BRITAIN can only escape Donald Trump’s trade tariffs if Labour ditches its plan to cosy up to the EU, Keir Starmer has been warned.
The PM will meet with German leader Olaf Scholz in the UK on Sunday for talks about closer trade ties with the country as Britain marks the fifth anniversary of Brexit.
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And on Monday he will go to Brussels to hold talks with the EU on a defence pact – where he will set out the case for greater integration.
But it comes just days after the new US President warned he will “absolutely” slap tariffs on EU goods.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr Trump said: “The European Union has treated us so terribly.”
Mr Trump has already announced 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10 per cent levies on imports from China.
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Andrew Griffith, Tory Shadow Business Secretary, warned Sir Keir not to jeopardise a US trade deal by cosying up to Brussels.
He told the Sun on Sunday: “Keir Starmer must not sell us short by throwing Britain under the bus with his Brussels chums next week.
“It’s time to show some backbone, get off the fence and secure a deal that keeps tariffs off the table.”
Nigel Farage said: “If you get too close to the EU on trade we won’t do a deal with America. The ball is in the PM’s court.”
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation in the US, said: “Brexit should allow the UK to avoid US tariffs that would hit the EU hard.
“Starmer would be extremely foolish to align himself with sinking Brussels instead of Washington, the world’s superpower.
“Keir Starmer must not betray the British people by surrendering to the EU. This would be an act of monumental folly.”
Keir Starmer is hoping to visit Donald Trump in America at the end of the month where he will make the case for Britain to escape trade tariffs.
He is expected to say that Britain and America’s special relationship means we should not be clobbered by the levies.
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There are fears that shop prices could soar if the world is plunged into a tit for tat trade war.
Mark Carney, frontrunner to be Canada’s next PM and the former governor of the Bank of England, suggested the G7 should club together to stand up to Mr Trump.
He said: “Canada shares many values with the United Kingdom, with the European Union, a number of countries in Asia, with the G7 with the exception of the United States as it’s currently acting.
“And that creates opportunity and looking at commercial relationships in any of those countries, Canada included, we have to look at the world as it is now, not as it used to be or as we would have wanted it to be so.”
