Keir Starmer will only admit it through gritted teeth, but the US-UK trade deal, to be announced later today, was made easier because of the B-words. Boris and Brexit.
The fact that it has been agreed within weeks of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” bombshell speaks volumes for the fluidity and flexibility of the UK’s post-EU economy. We await to see the details of what the deal will look like.
And we await to see what concessions – this week’s India pact landed badly because of fury over national insurance – Sir Keir has had to make to get it over the line.
It will be far from what we have traditionally thought of as a trade deal.
Instead, it’s most likely to be a carve-out – some exemptions from some of the trade barriers that president Trump has imposed in recent weeks.
We expect there to be focus on reducing the extra tariffs areas such as the car industry and steelmakers face, and also perhaps on avoiding penalties for the pharmaceutical areas.
The universal 10% tariff on other items is likely to remain.
But there is no doubt that the Prime Minister is somewhat piggy-backing on the back of Boris Johnson.
The former Prime Minister set the ball rolling on a US-UK trade deal six years ago, during Trump’s first stint as President.
I remember speaking to then international trade secretary Liz Truss in a New York rooftop bar in September 2019 as she was extolling the fact that being out of the EU made dealmaking easier.
Ms Truss, who had her sights on becoming Chancellor, said the EU had shackled Britain for so long and that Brexit would help make us a global economic superstar.
Two months later and Trump was turfed out of the White House, his successor, Joe Biden, was less willing to forge the mega-deal that Boris wanted.
This might not be a mega-deal but every little helps.
