Donald Trump (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer hopes to begin trade talks with incoming US President within weeks despite being denied an invitation to Mr Trump’s Washington inauguration on Monday.
Downing Street is putting a brave face on the snub and insists Prime Minister Sir Keir is hoping for “substantial” talks with the President which would not have been possible at the inauguration in any case.
The Government is hoping for reassurances that Mr Trump will not make good on his threat to impose tariffs on all imports into the US including those from the UK, amid warnings that the move would cost British businesses £22 billion.
Sir Keir said: “We haven’t had the inauguration yet so let’s see what the decisions are when we get to that stage. But I have been clear that we would like to have discussions about a trade deal with the US.”
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And he insisted the UK could do a deal with the US while also improving or “resetting” relations with the EU.
The Prime Minister said: “We don’t accept the argument that there’s a binary choice between a reset with the EU and a deal with the US.”
Foreign leaders are not usually invited to the inauguration but Mr Trump broke with tradition to invite foreign politicians he considers allies such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Sir Keir is one of many Labour politicians that condemned Mr Trump as opposition MPs but now find themselves dealing with the President, who is about to begin his second term in office.
In 2018 Sir Keir said: “Humanity and dignity. Two words not understood by President Trump”. A year previously, Foreign Secretary David Lammy called Mr Trump “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser”.
However Sir Keir has attempted to build bridges with a charm offensive, joining the incoming US President for dinner in September and holding a telephone conversation with him before Christmas to discuss .
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He sung Mr Trump’s praises in a television interview with Sky News, praising his “resilience” and revealing that he began the process of forging links even before Mr Trump won last year’s US presidential election.
Sir Keir said: “On a personal level, I’m pleased that before the result, I was able to begin to build what will be an important personal relationship between us.
“We got on well, it was constructive. And it has been my business to make it constructive, because that’s the right thing for our two countries, and I’ll continue to do so.”
There is uncertainty over whether Mr Trump will introduce tariffs as threatened but economists at the University of Sussex have predicted the UK could face a £22 billion hit to its exports if so.
The Treasury is believed to have carried out its own assessment but has refused to publish the figures. Liberal Democrats have laid down a House of Commons motion designed to force the Government to release the data.
A new report by the International Monetary Fund has warned that Mr Trump’s threatened protectionist policies could damage economies across the globe. It said: “An intensification of protectionist policies, for instance, in the form of a new wave of tariffs, could exacerbate trade tensions, lower investment, reduce market efficiency, distort trade flows, and again disrupt supply chains.
“Growth could suffer in both the near and medium term, but at varying degrees across economies.”