Davey challenges Starmer on Trump tariffs
The UK Government should sue US President Donald Trump for 100 billion dollars for the damage caused to the UK by trade tariffs, Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey has insisted.
The Lib Dem branded Mr Trump the “most dangerous, damaging US president of modern times” as he welcomed a “brilliant” decision by the US Supreme Court on Friday which struck down trade tariffs imposed by the president last April.
In the wake of that decision Sir Ed told the Scottish Liberal Democrats conference that the UK Government should now take legal action against the White House.
Speaking at the event in Edinburgh the Liberal Democrat said: “My advice today to Keir Starmer is to sue Donald Trump for 100 billion dollars for the damage he has caused to Scotland and our country.
“It’s the only language he understands.”
The Liberal Democrats leader told the Press Association he had “long said Keir Starmer’s approach is wrong” when it comes to relations with the US and Mr Trump.
“You can’t kowtow to a bully,” he argued, adding he did not think the Prime Minister had “achieved anything in his trade negotiations” with the US.
Sir Ed insisted: “I would take a different view, I would sue Donald Trump for the damage he has caused to our economy, to jobs, to businesses, to investment, to the cost of living.”
He praised Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for having “stood up” to the US president, as he argued the UK should be looking to strike trade deals with different countries as an alternative to doing business with Mr Trump.
“The UK Prime Minister should not yield to a bully,” Sir Ed said.
“He should look at trade deals with our partners in Europe, a new EU-UK customs union, and with other countries, Commonwealth countries like Canada, so we have alternatives.”
It came as the Liberal Democrats leader used his conference speech to mount a fierce attack on the US president, accusing Mr Trump of “using trade tariffs as a weapon for whatever crazy idea comes into his mind”.
This, Sir Ed insisted, is “causing enormous damage to jobs, growth and the cost of living here in the UK, in his own country, and around the world”.
But while he said Liberal Democrats regard “Trump’s behaviour and beliefs with horror” he warned that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage sees the US president as “an inspiration” and “a role model”.
He used his speech to warn that the UK must not follow the same route as America.
Sir Ed told the conference that Mr Farage and his party “look to Trump’s America, with private healthcare, loose gun laws and increasing authoritarian rule, and want to bring all that to Scotland and the UK”.
But he insisted: “We cannot let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain.”
Speaking about the Reform leader, Sir Ed added it was up to the Liberal Democrats to “stop him”, as he said the other parties had “all, in their own ways, contributed to Farage’s rise”.
Here he hit out at the Conservative Party, who he said had “destroyed people’s trust in politics with the endless slew of scandals”.
And while he said Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government had “promised change” he added that “it hasn’t turned out that way”.
In Scotland Sir Ed said voters were being let down by both the SNP Government at Holyrood and Westminster.
That, he said, meant “people and businesses have been doubly let down”.
Scots have been “let down by failing Conservative and Labour governments in Westminster, and let down by a failed SNP Government here in Holyrood,” the Liberal Democrats leader argued.
Hitting out at John Swinney’s party – who have been in power since 2007 – he added: “The truth is, the SNP has been in government for far too long. Embroiled in their own series of scandals. And failing even to get the basics right.”
He continued: “After so many years of failure, by governments in Westminster and Holyrood, is it any wonder people are feeling so disillusioned?”
But he said that the Liberal Democrats could offer “the real change people crave” – contrasting that with the offering from Reform which he said would be “change away from the country we love, to a version of Trump’s America we fear”.
By Katrine Bussey, Press Association Scotland Political Editor