Up next in 10
Was Starmer right to 'suck up' to Trump? | LBC callers react
3 views
May 10, 2025
Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday was a “historic” day as they formally announced a UK-US trade deal. 00:01 Winston says the deal is ‘disgraceful’ and ‘demeaning.’ 03:12 Andrew argues ‘Trump is not far from Nazism’ and asks whether the US is our closest ally. 07:46 Malcolm says Starmer has ‘played a blinder’ and ‘protected our farmers.’ Donald Trump said it was a “great honour” to have the UK be the first trade deal signed with the United States, hailing a “full and comprehensive” deal. The main aspect of the deal is that it removes the blanket 10% tariffs the Trump administration had imposed on imports from the UK - which is what Starmer would have hoped for. It is the first deal Trump has struck with another country since coming to power and imposing his aggressive tariff policy. Listen to the full show on Global Player: https://app.af.globalplayer.com/Br0x/LBCYouTubeListenLive #benkentish #ukpolitics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
View Video Transcript
0:00
We're begging as beggars to Donald Trump for a better trade deal
0:06
I think it's so undignified. I think it's absolutely disgraceful. And this Keir Starmer, he just seems to be going around corners
0:17
coming up with these deals. All right, that deal with India was all right. OK
0:22
But, Winston, if it works, however demeaning you might find it, if it works and it saves tens of thousands of jobs
0:28
and it provides a massive respite and relief to British businesses, then Keir Starmer's plans paid off
0:36
I understand that, Ben. But he's lost his credibility in the international community
0:41
with France, Canada, all these other countries. It's all right for us trying to go there and approach me and say
0:49
oh, I'm all right, Jack. This is just so unbusiness-like. But, Winston, those other countries have still got the tariffs applied to them
0:56
So they might be saying, oh, Keir Starmer, what a weak, pathetic little snivelling weasel
1:00
But ultimately, he's the one that's got the deal. What deal? There's no deal
1:05
Donald Trump is not a man to be trusted. We don't even know about these deals
1:09
And he's talking about steel. If they didn't let steel fall away
1:13
The other day he came on, I spoke to British steel. He is, Keir Starmer is British steel
1:19
And this, we need to get ourselves sorted out. Manufacturing our own steel
1:25
So would you rather he went in there and said, Mr. President, you're an idiot
1:29
We're not doing business with you. You can't be trusted. And by the way, your tariff policy is insane than doing what he's done and actually being pragmatic
1:37
I think we should take a reserve. We should sit back. We should stick with the Australians, the Canadians, all the people who are standing up to this man and stop pandering to him because all we're doing is make..
1:49
What you see is pandering, the government would say. And I think they've got a point here
1:53
It's not pandering. It's pragmatism. It's just, we've got to work with this guy
1:58
What you're talking about is fine in theory, but in practice, Winston, people's jobs are on the line
2:03
Thousands of people's jobs are on the line. I just find it so undignified
2:07
the way he's got us coming over there and just pleading to him
2:12
like everybody running to him. This is England. This is Great Britain. But if you're a worker at somewhere like Jaguar Land Rover
2:18
where he announced that today, or Ford or whatever it is, in terms of British car manufacturing
2:22
you don't really care if he looks dignified or not. You just want to know that your job is secure
2:27
And because of his demeaning behaviour, in your view, those people jobs are now secure You know what Mr Ben The thing is the problem is we let our industries gone down And now we yeah And we shouldn be going to this
2:41
England was the main manufacturing steel. We let the steel industry... Well, on that, Winston, we agree
2:48
But I think you're being a bit unfair, respectfully. I think you're being a bit harsh on Keir Starmer. I agree that he's a bit demeaning sometimes
2:55
But if that's what works and that's what benefits jobs and businesses
3:00
and the economy more broadly in this country, it's what you've got to do as Prime Minister
3:05
You can do the tough guy act, you can go out there and talk the talk
3:09
if it makes people here worse off, you're not leading. This seems to be a betrayal of those who fought for freedom and equality
3:18
to actually defend freedom and equality in giving up their lives to fight Nazism
3:29
Wow. And Trump is not very far from Nazism, is he? Well, I think, yes, I think he is, Andrew
3:36
I think he's a hell of a lot. Do you really? Yes. Do you? Yes, I absolutely do. And I'm really tired of the comparisons, to be quite honest with you
3:44
In what way is supporting Israel depicting Palestinians as animals and then shooting them like stray dogs
3:55
or the cabinet saying they want to drop an atomic bomb on Gaza
4:02
Not an intent of genocide. You don't have to call it genocide
4:08
Andrew, I don't know how you've gone in 30 seconds from talking about a trade deal to talking about what's going on in Gaza
4:15
Well, no, because it's all connected. How is what's going on in Gaza connected to Keir Starmer's trade deal with Donald Trump
4:23
Talk to me about that. Last week we were sending weapons to Israel. Please, we've talked a lot about this
4:27
We will do so again. I want to focus for now on this deal that's been struck today
4:31
Yeah, that's fine. But I just think it's generally a betrayal. A betrayal of..
