UK must respect Trump’s mandate, Mandelson says, as US president announces global tariffs in trade war: Live

Lord Peter Mandelson, a former minister and key architect of the Labour party’s renewal in the 1990s, said his “priority” in his new role as US ambassador would be to help encourage an investment relationship with the US fit for the 21st century.

“Each of us wants to grow our economies,” he said.

“I think that what we need to do is to build a technology and investment relationship between the US and the UK that’s fit for the 21st century. That’s where I want to focus.”

He added: “We’re going to depend in growing our economy on private investment, foreign investment, a large amount of which is going to come from the United States of America.”

Donald Trump has said he plans to impose 25 per cent tariffs on “any steel coming into the United States”, adding that aluminium will also be subject to additional duties.

The UK Government is waiting to see details of the policy, but the steel industry body called for decisive action from ministers while unions warned further jobs could be put at risk in an already crippled sector.

Britain exported 166,433 tonnes of steel to the US in 2023, the last full year for which figures are available.

Figures from trade body UK Steel showed that in 2024 some 162,716 tonnes were sent to the US, but that does not yet include data from December.

The US is the industry’s second-largest export market after the EU, although the government said it only accounted for 5 per cent of UK steel exports in 2023.

Reports suggest the prime minister is hoping to visit Washington in the coming weeks, though Downing Street has not confirmed any upcoming travel.

So far in his second term in the White House, Mr Trump has imposed, but then delayed, duties on imports from Mexico and Canada, and has also imposed 10 per cent levies on goods from China.

Britain must respect Donald Trump’s “strong and clear mandate for change”, Lord Peter Mandelson has said, amid questions over how the UK will respond to global tariffs threatened by the White House.

The UK’s top diplomat in Washington said that Sir Keir Starmer’s Government can “always make our views known privately and directly” but that it must “understand what drives him”.

Lord Mandelson acknowledged he was “concerned” about the looming prospect of tariffs and said Britain would “not necessarily agree” with every detail of the new US President’s agenda.

On how the UK could try to persuade Mr Trump to change his position on certain policy areas without alienating his administration, he told the BBC: “Well, we’ve got to take all these issues as they come, realise that the president has a very strong and clear mandate for change in the United States.

“Now that doesn’t mean to say that we’re going to agree in Britain with every single detail of what he does, but we have to respect and understand what drives him, what his mandate is to do, and how his allies need to adjust sometimes.

“And I believe that, given the relationship that we have, we can always make our views known – best, by the way, directly and privately.

“We have a strong relationship that enables us to influence the president and his policies where necessary, and it certainly should not affect our ability to work well together, and that’s what I intend remains the case.”

Under the chancellor’s plan, a 20 per cent inheritance tax rate will be introduced on farms worth more than £1 million from April 2026. But it has sparked a furious backlash in farming communities and created a problem for many newly-elected Labour MPs in rural constituencies.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has faced calls for “meaningful tweaks” to planned inheritance tax on farmland from Labour backbenchers.

Sam Rushworth said that farmers who work a £5 million estate are “not millionaires”, while Julia Buckley said sector businesses currently face a choice to “go big or go bust”.

Conservative former Scottish secretary David Mundell warned that under plans to impose inheritance tax on agricultural property worth more than £1 million, farmers’ children will sell their land to private equity firms to cover the bill, and estates would instead be used for solar panels or industrial tree planting.

They made their comments during a debate about a House of Commons petition which called on Treasury ministers to carry on with a 100% relief from inheritance tax covering agricultural property.

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According to the Treasury, some 27 per cent of estates claiming agricultural property relief (APR) were above the £1 million threshold in 2021/2022, suggesting that nearly three-quarters of farms would not fall within the scope of the charges.

The Treasury says around 500 estates a year are expected to pay inheritance tax under the changes.

However, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says farm businesses have also qualified separately for business property relief, which can cover things such as harvested grain and livestock, machinery and diversified businesses such as camping on a farmer’s field.

Now the two are combined, with a single £1 million allowance before inheritance tax is levied, which could mean more farms are in scope.

The NFU points to figures from the Environment Department (Defra) showing that 66 per cent of farm businesses in England have a net value of more than £1 million.

But the Government has countered that analysis, saying that looking at asset value alone does not necessarily mean the farm will be affected, as it depends on individual circumstances.

Monday’s tractor rally, organised by Save British Farming, comes as MPs debate an e-petition with more than 150,000 signatures calling to keep the current inheritance tax exemptions for working farms.

The petition has warned that the changes could “devastate farms nationwide, forcing families to sell land and assets just to stay on their property”.

Labour has insisted it will not make a U-turn on its plans to introduce a 20% inheritance tax rate on farms worth more than £1 million.

The films have been criticised by human rights groups and MPs for being melodramatic, with the Refugee Council saying the government was using performative stunts to try to promote division.