Business
Keir Starmer hails trade and investment deals as trip to China concludes
Sir Keir Starmer has wrapped up his trip to China hailing billions of pounds in trade agreements and investment in the UK by companies including the makers of the viral hit Labubu dolls.
The Prime Minister left Shanghai on Saturday after a three-day visit during which he has repeatedly said that his decision to re-engage with China will deliver benefits for the British people.
Sir Keir said: “We are bringing stability, clarity and a long-term strategy to how we engage with China, so we can bring home the benefits for businesses and for working people.
“Engaging with China is how we secure growth for British businesses, support good jobs at home and protect our national security.”
The heavily trade-focused visit saw Sir Keir fly to China with more than 50 representatives of British businesses and cultural institutions.
Downing Street said the visit had secured £2.2 billion in export deals and market access worth another £2.3 billion over the next five years as well as hundreds of millions of pounds of investment by Chinese companies.
Among those companies was Pop Mart, makers of the hit toy Labubu, which has pledged to open seven stores in the UK including a flagship outlet on London’s Oxford Street.
Birmingham and Cardiff have also been earmarked for stores.
Asked whether he was familiar with the toy, Sir Keir told ITV News he had been given one on the trip, adding: “I don’t think it’ll last long with my children.”
Meanwhile, car manufacturer Chery also announced it would establish its European headquarters in Liverpool, already home to a Jaguar Land Rover plant.
And on the cultural side, the World Snooker Tour said it had secured a new event in two Chinese cities bringing in up to £15 million.
The deals follow the announcement on Thursday that Chinese tariffs on whisky would be halved, a move expected to be worth £250 million to the UK over the next five years, and an agreement on visa-free travel to China for British nationals.
Sir Keir said the reduced tariffs would come into effect from Monday. Details of the visa scheme are yet to be confirmed, but Downing Street said it had “full confidence” it would be implemented.
Beyond trade and investment, the Prime Minister also scored a political victory when President Xi Jinping agreed to lift Chinese sanctions on six British parliamentarians.
Sir Keir told the BBC the agreement showed engaging with China allowed him to raise “difficult, sensitive issues which you can’t raise if you are not in the room”.
But he continues to face domestic pressure to challenge China further on human rights issues, including the detention of British national and Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, Jimmy Lai, and the treatment of the Uighur minority.
In a statement, the previously sanctioned MPs and peers said they took “no comfort” in the decision to lift restrictions on them while these issues remained unresolved.
Closer ties with China could also cause problems for the UK with America, where President Donald Trump criticised Sir Keir’s visit, saying it was “dangerous” to do business with Beijing.
In interviews in Shanghai on Friday, Sir Keir brushed off the criticism, saying Mr Trump had been “talking more about Canada” than the UK, while Britain and America remained “very close allies”.
The Prime Minister ended his visit to China with meetings with senior local Chinese Communist Party officials in Shanghai on Saturday morning.
He will then return home via Japan, where he will meet the country’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, for a working dinner.
President Donald Trump raised hopes of an agreement between the US and Iran after days of escalation.
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Retailers braced for the effects of the Middle East conflict have urged the Government to cut domestic costs to help them keep prices down for consumers.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said four in five people (80%) feared the Middle East conflict would push up food prices, and called on the Government to help by easing pressure on businesses from higher national insurance, packaging levies, new regulations, and business energy charges.
The BRC said retailers were already absorbing “significant” additional costs from the conflict including rising energy and shipping costs, with knock-on effects for fertiliser, manufacturing and logistics.
It warned those costs would inevitably filter through to the till over the coming months.
But it said the Middle East was only part of the picture, and retailers had absorbed £6.5 billion in extra employment costs from rising national insurance contributions and the national living wage, alongside a new packaging tax costing £1.6 billion.
Meanwhile, more regulatory “burdens” were imminent, including guaranteed hours provisions under the Employment Rights Act and the proposed reformulation of thousands of food lines under the new nutrient profiling model.
A survey for the BRC found 73% of people expect the Middle East conflict to raise the price of products other than food, while 81% are worried about rising energy bills, 76% about petrol and diesel, and 68% about tax increases.
