Keir Starmer's about to blow a golden chance for a huge deal with Trump and US
The Remainers are choking on the sublime irony of it – the fact that thanks to Brexit, The Donald has gone soft on the UK with his tariffs.
On Liberation Day this week (only Trump could call imposing swinging taxes on the world a liberation) the President spoke scathingly about the EU’s trade policies before slapping a 20% tariff on it. But because Brexit has restored sovereign control over trade policy here – he wasn’t as hard on us.
It’s clear Trump hates Europe and had Starmer been able to drag us back into it the way he’s been gagging to for months – we’d have been hit with the same tariffs. But still, those bitter Remainiacs are spitting their bile and screaming that Brexit is the big evil when in fact it’s exactly what’s saved us from tariffs that would have 100% done for our economy.
The problem for Starmer now is that he’s got to do what, in the past, he’s proved genetically incapable of – he’s got to be politically smart. No knee jerk retaliations, no joining hands with Europe singing Kumbaya and bemoaning the Mad Man Trump. Publicly he needs to Zip it, while privately he negotiates a zero tariffs transatlantic trade deal with the President.
Which of course is what he should have been doing for the past nine months. But because he’s been so wedded to the EU and desperate to crawl back into its orbit he’s been blinded to the opportunities Stateside.
Trump has now offered up those opportunities on a plate. And it’s no small gift. In 2023, our exports to the US amounted to £187billion. The US exported £115billion worth of stuff here. That’s £300billion worth of trade, jobs, livelihoods. And what Trump is doing with the 10% tariff is basically saying to us: “OK, I’ve given you a break – it’s up to you what you do with it.”
But Starmer’s lack of political nous is already on show. He’s set a May deadline for a UK-US trade deal saying if it doesn’t happen, the UK will set tariffs of its own. And this kind of stupid tough talk is exactly what he shouldn’t be doing because starting a trade war with the US WILL destroy us.
He really just needs to shut up and let Europe do all the screaming and retaliating. Because if HE retaliates against Trump, Britain will end up paying 20% tariffs, not 10%. Yes, even at 10% these tariffs are going to hurt. But if Starmer plays his cards right it needn’t be for long. And he should already be working on ways to soften Reeves’ disastrous budget to make life easier for Brits while the tariffs apply.
It might sound crazy but for the first time since Labour came to power I see hope for the UK. Yes, the Remainiacs will refuse to see it but their obduracy and their blind devotion to the failing EU is what’s holding this country back.
The fact is Trump has been softer on us than the rest of the world in applying the lowest tariff available because he’s open to a free trade deal. And surely, as dim as they are, even Starmer or Reeves must see the huge advantages for Britain of a trade deal with the US? Surely even they must see the EU is a busted flush and hitching their wagon to Von der Layen and Co now is economic suicide.
The fact is Trump’s imposing his tariffs worldwide whatever we do or say (China’s is a whopping 34%) but at least now find ourselves in a position where, just a few months down the line, things could just start getting better for us. Even Trump’s haters must see that he’s just doing what he said he would – he’s putting America first.
Isn’t it time Starmer put Britain first because the reason his Government’s popularity is in the toilet is because he’s thrown support at other countries – but not Britain. Well, here’s his chance. For once he has the upper hand over the EU and he needs to use it. We haven’t escaped the tariffs but it would have been twice as bad had we’d still been in the EU. And it’ll be twice as good for us if we do the trade deal with Trump. And a deal won’t just save Britain – it’ll save Starmer!!!
- The 233-year-old company WH Smith is being rebranded as TG Jones. Wow, that’s a much more exciting name to bring in the punters – NOT!
Kemi Badenoch said in an interview this week that she hadn’t seen Adolescence, the show the entire country is raving about. She haughtily said she didn’t have time to watch anything on TV because she’s too busy.
And that’s precisely why she’s the wrong leader for the Tories. She has no idea how to connect with the British people, no idea what they think about, talk about or what disturbs them. And Adolescence did disturb them because it’s representative of what’s happening on their streets.
Badenoch condescendingly says there are much bigger things to think about like Islamic terrorism. OK, so what’s she done about that? In fact, what’s she doing about anything? She’s a pathetically weak adversary for Starmer who she could have destroyed thanks to the number of cock ups he’s made. Instead she’s allowed him to get away with it all with barely a peep. But worse the woman’s dangerously totally out of touch with the British people which makes her bad for the Tories.
As for Starmer – yes, he’s talked about Adolescence, he’s even met with its creators but twice now he’s referred to it as a “documentary” which tells me he hasn’t seen it either and is just parroting what someone’s told him to say about it.
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker just became the Democrat’s favourite to run for president in 2028 after a record-breaking senate speech that lasted 25 hours.
Sorry, that’s not a record to be proud of. If you can’t say what you want to say in an hour – your speech is too long. Yes, he had lots of digs at Trump but he also rambled on about sport, read out emails from voters, droned on about his slave ancestors and recited poetry.
I’m yawning even as I write this so God knows what it was like to have to sit through it.
If Booker’s the best the Democrats have got it’s no wonder their popularity rating has sunk to a record low.
There’s only one thing I want to know about this boring senator and that is was he wearing a nappy during the speech? How else can you not pee for 25 hours?
express.co.uk
