Trump wants a tariff ‘big bang’ — and Keir Starmer can only grin and bear it

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1. ***From The Times:***

   Last week President Trump’s administration made it clear that the UK was unlikely to be spared from the impact of his global trade war.

   Britain had been hoping to secure an exemption from tariffs before Wednesday, which Trump has declared as “liberation day”. Ministers were privately confident that a deal was on the cards and Sir Keir Starmer’s charm offensive would pay dividends.

   Those hopes were dashed on Thursday afternoon, when US negotiators told their British counterparts that there would be no carve-out.

   Talks over an economic deal would continue, but the UK would still be subject to tariffs. The subtext from the US was clear — Trump wants to make a “big bang”.

   “They want to make a theatre of it,” one government source said. “They want to have the consistency of saying that they have done everything on the same day. It is a big challenge for us.”

   Trump’s tariffs have the potential to be hugely detrimental to Starmer’s premiership and his hopes of galvanising economic growth. The US president is preparing to hit Britain and other countries that charge VAT with “reciprocal” tariffs of as much as 25%

2. I heard someone suggesting today on LBC that retaliation with tariffs is not going to be very beneficial to the UK and will just contribute to escalating a bad situation. Instead, she suggested, it might be the right time to progress what is sorely missing: digital tax and addressing the big elephants in the room – the tech companies that operate here but do not pay tax. I’m all for it.

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