Keir Starmer has told heads of business in Downing Street that “clearly there will be an economic impact” from US tariffs but that ministers would respond with “cool and calm heads”.
The prime minister gathered senior business figures in No 10 after Donald Trump announced he would introduce 10% blanket tariffs on imports from the UK, and 25% on car imports.
Ministers have taken heart from the fact that 10% is the lowest rate imposed by the US and compares with 20% for the EU.
Starmer told business officials that Trump “acted for his country, and that is his mandate. Today, I will act in Britain’s interests with mine.” The prime minister said that while the tariffs were “a challenge”, the UK was in a “better position than a lot of other countries from what was announced last night”.
Jonathan Reynolds, the trade secretary, told broadcasters that the government would not retaliate immediately and was pursuing an economic deal with the US to remove Trump’s tariffs.
“I hope perhaps if we are successful there will be a template for other countries to resolve some of these issues,” Reynolds told Sky News.
“There’s a set of complaints from the US on some of how the current global trading arrangements work. They won’t get their own way on all of that. But there are some things to talk about,” he said. “And I do hope there’s a chance to take some lessons from that if we are successful for the wider world economy.”
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, warned countries on Wednesday night not to retaliate and said that “as long as you don’t retaliate this is the high end of the number”.
Asked about Bessent’s remarks, Reynolds indicated that the UK was not planning to retaliate immediately but that ministers would not “rule anything out”.
Reynolds said: “We in the UK will take any action we need to give ourselves the tools that we need to respond to announcements of this kind.
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“Whilst we have a chance of making the relationship between the UK and US even stronger than it is, the message I get very strongly from businesses is remain at the table, don’t overreact, stick with the calm-headed approach the government has had to date and we’re going to do that.”
The trade secretary struck an optimistic tone about the prospect of striking an economic deal with the US, saying he “absolutely” believed it could be done. “We have been able to progress talks on a range of areas on a timescale which to be honest has delivered in days and weeks more progress than we’ve had in years,” he told LBC.
Reynolds revealed, however, that Trump’s team had raised objections to UK food safety standards, reigniting long-running tensions over the UK’s ban on US chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef.
“We have a food standards regime which we’re very committed to in the UK which they have some objections to. So they put a number of factors into this,” Reynolds told BBC Breakfast.
