Here are 5 important things happening in the UK today, Monday (19 January 2026):
- Tariffs on Nato allies are wrong, Starmer tells Trump: Keir Starmer has told Donald Trump he is wrong to threaten tariffs against Nato allies to try to secure Greenland, as part of a flurry of diplomatic calls intended to tackle the crisis. The Prime Minister spoke to the US president on Sunday, as well as to Mette Frederiksen, the Danish PM, whose country’s territory includes Greenland; Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission; and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general. [Guardian]
- Growing push to ban social media for under-16s in the UK: More than 60 Labour MPs have called on the prime minister to impose a ban on under-16s’ access to social media platforms. In an open letter to Starmer on Sunday, the 61 MPs said “successive governments” had done “too little to protect young people from… unregulated, addictive social media platforms”. They urged him to follow the example of Australia, which brought in a ban in December. Several other countries are said to be considering similar laws. [BBC]
- Bank of England worried about bond market meltdown: Hedge funds have placed a £100 billion bet on gilts that the Bank of England believes has left Britain dangerously exposed to a bond market meltdown. Andrew Bailey will face questions from MPs this week after Threadneedle Street expressed alarm over trades that allow hedge funds to borrow huge amounts of cash from banks using gilts as collateral. The Governor of the Bank of England has warned that volatility in the bond market is unavoidable. [Telegraph]
- Another big defection to Reform: Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP and shadow foreign minister, has become the latest Tory to defect to Reform UK. The MP for Romford said the time had come for him to put “country before party”. His defection comes days after Robert Jenrick made the same move. Rosindell said: “Sadly, I now believe that the Conservative Party is irreparably bound to the mistakes of previous governments and unwilling to take meaningful accountability for the poor decisions made over so many issues.” [The Sunday Times]
- On Friday, Oil was trading lower at $62.82. The pound is trading at $1.34, €1.15, and ¥9.34.
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