Keir Starmer urged to get tough with Trump as US tariff threat looms

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 29 Mar 2025 15.20 EDT
Last modified on Sun 30 Mar 2025 00.12 EDT


Keir Starmer should fight back strongly against Donald Trump if he imposes punitive tariffs on British exports, senior UK and EU diplomats said on Saturday night, amid heightened fears that the US president could trigger a global trade war with devastating effects on the UK economy. British government officials in London and Washington are working frantically this weekend to try to persuade Trump not to slap duties on more key UK industries on what he is calling “liberation day” on Wednesday.

The US president has already announced plans for 25% levies on imports of cars, steel and aluminium to the US. One vital battleground now is over Washington’s threat to impose blanket reciprocal 25% tariffs on all countries that impose VAT on US exports. These countries include the UK and EU nations. The US does not impose VAT on its imports.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned last week that a 20% increase in tariffs between the US and the rest of the world would cut UK growth by 1% and “entirely eliminate” the £9.9bn of fiscal headroom that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, restored in the public finances by a painful programme of welfare and other cuts in her spring statement last week.

Starmer appears to be waiting to judge how to react, based on the level of any tariffs imposed on the UK. He is said by government officials to be ready to “act in the national interest” if Trump does hit the UK hard. But his team also says that he will be “pragmatic” if need be – suggesting he may not retaliate immediately, in the hope of talking Trump round over time and with the aim of creating the conditions for signing a wider UK-US trade deal.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/29/keir-starmer-urged-to-get-tough-with-trump-as-us-tariff-threat-looms

[Lovie777]

1. Corporations as well as businesses....

will be hit hard, unfortunately the small ones first, it’s happening now😡

[aeromanKC]

2. Trump America First (equals) America Alone

Fuck you Trump America!!

[Carlitos Brigante]

3. Kier Starmer couldn't stand up to a cardboard cutout of the rapist. Let alone the real thing. nt

[Bayard]

4. The world will unite against us

It won't matter that we didn't vote for this lunatic. They'll just see that he's handing out the insanity, and we're not stopping him.

I'm sure Putin has told him he will by king of North and South America.

[Emrys]

5. They must be thinking of a different Keir Starmer.

Not only is that sort of gutsy response alien to his political character in the first place, he's trapped between fear of too close a rapprochement with the EU because Brexit-loving Reform UK is breathing down Labour's neck in the polls (or even vice versa if you believe some polls), and fear of the US proving how poorly successive UK governments have played their hands since Brexit, leaving Starmer with few or no cards to play.

See the recent moves to soften the tax regime on US tech giants in the craven hope of avoiding Trump's wrath:

UK mulls big tech tax changes to avoid US tariffs - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j0dgym8w1o