SECURITY: US VP Vance Talks On Ukraine, China & EU Relations, Iran

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is delivering a speech at a Jaguar Land Rover plant in the West Midlands, his first major address since US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of 'reciprocal' tariffs last week. Livestream here. Starmer: "To carmakers, we are going to back you to the hilt". Says "this is a moment for urgency," and that "Tariffs are a huge challenge for our future, [the] global economic consequences could be profound." 

• Starmer: "We are in an age of instability... This is not a passing phase."
• Starmer says the UK "Will seek the best deal with the US", Adds the UK "will work with key partners to reduce barriers to trade across the globe."
• PM says it is not just car industry that needs support, but other sectors including life sciences. Says gov't will cut timeline for clinical trials to start from 250 to 150 days, and a GBP600mln investment into health data research.
• He does not announce any specifics on retaliation to the US tariffs. The UK is not expected to launch significant retaliatory tariffs against the US, with the Starmer gov't maintaining its stance of trying to act as a bridge between the US and EU both in terms of economic talks, and on defence of Ukraine. 

• All of the bids were confined to three gilts in that operation (with residual maturities between 10-12.5 years.
• Gilt futures are at their lows of the day, but it's hard to isolate any response to the APF result as they were already moving lower.
• That wasn't a great operation though - of the 35 medium-dated APF sales operations so far, this one had the third worst bid-to-cover.