PM 'unhappy' about Trump tariffs - and is set to announce more support for UK businesses, minister says

Sir Crawford Falconer, who was the UK's chief trade negotiator until recently, tells Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips the UK needs to figure out if it can negotiate with the US through traditional means or not.

He says he would be looking at parts of the tariffs and saying "we don't actually have to put up with the whole thing".

Sir Crawford says he would see if the US will section some sectors off so Donald Trump can "satisfy his power base, and a do a less than perfect deal".

But, he says that is not how the UK should enter into the negotiations.

He thinks the UK's role is now to advance free trade with other countries to show Mr Trump it is not reliant on the US, with no reason why that cannot include the EU.

"The government said it's never going to do a customs union or be part of the single market, but you could work with the EU, and encourage the EU to work with us to actually liberalise with other countries collectively," he says.

The UK should be trying to accelerate trade deals with countries in the Asia-Pacific region and encouraging the EU to think about how it could "associate with that kind of agreement".

He says the UK "got stiffed" with tariffs, but so did everybody else.

"I don't think you should be working on the assumption that we have some kind of absolutely favoured position", he added.

The 20% tariffs placed on EU exports to the US are "the biggest assault since the end of the Second World War on global trade", Germany's ambassador to the UK tells Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

Miguel Berger says the tariffs are "really devastating" but the bloc will "have to find a way to deal with it".

He says European trade ministers are talking this weekend and will meet on Monday to decide how to react.

But he says they want to have "some time" for negotiations and revealed they are "working out a list of possible reactions".

Mr Berger said the EU might look at reacting with services and "other measures" but "the end objective is to get into negotiations" with the US.

"We are prepared to retaliate," he confirmed as he said the EU is a market of 450 million people and the US' largest place of investment, with the biggest trade relation in the world.

"We have a lot to bring to the table," he added.

"We want to avoid this trade war."

Mr Berger said BMW is the biggest car exporter in the US and warned if the EU retaliated "we would hurt our automotive industry twice" - because Mr Trump has already placed 25% tariffs on cars.

"What is very important is that people don't only look at the tariffs, but also at the secondary effects," he said.

He said the EU and the UK do not want to see "dumping", where, for example, Chinese goods that can't go to the US now get sent to the UK and EU.

Mr Berger said retaliation measures could focus on big American tech firms, but they would have to take into account how that could hurt EU economies and consumers.

He said he was "pretty sure" the British government and the EU would "try everything to avoid" having chlorinated chicken and genetically manipulated food.

Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yuang have released a statement after being refused entry to the occupied West Bank and deported from Israel.

They were part of a parliamentary delegation of MPs who they say were visiting humanitarian aid projects and communities with UK charity partners.

"We're astounded at the unprecedented step taken by the Israeli authorities to refuse British MPs entry on our trip to visit the occupied West Bank," they said.

"It is vital that parliamentarians are able to witness, firsthand, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory."

They say they are two "out of scores of MPs" who have spoken out in parliament in recent months on the Israel-Palestine conflict "and the importance of complying with International Humanitarian Law".

"Parliamentarians should feel free to speak truthfully in the House of Commons, without fear of being targeted," they said.

They thanked the British Embassy staff in Tel Aviv, the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the Middle East minister and the Foreign Secretary "for their tireless support".

The Tory leader laughs when shown a poster Labour put out last night showing an amalgamated picture of her and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. 

"That's just weird, isn't it? I mean, look at that. It doesn't make any sense," she says.

She adds there are "huge differences" between the Conservatives and Reform.

The Tory leader uses the moment to plug the Conservatives for the local elections, saying a vote for anything other than the Tories "could end up like Birmingham where there are rats running around and rubbish piling up in the streets".

A reminder of that poster:

On the upcoming local elections on 1 May, Kemi Badenoch admits she is not very hopeful for the Conservatives after last year's abysmal general election result.

"The public are still angry of course, that's going to be reflected in the local election," she says. 

"However, there are many fantastic councillors and very good councillors. The Conservatives are running and they are going to be fighting for every vote because at the end of the day, Conservative councils deliver lower taxes and better services."

On what kind of a conservative she is, Kemi Badenoch says "freedom of speech is fantastic...that's one of the reasons why so many people want to come here".

But she says freedom of speech is "under threat" in the UK and mentions the NHS nurse in Darlington who was suspended for raising concerns about a transgender doctor sharing the women's changing room.

She also says she voted against the law preventing protests within a certain distance of abortion clinics because she believes "it's probably too strict" - after a woman was prosecuted for holding up a sign this week.

But she adds: "I also think that we need to be careful about creating a situation where some citizens are able to deliberately harass others in sensitive situations. 

"I think that people should be free to express their opinions.

"We need to make sure that people can, of course, have freedom of speech. The law is there to protect it. 

"I think the law on balance is in an all right area. It's probably in some places a bit too strict. That's what's happened in this situation."

Ms Badenoch adds that she has not decided definitively if she thinks the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

Sir Trevor moves onto immigration, which Ms Badenoch says is "way too high and needs to be brought down".

"I am tolerant of us being a multi-ethnic country. Yes, obviously, I mean, look at the two of us," she says. 

"But that doesn't mean that we should just have unlimited immigration. That's one of the mistakes that we made, which, under my leadership, Conservative Party is fixing."

She says the current numbers are causing a "huge strain" on public services so her policy would see people having to contribute "in a way that does not come into conflict with our values and are not a drain on public resources".

On cutting benefits, Kemi Badenoch says she thinks the UK needs to look at spending more on defence first and that needs to happen by growing the economy.

She says she agrees with her colleague, Helen Whately, that it is "a bad thing" if spending on welfare benefits is higher than on defence.

The Tory leader says she does not think that's a controversial view and we need a country where "more and more people are able to work and able to be productive".

She says the purpose of welfare is to make sure people who absolutely cannot work are looked after.

"But it cannot be the case that we now have, as one statistic showed, one in four people in our country disabled. That cannot be right," she says.

She says Labour has "made mistakes" in how they are dealing with the benefits system because the economy is worsening.

"As Helen says, they're not going far enough. I think they're scared. They're worried," she says

"They don't think that they have the votes for it within their parliamentary party. But as the opposition, our job is to make sure that we show Labour what the right course of action is."

Moving onto tariffs, Kemi Badenoch says Sir Keir Starmer is right not to retaliate straight away as that just "escalates trade wars" and we have to think about the national interest.

She says she thinks tariffs are "the wrong decision" and says this "indiscriminate use of tariffs is just going to make the whole world poorer".

"And right now, what the world needs is stability and certainty," she says.