Britain on Tuesday refused to join the EU in threatening a trade fight with the US over steel tariffs and followed Washington in declining to sign a global accord on artificial intelligence, in a sign of Sir Keir Starmer setting a new foreign policy in the era of President Donald Trump.
Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s new ambassador to the US, told the Financial Times that Britain had to embrace “any opportunities opening up as a result of Brexit” and earn a living in the world by being “not Europe”.
An early sign of that approach came as trade minister Douglas Alexander told MPs that the UK would not join the EU in immediately threatening tariff reprisals against the US, after Trump announced a 25 per cent tax on all steel and aluminium imports.