Kemi Badenoch has been mocked after lashing out at the US-UK trade agreement minutes after it was announced – with a Labour frontbencher urging Tory staff to take her phone off her
Kemi Badenoch has been brutally mocked for whining about the UK-US trade deal before she had read it.
A “historic” agreement announced on Thursday saw the White House make huge concessions on tariffs, saving thousands of under-threat jobs. Details of the deal were published shortly after 4pm – but a mere 17 minutes later Ms Badenoch was ranting about Britian being “shafted”.
Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary who has been locked in make-or-break negotiations with White House officials in recent weeks, was busy briefing journalists on the content. And key details of the agreement had just dropped into reporters’ inboxes.
Initially it looked like it had gone down well in Tory circles. Shadow trade secretary Andrew Griffith said: “The reduction in tariffs announced today will be welcomed by exporting businesses.” And former Conservative minister Julian Smith wrote on Twitter/X: “Politics & details aside, today’s trade deal with the US is testament to the patient, mediation-led approach Keir Starmer & his team have taken to the US over recent months. Quiet diplomacy has led the UK to the front of the queue.”
But Ms Badenoch was having none of it. “When Labour negotiates, Britain loses,” she ranted. “We cut our tariffs – America tripled theirs. It’s not historic, we’ve just been shafted!”
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She was accused of failing to properly read the agreement before ranting about it. Mr Reynolds told LBC: ‘”I think if you work in Conservative Central Office and you’re listening to this, take Kemi’s phone off her and make her read things before she tweets. I understand other people in the Conservative Party have welcomed it, but she hasn’t been able to look at the deal.”
He pointed to Ms Badenoch moaning about a trade deal with India earlier this week, as well as remarks about the European Union and China, adding: “I mean, who do they want to do trade and business with?”
The Labour frontbencher continued: “But look, this is a great deal for the UK, because otherwise lots of people would have lost their jobs. It’s the first deal the US has got to with any country, it puts us again at the front of the queue. And of course, there’s now this wider process where we can seek to improve the terms of trade between each other even further.”
Treasury Minister Darren Jones went further, branding the Tory Party “pretty irrelevant” and calling for Ms Badenoch to read documents before commenting. He told Times Radio: “I just think the Conservative Party is pretty irrelevant at the moment, Nick, and they’re continuing to act on that basis. I mean, if they ever want to be considered as a credible party for government again, they ought to act like one, and that probably involves reading these documents before they comment on them.”
The key takeaways were that car export tariffs will reduce from 27.5% to 10%. This will apply to a quota of 100,000 UK cars – almost the total the UK exported last year.
And the UK steel industry – which was on the brink of collapse just weeks ago – will no longer face tariffs after the Government negotiated the 25% tariff down to zero. The two nations have agreed new reciprocal market access on beef – with UK farmers given a tariff free quota for 13,000 metric tonnes.
There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports, the Government insisted. The agreement saved thousands of jobs, the PM said, and he was clearly glad to be able to share the news with carmakers after weeks of uncertainty.
During an unusual press conference in the Oval Office, Trump branded Mr Starmer and his team “terrific” as the PM was patched in on a video link. As the reduction in tariffs became clear, union bosses gave the agreement an enthusiastic welcome.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, voiced relief that a deal had been reached on tariffs. He said: “It’s right that the government has taken urgent action to protect good quality jobs up and down the country after Trump’s arbitrary tariffs threatened to take a wrecking ball to our automotive and manufacturing sectors.
“This agreement takes us back from the brink and many workers will breathe easier as a result.”
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