'There is nothing historic about it': Badenoch claims UK is in 'worse position' after US trade deal

9 May 2025, 17:41

Kemi Badenoch has told LBC Britain is in a “worse position” in the wake of the UK-US trade deal announced yesterday.

Claiming she signed the “biggest trade deal” in Britain’s post-Brexit history, the Conservative leader said many of the people praising this week’s agreement “don’t know anything about trade.”

Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer hailed the deal as “historic” as they hosted a joint press conference on Thursday.

Speaking from the White House, Donald Trump described the agreement as “full and comprehensive”, while Sir Keir said the deal would save “thousands of British jobs.”

Sir Keir said the trade deal will be “great for both countries.”

Trump said the “final details” of the agreement were still being “written up”, adding: “The actual deal is a very conclusive one we think, just about everything has been approved.”

But Ms Badenoch has rubbished the deal, declaring: "We shouldn't congratulate ourselves because things are slightly less painful than before.”

"I don't have a problem with the Prime Minister trying to fix things. What I do have a problem with is him trying to pretend a little thing is a big historic deal,” she told LBC.

“What we were looking for with the US was a comprehensive free trade agreement. This is not a comprehensive FTA.

“It's a little tariff deal to fix what Donald Trump imposed on us last month. Two months ago, we had tariffs from the US that were about 2 to 3%. They are now 10%.

“We are in a worse position. What is historic about that? Many of the people commenting don't know anything about trade. I do.

“I know what the tariffs were and I know we're in a worse position. But of course, Jeremy Hunt is not wrong.

“We should welcome it because we're in a better position than we were last week. So it's better than nothing, but it's not much.

“We shouldn't congratulate ourselves just because things are slightly less painful than they were before.

“So I don't have a problem with the Prime Minister trying to fix things. What I do have a problem with is him trying to pretend that a little thing is a big, historic deal. There is nothing big or historic about.”

The British Government has been seeking a deal with the United States to reduce the impact of sweeping tariffs imposed by Trump last month, which placed a 10% levy on all UK exports and a 25% charge on steel, aluminium and cars.

Speaking on Thursday, Trump said: “The US and UK have been working for years to try and make a deal and it never quite got there.

“It did with this Prime Minister, so I want to just congratulate you.”

Sir Keir added: “With this President and this Prime Minister we’ve managed to achieve what many people tried to achieve for many years, and I’m really pleased.”

The US president had previously described the deal as “full and comprehensive”, but Thursday’s announcement focused on a narrower set of industries.

Under the deal, American tariffs on British cars fall to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles exported to the US, while tariffs on steel are scrapped.

Steel union Community’s assistant general secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said the deal would protect jobs in the industry.

He said: “The UK Government deserves enormous credit for negotiating this deal to reduce US tariffs which would have had a hugely damaging impact on our steel sector.”

In exchange, the UK has reduced tariffs on US products including beef and ethanol, which US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said would create 5 billion dollars in “opportunity for American exports”.

The agreement on beef provides a tariff-free quota for 13,000 tonnes of US exports, but the UK Government said this would involve no reduction in food standards.

Mr Lutnick added that British-made Rolls Royce engines would be excluded from tariffs, with a UK airline agreeing to buy “10 billion worth of Boeing planes later today”.

Mr Trump said the UK would also be brought into “economic security alignment” with the US as a result of the deal.

Number 10 said work would continue on pharmaceuticals and remaining tariffs, but the US had promised to give the UK preferential treatment if any further tariffs were imposed.

Lord Peter Mandelson, the British ambassador in Washington, said the deal was “not the end, it’s just the end of the beginning”.

Speaking in the Oval Office, he said: “There is yet more we can do in reducing tariffs and trade barriers so as to open up our markets to each other, even more than we are agreeing to do today.”