The unplanned call that sealed PM’s deal with Trump – and the bigger challenge he now faces
VE Day with a packed diary was perhaps not the moment the prime minister would have chosen to announce he’d sealed a trade deal with Donald Trump.
From the Trump news bomb dropped in the middle of the night about a deal being announced “with a big and highly respected country”, to the hastily convened Oval Office-Jaguar Land Rover conference call, it was a substantial moment – months in the making – that had the feel of being announced on the hop.
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Welcome to working with Trump’s White House.
“Dealing with the Americans is always hectic,” observed one Whitehall official wryly.
That the Trump call to seal the deal came right in the middle of Keir Starmer’s beloved Arsenal playing PSG in the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night is all the proof you need to know it was unplanned.
But as one senior government figure put it: “When it’s time to close a deal, it gets closed. We weren’t going to wait for a grid slot to make sure British workers could be assured.”
The deal was apparently done and dusted last Thursday, with London waiting on Washington to sign it off.
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Watch full call with Trump and Starmer
It may be a win, but it’s still pretty thin
For both leaders, this deal can be claimed as a win. Trump needed an off-ramp after his announcement of sweeping global tariffs crashed the confidence of the markets – and many US voters – in him. The White House is now working on a series of bilateral trade deals around the world.
Starmer got to be first in line, and agree a deal that certainly helps those workers in the Jaguar Land Rover factory he visited today, which had paused the production line for US car exports after Trump announced a 25% tariff.
It goes without saying getting a deal – with those tariffs dropped to 10% – is a win for those workers and a prime minister who made the point that his approach with Trump – cool head, negotiate behind closed doors – paid off.
But it is also true that, despite Trump’s claims it’s “full and comprehensive”, this deal is pretty thin.
As one government insider put it to me, Number 10 went for a fast and narrow deal to ameliorate the worst of Trump’s tariffs for the car, steel, and aluminium sectors.
But we are still worse off than when Trump came into the White House. The 10% flat tariffs still stand, and there are so many unknowns on where else he might move.
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Can PM show how deal will benefit voters?
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Sky challenges Trump on trade deal
There could be (more) tariffs ahead
Only this weekend he was talking about slapping tariffs on films made outside the US, which would be a body blow to the UK’s creative industries. And there was plenty of uncertainty in this deal around other sectors, such as the pharma industry.
On both, the PM said the UK would get “preferential treatment” should the US impose tariffs. But what does that really look like, and will Trump follow through?
On big tech, the two countries agreed to work on a digital trade pact to deepen co-operation. But for now, the UK digital services tax, which imposes a levy of 2% on multinational tech companies – worth £800m a year – remains.
Not only is the UK still in a worse position on trade with the US than before Trump was elected, this is also not a free trade deal – and the prime minister knows it.
As he told workers on the factory floor in Solihull: “In the deal with we have done today, we can say: jobs saved, jobs won, but not job done. Because we are more ambitious for what the UK and US can do.”
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Explained: The US-UK trade deal
When I asked him if he was disappointed the 10% tariffs are still in place, particularly after Trump had floated the prospect of a tariff-free deal back in February, he told me: “We would like to go further in relation to tariffs.
“But I think it’s really important we’ve been able to get this deal over the line now because in that way we’ve been able to protect and save and enhance jobs right here, right now.”
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Workers at Jaguar Land Rover will no doubt be relieved that the prime minister has negotiated a deal with Trump that helps their industry and jobs. As for Starmer, he was clear the decisions he takes, he takes “on behalf of working people across this country”.
He is right to claim the win. It has been hard fought, and it has taken huge effort right across Whitehall.
The bigger challenge for Starmer is how he translates those wins on the world stage – be it the India trade deal or the US one – into gains among voters on the doorstep who are losing faith in his government.
UK
Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still ‘too high’ under Labour – but says Farage can ‘sod off’
The home secretary has admitted the UK’s illegal immigrant numbers are “too high” – but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.
Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase of irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Politics latest: Labour MPs attack asylum plans
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.
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Beth Rigby: The two big problems with Labour’s asylum plan
Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
• The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
• Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
• Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
• Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
• Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
• Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
• And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.
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Home secretary announces details on asylum reform
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.
The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: “Nigel Farage can sod off. I’m not interested in anything he’s got to say.
“He’s making mischief. So I’m not going to let him live forever in my head.”
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Nigel Farage said the home secretary was sounding like a Reform supporter
She earlier announced refugee status would be temporary, only lasting two and a half years before a review, and they would have to be in the UK for 20 years before getting permanent settled status, instead of the current five years.
Ms Mahmood said Reform wanted to “rip up” indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called “immoral” and “deeply shameful”.
The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to her Pakistani parents.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racial slurs.
BBC chair Samir Shah has said there is “no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this” – after Donald Trump said he would sue the corporation for between $1bn and $5bn.
It comes after the US president confirmed on Saturday he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster over the editing of his speech on Panorama – despite an apology from the BBC.
Samir Shah said the BBC’s position ‘has not changed’. Pic: Reuters
In an email to staff, Mr Shah said: “There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
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On Saturday, President Trump told reporters legal action would come in the following days.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he said.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
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The BBC on Thursday said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US leader’s lawyers threatened to sue for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Deborah Turness. Pic: Reuters
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
The Panorama scandal prompted the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The broadcaster has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con people out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the United States for five years in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country’s high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, in which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital currency and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures including former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole more than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after using the hacked accounts to ask people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster said the civil recovery order showed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at around £4.1m, was made last week, following a freeze placed on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured during extradition proceedings.
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A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his assets, the CPS said.
The attack also compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of other high-profile figures including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to temporarily freeze some accounts.
X said 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send tweets.
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