Keir Starmer was warned his obsession with unpicking Brexit could cost the UK the ‘golden opportunity’ of a lucrative new trade deal with the United States.
The Prime Minister insisted this week that he was ‘not choosing’ between the EU and US as they head towards a possible trade war.
But critics contrasted his enthusiasm for watering down the existing Brexit deal in order to boost trade with his apparent lack of action on seeking a new trade deal with Donald Trump.
While the Cabinet Office is assembling a 100-strong ‘surrender squad’ led by a former Gordon Brown aide to unpick parts of the Brexit deal, the PM has yet to even appoint a trade envoy to the US, which remains Britain’s single biggest trade partner.
Sir Keir became the first PM to attend a summit with the EU’s 27 leaders since Brexit on Monday when he attended a cosy dinner in a palace in Brussels where former Tory PM Sir Edward Heath signed the treaty taking Britain into the EU in 1972.
But Government sources said Sir Keir did not even raise the issue of trade during his 45-minute inaugural phone call with President Trump last week.
Sir Conor Burns, who served as the UK’s trade envoy until the last election, said Labour’s reluctance to agree a comprehensive free trade deal with Donald Trump could see the UK miss out on a ‘golden opportunity’.
‘We have the most pro-British US president in living memory and – for the first time in decades – we have the flexibility outside the EU to act independently on trade.
The Prime Minister (pictured speaking in Brussels) insisted this week that he was ‘not choosing’ between the EU and US as they head towards a possible trade war
Critics contrasted the PM’s enthusiasm for watering down the existing Brexit deal in order to boost trade with his apparent lack of action on seeking a new trade deal with Donald Trump (pictured)
Sir Conor Burns (pictured), who served as the UK’s trade envoy until the last election, said Labour ‘s reluctance to agree a comprehensive free trade deal with Donald Trump could see the UK miss out on a ‘golden opportunity’
‘We would be absolutely barking mad not to seize this golden opportunity to improve our trading position with the world’s biggest economy.
‘We in the last government would have given our eye teeth for the opportunity that has fallen into Labour’s lap yet they seem to have shown very little interest in it at all.’
Talks on a comprehensive post-Brexit trade deal were put in the deep freeze by Joe Biden in 2020, leaving the last government to focus on more limited agreements covering individual states or sectors.
But President Trump, who backed Brexit, has signalled he is open to the idea of a free trade deal with the UK. This week he also signalled that the UK could be spared from tariffs he is planning to impose on the EU for trade conduct he described as an ‘atrocity’.
Writing in the Mail today, shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the PM was ‘too busy cosying up to Brussels to care about the billions Britain is missing out on’.
Mr Griffith said the PM should be held ‘personally responsible’ if the British economy faces trade tariffs from the US.
‘This week, Starmer began Britain’s march back into the EU,’ he says. ‘He should instead be hot footing it to Washington to talk trade with Trump and rekindle our deal.’
Downing Street insisted Sir Keir was interested in ‘boosting trade’ with the United States but was unable to point to any government activity designed to secure one.
Keir Stammer speaks to the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the Egmont Palaceon in Brussels on Monday
The PM hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) at Chequers on Sunday
Asked whether the PM wanted a free trade deal with the US, his official spokesman said: ‘We are looking to deliver a better outcome for business with our trading relationships around the world, whether that is the US or the EU.’
He said it was ‘early days’ with the new US administration, but added: ‘We want to boost trade with the US – there are clearly areas where we could do more.’
The PM failed to name a new trade representative to the US last week when he appointed a batch of 32 envoys. The envoys include new representatives to major markets like Australia, South Korea and Japan, but also several with relatively small markets, such as Ethiopia, Ghana and Azerbaijan.
The PM’s spokesman insisted this was not a sign of disinterest, telling reporters: ‘The envoys are assigned to markets where we do not have particularly strong trading relationships.’
Downing Street confirmed that Sir Keir is not willing to ‘lower standards’ by allowing in US agricultural products such as chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who would be in charge of any trade talks with the US, said last month there was ‘no appetite on our side for lower food standards’.
Mr Reynolds said negotiating a ‘comprehensive’ deal with the US would be ‘difficult’ and suggested it would be more ‘realistic’ to target smaller sectoral deals.
Labour peer Baroness Ashton, who previously served as the European Commission’s vice-president, said that while Sir Keir was now back in the EU’s ‘circle of trust’ it would be ‘really difficult’ for Labour to do a comprehensive trade deal with President Trump.
She told LBC: ‘It’s really difficult to imagine a straightforward agreement, not least because of agriculture, manufacturing, those areas where America really dominates.’
