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By any standard, going from “Two-Tier Keir” to “Two-Deal Keir” in the space of two days counts as a considerable achievement.
Britain’s new multibillion-dollar trade deal with the United States, coming as it does so soon after the equally consequential, far-reaching partnership agreement with India, has bestowed a much-needed sense of momentum and purpose on Sir Keir Starmer's beleaguered administration.
So also, presumably, will the “Brexit reset” that may well be revealed at the EU-UK summit later this month.
Britain has thus concluded – or shortly will – closer economic partnerships with the largest population on earth (India), the largest and still the most dynamic economy (America), and the UK’s most crucial single market (Europe). Last week may have been a miserable one for the prime minister, but he has every reason to feel confident now.
Sir Keir should feel vindicated, too. Even as equable a man as the prime minister will have felt sorely tried since President Donald Trump launched his tariff schedules, not to mention the doubts some of his most prominent colleagues, notably the vice-president, JD Vance, have cast on support for Ukraine, Nato and the transatlantic alliance.
It would have been easy (and understandable) if Sir Keir had played to the home audience and condemned the president. Yet he did not give way to that temptation, though so often urged to do so. It would have been, at best, futile – and, at worst, counterproductive.
Instead, the prime minister, as he puts it, didn't storm off but “stayed in the room” and pressed on with the dialogue: “Courteous, respectful, businesslike.” The reward is that, to upend President Obama’s famous phrase, Britain ended up at the front of the queue for a trade deal.
Sir Keir, the soi-disant “serious pragmatist”, has had one of his finest hours so far, the symbolism of the deal signing on VE Day having been proudly played up. Thousands of British jobs have indeed been saved by it – and, with such an emphasis on cooperation in the most technologically advanced sectors, where the UK and US are closely aligned in attitude, there must be much to look forward to. As the details emerge, there may be aspects of the deal that disappoint – but thus far, it seems, on balance, highly positive.
In such circumstances, the irony of Sir Keir – the great Remainer and passionate European – succeeding where Brexiteers failed won’t overly trouble him. Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak all tried, with varying degrees of expectation, to prise some sort of post-Brexit free trade deal with America. Nigel Farage, with his own supposed special relationship with the president, often gave the impression he could make the deal during one of his meetings with Mr Trump.
Instead, it fell to a man ideologically and temperamentally the diametric opposite of Mr Trump. Their televised phone calls, like their recent meetings, suggest a degree of warmth and trust between the human rights lawyer and the tough real-estate guy that could not have been predicted. Still, they say opposites attract.
None of these post-Brexit trade deals will, of themselves, transform the British economy. Indeed, there will be aspects of this US trade deal, as with the others, that will cause concern and disruption to parts of the economy – especially hard-pressed farmers challenged by the impact of lower-cost US produce.
The British film production sector will also remain deeply worried about the president's proposed 100 per cent tariff – something left unresolved in the announcements. Yet that is the nature of free trade: compromises are inevitable.
It’s also important to note that the post-Brexit deals cannot compensate for the harms caused by Brexit itself. Even so, the treaties reached with the trans-Pacific partnership (encompassing Japan and South Korea), Australia, New Zealand and now India, the US and the Brexit “reset”, when combined, will boost UK growth rate by something like 1 per cent a year.
That is an extremely precious achievement, given the otherwise indefinite anaemic growth the country seemed doomed to endure. Sir Keir said growth was his priority – and now he has some evidence to suggest that he is indeed delivering a welcome “change” in the nation’s fortunes – and its morale.
Sir Keir is to be warmly congratulated.
English (US) ·