Five weeks ago, Keir Starmer cherished himself in the glow of the approval of Donald Trump in the White House.
After biting his lip for months, it seemed that the prime minister's strategy to relentlessly suck up the man he once branded a 'buffone'.
“I think there is a very good chance that in the case of these two great, friendly countries we can end very well with a real trade agreement where the rates would not be necessary,” the US President Warm said at a joint press conference.
“We will see if we can do something fairly quickly.”
Fast Vooruit little more than a month and the prime minister last night was – like the rest of the world – to coordinate the announcement of President Trump on TV to find out how heavy the rates on British goods such as cars and whiskey will be.
In the intervening period, the government made hectic efforts to close a deal that would prevent the UK from being dragged into a trade war. The prime minister himself repeatedly spoke with President Trump about the issue – and did his best to tinker him.
When the president called on Sunday, the Prime Minister made sure that he could inform him about arrests in a case of vandalism on the Turnberry Golf Course of Mr Trump, which he had branded as the work of 'terrorists'.
Sir Keir invited Mr Trump to come to the UK and formally sign a trade agreement this summer. The president refused and made it clear that there would be no exceptions to the shock-and-ae announcement last night.
US President Donald Trump greets British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the entrance of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2025
Sir Keir has told the allies that there is little option, but to fulfill themselves and try it again
Sir Keir has told the allies that there is little option, but to fulfill themselves and to try it again – even though they are 'back position' by critics.
With a deal that is still seductive in sight, there is little appetite to follow the EU, Canada and others in the resistance of its retribution rates, not least because economic predictors are clear that it would aggravate the overall impact on the UK.
“We all acknowledge that this will be a difficult period, but there will be no knee-shock reactions of this government,” Sir Keir told MPs.
Civil servants remain hopeful that a deal can be closed, but freely admit that they have no idea how long it can take.
The required concessions will also sell easy sales – at the back benchers of the public or work, not.
The tax on Digital Services can be weakened, so that possibly a tax benefit to the tech brothers of Mr. Trump Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
The tax was introduced to help the playing field between traditional sectors such as High Street stores and their online rivals, including Amazon and now £ 800 million a year.
It will not be deleted, but both the head rate and the threshold for paying it can be cut, so that it remains less focused on American technical giants.
President Donald Trump announced enormous mutual rates on Wednesday afternoon during his Liberation Day event in the White House Rose Garden
President Donald Trump holds a gigantic graph that shows some of the mutual rates. His administration is planning to accuse abroad. Each country will be charged at least a rate of at least 10 percent to import goods to the US
President Donald Trump is holding his signed executive order at the end of his event in the Rozentuin, which introduces considerable mutual rates
Reditions of rates on American agricultural products are also on the table, although civil servants insist that they will not lift the ban on controversial products such as chicken with chlorine crops.
And the government offers the 'Light Touch' regulation of AI -a movement that could stimulate investments of American technology companies, but that will restore the debate about the safety of the sector and the fair treatment of the creative industry IT plundering to build its models.
“Everything we discuss will be controversial,” said a source.
“That is why it is vital that we ensure that the ledger is balanced – we cannot and will not only sign a deal.” In the absence of a deal, ministers can be forced to consider rescue operations for important sectors such as the car industry within a few months.
They may also have to set up tariff barriers to prevent cheap goods from being dumped once for the US market on the UK – which increases the bizarre prospect that Great Britain could give rates to goods from China and the EU while saving the US.
No wonder that allies say that Sir Keir feels frustrated, adjacent to despondency.
