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Lammy says Trump has taken US economic policy back almost 100 years with 'return to protectionism'
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is at the Nato HQ in Brussels this morning, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting. Speaking to the media, he said President Trump was taking US economic policy back almost a century by embracing protectionism. He said:
The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation.
We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century.
As you know, we are consulting with business and industry. At this time, we are engaged in discussions with the United States to strike an economic agreement and an economic deal.
And of course, we have been absolutely clear that all options are on the table as we ensure the national interests of the British people, who will be very concerned at this time about how this affects the bottom line for them and their economic welfare.
We will put their national interest first, and it’s in their national interests to be negotiating with the United States an economic agreement at this time, but keeping all options on the table.
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Lammy says Trump has taken US economic policy back almost 100 years with 'return to protectionism'
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is at the Nato HQ in Brussels this morning, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting. Speaking to the media, he said President Trump was taking US economic policy back almost a century by embracing protectionism. He said:
The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation.
We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century.
As you know, we are consulting with business and industry. At this time, we are engaged in discussions with the United States to strike an economic agreement and an economic deal.
And of course, we have been absolutely clear that all options are on the table as we ensure the national interests of the British people, who will be very concerned at this time about how this affects the bottom line for them and their economic welfare.
We will put their national interest first, and it’s in their national interests to be negotiating with the United States an economic agreement at this time, but keeping all options on the table.
Minister won’t back Trump’s claim that Starmer ‘very happy’ about how UK affected by US global tariffs
Good morning. The British government, like the rest of the world, is still preoccupied with trying to absorb the consequences of Donald Trump’s decision to obliterate global free trade with a blizzard of tariffs. In London, the stock market has opened, and shares are still heading down. Graeme Wearden has the latest on that on his business live blog.
James Murray, a Treasury minister, has been giving interviews this morning. In terms of explaining the government’s policy, he did not say anything that went beyond what Keir Starmer and Jonathan Reynolds were saying yesterday. While not ruling out retaliatory tariffs, the government views them as a last resort and hopes that the trade deal it is negotiating with Washington will lead to the UK tariffs being reduced, or removed completely.
But Murray did have to answer a question about whether Donald Trump was right when he told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that Starmer was “very happy about how we treated them with tariffs”. It is rare to hear anyone from the UK government say anything negative about Trump in public, but even the ultra-loyalist, fourth-most-senior Treasury minister drew the line at pretending Trump was right about this. In response to the question, Murray told Times Radio:
We’re disappointed at tariffs being imposed globally. We are in a better position than many other economies moving forward because we’re on the lowest band of tariffs. But our focus is to get that economic deal.
There is not much formally in the diary today (parliament is not sitting), but politics never stops, and there is bound to be news, on the Trump tariffs and other matters. There will be a lobby briefing at 11.30am.
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