Starmer’s Appeasement of Trump Must Come With Limits
The prime minister may find himself out of sync with voters if he doesn’t stand up to the president.
Keir Starmer risks falling out of sync with voters if his appeasement of Donald Trump goes too far.
Photographer: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images
Global leaders have chorused their disapproval at President Donald Trump’s swingeing tariffs on imports and are threatening to retaliate in kind, but so far the British Lion has refused to roar. UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds speaks softly about a new trade deal with Washington that would remove the levies. It’s all very regrettable, tuts Prime Minister Keir Starmer, although “nothing is off the table.” The PM is rightly trying to avoid a starring role in the collapse of the international economic order — but what happens if cautious politicians diverge from an angry public mood?
Immediate retaliation isn’t on the cards. The UK got off lightly with a 10% export tariff compared with the European Union’s 20% hit. That takes no account, however, of the 25% charges imposed on cars and existing high duties on steel and aluminum. And a global trade war will blow a hole in Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’s flimsy fiscal framework. Writing in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday, Starmer said, “The world as we knew it has gone. We must rise to meet the moment.”