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Starmer says UK has ‘range of levers’ as he promises to respond to Trump tariffs with ‘cool and calm heads’
Good morning. Today we are getting the considered UK government response to the colossal announcement from President Trump last night about global tariffs that could reset the way the world economy works. Rather, we are getting the considered initial response. Keir Starmer has ruled out immediate retaliation, and he promises to keep a “cool head” as he decides how to respond “in the coming days and weeks’.
Here is Pippa Crerar’s overnight story about the Trump announcement.
This morning Starmer has issued a response in comments to business leaders in Downing Street. Here are the main points.
-
Starmer said that the government would act with “cool and calm heads” as it decides how to respond to Trump’s tariffs “in the coming days and weeks”. He said:
I want to be crystal clear – we are prepared.
Indeed, one of the great strengths of this nation is our ability to keep a cool head.
I said that in my first speech as prime minister and that is how I govern.
That is how we have planned and that is exactly what is required today …
That is how we have acted – and how we will continue to act. With pragmatism. Cool and calm heads.
-
He said there would be “an economic impact” from the tariffs on the UK. But he did not say how serious they would be.
-
He insisted that has “a range of levers” available that it can use in response, and he said retaliatory tariffs were not “off the table”.
We move now to the next phase of our plan …
We have a range of levers at our disposal, and we will continue our work with businesses across the country to understand their assessment of these options.
As I say – our intention remains to secure a deal.
But nothing is off the table.
Ministers hope that an economic deal with the US could lead to tariffs being reduced or removed.
-
Starmer said he would not agree an economic deal with the US if he did not think it was good for the UK.
Negotiations on an economic prosperity deal, one that strengthens our existing trading relationship – they continue, and we will fight for the best deal for Britain.
Nonetheless, I do want to be clear I will only strike a deal if it is in the national interest and if it is the right thing to do for the security of working people.
-
Starmer said that he would be guided only by the UK national interest.
Last night, the President of the United States, acted for his country. That is his mandate.
Today, I will act in Britain’s interests, with mine …
Decisions we take in the coming days and weeks, will be guided only by our national interest. In the interest of our economy. In the interests of the businesses around this table.
In the interests of putting money in the pockets of working people. Nothing else will guide me. That is my focus.
These passages seem to have been included to rebut claims that Starmer has been too accommodating to Trump. Starmer normally argues that the US and the UK are very close allies, implying their interests are aligned. This is a rare acknowdgement from Starmer that Trump’s actions have changed that.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.30am: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner launch Labour’s local elections campaign at an event in the East Midlands.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Around 11.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the Trump tariffs.
I’m afraid that, for the next few weeks or months, on most days staff shortages mean that comments will only be open on the blog between 10am and 3pm.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line, when comments are open, or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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Business leaders are telling government to stay calm and 'don't overreact' to US tariffs, Jonathan Reynolds says
Keir Starmer said this morning that he would respond calmly to the US tariff announcements, and that he would not be rushed into a quick decision about retaliation. (See 9.06am.)
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said that business leaders were telling government not to overreact. He said:
We in the UK will take any action we need to give ourselves the tools that we need to respond to announcements of this kind …
Whilst we have a chance of making the relationship between the UK and the US even stronger than it is, the message I get very strongly from businesses [is] ‘remain at the table, don’t overreact’.
Stick with the calm-headed approach the UK government has had to date, and we’re going to do that, but we can’t rule anything out because, again, we’ve got to make decisions for no one else other than the United Kingdom.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told BBC Breakfast this morning that the 10% tariff on UK exports to the US would not be additional to the 25% tariff already imposed on British (and all other) car exports to the US. “As we understand it, those tariffs are not additive,” he said.
But he accepted the tariffs were particularly difficult for the car industry.
The impact on the automotive sector of that particular tariff is one of our principal concerns.
People will know companies, great British brands, JLR, BMW, Aston Martin, have substantial exports to the US, and that’s a real issue.
Now, we need first of all to make sure we’ve got this negotiation to try and remove those tariffs. There’s no need for them, in my view.
It has been claimed that 25,000 jobs in the British car industry are at risk from the Trump tariffs.
Tories criticise government for failing to negotiate deal with Trump that might have averted tariffs
The 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 really bad for our economy. It’s going to put jobs and growth at risk.
In a statement issued overnight, Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, suggested the government was to blame because it did not negotiate a trade deal with President Trump. He said:
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.
Of course, the Conservatives did not negotiate a trade deal with the US when they were in office, as Keir Starmer reminded MPs at PMQs yesterday.
Griffith also argued that the announcement contained evidence of a Brexit bonus.
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.
In 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.”
But McDonald and Dawson also explain why ministers won’t be arguing in public that 10% is a negotiating triumph.
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.
Starmer says UK has ‘range of levers’ as he promises to respond to Trump tariffs with ‘cool and calm heads’
Good morning. Today we are getting the considered UK government response to the colossal announcement from President Trump last night about global tariffs that could reset the way the world economy works. Rather, we are getting the considered initial response. Keir Starmer has ruled out immediate retaliation, and he promises to keep a “cool head” as he decides how to respond “in the coming days and weeks’.
Here is Pippa Crerar’s overnight story about the Trump announcement.
This morning Starmer has issued a response in comments to business leaders in Downing Street. Here are the main points.
-
Starmer said that the government would act with “cool and calm heads” as it decides how to respond to Trump’s tariffs “in the coming days and weeks”. He said:
I want to be crystal clear – we are prepared.
Indeed, one of the great strengths of this nation is our ability to keep a cool head.
I said that in my first speech as prime minister and that is how I govern.
That is how we have planned and that is exactly what is required today …
That is how we have acted – and how we will continue to act. With pragmatism. Cool and calm heads.
-
He said there would be “an economic impact” from the tariffs on the UK. But he did not say how serious they would be.
-
He insisted that has “a range of levers” available that it can use in response, and he said retaliatory tariffs were not “off the table”.
We move now to the next phase of our plan …
We have a range of levers at our disposal, and we will continue our work with businesses across the country to understand their assessment of these options.
As I say – our intention remains to secure a deal.
But nothing is off the table.
Ministers hope that an economic deal with the US could lead to tariffs being reduced or removed.
-
Starmer said he would not agree an economic deal with the US if he did not think it was good for the UK.
Negotiations on an economic prosperity deal, one that strengthens our existing trading relationship – they continue, and we will fight for the best deal for Britain.
Nonetheless, I do want to be clear I will only strike a deal if it is in the national interest and if it is the right thing to do for the security of working people.
-
Starmer said that he would be guided only by the UK national interest.
Last night, the President of the United States, acted for his country. That is his mandate.
Today, I will act in Britain’s interests, with mine …
Decisions we take in the coming days and weeks, will be guided only by our national interest. In the interest of our economy. In the interests of the businesses around this table.
In the interests of putting money in the pockets of working people. Nothing else will guide me. That is my focus.
These passages seem to have been included to rebut claims that Starmer has been too accommodating to Trump. Starmer normally argues that the US and the UK are very close allies, implying their interests are aligned. This is a rare acknowdgement from Starmer that Trump’s actions have changed that.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.30am: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner launch Labour’s local elections campaign at an event in the East Midlands.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Around 11.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the Trump tariffs.
I’m afraid that, for the next few weeks or months, on most days staff shortages mean that comments will only be open on the blog between 10am and 3pm.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line, when comments are open, or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
