Political reporter
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for the UK to stand up to Donald Trump, branding the US president a “bully”.
In a speech to his party’s spring conference in Harrogate, Sir Ed urged the prime minister to agree a co-ordinated response to US tariffs with the European Union and Canada.
Trump has promised a raft of new tariffs – taxes charged on goods imported from other countries – on 2 April, while the UK has already been affected by a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports.
Sir Ed said the UK should “hit back with tariffs of our own”, starting with taxes on imports of Tesla electric cars, the company run by Elon Musk, who is now also a senior adviser to Trump.
Canada and the EU have both announced retaliatory tariffs on the US.
In contrast Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has so far resisted doing so, instead saying he will take a “pragmatic approach”, while keeping all options on the table.
The US and UK are in talks over a potential trade deal, which Trump has said could avoid the need for tariffs.
Sir Ed, who has been a vocal critic of Trump, said the UK must deal with the US president “from a position of strength, not weakness”.
“Just like any bully, you don’t deal with them by curling up in a ball and hoping they’ll leave you alone,” he said.
“You don’t turn a blind eye as they attack your friends, praying that maybe they’ll stop there.
“You have to stand up, stand tough, stand together with our friends, make clear that an attack on one is an attack on all.”
The Lib Dem leader also accused Trump of “betraying Ukraine” and “selling out” the security of Europe.
Meanwhile, he hit back at Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witcoff, who branded Sir Keir’s plan for an international force to support a ceasefire in Ukraine as “a posture and a pose”.
“Trump’s so-called “special envoy” might dismiss British leadership as pointless posturing, but we know what it really is,” he said.
“Britain, leading in Europe again, as we have done at the greatest moments in our nation’s history.”
He called for the PM to step up his efforts to support Ukraine, funded by freezing Russian assets in the UK.
Earlier, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “We do not want to see British exporters subject to higher tariffs and we want to see trade barriers fall right across the world.”
She suggested the UK could change a tax on big tech companies as part of a deal to avoid tariffs.
Asked if the Digital Services Tax, which affects global tech giants like Amazon and Meta, could be tweaked to save the UK economy from tariffs, Reeves said: “You’ve got to get the balance right and those discussions at the moment are ongoing.”
Sir Ed suggested such a move would amount to “changing the UK’s tax policy to appease Donald Trump”, as well as Musk, who owns social media platform X.
