After Donald Trump dropped the UK/US trade deal on the flooor at the G7 summit, the Prime Minister suggested that if anyone else had tried to pick them up it would not have ended well.
Keir Starmer has claimed he acted quickly to pick up papers dropped by Donald Trump due to a “tightly guarded security zone” around the President.
The Prime Minister suggested the outcome would not have been great for any helpful reporter who may have intervened to give Mr Trump a hand.
“I mean seriously I think if any of you had stepped forward other than me,” Mr Starmer said.
“I was just deeply conscious that in a situation like it would not have been good for anybody else to have stepped forward.”
It came after the US President and the Prime Minister signed off a UK-US trade deal to mitigate the impacts of the White House’s global tariffs.
Mr Trump declared “we signed, and it’s done” – after accidently dropping the papers on the floor in front of assembled reporters. “It’s a little windy out here,” he added.
The mishap prompted Mr Starmer to kneel down and pick up the copy of the trade agreement.
Moments later the US President then appeared to mistake the UK for the European Union.
Pressed on whether people should be concerned about Trump’s health, the PM said: “No, I mean, look, there weren’t many choices with the documents and picking it up, because one – as you probably know there were quite strict rules about who can get close to the president.”
He added: “He was in good form yesterday, and I mean we had – I don’t know how many sessions yesterday together as the G7 and then into the evening session as well.
“And I’m just really pleased that we signed the executive order and for JLR’s 44,000 people, that is a huge relief in terms of the protection of their jobs and their livelihoods, and that’s really important to me.”
President Trump imposed a raft of tariffs on trade in April on what he branded “Liberation Day”. It included 10% levies on all British goods, and 25% on cars, steel and aluminium.
He later increased the tariff on steel to 50%, but the UK was handed a reprieve, keeping its 25% rate until at least July 9.
The UK-US deal, which was announced in May, promised to see tariffs on steel and car exports to the US slashed in exchange for greater access to the UK for beef and ethanol producers.
But the agreement – expected to save thousands of British manufacturing jobs – had not been implemented amid delays from Washington.
Yesterday’s executive order signed by Mr Trump will bring many of the commitments into force.
But US tariffs for the steel industry remain at 25%, with no certainty on whether they will be eliminated next month or double to 50% in line with other countries.
The two leaders pledged to “make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed”, the Department for Business and Trade said.
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Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Starmer said: “In relation to British Steel obviously it’s referred to in the executive order so we’re moving on to the implementation stage.
“There’s further work to do in relation to steel, but we’re getting on and doing that work, and that doesn’t require us to change the ownership of British Steel.
“But as we were with cars and with aerospace, we’re in the implementation stage now, and it’s included in the executive order, which is, I mean, so the executive order mirrors what we agreed, what I agree with the President when I was over in Washington.
“So that’s the significance. But now it’s in the executive order form, which obviously moves along on the implementation stage.”