Prime minister says the UK government is ‘prepared’ and would not agree economic deal with US if he does not think it is good for UKIn his comments this morning Keir Starmer did not try to claim that having US tariffs at 10%, the lowest rate available, and half the 20% rate imposed on the EU, was a great achievement for the UK government. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, did not deploy that argument either when he was interviewed on the Today programme.According to Andrew McDonald and Bethany Dawson in the London Playbook briefing for Politico, there is a tiny bit more self-congratulation in government in private. They write:Chin up! Whitehall officials were still trying to work out the details and small print from the U.S. late last night, but those Playbook spoke to believed that things could have been much, much worse – at least for the U.K.Hence … the early efforts from No. 10 to push the narrative that Starmer’s efforts to charm the president paid off. “We don’t want any tariffs at all, but a lower levy than others vindicates our approach,” a Downing Street source told Playbook (and large parts of the Lobby). “The difference between 10 and 20 per cent is thousands of jobs. We will keep negotiating, keep cool and keep calm. We want to negotiate a sustainable trade deal, and of course to get tariffs lowered … we will continue with that work.”Now that’s a line: “Even the Taliban got a better deal than Starmer,” an SNP official, of all people, griped to Playbook last night as it was revealed Afghanistan is also in the 10 percent club despite “charging” the U.S. more in tariffs than the U.K. … err, if you include “currency manipulation,” “compliance hurdles” and all the rest, according to Trump’s highly suspect sandwich board figures. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/apr/03/keir-starmer-uk-trump-tariffs-response-labour-local-elections-uk-politics-latest-updates-news
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2025-04-03 08:22:00
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Starmer says UK has ‘range of levers’ as he promises to respond to Trump tariffs with ‘cool and calm heads’ – UK politics live
