Starmer says tariffs will be cut from 27.5% to 10% on 100,000 car exports to US every year
Keir Starmer is at a Jaguar Land Rover factory. Summing up the deal, he says:
This is a deal that will protect British businesses and save thousands of jobs In Britain, really important, skilled, well paid jobs. It will remove tariffs on British steel and aluminium, reducing them to zero. It will provide vital assurances for our life sciences sector, so important to our economy, and grant unprecedented market access for British farmers without compromising our high standards.
And he says the deal means US tariffs on cars from the UK will be cut from 27.5% to 10% for 100,000 vehicles every year.
He claims that, as he negoiated the deal, he kept his focus on the needs of car workers.
In politics, what matters sometimes is who you have in your mind’s eye when you’re making these deals. Who do you have in your mind’s eye when you’re taking decisions? But what I took away from here last time [I was here] was you and the brilliant work that you do, and had you in my mind’s eye as we did that.
Key events
Here is the UK Department for Business’s news release about the US-UK trade deal.
And here is the White House’s fact sheet about it.
Starmer reveals call with Trump last night about trade deal meant he missed part of Arsenal match
Q: Were you bounced into this today? You did not seem to be expecting it today?
Starmer says he did not know the exact day this would be announced. If he had planned it, he would not have had his final phone call on the deal with Trump halfway through the second half of the Arsenal match last night, he jokes.
(Starmer is a huge Arsenal fan. So this was a new revelation about the sacrifices he has had to make in the national interest.)
Q: When will you get the 10% tariffs removed?
Starmer says he approaches negotiations in the same way – staying in the room, negotiating respectfully.
He says he will carry on like this.
But he urges people not to underestimate the significance of what has been agreed today. He says serious, pragmatic politics is “far better than performative politics, people slamming the door, floundering out, being performative, but not actually delivering for working people.”
He will continue like that, he says.
Starmer says he trusts Trump to stick to deal he has agreed
Q: How do you know President Trump won’t just post something on Truth Social ripping this all up?
Starmer says there is a written text. He says he and Trump trust each other.
We respect each other, the president and I, and we trust each other, and have trusted each other through this process, each of us mandating our negotiating teams to get the best deal for our respective countries.
Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] Isn’t it more important to improve trade relations with the EU?
Starmer says he does not accept the UK has to choose between the US and the EU.
Starmer ducks question about whether, despite deal, UK still worse off due to Trump’s tariffs
Starmer is now taking questions.
Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] Is the UK better off under this deal than it was six months ago, before President Trump introduced his tariffs?
Starmer rejects the premise of the question.
The question you should be asking is, is it better than where we were yesterday?
And I think if you should come out when you finished asking me questions and talk to the workforce here, because what this does is to reduce to zero the tariffs on steel and aluminium. Look how important that is.
Reduces massively from 27.5% to 10% of tariffs on the cars that we export – so important to JLR, actually to the sector generally. But JLR in particular, who sell so many cars into the American market.
And of course, it also includes pharmaceuticals, some really important measures. Obviously, we don’t have tariffs yet [in pharmaceuticals], but we’ve got within the deal significantly preferential treatment whatever happens in the future. So this is hugely important for our pharmaceutical sector as well.
In addition to that, we said we had red lines on standards, particularly in agriculture. We’ve kept to those standards.
Starmer says ‘rejecting allies’ will never be his approach to dealing with other countries
In his opening remarks, Keir Starmer also included a passage best understood as a dig at Ed Davey (who has been repeatedly urging Starmer to distance himself from Trump). Starmer said:
In recent years, an idea has taken hold, that you somehow show your strength by rejecting your allies, that you shut the door, put the phone down …
I’ve had plenty of people urging me to do that, rather than stay in the room and fight for the interests of our country.
And I want to be absolutely crystal clear, that is not how this government operates. It’s never how we will operate. We don’t storm off, we stay in the room and we negotiate.
Starmer says tariffs will be cut from 27.5% to 10% on 100,000 car exports to US every year
Keir Starmer is at a Jaguar Land Rover factory. Summing up the deal, he says:
This is a deal that will protect British businesses and save thousands of jobs In Britain, really important, skilled, well paid jobs. It will remove tariffs on British steel and aluminium, reducing them to zero. It will provide vital assurances for our life sciences sector, so important to our economy, and grant unprecedented market access for British farmers without compromising our high standards.
And he says the deal means US tariffs on cars from the UK will be cut from 27.5% to 10% for 100,000 vehicles every year.
He claims that, as he negoiated the deal, he kept his focus on the needs of car workers.
In politics, what matters sometimes is who you have in your mind’s eye when you’re making these deals. Who do you have in your mind’s eye when you’re taking decisions? But what I took away from here last time [I was here] was you and the brilliant work that you do, and had you in my mind’s eye as we did that.
President Trump is still speaking in the Oval Office. There is coverage on our US live blog.
But Keir Starmer is now speaking in the West Midlands.
Trump says the US is working on a deal with the EU.
But dealing with the UK has been easier, he says. He says this deal just “fell into place”.
Brooke Rollins, the US agriculture secretary, says US beef is the best in the world, and the deal is really important for what it means for American farmers. She says she will be going to the US next week.