Trump will 'certainly' do a UK trade deal, Boris Johnson claims - as Farage urges Starmer to 'roll out the red carpet'
8 November 2024, 22:40
Boris Johnson has claimed that Donald Trump would "certainly" do a trade deal with the UK, amid fears of high tariffs on British exports.
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Former Conservative Prime Minister Mr Johnson said he suspected that the Labour government would be "too pathetic" to seek a deal with Mr Trump.
Mr Trump's victory has sparked fears of fresh economic trouble for the UK, with the president-elect having promised to bring in trade tariffs to boost the American economy.
Nigel Farage, a Trump ally and leader of the right-wing Reform party, said earlier that the UK should "roll out the red carpet" to the Republican in order to ensure that British exports are not hit by the new US administration.
New Jersey Democrat governor Phil Murphy, who knows Mr Trump well, said that Brexit might put Britain in a good position in negotiations with the new president.
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Mr Johnson said that the strong market reaction to Mr Trump's election showed that he is "offering economic hope".
Writing in the Daily Mail, the former prime minister added: "What about the threat of tariffs on China and others, you say. Well, he said that last time - and ended up doing a free trade deal with Beijing.
"Donald Trump would certainly do a free trade deal with the UK too - though I expect the Starmer Government is too pathetic to try."
Earlier on Friday Reform UK leader Mr Farage said the UK should "roll out the red carpet" to build bridges with the US, and insisted the relationship between the two countries is "mendable".
He told the PA news agency: "Whether you like Trump or not, this is the important point, that in terms of intelligence sharing, in terms of defence, in terms of investment, in terms of trade, America is our most important relationship."
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Mr Farage later said: "(The) most important thing will be the tariff regime.
"He's talking about putting a 10% tariff on all goods that are being sent to America, and we've got to start negotiating fast to make sure we're not part of that."
Mr Trump vowed during his campaign that he would tax all goods imported into the US if he won back the White House, saying he thought "tariff" was "the most beautiful word in the dictionary".
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Meanwhile, New Jersey Democrat governor Phil Murphy, who knows Mr Trump personally, offered an optimistic assessment of what a Trump presidency might mean for British exports, and pointed towards Brexit.
Mr Murphy said: "I'm sure you are concerned about tariffs, the bilateral relationship. If I had to speculate I would say there's a lane for the UK.
"There's less of a lane for the EU and Nato. There's a lane for the UK to be determined."
Mr Murphy added: "He is somebody who I think will have sympathy with an entity leaving a larger club.
"There was a certain relationship here - Brexit and Trump were born in the same year.
"I can't speak for the president but I think there is an embedded sympathy for someone who leaves a bureaucracy, leaves a club."
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But relations between Labour and Mr Trump may be strained by previous comments by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in which he called president-elect Trump a "sociopath".
New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called on Starmer to apologise for the comments on Wednesday.
The issue does not appear to have arisen in the first conversation between Mr Trump and Keir Starmer.
