Trevor Phillips ridiculed a senior Treasury minister this morning by pointing out how Labour “bowed” to Donald Trump – but were still hit with 10% tariffs.
The US president announced a range of sweeping international tariffs on Wednesday, imposing up to 34% levies on goods going into the States.
Although Downing Street had spent months trying to woo Trump and secure an exemption, the UK still received the “base rate” amount of 10% tariffs on British exports to the States.
So Sky News presenter Phillips ripped into the government’s approach when interviewing chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones on Sunday.
Phillips said: “Most countries this week got the same treatment as we did – Brazil, Armenia, Burundi, Niger – none of them has a king to offer a state visit.”
Keir Starmer dramatically produced a hand-written letter from King Charles on a recent trip to White House, inviting Trump for an “unprecedented” second state visit.
Phillips continued: “Iran, Afghanistan – the USA’s pretty much in a permanent stand-off with those two. They all got 10%.
“Where does this confidence you have [come from] that we have some special thing that is going to produce a ‘great deal’?”
Jones replied: “Our relationships are very different with the United States and those countries, whether it’s on security or the trade surplus we have with the US.”
“The outcome is the same!” Phillips hit back.
Jones said: “We are a large, complex economy, one of the richest economies in the world, and if you were to compare the UK to other similar economies you would see that we had a better starting deal.”
Phillips said: “We all got 10%, they didn’t treat us any differently!”
The minister then pointed to the 20% tariffs on the EU and the 34% on China.
He added: “We don’t say this with any glee, we’re not happy about the tariff situation, we don’t think it’s good for global trade or the global economy, but it does just represent the facts – and now we need to get on get this deal with the US over the line.”
Phillips said ministers had been very happy that they had managed to secure many dinners and private meetings with the Trump administration.
But, he added: “In the end, all their bowing and scrapping, all the offers of dinners and all the rest of it, made absolutely no difference.”
The Treasury minister said he did not think that was true and it was “good” the UK has a positive working relationship with the States.
Jones also hit back at Trump’s claim that Starmer is “happy” with the way the UK has been treated with the tariffs.
He said: “Keir has been clear he is unhappy about the tariffs and broadly unhappy about tariffs in what was a well-functioning global trading system.”