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Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday resisted growing pressure to guarantee UK MPs a vote on a trade deal with Donald Trump, as officials in London insisted the pact could be agreed before a sensitive EU summit.
Allies of Starmer said he would like to seal a deal with Trump before the prime minister sits down with EU leaders on May 19, anxious that the London summit may antagonise the US president.
Some senior British officials say it is possible that Britain could conclude a trio of trade deals with the US, EU and India in the next three weeks. “That’s the dream scenario,” said one, but they admitted uncertainties remained over the accords with Washington and New Delhi.
Some MPs are concerned that Starmer could sign a substandard or rushed deal with Trump ahead of the EU summit and want him to honour a commitment, given when Labour was in opposition in 2021, to let them debate and vote on trade deals.
But at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Starmer said the government would “act in the national interest” but that if a deal was secured “it would go through the known procedures for this House”.
Unlike legislation, trade deals are made by governments using “prerogative powers”. Parliament cannot amend treaties, including trade deals, and debates and votes on treaties remain largely at the discretion of ministers.
A briefing note by the House of Commons library says that while MPs can indefinitely delay the ratification of a treaty, the process is unwieldy and the Commons has “never used this power”.
Liam Byrne and Emily Thornberry, Labour chairs of the Commons business and foreign affairs committees respectively, have demanded MPs have a vote, as has Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader.
Byrne said: “When it comes to trade deals, ministers must be free to negotiate, but parliament must be free to judge. We are debating in the dark with no knowledge of the mandate for US talks, no clarity on the red lines, and no say on the trade-offs.”
Landing three trade deals would represent a major economic coup for Starmer, although the diplomacy of negotiating closer ties with the EU — a bloc that Trump claimed was set up to “screw” America — alongside a deal with Washington is challenging.
The latest draft of the EU/UK summit communiqué, seen by the FT, will not play well in the White House. It says both sides share a “commitment to free and open trade”, have a “commitment to multilateralism” and will support Ukraine against “Russian aggression”.
The joint statement confirms Britain is much more closely aligned with Europe than the White House, talking about working with “like-minded partners” to “mitigate the impact of fluctuations in the global economic order”.
Starmer’s allies say “intensive” talks with the US are taking place at a ministerial and official level, but admit the timing of any deal remains uncertain. “It all comes down to one man,” said one ally, referring to Trump.
While other trade deals are more important economically to the US, a deal with Britain would be relatively uncomplicated, given both sides have a broadly balanced trade relationship, mainly based on services.
However some MPs are worried that Starmer could agree to US demands to dilute Britain’s food or animal welfare standards — denied by Downing Street — or water down online protections.
Britain has signalled it is willing to cut its tariffs, including a 10 per cent levy on US-made cars, and cut its digital services tax in exchange for Trump cutting his new 25 per cent tariffs on car and steel imports.
Some British officials remain hopeful that Trump might be prepared to lower his 10 per cent “baseline” global tariff in the case of the UK, although they admit that is a much more ambitious goal in the talks.
Starmer has entrusted Michael Ellam, his global economics adviser, to manage any overlap in the sensitive dual negotiations with Washington and Brussels. Ellam was in the Oval Office during Starmer’s meeting with Trump in February.
One of Starmer’s key goals in the EU talks, alongside a new security pact, is a lowering of barriers in food trade with Europe, achievable by permanently aligning Britain with Brussels’ rules, which prohibit some imports of American beef and chicken.
Sam Lowe, a trade expert and visiting senior research fellow at King’s College London, said aligning with Brussels rules on food and agriculture to make it easier to trade food would make it “difficult or impossible to concede to US demands to change UK food standards”.
