Starmer should split from the EU if it hits back at Trump on tariffs

The European Union has hit back against Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel imports. “Tariffs are taxes – bad for business, worse for consumers,” the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said, adding that the levy “will not go unanswered”. Yet for all the fire and fury, Europe will not be quite as united as it wishes. The British government has made it quietly clear that it will not be joining the fight. The Daily Mail reports that the Prime Minister is poised to split from the EU by holding off retaliating. The PM right: this is a fight from which Britain has little to gain and a lot to lose.

It isn’t clear what kind of retaliatory tariffs the EU might impose on US imports into the Single Market. Last time around, it singled out Harley Davidson motorbikes and bourbon whiskey. This time, it could be Boeing planes, or a levy on American tech giants, such as Apple or Meta.