View from London: Globalisation Era has ended

PM Keir Starmer visits Trump at Oval Office
Photo: AP

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to admit that he understands the rationale behind US President Donald Trump’s tariff push, according to a report.

Starmer announced that he understands the reason why the economic nationalist framework imposed by the Trump tariffs is popular with voters — while arguing that tariffs are still wrong, ‘The Times’ reported.

“Trump has done something that we don’t agree with but there’s a reason why people are behind him on this,” a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said in a statement to the outlet.

“The world has changed, globalization is over and we are now in a new era. We’ve got to demonstrate that our approach, a more active Labour government, a more reformist government, can provide the answers for people in every part of this country,” the statement concluded.

In the address, Starmer emphasized the supposed end to globalization and admit to Englanders that the accompanying policies of free trade and mass migration have failed millions of voters, the report stated.

Starmer has yet to speak with President Trump about the freshly imposed tariffs.

The Prime Minister did discuss the issue with France’s President Macron Saturday on a phone call, in which the two Western leaders agreed that a trade war is in nobody’s interests, “but nothing should be off the table,” the outlet reported.

On Wednesday, President Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on nearly every country in the world — including a 10% tariff on all goods imported from England.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones has described the era of globalisation as "ended", following Donald Trump's new tariffs.

It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested in a ‘Sunday Telegraph’ article he was about to announce state intervention to protect UK firms from the US president's move. The UK was among nations hit with a 10% "baseline" import duty, and negotiations on a trade deal to reduce tariffs are continuing.

"Globalisation as we've known it for the last couple of decades has come to an end," Jones added, in a BBC interview.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Jones was asked whether globalisation – which has resulted in a boom in imports of cheap fashion, electrical goods and other products – was over.

"Yeah it's ended, the prime minister said that himself this morning," he said.

The change meant the UK had to "build out" relationships with allies around the world but also invest in the UK's own economy, Jones said, denying ministers were "scrabbling" for solutions.

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