Brexit allowed Britain to lead the West in support for Ukraine. Now we must use that freedom to dodge tariffs by convincing Trump we are a reliable partner in defence, says James Price

Having served in government through some of the Brexit negotiations, and seen up close how completely bonkers everyone was driven by it, I am reluctant to ever have to write about it again. Truly, you wouldn’t believe some of the mania it induced in people who had presumably once been rational. 

One night we had to create a rota for members of the House of Lords to attend through the night, with many bringing in sleeping bags, while the division bells rang into the small hours. Arcane rules were used to effect a filibuster like some Lordly groundhog day.

But having apparently felt that everything is just fine on the domestic front – with our economy roaring, borders secure and social fabric definitely not fraying by the day – Sir Keir Starmer decided to jet to Brussels to attend a meeting of EU leaders.

This was, by my count, Starmer’s 18th visit abroad since entering Downing Street. His only major achievement so far on the world stage has been to try and pay for the privilege of giving away sovereign British territory – and he hasn’t even (yet) succeeded in that.

Nevertheless, this was a well-timed meeting, coming in the midst of Donald Trump’s threats to place large tariffs on the European Union. Whether Britain is to be included in those tariffs is still somewhat up for debate, with the American President suggesting that we could be exempt from them. If so, this will be the best case yet of a Brexit benefit for Britain, alongside speedier vaccine development and rollout and our early, rapid and admirable support for Ukraine. Avoiding the negative effects of Trump’s mercantilist threats are a major shot in the arm for supporters of Britain leaving the bloc, almost exactly five years on.

Saving Europe by our example

During the Napoleonic wars, Pitt the Younger once said that England had “saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example”. We should do the same again. This looks like continuing to avoid tariffs and even making a free trade deal with the USA, but also helping our European friends understand how to do the same. Therefore, it is worth investigating how and why the second Trump administration uses tariffs in the first place.