Has a US-UK trade deal inched closer?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs keep shifting, leaving countries scrambling to react, there has been some good news for Keir Starmer and the Labour government. Speaking to UnHerd, the US vice-president J.D. Vance spoke up the UK’s chances of securing a trade deal. While this would be a win for Starmer, questions remain over the substance – from agriculture to food, what would be included? And can we really believe it will happen?

The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls and deputy US editor Kate Andrews join Patrick Gibbons to discuss.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.
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0:15.0	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:30.7	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast.
0:34.8	I'm Patrick Gibbons, and today I'm joined by the Spectator's political editor, Katie Balls,
0:38.1	and the Spectator's Deputy U.S. editor Kate Andrews.
0:42.9	Kate, there have been some positive developments on UK and US trade, but just before we get into that, there was a lot of movement over the weekend around Trump's policy on tariff's
0:46.3	suggestions of exemptions, then suggestions the exemptions would be short-lived. What's the latest
0:51.5	on that? It's an interesting question, Patrick, because the divides
0:55.6	within Team Trump, particularly within the cabinet, are becoming much more apparent. And it's
1:00.7	far too early to say who's going to win. But you had the Commerce Secretary Howard
1:04.9	Letnik out over the weekend talking about how this pause really is just a pause and how you
1:10.2	have a huge sweeping
1:11.7	tariff regime coming the rest of the world's way. But it's been interesting to see that not
1:16.9	impact markets too harshly, certainly nothing like what we saw in the week that Donald Trump
1:22.5	first announced the tariffs. And I think that is because there's a real sense that
1:26.3	the pro-tariff lobby within the
1:29.8	cabinet had the ear of the president leading up to the announcement. And since the pivot,
1:35.0	it is those who are either skeptical or just far more discerning about the use of tariffs
1:40.1	who have the president's ear. And the person really leading that charge is the Treasury Secretary
1:44.5	Scott Besson, who has changed his tune on tariffs, particularly when he was trying to get the job,
	...

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