Starmer's poodle act for Trump is bound to fail

While other nations stand up and fight back against Donald Trump's tariff wars, Keir Starmer seems to imagine that bullies can be appeased through fawning displays of subservience.

Donald Trump has already imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and is threatening to dramatically expand his agenda of economic destabilisation with trade sanctions on various other countries and economic blocs.

Canada and Mexico

Donald Trump has unilaterally ripped up the USMCA trade agreement and imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico.

Canada and Mexico have both responded with retaliatory tariffs, and the anger at Trump’s economic assault on their economies is palpable, and felt across the political spectrum.

This is what the Canadian MP Charlie Angus had to say:

There’s something thrilling about Canadians standing together against Trump’s threats, and seeing a politician call Trump a "convicted felon and known predator", Elon Musk an "oligarch" and Trump’s coterie as "the gangster class from Mar-a-Lago".

European Union

Donald Trump has stated that he is "definitely" going to levy tariffs against the EU, accusing the European bloc of treating the United States "very, very unfairly, very badly".

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the bloc would "react to tariff policies with tariff policies"; Polish PM Donald Tusk said that European nations "cannot lose our European self-respect and self-confidence"; Ireland's Taoiseach, Micheál Martin said that "the EU must act as one", and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas pointed out that US-imposed tariffs would negatively impact jobs and prices, adding that China would be "the one laughing on the side".

Based on these responses, it seems highly unlikely that the EU simply lie down and take US economic sanctions without responding in kind with tariffs of their own on US imports.

BRICS

Trump has also threatened massive 100% tariffs on members of the BRICS alliance (China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia, UAE, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia) unless they bow down and accept the supremacy of the US Dollar.

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping must be laughing behind their hands at Trump’s buffoonery. Trump is launching economic war on rival economies and allies alike, spreading waves of economic destabilisation across the globe.

All they have to do is position themselves as trustworthy and reliable trading partners, and soak up increased shares of global trade by default.

United Kingdom

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from the UK, stating that trade with the UK is "imbalanced" and that the UK is "out of line".

Keir Starmer’s response differs dramatically from other nations and economic blocs that have found themselves under threat.

Our PM-by-default seems to think that a display of servile subservience to Trump is what’s required.

He sent out a Number 10 spokesperson to talk up Britain’s trade relationship with the US; insist that Donald Trump is "someone who would keep his word"; refuse to commit to reciprocatory tariffs if the US does attack UK economic interests; and outright reject calls to express solidarity with Canada (which is, let’s not forget, a Commonwealth nation).

Unlike Canada, where there’s cross-party and cross-cultural fury at Trump’s attack on their country, opinion in the UK is much more divided.

You’ve got right-wingers like the Tory Scottish business spokesman Murdo Fraser who seem to be absolutely revelling in Trump’s tariff wars, and using Trump’s threats against the EU to score cheap points against political rivals like the SNP.

Meanwhile the silence on Trump’s threats against the UK from British Trump-bootlickers and self-declared patriots like Nigel Farage is deeply conspicuous.

On the other hand you’ve got those like the Lib-Dem leader Ed Davey who accuses Trump of "acting like a playground bully" and "trying to play our allies off against each other", and who reckons Keir Starmer should convene Commonwealth leaders to discuss coordinated retaliation against the US for the tariffs Trump has imposed on Canada.

You don’t have to be a fan of Ed Davey or the Lib-Dems to think he’s right that nations need to show their "combined strength" to deter Trump’s trade wars, and that Britain "can’t just sit back and hope Trump won’t hit us with tariffs".

Unfortunately Keir Starmer seems to have a different approach, leaving our Commonwealth ally Canada hanging, and hoping that his displays of fawning servility manage to appease Trump, who hopefully focuses his economic destabilisation efforts on Canada, Mexico, China, India, Brazil, and the EU instead of us.

In the words of the former head of the Bank of England Mark Carney, "good luck with that".

Starmer’s poodle act is highly likely to fail, because Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his unreliability in the past, and because fawning subservience is only ever seen as weakness by bullies and tyrants.

But it’s not just the fact that appeasement is almost certainly doomed to failure, there’s also Britain’s international standing to consider.

How will Commonwealth nations see Britain if we sit back and do nothing as Trump’s regime maliciously attacks the economies of fellow Commonwealth nations like Canada, India (BRICS), Cyprus (EU), Malta (EU), and South Africa (BRICS)?

How would Britain’s already Brexit-battered relations with our closest trading partners like Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain be impacted if we take a 'you guys do what you like, but we’re sucking up to him and hoping for the best' approach?

You’d hope that Starmer would actually grow a pair and stand up to these economic threats against our country, but it’s vanishingly unlikely given that the only people he’s ever been shown any interest in attacking are the Labour Party left and traditional Labour voters.

Please consider supporting via alternative donation platforms too. These really help.