The UK PM will say that tariffs are wrong, but that he understands US President Donald Trump’s “economic nationalism,” according to the paper
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver a speech on Monday acknowledging that the era of globalization has come to an end, The Times has reported.
Starmer will make the address in response to US President Donald Trump imposing sweeping tariffs on the majority of America’s trading partners, including the UK, earlier this week, according to the article on Sunday.
The outlet said the prime minister will say that tariffs are “wrong,” but would also stress that he understands Trump’s “economic nationalism” and why the voters, who believe they have seen no benefits from free trade and mass immigration, support it.
Starmer will also stress that the fallout from the US charges on imports means that the government in London should “move further and faster” to boost economic growth at home.
An unnamed Downing Street official told The Times that “the world has changed, globalization is over and we are now in a new era.”
“We have 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 official said.
The prime minister already stated in an article for The Telegram published yesterday that “the world as we knew it has gone” in the face of Trump’s tariffs. “First it was defense and national security. Now it is the global economy and trade. Old assumptions can no longer be taken for granted,” he said, adding that the British government would soon “turbocharge plans that will improve our domestic competitiveness, so we’re less exposed to these kinds of global shocks.”
Starmer also talked to French President Emmanuel Macron on the phone on Saturday, with the two leaders agreeing that “a trade war was in nobody’s interests, but nothing should be off the table,” according to the UK government’s readout. The British PM is not planning to call Trump regarding the tariffs.
The same day, the US president told Americans to “hang tough” in anticipation of the international community’s response to his economic policies.
”It won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic,” Trump insisted, adding that the tariffs represent “an economic revolution, and we will win… we will make America great again.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken about the period of globalization, which started after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, coming to an end.
In late 2023, Putin noted that “it is obvious that the globalization model, which was formed to a large extent by Western states – naturally, in their own interests – has outlived its usefulness and is in deep crisis. A new, more just and democratic system of international relations is being formed, which meets the needs of the global majority.”
