Laura Kuensbergpresventer, Sunday with Laura Kuensberg •@bbclaurakBbc
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer looked in his apartment. Chancellor Rachel Reeves saw her in her study. Affairs Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, accompanied by staff and pizza, resumed the major prices of President Donald Trump, his office in the former Admiralty Arch, hence the British Navy was directed to protect and control the high seas in the past days.
Ministers can only dream of having this kind of power now, while the United Kingdom is looking in an increasing horror in ignition between the United States and China.
“Sometimes people do not realize that they live through a moment of history,” notes a cabinet minister, while Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are getting closer, and the stock markets plunge. Trump has slapped a 10% rate on all nations – including the United Kingdom – for imports to the United States, and much higher rates in certain countries, including China, which has responded with its own prices.
So what’s going on in Whitehall at the moment to try to limit evil in the United Kingdom, perhaps by concluding an agreement with the United States and taking advantage of all opportunities?
The PM spends another dramatic weekend to work on the peace of the peace pad, Checkers. So far, the other calls that may really have any importance, American negotiators have not yet resumed.
Trump suspended a possible trade agreement that could exempt the United Kingdom from certain costs of prices during the press conference of the pair of the pair in February. Since then, a team of about 20 years has been important, led by Michael Ellam, the Treasury and the Banking Veteran, and the Commercial Advisor of the PM, Varun Chandra, alongside the business secretary.
These talks included ideas on the rules of the United Kingdom on electric vehicles, the possible modifications of the technological business tax (“space to talk about it”, says a minister) and changes in online security rules (“do not occur”, indicates a government source).
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Sir Keir Starmer told Downing Street business leaders that Trump prices would have a serious impact on the United Kingdom and the world economy
But while the US government has prepared for its advertisements on Wednesday, talks about a contract field. Now, after the announcement, the “ball is in their courtyard,” said an involved government source, waiting to hear if, in the chaos of the new Trump pricing world, the White House can find time and energy to conclude an agreement with the United Kingdom.
“We expect to hear them at any time”, one of these hopes involved. The risk, in visible turmoil, is that any economic agreement could become a case of: do not call, we will call you. We will question Darren Jones, the Minister of the Treasury, on this subject when he joins us in the studio tomorrow.
If an agreement is concluded, however, do not expect an all-design arrangement. Instead, “it would be a basic agreement on principles – rather than a super detailed trade agreement”, explains a government source, contrasting these “fast and dirty” passes to longtime negotiations with India (“We are on our 15th chapter with them!”).
The uncertainty around talks and the limited nature of what an agreement could conclude in any case means that no 10 is “not sitting here to wait for it – it is not the basket where all our eggs are”.
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The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said that he was addressing British companies in the impact of new 10% prices on British exports to the United States
For weeks, the government told us that they were preparing for all kinds of scenarios. A secret committee of the cabinet envisaged how the United Kingdom could react if Trump’s prices have materialized.
But now they are here, the real answer is … not to answer and spend four weeks to ask companies if they want the government to answer later. It is not only Whitehall Dither: At this stage, there seems to be almost a zero appetite among the ministers to join the tariff cycles between the United States, China and perhaps the EU in the coming days.
A Whitehall figure working with business known as “there was no unique votes in business, large or small, saying that it is the bad strategy”.
The ministers’ approach to involve companies on board, as when Sir Keir invited dozens of large wigs in n ° 10 in the morning after the announcement of Trump’s tariff, is partly due to anger when the government has increased national insurance contributions. “The really calm reaction,” said a source, “is because we brought people into the head space where prices were going to occur – one of the companies said they were tracked down, we tried to persuade business to trust the process.”
The government is not in a hurry and has no enthusiasm to present its own new prices, and for the moment, at least, the requirements to do so are in a mute. According to a minister: “Most people have a considerable number of jobs in their online constituencies – even in the cabinet, there may have been question points, but there was not this week.”
And they joke that the Libs Dems, which call for prices in retaliation, “continue to demand a trade war but I do not think they will direct the nation”. Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch, who does not want additional rates either, will also be in the show of tomorrow.
Getty images
The United States will impose at least a rate of 10% on all imports, with even higher rates for certain countries
But just as the government is slow to resume his back, he cracks the heads to do it with their existing plans faster.
It’s not Trump. I understand that the Chancellor examines if one of the money announced in examining the government’s vital expenses can be presented from June. If government services are able to finalize their transactions, can this be sorted and made public as soon as possible?
There are also discussions on the question of whether it is possible to speed up the long expected industrial strategy-a plan to obtain investments in the United Kingdom in pencil for June, but could it be advanced? A decision was not made but the Prime Minister is again, his team indicates, trying to use the danger worldwide as a momentum to push the stronger government machine. “We have to run quickly towards this,” said a source from the government – and the chancellor looks at him this weekend.
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Could you feel, I didn’t hear that before? You would be right. Since the beginning of the year, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have both declared several times that the government had to go faster, work harder. So why after years of opposition were they ready to go with all these changes when they came into office? For a government that has promised to be radical, its plans have not always been to come.
You cannot imagine the kind of radicalism we see in the White House, but it is certainly radical. To compete, the United Kingdom may have to be that too.
It is ridiculous to imagine that the PM is “very happy” that the United Kingdom has been struck by prices as Trump suggested – “artistic license”, noted a source of the government. No British action can completely isolate our economy of disturbance abroad. But the government’s own actions count, and this could be a decisive moment.
Although he was sure to try to soften the blows for the United Kingdom, the hopes of the government have already been destroyed. First of all, the ministers thought that the United Kingdom could escape the prices, then they said they were prepared in case, then disappointed when they arrived. While Sir Keir spends another weekend on the phone and the officials hope that the phone sounds, the government does not know what they can say afterwards.
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