Starmer says UK has ‘range of levers’ as he promises to respond to Trump tariffs with ‘cool and calm heads’ – UK politics live

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 UKThe UK is not getting special treatment from Donald Trump, the Conservative party says.Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, told LBC this morning that he did not accept the UK had “got off lightly”. He explained:Dozens and dozens of countries have the same 10% tariffs on all goods and 25% on cars, just the same as us – from Costa Rica to Colombia, from Peru to Paraguay. So we’re not getting any special deal or special treatment.These tariffs are based on essentially reciprocation of what America thinks they’re being charged by other countries.This is disappointing news which will worry working families across the country.Labour failed to negotiate with President Trump’s team for too many months after the election, failed to keep our experienced top trade negotiator, and failed to get a deal to avoid the imposition of these tariffs by our closest trading partner.The silver lining is that Brexit – which Labour ministers voted against no less than 48 times – means that we face far lower tariffs than the EU: a Brexit dividend that will have protected thousands of British jobs and businesses.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...

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