4:36
Signing a trade deal with Donald Trump is a betrayal of the people of Gaza, you think? Because of who Donald Trump is and what he represents
4:42
Right. And what he is actually doing right now. So those 70,000 car industry workers in Britain
4:48
you're happy for them to lose their jobs? Well, you know, have you heard of progressive taxation
4:53
Yes. Yeah, well, I mean, there's money to be had to help those who we don't have
5:01
But that doesn't keep car manufacturers in this country in business, does it
5:05
It may not for a while. Right. But it can help those who are in that industry So you make 70 people redundant on a point of principle No you don make them redundant Well you cost them The state helps them
5:19
It doesn't just help people with many millions or billions of dollars
5:23
OK, so you push 70,000 people onto the benefits bill on a point of principle
5:27
because you'd rather that than do business with Donald Trump. Not benefits
5:32
OK, so you've cost them their jobs. They're not going to get benefits
5:37
They're going to get compensation. And who's going to pay for that
5:43
Progressive taxation would pay for it. Right, OK. So instead of just doing a trade deal with one of our closest allies
5:50
you make 70,000... Who's our closest ally? The United States. Sorry, who's our closest ally
5:54
The United States. Oh, the ones who want to invade Greenland. Well, yes, but that doesn't mean they're not our ally, does it
6:02
I forgot they were our closest ally. Well, they are. When it comes to defence and military cooperation
6:06
They are by far our closest hour. And we are cooperating militarily and defensively
6:11
Yes, we absolutely are. We are absolutely reliant. Yes, really, Andrew. We are reliant
6:15
So where is Ukraine going then? We are reliant on US military support
6:21
We are reliant on US military intelligence share. And can we rely on US military support
6:26
Well, that's a different question, isn't it? That's a different question. Well, no, it's not. It's a fair one
6:31
But your idea that somehow because we don't like what Donald Trump is doing
6:35
and we should just turn our back on special relationships. It's not that I don't like what he's doing
6:39
It is. It's what he represents. What does he represent to you? It's his whole agenda. He is stealing the American people's money
6:46
with his, you know, crypto coin scams. He is impoverishing the worst off in his own country
6:57
If we only did business with leaders and countries and governments we agreed with, we wouldn't be doing an awful lot of business
7:02
He is so egregiously out of step. More than some of the Gulf states, for example, that are also close economic allies
7:10
Yeah, well, I would apply the same reasoning to them. It's lovely in principle. Don't do any trade deals
7:17
Don't do any business with any countries that aren't progressive, liberal Western democracies
7:22
Fine in theory. In practice, you make millions of people redundant. Your economy goes to the plaw. The value of sterling plummets and everybody gets worse off
7:31
because of... No, that's not the case. There are plenty of people we can do deals with without
7:37
having the USA. They are our main trading partner in terms of one single country
7:43
We need them for defence and economic perspective as well So I think Stam has played a blinder Not demeaning Because if you look at the last month of headlines we had we going to have antibiotic pork we going to have steroid beef we going to have
7:56
American pharmaceuticals flooding the NHS, we've had, they're going to take away the digital tax
8:01
None of those things are happening. We have negotiated a tariff on our cars that was what
8:09
we already had to the amount that we were already exporting. We have protected our pharmaceutical
8:15
industry. We have protected our farmers by ensuring that our food standards are in place
8:21
Let me jump in there. There's still tariffs across the board of 10% that there weren't
8:27
two months ago. And it's that that, you know, a lot of businesses wanted Keir Starmer to
8:33
negotiate away. And on that element, at least he hasn't. Yes, but the 10% was going to be across everyone anyway
8:40
It was the 25% on our steel and on our cars that was going to injure us the most
8:45
So it's definite progress, but it's still worse than the deal we had two months ago
8:50
But it is a damn sight better than anyone else has got. And it also doesn't block us from having a deal with the EU on things like food quality
8:59
because we're keeping those standards. But do you think he's moved? Do you think he's blinked too soon
9:03
because what other countries, the EU and China and others, are kind of waiting on and hoping on
9:08
is that if they play hardball and they stand up to Donald Trump, that at some point he will back down
9:14
Keir Starmer has sort of blinked already and said, OK, Mr President, you know, I'll do a deal with you
9:19
So if Trump then does remove tariffs on the other countries because he can't afford not to
9:24
we've actually found ourselves in a worse situation. Ben, we have been waiting for any deal with the US since Brexit
9:33
But to go back to the Brexit years, no deal is better than a bad deal
9:38
That allows us to build forward. And that's got to be better than 25% tariffs on our luxury car
9:47
No, I hear you, Rob. Just let me ask you if I could, just before we move on. Do you think these sort of successes, as you see them globally
9:55
India deal, leading on Ukraine, deal with Trump, do you think they might start to sort of stem the losses
10:00
when it comes to Labour and public support? I don't think so because the way this is going to be in the press is that it's a worse deal than Kemi Badenock or Nigel Farage could have made
10:12
It doesn't matter. It wouldn't have mattered what they had done. That part of the press is going to say that Starmer capitulated and that Rachel Rees is a coward and they should have done X, Y and Z
#news
#Politics
#Public Policy
#Work & Labor Issues