- Primer Minister Keir Starmer vows to back British industry 'to the hilt' amid U.S. tariffs.
- Starmer says it's a moment for cool heads because nobody wins in a trade war.
- The U.K. and the U.S. are negotiating a trade deal.
On the heels of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Jaguar Land Rover’s largest U.K. factory Monday, vowing to back his country’s industry.
“Please read into that a statement of intent because it is a statement of intent about how important this is for you, for us and for the country,” he said.
Trump hit the U.K. with a 10% import duty and 25% tariff on British-made cars. Starmer’s speech at the plant just days after Jaguar Land Rover was forced to suspend shipments to the U.S.
“These are challenging times, but we have chosen to come here because we are going to back you to the hilt,” he told company employees as vehicles rolled off the production line behind him.
The speech came as international markets took a plunge and British negotiators engaged in talks with the Trump administration about a trade deal that could exempt the U.K. from the tariffs or extend it a lower rate. He said it’s a moment for “cool heads. Nobody wins from a trade war, you know that. But it’s also a moment for urgency.”
Starmer said he would only strike a deal if it’s in Britain’s national interest and the right thing to do for the country’s security.
The prime minister said that his government’s first reaction to higher tariffs imposed by Trump should not be to relax public borrowing rules. Finance minister Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules — which aim to achieve a balanced current budget by 2029-30 — allow her to suspend them in case of an economic shock, per Reuters.
A reporter asked Starmer if he could guarantee that won’t happen.
“The reaction to the challenges of the last few days is not for us to say the first thing we will now do is to put on one side our fiscal rules. It is to remind people why we put them in place in the first place,” Starmer said. “There is enough uncertainty and insecurity as it is.”
Starmer said “this is not a passing phase” but a “completely new world.”
“Let me be really clear, at a moment like this, our future is in our hands, and so of course, we will keep calm and fight for the best deal with the U.S., and we’ve been discussing that intensely over the last few days,” he said, according to Yahoo Finance.
“But we are also going to work with our key partners to reduce barriers to trade across the globe, to accelerate trade deals with the rest of the world, and champion the cause of free and open trade right across the globe.”