The US and the UK are two countries separated by a common language. It is our largest trading partner, our closest friend and strongest security ally. We are each other’s largest foreign investor. Four million jobs are supported by Britain and America across the Atlantic. It is a special relationship, that much is clear.
Now, more than ever, a good trade deal is what we both need. Because of Brexit, and the hard yards we did negotiating a landmark deal with President Trump in his first term, it is within our grasp. Thanks to Kemi, when she was Trade Secretary, we have signed deals with individual states.
But now what Keir Starmer has been crowing about is far from a comprehensive trade deal. He has managed to tie us into terrible terms for a generation, and somehow managed to increase the tariffs we pay America.
He is the world’s worst negotiator and is making Britian weak on the world stage. He has bent to bully boy tactics, meaning we are now worse off than we were in February. His own Trade Secretary, Jonny Reynolds, said that any agreement that didn’t get rid of tariffs would be a failure.
By his own mark – Starmer has failed. As per usual, when Labour negotiates, Britain loses.
Around the world, trade hostility is heating up and an era of economic nationalism is here. Russia, Iran, China, North Korea: lines of a new axis of evil are being drawn slowly but surely closer together. Beyond the billions for Britain’s economy, free trade underpins freedom and security around the world.
I want Keir Starmer to succeed in securing the real deal with America, not just pretending to have one. Sadly, we may have been held back from getting closer to this by his thinly veiled desire to rejoin the EU, and kowtow to Brussels with free movement of people.
Britain deserves better than a Prime Minister trying to pull the wool over our eyes to try and disguise his own incompetence.