Food retailers met Chancellor Rachel Reeves in early April and called for the removal of energy policy levies, network charges and system fees that now make up between 57% and 65% of a typical business electricity bill.
They also asked for the introduction of the updated nutrient profiling model for food and drink to be delayed, and for a review of the triple packaging levy, forecast to cost retailers more than £2 billion a year.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “The Middle East conflict is driving up costs across the supply chain and families are right to be concerned.
“But not every pressure bearing down on retailers comes from the Gulf. Higher national insurance, packaging levies, new regulations, and business energy charges are all domestic policy decisions, made in Westminster, and they can be addressed there.
“Such action by government would help retailers to keep prices affordable for households.
“Other governments are already acting. Germany has reduced electricity costs for businesses by moving levies off bills and EU leaders are actively discussing similar responses to this crisis.
“The UK should be moving in the same direction, not treating global instability as cover for inaction on costs of its own making.
“Retailers are working hard to hold prices down, but they cannot do it alone.
“Every cost government chooses not to address is a cost that will find its way into someone’s shopping basket. That is a political choice, and it is one ministers still have time to change – but the window to act is closing.”
The Lucid logo is shown at the Los Angeles Auto show on Nov. 20, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
DETROIT — Lucid Group suspended its vehicle production guidance for the year as its incoming CEO evaluates the all-electric vehicle manufacturer’s business operations, including the potential for lower output of EVs.
The company on Tuesday also said it needs to lower its “elevated inventory” of vehicles, which for automakers has historically meant decreasing or idling vehicle production.
A company spokesman told CNBC that there is currently no plan to idle its sole U.S. plant in Arizona, but incoming CEO Silvio Napoli said he is continuing to evaluate Lucid’s business.
“An essential objective over time is to build a more cost-efficient company, one that progresses in funding its own growth. That means being rigorous in delivering our commitments,” Napoli said Tuesday on Lucid’s quarterly results call with investors. “In simple words, this means making clear choices on where to invest and, just as importantly, where not to.”
Napoli said he plans to review the company’s operations over the next several weeks before updating investors on the company’s guidance when Lucid reports its second-quarter results at an unspecified date.
The company’s prior production guidance was between 25,000 to 27,000 units in 2026. Lucid executives said plans for cost-cutting, autonomous vehicles with Uber and Nuro, and the company’s “path to profitability” outlined in an investor day in March remain intact.
Lucid has produced roughly 3,200 more vehicles than it has sold since 2024, according to its annual production and deliveries. That includes a difference of roughly 2,000 units last year and 2,400 vehicles during the first quarter of 2026.
The pulled guidance occurred as the company reported first-quarter results that were in line with preliminary results released by the company a month ago, but that still significantly missed Wall Street’s expectations.
“We ended the quarter with elevated inventory that we expect to convert to revenue and cash as deliveries normalize, while maintaining alignment between production and sales cadence. Our focus is on disciplined execution — driving structural cost improvements, managing capital efficiently, and improving operating leverage as we scale,” Lucid CFO Taoufiq Boussaid said in a statement.
Here’s how the company performed in the first quarter compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:
- Loss per share: $3.46 vs. a loss of $2.64 expected
- Revenue: $282.5 million vs. $440.4 million expected
The company’s revenue increased roughly 20% year-over-year but was far lower than the 87.4% jump analysts were expecting, according to LSEG.
The all-electric vehicle maker said a seat supplier issue “significantly affected” deliveries of its crucial Lucid Gravity SUV during the quarter that resulted in a stop-sale of the vehicle due to safety concerns.
Boussaid said the seat issue caused a more than $200 million revenue impairment during the first quarter.
Lucid produced 5,500 vehicles and delivered 3,093 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026.
The automaker, which is heavily backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, said it has sufficient liquidity through the second half of 2027. It ended the first quarter with approximately $4.7 billion, including a recent capital raise and delayed draw term loan provided by PIF.
Lucid on Tuesday said production of a new vehicle plant in Saudi Arabia continues despite the ongoing war in nearby Iran. The company said it has not experienced any significant interruptions to the facility other than some delays in shipping.
The company also said it is adjusting its production reporting to count vehicles once they complete the company’s “factory gating process,” which includes vehicles that may not be completely built and are sent to operations elsewhere for completion.
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