

Mr Kelleher said the council has set up an email address for concerned residents, arranged for inspections to take place at affected properties and provided Westdale North with a list of issues raised by residents.

“Westdale North has carried out extensive work to resolve the issues and we will continue to liaise with them to ensure any outstanding problems are rectified,” he added.